Download or read book A City Is Not a Computer written by Shannon Mattern and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models. Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the "city-as-computer" metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs. Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.

Download or read book Unseen City written by Ankhi Mukherjee and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reconfiguring the lines between literature and psychoanalysis, this book argues that to alleviate poverty we engage with its psychic life.

Download or read book Psychic City written by Page Turner and published by Braided Studios, LLC. This book was released on 2020-08-23 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fortunetellers. Demotivational speakers. Disillusioned shapeshifters. You never know quite who -- or what -- you'll run into in Psychic City, but that's what makes life interesting for a PsyOps agent.Penny is a spirit medium hounded by hordes of undead fans, Karen is an empath who spends most of her time hiding beneath an oversized hoodie, and Viv is an eideticist with prophetic visions, a photographic memory, and a lot of baggage she'd just as soon forget.They might not always know exactly what they're doing, but when they're working together to investigate paranormal crime, they get results. That's until a string of murders targets the city's psychic population, hitting a little close to home and putting the trio of detectives to the ultimate test.

Download or read book Lost in Summerland written by Barrett Swanson and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2023-07-25 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barrett Swanson embarks on a personal quest across the United States to uncover what it means to be an American amid the swirl of our post-truth climate in this collection of critically acclaimed essays and reportage. A trip with his brother to a New York psychic community becomes a rollicking tour through the world of American spiritualism. At a wilderness retreat in Ohio, men seek a cure for toxic masculinity, while in the hinterlands of Wisconsin, antiwar veterans turn to farming when they cannot sustain the heroic myth of service. And when his best friend’s body washes up on the shores of the Mississippi River, he falls into the gullet of true crime discussion boards, exploring the stamina of conspiracy theories along the cankered byways of the Midwest. In this exhilarating debut, Barrett Swanson introduces us to a new reality. At a moment when grand unifying narratives have splintered into competing storylines, these critically acclaimed essays document the many routes by which people are struggling to find stability in the aftermath of our country’s political and economic collapse, sometimes at dire and disillusioning costs.

Download or read book Sex Workers Psychics and Numbers Runners written by LaShawn Harris and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-06-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the early twentieth century, a diverse group of African American women carved out unique niches for themselves within New York City's expansive informal economy. LaShawn Harris illuminates the labor patterns and economic activity of three perennials within this kaleidoscope of underground industry: sex work, numbers running for gambling enterprises, and the supernatural consulting business. Mining police and prison records, newspaper accounts, and period literature, Harris teases out answers to essential questions about these women and their working lives. She also offers a surprising revelation, arguing that the burgeoning underground economy served as a catalyst in working-class black women TMs creation of the employment opportunities, occupational identities, and survival strategies that provided them with financial stability and a sense of labor autonomy and mobility. At the same time, urban black women, all striving for economic and social prospects and pleasures, experienced the conspicuous and hidden dangers associated with newfound labor opportunities.

Download or read book Psychic City Chicago written by Brad Steiger and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The City of Mediums written by Erin Huss and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My name is Zoe Lane, and I see dead people.Right now, I'm on my way to Los Angeles with my boyfriend and a spirit. The spirit's name is Jose, and he was executed on death row for a murder he didn't commit. Our mission, once we land, is to find out who the real killer was and make sure justice is served. Though I also plan to visit Hollywood Blvd, try caviar, and look for a (living) celebrity or two because even a medium needs a day off now and then.Sure, I was nervous about flying for the first time, but as soon as we got up in the air I was fine. And then a new spirit decided to make a mid-flight appearanceHis name is Captain Sims, and he's supposed to be flying the plane we're currently on!So, uh, the pilot is dead-probably murdered-and the plane is experiencing an intense amount of turbulence, and...uh...is it normal for the oxygen masks to come down from the ceiling? There's a lot of little alarms sounding off, and I'm slightly concerned about the smoke coming from the left wing and...oh no, also from the right wing.I better go.

