Signs In The Dust

Modern thought is characterized by a dichotomy of meaningful culture and unmeaning nature. Signs in the Dust uses medieval semiotics to develop a new theory of nature and culture that resists this familiar picture of things. Through readings of Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas of Cusa, and John Poinsot (John of St. Thomas), it offers a semiotic analysis of human culture in both its anthropological breadth as an enterprise of creaturely sign-making, and its theological height as a finite participation in the Trinity, which can be understood as an absolute 'cultural nature'. Signs in the Dust then extends this account of human culture backwards into the natural depth of biological and physical nature. It puts the biosemiotics of its medieval sources, along with Félix Ravaisson's philosophy of habit, into dialogue with the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis that is emerging in contemporary biology, to show how all living things participate in semiosis, so that that a cultural dimension is present through the whole order of nature and the whole of natural history. It also retrieves Aquinas' doctrine of intentions in the medium to show how signification can be attributed in a diminished way to even inanimate nature, with the ontological implication that being as such should be reconceived in semiotic terms. The phenomena of human culture are therefore to be understood not as breaks with a meaningless nature, but instead as heightenings and deepenings of natural movements of meaning that long precede and far exceed us. Against the modern divorce of nature and culture, Signs in the Dust argues that culture is natural and nature is cultural, through and through.

In the face of the anthropogenic threats to the singular planetary habitat we share with other human beings and non-human species, humanities scholars feel a renewed sense of urgency 1) to acknowledge the ways our species has funded particular histories of environmental exploitation, alienation, and collapse, 2) to unpack inherited assumptions that impact our views of nature and interspecies relations, and 3) to suggest ways of thinking and acting that seek to repair the damage and promote mutual flourishing for all of earth inhabitants. This volume brings together scholars in philosophy, theology, and religion who take up this urgent ethical task from a broad range of perspectives and locations.

In this witty, engaging, and challenging book, Carolyn Steedman has produced an originaland sometimes irreverentinvestigation into how modern historiography has developed. Dust: The Archive and Cultural History considers our stubborn set of beliefs about an objective material worldinherited from the nineteenth centurywith which modern history writing and its lack of such a belief, attempts to grapple. Drawing on her own published and unpublished writing, Carolyn Steedman has produced a sustained argument about the way in which history writing belongs to the currents of thought shaping the modern world. Steedman begins by asserting that in recent years much attention has been paid to the archive by those working in the humanities and social sciences; she calls this practice "archivization." By definition, the archive is the repository of "that which will not go away," and the book goes on to suggest that, just like dust, the "matter of history" can never go away or be erased. This unique work will be welcomed by all historians who want to think about what it is they do.

Nine years ago, Jessie was in a car crash and died. After she was buried, she awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. And there were others-gangs of undead roaming the Indiana woods, fighting, hunting, hidden. But when a mysterious illness threatens the existence of both zombies and humans, Jessie must decide whether to stay and fight or flee to survive...

Ask the Dust is a feast of urban ruin photography, executed in gorgeous full colour, full page spreads framed by the overview of the young French adventurer behind the camera. Featuring a potent blend of haunting images of never before seen locations and new angles on classic subjects - Ask the Dust is a visual treat for anyone who cannot keep their eyes away from the elegant corruption of decomposing buildings. Epecuen: The town that drowned. Ghostly images from the real life Atlantis. Kolmanskop: The abandoned mining town that was swallowed by sand. Urban Exploration: Evocative imagery and thought provoking commentary combine to powerful effect.

Drawing on its first experiments with helicopters in Korea, the Army in Vietnam came to rely almost entirely on the helicopler for medical evacuation. The Dust Off and Medevac helicopter ambulance units tested and perfected for medical use the Army's new helicopler, the UH- I (" Huey" Iroquois), and developed several new devices that helped save thousands of American lives between 1962 and 1973, The pilots of these helicopters displayed courage and devotion to duty that earned widespread respect from soldiers. This book explains early problems of medevac in Vietnam, recounts the valor of crews, and describes the movement of patients to in-theater Army hospitals. It also shows the effect that helicopters had on traditonal procedures. The widespread use of the helicopter for medical evacuation in America since the Vietnam War testifies to the broader issues raised by this study, and of the relevance of Army history to the civilian community.