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The Formula
By Luke Dormehl. 2014
A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms what they are, why they re such…
powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola. Algorithms follow a series of instructions to solve a problem and will include a strategy to produce the best outcome possible from the options and permutations available. Used by scientists for many years and applied in a very specialized way they are now increasingly employed to process the vast amounts of data being generated, in investment banks, in the movie industry where they are used to predict success or failure at the box office and by social scientists and policy makers. What if everything in life could be reduced to a simple formula? What if numbers were able to tell us which partners we were best matched with not just in terms of attractiveness, but for a long-term committed marriage? Or if they could say which films would be the biggest hits at the box office, and what changes could be made to those films to make them even more successful? Or even who is likely to commit certain crimes, and when? This may sound like the world of science fiction, but in fact it is just the tip of the iceberg in a world that is increasingly ruled by complex algorithms and neural networks. In The Formula, Luke Dormehl takes readers inside the world of numbers, asking how we came to believe in the all-conquering power of algorithms; introducing the mathematicians, artificial intelligence experts and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are shaping this brave new world, and ultimately asking how we survive in an era where numbers can sometimes seem to create as many problems as they solve.Experience
By Martin Amis. 2000
Martin Amis is one of the most gifted and innovative writers of our time. With Experience, he discloses a private…
life every bit as unique and fascinating as his bestselling novels. He explores his relationship with his beloved father, novelist Kingsley Amis, and examines the life and legacy of his cousin, Lucy Partington, who was abducted and murdered by one of Britain's most notorious serial killers. Experience also dissects the literary scene, and includes Amis'portraits of Saul Bellow, Salman Rushdie, Allan Bloom, Philip Larkin, Robert Graves, and Ian McEwan, among others. Not since Nabokov's Speak, Memory has such an implausible life been recorded by such an inimitable talent.From the Trade Paperback edition.Mulheres na Idade Média: Rainhas, Santas, Assassinas de Vikings, de Teodora a Elizabeth de Tudor
By Michael Rank, Rosa Maria Neves da Silva, Melissa Rank. 2015
História de um grupo de mulheres que fizeram a diferença na Era Medieval na Europa e no Oriente Médio governando,…
sendo pioneiras na luta pelos direitos das mulheres num mundo dominado por homens.Japanese Design
By Patricia J. Graham. 2006
What exactly is the singular attraction of Japanese design? And why does it speak so clearly to so many people…
all over the world? The Japanese sensibility often possesses an intuitive, emotional appeal, whether it's a silk kimono, a carefully raked garden path, an architectural marvel, a teapot, or a contemporary work of art. This allure has come to permeate the entire culture of Japan-it is manifest in the most mundane utensil and snack food packaging, as well as in Japanese architecture, and fine art.In Japanese Design, Asian art expert and author Patricia J. Graham explains how this aesthetic based in fine craftsmanship and simplicity developed. Her unusual, full-color presentation reveals the Japanese design aesthetic in an absorbing way, using a combination of insightful explanations and more than 160 stunning photos. Focusing upon ten elements of Japanese design, Graham explores how visual qualities, the cultural parameters and the Japanese religious traditions of Buddhism and Shinto have impacted the appearance of its arts.Japanese Design is a handbook for the millions of us who have felt the special allure of Japanese culture, crafts, and art. Art and design fans and professionals have been clamoring for this-a book that fills the need for an intelligent, culture-rich overview of what Japanese design is and means.Como la primera vez
By Shawn Inmon, Sofía Fernandez. 2014
Como la primera vez por Shawn Inmon Vivir y enamorarse en un pequeño pueblo en los años 70. Si recuerdas…
