This 54th edition of the Society of Illustrators Annual represents the very best work created throughout the year. These volumes have been collected and treasured for decades by those interested in the art of illustration, and are not only an invaluable source for art buyers, but also keep professional artists abreast of current trends and serve as inspirational teaching tools for art students and those entering the field.Highlights include: Revealing commentary by individual artists describing the creative process behind their works. Gold and Silver Medal winners in seven categories. Biographies of the artists elected to the prestigious Illustrators Hall of Fame, along with examples of their work. Profiles of the Hamilton King Award and the Richard Gangel Art Director Award winners.

City Parks illuminates the spirit and beauty of the world's most loved city parks: an extraordinary visual and poetic journey from London to Brooklyn, Calcutta to Chicago, and Paris to San Francisco, captured in breathtaking photographs and the evocative words of celebrated writers and personalities.

This first-ever book of its kind, Designing for the Greater Good, features hundreds of illustrated examples of the best nonprofit and cause-related design worldwide, plus 24 inspiring case studies and insights into great nonprofit branding campaigns. A comprehensive resource for designers, creative professionals, marketers, corporate communications departments and nonprofit leaders, this book showcases work from a variety of sectors including Family and Community, Animal Causes, Health, Human Rights, Environmental Awareness, Spirituality, and the Arts. The 24 case studies feature interviews with the designers for such campaigns as the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, The Hurricane Katrina Poster Project and Get London Reading. Materials presented in Designing for the Greater Good include: cause-specific campaigns and case studies; logos and branding for nonprofits; websites, posters, brochures, advertising, and marketing materials for cause-related events and nonprofits; packaging; invitations for fundraisers and events.

Master the art of making Docker more extensible, composable, and modular by leveraging plugins and other supporting tools About This Book Get the first book on the market that shows you how to extend the capabilities of Docker using plugins and third-party tools Master the skills of creating various plugins and integrating great tools in order to enhance the functionalities of Docker A practical and learning guide that ensures your investment in Docker becomes more valuable Who This Book Is For This book is for developers and sys admins who are well versed Docker and have knowledge on basic programming languages. If you can’t wait to extend Docker and customize it to meet your requirements, this is the book for you! What You Will Learn Find out about Docker plugins and the problems they solve Gain insights into creating your own plugin Use Docker tools to extend the basic functionality of the core Docker engine Get to grips with the installation and configuration of third-party tools available to use with Docker plugins Install, configure, and use a scheduling service to manage the containers in your environment Enhance your day-to-day Docker usage through security, troubleshooting, and best practices In Detail With Docker, it is possible to get a lot of apps running on the same old servers, making it very easy to package and ship programs. The ability to extend Docker using plugins and load third-party plugins is incredible, and organizations can massively benefit from it. In this book, you will read about what first and third party tools are available to extend the functionality of your existing Docker installation and how to approach your next Docker infrastructure deployment. We will show you how to work with Docker plugins, install it, and cover its lifecycle. We also cover network and volume plugins, and you will find out how to build your own plugin. You’ll discover how to integrate it with Puppet, Ansible, Jenkins, Flocker, Rancher, Packer, and more with third-party plugins. Then, you’ll see how to use Schedulers such as Kubernetes and Amazon ECS. Finally, we’ll delve into security, troubleshooting, and best practices when extending Docker. By the end of this book, you will learn how to extend Docker and customize it based on your business requirements with the help of various tools and plugins. Style and approach An easy to follow guide with plenty of hands-on practical examples which can be executed both on your local machine or externally hosted services.

