An urgent collection of essays by first and second-generation immigrants, exploring what it’s like to be othered in an increasingly divided America.

From Trump’s proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of White Supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as “lively and vital,” editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be here is under attack.

An unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the anonymous senior official whose first words of warning about the president rocked the nation’s capital. On September 5, 2018, the New York Times published a bombshell essay and took the rare step of granting its writer anonymity. Described only as “a senior official in the Trump administration,” the author provided eyewitness insight into White House chaos, administration instability, and the people working to keep Donald Trump’s reckless impulses in check. With the 2020 election on the horizon, Anonymous is speaking out once again. In this book, the original author pulls back the curtain even further, offering a first-of-its-kind look at the president and his record — a must-read before Election Day. It will surprise and challenge both Democrats and Republicans, motivate them to consider how we judge our nation’s leaders, and illuminate the consequences of re-electing a commander in chief unfit for the role. This book is a sobering assessment of the man in the Oval Office and a warning about something even more important — who we are as a people.

‘A refreshing variation on the will-intelligent-robots-bring-Armageddon genre . . . this colorful mixture of expert futurology and quirky speculation does not disappoint’
Kirkus

‘A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.’ Isaac Asimov, The First Law of Robotics

What robot and AI systems are being built and imagined right now? What do they say about us, their creators? Will they usher in a fantastic new future, or destroy us? What do some of our greatest thinkers, from physicist Brian Greene and futurist Kevin Kelly to inventor Dean Kamen, geneticist George Church and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, anticipate for our human-robot future? For even as robots and AI intrigue us and make us anxious about the future, our fascination with robots has always been about more than the potential of the technology – it also concerns what robots tell us about being human.

From present-day Facebook and Amazon bots to near-future ‘intimacy’ bots and ‘the robot that swiped my job’ bots, bestselling American popular science writer David Ewing Duncan’s Talking to Robots is a wonderfully entertaining and insightful guide to possible future scenarios about robots, both real and imagined.

Award-winning Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino shows us why creative rebellion is essential at work and in life, and why the most successful among us are those who break the rules.

On the first day of a new job or at the start of a new relationship, we feel energized and excited. Yet this euphoria doesn’t last. Why? Because of conformity, Francesca Gino contends. From an early age, we are taught to follow the rules, and the pressure to fit in only increases as we age. But going along to get along comes at a steep price for our careers and personal lives. When we conform to well-accepted rules and norms rather than constructively rebel against them, we keep our doubts and disagreements to ourselves and ultimately become less happy and less successful. As leaders, we are less effective and respected. As employees, we feel dissatisfied and are more likely to be overlooked for top assignments and promotions. As partners or friends, we are checked out and unhappy.

Gino has been studying how rebels can be successful in life and in the workplace for more than fifteen years. She has discovered that conformity has crippling effects and that sheep are easier to herd than wolves. But while rebels—those who practice “positive deviance” at work—may seem harder to manage, they are good for the bottom line: their passion, drive, curiosity, and creativity raise the entire organization to a new level. In personal relationships, rebels foster smooth sailing rather than fights against turbulent seas.

Rebel Talent provides strategies and examples for cultivating and embracing nonconformity in the workplace and in life, and offers illuminating case studies ranging from The World’s Best Restaurant to fast food chains to corporations such as Google and Pixar. Gino encourages all of us to rebel and question the status quo so we can thrive.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Shortlisted for the 2018 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

A brilliantly reported, global look at universal basic income—a stipend given to every citizen—and why it might be necessary in an age of rising inequality, persistent poverty, and dazzling technology.
 
Imagine if every month the government deposited $1,000 into your bank account, with nothing expected in return. It sounds crazy. But it has become one of the most influential and hotly debated policy ideas of our time. Futurists, radicals, libertarians, socialists, union representatives, feminists, conservatives, Bernie supporters, development economists, child-care workers, welfare recipients, and politicians from India to Finland to Canada to Mexico—all are talking about UBI.

In this sparkling and provocative book, economics writer Annie Lowrey examines the UBI movement from many angles. She travels to Kenya to see how a UBI is lifting the poorest people on earth out of destitution, India to see how inefficient government programs are failing the poor, South Korea to interrogate UBI’s intellectual pedigree, and Silicon Valley to meet the tech titans financing UBI pilots in expectation of a world with advanced artificial intelligence and little need for human labor.

Lowrey explores the potential of such a sweeping policy and the challenges the movement faces, among them contradictory aims, uncomfortable costs, and, most powerfully, the entrenched belief that no one should get something for nothing. In the end, she shows how this arcane policy has the potential to solve some of our most intractable economic problems, while offering a new vision of citizenship and a firmer foundation for our society in this age of turbulence and marvels.

A modern classic of courage and excitement.” —The New Yorker • The source for the iconic prison-escape film starring Steve McQueen

Henri Charrière, nicknamed “Papillon,” for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, was convicted in Paris in 1931 of a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, he became obsessed with one goal: escape. After planning and executing a series of treacherous yet failed attempts over many years, he was eventually sent to the notorious prison, Devil’s Island, a place from which no one had ever escaped . . . until Papillon. His flight to freedom remains one of the most incredible feats of human cunning, will, and endurance ever undertaken.