tu primer amor, tu primera cita y tu primer beso, Como la primera vez te hará revivir esos momentos. Shawn conoció a Dawn cuando ella se mudó al lado de su casa en 1976. Al poco tiempo, se hicieron mejores amigos para luego ser algo más. Shawn era sociable pero muy estudioso, Dawn, hermosa y reservada. Su romance de novela terminó cuando los padres de Dawn les prohibieron volver a verse. No lo hicieron - por 27 años, hasta que un encuentro del destino los envolvió en una tormenta de emociones y recuerdos. ¿Puede la unión del primer amor no solo sobrevivir, sino florecer aún más? Como la primera vez te hará sumergir en la magia de un amor juvenil en un pequeño pueblo de los Estados Unidos en 1970. No importa cuánto cambie el mundo, algunas cosas - música eterna, bailes escolares, besuqueos en la parte trasera de un Chevy Vega, y por supuesto amor verdadero - siempre seguirán igual.A Companion to Popular Culture
By Gary Burns. 2016
A Companion to Popular Culture is a landmark survey of contemporary research in popular culture studies that offers a comprehensive…
and engaging introduction to the field. Includes over two dozen essays covering the spectrum of popular culture studies from food to folklore and from TV to technology Features contributions from established and up-and-coming scholars from a range of disciplines Offers a detailed history of the study of popular culture Balances new perspectives on the politics of culture with in-depth analysis of topics at the forefront of popular culture studiesEagle Dreams
By Stephen Bodio. 2015
Mongolia is a vast country located between Siberia and China, and little-known to outsiders. As Mongolia had long been under…
Soviet rule, it was inaccessible to Westerners. That was until 1990, when Stephen J. Bodio began planning his trip.As a boy, Bodio was always fascinated with nature. When he saw an image in National Geographic of a Kazakh nomad, dressed in a long coat and wearing a fur hat, holding a huge eagle on his fist, his life was changed from then on. When Mongolia became independent in 1990, Bodio knew that his dream to see the eagle hunters from the picture in National Geographic so many years ago was soon to become a reality.In Eagle Dreams, readers follow Bodio on his long-awaited trip to Mongolia, where he spent months with the people and birds of his dreams. He is finally able to visit the birth place of falconry and observe the traditions that have survived intact through the ages. Not only does he get to witness things most people will never be able to, but he s also able to give life to his dreams and the people, landscapes, and animals of Mongolia that have become part of his soul.Epic Journeys of Freedom
By Cassandra Pybus. 2006
Cassandra Pybus adds greatly to the work of [previous] scholars by insisting that slaves stand at the center of their…
own history . . . Her 'biographies' of flight expose the dangers that escape entailed and the courage it took to risk all for freedom. Only by measuring those dangers can the exhilaration of success be comprehended and the unspeakable misery of failure be appreciated.--Ira Berlin, from the ForewordDuring the American Revolution, thousands of slaves fled their masters to find freedom with the British. Epic Journeys of Freedom is the astounding story of these runaways and the lives they made on four continents. Having emancipated themselves, with the rhetoric about the inalienable rights of free men ringing in their ears, these men and women struggled tenaciously to make liberty a reality in their own lives.This alternative narrative of freedom fought for and won is uniquely compelling; historian Cassandra Pybus's groundbreaking research has uncovered individual stories of runaways who left America to forge difficult new lives in far-flung corners of the British Empire. Harry, for example, one of George Washington's slaves, escaped from Mount Vernon in 1776, was evacuated to Nova Scotia in 1783, and eventually relocated to Sierra Leone in West Africa with his wife and three children. Ralph Henry, who ran away from the Virginia firebrand Patrick Henry in 1776, took a similar path to precarious freedom in Sierra Leone, while others, such as John Moseley and John Randall, were evacuated with the British forces to England. Stranded in England without skills or patronage during a period of high unemployment, they were among thousands of newly freed poor blacks who struggled just to survive. While some were relocated to Sierra Leone, others, like Moseley and Randall, found themselves transported to the distant penal colony of Botany Bay, in Australia. Epic Journeys of Freedom, written in the best tradition of history from the bottom up, is a fascinating insight into the meaning of liberty; it will change forever the way we think about the American Revolution.From the Hardcover edition.Moon Spotlight Hanoi
By Dana Filek-Gibson. 2015
Moon Spotlight Hanoi is a 100-page compact guide covering Vietnam's capital, as well as surrounding areas. Author Dana Filek-Gibson offers…
her seasoned advice on must-see attractions, and she includes maps with sightseeing highlights so you can make the most of your time. This lightweight guide is packed with recommendations on entertainment, shopping, recreation, accommodations, food, and transportation, making navigating this fascinating city uncomplicated and enjoyable. This Spotlight guidebook is excerpted from Moon Vietnam.Wisdom of Our Fathers
