Beauty Unlimited

Emphasizing the human body in all of its forms, Beauty Unlimited expands the boundaries of what is meant by beauty both geographically and aesthetically. Peg Zeglin Brand and an international group of contributors interrogate the body and the meaning of physical beauty in this multidisciplinary volume. This striking and provocative book explores the history of bodily beautification; the physicality of socially or culturally determined choices of beautification; the interplay of gender, race, class, age, sexuality, and ethnicity within and on the body; and the aesthetic meaning of the concept of beauty in an increasingly globalized world.

Beauty has captured human interest since before Plato, but how, why, and to whom does beauty matter in today's world? Whose standard of beauty motivates African Americans to straighten their hair? What inspires beauty queens to measure up as flawless objects for the male gaze? Why does a French performance artist use cosmetic surgery to remake her face into a composite of the master painters' version of beauty? How does beauty culture perceive the disabled body? Is the constant effort to remain young and thin, often at considerable economic and emotional expense, ethically justifiable? Provocative essays by an international group of scholars discuss aesthetics in aesthetics, the arts, the tools of fashion, the materials of decoration, and the big business of beautification—beauty matters—to reveal the ways gender, race, and sexual orientation have informed the concept of beauty and driven us to become more beautiful. Here, Kant rubs shoulders with Calvin Klein. Beauty Matters draws from visual art, dance, cultural history, and literary and feminist theory to explore the values and politics of beauty. Various philosophical perspectives on ethics and aesthetics emerge from this penetrating book to determine and reveal that beauty is never disinterested.

Welcome to St Cloud’s, an exclusive public school where the boys prefer rouge to rugger and bondage to bunsen burners. Here, courtesy of new boy Basil Leaf and the postcards he writes to his long-suffering father, you’ll meet the ‘criminally pretty’ Gemini Tarqquogan, who paints his nails scarlet and wears frocks and feathers; Courtney Durham, who runs up curtains on his sewing machine; Hugo Bletchworth, keen on leatherwear and flagellation; Father Absolute, Basil’s gin-swilling Father Confessor; Rory O’Brien, St Cloud’s rugger coach and Courtney Durham’s ‘close companion’. Then there are Basil’s camp followers, so to speak: Nipper Thompson, a spirited jockey sacked by his guv’nor for wearing earrings at the morning gallop; Maurice Le Vere, a former ballet dancer and owner of The Last Faerie, a notorious watering hole; Sir Geoffrey Grassington, a local magistrate and the proprietor of a palace of pleasure, wherein Basil and his chums bring comfort to wealthy gentlemen of unusual tastes, until the men from MI5 move in... Dear Popsy is an outrageous, madly comic book, brimming with zip and exuberance. Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, said: ‘Very, very funny, wonderful turns of phrase, carries on where Decline and Fall left off, I think I am jealous.’* And Goodreads’ reviewers have given it five-star ratings. Dear Popsy was first published by Andrew Deutsch and later by Penguin. This is the third edition of this popular book

How can a good God create an evil devil? Are there more than twenty Bible references about dinosaurs? Where in the Bible does it tell us the earth is only thousands of years old? What are the Ten Commandments? Why is it impossible for me to get into heaven by obeying them? You say you can prove that Jesus was literally dead for three days and three nights just as He said He would be? What happens after we die? Will animals be in heaven? Who is the Antichrist? When the Lord returns, how quickly will we rise? So, the Battle of Armageddon is not the last big battle? When is the Millennium? What will we look like forever? What will we do forever? Why does God love me? What does God want to do with me? What is The Twinkling of an Eye? Stephen Mayer has been a Bible teacher for three decades and a high school Bible, science and history teacher within Christian schools for many of those years. He has a B.A. from Lipscomb (Nashville), an M.A. from Regent (Virginia Beach), and is in the final years of his PhD in Science Education with Curtin University (Perth, Australia). In this book, he cross-references and overlaps many topics that are often misunderstood or difficult to explain, demonstrating the reliability of the Bible. His desire is to prove to his readers that the Bible is absolutely foundational to their faith, is the authoritative Word of God, and can be applied to many areas of life. His counsel for those seeking Absolute Truth: Dig deeper into the Word of God for There are the Ways of God. BeforeAfterAndBeyond.com

Srimad-Bhagavatam, an epic philosophical and literary classic, holds a prominent position in India's voluminous written wisdom. The timeless wisdom of India is expressed in the Vedas, ancient Sanskrit texts that touches upon all fields of human knowledge. Originally preserved through oral tradition, the Vedas were first put into writing by Srila Vyasadeva, the "literary incarnation of God." After compiling the Vedas, Srila Vyasadeva was inspired by his spiritual master to present their profound essence in the form of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Known as "the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic literature," Srimad-Bhagavatam is the most complete and authoritative exposition of Vedic knowledge. After writing the Bhagavatam, Vyasa taught it to his son, Shukadeva Goswami, who later spoke the Bhagavatam to Maharaja Parikshit in an assembly of sages on the bank of the sacred Ganges River. Although Maharaja Parikshit was a great rajarshi (saintly king) and the emperor of the world, when he received notice of his death seven days in advance, he renounced his entire kingdom and retired to the bank of the Ganges to seek spiritual enlightenment. The questions of King Parikshit and Shukadeva Goswami's illuminating answers, concerning everything from the nature of the self to the origin of the universe, are the basis of Srimad-Bhagavatam. This edition of Bhagavatam is the only complete English translation with an elaborate and scholarly commentary, and it is the first edition widely available to the English-reading public. This work is the product of the scholarly and devotional effort of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the world's most distinguished teacher of Indian religious and philosophical thought. His Sanskrit scholarship and intimate familiarity with Vedic culture combine to reveal to the West a magnificent exposition of this important classic.