6/23/2023 0 Comments World without mind![]() While until recently European managers and politicians were obligated to make the pilgrimage to Silicon Valley, in the environment of today warnings of the dominance of the internet giants and the presumed omnipotence of algorithms are hard to miss. ![]() Foer’s warning comes in the midst of a new wave of criticism aimed at digitalization. He writes: ‘Facebook would never put it this way, but algorithms are meant to erode free will, to relieve humans of the burden of choosing, to nudge them in the right direction.’ (Foer, 2017). ![]() In his book ‘World Without Mind’ which was published shortly before the completion of this work, Franklin Foer argues that the internet companies called the ‘Frightful Five’ undermined our free will and modified not just our behavior but also our thinking. ![]()
0 Comments
6/23/2023 0 Comments Love and war john jakes![]() The evil Elkanah Bent continues his mad obsession with the Hazards and Mains, and he also holds possession of Madeline’s big secret. Up north George accepts a desk job in Washington, as does his scheming brother Stanley who is making a mint selling defective shoes to the army. Orry’s scheming sister Ashton also lives in Richmond with her husband James and she and her lover successfully dabble in smuggling luxury goods. Orry’s wound keeps him from the battlefield, but he answers the call of duty taking a desk job in Richmond. ![]() ![]() At Mont Royal, as elsewhere in the south, the slaves are restless and rebellious, making the plantation difficult to manage. Civil War, as the South secedes from the Union and a nation is torn in two. Love and War is the second in a trilogy weighing in at 1,000+ pages and continues the story of the Hazard and Main family through the U.S. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 0:00 Introduction 7:29 Purpose of Alchemy 11:39 Alchemys Transmission to Christianity 20:38 Physical Alchemy 22:43 Biological Alchemy 24:01 Psychological Alchemy 28:45 Symbols of Alchemy 32:33 Hermaphrodite 34:49 Dragons 37:54 Caduceus 41:26 Point of Alchemy 44:54 Philosophers Stone 50:45 First Matter 53:23 The Seed 56:48 Mercury Sulfur Salt 58:54 The Seven Medals SOURCE YE ARE GODS! ![]() The book also describes a series of concepts found in texts related to alchemy such as: The seven metals, The seed, The first matter, The Philosopher’s Stone, Dragons and many more, making this introduction a valuable little guide to further readings. Starting with the “Father of Alchemy” Hermes Trismegistus, an Egyptian Sage from an unknown period, through Biblical figures, the Rosicrucians, and to our days practices of alchemy. #Audiobook #Documentary #Esoteric #Hermeticism #Occult #Philosophy #Alchemy #TheGreatAwakening A General Look At Alchemy (REMASTERED) By Luxamore Narrated by Matthew Schmitz This is an introduction to the origin of alchemy. ![]() ![]() Warning: Contains some mild m/m sex scenes and some graphic violence. In the end they must decide whether love, too, is worth dying for. Warriors both, they think nothing of risking their lives for their country. Yet neither man can root it from his heart. Both men are determined their "youthful curiosity" must die before it brings disaster down on them. Intimacy like theirs can only exist in the shadow of the gallows. As the tension aboard the vessel heats up, their unexpected friendship intensifies into a passion neither man can rein in. ![]() Then the two men are forced to serve on a long voyage under a sadistic commander with a mutinous crew. He seems completely out of Joshua's reach. Soon to be promoted to captain, Peter is the darling of the Bermuda garrison, with a string of successes behind him and a suitable bride lined up to share his future. ![]() Once he sets eyes on the elegant picture of perfection that is Peter Kenyon, though, temptation lures him like the siren call of the sea. Living in fear of exposure, unnecessary risk is something he studiously avoids. Despite his looks and ambition, Midshipman Joshua Andrews hides urges that, in his world, make him an abomination. ![]() 6/22/2023 0 Comments After Mrs Hamilton by Clare Ashton![]() ![]() ![]() Sales are global – not just the English-speaking world, but places as varied as Russia and Japan. Wilbur is already past the seventy million mark. For most authors, a good goal would be to sell a million books. He has also topped the lists for a very long time, so it is hard to argue that he still needs to be competitive. What hunger drives him? Wilbur Smith has been a very rich man for decades, so it isn’t money hunger. The Triumph of the Sun is his thirtieth straight success. How has he stayed at the top of his game for so long? This year it is forty-one years since his first novel, the bestselling When the Lion Feeds. Cordial, professional, measured.Īs always with writers, though, I’m more interested in private Wilbur. This is public Wilbur: the Big Man the jewel in his publishers’ crown. We meet in the Macmillan offices in London, the publishers with whom Wilbur enjoys “an almost family relationship.” He is dashing, in a long black coat, still slim and fit at seventy-two, with a fineness to his face that isn’t apparent in photographs. Richard Lee's 2005 interview with WILBUR SMITH ![]() ![]() ![]() I admit to reading the odd, shall we say, flash fiction erotica, but it’s not a genre I ever considered for a literary experience. Sleeping Beauty was my first erotic novel. There were even accusations that this poster couldn’t be for real, but, a quick search of the internets tells me that “ taken in hand” is a thing.