By Tim Russert. 2006
What does it really mean to be a good father? What did your father tell you, that has stayed with…
you throughout your life? Was there a lesson from him, a story, or a moment that helped to make you who you are? Is there a special memory that makes you smile when you least expect it?After the publication of Tim Russert's number one New York Times bestseller about his father, Big Russ & Me, he received an avalanche of letters from daughters and sons who wanted to tell him about their own fathers, most of whom were not superdads or heroes but ordinary men who were remembered and cherished for some of their best moments-of advice, tenderness, strength, honor, discipline, and occasional eccentricity.Most of these daughters and sons were eager to express the gratitude they had carried with them through the years. Others wanted to share lessons and memories and, most important, pass them down to their own children. This book is for all fathers, young or old, who can learn from the men in these pages how to get it right, and to understand that sometimes it is the little gestures that can make the big difference for your child. For some in this book, the appreciation came later than they would have liked. But as Wisdom of Our Fathers reminds us, it is never too late to embrace it. From the father who coached his daughter in sports (and life), attending every meet, game, performance, and tournament, to the daughter who, after a fifteen-year estrangement, learned to make peace with her difficult father just before he died, to the son who came, at last, to appreciate the silent way his father could show affection, Wisdom of Our Fathers shares rewarding lessons, immeasurable gifts, and lasting values.Heartfelt, humorous, engaging, irresistibly readable, and bound to bring back memories of unforgettable moments with our own fathers, Tim Russert's new book is not only a fitting companion to his own marvelous memoir, but also a celebration of the positive qualities passed down from generation to generation.tion.Tyler and I inch toward the Green Room, in line with blow-dried TV anchors and stuffy columnists. He's practicing his…
handshake and hello: "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President." When the couple in front of us steps forward for their picture, my teenager with sky-blue eyes and a soft heart looks up at me and says, "I hope I don't let you down, Dad." What kind of father raises a son to worry about embarrassing his dad? I want to tell Tyler not to worry, that he'd never let me down. That there's nothing wrong with being different. That I actually am proud of what makes him special. But we are next in line to meet the president of the United States in a room filled with fellow strivers, and all I can think about is the real possibility that Tyler might embarrass himself. Or, God forbid, me. LOVE THAT BOY is a uniquely personal story about the causes and costs of outsized parental expectations. What we want for our children--popularity, normalcy, achievement, genius--and what they truly need--grit, empathy, character--are explored by National Journal's Ron Fournier, who weaves his extraordinary journey to acceptance around the latest research on childhood development and stories of other loving-but-struggling parents. A New York Times BestsellerConsumer Republic
By Bruce Philp. 2011
Consumer Republic dares you to consider this: The power to save the world lies with the consumer. The foundation of…
Bruce Philp's message is this single, inarguable truth: Brands make corporations accountable. They are the only leverage the average consumer has with which to make a company behave itself. Expensive to create, essential to making money, and more public than anything else a corporation has or does, a brand is an enormously valuable and fragile asset to them. And we consumers have the power to make it worthless. As someone who has worked on the inside, Philp knows exactly how this power can be made to work for us. Through this book he will inspire you to make every dollar you spend count. To buy less, maybe, but demand better. To make better choices. And then to speak up when you're happy and when you're not. Pin every one of these acts to a brand, Consumer Republic promises, and corporations will be forced to cooperate in making our way of life sustainable. Abandon brands, and we'll surrender the marketplace to scoundrels. Take control of them, and we can save the world.From the Hardcover edition.Graham Greene: A Life in Letters
By Richard Greene. 2007
There have been a number of Graham Greene biographies, but none has captured his voice, his loves, hates, family and…
