The modern world was not built by the internet, the microchip, or the airplane. The true foundation of globalization is a remarkably dull, corrugated steel box measuring exactly twenty feet in length. Before its invention, moving cargo across the ocean was a slow, chaotic, and dangerous process that required armies of longshoremen to manually pack individual sacks, barrels, and crates into the bellies of ships. In 1956, a frustrated trucking magnate named Malcolm McLean realized that the d...

This LNAI 16045 volume constitutes the proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference on Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2025, held in York, UK, duing August 20–22, 2025.The 32 full papers and 4 short papers, together with 4 invited papers presented in these volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 74 submissions. The papers were categorised into seven groups: Human-Robot Interaction and Teleoperation, Sensing and Perception, Locomotion and Control, Manipulation and D...

This Festschrift, dedicated to Jim Woodcock, contains papers written by many of his closest collaborators.After a PhD on software verification at the University of Liverpool, Jim has combined a successful career in academia with outstanding industry research, in particular he has been a pioneer in applying mathematical modelling approaches in critical industries. At GEC's Hirst Research Centre he worked on a novel distributed telephone exchange and a service specification of a PABX...

This is equivalent to the print edition, which is 640 pages. The focus is on areas likely to be most rewarding for tourists (all of China could not be seen in several lifetimes): Beijing & surroundings, Shanghai and Hong Kong, the Terracotta Warriors near Xi'an, the Yangzi River's Three Gorges, the majestic rural scenery around Guilin, the Pearl River Delta, and the island of Macau Designed to enable you to gain the most from China during your trip. All the big sights in the destinations cove...

Fly into Hong Kong and spend a few days discovering its diverse attractions from shopping in bustling Kowloon to hiking along one of the islands' well-marked lush trails. Eat dim sum downtown and head up Victoria Peak for an after-dinner drink to remember. Take a boat or a train to Guangzhou and sample yet more Cantonese delights, along with some fine colonial architecture, maybe stopping off in modern Shenzhen for a peek at the new China. From Guangzhou, take a bus, train or flight to Gui...

Arrive in Beijing and spend a few days soaking up the Imperial sights the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palaces and the Great Wall. Spend your evenings enjoying Beijing duck, opera and maybe a trip to the acrobats. If you have time, take a train up to Chengde and spend a couple of days enjoying the imperial retreat before returning to the capital and flying on to Xi'an. Allow a full day at the Terracotta Warriors and another day to explore the fascinating walled city. Make sure ...

The economic heart of South China, the Pearl River Delta is both agriculturally and financially fertile and is one of the most developed parts of China. Intensely cultivated land is interspersed with some of China's newest and fastest-growing cities, which are linked by some of the country's best and most integrated transport services. The Delta's location makes it a popular trip from Hong Kong and a major gateway to enter China itself. Foremost among the Delta's gang of youthful upstart c...

This is based on our full China Adventure Guide, which is 640 pages. It's designed to enable you to gain the most from China during your trip. All the major sights in the destinations covered are described, but so are little dumpling houses, lively markets, walks through narrow old streets, places to study tai chi. The focus is on adventure in every sense of the word--from kayaking and balloon trips to learning the ancient art of calligraphy or fengshui. There are new experiences waiting a...

This enchanting hideaway is set around the attractively revamped city of Guilin, in the heart of rural Guangxi Province. Yangshuo, a little to the south, makes for a low-key introduction to the area, and offers a picture-postcard view of what is, to many, the essence of this vast country in which 60% of the population still live on the land. Water buffaloes toil in paddies amidst towering limestone outcrops and the landscape seems to come fresh from a scroll painting. A number of China's e...

To bring issues to light of how startling computer based intelligence is, I'm distributing a whole book of verse composed by fake intelligence.The stunning part is that these sonnets are very great, enjoyable to pay attention to, and man-made intelligence has some insane opinions.In this book, I give simulated intelligence 1) points for verse 2) examination and critique of the poetry.Behold the engaging dread of verse by GPT-3, an OpenAI enormous scope language-age model.About me, ...

Simon Foster’s short & sweet edition cuts out the fluff from Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen and gets straight to the good stuff. Savor the best literature of all time without spending years of your life treading through long traditional books.Simon Foster books are a suitable length for the human attention span, helping you to remember the key details of every book. By the end, you’ll be able to impress your friends, family, or even a professor with your knowledge of Pride & Prej...

Simon Foster’s short & sweet edition cuts out the fluff from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and gets straight to the good part. Savor the best literature of all time without spending years of your life treading through endless pages of traditional books.Simon Foster books are suitable for the human attention span, helping you to remember the key details of every book and maximize enjoyment. By the end, you’ll be able to impress your friends, family, or even a professor with your know...