tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59191672024-03-07T20:24:25.880+01:00Literary PunditLiteraryPundit
Weblog.for
Books.&
LiteratureUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-68021819753304710072013-09-27T17:16:00.001+02:002013-09-27T17:16:06.560+02:00Law Book of the Year Coming in October: Reflections on Judging by Richard A. PosnerScheduled to appear in October at the Harvard University Press is <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674725089">Reflections on Judging</a> by Richard A. Posner.<br />
<br />
Hat tip to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/politics/in-supreme-court-opinions-clicks-that-lead-nowhere.html?_r=0">Adam Liptak</a> at the New York Times, citing Posner e.g. as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"<span style="color: #0b5394;">[T]he Web is an incredible compendium of data and a potentially invaluable resource for lawyers and judges.</span>"</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-9721640760280307932013-09-27T17:12:00.000+02:002013-09-27T17:12:04.522+02:00Kate Manning on Lost Slumgullions of English Such as Misguggle"I'll misguggle your thrapple! I'll mashackerel ye to rights!"<br />
- James Bridie, The Anatomist <br />
<br />
If you want to know what that means, take a look in the New York Times at<br />
Kate Manning's <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/the-lost-slumgullions-of-english/">The Lost Slumgullions of English</a>.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-23176201173135675202012-04-19T23:09:00.000+02:002012-04-19T23:09:37.331+02:00No Pulitzer, No Problem : The BookPundit 2012 Award for Fiction Goes to Germany's Nele Neuhaus<br />
[crossposted from <a href="http://bookpundit.blogspot.com/2012/04/pulitzer-prize-for-fiction-not-awarded.html" target="_blank">BookPundit</a>]<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>No</b></span><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://themoderatevoice.com/144662/no-2012-pulitzer-prize-in-fiction-why-not/" target="_blank">Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012</a>?</span><br />
No problem.<br />
<br />
How about an alternative reward for <a href="http://www.neleneuhaus.de/">Nele Neuhaus</a>, Germany's best-selling crime novelist?<br />
<br />
As written at <a href="http://agencehoffman.de/authors_fiction.html" target="_blank">Agence Hoffman</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"Nele Neuhaus is the most successful German crime
writer. She took the bestseller lists by storm with SCHNEEWITTCHEN MUSS
STERBEN/Snow White must die and WER WIND SÄT<span style="color: black;"></span>.<b style="color: black;">*</b><br /><br />Nele Neuhaus' gripping
novels are set in the Taunus mountains, where the author lives. www.neleneuhaus.de"</span></blockquote>
* We add here our footnote translation of "Wer Wind Sät" as<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span>"If You Sow Wind", based on the German phrase that whoever sows wind, will reap a whirlwind.<br />
<br />
So we herewith award <b>The BookPundit Fiction Prize for 2012</b> to Nele Neuahus, who writes "Taunus, Germany-based" complex crime novels in German dealing with modern topics such as wind energy and environmental politics, for example, which she then weaves into the magically interlaced substance of her marvelous criminal mystery novels. The results are outstanding.<br />
<br />
This award, by the way, is not connected with any other benefit other than this simple recognition of her excellent book writing. <br />
<br />
We initially became aware of the works of Nele Neuhaus after asking at the local library what novels were currently being borrowed the most and was told "the crime series of books of Nele Neuhaus". Well, so we loaned out a book.<br />
<br />
Her books are a series of crime squad investigations led by Inspector Oliver von Bodenstein and his colleague Pia Kirchhoff. The books are well researched and the author works together with real crime investigation professionals to get the crime details right. A truly great, almost natural gift for writing adds the rest.<br />
<br />
Our own bookseller regards <a href="http://www.amazon.de/Tiefe-Wunden-dritte-Bodenstein-Kirchhoff/dp/3548609023" target="_blank">Tiefe Wunde</a> ("Deep Wounds") as the best book by Nele Neuhaus thus far and it is the third book in the series. <a href="http://translate.google.com/">Google Translator translates</a> the short description of Tiefe Wunde at <a href="http://www.amazon.de/Tiefe-Wunden-dritte-Bodenstein-Kirchhoff/dp/3548609023">Amazon.de</a> as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="color: #3d85c6;">
"The 92-year-old Holocaust survivor David Joshua Goldberg is killed at his home in the Taunus with a neck shot. At autopsy, the doctor makes a strange discovery: Goldberg's arm bears the remains of a blood group tattoo, as it was customary for members of the SS. Then ... two more murders [occur], executions. What mystery linked the victims to each other? The investigations lead ... Chief Inspector Oliver Bodenstein and his colleague Pia Kirchhoff far into the past ...[to] East Prussia in January 1945 ... </div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Nearly 200 enthusiastic readers ... on 22 August 2009, [experienced] the book launch of 'Deep Wounds' at the Kempinski Hotel in Königstein [in the Taunus]."</span></blockquote>