Download or read book Expect the Unexpected written by Bill Philipps and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2017-06-10 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Love Reaches Us in Many Ways With testimonies from everyday men and women, celebrities, business leaders, and one-time skeptics, Expect the Unexpected is an honest firsthand account of how spirits communicate with Bill Philipps, why he believes they chose him to do this, and how he works with them to ultimately convey their messages. As Philipps confirms, it is normal to ask questions about what happens to our loved ones after death and to hope to reconnect with them. He offers insight and suggestions to help you ask for and receive signs with or without a medium and shows why he is convinced that readings always contain the possibility for love, peace, healing, and hope.

Download or read book Seeing More Than Clouds in Your Coffee written by Catherine Nadal and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catherine believes that life is a journey. After serving a one year tour in Iraq with the military, Catherine realized life is short and that she needed to work more with the public in assisting them on their spiritual journey in life. Her knowledge of the spirit world has motivated her to help others better understand, evaluate and review relationships and love. She believes that even through dying our loved ones never say goodbye, even when it feels like they have left us behind. She knows and trusts that our loved ones are helping to guide and protect us. Led by Spirit, Catherine has read Italian and Turkish coffee since her late teens. Through working with coffee, she has been able to help her clients identify issues in their lives and find solutions. She delivers unusual coffee readings, which leave lasting impressions with her clients. This book reveals the concept of symbols and how to help identify them in our daily lives. Coffee readings are a unique visual description to the details of a meaningful message that may open the door to more insightful way to view the future.

Download or read book Making a Medium written by Erin Huss and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-04-22 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the "Hilarious" (Huffington Post) bestselling author of the Cambria Clyne Mystery Series comes a new laugh-out-loud cozy mystery with a paranormal twist... My name is Zoe Lane, and I see dead people. Well, I see one dead person. Willie MacIntosh, a ninety-something-year-old multi-millionaire, who looks thirty, has a demanding personality, a strong opinion on my wardrobe and my love life, and he wants to know how he died. The problem is, there were a lot of people who wanted Willie MacIntosh dead, and it's my job to figure out who the killer is. At least, I think it's my job. This whole medium gig is new to me. What I do know for sure is digging around in a dead stranger's life, especially when there's a multi-million dollar inheritance on the line, is a dangerous business. If I'm not careful, the next dead person will be me. Book One: Making a Medium out May 9th, 2019Book Two: The Medium Place out May 14th, 2019Book Three: Medium Things out July 2019

Download or read book Cassadaga written by Phillip Charles Lucas and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calling itself a "metaphysical mecca", the small town of Cassadaga, between Orlando and Daytona Beach in central Florida, was established more than a century ago on the principle of continuous life, the idea that spirits of the dead commune with the living. Though the founders of Cassadaga have passed on to the "spirit plane", the quaint Victorian town remains the oldest continuously active Spiritualist center in the South and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. While the community has often been sensationalized and misrepresented, this is the first serious work to examine its history, people, cultural environment, and religious system. After presenting an overview of nineteenth-century religion, the book explores the town's early years, distinctive architecture, ritual life, core beliefs, healing work, and view of the future. It also probes the extent to which Cassadaga has assimilated New Age beliefs and other trends in contemporary American religious culture. The study includes a group biography based on interviews with four older residents, plus a chapter on the colorful life of Eloise Page, a practicing medium in Cassadaga for more than forty years. It also features 47 photographs that guide readers through the town and portray residents engaged in various sacred and everyday activities.

Download or read book The Image of the City written by Kevin Lynch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1964-06-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.