Get to grips with 3D printing and learn to model designs using Blender About This Book From the author who brought you the first practical look at 3D printing with 3D Printing Blueprints Get a comprehensive coverage of the prototyping techniques you need to know to start printing your own 3D designs Rekindle your mathematical genius to design personalized objects for complex puzzles Who This Book Is For If you’re new to the world of 3D printing, this is the book for you. Some basic knowledge of Blender and geometry would be helpful, but is not necessary. What You Will Learn Get to know about the different types of 3D printers and their limitations See how Y, H, and T shapes illustrate different ideas of successful 3D design for home 3D printers Set up and configure Blender to model a file for 3D printing Understand material characteristics, printing specifications, tolerances, and design tips Work through the techniques of editing complex meshes, smoothing, combining shapes, and exporting them into STL files for printing Break down complex geometries into multiple simple shapes and model them in layers using Blender Design, manipulate, and export 3D models for 3D printing with Blender Master the art of creating meshes, scaling, subdivision, and adding detail with the Boolean modifier as well as sculpting a custom shape Cut a model into small pieces and understand how to design complex interlocking joints that form a part of a jigsaw puzzle In Detail 3D printing has revolutionized the way that global industries conceptualize and design products for mass consumption. Considered as the next “trillion-dollar” business, every industry is in the race to equip its personnel with techniques to prototype and simplify complex manufacturing process. This book will take you through some simple to complex and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. There is a comprehensive coverage of projects such as a 3D print-ready octopus pencil holder, which will teach you how to add basic geometric shapes, and use techniques such as extruding and subdividing to transform these shapes into complex meshes. Furthermore, you’ll learn to use various techniques to derive measurements for an object, model these objects using Blender, organize the parts into layers, and later combine them to create the desired object with the help of a 3D printable SD card holder ring design project. The final project will help you master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. Through the course of the book, we'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender to create objects. You’ll move, rotate, and scale the object, and manipulate the view. You’ll edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. By the end of the book, you will have gained thorough practical hands-on experience to be able to create a real-world 3D printable object of your choice. Style and approach This is a hands-on guide to the world of 3D printing. With the help of simple to complex projects, you'll learn various techniques to design 3D printable objects using Blender.

Master the art of building analytical models using R About This Book Load, wrangle, and analyze your data using the world's most powerful statistical programming language Build and customize publication-quality visualizations of powerful and stunning R graphs Develop key skills and techniques with R to create and customize data mining algorithms Use R to optimize your trading strategy and build up your own risk management system Discover how to build machine learning algorithms, prepare data, and dig deep into data prediction techniques with R Who This Book Is For This course is for data scientist or quantitative analyst who are looking at learning R and take advantage of its powerful analytical design framework. It’s a seamless journey in becoming a full-stack R developer. What You Will Learn Describe and visualize the behavior of data and relationships between data Gain a thorough understanding of statistical reasoning and sampling Handle missing data gracefully using multiple imputation Create diverse types of bar charts using the default R functions Familiarize yourself with algorithms written in R for spatial data mining, text mining, and so on Understand relationships between market factors and their impact on your portfolio Harness the power of R to build machine learning algorithms with real-world data science applications Learn specialized machine learning techniques for text mining, big data, and more In Detail The R learning path created for you has five connected modules, which are a mini-course in their own right. As you complete each one, you'll have gained key skills and be ready for the material in the next module! This course begins by looking at the Data Analysis with R module. This will help you navigate the R environment. You'll gain a thorough understanding of statistical reasoning and sampling. Finally, you'll be able to put best practices into effect to make your job easier and facilitate reproducibility. The second place to explore is R Graphs, which will help you leverage powerful default R graphics and utilize advanced graphics systems such as lattice and ggplot2, the grammar of graphics. You'll learn how to produce, customize, and publish advanced visualizations using this popular and powerful framework. With the third module, Learning Data Mining with R, you will learn how to manipulate data with R using code snippets and be introduced to mining frequent patterns, association, and correlations while working with R programs. The Mastering R for Quantitative Finance module pragmatically introduces both the quantitative finance concepts and their modeling in R, enabling you to build a tailor-made trading system on your own. By the end of the module, you will be well-versed with various financial techniques using R and will be able to place good bets while making financial decisions. Finally, we'll look at the Machine Learning with R module. With this module, you'll discover all the analytical tools you need to gain insights from complex data and learn how to choose the correct algorithm for your specific needs. You'll also learn to apply machine learning methods to deal with common tasks, including classification, prediction, forecasting, and so on. Style and approach Learn data analysis, data visualization techniques, data mining, and machine learning all using R and also learn to build models in quantitative finance using this powerful language.

