Natural Language Processing with Python

One of Isaac Asimov’s SF masterpieces, this stand-alone novel is a monument of the flowering of SF in the 20th century. It is widely regarded as Asimov’s single best SF novel and one every SF fan should read.Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan’s job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are always costs.During one of his assignments, Harlan meets and falls in love with Noÿs Lambent, a woman who lives in real time and space. Then Harlan learns that Noÿs will cease to exist after the next change, and risks everything to sneak her into Eternity.Unfortunately, they are caught. Harlan’s punishment? His next assignment: kill the woman he loves before the paradox they have created resul

5,000 Years of Textiles is an authoritative reference and a visual delight, with examples from the Far East to the Americas, from Africa to Scandinavia, and from Egyptian artifacts dating from 3000 BC to the most up-to-date modern craftwork and furnishings.? The new coffee table format is larger (8 1/2 x 10 3/4), and more beautiful than before.?The book includes an expert guide to nine fundamental textile techniques, from rug weaving and tapestry to felt and bark cloth. Each is clearly explained, using line drawings and close-up color details from actual textiles, to show how people from many different traditions have made and decorated cloth through the centuries. The breathtaking wealth of illustrations drawn from major collections all over the world includes costumes, period interiors, archival photographs, and a vast range of fabrics, from the simplest handwoven cloths to sumptuous brocades and exquisite embroidery.

That Monday afternoon, in high-school gyms across America, kids were battling for the only glory American culture seems to want to dispense to the young these days: sports glory.? But at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California, in a gear-cluttered classroom, a different type of “cool” was brewing.? A physics teacher with a dream – the first public high-school teacher ever to win a MacArthur Genius Award -- had rounded up a band of high-I.Q. students who wanted to put their technical know-how to work.? If you asked these brainiacs what the stakes were that first week of their project, they’d have told you it was all about winning a robotics competition – building the ultimate robot and prevailing in a machine-to-machine contest in front of 25,000 screaming fans at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.?But for their mentor, Amir Abo-Shaeer, much more hung in the balance. ?The fact was, Amir had in mind a different vision for education, one based not on rote learning -- on absorbing facts and fig

An Encounter with Art & Space.當空間遇到藝術…… 以「美術館」為首的藝文空間正在世界各地流行著，不僅成為文化觀光的新寵兒，更是程式復興的催化劑。老Ｐ先生和德朵夫人從2002年至今，親身體驗了英國從千禧年以來的劃時代轉變，歷史輝煌的國度，在厚實的根基上，不斷加入新的創意和概念，對於美術創作型態、藝術管理方式、美術館建築呈現，都有讓人意想不到的創見。 《不列顛

Why are homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks of New York in the winter, when the abandoned apartment buildings in the city have four times as many dwelling units as there are homeless people in the city? Why did Russians have to import food to feed people in Moscow, when Russia itself has vast amounts of some of the richest farmland in Europe within easy driving distance? Why did unemployment reach 25 percent and American corporations as a whole operate in the red for two years in a row during the Great Depression of the 1930s?All these very different—but equally puzzling and needless—tragedies grew out of a failure to understand and apply basic economic principles. Explaining these principles for the general public in plain English, with neither graphs nor equations nor jargon, is the goal and the achievement of Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Professor Sowell has taught economics at leading colleges and universities across the country and now uses his years of experience to br

Top Gear's iconic driver, the Stig, is finally?revealed! Ben Collins divulges how he came to be Top Gear's iconic driver, as well as what it's like to thrash an Aston Martin DBS, train for the Army, face the terror of Jeremy Clarkson's underwear, and much more. When the Black Stig disappeared off the end of an aircraft carrier in 2003, audiences were introduced to the White Stig—faster, stranger, and harder to keep clean. Ever since, millions have wondered—who is the man in the white suit? They're about to find out. Ben Collins caught the car the bug young, kicking his dad's boss in the balls for not giving him a company Jag, and this was the attitude that eventually led him to spend seven years sharing a cabin with Jeremy Clarkson's underwear, James May's PhD thesis, and Richard Hammond's hairspray. Now he tells all about life inside the iconic white helmet: what it's like to guide a blind ex-RAF officer around the Top Gear track, pit a drug dealer's Mitsubishi Evo against a Trojan ta

Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol’ Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death. Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town. He’s willing to risk everything, including his life, to be a winner for once. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror--and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy . . .Winner of the Stoker Award and named one of the 100 Best Novels of 2006 by Publishers Weekly, Dark Harvest is a powerhouse thrill-ride with all the resonance of Shirley Jackson’s "The Lott

A literary event: one of the most celebrated novels ever written, in a magnificent new translation. Seven years ago, the incomparable Lydia Davis brought us an award- winning, rapturously reviewed new translation of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way that was hailed as "clear and true to the music of the original" (Los Angeles Times) and "a work of creation in its own right" (Claire Messud, Newsday). Now she turns her gifts to the book that defined the novel as an art form. When Emma Rouault marries dull, provincial doctor Charles Bovary, her dreams of an elegant and passionate life crumble. She escapes into sentimental novels but finds her fantasies dashed by the tedium of her days. Motherhood proves to be a burden; religion is only a brief distraction. She spends lavishly and embarks on a series of disappointing affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, Emma takes drastic action with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter. When published in 1857, Madame Bovary was embraced

A fascinating account from a highly acclaimed writer of the life and charming inhabitants of a typical countryside village, and how it must adapt and change in order to survive in the modern worldThe countryside is in crisis. The shops are closing down in the villages, there is no school for miles around and, when they grow up, the few remaining children will escape to a less arduous life in the city. The village as we have known it for centuries must adapt to survive, but what will be lost in the process? In this book Geert Mak returns to the small Netherlands village of his childhood, Jorwerd (pop. 330 and falling), and meets the present-day Jorwerders: a stubborn, stoic people for whom the flat, windswept landscape has been a source of livelihood for generations, but is now rarely more than a tourist attraction. He has tea with the butcher's wife, drops in on the pub for a beer, and recounts the stirring story of Old Peet, a farmhand who was born, lived, and died in Jorwerd. Such me

From action to static, fully clothed to nude, and full-body to close-up poses, this high resolution figure reference enables digital artists to give their creations ultra-realistic features and traditional artists to create detailed or monumental-size paintings and drawings. This comprehensive figure study of a single female model provides 360-degree surround and detailed views of every part of the body from multiple angles with particular attention given to the most challenging areas such as eyes, hands, and feet. Phonemes show the mouth in 10 different positions—A, C, E,?F, L, M, O, U, W, and rest—and images of expressions register six universally recognized emotions—anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise—plus neutral. The?figure reference?is designed for use in a computer, is PC and Mac compatible, and only requires standard photo-viewing software such as that built into Windows and OS X. Images are photographed at 21 megapixels; cropped to eliminate excess backgroun

The traditional landscape genre was radically transformed in the 1960s when many artists stopped merely representing the land and made their mark directly in the environment. Drawn by vast, uncultivated spaces of desert and mountain as well as by post-industrial wastelands, artists such as Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson moved earth to create colossal primal symbols. Others punctuated the horizon with man-made signposts, such as Christo's Running Fence and Walter de Maria's The Lightning Field. For Richard Long, journeys became works of art while Dennis Oppenheim immersed his entire body in the contours of the land. In this broad survey of Land Art, Brian Wallis discusses the key artists, works and issues that define Land Art historically, as well as its later ramifications.This book fully documents the 1960s Land Art movement and surveys examples of Environmental Art to the present day. Earthworks, environments, performances and actions by artists ranging from Ana Mendi

"Half the Sky is a call to arms, a call for help, a call for contributions, but also a call for volunteers. It asks us to open our eyes to this enormous humanitarian issue. It does 80 with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material...I really do think this is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed."---Carolyn See, The Washington PostFrom the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, here is a passionate call to arms against the oppression of women around the globe---"the central moral challenge" of our time. Through inspiring stories of extraordinary women, Kristof and WuDunn show that the most effective way to fight global poverty is to unleash the potential of women. They also offer an uplifting do-it-yourself tool kit for those who want to help."Superb...As Rachel Carson's Silent Spring once catalyzed us to save our birds and better steward our earth, Half the Sky stands to become a classic, spurring us to spare impoverished wom

The influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals.Intellectuals and Society not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. One of the most surprising aspects of this study is how oft

由于公共物品供給存在“搭便車”、壟斷性等難以解決的問題，人們一直認為公共物品不存在“最優解”。蒂伯特(Tiebout)創造性地提出由不同轄區競爭性地提供公共物品、居民“以足投票”(voting with foot)來選擇能滿足自己偏好轄區的理論設想。作為全球范圍內的一種普遍現象，地方政府競爭是蒂伯特模型的現實反映，也是當代中國府際關係中的重要內容。然而，作為經濟理性和公共理性的矛盾統一體，政府有可

Marlene Dumas, a South Africa-born, Amsterdam-based painter, is one of the world's most admired artists, a titan of contemporary painting. Her work recalls the painterly gestures of Expressionism while combining the critical distance of conceptual art with the pleasures of eroticism. Through her delicately painted oil-on-canvas or ink-and-watercolor depictions of the female form as well as portraits of children and erotic scenes, she makes a commentary on the state of painting today. What does it mean to be a woman working within the predominantly male genre of expressionist painting? The artist often depicts women: their expressions, their bodies, their facial typologies, their self-image, and their ideals.The relationship between art and female beauty or between art-historical models and twentieth-century supermodels are constant themes in Dumas' work. She does not paint from life but deliberately chooses 'stock' images from a variety of sources, from magazine cuttings to picture pos

學習商務英語的理由是什麼？我覺得所謂世界共通的商用英語根本就是「Broken English with專業術語」，只要確實地把重要的專業術語（本書中所提的是會計、財務、審計）學會的話，即使明天起被派到美國或其他各國等地出差、甚至是到國外去工作也能夠勝任。還有，就算在國內外資企業的外國老闆底下工作也不用擔心。不光是一般的英語會話，現今已是對於專業術語及其相關知識都要熟知熟用，才能夠與他人競爭的時代。

Samuel Johnson is a writer of such significance that his era — the second half of the 18th century — is known as the Age of Johnson. Starting out as a Grub Street journalist, he made his mark on history as a poet, author, moralist, literary critic, political commentator, and lexiconographer. We, as moderns, need to know this man, and W. Jackson Bate's formidable biography, with its uncanny depth and empathy, is the book that makes that happen. Professor W. Jackson Bate is a lyrical writer who deftly explains the effect Johnson has had on scholars, critics, and readers of all kinds through the past 200 years: "The reason Johnson has always fascinated so many people of different kinds," Bate writes, "is not simply that [he] is so vividly picturesque and quotable . . . The deeper secret of his hypnotic attraction, especially during our own generation, lies in the immense reassurance he gives to human nature." Bate delves deep into the character that formed Johnson's intellect and fueled h

還在抱怨說「沒有時間」、「嫌麻煩」、「提不起勁」？其實再忙也能省時省力得到最大收穫。本書是【槓桿系列】終極實踐篇，能讓你輕鬆學會槓桿效益達人的所有祕訣！ 我們在學習中所投資的，是人生中最貴重的資產「時間」，所以缺乏槓桿效益的學習法，是一種最應該避免的「浪費」。所謂槓桿效應，就是DMWL（Doing More with Less），也就是利用最少勞力和時間獲得較多成果。因此，作者花了將近二十年時間

Allardyce Nicoll's History of English Drama, 1660–1900 was an immense scholarly achievement and the work of one man. Nicoll's History, which tells the story of English drama from the reopening of the theatres at the time of the Restoration right through to the end of the Victorian period, was viewed by Notes and Queries (1952) as 'a great work of exploration, a detailed guide to the untrodden acres of our dramatic history, hitherto largely ignored as barren and devoid of interest'. The History is reissued in seven paperback volumes, available separately and as a set. In volumes 1–5 Nicoll describes the conditions of the stage, actors and managers as well as dramatic genres. The sixth and seventh volumes offer a comprehensive list of all the plays known to have been produced or printed in England between 1660 and 1930, with their authors and alternative titles; it has thus independent value as well as providing an index to the earlier volumes.