Download or read book City of Night written by John Rechy and published by Serpent's Tail. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bold and inventive in style, City of Night is the groundbreaking 1960s novel about male prostitution. Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling 'youngman' and his search for self-knowledge among the other denizens of his neon-lit world. As the narrator moves from Texas to Times Square and then on to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Rechy delivers a portrait of the edges of America that has lost none of its power. On his travels, the nameless narrator meets a collection of unforgettable characters, from vice cops to guilt-ridden married men eaten up by desire, to Lance O'Hara, once Hollywood's biggest star. Rechy describes this world with candour and understanding in a prose that is highly personal and vividly descriptive.

Download or read book From the Garden to the City written by John Dyer and published by Kregel Publications. This book was released on 2011-07-13 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Believers and unbelievers alike are saturated with technology, yet most give it little if any thought. Consumers buy and upgrade as fast as they can, largely unaware of technology’s subtle yet powerful influence. In a world where technology changes almost daily, many are left to wonder: Should Christians embrace all that is happening? Are there some technologies that we need to avoid? Does the Bible give us any guidance on how to use digital tools and social media?

Download or read book Supernatural Entertainments written by Simone Natale and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.

Download or read book The City of Channellers written by Diana Allen and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beautiful, welcoming Channellers is a fictional city where extraordinary things can happen and where many psychics, energy healers, and mediums come to study or work. These unique people can accurately sense invisible energy realms, amazing their clients and even a few perplexed scientists and skeptics. At the Energy Healing School in Channellers, educators Eshyema, Umeda, and Zemmet train adults to become professional psychics and energy healers. As they strive for success, the trainees develop their skills at the school and in local healing centres. In addition, Eshyema’s mother, who is a medium, and Umeda’s mother, who is a retired energy healer, and others share their wisdom with less experienced psychics, energy healers, and mediums. Together they explore modern and ancient ways of healing and channelling, and some of them, along with a few trainees, even participate in scientific research. These gifted people are put to the test as they help their clients and one another with challenges, romance, and heartbreak. And they know that healing—the process of recovering from devastating situations and learning to love and live again—ultimately leads to fulfillment and happiness.

Download or read book The Media City written by Scott McQuire and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2008-02-21 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If only more new media commentators had this level of historical-critical reference, engaging, good stories, and a degree of wonder at what media and windows bring to the city, to life." - John Hutnyk, Goldsmiths, University of London "Just when you thought the last word had been said about cities and media, along comes Scott McQuire to breathe new life into the debate. When revisiting existing pathways, his always ingenious eyes produce startling and original insights. When striking out into new territory, he opens up before us inspiring new vistas. I love this book." - James Donald, University of New South Wales "A book that crams into a single chapter more insights and illustrations than seems feasible, yet which ties all threads together through a consistent, theoretically rich analysis of the interplay of media and city... Writing with effusiveness uncharacteristic of back-cover blurbs on academic tomes, James Donald says ′I love this book′. But I will end by echoing his praise, and make a promise to readers: you will love The Media City, too." - European Journal of Communication "Refreshingly clear, getting to grips with some of the key concepts of urban sociology in a way that moves beyond the wistful evocation and splatter of undigested terms that characterises so much academic writing on culture and cities." - Media, Culture & Society Significant changes are occurring in the spaces and rhythms of contemporary cities and in the social functioning of media. This forceful book argues that the redefinition of urban space by mobile, instantaneous and pervasive media is producing a distinctive mode of social experience. Media are no longer separate from the city. Instead the proliferation of spatialized media platforms has produced a media-architecture complex - the media city. Offering critical and historical analysis at the deepest levels, The Media City links the formation of the modern city to the development of modern image technologies and outlines a new genealogy for assessing contemporary developments such as digital networks and digital architecture, web cams and public screens, surveillance society and reality television. Wide-ranging and thoughtfully illustrated, it intersects disciplines and connects phenomena which are too often left isolated from each other to propose a new way of understanding public and private space and social life in contemporary cities. It will find a broad readership in media and communications, cultural studies, social theory, urban sociology, architecture and art history. Winner of the 2009 Jane Jacobs Urban Communication Award, awarded by the Urban Communication Association.