Advance your skills in efficient data analysis and data processing using the powerful tools of Scala, Spark, and Hadoop About This Book This is a primer on functional-programming-style techniques to help you efficiently process and analyze all of your data Get acquainted with the best and newest tools available such as Scala, Spark, Parquet and MLlib for machine learning Learn the best practices to incorporate new Big Data machine learning in your data-driven enterprise to gain future scalability and maintainability Who This Book Is For Mastering Scala Machine Learning is intended for enthusiasts who want to plunge into the new pool of emerging techniques for machine learning. Some familiarity with standard statistical techniques is required. What You Will Learn Sharpen your functional programming skills in Scala using REPL Apply standard and advanced machine learning techniques using Scala Get acquainted with Big Data technologies and grasp why we need a functional approach to Big Data Discover new data structures, algorithms, approaches, and habits that will allow you to work effectively with large amounts of data Understand the principles of supervised and unsupervised learning in machine learning Work with unstructured data and serialize it using Kryo, Protobuf, Avro, and AvroParquet Construct reliable and robust data pipelines and manage data in a data-driven enterprise Implement scalable model monitoring and alerts with Scala In Detail Since the advent of object-oriented programming, new technologies related to Big Data are constantly popping up on the market. One such technology is Scala, which is considered to be a successor to Java in the area of Big Data by many, like Java was to C/C++ in the area of distributed programing. This book aims to take your knowledge to next level and help you impart that knowledge to build advanced applications such as social media mining, intelligent news portals, and more. After a quick refresher on functional programming concepts using REPL, you will see some practical examples of setting up the development environment and tinkering with data. We will then explore working with Spark and MLlib using k-means and decision trees. Most of the data that we produce today is unstructured and raw, and you will learn to tackle this type of data with advanced topics such as regression, classification, integration, and working with graph algorithms. Finally, you will discover at how to use Scala to perform complex concept analysis, to monitor model performance, and to build a model repository. By the end of this book, you will have gained expertise in performing Scala machine learning and will be able to build complex machine learning projects using Scala. Style and approach This hands-on guide dives straight into implementing Scala for machine learning without delving much into mathematical proofs or validations. There are ample code examples and tricks that will help you sail through using the standard techniques and libraries. This book provides practical examples from the field on how to correctly tackle data analysis problems, particularly for modern Big Data datasets.

Leverage frontend development skills to build impressive iOS and Android applications with React Native About This Book Apply flexbox to get layout and build rich animations that bring your React Native application to life Integrate third-party libraries and develop customized components that run natively on iOS and Android platforms Combine React Native with Redux, Redux middleware, and a remote API to build scalable data-driven applications Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants to build cross-platform native mobile applications using only JavaScript and the React Native framework. In particular, this book is especially useful for front-end developers who want to use their current skillset to build mobile applications. An existing working knowledge of JavaScript will help you get the most out of this book. What You Will Learn Implement native React Native components and APIs Explore React’s JSX syntax Manage data using Redux and Redux middleware Build applications with React Native on both iOS and Android platforms Perform animations in your applications using the animation APIs Understand routing and Navigator comparison Create your own Native module In Detail React Native has completely revolutionized mobile development by empowering JavaScript developers to build world-class mobile apps that run natively on mobile platforms. This book will show you how to apply JavaScript and other front-end skills to build cross-platform React Native applications for iOS and Android using a single codebase. This book will provide you with all the React Native building blocks necessary to become an expert. We’ll give you a brief explanation of the numerous native components and APIs that come bundled with React Native including Images, Views, ListViews, WebViews, and much more. You will learn to utilize form inputs in React Native. You’ll get an overview of Facebook’s Flux data architecture and then apply Redux to manage data with a remote API. You will also learn to animate different parts of your application, as well as routing using React Native’s navigation APIs. By the end of the book, you will be able to build cutting-edge applications using the React Native framework. Style and approach This comprehensive guide will take your React Native skills to the next level. It shows you how to develop a clear workflow to build scalable applications, and how to implement the architectural concepts covered to build applications that shine in the real world.

