Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV

Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design' - Dieter Rams. Dieter Rams' life and work are indelibly linked to his thoughts about how people live, and how they can live better. Products he designed in the 1960s are still being produced and sold today - only one demonstration of the strength of his work.This comprehensive monograph covers both Rams' life and his work, as well as his ideas on good design, which continue to inspire designers and consumers today. A personal foreword by Jonathan Ive evokes the influence that Rams has had on his own work and, by extention, the objects with which so many of us share our everyday lives. An introduction and an essay by Klaus Kemp tell the story of Rams' early life, his training as an architect, and the intellectual context in which his ideas were developed. The next four chapters examine Rams' work and his life - which are more or less synonymous - in depth. This includes hi

Readers of the “Frank” stories know that The Unifactor is in control of everythingthat happens to the characters that abide there, and that however extremethe experiences they undergo may be, in the end nothing really changes. Thatgoes treble for Frank himself, who is kept in a state of total ineducability by theunseen forces of that haunted realm. And so the question arises: what wouldhappen if Frank were to leave The Unifactor?That question is answered in Congress of the Animals, Jim Woodring's much-anticipatedsecond full-length graphic novel, and first starring his signaturecharacter Frank. In this gripping saga an act of casual rudeness sets into motiona chain of events which propels Frank into a world where he is on his own atlast; and like so many who leave home, Frank finds himself contending withrealities of which he had no previous inkling.In Congress of the Animals we are treated to the pitiful spectacle of Frank losing his house, taking a factory job, fallingin with bad comp

Can a one-legged boy become a great samurai warrior? Meet some unique aspiring champions in this kick-off to an exciting new martial arts series.Niya Moto is the only one-legged samurai kid in Japan, famous for falling flat on his face in the dirt. The one school that will accept him is the Cockroach Ryu, led by the legendary sensei Ki-Yaga. He may be an old man overly fond of naps, but Ki-Yaga is also known for taking in kids that the world has judged harshly: an albino girl with extra fingers and toes, a boy who is blind, a big kid whose past makes him loath to fight. A warrior in his time, Ki-Yaga demands excellence in everything from sword fighting to poetry. But can the ragtag Cockroaches make the treacherous journey to the Samurai Trainee Games, never mind take on the all-conquering Dragons? In a fast-moving, action-filled tale that draws on true details of feudal Japan, Niya finds there’s no fear they can’t face as long as they stick together — for

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.

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

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is off the chain in the fastest, fiercest, and highest-stakes case of his life. Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer. The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation--not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad, a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S. And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everyt

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

Annie Leonard tracks the life of the "stuff" we use every day, transforming howwe think about our patterns of consumption.

Provides information on the entire animation process, covering such topics as story research, scriptwriting, the storyboard, character design, voice recording, motion theory, staging, expressions, mot

These papers from the 15th UISPP Congress look at the use of technology in archaeological analysis. They are grouped into five sections: virtual reality; modelling and spatial analysis; dating; inform

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

So much has how been said and written about the life and career of Michael Jackson that it has become almost impossible to disentangle the man from the myth. This book is the fruit of over 30 years of research and hundreds of exclusive interviews with a remarkable level of access to the very closest circles of the Jackson family - including Michael himself. Cutting through tabloid rumours, J. Randy Taraborrelli traces the real story behind Michael Jackson, from his drilling as a child star through the blooming of his talent to his ever-changing personal appearance and bizarre publicity stunts. This major biography includes the behind-the-scenes story to many of the landmarks in Jackson's life: his legal and commercial battles, his marriages to Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, his passions and addictions, his children. Objective and revealing, it carries the hallmarks of all of Taraborrelli's best-sellers: impeccable research, brilliant storytelling and definitive documentation.