Design, build, and publish an iOS game from scratch using the stunning features of iOS 9 About This Book Create storyboards in Xcode from concept to code and designChalk out your game’s overall navigation and structureWork with 2D and 3D game development toolsWho This Book Is ForThis book is intended for game developers who wish to develop 2D and 3D games for iPhone and iPad. If you are a developer from another platform, or game engine such as Android or Unity, a current iOS developer wishing to learn more about Swift and the latest features of iOS 9, or even if you are new to game development, then this book is for you. Some prior programming knowledge is recommended, but not required.What You Will LearnFamiliarise yourself with both basic and advanced Swift game development codeUnderstand the structure and flow of a typical iOS appWork with the SpriteKit framework to make 2D games, sprites, and overlaysDiscover 3D game development with SceneKitVisually design levels and game assets with XCode 7’s latest featuresExplore the concept of component-based structuring with iOS 9’s GameplaykitBeta test and publish your game with iTunes ConnectIn DetailGame development has always been a combination of programming and art, and mobile game development is no exception to this rule. The iOS platform has been both a staple in the ever-growing mobile game market, as well as a launching point for many game developers (hobby and career-wise). The features and frameworks available in iOS 9 continue to cater to the synergy of design and computer engineering, using tools that allow developers to take a game idea from concept to application in record time.Whether you are new to iOS and game development as a whole, or are an experienced programmer wanting to learn the latest features of the platform, iOS 9 Game Development Essentials will provide you with crucial insight into this widely used platform.Starting with the Swift programming language, this book gets the ball rolling with code concepts and game-centric code samples right from the get-go, giving you get a solid understanding of Apple’s cutting-edge programming language. The book takes you through iOS game development concepts and introduces the various frameworks that allow you to develop robust, reusable, and intelligent game components in both 2D and 3D game environments.Style and approachThis book is a step-by-step guide into the code and concepts of iOS apps. Each chapter contains diagrams that showcase the features of the platform, along with code samples from Apple and code samples exclusive to this book.

Expand your knowledge of computer vision by building amazing projects with OpenCV 3About This BookBuild computer vision projects to capture high-quality image data, detect and track objects, process the actions of humans or animals, and much moreDiscover practical and interesting innovations in computer vision while building atop a mature open-source library, OpenCV 3Familiarize yourself with multiple approaches and theories wherever critical decisions need to be madeWho This Book Is ForThis book is ideal for you if you aspire to build computer vision systems that are smarter, faster, more complex, and more practical than the competition. This is an advanced book intended for those who already have some experience in setting up an OpenCV development environment and building applications with OpenCV. You should be comfortable with computer vision concepts, object-oriented programming, graphics programming, IDEs, and the command line.What You Will LearnSelect and configure camera systems to see invisible light, fast motion, and distant objectsBuild a “camera trap”, as used by nature photographers, and process photos to create beautiful effectsDevelop a facial expression recognition system with various feature extraction techniques and machine learning methodsBuild a panorama Android application using the OpenCV stitching module in C++ with NDK supportOptimize your object detection model, make it rotation invariant, and apply scene-specific constraints to make it faster and more robustCreate a person identification and registration system based on biometric properties of that person, such as their fingerprint, iris, and faceFuse data from videos and gyroscopes to stabilize videos shot from your mobile phone and create hyperlapse style videosIn DetailComputer vision is becoming accessible to a large audience of software developers who can leverage mature libraries such as OpenCV. However, as they move beyond their first experiments in computer vision, developers may struggle to ensure that their solutions are sufficiently well optimized, well trained, robust, and adaptive in real-world conditions. With sufficient knowledge of OpenCV, these developers will have enough confidence to go about creating projects in the field of computer vision.This book will help you tackle increasingly challenging computer vision problems that you may face in your careers. It makes use of OpenCV 3 to work around some interesting projects. Inside these pages, you will find practical and innovative approaches that are battle-tested in the authors’ industry experience and research. Each chapter covers the theory and practice of multiple complementary approaches so that you will be able to choose wisely in your future projects. You will also gain insights into the architecture and algorithms that underpin OpenCV’s functionality.We begin by taking a critical look at inputs in order to decide which kinds of light, cameras, lenses, and image formats are best suited to a given purpose. We proceed to consider the finer aspects of computational photography as we build an automated camera to assist nature photographers. You will gain a deep understanding of some of the most widely applicable and reliable techniques in object detection, feature selection, tracking, and even biometric recognition. We will also build Android projects in which we explore the complexities of camera motion: first in panoramic image stitching and then in video stabilization.By the end of the book, you will have a much richer understanding of imaging, motion, machine learning, and the architecture of computer vision libraries and applications!Style and approachThis book covers a combination of theory and practice. We examine blueprints for specific projects and discuss the principles behind these blueprints, in detail.

