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 Outsourcing US Intelligence : Contractors and Government Accountability by Damien Van Puyvelde English | 2019 | ISBN: 1474450229 | 281 Pages | PDF | 1.74 MB
 George Plimpton, Jane Leavy, "Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball" English | 2016 | ISBN: 0316284548, 1599218089 | 176 pages | EPUB | 2.4 MB This baseball classic that Ernest Hemingway called "beautifully observed and incredibly conceived" includes a foreword from Jane Leavy and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton archives.  Operator Theory and Differential Equations (Trends in Mathematics) by Anatoly G. Kusraev English | 2021 | ISBN: 3030497623 | 337 Pages | PDF | 4.3 MB  On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy by Damon Young 2021 | ISBN: 1950354555 | English | 288 pages | EPUB | 0.3 MB Following indie bookseller favorites The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden, hip philosopher Damon Young takes on the paradoxes of sex  On Film By Stephen Mulhall 2008 | 285 Pages | ISBN: 0203928520 | PDF | 2 MB Stephen Mulhall's excellent little book on film is not really a comprehensive account of the nature of film or of film studies (though it does address in important ways a number of issues that are highly relevant to the field of film studies), but a consideration of film from the standpoint of a philosopher and a reflection upon the way in which films carry and explore ideas. The Matrix proved that even in a blockbuster film, ideas can be as important to its ability to captivate and entertain as the action. What made that film work was not just style and special effects, but the fact it played with philosophical and theological concerns -- from free will and skepticism, to the nature of fallenness and of enlightenment. Ideas are so important to the Matrix series that there are several books out now outlining the backdrop to the philosophical questions contained there; and a commentary disk on the new Matrix collection focuses primarily on its philosophical content. What Mulhall does in "On Film" is consider another popular set of science fiction films from the perspective of philosophy. This time, however, the films are deliberately chosen as ones that do not explicitly raise philosophical themes, or advertise themselves as "philosophical," but where (he contends, admirably) making sense of their Description and making sense of the films as a series requires one to think about them as if they were, in their own right, philosophical "texts". As it turns out, there is much to say about these films, both on their own, and as a series, from the perspective of philosophy. For Mulhall, however, this doesn't just mean that one should look to the films (as one does to the Matrix) as illustrations of philosophical themes that have been discussed elsewhere, but that one can look to these films as philosophical in their own right: as raising questions of the type that interest philosophers and presenting evidence that is in its own way compelling for thinking about these questions. It's a great read, and I would strongly disagree with the other reviewer who dismisses the writing as being merely clever but without substance. It is, however, not an easy read, and that may account for the reviewer's concerns: contrary to what might be expected from the title this is not pitched as an introduction to thinking about film. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for someone who doesn't have at least some background in literary or film criticism or philosophy (preferably in hermeneutics or phenomenology or critical theory -- since A.J. Ayer and the like won't be much help here). The main prerequisite is that one be willing, as Mulhall requires, to consider the possibility that philosophy can appear directly in film and literature and art and not only in the form of explicit argumentation. (But one must admit this possibility even to read Plato intelligently). But I guess I would recommend it for a serious fan of the series (or of their directors, whose work beyond the Alien series is also considered), who might not be as worried about the overall thesis of the book about the relation of film and philosophy. Even for such a reader, it offers a very illuminating account of the four films that addresses a number of interesting questions about the series: why the Alien is so horrifying, what about Ripley's character makes her a perfect protagonist for such an antagonist, why the fourth film was composed as it was and why it is not simply a failure, etc. As film criticism, it is pitched more or less at the level of a journal like Cineaste of Film Comment. I found it to be an excellent read, with ideas that I go back to on a regular basis in my own thinking about film and about philosophy.  Fujita Kayoko, Momoki Shiro, Anthony Reid, "Offshore Asia: Maritime Interactions in Eastern Asia Before Steamships" English | 2013 | ISBN: 9814311774 | PDF | pages: 359 | 13.8 mb This exemplary work of international collaboration takes a comparative approach to the histories of Northeast and Southeast Asia, with contributions from scholars from Japan, Korea and the Englishspeaking academic world. The new scholarship represented by this volume demonstrates that the vast and growing commercial interactions between the countries of eastern Asia have long historical roots. The so-called "opening" to Western trade in the mid-nineteenth century, which is typically seen as the beginning of this process, is shown to be rather the reversal of a relatively temporary phase of state consolidation in the long eighteenth century.
 Paolo Brandimarte, "Numerical Methods in Finance and Economics: A MATLAB-Based Introduction, 2nd Edition" English | 2006 | ISBN: 0471745030 | 696 pages | PDF | 33 MB A state-of-the-art introduction to the powerful mathematical and statistical tools used in the field of finance  Steven Karris, "Numerical Analysis Using MATLAB and Spreadsheets, 2nd Edition" English | 2003 | ISBN: 0970951116 | 570 pages | True PDF | 4.63 MB Numerical analysis is the branch of mathematics that is used to find approximations to difficult problems such as finding the roots of non-linear equations, integration involving complex expressions and solving differential equations for which analytical solutions do not exist. It is applied to a wide variety of disciplines such as business, all fields of engineering, computer science, education, geology, meteorology, and others. This book is written primarily for students/readers who have a good background of high-school algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and the fundamentals of differential and integral calculus. A prior knowledge of differential equations is desirable but not necessary; this topic is reviewed in Chapter 5. Chapter 1 is an introduction to MATLAB. The discussion is based on MATLAB Student Version 5 and it is also applicable to Version 6. Chapter 2 discusses root approximations by numerical methods. Chapter 3 is a review of sinusoids and complex numbers. Chapter 4 is an introduction to matrices and methods of solving simultaneous algebraic equations using Excel and MATLAB. Chapter 5 is an abbreviated, yet practical introduction to differential equations, state variables, state equations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Chapter 6 discusses the Taylor and Maclaurin series. Chapter 7 begins with finite differences and interpolation methods. It concludes with applications using MATLAB. Chapter 8 is an introduction to linear and parabolic regression. Chapters 9 and 10 discuss numerical methods for differentiation and integration respectively. Chapter 11 is a brief introduction to difference equations with a few practical applications. Chapters 12 is devoted to partial fraction expansion. Chapters 13, 14, and 15 discuss certain interesting functions that find wide application in science, engineering, and probability. This text concludes with Chapter 16 which discusses three popular optimization methods.  Now You Know Extreme Weather: The Little Book of Answers By Doug Lennox 2007 | 96 Pages | ISBN: 1550027433 | PDF | 3 MB "When it rains, it pours," especially when it comes to best-selling author Doug Lennox's Now You Know Extreme Weather . Global warming, killer hurricanes, murderous tornadoes, melting permafrost -- weather concerns us all, and now with this tightly packed compenium of questions and answers, everyone can get the lowdown on things like: What makes a perfect storm perfect? Where's the world's hottest place? Why was Hurricane Katrina so destructive?  Nonlinear Optimization: Models and Applications (Textbooks in Mathematics) by William P. Fox English | 2021 | ISBN: 0367444151 | 417 Pages | PDF | 14 MB |
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