Learn everything you need to know about object-oriented JavaScript with this comprehensive guide. Enter the world of cutting-edge development! About This Book This book has been updated to cover all the new object-oriented features introduced in ECMAScript 6 It makes object-oriented programming accessible and understandable to web developers Write better and more maintainable JavaScript code while exploring interactive examples that can be used in your own *s Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for new to intermediate JavaScript developers who want to prepare themselves for web development problems solved by object-oriented JavaScript! What You Will Learn Apply the basics of object-oriented programming in the JavaScript environment Use a JavaScript Console with complete mastery Make your programs cleaner, faster, and compatible with other programs and libraries Get familiar with Iterators and Generators, the new features added in ES6 Find out about ECMAScript 6’s Arrow functions, and make them your own Understand objects in Google Chrome developer tools and how to use them Use a mix of prototypal inheritance and copying properties in your workflow Apply reactive programming techniques while coding in JavaScript In Detail JavaScript is an object-oriented programming language that is used for website development. Web pages developed today currently follow a paradigm that has three clearly distinguishable parts: content (HTML), presentation (CSS), and behavior (JavaScript). JavaScript is one important pillar in this paradigm, and is responsible for the running of the web pages. This book will take your JavaScript skills to a new level of sophistication and get you prepared for your journey through professional web development. Updated for ES6, this book covers everything you will need to unleash the power of object-oriented programming in JavaScript while building professional web applications. The book begins with the basics of object-oriented programming in JavaScript and then gradually progresses to cover functions, objects, and prototypes, and how these concepts can be used to make your programs cleaner, more maintainable, faster, and compatible with other programs/libraries. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to incorporate object-oriented programming in your web development workflow to build professional JavaScript applications. Style and approach Filled with practical instructions, the book shows you how to implement object-oriented features of JavaScript in the real world. The to-the-point nature of the book will benefit developers who are looking for a fast-paced guide to learn object-oriented JavaScript.

Build modular applications that are easy to scale using the most powerful components and design patterns that React can offer you right now About This Book Dive into the core patterns and components of React.js in order to master your application's design Improve their debugging skills using the DevTools This book is packed with easy-to-follow examples that can be used to create reusable code and extensible designs Who This Book Is For If you want to increase your understanding of React and apply it to real-life application development, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Write clean and maintainable code Create reusable components applying consolidated techniques Use React effectively in the browser and node Choose the right styling approach according to the needs of the applications Use server-side rendering to make applications load faster Build high-performing applications by optimizing components In Detail Taking a complete journey through the most valuable design patterns in React, this book demonstrates how to apply design patterns and best practices in real-life situations, whether that's for new or already existing projects. It will help you to make your applications more flexible, perform better, and easier to maintain – giving your workflow a huge boost when it comes to speed without reducing quality. We'll begin by understanding the internals of React before gradually moving on to writing clean and maintainable code. We'll build components that are reusable across the application, structure applications, and create forms that actually work. Then we'll style React components and optimize them to make applications faster and more responsive. Finally, we'll write tests effectively and you'll learn how to contribute to React and its ecosystem. By the end of the book, you'll be saved from a lot of trial and error and developmental headaches, and you will be on the road to becoming a React expert. Style and approach The design patterns in the book are explained using real-world, step-by-step examples. For each design pattern, there are hints about when to use it and when to look for something more suitable. This book can also be used as a practical guide, showing you how to leverage design patterns.