Charrière’s astonishing autobiography, Papillon, was first published in France to instant acclaim in 1968, more than twenty years after his final escape. Since then, it has become a treasured classic–the gripping, shocking, ultimately uplifting odyssey of an innocent man who would not be defeated.

“A first-class adventure story.” — New York Review of Books

The people of the first nomadic empire left no written records, but from 200 BC they dominated the heart of Asia for 400 years. They changed the world. The Mongols, today’s descendants of Genghis Khan, see them as ancestors. Their rise cemented Chinese unity and inspired the first Great Wall. Their heirs under Attila the Hun helped destroy the Roman Empire.

We don’t know what language they spoke, but they became known as Xiongnu, or Hunnu, a term passed down the centuries and across Eurasia, enduring today in shortened form as ‘Hun’. Outside Asia precious little is known of their rich history, but new evidence reframes our understanding of the indelible mark they left on a vast region stretching from Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China.

Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, Barbarians at the Wall traces their epic story, and shows how the nomadic cultures of the steppes gave birth to a ‘barbarian empire’ with the wealth and power to threaten the civilised order of the ancient world.

شكّل رواية “لعبة الملاك”(*) جزءًا من سلسلةٍ روائيّةٍ، ترتكز على “مقبرة الكتب المنسية” كثيمةٍ أدبيّة أساسيّة. ترتبط هذه الروايات بعضها ببعض عبْر الشخصيّات والمواضيع المتعددة؛ إلّا أنّ كلّ رواية منها مستقلّة عن الأخرى ومكتفية بذاتها. وقال أحد النقاد برهنت “لعبة الملاك على براعة مؤلّفها في نسج حبكةٍ جارفة وغنيّة بالإثارة والتشويق. روايةٌ ممتعة بكلّ تفاصيلها، تمنح كارلوس زافون لقب “ديكنز البرشلونيّ” بلا منازع. تدور أحداث الرواية في برشلونة قبل عقدين من اندلاع الحرب الأهلية أي عشرينيات القرن الماضي وتوضح تفاصيل الظروف والإرهاصات التي أدت إلى اندلاع شرارة الحرب التي راح ضحيتها أكثر من نصف مليون شخص.

علم الهارموني هو من أهم علوم الموسيقى الغربية، وهو ركنٌ أساس في بناء الموسيقى الآلية والغنائية، ويعتمد على تراكيب الأصوات العمودية التي تؤدى في آنٍ واحد Vertical Structure إذ تتوافق النغمات معًا وتتنافر أحيانًا بهدف إضفاء رنين صوتي يثري العمل الموسيقي ويجذب المتلقّي. ولهذا العلم أصول ونظريّات تهدف إلى إثراء اللحن الأساس للعمل الموسيقي بتآلفات نغمية Chords يتم استخدامها وتوظيفها بطرق ممتنوّعة Function، وبأساليب مصاحبات مختلفة Accompaniment تتناسب مع رؤية المؤلف. في هذا الكتاب الذي استغرق تأليفه ثلاث سنوات، قام المؤلف بشرح علم الهارموني بلغة بسيطة وميسّرة، مع الاهتمام بالمصطلحات الموسيقية المتعارف عليها عالميًا في نظريّات الموسيقى بلغتها الأم. يحتوي الكتاب على جميع ما يلزم لدارسي الموسيقى بشكلٍ عام، وللمتخصّصين في مجال التأليف الموسيقي بشكلٍ خاص، إذ يعتبر الخلاصة المستوحاة من أهم مناهج علم الهارموني في أهم المدارس والمعاهد الموسيقية العالميّة، وذلك من خلال الإطلاع على أهم الكتب الأجنبية المتخصصة في علم الهارموني، ويضم محتوى الكتاب كل ما يلزم لوضع هارموني مناسب للحن مبتكر بخياراتٍ متعدّدة، كما يغطّي هذا الكتاب متطلّب مادّة الهارموني لجميع تخصّصات الموسيقى المختلفة كالأداء والغناء والتربية الموسيقية، والتي غالبًا ما تكون على مدى فصلين دراسيين، كما يغطّي أيضًا دراسة الهارموني المتقدّم للمتخصصين في مجال التأليف الموسيقي. يعرض الكتاب مجموعة من المدوّنات للموسيقى العالميّة لأهم المؤلفين، كنماذج تخدم الموضوعات المطروحة

ex+methodes

هذا الكتاب
جميعنا يحب الألوان المائية، ورسوماتها، ومن هنا جاءت الفكرة لتقديم لمحة عن هذه الألوان وأدواتها، والوسائط التي يمكن استخدامها، وشرح عن دائرة الألوان وكيفية صناعتها، وما هي النظريات الخاصة بها؟
كما يحتوي الكتاب على خصائص الألوان المائية، وأنواع مخططاتها، إضافة إلى أكثر من ٢٠ تقنية، وأهم المشاكل التي نقع فيها وطرق إيجاد الحلول لها، وإمكانية استخدام لوحة (الكانفس) للألوان المائية.