The R language provides a rich environment for working with data, especially data to be used for statistical modeling or graphics. Coupled with the large variety of easily available packages, it allows access to both well-established and experimental statistical techniques. However techniques that might make sense in other languages are often very ine?cient in R, but, due to R's ?- ibility, it is often possible to implement these techniques in R. Generally, the problem with such techniques is that they do not scale properly; that is, as the problem size grows, the methods slow down at a rate that might be unexpected. The goal of this book is to present a wide variety of data - nipulation techniques implemented in R to take advantage of the way that R works, ratherthandirectlyresemblingmethodsusedinotherlanguages. Since this requires a basic notion of how R stores data, the ?rst chapter of the book is devoted to the fundamentals of data in R. The material in this chapter is a prerequisite for understanding the ideas introduced in later chapters. Since one of the ?rst tasks in any project involving data and R is getting the data into R in a way that it will be usable, Chapter 2 covers reading data from a variety of sources (text ?les, spreadsheets, ?les from other programs, etc. ), as well as saving R objects both in native form and in formats that other programs will be able to work with.

Capitol Records commemorates the 65th anniversary of John Lennon'sbirth with the release of Working Class Hero - The Definitive Lennon. The double CD set, executively produced by Yoko Ono, will offer the most comprehensive collection of Lennon's hit singles and key album tracks to date - 38 songs in all, with a combined playing time of over two and one-half hours. Born in Liverpool, England on October 9, 1940 and assassinated in New York City just over forty years later (December 8, 1980), Lennon rendered a vision of life that was simultaneously reflective, utopian and poignantly realistic. Reflecting his social activism ("Give Peace A Chance," "Power To The People," "Gimme Some Truth," "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World"), idealism ("Imagine," "Mind Games," "Instant Karma!"), his hedonistic "lost weekend," as he called the 18 months he spent separated from Yoko Ono in the early 1970's ("Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out," "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night," the rollicking duet with Elton John that gave him his first #1 single as a solo artist), and the happiness he found in later years as a self-described "househusband," ("(Just Like) Starting Over," "Watching The Wheels," "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"), Working Class Hero - The Definitive Lennoncaptures him in all his complexity.Mastered from the most up-to-date sources, the collection includes material from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Imagine (1971), Sometime In New York City (1972), Mind Games (1973), Walls and Bridges (1974), Rock 'N' Roll (1975), Double Fantasy (1980), Live In New York City (recorded in 1972, but not released until 1986) as well as numerous singles and tracks from Milk and Honey (1984) and Anthology (1998), the posthumous collections of Lennon's unreleased recordings.