Did you know that school originally meant "free time"? Or that a gymnasium was originally a "nude practice area"? Or that nachos are named after Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, who created them? The fascinating stories of these words and over three hundred more are told in More Word Histories and Mysteries: From Aardvark to Zombie.
In this companion to the popular Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus, the most surprising stories in the history of English vocabulary are told as a series of brief notes written in a lively and entertaining style. Conveniently arranged in alphabetical order, the notes explore all corners of the dictionary, from everyday words like flak and sideburns to scientific terms like nitrogen to regionalisms like lagniappe.
The history of many words is traced back to Egypt, India, and other ancient cultures.
A short introduction sketches the history of the English language and American regional dialects. A handy glossary defines special terms for readers who wish to learn more about linguistics and also gives information about the exotic languages that have enriched our vocabulary.
Photographs and drawings enliven the pages and illuminate the understanding of word histories.

In 1976, Scottish engineer Stan Hall organised a landmark expedition to the caves of the Tayos Indians in Ecuador, involving a dozen institutions, joint Special Forces, and astronaut professor Neil Armstrong as Honorary President and participant. Hall was driven by curiosity about Erich von Daniken's report of a Metal Library allegedly found in the caves by investigator Juan Moricz in the mid-1960s (published in von Daniken's 1972 blockbuster Gold of the Gods). This idea was considered unorthodox in the absence of any ancient written script in South America. In Hall's odyssey into the heart of global enigmas he researches: the origins of mankind; Atlantis; Ptolemy's lost city of Cattigara; and, the sudden rise and fall of wonder civilisations. This journey ended with his identification of Atlantis and Cattigara, and the entrance to the Metal Library along the Pastaza River in Ecuador. Imagination, action and danger combine explosively in the story of this spectacular British-Ecuadorian expedition to the Tayos Caves of Ecuador.

The Untold Story of One Man's Quest for a Lost World
In 1679, Renaissance man Olof Rudbeck stunned the world. He proposed that an ancient lost civilization once thrived in the far north of his native Sweden: the fabled Atlantis. Rudbeck would spend the last thirty years of his life hunting for the evidence that would prove this extraordinary theory.
Chasing down clues to that lost golden age, Rudbeck combined the reasoning of Sherlock Holmes with the daring of Indiana Jones. He excavated what he thought was the acropolis of Atlantis, retraced the journeys of classical heroes, opened countless burial mounds, and consulted rich collections of manuscripts and artifacts. He eventually published his findings in a 2,500-page tome titled "Atlantica," a remarkable work replete with heroic quests, exotic lands, and fabulous creatures.
Three hundred years later, the story of Rudbeck's adventures appears in English for the first time. It is a thrilling narrative of discovery as well as a cautionary tale about the dangerous dance of genius and madness.

The Northwood Conspiracy is one that was originated at the highest levels of the United States Government. From the time of the American Revolution until the latest war in Iraq, there is a hidden cabal that has orchestrated our involvement in every war in which American troops have been deployed. Their purpose-amassing undreamed of fortunes on the blood of brave American soldiers.

The At Issue series includes a wide range of opinion on a single controversial issue. Each volume includes both primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives -- eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials and many others. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to further research.

Can you grow a bonsai kitten? Should you stock up on dehydrated water? Is it easy to order human-flavored tofu? Or is this all just B.S.?
In a world of lip synching, breast implants, payola punditry, and staged reality shows, it's hard to know the real from the fake. Hippo Eats Dwarf is the essential field guide to today's Misinformation Age. Whether you're deciphering political doublespeak or trying to decide whether to forward that virus warning, hoaxpert Alex Boese provides the guidelines you need. For instance, Reality Rule 6.1: Just because you read it on the Internet doesn't make it true.
With case files, reality checks, definitions, and plenty of doctored photos, Hippo Eats Dwarf is an entertaining guide to life, death, eBay, and everything in between.

First published in 1869, this remarkable early work of comparative mythology intended for the general public takes great pains to remind the reader that there is no danger of suddenly finding oneself transformed into a Buddhist or a "Mahometan" merely by allowing one's eyes to alight upon symbols of a non-Protestant faith. It also feels the need to introduce the reader to the idea of religious "arcana," that some concepts were once deemed fit only for select and secret ears, and then proceeds to cheerfully reveal some of those secrets, such as the phallicism of church steeples and spires. With the assistance of numerous charming illustrations, Inman introduces his 19th-century readers to the metaphorical links between Christianity and the civilizations of the ancient world-India, Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, and others-from shared abstract figures of stars and crosses to nature symbology (fish, trees) to particular arrangements of the human figures in religious portraits that cross cultures. But it is the author's enchanting handholding that makes this work so appealing today: it speaks to a new enthusiasm among the public for an approach to religion-and religion as mythology-that is rational, logical, and beginning to approach the modern. British doctor and mythologist (1820-1876) is also the author of Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names as well as several books on hygiene.

