500 Year Journey

500-Year Journey examines historical and scriptural evidence to identify the date Christ was born, which wasn’t December 25th! For more than two-thousand years, Christians and skeptics have sought the truth of Jesus’ birth—with many looking in the wrong places. One group studied the stars and astrology for answers, to determine what the Magi might have seen, but that only created more questions. Others looked to mathematical calculations and tradition, but mistaken variables led them astray. Both of these approaches have contributed to the modern version of Christmas, but they have also obscured God’s truth. Corey Piper’s 500-Year Journey makes the case that God revealed exactly when the Messiah would be born. The answer is in his Law, foreshadowed with biblical and historical events and confirmed by what the Magi saw. This resource will take readers from the exile in Babylon to the manger in Bethlehem, to a stunning encounter with God’s elaborate plan.

“A lively tale of historical innovation, the thrill of the bibliophile’s hunt, greed and betrayal.” – The New York Times Book Review "An addictive and engaging look at the ‘competitive, catty and slightly angst-ridden’ heart of the world of book collecting.” - The Houston Chronicle The never-before-told story of one extremely rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and its impact on the lives of the fanatical few who were lucky enough to own it. For rare-book collectors, an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible--of which there are fewer than 50 in existence--represents the ultimate prize. Here, Margaret Leslie Davis recounts five centuries in the life of one copy, from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg, through the hands of monks, an earl, the Worcestershire sauce king, and a nuclear physicist to its ultimate resting place, in a steel vault in Tokyo. Estelle Doheny, the first woman collector to add the book to her library and its last private owner, tipped the Bible onto a trajectory that forever changed our understanding of the first mechanically printed book. The Lost Gutenberg draws readers into this incredible saga, immersing them in the lust for beauty, prestige, and knowledge that this rarest of books sparked in its owners. Exploring books as objects of obsession across centuries, this is a must-read for history buffs, book collectors, seekers of hidden treasures, and anyone who has ever craved a remarkable book--and its untold stories.

This book explores the puzzling phenomenon of new veiling practices among lower middle class women in Cairo, Egypt. Although these women are part of a modernizing middle class, they also voluntarily adopt a traditional symbol of female subordination. How can this paradox be explained? An explanation emerges which reconceptualizes what appears to be reactionary behavior as a new style of political struggle--as accommodating protest. These women, most of them clerical workers in the large government bureaucracy, are ambivalent about working outside the home, considering it a change which brings new burdens as well as some important benefits. At the same time they realize that leaving home and family is creating an intolerable situation of the erosion of their social status and the loss of their traditional identity. The new veiling expresses women's protest against this. MacLeod argues that the symbolism of the new veiling emerges from this tense subcultural dilemma, involving elements of both resistance and acquiescence.

This updated and revised second edition of the leading reference volume on distance metrics includes a wealth of new material that reflects advances in a developing field now regarded as an essential tool in many areas of pure and applied mathematics. Its publication coincides with intensifying research efforts into metric spaces and especially distance design for applications. Accurate metrics have become a crucial goal in computational biology, image analysis, speech recognition and information retrieval. The content focuses on providing academics with an invaluable comprehensive listing of the main available distances. As well as standalone introductions and definitions, the encyclopedia facilitates swift cross-referencing with easily navigable bold-faced textual links to core entries, and includes a wealth of fascinating curiosities that enable non-specialists to deploy research tools previously viewed as arcane. Its value-added context is certain to open novel avenues of research.