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Cargando... Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardnerpor Martin Gardner
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever abort a Martin Gardner book. This book, however, proved untenable for me. It was rambling and boring. I could not get engaged with a subject that should be engaging. Perhaps he should have hired a ghost writer; he was very close to his death when he finished this, and perhaps he wasn't everything he used to be. ( ) This is not the man I imagined when reading all those Mathematical Games columns, nor the one who became my one of my favorite skeptics when I first read Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science...he's quite human. I always marveled at how he could call pseudoscience (and the cranks pushing it) for what it was without libelous criticism. He set that tact aside in his last book and it was refreshing. I also always marveled at his research connections...debunking required access to rare resources that I can't find today in an Internet age. Not a "normal" autobiography, this seemed a stream of consciousness collection of "people I knew" and some "things I've done" memoir and Gardner knew a lot of people. He talks about pubs and restaurants, colleges and classes, obscure poetry and the not-news-to-me revelation of and reasons for his belief in God. That subtle wit that insulted cranks and quacks without them knowing it wasn't necessary here, and as I noted, he set it aside in many places. A few chuckles (emphasis mine): [on "creeping socialism"] "...said Alan Greenspan in one of his rare intelligible remarks." [on Dianetics} "Years later Hubbard added to the therapy a wild, idiotic mythology..." [on cranks] "Each year an untold number of people die as a result of putting their trust in Christian Science or some other form of medical crap such as homeopathy." Priceless gems! and about time. No puzzles to solve - though he references a few and names some conjuring tricks...something for the readers to pull the thread on, should they choose. He unabashedly doesn't qualify his assessment of a few poems as "perfect", though I don't have his ear for them. And his admiration of G.K. Chesterton doesn't fit the image of the man who helped found the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Props to the man, though. If I had heroes, he'd be one. "_Scientific American_ called the column Mathematical Games ... The rest is history." (p 135) So recounts this memoir by Martin Gardner (1914-2010). There's not much math here (recreational or otherwise), but quite a bit of poetry and way too much religion. One would have thought such an ardent debunker of pseudoscience would also have totally shunned the nonsense that is supernaturalism, but no. Many good-reading parts, such as those mentioning his encounters with such luminaries as Asimov, Conway, Dalí, Erdös, Fermi, Mandelbrot, Penrose. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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Un libro aparentemente inofensivo que te introduce en un tejido, en un universo personal que te atrapa, que mezcla aparentes nimiedades con el sentido del universo, que te asoma a multitud de seres de carne y hueso que han tenido gran influencia en el pensamiento, el arte, la magia y la ciencia del siglo XX... Lo que parece ser el sencillo y frío relato de un anciano se convierte enseguida en un tapiz en el que todo encaja y es coherente, y a la vez, en el que cada hebra te invita a tirar de ella y sumergirte en un nombre propio, en un libro, en una imagen... La lectura de Puro Abracadabra. Autobiografía de Martin Gardner es solo el fascinante primer paso imprescindible para saborear lo que Páginas tiene preparado para el año 2018. Edición facsímil de ¡Corta la baraja! Se trata de un librillo antiguo de cartomagia de Martin Gardner, que la edición original en inglés de Martin Gardner Presents reproduce en facsímil. Contiene juegos de calidad. Todo un aperitivo que preparará a los lectores para la trilogía mágica siguiente y una invitación para atraer hacia la magia a los miles de seguidores de Gardner. Trilogía de Gardner: Martin Gardner Presents La Magia de Martin Gardner 1: Matemagia La Magia de Martin Gardner 2: Cartomagia La Magia de Martin Gardner 3: Magia de cerca Con prólogos de Max Maven, Stephen Minch y del propio Gardner This unassuming book may look like the simple story of an old man. However, it soon becomes an immersive experience in a captivating universe populated with figures who defined the thought, art, magic, and science of the twentieth century. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)793.74092The arts Recreational and performing arts Indoor games and amusements Non-action games, puzzles [boardgames now 794] Mathematical games and puzzlesClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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