Learn to really THINK about CSS, and how to create CSS that endures continual iteration, multiple authors, and yet always produces predictable results About This Book Address the problems of CSS at scale, avoiding the shortfalls of scaling CSS. The shortfalls of conventional approaches to scaling CSS. Develop consistent and enforceable selector naming conventions with ECSS. Learn how to organize project structure to more easily isolate and decouple visual components. Who This Book Is For This is a book for working CSS authors involved in large projects. This is a book that tackles create enduring CSS for large-scale projects. What You Will Learn The problems of CSS at scale—specificity, the cascade and styles intrinsically tied to element structure. The shortfalls of conventional approaches to scaling CSS. The ECSS methodology and the problems it solves. How to develop consistent and enforceable selector naming conventions with ECSS. How to organise project structure to more easily isolate and decouple visual components. How to handle state changes in the DOM with ARIA or override selectors. How to apply ECSS to web applications and visual modules. Considerations of CSS tooling and processing: Sass/PostCSS and linting. Addressing the notion of CSS selector speed with hard data and browser representative insight In Detail Learn with me, Ben Frain, about how to really THINK about CSS and how to use CSS for any size project! I'll show you how to write CSS that endures continual iteration, multiple authors, and yet always produces predictable results. Enduring CSS, often referred to as ECSS, offers you a robust and proven approach to authoring and maintaining style sheets at scale. Enduring CSS is not a book about writing CSS, as in the stuff inside the curly braces. This is a book showing you how to think about CSS, and be a smarter developer with that thinking! It's about the organisation and architecture of CSS—the parts outside the braces. I will help you think about the aspects of CSS development that become the most difficult part of writing CSS in larger projects. You’ll learn about the problems of authoring CSS at scale—including specificity, the cascade and styles intrinsically tied to document structure. I'll introduce you to the ECSS methodology, and show you how to develop consistent and enforceable selector naming conventions. We'll cover how to apply ECSS to your web applications and visual model, and how you can organize your project structure wisely, and handle visual state changes with ARIA, providing greater accessibility considerations. In addition, we'll take a deep look into CSS tooling and process considerations. Finally we will address performance considerations by examining topics such as CSS selector speed with hard data and browser-representative insight. Style and approach Learn with me, Ben Frain, about how to really think about CSS. This is a book to deal with writing CSS for large-scale, rapidly changing web projects and applications. This isn't a book about writing CSS, as in the stuff inside the curly braces - this is a book about the organisation and architecture of CSS; the parts outside the braces!

Make the most of your NAV deployment by extending and customizing it with a variety of expert tools About This Book Extend Dynamics in a cost-effective manner by using tools that are ready at your disposal Solve common business problems with the valuable features and flexibility of Dynamics NAV Follow practical and easy-to-grasp examples, illustrations, and coding to make the most out of Dynamics NAV in your organisation Who This Book Is For This book is for Dynamics NAV developers and administrators who have a good knowledge level and understanding of Dynamics NAV application development and administration. What You Will Learn Develop a module in Dynamics NAV using C/AL Build relationships with COM technologies Develop and integrate COM with Dynamics NAV 2016 Call the framework members from C/AL Develop an event in the .NET framework and see how to subscribe to it using C/AL Automate the deployment into Dynamics NAV Develop Windows Client Control add-Ins Deploy your resource automatically from Visual Studio Install and Configure Windows Client Control add-Ins Integrate Dynamics NAV with Sharepoint In Detail Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software suite for organizations. The system offers specialized functionality for manufacturing, distribution, government, retail, and other industries. Its integrated development environment enables customizations with minimal disruption to business processes. The book starts explaining the new features of Dynamics NAV along with how to create and modify a simple module. Moving on, you will learn the importance of thinking beyond the boundaries of C/AL development and the possibilities opened by with it. Next, you will get to know how COM can be used to extend the functionalities of Dynamics NAV. You’ll find out how to extend the Dynamics NAV 2016 version using .NET interoperability and will see the steps required to subscribe to .NET events in order to extend Dynamics NAV. Finally, you’ll see the cmdlets available to manage extension packages. By the end of the book, you will have the knowledge needed to become more efficient in selecting the extending methods, developing and deploying them to the Dynamics NAV, and practicing the best practices. Style and approach The book follows a practical recipe-based approach focusing on real-world scenarios and giving you all the information you need to build a strong Dynamics NAV implementation.