Well, if you read German, you are lucky, because you can enjoy the Neuhaus crime novels. We assume the publisher will bring English-language versions soon, but we can not guarantee it.<br />
<br />
Maybe the best thing they could do this year was not to award the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. They would have missed Neuhaus anyway.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-80854384238078557222012-03-25T21:59:00.001+02:002012-03-25T22:03:04.464+02:00Ancient Signs The Alphabet & The Origins of Writing<b>Ancient Signs: The Alphabet and the Origins of Writing</b><br />
<b>by Andis Kaulins is now available in 4 versions</b><br />
<b>(b/w, color, and both of those also as ebooks)</b><br />
at<br />
<a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/autor/Andis-Kaulins/3682">http://www.epubli.de/shop/autor/Andis-Kaulins/3682</a>.<br />
<br />
In Ancient Signs, the author traces the origins of writing and the alphabet
to syllabic writing systems in ancient cultures and shows that these
have one common origin.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins-9783844218824/14393" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ancient Signs" src="http://www.epubli.de/interfaces/img_cover.php?pubId=14393&t=front&w=100" /></a><b>print b/w version</b> black and white inside<br />
<div>
B/W inside<br />
200 pages, 90 gram paper<br />
Price: €35.99 (about US $47 on day of posting)<br />
for the B/W print version of <a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins-9783844218824/14393">Ancient Signs</a><br />
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet<br />
to syllabic writing.<br />
Softcover - print b/w, cover in color<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins/14394" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ancient Signs" src="http://www.epubli.de/interfaces/img_cover.php?pubId=14394&t=front&w=100" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /><b>eBook b/w version</b> black and white version <br />
B/W inside<br />
200 pages<br />
Price: €27.99 (about US $37 on day of posting)<br />
for the B/W eBook version of <a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins/14394">Ancient Signs</a><br />
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet<br />
to syllabic writing.
<a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins-9783844220179/14395" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ancient Signs" src="http://www.epubli.de/interfaces/img_cover.php?pubId=14395&t=front&w=100" /></a><br />
<b> </b></div>
<br />
<div>
<b>color print version</b> color inside <br />
COLOR inside<br />
200 pages, 150 gram glossy paper<br />
Price: €149.00 (about US $196 on day of posting)<br />
for the color print version of <a class="nolink" href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins-9783844220179/14395">Ancient Signs</a><br />
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet<br />
to syllabic writing.<br />
Hardcover - print and cover in color
<a href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins/14396" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ancient Signs" src="http://www.epubli.de/interfaces/img_cover.php?pubId=14396&t=front&w=100" /></a><br />
</div>
<div>
<br /><b>color eBook version</b> color inside<br />
COLOR inside<br />
200 pages<br />
Price: €39.99 (about US $52 on day of posting)<br />
for the color inside eBook version of <a class="nolink" href="http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Ancient-Signs-Andis-Kaulins/14396">Ancient Signs</a><br />
Ancient Signs traces the origins of the alphabet<br />
to syllabic writing.</div>
<br />
<br />
Enjoy Reading.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-66543481605686298562011-01-26T18:39:00.000+01:002011-01-26T18:39:54.798+01:00The Writing Woman: Petra A. BauerThe Writing Woman: Petra A. Bauer<br /><br />see <a href="http://english.writingwoman.de/">Petra A. Bauer, Freelance Writer | German Author, Blogger and Journalist | writingwoman.de</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-56037486715714323472010-04-03T00:30:00.000+02:002010-04-03T00:30:39.556+02:00The Next Literary Movement is the Brain as the Humanities are Throttled by High TechAt <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/books/01lit.html?src=me&ref=general">Next Big Thing - Literary Scholars Turn to Science - NYTimes.com</a> Patricia Cohen writes:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">"Literature, like other fields including history and political science, has looked to the technology of brain imaging and the principles of evolution to provide empirical evidence for unprovable theories."