For forty years and in nine previous books, scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now, in his most radical and groundbreaking work, Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity. What he has discovered will have a profound effect on the way we think about religion.
Long before the advent of Jesus Christ, the Egyptians and other peoples believed in the coming of a messiah, a madonna and her child, a virgin birth, and the incarnation of the spirit in flesh. The early Christian church accepted these ancient truths as the very tenets of Christianity but disavowed their origins. What began as a universal belief system based on myth and allegory became instead, in the third and fourth centuries A.D., a ritualistic institution headed by ultraconservative literalists. "The transcendent meaning of glorious myths and symbols was reduced to miraculous, quite unbelievable events. The truth that Christ was to come in man, that the Christ principle was potentially in each of us, was changed to the exclusivist teaching that the Christ had come as a man."
Harpur's message is clear: Our blind faith in literalism is killing Christianity. Only with a return to an inclusive religion will we gain a true understanding of who we are and who we are intended to become. Drawing on the work of scholars such as Gerald Massey and Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Tom Harpur has written a book of rare insight and power.

The War of Heru and Set: The Struggle of Good and Evil for Control of the World and The Human Soul This volume contains a novelized version of the Asarian Resurrection myth that is based on the actual scriptures presented in the Book Asarian Religion (old name -Resurrecting Osiris). This volume is prepared in the form of a screenplay and can be easily adapted to be used as a stage play. Spiritual seeking is a mythic journey that has many emotional highs and lows, ecstasies and depressions, victories and frustrations. This is the War of Life that is played out in the myth as the struggle of Heru and Set and those are mythic characters that represent the human Higher and Lower self. How to understand the war and emerge victorious in the journey o life? The ultimate victory and fulfillment can be experienced, which is not changeable or lost in time. The purpose of myth is to convey the wisdom of life through the story of divinities who show the way to overcome the challenges and foibles of life. In this volume the feelings and emotions of the characters of the myth have been highlighted to show the deeply rich texture of the Ancient Egyptian myth. This myth contains deep spiritual teachings and insights into the nature of self, of God and the mysteries of life and the means to discover the true meaning of life and thereby achieve the true purpose of life. To become victorious in the battle of life means to become the King (or Queen) of Egypt.Have you seen movies like The Lion King, Hamlet, The Odyssey, or The Little Buddha? These have been some of the most popular movies in modern times. The Sema Institute of Yoga is dedicated to researching and presenting the wisdom and culture of ancientAfrica. The Script is designed to be produced as a motion picture but may be addapted for the theater as well.

Secret Mark first became known to modern scholarship in 1958 when a newly hired assistant professor at Columbia University in New York by the name of Morton Smith visited the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem and photographed its fragments. Secret Mark was announced on the heels of many spectacular discoveries of ancient manuscripts in the Near East, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi gnostic corpus in the late 1940s, and promised to be just as revolutionary. Secret Mark presents what appears to be a valuable, albeit fragmentary, witness to early Christian traditions, traditions that might shed light on Jesus's most intimate behavior. In this book, Stephen C. Carlson uses state of the art science to demonstrate that Secret Mark was an elaborate hoax created by Morton Smith. Carlson's discussion places Smith's trick alongside many other hoaxes before probing the reasons why so many scholars have been taken in by it.

A father takes a journey into the afterlife in search of a son he lost in 1993. He becomes aware of clues and information, in the form of numbers, through a world renowned medium to help him on his travels. These numbers represent the dates of his son''s birth and ultimate death, as well as, a special number the two shared their last visit together. At the end of his journey, the father soon realizes a new journey has just begun. He and his son will travel together, using mediums and other outside sources, to let the world know that life truly goes on after death.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Unsolved mysteries surround the remarkable men known as the Templars. Their ancient origins go back much further than their well-known adventures in the Middle East in the twelfth century. They knew that ancient secrets were waiting to be rediscovered and, perhaps, reactivated. They could generate labyrinthine codes - and decipher those that others had created in the remote past. But no real understanding of Templarism is possible without examining what became of their noble order after the treacherous attack of 1307. King Philip le Bel did not succeed in destroying all Templars - many escaped, including their fleet. Where did they go? Where are they now? What are their continuing purposes today?

