Monday, March 25, 2024

The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives

Ernest Scheyder
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

An unprecedented look inside the global battle to power our lives from acclaimed Reuters reporter Ernest Scheyder.

A new economic war for critical minerals has begun, and The War Below is an urgent dispatch from its front lines. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of necessary materials, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access to sites around the globe has allowed him to gain unparalleled insights into a future without fossil fuels.

The War Below reveals the explosive brawl among industry titans, conservationists, community groups, policymakers, and many others over whether some places are too special to mine or whether the habitats of rare plants, sensitive ecosystems, Indigenous holy sites, and other places should be dug up for their riches.

With vivid and engaging writing, Scheyder shows the human toll of this war and explains why recycling and other newer technologies have struggled to gain widespread use. He also expertly chronicles Washington’s attempts to wean itself off supplies from China, the global leader in mineral production and processing. The War Below paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is at stake in this new fight for energy independence, revealing how America and the rest of the world’s hunt for the “new oil” directly affects us all.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

城牆 : 從萬里長城到柏林圍牆, 一部血與磚打造的人類文明史 (Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick)

大衛.弗萊 (David Frye)
online access from HyRead ebook
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

從羅馬帝國到蘇聯、從秦始皇到川普
城牆有多老,文明就有多久,人類的故事就是劃界的歷史!
美國BookAuthority權威書評網站評選2020年最佳歷史書籍!


古今東西的城牆總伴隨城市、國家與帝國的興起。每當有人說築牆是對人民的壓迫,總會有人呼籲要打造更新、更高、更長的屏障。

築牆熱潮在21世紀復興,號稱是為了防堵恐怖主義、大規模移民、非法毒品。在這個全球無國界的數位時代,各地卻出現70多座邊界壁壘,將人群分隔得更加徹底。

美國杜克大學歷史學博士大衛.弗萊結合史料文獻與考古經驗,帶領讀者漫步牆頭,走入這場古今城牆巡禮。爬梳5千年歷史長河中,城牆如何左右政經局勢、思想文化、日常生活,並形塑現代社會的樣貌。並思考在新保守主義盛行的當代,我們該如何自處?

「大衛.弗萊辯才無礙……擅長將史料和考古證據化為動人文章,他的書寫和城牆上留下的銘文一樣明晰。」──《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Monday, March 18, 2024

Data Analysis for Social Science: A Friendly and Practical Introduction

Elena Llaudet, Kosuke Imai
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

An ideal textbook for complete beginners—teaches from scratch R, statistics, and the fundamentals of quantitative social science

Data Analysis for Social Science provides a friendly introduction to the statistical concepts and programming skills needed to conduct and evaluate social scientific studies. Assuming no prior knowledge of statistics and coding and only minimal knowledge of math, the book teaches the fundamentals of survey research, predictive models, and causal inference while analyzing data from published studies with the statistical program R. It teaches not only how to perform the data analyses but also how to interpret the results and identify the analyses’ strengths and limitations.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

成功的條件:AI時代的5個大數據必勝法則 (The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success)

巴拉巴西 (Albert-László Barabási)
online access from iRead eBook
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

這些課題不只是重要,而是極其重要!
誰能運用最先進的科學武器庫,
來告訴你如何降低機運的干擾、邁向成功?
唯有巴拉巴西。
——塔雷伯,暢銷書《黑天鵝效應》作者

用科學揭示成功定律第一人
天才科學家 巴拉巴西 最強力作
人人可用的成功方程式


你能想到的任何人,他們的成功之路都有跡可循
科學家從5大定律找出成功法則
選對成功公式,不用再祈禱幸運突然降臨

巴拉巴西主持的複雜網路研究中心(CCNR)積極探索各種主題,
想找出背後的數學邏輯和框架,
當他們把觸角伸到科學領域的影響力時,
從中發現了特定的成功模式。

令人吃驚的是,這些模式同樣能運用在體育、藝術、銷售等領域。
這表示成功可以量化,並且能用演算法預測。

例如,人們常說「競爭能提升表現」,可大數據告訴我們,
跟超級明星一同合作時,表現雖會大幅提高,
但與超級明星競爭時,我們卻容易失常。
這全是因為欽佩仰慕的心情影響了自己的能力。

《成功的條件》揭露多變社會中不變的定律,
只要依據自身目標與需求加以運用,
就能掌握先機、取得優勢,
在任何時代塑造成功的人生。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Monday, March 11, 2024

Analytics Stories: Using Data to Make Good Things Happen

Wayne L. Winston
online access from Ebook Central Academic Complete
online access from Wiley Online Library eBooks
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

Inform your own analyses by seeing how one of the best data analysts in the world approaches analytics problems

Analytics Stories: How to Make Good Things Happen is a thoughtful, incisive, and entertaining exploration of the application of analytics to real-world problems and situations. Covering fields as diverse as sports, finance, politics, healthcare, and business, Analytics Stories bridges the gap between the oft inscrutable world of data analytics and the concrete problems it solves.

