Who speaks for science in a technologically dominated society? In his latest work of cultural criticism Andrew Ross contends that this question yields no simple or easy answer. In our present technoculture a wide variety of people, both inside and outside the scientific community, have become increasingly vocal in exercising their right to speak about, on behalf of, and often against, science and technology. Arguing that science can only ever be understood as a social artifact, Strange Weather is a manifesto which calls on cultural critics to abandon their technophobia and contribute to the debates which shape our future. Each chapter focuses on an idea, a practice or community that has established an influential presence in our culture: New Age, computer hacking, cyberpunk, futurology, and global warming. In a book brimming over with intelligence—both human and electronic—Ross examines the state of scientific countercultures in an age when the development of advanced information technologies coexists uneasily with ecological warnings about the perils of unchecked growth. Intended as a contribution to a “green” cultural criticism, Strange Weather is a provocative investigation of the ways in which science is shaping the popular imagination of today, and delimiting the possibilities of tomorrow.

An understanding of severe and unusual weather should be a fundamental part of everyone's storehouse of knowledge. We live in a world that is at least occasionally dominated by severe and unusual weather. Many types of severe weather are sufficiently rare that a common defense mechanism of many people is to assume that they will never be directly affected. However, there is hardly a place in the whole world that does not have some peculiar aspect of weather that requires some degree of understanding and preparedness in order to avoid loss of property and, perhaps, even life itself. Fortunately, no particular location has all the different kinds of unusual and severe weather; thus, coastal areas are exposed to the tremendous power of the hurricane that bring high winds and frequently produce flood conditions, while within the interior United States, where hurricanes are not a threat, such severe types of weather as tornadoes, hailstorms, and blizzards are sufficiently frequent that an understanding of these storms is essential when traveling or living in this part of the United States. Although lightning is a greater hazard in some parts of the world than others, there are very few locations, including Alaska and the Desert Southwest, where occasional severe thunderstorms do not develop numerous lightning strokes. A proper understanding is important for flash flooding, derechos, mountainadoes, haboobs and other unusual weather. People have different responses to everyday weather from resistant to feeling dominated by it. You can find your level of response from a self test that is provided.

Heart of the pill melancholy sea of clouds, white rainbow of the day in the youth. This was the summary of the fifth hidden spirit's life. In order to prove his innocence, Luo Ying, who lost both of his parents in the "Jade Wall extermination", joined the Imperial Capital and became its fifth hidden spirit, absorbed all of the true essence of the Twilight Jade and was falsely accused of being the murderer in the destruction of the bamboo forest in the radius of a hundred li under the Shang father, was heavily punished by the six realms. His blood essence and soul went into the devil's body and he became the Demon City's Young Master, Yun Jiu Tang. Because of a lucky chance, he found out about his past. After going through many trials and tribulations, he mastered the Heaven and Earth Scripture, defeated the Heavenly Demon Ancestral Sword, and foiled the conspiracy in the Six Realms. In the end, he fought his brother, Zhu Jiuyin, and defeated him. He saved the Qing Qiu mountain and the Six Realms, but he also lost his true love. He lived in seclusion in Jade Wall City and built a "Snowfall Drinking" teahouse to comfort himself for the rest of his life.

What does it mean to live in a post-atomic world? Photography and contemporary art offer a provocative lens through which to comprehend the by-products of the atomic age, from weapons proliferation, nuclear disaster, and aerial surveillance to toxic waste disposal and climate change. Confronting cultural fallout from the dawn of the nuclear age, Through Post-Atomic Eyes addresses the myriad iterations of nuclear threat and their visual legacy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Whether in the iconic black-and-white photograph of a mushroom cloud rising over Nagasaki in 1945 or in the steady stream of real-time video documenting the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, atomic culture - and our understanding of it - is inextricably constructed by the visual. This book takes the image as its starting point to address the visual inheritance of atomic anxieties; the intersection of photography, nuclear industries, and military technocultures; and the complex temporality of nuclear technologies. Contemporary artists contribute lens-based works that explore the consequences of the nuclear, and its afterlives, in the Anthropocene. Revealing, through both art and prose, startling new connections between the ongoing threat of nuclear catastrophe and current global crises, Through Post-Atomic Eyes is a richly illustrated examination of how photography shapes and is shaped by nuclear culture.