</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-47329482154135347032010-02-13T15:25:00.001+01:002010-02-13T15:50:10.646+01:00Copyrights, Originality and Authenticity: Axolotl Roadkill by Helene Hegemann - a New but Partly Cribbed Novel about Sex, Drugs and ClubbingCopyright infringing <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/89167/Plagiarism-or-Literary-Remix">plagiarism or literary remix</a>?<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/europe/12germany.html?em">Author, 17, Says It’s ‘Mixing,’ Not Plagiarism</a>, Nicholas Kulish at the NYTimes.com informs us that <a href="http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/188711-helene-hegemann-art-cut-and-paste">Helene Hegemann</a>, a mere 17 years old - but daughter of <a href="http://www.tau.ac.il/%7Edramatur/participantnabstract.htm">Carl Hegemann</a>, one of the most prominent and innovative dramaturgs in Europe, now a Professor at the Department of Dramaturgy in Leipzig - seems to be following in her father's footsteps and has landed a beststeller in Germany with her first book, <a href="http://www.ullsteinbuchverlage.de/ullsteinhc/buch.php?id=15395&page=buchthemen&pagenum=2&thema=4&sort=&auswahl=A">Axolotl Roadkill</a>, a novel just announced as a finalist for the $20,000 <a href="http://www.preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse.de/" title="Web site for the prize">fiction prize</a> of the <a href="http://www.leipziger-messe.de/LeMMon/buch_web_eng.nsf" title="Its English language site">Leipzig Book Fair</a> - a nice gesture to one of their own?<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/188711-helene-hegemann-art-cut-and-paste">It was Carl Hegemann</a>:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">"[W]ho developed the theoretical superstructure for this hybrid artistry: "A reality is no longer encountered, but brought forth by the ‘members’ of a culture.”</blockquote>But who really wrote this book?<br /><br />One major problem with the book - as it turns out - is that:<br /><blockquote> "<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[A] <a href="http://www.gefuehlskonserve.de/">blogger</a> last week uncovered material in the novel taken from the less-well-known novel “Strobo,” by an author writing under the nom de plume <a href="http://airen.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/berlin-is-here-to-mix-everything-with-everything/">Airen</a>. In one case, an entire page was lifted with few changes.</span>"</blockquote>As written in <a href="http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/188711-helene-hegemann-art-cut-and-paste">Helene Hegemann, the art of cut and paste</a> in the Berliner Zeitung in picking the "European of the 'Week":<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">"Helene Hegemann says she’s sorry, she knows it was wrong “not to mention all the people whose writings helped me”. And yet she stands by her novel: after all, “there’s no such thing as originality anyway, there’s only authenticity”. What’s more, she’s only a “lodger” in her own mind: “I help myself to whatever inspires me.”"<br /></blockquote>One has to wonder about whether the father had his hand in the pie in this one.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-80036248454858334242010-01-18T17:15:00.000+01:002010-01-18T17:15:06.679+01:00Writers Can Prosper Without Intellectual Property - Gennady Stolyarov II - Mises Institute<a href="http://mises.org/daily/4008"></a><a href="http://mises.org/daily/4008">Writers Can Prosper Without Intellectual Property </a><br />by <a href="http://mises.org/daily/4008">Gennady Stolyarov II - Mises Institute</a><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">"It is commonly supposed that, whatever its moral and theoretical standing, intellectual property is necessary for creators of written works to make a living and — even more importantly — to continue to create. Here, I will set aside the theoretical status of copyright, which is amply discussed in Stephan Kinsella's Against Intellectual Property and Michele Boldrin and David Levine's Against Intellectual Monopoly. I will focus on existing and emerging possibilities for writers to earn a living in a world where no copyrights exist."</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-28008680085652024852010-01-13T16:47:00.000+01:002010-01-13T16:47:37.193+01:00A Vintage Caper ? Why hasn't Peter Mayle's new book been published in Britain? – Telegraph Blogs<a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/olivermarre/100006081/what-has-happened-to-peter-mayles-new-book/">A Vintage Caper ?