Visions of Earth


Book Description

Visions of Earth raises a curtain on the wonders of the world and thrills us with nature's opulence and humanity's splendor. Each image alone exposes a nugget of our planet's magnificence; the totality of the collection goes beyond our imagination. Turning the pages, viewers are struck by the richness of life on Earth. One photograph is more awe-inspiring than the next--chosen by veteran National Geographic Magazine photo editors to present what is visually incredible. The photographs are drawn from the popular "Visions of Earth" feature in the magazine, (rated #1 by readers), from our own storied Image Collection, and from renowned photographers throughout the world, many never-before published. Enthralling images fill the book in a gallery of stunning landscapes, fascinating people, amazing animals, and unexpected glimpses of the usual and unusual. Puffins' beaks signal breeding time in Norway and a speckled emperor moth in South Africa diverts predators with an illusion. An elephant takes a morning dip in India's Andaman Sea while Siamese crocodiles race in Thailand and surfers in Australia relish a perfect day. Monks in Bhutan run to dinner and a little girl in red stands out among white-robed women in an Indonesian mosque. Spanish youth decked in colorful, oversize papier-m ch heads celebrate a festival in Catalonia and a flower of flame blooms from a man's kerosene-filled mouth in a Sikh celebration in India. Around the globe, amazing moments are captured in time, from a spray of flash frozen petal fragments in California to a truck show of chrome-covered and gleaming neon rigs half the world away in Japan. Visions of Earth is a welcome escape from the news of natural disasters, conflict, political upheaval, and social unrest that fills our lives. The book delights our senses, ignites our emotions, and renews our optimism, showcasing the many ways that our world is a marvel to behold and a privilege to call home.




Earth & Sky


Book Description

Native American starlore has instructed and entertained non-natives for generations. Yet until recently the importance of this extensive body of tradition and acute observation has been ignored or viewed by non-natives simply as crude means to astronomical insight. In this edited collection, seventeen folklorists and astronomers consider American starlore and its relation to specific observation of the sky in terms of its native uses and interpretations. Far from being another recount of sky mythology, this is a book that relates clear descriptions of astronomical phenomena and mechanics to interpretation and ritual usage from all areas of North America. Navajo, Seneca, Alabama, Pawnee, Lakota, Apache, and other peoples are represented. Rather than focus on pristine astronomies, the contributors to this volume consider ongoing traditions and contemporary usages. A broad perspective on the exciting new field of ethnoastronomy, as well as fascinating insight into Native American wisdom.




Vision


Book Description







People Vision


Book Description

Explore the Unreached Frontier of Global Mission In a world full of digital connections and globalization, a startling truth remains hidden in plain sight: countless communities have yet to hear the transformative message of the gospel. A mere fraction of global missionaries—less than 4 percent—are devoted to the unreached people groups (UPGs). This glaring disparity reveals a challenge in modern missiology. People Vision is a benchmark study of the people group paradigm that underscores its vital role in the twenty-first century. Leveraging insights from those in the Majority World, over sixty authors reexamine our understand­ing of people group missiology from the lens of Scripture, reflection, conversation, prayer, and case studies from field workers and church/mission leaders. Readers are equipped with the tools to navigate and overcome the barriers hindering effective mission work among UPGs and envision innovative approaches. Engage with this transformative guide and be part of a movement that redefines mission work, ensuring no people group is left behind.




Having Visions


Book Description

In Having Visions, the author presents an objective, respectful, and faithful translation of its content, accompanied with an historical and scientific context for understanding its insertion into the body of human affairs. In The Book of Mormon, the ancient American prophet Mormon presents the history of his people, the Nephites. The intent of the present book is to present "his story as told," and its relationship to "history as known," without altering its essence. It should be noted that exhaustive archeological, genetic, and linguistic research has been undertaken by both proponents for, and detractors of, the existence of the Nephites. So far, no evidence supporting the claim has ever been found for any place, person, or event mentioned in The Book of Mormon, while abundant contradictory evidence has been discovered and independently verified.




Beyond Development


Book Description




Visions of Transmerica


Book Description

This book looks at Neobaroque Latin American fiction, poetry, essay and performance from the 1970s to the early 2000s in order to explore the cultural hybridization and transgressive identity transformations at play in these works. It shows how the ornamental style and boldly experimental techniques are an effective strategy in presenting decentered identities in sexually ambiguous, multiethnic, interracial, transcultural, and mutant characters, as well as in metafictional narrators and authors. In this way, the book demonstrates the potential of Neobaroque works to destabilize normative, essentialist and binary categories of identity. The study focuses on Latin America as a cultural macroregion, drawing on examples from a variety of countries, including Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and the US-Mexican border. Drawing on gender, queer, trans and Chicana feminist theory, it argues for an alternative approach to a model of the Self, or a theory of selfhood, derived from the exuberant style and experimental techniques of the Neobaroque.




Open Veins of Latin America


Book Description

Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe. Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably. This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende's inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.




Revolutionary Visions


Book Description

Revolutionary Visions traces the emergence of a growing corpus of Latin American films that explore the legacy of Jewish encounters with revolutionary political movements in 1960s and 1970s Latin America.