Distinguished professor and author Wayne L. Winston answers questions like:

Does a mutual fund’s past performance predict future performance?
What caused the Crash of 2008?
Can we predict where crimes are likely to occur?
How can we predict heart attacks in real time?
How can I use A/B testing to improve sales from my website?
How can analytics help me write a hit song?
How does Netflix recommend movies and TV shows?
Should I go to State U or Princeton?
Was Liverpool over Barcelona the greatest upset in sports history?

Analytics Stories illuminates the process of applying analytic principles to practical problems and highlights the potential pitfalls that await careless analysts.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

極簡商業課:60天在早餐桌旁讀完商學院,學會10項關鍵商業技能 (Business Made Simple)

唐納.米勒 (Donald Miller)
online access from iRead eBook
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

商學院要教兩、三年的內容,本書找到最精華的部分……沒有一句廢話。──樊登

想賺錢、晉升、轉職、創業、事業成功……
只要在早餐桌旁花短短的時間閱讀本書,
就能輕鬆掌握最重要的商業技能,
成為公司搶著要的價值驅動型人才。

★Amazon網站破千名讀者4.7顆星推薦:
‧這本書成功地將大學商學院的知識濃縮成一本 60 天的入門書。
‧任何渴望在職涯上提升的企業主和員工,本書必讀。

即將踏入職場,不知道該具備哪些能力?
長久在一個工作,擔心沒有競爭力?
想轉換跑道,但怕經驗不夠、能力不足?
創業當老闆,砸錢裝修、行銷宣傳,但怎麼沒吸引到消費者?

商業能力的學習,不必太複雜,太複雜反而陷入理論的窠臼。
這本書以最簡單的商業能力基本功,讓你更有可能成功。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, March 4, 2024

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

Kyle Chayka
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK From New Yorker staff writer and author of The Longing for Less Kyle Chayka comes a timely history and investigation of a world ruled by algorithms, which determine the shape of culture itself.

"[Filterworld] is about how algorithms changed culture…[Chayka asks] what is taste? What is a sense of aesthetics? And what happens to it when it collides with the homogenizing digital reality in which we now live."—Ezra Klein


From trendy restaurants to city grids, to TikTok and Netflix feeds the world round, algorithmic recommendations dictate our experiences and choices. The algorithm is present in the familiar neon signs and exposed brick of Internet cafes, be it in Nairobi or Portland, and the skeletal, modern furniture of Airbnbs in cities big and small. Over the last decade, this network of mathematically determined decisions has taken over, almost unnoticed—informing the songs we listen to, the friends with whom we stay in touch—as we’ve grown increasingly accustomed to our insipid new normal.

This ever-tightening web woven by algorithms is called “Filterworld.” Kyle Chayka shows us how online and offline spaces alike have been engineered for seamless consumption, becoming a source of pervasive anxiety in the process. Users of technology have been forced to contend with data-driven equations that try to anticipate their desires—and often get them wrong. What results is a state of docility that allows tech companies to curtail human experiences—human lives—for profit. But to have our tastes, behaviors, and emotions governed by computers, while convenient, does nothing short of call the very notion of free will into question.

In Filterworld, Chayka traces this creeping, machine-guided curation as it infiltrates the furthest reaches of our digital, physical, and psychological spaces. With algorithms increasingly influencing not just what culture we consume, but what culture is produced, urgent questions arise: What happens when shareability supersedes messiness, innovation, and creativity—the qualities that make us human? What does it mean to make a choice when the options have been so carefully arranged for us? Is personal freedom possible on the Internet?

To the last question, Filterworld argues yes—but to escape Filterworld, and even transcend it, we must first understand it.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

消失的國界 : 戰火下的烏克蘭

相振為/ 三立電視
online access from iRead eBook
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind

check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

從台灣人角度,第一手報導俄羅斯侵烏戰爭!
台灣唯一獲得烏克蘭官方許可進入拍攝的電視新聞團隊,
帶您看見戰火下依舊堅毅、勇敢的烏克蘭人民!


《消失的國界》勇奪2022年卓越新聞獎新聞節目獎
資深記者從台灣人角度解讀俄烏戰,看戰火下的人性、恐懼與真情。

採訪團隊深入烏克蘭首都基輔、南部大城敖德薩,實際感受生活在戰火下的恐懼、烏克蘭人民堅毅的抗敵意志與生命力,並把格局拉大到歐陸,觀察「非典型」的烏克蘭難民如何團結歐洲,對抗霸權威脅。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)