</a><br /><a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/olivermarre/100006081/what-has-happened-to-peter-mayles-new-book/">Why hasn't Peter Mayle's new book been published in Britain? – Telegraph Blogs</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-27971699026644768852010-01-13T16:43:00.000+01:002010-01-13T16:43:59.491+01:00Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter<a href="http://mashable.com/2009/05/08/twitter-authors/">Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-73652385353002447602010-01-13T16:24:00.000+01:002010-01-13T16:24:39.819+01:00Goodreads | The 2009 Goodreads Choice Awards<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/award/goodreader/2009">Goodreads | The 2009 Goodreads Choice Awards</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-39898932686673083232009-12-29T17:11:00.001+01:002009-12-29T17:11:51.405+01:00Google Books : Google is sued by Chinese author Mian Mian, China's Literary Wild Child : Sex Drugs Rock & RollEverybody is now getting into the act of suing search engines for including scanned excerpts of their books in search results. See, for example:<br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8433345.stm">BBC News - Google is sued by Chinese author Mian Mian</a><br /><br />My own book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=VuVhE0zmhrMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stars+stones+and+scholars&ei=KCQ6S5iAHY3CzgS8mtHPAQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false">Stars, Stones and Scholars</a> is found at Google Books and I am very pleased about it, since it makes that book much more accessible to millions of potential readers. Indeed, links are offered to major online booksellers where the book can be purchased. Below is a scan of the front cover website page at Google Books of Stars Stones and Scholars by Andis Kaulins:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.lawpundit.com/blog/StarsStonesScholarsAtGoogleBooks.jpg" border="0" /></center><br />People who are interested in the book's amazing subject matter <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Stones-Scholars-Decipherment-Megaliths/dp/1412013445">buy the book</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-52786336997717010722009-12-02T01:10:00.000+01:002009-12-02T01:10:56.479+01:00Charles Dickens: Looking over the Shoulder of the Creator of “A Christmas Carol” - The New York TimesCharles Dickens becomes more and more actual as Christmas approaches. Take a look at <a href="http://documents.nytimes.com/looking-over-the-shoulder-of-charles-dickens-the-man-who-wrote-of-a-christmas-carol?src=tp#p=1">Looking over the Shoulder of the Creator of “A Christmas Carol” - The New York Times</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-70531581855961000702009-10-11T02:23:00.000+02:002009-10-11T02:24:13.696+02:00First European Prize for Literature Awarded in 2009 to Authors From 12 Countries - 23 to Follow in 2010 and 2011The first <a href="http://www.euprizeliterature.eu/">European Prize for Literature</a>, "<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[a] European Prize for emerging talents in the field of contemporary fiction</span>", was awarded September 28, 2009, to 12 authors from 12 European countries - with 12 more authors from 12 other European countries to be selected in 2010, and 11 more authors from the remaining 11 other European countries to be selected in 2011. The <a href="http://www.euprizeliterature.eu/news.html">announcing press release</a> stated:<br /><blockquote>"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">The names of twelve European authors to receive the first ever European Union Prize for Literature were announced today by the European Commission, the European Booksellers Federation (EBF), the European Writers' Council (EWC) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP).... In recognition of his oeuvre and literary success <a href="http://www.henningmankell.com/">Henning Mankell</a>, the well-known and bestselling Swedish author, has accepted the role of Ambassador of the European Union Prize for Literature for this year.</span>" [links added by this blog]<br /></blockquote>The idea, at the onset of this award, is for the prize to work as a medium of activation for European culture and to "<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">highlight and promote the full diversity of European literature</span>." After each European country has been honored at least once, the award is likely to be reduced to only a few authors, but from our point of view we definitely find the current process to be far more favorable. Very few books, in spite of their literary quality, span all cultures, so that a limited award necessarily involves national prejudices as to content, style and language.<br /><br />For example, a universally-acclaimed book - not eligible for this award -like the 1995 <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Vorleser">Der Vorleser</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reader">The Reader</a>) by German law professor and judge <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Schlink">Bernhard Schlink</a> is very rare. It was the first German book ever to reach the top of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/">New York Times Best-Seller Lists</a> and last year the book was even made into a very successful Hollywood movie - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reader_%282008_film%29">The Reader</a>. But most fiction is limited by the audience of the nation in which the author is located.<br /><br />This European literary award was presented at a gala ceremony in Brussels, Belgium, attended by ca. 800 dignitaries, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.