Understand everything you need to know about Oracle’s Integration Cloud Service and how to utilize it optimally for your business About This Book The only guide to Integration Cloud Service in the market Focused on practical action to deliver business value A professional’s guide to an expensive product, providing comprehensive training, and showing how to extract real business value from the product Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for any IT professional working with ICS, any Oracle application or cloud solution developer or analyst who wants to work with ICS to deliver business value. What You Will Learn Use ICS to integrate different systems together without needing to be a developer Gain understanding of what a number of technologies and standards provide – without needing to understand the fine details of those standards and technologies Understand the use of connectors that Oracle provide from technology based connections such as file and database connections to SaaS solutions ranging from Salesforce to Twitter Enrich data and extend SaaS integration to route to different instances Utilize a number of tools to help develop and check that your integrations work before connecting to live systems Introduce and explain integration concepts so that the integrations created are maintainable and sustainable for the longer term Provide details on how to keep up to date with the features that Oracle and partners provide in the future Get special connections developed to work with ICS In Detail Businesses are built on data, and applications that access that data. In modern businesses the same cloud-based data stores and applications might be accessed by hundreds of different applications from thousands of different devices via APIs. To make this happen, APIs must be wired together i.e. integrated. Oracle Integration Cloud Service provides a complete method for integrating enterprise applications in the cloud. Integration Cloud Service (ICS) provides a cloud hosted means to integrate systems together using a graphical means to define and represent integrations. This book will be a comprehensive, hands-on guide to building successful, high-availability integrations on ICS. This book sets out to demonstrate how ICS can be used to effectively implement integrations that work both in the cloud and on premise. It starts with a fast, practical introduction to what ICS can do for your business and then shows how ICS allows you to develop integrations not only quickly but in a way that means they are maintainable and extensible. Gradually it moves into more advanced integrations, showing how to achieve sophisticated results with ICS and work with external applications. Finally the book shows you how to monitor cloud apps and go beyond ICS to build even more powerful integrated applications. By the end of the book, you will the knowledge on how to use ICS to solve your own integration needs and harness the technologies in a maintainable and sustainable manner. Style and approach This book will take a pragmatic approach and will be a business-focused guide to delivering business value with ICS.

Discover over 70 recipes that provide the solutions you need to know to face every challenge in Angular 2 head on About This Book · A first-rate reference guide with a clear structure and intuitive index that gives you as a developer exactly the information you want in exactly the way you want it · Covers no legacy material from the outdated Angular release candidates; it is up-to-date with the latest release of Angular 2.4 · All the code in the book is explicitly written out, and every piece of code shown is a step towards building a simple working example Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who are competent with JavaScript and are looking to dive headfirst into the TypeScript edition of Angular 2. This book is also geared towards developers with experience in Angular 1 who are looking to make the transition. What You Will Learn · Understand how to best move an Angular 1 application to Angular 2 · Build a solid foundational understanding of the core elements of Angular 2 such as components, forms, and services · Gain an ability to wield complex topics such as Observables and Promises · Properly implement applications utilizing advanced topics such as dependency injection · Know how to maximize the performance of Angular 2 applications · Understand the best ways to take an Angular 2 application from TypeScript in a code editor to a fully function application served on your site · Get to know the best practices when organizing and testing a large Angular 2 application In Detail Angular 2 introduces an entirely new way to build applications. It wholly embraces all the newest concepts that are built into the next generation of browsers, and it cuts away all the fat and bloat from Angular 1. This book plunges directly into the heart of all the most important Angular 2 concepts for you to conquer. In addition to covering all the Angular 2 fundamentals, such as components, forms, and services, it demonstrates how the framework embraces a range of new web technologies such as ES6 and TypeScript syntax, Promises, Observables, and Web Workers, among many others. This book covers all the most complicated Angular concepts and at the same time introduces the best practices with which to wield these powerful tools. It also covers in detail all the concepts you'll need to get you building applications faster. Oft-neglected topics such as testing and performance optimization are widely covered as well. A developer that reads through all the content in this book will have a broad and deep understanding of all the major topics in the Angular 2 universe. Style and approach This book follows a cookbook approach—each recipe presents a unique problem to which the solution is presented in a clear, concise, and manner step-by-step manner. With practical hands-on guidance in each and every recipe, you’ll be able to get to grips with the concepts.

