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Covering the theory of computation, information and communications, the physical aspects of computation, and the physical limits of computers, this text is based on the notes taken by one of its editors, Tony Hey, on a lecture course on computation given b
Learn to write science fiction and fantasy from a master You've always dreamed of writing science fiction and fantasy tales that pull readers into extraordinary new worlds and fantastic conflicts. Best-selling author Orson Scott Card shows you how it's done, distilling years of writing experience and publishing success into concise, no-nonsense advice. You'll learn how to: • utilize story elements that define the science fiction and fantasy genres • build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world your readers will want to explore • develop the "rules" of time, space and magic that affect your world and its inhabitants • construct a compelling story by developing ideas, characters, and events that keep readers turning pages • find the markets for speculative fiction, reach them, and get published • submit queries, write cover letters, find an agent, and live the life of a writer The boundaries of your imagination are infinite. Explore them with Orson Scott Card and create fiction that casts a spell over agents, publishers, and readers from every world.
John Cage is the outstanding composer of avant-garde music today. The Saturday Review said of him: “Cage possesses one of the rarest qualities of the true creator- that of an original mind- and whether that originality pleases, irritates, amuses or outrages is irrelevant.” “He refuses to sermonize or pontificate. What John Cage offers is more refreshing, more spirited, much more fun-a kind of carefree skinny-dipping in the infinite. It’s what’s happening now.” –The American Record Guide “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not; the psychological turning in direction of those not intended seems at first to be a giving up of everything that belongs to humanity. But one must see that humanity and nature, not separate, are in this world together, that nothing was lost when everything was given away.”
This book presents a course in the geometry of convex polytopes in arbitrary dimension, suitable for an advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student. The book starts with the basics of polytope theory. Schlegel and Gale diagrams are introduced as geometric tools to visualize polytopes in high dimension and to unearth bizarre phenomena in polytopes. The heart of the book is a treatment of the secondary polytope of a point configuration and its connections to the statepolytope of the toric ideal defined by the configuration. These polytopes are relatively recent constructs with numerous connections to discrete geometry, classical algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, and combinatorics. The connections rely on Grobner bases of toric ideals and other methods fromcommutative algebra. The book is self-contained and does not require any background beyond basic linear algebra. With numerous figures and exercises, it can be used as a textbook for courses on geometric, combinatorial, and computational aspects of the theory of polytopes.
This is a collection in which meditations on imagination and the process of writing mingle with keen discussions of global affairs, geography and colonialism, cultural change, and the deeply lasting influences of the past.