friends-intimate and writerly-or his deep understanding of the world, like this astonishing collection of letters. Graham Greene is one of the few modern novelists who can be called great. In the course of his long and eventful life (1904--1991), he wrote tens of thousands of letters to family, friends, writers, publishers and others involved in his various interests and causes. A Life in Letters presents a fresh and engrossing account of his life, career and mind in his own words. Meticulously chosen and engagingly annotated, this selection of letters-many of them seen here for the first time-gives an entirely new perspective on a life that combined literary achievement, political action, espionage, exotic travel and romantic entanglement.In several letters, the individuals, events or places described provide the inspiration for characters, episodes or locations found in his later fiction. The correspondence describes his travels in Mexico, Africa, Malaya, Vietnam, Haiti, Cuba, Sierra Leone, Liberia and other trouble spots, where he observed the struggles of victims and victors with a compassionate and truthful eye. The volume includes a vast number of unpublished letters to authors Evelyn Waugh, Auberon Waugh, Anthony Powell, Edith Sitwell, R.K. Narayan and Muriel Spark, and to other more notorious individuals such as the double-agent Kim Philby. Some of these letters dispute previous assessments of his character, such as his alleged anti-Semitism or obscenity, and he emerges as a man of deep integrity, decency and courage. Others reveal the agonies of his romantic life, especially his relations with his wife, Vivien Greene, and with one of his mistresses, Catherine Walston. The letters can be poignant, despairing, amorous, furious or amusing, but the sheer range of experience contained in them will astound everyone who reads this book.From the Hardcover edition.The Safe and Sane Guide to Teenage Plastic Surgery
By Frederick N. Lukash. 2010
The Safe and Sane Guide to Teenage Plastic Surgery, by Dr. Frederick N. Lukash, is the only complete guide to…
this ever-expanding phenomenon. Written by the American Society of Plastic Surgery's acknowledged expert and official media spokesperson on pediatric and adolescent plastic surgery, this book answers those tough questions parents of potential teenage plastic surgery candidates have: Will surgery increase their child's self-esteem and help them fit in better? Or is it a dangerously easy solution to deeper issues? When is surgery right, and when is it not?Interviewed in The New York Times and featured on Discovery Health among many other media outlets, Lukash guides families through every step of the process, from finding the perfect-fit doctor and applying for medical insurance to surgery and finally to recovery and a changed life. A virtual, free consultation with a renowned expert in the field, the book doesn't just offer easy solutions to teen's body-image problems but helps parents understand the emotional, psychological and social dilemmas involved.Complete with action plans, real-life stories and pictures, The Safe and Sane Guide to Teenage Plastic Surgery offers advice on what can, can't and shouldn't be done-and on how to spot the doctors who will exploit a teen's fragile sense of self-esteem as well as his or her parent's pocketbook. Most important, Lukash provides a useful red light/yellow light/green light guide for considering teen plastic surgery.Canada Made Me
By Norman Levine. 2015
Norman Levine's Canada Made Me, a bitter, critical reassessment of the moral and cultural values of 'the polite nation,' proved…
so shocking it took 21 years-despite initial acclaim when released in 1958-to see a Canadian edition. A record of his three-month journey from coast to coast, Levine's vision of Canada's seedy and unpleasant underworld is now a laconic classic.The Public and Its Possibilities: Triumphs and Tragedies in the American City
By John D. Fairfield. 2010
In his compelling reinterpretation of American history,The Public and Its Possibilities, John Fairfield argues that our unrealized civic aspirations provide…
the essential counterpoint to an excessive focus on private interests. Inspired by the revolutionary generation, nineteenth-century Americans struggled to build an economy and a culture to complement their republican institutions. But over the course of the twentieth century, a corporate economy and consumer culture undercut civic values, conflating consumer and citizen. Fairfield places the city at the center of American experience, describing how a resilient demand for an urban participatory democracy has bumped up against the fog of war, the allure of the marketplace, and persistent prejudices of race, class, and gender. In chronicling and synthesizing centuries of U. S. history--including the struggles of the antislavery, labor, women's rights movements--Fairfield explores the ebb and flow of civic participation, activism, and democracy. He revisits what the public has done for civic activism, and the possibility of taking a greater role. In this age where there has been a move towards greater participation in America's public life from its citizens, Fairfield's book--written in an accessible, jargon-free style and addressed to general readers--is especially topical.Hell's Angel