Palm Beach is known around the world as the most wealthy, glamorous, opulent, decadent, self-indulgent, sinful spot on earth. With their beautiful 3.75 square-island constantly in the media glare, Palm Beachers protect their impossibly rich society from outside scrutiny with vigilant police, ubiquitous personal security staffs, and screens of tall hedges encircling every mansion.To this bizarre suspicious, exclusive world, New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler brought his charm, insight, and award-winning investigative skills, and came to know Palm Beach, its celebrated and powerful residents, and its exotic social rituals as no outside writer ever has. In this colorful, entertaining, and compulsively readable book. Kessler reveals the inside story of Palm Beach society as it moves languidly through the summer months, quickens in the fall, and shifts into frenetic high speed as the season begins in December, peaks in January and February, and continues into April.When unimaginable wealth combines with unlimited leisure time oil an island barely three times the size of New York's Central Park, human foibles and desires, lust and greed, passion and avarice, become magnified and intensified. Like laboratory rats fed growth hormones, the 9,800 Palm Beach residents 87 percent of whom are millionaires exhibit the most outlandish extremes of their breed.To tell the story, Kessler follows four Palm Beachers through the season. These four characters the reigning queen of Palm Beach society, the night manager of Palm Beach's trendiest bar, a gay "walker" who escorts wealthy women to balls, and a thirty six-year-old gorgeous blonde who says she "can't find a guy in Palm Beach" know practically everyone on the island and tell what goes on behind the scenes.Interweaving the yarns of these unfor-gettable figures with the lifestyle, history, scandals, lore, and rituals of a unique island of excess, The Season creates a powerful, seamless, juicy narrative that no novelist could dream up.

February 6, 2011, marks the one hundredth anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. Known as "the Great Communicator," Ronald Reagan combined the best of small-town values and remarkable virtues with the eloquence and charm that came from a life spent in the public eye. From his early days, Reagan was a leader, whether saving lives as a lifeguard or demonstrating for students' rights as a college undergraduate. His career as a sports broadcaster and later as a leading man in Hollywood paved the way for a career in politics. As governor of California, Reagan earned the respect of world leaders and the American public. But it was as president of the United States that his strength of character, leadership, and love of country were best displayed. His eight years in the Oval Office ushered in remarkable change domestically and brought international peace, prosperity, and freedom.A visual celebration of all that is Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: 100 Years is the official centennial publication for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Inspiring and uplifting, it is a fitting homage to one of America's greatest legends. A foreword by former Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr., distinguished politician and personal friend of the Reagans, completes this handsome volume, making it a must-have nostalgic tribute to the life and times of the man who led our nation and inspired the world.

Seeing is believing . . . The Smash Hit SuperFreakonomics is now Bigger and Better SuperFreakonomics was an instant New York Times bestseller that caused a media uproar, continuing the amazing success begun with the groundbreaking, worldwide sensation Freakonomics.With the Illustrated Edition, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner bring alive their smart thinking and great storytelling with an explosion of visual evidence, including: A by-the-numbers tally of a high-priced call girl's career, and a tracking sheet from an intensive survey of Chicago street prostitutes. A visual quiz that lets you pit your memory against the memory of a chess grand master. Images of the hurricane-killing machine and other geo-engineering inventions described in SuperFreakonomics. A look into whether doctors are better at saving lives in TV dramas or in real hospitals. Whether probing the intricacies of sex change oper-ations, the effectiveness of child car seats, or what really motivates people to do good, the Illustrated Edition of SuperFreakonomics employs photographs, drawings, and graphs that will lead readers to see the world in a bold, fresh way.

A leading historian and bestselling author re-creates the growth, decline, and legacy of 3,000 Years of Egyptian civilization with an authoritative text splendidly illustrated with 150 illustrations in full color.Ancient Egypt, with its legacy of pyramids, pharaohs and sphinxes, is a land of power and mystery to the modern world. In The Civilization of Ancient Egypt Paul Johnson explores the growth and decline of a culture that survived for 3,000 years and maintained a purity of style that rivals all others. Johnson's study looks in detail at the state, religion, culture and geographical setting and how they combined in this unusually enduring civilization. From the beginning of Egyptian culture to the rediscovery of the pharaohs, the book covers the totalitarian theocracy, the empire of the Nile, the structure of dynastic Egypt, the dynastic way of death, hieroglyphs, the anatomy of perspective art and, finally, the decline and fall of the pharaohs, Johnson seeks, through an exciting combination of images and analysis, to discover the causes behind the collapse of this, great civilization while celebrating the extra-ordinary legacy it has left behind.Paul Johnson on Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians"Egypt was not only the first state, it was the first country.... The durability of the state which thus evolved was ensured by the overwhelming simplicity and power of its central institution, the theocratic monarchy." "The Egyptians did not share the Babylonian passion for astrology, but they used the stars as one of many guides to behavior. No Egyptian believed in a free exercise of will in important decisions: he always looked for an omen or a prophecy or an oracle." "The development of hieroglyphics mirrors and epitomizes the history of Egyptian civilization. . . . No one outside Egypt understood it and even within Egypt it was the exclusive working tool of the ruling and priestly classes. The great mass of Egyptians were condemned to illiteracy by the complexities (and also the beauties) of the Egyptian written language.""The affection the Egyptians were not. ashamed to display towards their children was related to the high status women enjoyed in Egyptian society.""If we can understand Egyptian art we can go a long way towards grasping the very spirit and outlook on life, of this gifted people, so remote in time. The dynamic of their civilization seems to have been a passionate love of order (maat to them), by which they sought to give to human activities and creations the same regularity as their landscape, their great river, their sun-cycle and their immutable seasons."

