TAR FOR MORTAR offers an in-depth exploration of one of literature's greatest tricksters, Jorge Luis Borges. His short story "The Library of Babel" is a signature examplar of this playfulness, though not merely for the inverted world it imagines, where a library thought to contain all possible permutations of all letters and words and books is plumbed by pious librarians looking for divinely pre-fabricated truths. One must grapple as well with the irony of Borges's narration, which undermines at every turn its narrator's claims of the library's universality, including the very possibility of exhausting meaning through combinatory processing. Borges directed readers to his non-fiction to discover the true author of the idea of the universal library. But his supposedly historical essays are notoriously riddled with false references and self-contradictions. Whether in truth or in fiction, Borges never reaches a stable conclusion about the atomic premises of the universal library - is it possible to find a character set capable of expressing all possible meaning, or do these letters, like his stories and essays, divide from themselves in a restless incompletion? While many readers of Borges see him as presaging our digital technologies, they often give too much credit to our inventions in doing so. Those who elide the necessary incompletion of the Library of Babel compare it to the Internet on the assumption that both are total archives of all possible thought and expression. Though Borges's imaginings lend themselves to digital creativity (libraryofbabel.info is certainly evidence of this), they do so by showing the necessary incompleteness of every totalizing project, no matter how technologically refined. Ultimately, Basile nudges readers toward the idea that a fictional/imaginary exposition can hold a certain power over technology.

Get the updated industry standard for a new age of construction! For more than fifty years, Olin’s Construction has been the cornerstone reference in the field for architecture and construction professionals and students. This new edition is an invaluable resource that will provide in-depth coverage for decades to come. You’ll find the most up-to-date principles, materials, methods, codes, and standards used in the design and construction of contemporary concrete, steel, masonry, and wood buildings for residential, commercial, and institutional use. Organized by the principles of the MasterFormat® 2010 Update, this edition: Covers sitework; concrete, steel, masonry, wood, and plastic materials; sound control; mechanical and electrical systems; doors and windows; finishes; industry standards; codes; barrier-free design; and much more Offers extensive coverage of the metric system of measurement Includes more than 1,800 illustrations, 175 new to this edition and more than 200 others, revised to bring them up to date Provides vital descriptive information on how to design buildings, detail components, specify materials and products, and avoid common pitfalls Contains new information on sustainability, expanded coverage of the principles of construction management and the place of construction managers in the construction process, and construction of long span structures in concrete, steel, and wood The most comprehensive text on the subject, Olin’s Construction covers not only the materials and methods of building construction, but also building systems and equipment, utilities, properties of materials, and current design and contracting requirements. Whether you’re a builder, designer, contractor, or manager, join the readers who have relied on the principles of Olin’s Construction for more than two generations to master construction operations.

Though best known in the English speaking world for his short fictions and poems, Borges is revered in Latin America equally as an immensely prolific and beguiling writer of non-fiction prose. In THE TOTAL LIBRARY, more than 150 of Borges' most brilliant pieces are brought together for the first time in one volume - all in superb new translations. More than a hundred of the pieces have never previously been published in English. THE TOTAL LIBRARY presents Borges at once as a deceptively self-effacing guide to the universe and as the inventor of a universe that is an indispensible guide to Borges

Building Materials covers in detail the properties and uses of various building materials, including stones, bricks, tiles, timber, cement, sand, lime, mortar, concrete, glass, plastics and so on. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals, bitumen, asphalt, tar, plastics, paints and varnishes are included, as are non-traditional materials like fibre reinforced plastics and smart materials. For each material, its manufacture, properties, uses, advantages and disadvantages, and so on, are discussed. The text, presented in simple, precise and reader-friendly language, is amply supported by figures and tables. The book will meet the academic requirements of degree as well as diploma students. Relevant IS codes have also been listed for the benefit of practising engineers.