Прочая образовательная литература
Различные книги в жанре Прочая образовательная литератураMad About the Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia
The story of both a dramatic journey retracing the historic voyage of France’s greatest 19th-century explorer up the mysterious Mekong river, and a portrait of the river and its peoples today.Any notion of sailing up the Mekong in homage to Francis Garnier has been unthinkable until now. From its delta in Vietnam up through Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and on into China, the Mekong has been a no-go river, its turbulent waters fouled by ideological barriers as formidable as its natural obstacles. But recently the political obstacles have begun to be dismantled – river traffic is reviving.John Keay describes the world of the Mekong as it is today, rehabilitating a traumatised geography while recreating the thrilling and historic voyage of Garnier in 1866. The French expedition was intended to investigate the ‘back door’ into China by outflanking the British and American conduits of commerce at Hong Kong and Shanghai. Two naval gunboats headed upriver into the green unknown, bearing crack troops, naturalists, geologists and artists. The two-year expedition’s failures and successes, and the tragedy and acrimony that marked it, make riveting reading.
Дополненная реальность. Все, что вы хотели узнать о технологии будущего
Книга доктора Хелен Папагианнис, специалиста по дополненной реальности с мировым именем, поможет вам лучше разобраться в этой технологии, понять ее роль в современном обществе и оценить ее перспективы. Прочитав эту книгу, вы узнаете, кто и когда создал первую программу дополненной реальности, чем отличается дополненная реальность от виртуальной, как она поможет людям с ограниченными возможностями и множество других интересных и нетривиальных фактов об этой технологии будущего, меняющей нашу жизнь уже сегодня.
How Terror Evolves
This book contextualizes the use of terror as part of wider movements of political contention, demonstrating that terroristic innovation occurs as part of wider historical processes rather than in a vacuum. Drawing on evolutionary theory, this study explains how terroristic groups innovate upon, transform, and abandon techniques of political violence in order to advance their causes against the state. The book further traces the processes through which the use of aircraft as weapons of destruction developed, from the first instances of aircraft hijacking in 1930s Peru, through Palestinian terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s, up to its adoption by al-Qaeda in the 1990s and leading to the 9/11 attack in 2001. This examination provides an essential focus on the techniques through which terror is achieved, offering a novel understanding of the mechanisms of political violence and the implications of counterterrorism on the evolution of terrorism
Moscow's War in Syria
This report examines Russia’s military and diplomatic campaign in Syria, the largest and most significant Russian out-of-area operation since the end of the Cold War. Russia’s experience in Syria will shape its military thinking, influence promotion and personnel decisions, impact research and development for its arms industry, and expand its influence in the Middle East and beyond for the foreseeable future. Yet despite the importance of Russia’s involvement in Syria—especially as the United States competes with countries such as Russia and China—there has been little systematic analysis of Russia’s campaign in Syria. This research aims to help fill the gap and provides some new analysis and data. It conducts a broad assessment of the Russian campaign—including political objectives, diplomatic initiatives, and civilian targeting—which places the military campaign in a wider context. In addition, it compiles a data set of Russia’s civilian targeting and analyzes satellite imagery of Russian activity.
Overall, this report concludes that Russia was relatively successful in achieving its main near-term political and military objectives in Syria, including preventing the collapse of the Assad regime (an important regional partner) and thwarting a possible U.S. attempt to overthrow Assad. Still, Russia used a systematic punishment campaign that involved attacks against civilian and humanitarian infrastructure in an attempt to deny resources—including food, fuel, and medical aid—to the opposition while simultaneously eroding the will of civilians to support opposition groups.
Under Beijing's Shadow
China’s rise and stepped-up involvement in Southeast Asia have prompted a blend of anticipation and unease among its smaller neighbors. The stunning growth of China has yanked up the region’s economies, but its militarization of the South China Sea and dam building on the Mekong River has nations wary about Beijing’s outsized ambitions. Southeast Asians long felt relatively secure, relying on the United States as a security hedge, but that confidence began to slip after the Trump administration launched a trade war with China and questioned the usefulness of traditional alliances. This compelling book provides a snapshot of ten countries in Southeast Asia by exploring their diverse experiences with China and how this impacts their perceptions of Beijing’s actions and its long-term political, economic, military, and “soft power” goals in the region.
If God Exists
When I was seven years old the nun teaching my Catechism class told us that Mary immaculately conceived Jesus. My mother immediately disabused me of this idea, stating, unequivocally, that Mary was just another fourteen-year-old who got pregnant, arguably and ironically planting the seed for this book. The theist belief that God exists as a conscious entity in some form other than that of matter or energy denies, by definition, the actual existence of God. Atheism denies the belief in God existing as a conscious entity. Neither theists nor atheists rely upon evidence to support their belief. This thesis proposes that God either exists or doesn't exist and belief does not change the ultimate fact. Syllogistically, if God exists, God exists as some form of matter or energy and God is infinite by definition, and since matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed according to the Law of Conservation, God and matter and energy are identical and everything that exists in the cosmos is God. Omnideism proposes a logical explanation for the actual existence of God consistent with the laws of physics and theistic purpose for human existence . . . if God exists.
The Dawn of Death
Why do we die? Why will your life eventually come to an end, even without fatal injury or illness? As far as any of us stop to ponder this question, two alternative answers are common. Either we, and all living things, die because something has gone wrong since human life first came into being, or we die because all living things die in evolutionary and generational succession. The first of these answers is a widespread Christian one based on an understanding of the Fall. The second is the picture given by science. The Dawn of Death charts a course between these two answers as to why we die. It examines in depth the Bible passages and the science that lie behind them. The author draws a carefully considered conclusion and reflects on how this fits within Christian belief.
Christianity for Doubters
In Christianity for Doubters, mathematician Granville Sewell looks at a series of issues that cause Christians to doubt. The first two chapters effectively counter the widely believed idea that science can explain how we got here without design. The remaining chapters examine, from a non-fundamentalist point of view, some of the theological issues that educated Christians struggle with, including problems with the Bible, the idea of a resurrection, and the problem of pain. Although these theological problems are more difficult, the author shows that some of the most important insights into both the scientific and theological problems can be made by applying a little common sense, without relying on ideas that can only be understood by the «experts.»