Relentless and ominous, the drumbeat echoes across the land: Social Security is on the verge of bankruptcy. These repeated warnings have become a dismal article of faith for the millions of Americans who pay Social Security taxes and expect to collect benefits someday. But they are flatly untrue. Social Security today is on a stronger financial footing than it has been for decades. The Plot Against Social Security will explain who is really behind the efforts to reform this system and will show that the most frequently proposed fix increased privatization will damage it beyond repair by undermining retirement security for generations to come. Award-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik also offers a clear set of remedies for those few elements of Social Security that do need repair proposals that will shore up the most efficient social insurance program in America's history, rather than destroying it in the name of reform.

In Giant, Plaxico Burress takes you into the locker room, onto the practice field, and into the huddle, providing a flat-out-honest look at life on and off the field with the New York Giants and at the making of a champion. Throughout the 2007 season, Plaxico battled near-crippling injuries, and despite rarely practicing, being heavily bandaged, and on serious painkillers, he led the New York Giants in receptions, yards, and touchdowns. He continued to play through pain in the playoffs, only to be further injured before Super Bowl XLII. Playing the arrogant Patriots who were inviting the Giants to their victory party before the game was over Plaxico concealed a significant injury that might have changed the outcome of the game if the Pats had known.When he first joined the Giants, Plaxico expected to be the go-to guy for the young quarterback Eli Manning. What he didn't expect was the media and fan scrutiny that was heaped on Manning as they battled to win games.What Plaxico also didn't expect was the difficult relationship he had with head coach Tom Coughlin, who was a stickler for discipline and who would fine players for even the mildest offenses. For five years Plaxico had played for the laid-back Bill Cowher and the Pittsburgh Steelers. In contrast, within weeks of joining the Giants, Plaxico and Coughlin were butting heads, and the fines followed. But there to make things a little easier were friends like Jeremy Shockey and Amani Toomer, nearly polar opposites. With Shock, everything was always full-tilt and his mouth would usually get him into trouble. Toomer was the easygoing elder statesman at times absentminded, but a brilliant receiver. And in 2007, Manning, with Plaxico's advice and support, would rise above the scrutinizing media and come into his own, and Coach Coughlin would relax his grip somewhat and let the team breathe. The results were obvious.It's all here. The ups and downs, the trash-talking, the sweat and blood, and what it takes to be the best.

Polish poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert easily stands beside Nobel Prize laureates Milosz and Szymborska as part of a remarkable literary tradition. Though Herbert is very much an Eastern European writer, the urgency, vitality, and relevance of his work extend far beyond the borders of his particular region and his particular time. His fascination with other subjects from painting to all things Dutch enriched the scope and depth of his poetry, and made for compelling explorations in his essays and short prose pieces.The first collected English edition of his prose work, this outstanding volume consists of four books Labryinth on the Sea, Still Life with a Bridle, King of the Ants, and Barbarian in the Garden. Brilliant and erudite, dazzling and witty, these essays survey the geography of humanity, its achievements and its foibles. From Western civilization's past, as witnessed through the Greek and Roman landscape, to musings on the artistic that celebrate the author's discriminating eye, poetic sensibility, and gift for irony, humor, and the absurd; from a sage retelling of myths and tales that became twentieth-century philosophical parables of human behavior to thoughts on art, culture, and history inspired by journeys in France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Collected Prose is a rich compendium that celebrates the mastery and wisdom of a remarkable artist.