ALSC Notable Children's RecordingsAllergic to Girls, School and Other Scary ThingsAlvin Ho is an Asian American second grader who is afraid of everything–elevators, tunnels, girls, and, most of all, s

Anonymous photography has a magic all its own. The intriguing images assembled here by collector and curator Robert Flynn Johnson are all mysterious, but their appeal is various. By turns poignant, humorous, erotic, and disturbing, their subject is the human condition. In ten stunning chapters every aspect of human experience--both public and private--is explored. Richly reproduced and with subtle tonalities marking their age, over 220 photographs showcase the work of photographers whose identities have been lost in time. The images are never anything less than mesmerizing and include previously unseen portraits of such stars as Cary Grant, Richard Burton, and Marlene Dietrich. Introduced by Alexander McCall Smith, this follow-up to Johnson's widely acclaimed Anonymous touches on birth, marriage, death, disease, hope, glory, and despair and a plethora of additional emotions, events, and human states, and will capture the imagination of any reader.Copub: Thames and Hudson

The kidneys are responsible for many key bodily functions, but their primary role as a filter of toxins makes them extremely susceptible to disease. Often these diseases can only be diagnosed through a renal biopsy, a complicated procedure requiring ancillary immunologic and molecular diagnostic techniques. This book covers all methods used by renal pathologists to diagnose a wide range of kidney diseases. Unlike most literature on renal pathology, this book is situated on the midpoint between encyclopedic and superficial coverage, written for the signing-out pathologist. While focusing on tumors and transplantation rejection, a full spectrum of infectious, inflammatory, and congenital disorders is covered in both pediatric and adult populations and is analyzed not only by light microscopy but by each applicable diagnostic modality available. The text is illustrated with more than 1,000 photomicrographs and diagrams, including a CD-ROM of all images.

Born to a wealthy and powerful yakuza boss, Shoko Tendo lived the early years of her life in luxury. However, when she was six, everything changed: her father was jailed, and the family fell into debt. Bullied by her classmates because of her father's activities, and terrorized at home by her father, who became a drunken, violent monster after his release from prison, Tendo rebelled. As a teenager she became a drug addict and a member of a girl gang. At the age of 15 she spent eight months in a juvenile detention center after getting into a fight with another gang.During Japan's bubble economy of the eighties, Tendo worked as a bar hostess, attracting many rich and loyal customers, and earning money to help her family out of debt. But there were also abusive clients, one of whom beat her so badly that her face was left permanently scarred. Her mother died, plunging Tendo into a depression so deep that she tried to commit suicide.Somehow, Tendo overcame these tough times. A turning poin

依「中華民國憲法」之規定，國家對於人民之老弱殘廢，無力生活，及受非常災害者，應予以適當之扶助與救濟。同時，依「身心障礙者權益保障法」之規定，雇主應對身心障礙者的就業，提供必要之輔助。國外對於身心障礙者的保護，如美國亦有「身心障礙法案（Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA）」之相關規定，各級勞工主管機關需對於身心障礙者的就業，應採職業重建的方式予以協助。然「具有危

Gone with the Wind，中文譯名為《飄》，是最經典的愛情巨著之一，它的作者是美國著名女作家馬格麗特·米切爾。故事講述美國南北戰爭和戰后重建時期，主人公郝思嘉曲折、哀婉的愛情與婚姻故事。美國南北戰爭前夕，生活在南方的少女郝思嘉，美貌而叛逆，她愛上了英俊的小伙子衛希禮，但衛希禮卻選擇了善良的媚蘭。出于妒恨，郝思嘉嫁給了媚蘭的哥哥查理。南北戰爭爆發后，衛希禮和查理應征入伍。查理不幸去世，郝