Īs I read The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, I thought about consent quite a bit. ![]() I can consent to sex now, but I can’t give consent for sex that’s going to happen tomorrow. Anyway, Drama Ensued. But is consent still consent when it’s given in advance? How do you get out of this agreement if you want – isn’t it sort of, too bad, you gave your consent, so now what I say goes? To me, consent is rooted in the present tense. The poster said that she gave her husband “blanket consent” for sex, whenever, where ever, and however he wants. However, the definition of consent in this scenario makes me nervous. It doesn’t much concern me what consenting adults do in their homes. And that might mean deciding what car to buy, where to live, or it might mean whether they have sex tonight. ![]() They discuss things, but he has the final say. She has a “taken in hand” marriage, which means her husband calls ALL the shots. When a poster went “undercover” to post about her secret life as a submissive, it caused a bit of a sensation. The posters tend to be married with children or heading that way. I post on a women’s forum that runs very much to the mainstream. ![]() 6/21/2023 0 Comments Amélie wen zhao![]() The complex history of the Last Kingdom is based on Chinese history and reveals the deep impacts of war, forced assimilation and annihilation of clans into one central Hin identity, and colonization, with its rewriting of culture and history. After she is saved from a life-threatening attack by a boy named Zen, Lan discovers that qi practitioners and heroes of legend still exist and that hidden masters hold the truth behind the meaning of the mysterious mark she carries, a secret that could save-or destroy-the kingdom. Lan seeks answers behind the curious scar on her wrist, a mark left by her mother, who died at the hands of an Elantian magician. In the city of Haak’gong, Lan gets by as a songgirl, performing and demeaning herself for the Elantians who colonized her homeland, the Last Kingdom. Two teens struggle to survive in their conquered homeland. ![]() 6/21/2023 0 Comments Morning glory by lavyrle spencer![]() Walsh’s close-minded sheriff who wants Will to move on and from the sheriff’s lover, a local waitress and town tart (Helen Shaver) who sets her cap for the handsome Will. There’s trouble right from the start, from J. The question is whether they’ll get the chance. In time we learn that both are victims of grave injustices but that both possess the capacity to build a new life together. ![]() Reeve’s Will Parker is humble, polite and hungry Raffin’s Elly Dinsmore is plain-spoken but often defensive and surprisingly reclusive. In adapting LaVyrle Spencer’s 1989 novel, Raffin and co-writer Charles Jarrott wisely take their time letting the couple get to know each other. ![]() A recent widow with two children younger than 5 and another on the way, she needs help running her farm. Reeve, an ex-con, meets her when he lands in a small Southern town and answers her ad for a husband. That fact of life, coupled with an ending that’s far too pat for its own good, marks the movie as better suited to the tube than to the big screen.Ĭhristopher Reeve and Deborah Raffin are a beleaguered backwoods couple. “Morning Glory” (selected theaters) is the kind of tender, intimate film that has a tough time finding an audience in today’s marketplace. ![]() ![]() When asked who he thought were the most attractive Europeans, the late great Gore Vidal answered, "the Swedes". ![]() When she visited Sweden to make her two films, the late great writer Susan Sontag remarked that the beauty of the Swedish people was breathtaking. Lavishly illustrated with semi-nude and near-nude men and women, couples in passionate embrace, and other erotic images, taken by a Master of the nude. Bruce Weber has compared them to the Brazilians, whose natural sensuality and incomparable beauty he captured in the sexiest photography book ever published, "O Rio de Janeiro". ![]() Featuring what many people who should know consider to be the most uninhibitedly beautiful and sexy people in the world, in their revealing underwear. ![]() Vanity Fair Magazine's First Annual Underwear Portfolio. Presents Bruce Weber's "Swede Dreams: Young Scandinavians In Their Skivvies". The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. Printed on pristine-white, archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Contributions by other writers, journalists, artists, and photographers. Photographs by Bruce Weber: A twenty-two page photographic portfolio of an All-Swede cast. Salma Hayek, beautifully photographed by Herb Ritts, on the cover, and is the photographer's very last cover shoot before his premature demise. The Inaugural Annual Underwear Portfolio by the photographer for Vanity Fair Magazine. ![]() Scarce Bruce Weber and also Herb Ritts collectible item. ![]() 6/21/2023 0 Comments Middle Age by Joyce Carol Oates![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Henry Award, 1967, for "In the Region of Ice," 1973, for "The Dead," and 1983, for "My Warszawa" Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1968, for A Garden of Earthly Delights National Book Award nomination, 1968, for A Garden of Earthly Delights, and 1969, for Expensive People National Book Award for fiction, 1970, for them O. Mademoiselle college fiction award, 1959, for "In the Old World" National Endowment for the Arts grants, 1966, 1968 Guggenheim fellowship, 1967 O. PEN, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Phi Beta Kappa. Berlind Distinguished Professor in the Humanities. University of Detroit, Detroit, MI, instructor, 1961-65, assistant professor, 1965-67 University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, member of English department faculty, 1967-78 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, writer-in-residence, 1978-81, professor, 1987-, currently Roger S. ![]() |