<br /><br />The works that received the prize are detailed at <a href="http://www.euprizeliterature.eu/documents/authors2009final.pdf">this .pdf</a>.<br /><br />Hat tip to <a href="http://euobserver.com/9/28741/?rk=1">Leigh Phillips at the EU Observer</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-34815173649296946902009-03-31T23:14:00.002+02:002009-03-31T23:19:11.337+02:00Novelists Ken Follett, J.K. Rowling, Nick Hornby, and John Grisham : Scribd and the Issue of Copyrights and the Uploading of Book Texts OnlineScribd is becoming a force to be reckoned with on the Internet.<br /><br />At <span style="font-weight: bold;">ScribdBlog</span> in their posting <a href="http://blog.scribd.com/2009/03/30/what-ever-happened-to-fact-checking/">What ever happened to Fact Checking?</a>, the Scribd Team goes one on one with the Times of London on copyright issues relating to Scribd, involving such famous novelists as <a href="http://www.jkrowling.com/">J.K. Rowling</a>, <a href="http://www.ken-follett.com/">Ken Follett</a>, <a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/index.html">Nick Hornby</a> and <a href="http://www.jgrisham.com/">John Grisham</a>, who has the current Number 3 Bestseller on the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/">New York Times list of hardcover fiction</a> with his book, of all things, called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Associate-John-Grisham/dp/0385517831">The Associate</a>, which Patrick Anderson of the The Washington Post calls "<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">A DEVASTATING PORTRAIT OF THE BIG-TIME, BIG-BUCKS LEGAL WORLD.</span>"<br /><br />We were gratified (but of course "legally shocked") at the <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5998918.ece">Times of London</a> article which incurred Scribd's wrath to learn that immensely popular and writingly gifted novelist Ken Follett's <a href="http://www.ken-follett.com/bibliography/world_without_end.html">World without End</a> (a New York Times No. 1 bestseller) had been uploaded to Scribd and had been <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">viewed 500 times in five months.</span><br /><br />We recently uploaded some of our own published works to Scribd. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">After only one month we have more than 500 views</span> of two of our documents:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/12395052/The-Norse-Pharaohs-Astronomical-Decipherments-re-Tanum-Hierakonpolis-Nazca-Sahara-Near-East-DOC">The Norse Pharaohs: Astronomical Decipherments re Tanum Hierakonpolis Nazca Sahara Near East DOC</a><br /><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/12405605/The-Origin-of-the-Cult-of-Horus-in-Predynastic-Egypt-DOC"><br />The Origin of the Cult of Horus in Predynastic Egypt DOC</a><br /><br />We are strongly considering entry into the publishing field with a novel of our own. Ken Follett and cohorts, look out, there is competition on the way!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-31357825890007135332009-01-26T00:59:00.000+01:002009-01-26T01:00:16.485+01:00Robert Frank classic The Americans published in a new version<a href="http://www.steidlville.com/books/695-The-Americans.html">The Americans</a><br />in German, "<a href="http://www.amazon.de/Die-Amerikaner-Robert-Frank/dp/3865216587">Die Amerikaner</a>"<br />and in <a href="http://blog.photocy.org/?p=181">Chinese</a> "<span class="__tts" onmouseover="SPS.commonLayer.pinyin(this, 'Měiguórén');">美国人</span>".<br />I got this book for my birthday this past December.<br /><br />If you are down about the American economy and the prospects for 2009 and beyond, don't be. Take a look at this book - and at this <a href="http://www.artcritical.com/appel/BAFrank.htm">first link</a> about that book - to see how greatly much of America has changed in the 50+ years since the mid-1950's. <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/180205">Obama's America</a> in 2009 is a vastly different place than shown in the photographs in "The Americans".<br /><br />As written by Philip Gefter at the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/arts/design/14geft.html?_r=1">New York Times</a> (Art & Design section online):<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">“The Americans,” [is] an intimate visual chronicle of common people in ordinary situations drawn from several trips he made through his adopted country in the mid-1950s.</span>"<br /><br />The Americans, by <a href="http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/263/bio_frank.shtm">Robert Frank</a>, a classic photographic study of the United States in the 1950's, was first published May 15, 1958, by Robert Delpire in Paris, followed by an English edition in 1959 via Grove Press in New York, in which the original French language by Alain Bosquet about American history was replaced by an introduction and captions in English by <a href="http://www.litkicks.com/JackKerouac/">Jack Kerouac</a>.