Travelling to Infinity : My Life with Stephen

Jane Hawking
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Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous and remarkable scientists of our age and author of the scientific bestseller "A Brief History of Time", which sold over 25 million copies across the world and will be adapted as a children's book in the Autumn of next year. In this compelling memoir his first wife, Jane Hawking, relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of motor neurone disease, and Jane's candid account of trying to balance his 24-hour care with the needs of their growing family will be inspirational to anyone dealing with family illness. The inner-strength of the author, and the self-evident character and achievements of her husband, make for an incredible tale that is always presented with unflinching honesty; the author's candour is no less evident when the marriage finally ends in a high-profile meltdown, with Stephen leaving Jane for one of his nurses, while Jane goes on to marry an old family friend. In this exceptionally open, moving and often funny memoir, Jane Hawking confronts not only the acutely complicated and painful dilemmas of her first marriage, but also the faultlines exposed in a relationship by the pervasive effects of fame and wealth. The result is a book about optimism, love and change that will resonate with readers everywhere.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

Related Post:

時間簡史 : 從大爆炸到黑洞 (A Brief History of Time)

是設計，讓城市更快樂 : 找回以「人」為本的大街小巷，創造人與人的互動連結 (Happy City)

查爾斯‧蒙哥馬利 (Charles Montgomery)
online access from HyRead ebook
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★ 蟬連亞馬遜都市發展∕都市經濟∕城市規劃排行榜

為何生活在都會裡心情會這麼煩躁？人口太稠密？錯！路邊的攤販太多？錯！因為現代城市的設計就不是要讓你過得好！

以下這些人應該要出來負責：
‧讓車子時速能超過40公里的車商
‧主張「車子最大」的道路規劃
‧建築蓋得超密，害陽光無法照到街道上的建商
‧硬把都市蓋成棋盤狀，結果沒留任何綠地給市民的政府
‧以為要「空間」就得搬去郊區的都市規劃師
‧因為財務危機，就把公車班次減少的公車處
‧把商場蓋在市郊，害你得浪費油開車大老遠去購物的零售商

這些設計讓我們以為生活要過得好，就得遠離都市、搬去郊區：於是我們的道路越蓋越筆直（撞死的行人也越來越多）、住宅區離市中心越來越遠（想購物？要上班？先開一小時車再說）、「路」變成車子走的而非人走的（去哪裡都得開車，所以我們越來越胖）、土地都蓋高樓大廈不見綠地（想去公園玩耍？對不起，你得開車去那個超遠的森林公園）、與鄰居完全沒有互動，不認識彼此。

長期投入城市規劃的得獎記者查爾斯‧蒙哥馬利，透過大量的追蹤訪談，結合環境心理學、行為經濟學等，將影響人快樂／不快樂的元素融合為一個個小故事以及妙味橫生的心理學研究，抽絲剝繭現代都市規劃的利弊，以及我們該如何追求更舒適的居所。他以巴黎、波哥大、紐約、溫哥華等地為例，指出快樂城市應該有充足的人口、完善的大眾運輸、車流量越低越好、道路以步行為主，而每個路口都要一片綠地，並有充足空間讓市民彼此交流。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Max Tegmark
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New York Times Best Seller

How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology—and there’s nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who’s helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.

How can we grow our prosperity through automation without leaving people lacking income or purpose? What career advice should we give today’s kids? How can we make future AI systems more robust, so that they do what we want without crashing, malfunctioning or getting hacked? Should we fear an arms race in lethal autonomous weapons? Will machines eventually outsmart us at all tasks, replacing humans on the job market and perhaps altogether? Will AI help life flourish like never before or give us more power than we can handle?

What sort of future do you want? This book empowers you to join what may be the most important conversation of our time. It doesn’t shy away from the full range of viewpoints or from the most controversial issues—from superintelligence to meaning, consciousness and the ultimate physical limits on life in the cosmos.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

大數據 : 「數位革命」之後, 「資料革命」登場 : 巨量資料掀起生活、工作和思考方式的全面革新 (Big Data)

麥爾荀伯格 (Viktor Mayer-Schonberger) 、庫基耶 (Kenneth Cukier)
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汽車烤漆的顏色能告訴你，這輛二手車的故障率高低嗎？
市政府要怎樣清查，才能迅速找出有致命危險的人孔蓋？
從谷歌的搜尋字眼，怎麼預測流感疫情的蔓延？

要回答這些問題，關鍵就在於巨量資料（俗稱大數據）。
「巨量資料分析」是一門新興科技，能夠解讀和預測無數的現象，
包括預測機票的價格、好萊塢新片的票房、你家裡的青少年是否未婚懷孕！
也能協助診斷早產兒的健康情況，探查收入高低與幸福快樂的相關程度，
幫忙規劃快遞的送貨路線、電動車的充電站應該設置在哪裡，
還能用來發展自動導航的無人駕駛汽車、
以及「從駕駛人的臀部形態判斷是否為車主」的防盜系統，
也能夠快速進行多種語文的互譯……

兩位最頂尖的大數據專家，真正掌握到巨量資料思維的精髓，
在這本書裡，清晰曉暢的解釋了巨量資料是什麼，
它將如何改變我們的生活，對經濟、社會和科學會帶來什麼影響，
我們又能夠做些什麼，趕搭上這波新潮流，
同時也懂得保護自己，避免個人資料和隱私受到侵害。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy

Sheryl Sandberg, Adam Grant
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#1 New York Times Best Seller
Named a Best Book of 2017 by Barnes & Noble and Amazon

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead...

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港音樂的前世今生 : 香港早期音樂發展歷程 (1930s-1950s)

周光蓁
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「將來我們這批人不在時，你要問也問不了。這些歷史是不可以沒有的，不可以沒有的。」
這是著名女高音費明儀臨終前的寄語。

本書正是費女士等十位香港音樂界和政界名人，通過口述訪談，娓娓道出他們在二戰前後鮮為人知與音樂結緣的經過。從Uncle Ray郭利民、林樂培、沈鑒治、費明儀、盧景文、何承天、東尼·卡比奧、蕭炯柱、黎小田、羅乃新的珍貴憶述，勾畫出香港音樂的前世與今生。

那是沒有大會堂的日子。他們音樂人生的起步，從1930到1950年代，見證香港從經濟大蕭條，到日佔後重建，慢步走出南隅、邁向國際。

十個口述個案，帶出很多值得我們思考的課題：一個人的音樂成就，是先天還是後天所決定？學習音樂是手段還是目的？成功是否贏在起跑線？音樂與功課是互補還是相剋？

再又：所謂中西音樂文化匯集於香江的具體表現是甚麼？政府與民間的音樂有何互動？音樂和音樂人在戰爭大時代有怎樣的經歷？業餘時期的香港音樂文化是怎樣的？香港是個文化沙漠嗎？

(摘錄自cp1897.com.hk)