Popular Myths

Did NASA really spend millions creating a pen that would write in space? Is chocolate poisonous to dogs? Does stress cause gray hair? These questions are a sample of the urban lore investigated in this audiobook, Fact or Fiction: Science Tackles 58 Popular Myths. Drawing from Scientific American’s “Fact or Fiction” and “Strange But True” columns, we’ve selected 58 of the most surprising, fascinating, useful, and just plain wacky topics confronted by our writers over the years.

It is wintertime, and the earth is covered with a layer of snow, as smooth as if it were marble cut from a mountain. The sky is high and clear, and the wind as sharp as an elfin-forged sword; the trees stand like white coral, or resemble blooming almond branches, and the air is as fresh as it is in the high Alps. The night is beautiful with streaming northern lights and countless twinkling stars.

In 1970, Erin Keane’s mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six. Through a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother’s teenage years, questioning almost everything she’s been told about her parents and their relationship.

From monsters to witches and ancient libraries to lost islands, The Life Fantastic seeks to trace the origins of ideas, their surprising paths, and unexpected ways in which they interact and manifest throughout history. By digging around the roots of literary genres, popular stories, and ancient myths, Noa propels the listener back and forth through time, from high to popular culture, from art to politics and religion, on a journey to ever-expanding horizons. This is an invitation to explore the collective subconscious of Western culture.

After surviving a nearly insurmountable peril, a starship captain returns to Earth with his badly distressed ship and remaining crew and passengers in hyper sleep over three hundred years after they were believed to be destroyed and finds his most perilous trial. In humanity’s drive towards individuality by being like everyone else, due to genetic manipulation there are only 33 standard female and male models and he and his crew will be made beautiful like everyone else unless he can figure out a way to stop it.

Leo Braudy, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, has won accolades for revealing the complex and constantly shifting history behind seemingly unchanging ideas of fame, war, and masculinity. Continuing his interest in the history of emotion, this book explores how fear has been shaped into images of monsters and monstrosity.

The most popular diet on the market, the one all your friends are doing, is not necessarily the best one for you. Today, it's keto, which clearly works for some. But is it right for you? There is also intermittent fasting, which someone at your office swears by and describes fasting's nearly magical ability to burn fat. But when you get into the details of fasting, it just sounds like "skipping breakfast." What gives? Scanning through your various social media feeds, you notice some people promoting cleanses and detoxes galore, and it makes you wonder if you have your own depository of ...

From farm-to-table restaurants and farmers markets, to support for fair trade and food sovereignty, movements for food-system change hold the promise for deeper transformations. Yet Americans continue to live the paradox of caring passionately about healthy eating while demanding the convenience of fast food. Rooted Resistance explores this fraught but promising food scene. This book wagers that socially responsible agrarian mythmaking should be a vital part of a food ethic of resistance if we are to rectify the destructive tendencies in our contemporary food system.

While the Western was dying a slow death across the cultural landscape, it was blazing back to life as a video game in the early twenty-first century. Rockstar Games' Red Dead franchise, beginning with Red Dead Revolver in 2004, has grown into one of the most critically acclaimed video game franchises of the twenty-first century. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West offers a critical, interdisciplinary look at this cultural phenomenon at the intersection of game studies and American history.

"Alí Baba y los cuarenta ladrones", "El soldadito de plomo", "La gaita maravillosa", "La dama del lago", y "La princesita que fue convertida en almendro".

Indie Blackwood is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend. On the surface, her life looks perfect. But when a guy dies right before her eyes and an ancient family Bible is stolen, Indie's world spirals into darkness. Turns out, Indie has a destiny. And it involves much more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn't get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that's seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, the hot warlock who has an uncanny knowledge of everything that matters, she's a witch, too.

¿Le gustan las historias sobre dioses y espíritus, gigantes y monstruos, damiselas en apuros y héroes inteligentes? Puede disfrutar todo esto dentro del folclore africano, en un vasto y variado entramado de historias de cientos de culturas, cada una con sus propias tradiciones y valores.

Superman rose from popular culture - comic books, newspaper strips, radio, television, novels, and movies - but people have so embraced the character that he has now become part of folklore. This transition from popular to folk culture signals the importance of Superman to fans and to a larger American populace. Superman's story has become a myth dramatizing identity, morality, and politics. Many studies have examined the ways in which folklore has provided inspiration for other forms of culture, especially literature and cinema.

Lokpriya Kahaniya by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan is a collection of beloved stories that have been passed down through generations in India. From the brave and courageous tales of Rani Laxmi Bai and Maharana Pratap to the heartwarming stories of Krishna and Sudama, these timeless tales continue to inspire and captivate audiences of all ages. Chauhan's masterful storytelling transports listeners to a world of heroism, devotion, and sacrifice.

En este libro se tratan de una manera amena y divertida las creencias populares relacionadas con el New Age, las cuales, entre religión, filosofía y ciencia, promueven un estilo de vida alternativo. Esta obra se encarga de desmitificarlas y ponerlas en evidencia a la luz de su falta de rigor científico.

Два долгих дня, пешком, идет красноармеец Никита Фирсов в родную деревню. В родительском доме встречает его только отец, мать умерла, так и не дождавшись любимого сына с войны. На следующий день происходит встреча Никиты с подругой детства - Любой.

"El castillo de iras y no volverás", "El pandero de piel de piojo", "El príncipe desmemoriado" y "El cristo del convite".

This is the first study to explore fully the myth of America as reflected in the nation's popular music. Beginning with the songs of the Pilgrims and continuing through more than two centuries of history and music, Born in the U.S.A. shows the emerging American myth and gives a close reading of the compositions of songwriters as diverse as William Billings, Henry Clay Work, Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.

Сказка - это сокровище, так как она обращена к истокам самых древних мифов и уходит своими корнями в глубокое прошлое. Сказка - это сокровище, так как она дарит надежду на счастливый финал и торжество справедливости.

Друзья и знакомые Фроси Евстафьевой звали ее "Фро. Муж девушки - Фёдор, большой мечтатель и романтик решил с помощью машин преобразовать мир для блага человечества. В один из дней он уехал на Дальний Восток, настраивать там таинственные электрические приборы.