By Sonny Barger. 2000
Due to copyright restrictions, this eBook may not contain all of the images available in the print edition.Narrated by the…
visionary founding member, Hell's Angel provides a fascinating all-access pass to the secret world of the notorious Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Sonny Barger recounts the birth of the original Oakland Hell's Angels and the four turbulent decades that followed. Hell's Angel also chronicles the way the HAMC revolutionized the look of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and built what has become a worldwide bike-riding fraternity, a beacon for freedom-seekers the world over.Dozens of photos, including many from private collections and from noted photographers, provide visual documentation to this extraordinary tale. Never simply a story about motorcycles, colorful characters, and high-speed thrills, Hell's Angel is the ultimate outlaw's tale of loyalty and betrayal, subcultures and brotherhood, and the real price of freedom.Odd Girl Out
By Ann Bannon. 1957
Fear and the Muse Kept Watch
By Andy Mcsmith. 2015
In this dazzling exploration of one of the most contradictory periods of literary and artistic achievement in modern history, journalist…
Andy McSmith evokes the lives of more than a dozen of the most brilliant artists and writers of the twentieth century. Taking us deep into Stalin’s Russia, Fear and the Muse Kept Watch asks the question: can great art be produced in a police state? For although Josif Stalin ran one of the most oppressive regimes in world history, under him Russia also produced an outpouring of artistic works of immense and lasting power--from the poems of Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam to the opera Peter and the Wolf, the film Alexander Nevsky, and the novels The Master and Margarita and Doctor Zhivago. For those artists visible enough for Stalin to take an interest in them, it was Stalin himself who decided whether they lived in luxury or were sent to the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the secret police, to be tortured and sometimes even executed. McSmith brings together the stories of these artists--including Isaac Babel, Boris Pasternak, Dmitri Shostakovich, and many others--revealing how they pursued their art under Stalin’s regime and often at great personal risk. It was a world in which the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, whose bright yellow tunic was considered a threat to public order under the tsars, struggled to make the communist authorities see the value of avant garde art; Babel publicly thanked the regime for allowing him the privilege of not writing; and Shostakovich’s career veered wildly between public disgrace and wealth and acclaim. In the tradition of Eileen Simpson’s Poets in Their Youth and Phyllis Rose’s Parallel Lives, Fear and the Muse Kept Watch is an extraordinary work of historical recovery. It is also a bold exploration of the triumph of art during terrible times and a book that will stay with its readers for a long, long while.By gently-and sometimes not so gently-mocking the fantasy dungeon crawl and the sacred cows of pop culture, the Munchkin® card…
game has stabbed and sneaked and snickered its way to the pinnacle of success. Along the way, its sold millions of copies, been translated around the world, and spawned more than two-dozen sequels and supplements.More fun than a Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment and more useful than a Chicken on Your Head, The Munchkin Book is a lighthearted and suitably snarky celebration of all things near and dear to the munchkin heart, featuring contributions from the game's designer, Steve Jackson (president of Steve Jackson Games), and its signature artist, John Kovalic (creator of web comic Dork Tower), as well as notable mavens of geek culture.The Munchkin Book also includes exclusive game rules to supplement reader gameplay.Steve Jackson Games, based in Austin, Texas, has been publishing games, game books, and magazines since 1980. Its best-selling game is Munchkin, with well over 2 million copies of the games and supplements in print worldwide. Other top sellers are GURPS (the Generic Universal RolePlaying System), Zombie Dice, and Illuminati. Past hits have included Car Wars and Toon. Steve's very first game, Ogre, recently drew almost a million dollars' worth of Kickstarter support for a super-deluxe edition to be released in 2013.