National Society of Film Critics dares to go where few mainstream critics have gone before-to the heart of what gets the colored lights going, as they say in A Streetcar Named Desire. Here is their take on the films that quicken their (and our) pulses-an enterprise both risky and risque, an entertaining overview of the most arousing films Hollywood has every produced. But make no mistake about it: This isn't a collection of esoteric "critic's choice" movies. The films reflect individual taste, rubbing against the grain of popular wisdom. And, because of the personal nature of the erotic forces at play, these essays will reveal more about the individual critics than perhaps they have revealed thus far to their readers. The Society is a world-renowned, marquee-name organization embracing some of America's most distinguished critics, more than forty writers who have followings nationally as well as devoted local constituencies in such major cities as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Minneapolis.Yes, The X List will have something for every lover of film-and for every lover.

Rune What kind of crazy person doesn’t read? Apparently my new neighbour. She’s loud, sassy, flirty and infuriatingly, annoyingly cheerful. And a non-reader. The worst kind of human. So why is that when I dare her to enter the charity read-a-thon, I suddenly find myself carefully curating her list? And those books… they’re definitely not your momma’s romance. Gabby I’m used to people underestimating me. Normally I can brush it off with a laugh. But Rune? He gets under my skin. So when he makes an off-handed comment that a non-reader like me shouldn’t bother with the town’s charity event, I can’t help but accept the challenge. Only these books are not what I remember from the school book list. Not. Even. Close. And Rune? Well I’m beginning to see him in a new light. Or, should I say, hear him? Warning: This sexy little number is inspired by hot books, men who read, and a slight exhibitionist tease. Get thee a man who knows how to handle you between the covers, and settle in — this steamy read will have you begging for more.

The National Society of Film Critics dares to go where no mainstream critics have gone before. Here is their take on the films that quicken their pulses, an entertaining overview of the most arousing films Hollywood has ever produced.

Molly I'd always assumed I'd end up marrying and having a family. But it's not until my best friends announce their engagement that I realize I'm stuck in a rut. A really deep dating rut. If I want that family? It's not gonna fall into my lap. So, what's a girl to do? Shake off her blues, dust off her heels, and try and win herself a man. My only issue? Joshua Greenfeld. My best friends' older brother. Josh seems determined to derail my plans. And to be honest, I don't hate his efforts... Josh Molly has always been my one. The girl who got away. The beauty that I never took a chance on. Mostly because she was in love with my brother. Or so I thought. When I find out she's dating I decide to seize my chance. And this time? I'm not kidding around. Warning: This fluffy piece is filled with dating disasters, a Bridezilla best friend, and a man with a library to rival any fairy tale. So, get thee a man and settle in - this love story is no joking matter.

The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the heart of a child named Gloriously Bright. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way, a second xenocide seems inevitable. Xenocide is the third novel in Orson Scott Card's The Ender Saga. THE ENDER UNIVERSE Ender series Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind Ender’s Shadow series Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight Children of the Fleet The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) The Swarm /The Hive Ender novellas A War of Gifts /First Meetings At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A leading economist answers one of today’s trickiest questions: Why do some great ideas make it big while others fail to take off? “Brilliant, practical, and grounded in the very latest research, this is by far the best book I’ve ever read on the how and why of scaling.”—Angela Duckworth, CEO of Character Lab and New York Times bestselling author of Grit ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Men’s Journal “Scale” has become a favored buzzword in the startup world. But scale isn't just about accumulating more users or capturing more market share. It's about whether an idea that takes hold in a small group can do the same in a much larger one—whether you’re growing a small business, rolling out a diversity and inclusion program, or delivering billions of doses of a vaccine. Translating an idea into widespread impact, says University of Chicago economist John A. List, depends on one thing only: whether it can achieve “high voltage”—the ability to be replicated at scale. In The Voltage Effect, List explains that scalable ideas share a common set of attributes, while any number of attributes can doom an unscalable idea. Drawing on his original research, as well as fascinating examples from the realms of business, policymaking, education, and public health, he identifies five measurable vital signs that a scalable idea must possess, and offers proven strategies for avoiding voltage drops and engineering voltage gains. You’ll learn: • How celebrity chef Jamie Oliver expanded his restaurant empire by focusing on scalable “ingredients” (until it collapsed because talent doesn’t scale) • Why the failure to detect false positives early on caused the Reagan-era drug-prevention program to backfire at scale • How governments could deliver more services to more citizens if they focused on the last dollar spent • How one education center leveraged positive spillovers to narrow the achievement gap across the entire community • Why the right set of incentives, applied at scale, can boost voter turnout, increase clean energy use, encourage patients to consistently take their prescribed medication, and more. By understanding the science of scaling, we can drive change in our schools, workplaces, communities, and society at large. Because a better world can only be built at scale.

A thrilling new story featuring Gregg Hurwitz's New York Times bestselling Orphan X! Joey Morales was the last recruit of the government's full black operation, the Orphan Program. Trained to be an assassin until she washed out, she was rescued by Evan Smoak, the former agent known as Orphan X. Now Joey, still a teenager and under the watchful eye of Evan Smoak, lives on her own (with Dog the dog) and attends college. While on campus, she tries to stop a young woman's suicide attempt - and fails. Then Joey uncovers the reason for Becca Morgan's desperate act - a document called The List, which ranks and rates women around campus based on their sexual appeal and performance. Determined to find the boys behind The List, the ones whose callous acts drove Becca Morgan to suicide, Joey recruits the help of her mentor, Orphan X, and uses all her skills to uncover and expose the ones responsible. Usually working from the shadows, Joey has to put herself on the line and in harm's way this time to not just avenge the dead but to protect the rest of the women who are targets of the hidden cabal behind The List.

TO COMPUTER GRAPHICS BASED ONGKS Part I gives an introduction to basic concepts of computer graph ics and to the principles and concepts of GKS. The aims of this part are twofold: to provide the beginner with an overview of the terminology and concepts of computer graphics, based on GKS, and to give the computer graphics expert an introduc tion to the GKS standard. In the early chapters of this part, the main areas of computer graphics, the various classes of com puter graphics users, the interfaces of GKS and its underlying design concepts are discussed and important terms are defined. The later chapters give an informal introduction to the main concepts of GKS and their interrelationships: output, attributes, coordinate systems, transformations, input, segments, metafile, state lists, and error handling. This introduction to the GKS framework will prepare the ground for the detailed description of 2D GKS functions in Part III and the 3D extensions to GKS in Part IV. 1 WHAT IS COMPUTER GRAPHICS? 1. 1 Defmition of Computer Graphics The Data Processing Vocabulary of the International Organization for Stan dardization (ISO) [ISO 84] defines Computer Graphics as follows: "Methods and techniques for converting data to and from a graphic display via computer. " This definition refers to three basic components of any computer graphics system - namely "data", "computer", and "display".

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications, ADMA 2014, held in Guilin, China during December 2014. The 48 regular papers and 10 workshop papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. They deal with the following topics: data mining, social network and social media, recommend systems, database, dimensionality reduction, advance machine learning techniques, classification, big data and applications, clustering methods, machine learning, and data mining and database.