Master the ABCs while enjoying your favorite nursery rhymes in this beautifully illustrated collection. Based in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

From A to Z, young readers will learn different words that begin with each letter. Based in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

Learn about modes of transportation, but don’t forget that it’s fun and healthy to walk sometimes, too! Based in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

Teaching children the colors is as easy as reading together. Based in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

QWhat do you want to be when you grow upBased in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

Learn the colors of the rainbow through the lyrical, rhyming text. Based in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

Go ‘round and ‘round all through town with the children on the bus! Based in Stow, Ohio, Twin Sisters Productions has been dedicated to producing quality educational and inspirational music resources for over 25 years. Fraternal twins Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson founded the company when they realized Kim’s success teaching third grade math through her catchy multiplication song could help children beyond her classroom. From there, Twin Sisters expanded its product line to include e-books, digital music, CDs, read-along and sing-along books, floor puzzles and educational workbooks, all with the purpose of learning through music. These internationally sold products have received nearly 170 awards, including nine Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold albums and one Platinum albu, over the years for excellence, creativity and amusement. With thousands of songs and 35 million albums sold, Twin Sisters positions itself as the leader in children’s educational music.

In this latest book, renowned philosopher and scholar Robert B. Pippin offers the thought-provoking argument that the study of historical figures is not only an interpretation and explication of their views, but can be understood as a form of philosophy itself. In doing so, he reconceives philosophical scholarship as a kind of network of philosophical interanimations, one in which major positions in the history of philosophy, when they are themselves properly understood within their own historical context, form philosophy's lingua franca. Examining a number of philosophers to explore the nature of this interanimation, he presents an illuminating assortment of especially thoughtful examples of historical commentary that powerfully enact philosophy.After opening up his territory with an initial discussion of contemporary revisionist readings of Kant's moral theory, Pippin sets his sights on his main objects of interest: Hegel and Nietzsche. Through them, however, he offers what few others could: an astonishing synthesis of an immense and diverse set of thinkers and traditions. Deploying an almost dialogical, conversational approach, he pursues patterns of thought that both shape and, importantly, connect the major traditions: neo-Aristotelian, analytic, continental, and postmodern, bringing the likes of Heidegger, Honneth, MacIntyre, McDowell, Brandom, Strauss, Williams, and A iA ek-not to mention Hegel and Nietzsche- into the same philosophical conversation.By means of these case studies, Pippin mounts an impressive argument about a relatively under discussed issue in professional philosophy-the bearing of work in the history of philosophy on philosophy itself-and thereby he argues for the controversial thesis that no strict separation between the domains is defensible.

A heated debate is raging over our nation's public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public education?altogether with a voucher system for private schools. Combining decades of experience in education, the authors propose an innovative approach to solving the problems of our school system and find a middle ground between these extremes.Reinventing Public Education shows how contracting would radically change the way we operate our schools, while keeping them public and accessible to all, and making them better able to meet standards of achievement and equity. Using public funds, local school boards would select private providers to operate individual schools under formal contracts specifying the type and quality of instruction.In a hands-on, concrete fashion, the authors provide a thorough explanation of the pros and cons of school contracting and how it would work in practice. They show how contracting would free local school boards from operating schools so they can focus on improving educational policy; how it would allow parents to choose the best school for their children; and, finally, how it would ensure that schools are held accountable and academic standards are met.While retaining a strong public role in education, contracting enables schools to be more imaginative, adaptable, and suited to the needs of children and families. In presenting an alternative vision for America's schools, Reinventing Public Education is too important to be ignored.

How does globalization workFocusing on Latin America, Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth show that exports of expertise and ideals from the United States to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico have played a crucial role in transforming their state forms and economies since World War II.Based on more than 300 extensive interviews with major players in governments, foundations, law firms, universities, and think tanks, Dezalay and Garth examine both the production of northern exports such as neoliberal economics and international human rights law and the ways they are received south of the United States. They find that the content of what is exported and how it fares are profoundly shaped by domestic struggles for power and influence-"e;palace wars"e;-in the nations involved. For instance, challenges to the eastern intellectual establishment influenced the Reagan-era export of University of Chicago-style neoliberal economics to Chile, where it enjoyed a warm reception from Pinochet and his allies because they could use it to discredit the previous regime.Innovative and sophisticated, The Internationalization of Palace Wars offers much needed concrete information about the transnational processes that shape our world.

