Strange Material explores the relationship between handmade textiles and storytelling. Through text, the act of weaving a tale or dropping a thread takes on new meaning for those who previously have seen textiles—quilts, blankets, articles of clothing, and more—only as functional objects. This book showcases crafters who take storytelling off the page and into the mediums of batik, stitching, dyeing, fabric painting, knitting, crochet, and weaving, creating objects that bear their messages proudly, from personal memoir and cultural fables to pictorial histories and wearable fictions. Full-color throughout, the book includes chapters on various aspects of textile storytelling, from "Textiles of Protest, Politics, and Power" to "The Fabric of Remembrance"; it also includes specific projects, such as the well-known and profoundly moving Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, as well as poetry mittens, button blankets, and stitched travel diaries. Offbeat, poetic, and subversive, Strange Material will inspire readers to re-imagine the possibilities of creating through needle and fabric. Leanne Prain is the co-author (with Mandy Moore) of Yarn Bombing, now in its third printing, and the author of Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery. A professional graphic designer, Leanne holds degrees in creative writing, art history, and publishing.

An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, from concrete and steel to denim and chocolate, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science.

Concrete: We use it for our buildings, bridges, dams, and roads. We walk on it, drive on it, and many of us live and work within its walls. But very few of us know what it is. We take for granted this ubiquitous substance, which both literally and figuratively comprises much of modern civilization's constructed environment; yet the story of its creation and development features a cast of fascinating characters and remarkable historical episodes. Featuring a new epilogue on the Surfside condominium collapse and the current state of infrastructure in America, this book delves into this history, opening readers' eyes at every turn. In a lively narrative peppered with intriguing details, author Robert Courland describes how some of the most famous personalities of history became involved in the development and use of concrete-including King Herod the Great of Judea, the Roman emperor Hadrian, Thomas Edison (who once owned the largest concrete cement plant in the world), and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Courland points to recent archaeological evidence suggesting that the discovery of concrete directly led to the Neolithic Revolution and the rise of the earliest civilizations. Much later, the Romans reached extraordinarily high standards for concrete production, showcasing their achievement in iconic buildings like the Coliseum and the Pantheon. Amazingly, with the fall of the Roman Empire, the secrets of concrete manufacturing were lost for over a millennium. The author explains that when concrete was rediscovered in the late eighteenth century it was initially viewed as an interesting novelty or, at best, a specialized building material suitable only for a narrow range of applications. It was only toward the end of the nineteenth century that the use of concrete exploded. During this rapid expansion, industry lobbyists tried to disguise the fact that modern concrete had certain defects and critical shortcomings. It is now recognized that modern concrete, unlike its Roman predecessor, gradually disintegrates with age. Compounding this problem is another distressing fact: the manufacture of concrete cement is a major contributor to global warming. Concrete Planet is filled with incredible stories, fascinating characters, surprising facts, and an array of intriguing insights into the building material that forms the basis of the infrastructure on which we depend.

In this sequel to "you Don't Need a Passport to Move to New Mexico" the ride continues s you further explore the wild, wacky west that is New Mexico. "Home on the Strange" introduces you to some of the odd sights, both natural and man-made that are part of The Land of Enchantment's bizarre landscape. Ecclectic yard decor, other worldly visitors, awesome natural wonders and kooky roadside curiosities combine to make New Mexico seem like a whole different world Meet "Sunny" the dinosaur. The 4:10 Roadrunner and find out why the state's motto is "It Grows as it Goes." Are there really aliens in New Mexico? You Betcha All this and much more ca be found in the pages of "home on the Strange" . Debora Carr was born and raised in the central New Jersey area, graduating from Rutgers University with a BA in Art Education in 1980 and became a successful professional graphic artist and packaging designer. She chose to accompany her parents when they decided to relocate to and retire in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2003, where she continued her chosen profession of graphic artist, working as a one-person art department for a small print shop. She continued to keep in touch with friends and family members 'back east' by means of periodic humorous newsletters which she called her 'Albu-Quirky Journals' in which she detailed her perspective on life in New Mexico. She later collected some of these reports and rewrote them in a tongue-in-cheek essay form, emulating the short stories written by two of her favorite authors, James Thurber and Mark Twain and published them in her first book, "You Don't Need a Passport to Move to New Mexico." "Home on the Strange" is the sequel, continuing to relate more humorous observations regarding life in the weird Wild West of New Mexico. Debora still revels in collecting stories and photos of all things weird, odd and unusual and is delighted to find that her new home state of New Mexico is overflowing with them. With any luck, it will continue to provide fodder for more entries into her "Albu-Quirky Journals for years to come.

Intelligence: Its Organization and Development is an account of the theory of intelligence, with emphasis on its organization and development. It proposes a formalized approach to intelligence, one that is sufficiently precise and abstract to allow a working model to be built on modern computers, but that is also sufficiently flexible and factual to allow an interpretation and unification of some of the findings and concepts of psychology. Comprised of five chapters, this book begins with an overview of a model that reflects some psychological reality and at the same time builds computer-based systems that display some degree of intelligence. Several bodies of psychological knowledge and theory are reorganized and synthesized into this single model, which is amenable to rapid, simple, and efficient computation. The cell assembly theory of Donald Hebb is simplified to its bare essentials, and Jean Piaget's theory of the development of sensorimotor intelligence is made more concrete and explicit. Concepts such as drive and reinforcement are subsumed by the inclusion of the orienting and defense responses as variable controls on channel capacity. The structure of learning and memory is also considered, along with major sensorimotor systems. This monograph should be a valuable resource for both psychologists and computer scientists interested in intelligence.

Prolific author Joseph P. Farrell, who commands a growing and devoted audience on Coast to Coast AM, Erskine Overnight, and other programs, initiates his Feral House association with The Philosopher’s Stone, in which he demonstrates the connections of modern physics and ancient alchemy by investigating monatomic gold, the work of Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kozyrev, and the fuel for the mysterious Nazi "Bell" device, Serum 525. Farrell’s previous books investigated the scientific and astronomical implications of ancient monuments and the secret space operations of the Nazis who were brought into NASA to continue their highly classified research as a result of “Operation Paperclip.” The author is now working with best-selling authors Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara on a book about secret American space programs. Chapters within The Philosopher’s Stone include: The alchemical view of the physical medium Transmutations and time David Hudson's Monatomic Gold The Platinum Group Metals and High Spin State Atoms An Alchemical Examination of the Soviet Red Mercury Legend The Physics of Rotation: Dr. Nikolai Kozyrev H-Bombs and Torsion Physics The Greater German Alchemical Reich Nazis, Lasers, and Isotope Enrichment The Bell and Serum 525