Focusing on aspects of the functioning of technology, and by looking at instruments and at instrumental performance, this book addresses the epistemological questions arising from examining the technological bases to geographical exploration and knowledge claims. Questions of geography and exploration and technology are addressed in historical and contemporary context and in different geographical locations and intellectual cultures. The collection brings together scholars in the history of geographical exploration, historians of science, historians of technology and, importantly, experts with curatorial responsibilities for, and museological expertise in, major instrument collections. Ranging in their focus from studies of astronomical practice to seismography, meteorological instruments and rockets, from radar to the hand-held barometer, the chapters of this book examine the ways in which instruments and questions of technology - too often overlooked hitherto - offer insight into the connections between geography and exploration.

Focusing on aspects of the functioning of technology, and by looking at instruments and at instrumental performance, this book addresses the epistemological questions arising from examining the technological bases to geographical exploration and knowledge claims. Questions of geography and exploration and technology are addressed in historical and contemporary context and in different geographical locations and intellectual cultures. The collection brings together scholars in the history of geographical exploration, historians of science, historians of technology and, importantly, experts with curatorial responsibilities for, and museological expertise in, major instrument collections. Ranging in their focus from studies of astronomical practice to seismography, meteorological instruments and rockets, from radar to the hand-held barometer, the chapters of this book examine the ways in which instruments and questions of technology - too often overlooked hitherto - offer insight into the connections between geography and exploration.

ESCAPE FROM EARTH is the untold story of the engineers, dreamers and rebels who started the American space programme. In particular, it is the story of Frank Malina, founder of what became Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the scientist who cracked the, as he called it, problem of escape from the Earth by rocket.

It's a wild ride. Jack Parsons, Malina's chemistry-expert research partner, was a bed-hopping occultist with delusions of grandeur. We get all the horrible details: drug parties and sex magic, cameos by Aleister Crowley and L Ron Hubbard, and an ill-fated attempt to start a mail-order religion.

Armed with hitherto unpublished letters, journals, and documents from the Malina family archives, Fraser MacDonald reveals what we didn't know. Jack Parsons betrayed Frank Malina to the FBI, cooperating fully in their investigation of Malina for un-American activities. The Jet Propulsion Lab's second director secretly denounced Frank as a Communist. Frank's research group had close ties to the spy network of the infamous Rosenbergs - the only Americans executed during the Red Scare. This is a story of soaring ideals entangled in the most human of complications: infidelity and divorce, betrayal and treason.

The Prayer of Silence provides a strikingly new, easy to learn, and effective method of meditation and prayer. A Near Death Experience in 1966 opened an area of spiritual awareness which Bruce Fraser MacDonald, PhD calls "the Watcher," through which he was able to heal both his badly damaged body and, later, severe brain damage from viral encephalitis. In The Prayer of Silence he shows others how to use the Watcher to find physical, emotional and spiritual healing, and how to get in touch with the divine centre of their being -- what Jesus called "the inner Kingdom of God." Practicing the Prayer of Silence opens profound areas of spiritual awareness and allows people to experience the Presence of God, to know God as Jesus did, as "Abba, Father," to talk to God as Moses did, "as a man talks to his friend" and to find Oneness with God. Bruce MacDonald's greatest contribution to the science of spiritual growth is his discovery of the Watcher, which allows people to progress rapidly and with comparative ease into areas of spiritual awareness which till now have been very difficult to achieve. About the Author: Raised in India, Canada and the US, Professor MacDonald has lectured, taught and conducted research in many universities around the world. He draws with equal ease from ancient spiritual and philosophical traditions, the teachings of Jesus, and modern science to describe a spiritual system that actually transforms lives. He writes with a simplicity and effortlessness which makes even the most difficult subjects clear. Publisher's website: http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/ThePrayerOfSilence.html

"Words fail me, or sound inadequate," writes Nova Scotia artist, Alison MacNeil. "I cannot put your book down and, no doubt, will read it over and over many times. It is incredible and wonderful, and you feel you want to burst with joy and excitement." The Thomas Book is a real life Da Vinci Code - with spiritual quest, fraud investigation, reincarnation identity theft, and a new Gospel by Didymos Judas Thomas, least known of Jesus' disciples. During a Near Death Experience in 1966, the author talked with Jesus about a "project" in which they were both involved. Bruce Fraser MacDonald writes, "When I came back from the dead that summer, I knew something had been badly distorted in the retelling of the events of Jesus' life and death." His attempt to solve that mystery took him to England, where he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Leeds, then around the world as a university professor and researcher. His exploration, deep into the heart of spirit, confronted him with profound and challenging subjects, in addition to the Gospel itself - Gnosticism, sex and the virgin birth in the early church, the meaning of death, channelling, A Course in Miracles, Simon Magus and Gary Renard's fraudulent masters, and the evidence for Didymos Judas Thomas as the twin of Christ. But most astonishing, MacDonald's identity as the reincarnation of Judas Thomas, twin brother of Jesus, was confirmed in correspondence with reincarnation researcher Walter Semkiw, M.D. and Kevin Ryerson, spiritual guide to Shirley MacLaine.

Geopolitics is changing. The conduct of war and peace is being transformed by our increasing dependence on visual images and practices. Satellite surveillance, computer games, streaming video, retinal scanning and mobile phone cameras are just some of the technologies that are shaping contemporary geopolitics. From the horrors of 9/11 and Abu Ghraib to the mechanical, mundane functioning of airport biometrics, geopolitical truths are established through a process of visual demonstration. Visual culture has become part of the apparatus of persuasion. "Observant States" brings together leading international authors to explore the developing relationship between geopolitics and visual culture. The result is a definitive contribution to a globally significant, newly emergent field of enquiry. Contributors include: Louise Amoore, Judith Butler, David Campbell, Sean Carter, James Der Derian, Klaus Dodds, Emily Gilbert, Stephen Graham, Rachel Hughes, K. Neil Jenkings, Timothy W. Luke, Fraser MacDonald, Derek P. McCormack, Marcus Power, Alison J. Williams, Trish Winter, and Rachel Woodward.