Frozen mammals of the Ice Age, preserved for millennia in the tundra, have been a source of fascination and mystery since their first discovery over two centuries ago. These mummies, their ecology, and their preservation are the subject of this compelling book by paleontologist Dale Guthrie. The 1979 find of a frozen, extinct steppe bison in an Alaskan gold mine allowed him to undertake the first scientific excavation of an Ice Age mummy in North America and to test theories about these enigmatic frozen fauna.The 36,000-year-old bison mummy, coated with blue mineral crystals, was dubbed "e;Blue Babe."e; Guthrie conveys the excitement of its excavation and shows how he made use of evidence from living animals, other Pleistocene mummies, Paleolithic art, and geological data. With photographs and scores?of detailed drawings, he takes the reader through the excavation and subsequent detective work, analyzing the animal's carcass and its surroundings, the circumstances of its death, its appearance in life, the landscape it inhabited, and the processes of preservation by freezing. His examination shows that Blue Babe died in early winter, falling prey to lions that inhabited the Arctic during the Pleistocene era.Guthrie uses information gleaned from his study of Blue Babe to provide a broad picture of bison evolutionary history and ecology, including speculations on the interactions of bison and Ice Age peoples. His de*ion of the Mammoth Steppe as a cold, dry, grassy plain is based on an entirely new way of reading the fossil record.

Greater Ethiopia combines history, anthropology, and sociology to answer two major questions. Why did Ethiopia remain independent under the onslaught of European expansionism while other African political entities were colonizedAnd why must Ethiopia be considered a single cultural region despite its political, religious, and linguistic diversity?Donald Levine's interdisciplinary study makes a substantial contribution both to Ethiopian interpretive history and to sociological analysis. In his new preface, Levine examines Ethiopia since the overthrow of the monarchy in the 1970s."e;Ethiopian scholarship is in Professor Levine's debt. . . . He has performed an important task with panache, urbanity, and learning."e;-Edward Ullendorff, Times Literary Supplement"e;Upon rereading this book, it strikes the reader how broad in scope, how innovative in approach, and how stimulating in arguments this book was when it came out. . . . In the past twenty years it has inspired anthropological and historical research, stimulated theoretical debate about Ethiopia's cultural and historical development, and given the impetus to modern political thinking about the complexities and challenges of Ethiopia as a country. The text thus easily remains an absolute must for any Ethiopianist scholar to read and digest."e;-J. Abbink, Journal of Modern African Studies

Behemoth, or The Long Parliament is essential to any reader interested in the historical context of the thought of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). In De Cive (1642) and Leviathan (1651), the great political philosopher had developed an analytical framework for discussing sedition, rebellion, and the breakdown of authority. Behemoth, completed around 1668 and not published until after Hobbe's death, represents the systematic application of this framework to the English Civil War.In his insightful and substantial Introduction, Stephen Holmes examines the major themes and implications of Behemoth in Hobbes's system of thought. Holmes notes that a fresh consideration of Behemoth dispels persistent misreadings of Hobbes, including the idea that man is motivated solely by a desire for self-preservation. Behemoth, which is cast as a series of dialogues between a teacher and his pupil, locates the principal cause of the Civil War less in economic interests than in the stubborn irrationality of key actors. It also shows more vividly than any of Hobbe's other works the importance of religion in his theories of human nature and behavior.

Brown in the Windy City?is the first history to examine the migration and settlement of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in postwar Chicago. Lilia Fernndez reveals how the two populations arrived in Chicago in the midst of tremendous social and economic change and, in spite of declining industrial employment and massive urban renewal projects, managed to carve out a geographic and racial place in one of America's great cities. Through their experiences in the city's central neighborhoods over the course of these three decades, Fernndez demonstrates how Mexicans and Puerto Ricans collectively articulated a distinct racial position in Chicago, one that was flexible and fluid, neither black nor white.?