From the bestselling author of Bloodline of the Holy Grail and Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark comes an explosive historical detective story, presenting secret archives on the mysterious life of Mary Magdalene, the hidden lineage of Jesus and Mary, and the real 2,000-year-old conspiracy involving the entire history of Christianity. Mary Magdalene is described in the New Testament as Jesus' close companion - a woman that he loved, and his financial sponsor. And yet, in contrast, the Church teaches that she was a prostitute who became repentant. Why the discrepancy between scripture and dogma? Why does Mary appeal so romantically to artists, who have painted her throughout the centuries as something much more significant than the Church traditionally portrays? What is the secret of Mary Magdalene and how much do we really know about her relationship with Jesus? Were they married? Did they have children, and if so, who makes up the messianic lineage? Laurence Gardner's takes us on a detective trail to piece together the true controversial significance of the Magdalene and its astonishing implications: - the allegorical portrayals of Leonardo da Vinci, including Mary's coded appearance in The Last Supper - the sacred marriage of Jesus and Mary - the enigmatic Templar society called The Priory of Sion apparently formed to protect the Jesus/Mary secret marital relationship and descendants - the truth behind the Knights Templar - who they were and what their role was - the hidden gospel of the Magdalene, excluded from the New Testament canon - Mary Magdalene - goddess or prostitute? Her life and exile in France - the forbidden tomb: the secret resting place of Mary Magdalene - the significance of the Magdalene to the history of Christianity

Ponder, if you will

What happens to your Social Security number when you die? Why are peanuts listed as an ingredient in plain M&Ms? Why is Barbie's hair made out of nylon, but Ken's hair is plastic? What makes up the ever-mysterious "new-car smell"?

Pop-culture guru David Feldman demystifies these topics and so much more in Do Penguins Have Knees? -- the unchallenged source of answers to civilization's most perplexing questions.

Part of the Imponderables(R) series, Do Penguins Have Knees? arms readers with the knowledge about everyday life that encyclopedias, dictionaries, and almanacs just don't have. And think about it, where else are you going to get to the bottom of how beer was kept cold in the Old West?

Understand the nature of your mind and exactly how it interacts with matter at the quantum level to produce manifestations, magick and miracles.

Learn the nature of the universe in which we live and the exact process by which you can change your destiny by mere faith and imagination.

Understand how modern physics demonstrates the absolute immortality of your consciousness, your mind, your spirit.

"The Universe and Multiple Reality" presents a viewpoint dramatically different from the currently fashionable scientific interpretation of modern physics, an interpretation that denies the most important part of recent scientific discoveries: the mind and its effect on reality.

"The Universe and Multiple Reality" explains the exact physical processes by which paranormal events operate, including how miracles, magick and manifesting occur.

This book is a must for any person curious about the place their mind occupies in the cosmic scheme of things.

"The Universe and Multiple Reality" breaks new ground. There are a great many books on "parallel universes," on quantum physics and multiple reality--but none that proffers an understandable theory on how the human mind interacts with multiple realities at the quantum level to produce palpable physical effects.

Does our universe exist inside of a computer? Have the strange phenomena of quantum physics finally been explained? "Not IMPOSSIBLE " demonstrates that the surprising answer may be "Yes "

"But the material world is real" we insist, knocking on wood. How can this all be just information inside of a computer? Surely that's "impossible"

Climb aboard as computer science and AI researcher, G. Wells Hanson, takes us on the seemingly impossible journey from our universe, into the depths of a computerized universe. As you ride, your fingers are pried loose from your current ideas of reality. Watch as your material world slowly begins to fade. You will travel through the machinery of the worlds of human thinking, quantum reality, the brain, and the mind. Finally, you enter a universe programmed within a computer, where the strange phenomena that appear there provides an explanation for the mysterious quantum physics that has puzzled humankind for a century.

Shaun Holmes, MA, and high school math teacher, describes the book as ..".an intellectual thrill-ride that takes us from our everyday world, to a place where I question my very existence...and there's no going back I think it really has the potential to stir the pot."

The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read By Tim C. Leedom This book is delivered to you with the hope that that fires will ignite in your mind. The Editor and authors who have spent years of study, research and investigation share in a general point of view - the view that the religious beliefs held by many people in the United States and other countries, are totally unfounded. The foundation of the book is the spirit of free inquiry, from the ancient Greeks - Pythagoras, Socrates and others . This book is an enquiry into crucial issues of today. These issues need examination, for we are now all villagers in the global electronic village of the world, of which social commentator Marshall Mcluhan spoke of 30 years ago. This is not an anti-religious book. The search for the meaning of life started long before Moses and, Jesus, Mohammed or organised religion. This book is a reference guide that is meant to be challenging and informative. Book Size 6" x 9"

Virus is NOT the cause Definition of AIDS is Worthless Treatment is Poison "Anyone interested in AIDS must read this book." Laurence E. Badgley, M.D Author of Healing AIDS Naturally Investigative reporter Jon Rappoport uncovers the shocking truth about AIDS: Thousands are dying needlessly as the medical world and media pull off the biggest scandal of our time - all for the love of power and money. AIDS INC: takes you on a sizzling behind-the-scenes tour of laboratories, newsrooms and even the White House to expose the real killers behind the disease. It's the most explosive, myth-shattering book you'll read this year. Book Size: 216x140