The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license, elegance, beauty, and unruliness. What then to make of the cortigiana onesta-the honest courtesan who recast virtue as intellectual integrity and offered wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public lifeVeronica Franco (1546-1591) was such a woman, a writer and citizen of Venice, whose published poems and familiar letters offer rich testimony to the complexity of the honest courtesan's position.Margaret F. Rosenthal draws a compelling portrait of Veronica Franco in her cultural social, and economic world. Rosenthal reveals in Franco's writing a passionate support of defenseless women, strong convictions about inequality, and, in the eroticized language of her epistolary verses, the seductive political nature of all poetic contests. It is Veronica Franco's insight into the power conflicts between men and women-and her awareness of the threat she posed to her male contemporaries-that makes her literary works and her dealings with Venetian intellectuals so pertinent today.Combining the resources of biography, history, literary theory, and cultural criticism, this sophisticated interdisciplinary work presents an eloquent and often moving account of one woman's life as an act of self-creation and as a complex response to social forces and cultural conditions."e;A book . . . pleasurably redolent of Venice in the 16th-century. Rosenthal gives a vivid sense of a world of salons and coteries, of intricate networks of family and patronage, and of literary exchanges both intellectual and erotic."e;-Helen Hackett, Times Higher Education SupplementThe Honest Courtesan is the basis for the film Dangerous Beauty (1998) directed by Marshall Herskovitz. (The film was re-titled The Honest Courtesan for release in the UK and Europe in 1999.)

Set in nineteenth-century rural Africa, Fiela's Child tells the gripping story of Fiela Komoetie and a white, three-year old child, Benjamin, whom she finds crying on her doorstep. For nine years Fiela raises Benjamin as one of her own children. But when census takers discover Benjamin, they send him to an illiterate white family of woodcutters who claim him as their son. What follows is Benjamin's search for his identity and the fundamental changes affecting the white and black families who claim him."e;Everything a novel can be: convincing, thought-provoking, upsetting, unforgettable, and timeless."e;-Grace Ingoldby, New Statesman"e;Fiela's Child is a parade that broadens and humanizes our understanding of the conflicts still affecting South Africa today."e;-Francis Levy, New York Times Book Review"e;A powerful creation of time and place with dark threads of destiny and oppression and its roots in the almost Biblical soil of a storyteller's art."e;-Christopher Wordsworth, The Guardian"e;The characters in the novel live and breathe; and the landscape is so brightly painted that the trees, birds, elephants, and rivers of old South Africa are characters themselves. A book not to miss."e;-Kirkus Reviews

This first hand report on the work of nurses and other caregivers in a nursing home is set powerfully in the context of wider political, economic, and cultural forces that shape and constrain the quality of care for America's elderly. Diamond demonstrates in a compelling way the price that business-as-usual policies extract from the elderly as well as those whose work it is to care for them.In a society in which some two million people live in 16,000 nursing homes, with their numbers escalating daily, this thought-provoking work demands immediate and widespread attention."e;[An] unnerving portrait of what it's like to work and live in a nursing home. . . . By giving voice to so many unheard residents and workers Diamond has performed an important service for us all."e;-Diane Cole, New York Newsday"e;With Making Gray Gold, Timothy Diamond describes the commodification of long-term care in the most vivid representation in a decade of round-the-clock institutional life. . . . A personal addition to the troublingly impersonal national debate over healthcare reform."e;-Madonna Harrington Meyer, Contemporary Sociology

In Freedom and the End of Reason, Richard L. Velkley offers an influential interpretation of the central issue of Kant's philosophy and an evaluation of its position within modern philosophy's larger history. He persuasively argues that the whole of Kantianism-not merely the Second Critique-focuses on a "e;critique of practical reason"e; and is a response to a problem that Kant saw as intrinsic to reason itself: the teleological problem of its goodness. Reconstructing the influence of Rousseau on Kant's thought, Velkley demonstrates that the relationship between speculative philosophy and practical philosophy in Kant is far more intimate than generally has been perceived. By stressing a Rousseau-inspired notion of reason as a provider of practical ends, he is able to offer an unusually complete account of Kant's idea of moral culture.

Little magazines have often showcased the best new writing in America. Historically, these idiosyncratic, small-circulation outlets have served the dual functions of representing the avant-garde of literary expression while also helping many emerging writers become established authors. Although changing technology and the increasingly harsh financial realities of publishing over the past three decades would seem to have pushed little magazines to the brink of extinction, their story is far more complicated.In this collection, Ian Morris and Joanne Diaz gather the reflections of twenty-three prominent editors whose little magazines have flourished over the past thirty-five years. Highlighting the creativity and innovation driving this diverse and still vital medium, contributors offer insights into how their publications sometimes succeeded, sometimes reluctantly folded, but mostly how they evolved and persevered. Other topics discussed include the role of little magazines in promoting the work and concerns of minority and women writers, the place of universities in supporting and shaping little magazines, and the online and offline future of these publications.Selected contributorsBetsy Sussler, BOMB; Lee Gutkind, Creative Nonfiction; Bruce Andrews, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E; Dave Eggers, McSweeney's; Keith Gessen, n+1; Don Share, Poetry; Jane Friedman, VQR; Amy Hoffman, Women's Review of Books; and more.?