<br /><br />As written at aloHAA:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">The end result <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">[of Frank's photographic journey through the USA in the 1950's]</span> was the 83 images in the book that no American publisher would touch. It took a Frenchman, Robert Delpire, to publish “Les Americains” in 1958. Progressive publisher </span><a href="http://www.honoluluacademy.org/blog/?p=177" target="_blank">Barney Rosset</a> <span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">produced the first American edition under his Grove Press the following year. Frank revealed a harsh, sometimes divided America that was a lot different from the rah-rah ’50s dream of “Father Knows Best.” His out-of-the-box compositions paved the way for William Eggleston’s profound color images of America that have garnered unanimous applause in the Whitney’s </span>“<a href="http://www.whitney.org/www/eggleston/index.jsp" target="_blank">William Eggleston: Democratic Camera</a>.”<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> “No one has had a greater influence on photography in the last half-century than the Swiss-born Mr. Frank, though his reputation rests almost entirely on a single book published five decades ago,” writes Philip Gefter in the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/arts/design/14geft.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>. "<br /><br />The German publisher Steidl in Göttingen,<br />together with the <a href="http://www.nga.gov/">National Gallery of Art</a> in Washington D.C.<br />in 2008 published a new version of the book in <span style="font-weight: bold;">three</span> languages:<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.steidlville.com/books/695-The-Americans.html">English</a>,<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.steidlville.com/books/766-Die-Amerikaner-Deutsche-Ausgabe.html">German</a> (translation by Hans Wolf)<br />and Chinese (see e.g. <a href="http://blog.photocy.org/?p=181">罗伯特·弗兰克的《美国人》 “The Americans” by Robert Frank</a>).<br /><br />Frank, 83 years old at the date of publication - a number which corresponds to the 83 tritone plates in the book, chosen out of 20,000 photographs - worked intensively himself on this new version of his now classic book, including for example using some negatives varying from previous editions.<br /><br />The 13-character ISBN for the English version of the book is: 978-3-86521-584-0.<br />The 13-character ISBN for the German version of the book is: 978-3-86521-658-8.<br />The 13-character ISBN for the Chinese version of the book is: 978-3-86521-657-1.<br /><br />This book is a "must have" for any library that includes materials on America.<br /><br />For those of my friends in Nebraska, where I grew up, two of the plates in the book are from Nebraska, one of highway 30 between Ogallala and North Platte, and the other of Hested's department store in Lincoln. I've seen both, and, yes, that's exactly the way it looked.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-31985244672426554302008-03-13T15:37:00.004+01:002008-03-13T15:43:57.002+01:00The Case of the Harry Potter Lexicon : J.K. Rowling vs. the Cyclopians (Encyclopedians)The Harry Potter Lexicon is in the news, as J.K. Rowling battles the Cyclopians (encyclopedians).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rdrbooks.com/">RDR Books writes</a>:<br /><br />"<u style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">HARRY POTTER LEXICON CASE UPDATE</u><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">New York Federal District Court Judge Robert Patterson has scheduled a trial for March 24, 25 and 26 in the matter of Warner Bros. Entertainment and J.K. Rowling v. RDR Books. The judge consolidated a previously scheduled injunction hearing with the trial. The plaintiffs want to block publication of librarian Steve Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon. Here is the RDR Books statement on the case:<br /><br />In this action, a distinguished and tremendously successful novelist demands the suppression of a reference guide to her works. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, asserts that this reference guide infringes both her copyright in the seven Potter novels and her right to publish, at some unidentified point in the future, a reference guide of her own. In support of her position she appears to claim a monopoly on the right to publish literary reference guides, and other non-academic research, relating to her own fiction.<br /><br />This is a right no court has ever recognized. It has little to recommend it. If accepted, it would dramatically extend the reach of copyright protection, and eliminate an entire genre of literary supplements: third party reference guides to fiction, which for centuries have helped readers better access, understand and enjoy literary works. By extension, it would threaten not just reference guides, but encyclopedias, glossaries, indexes, and other tools that provide useful information about copyrighted works. Ms. Rowling's intellectual property rights simply do not extend so far and, even if they did, she has not shown that the publication of this reference guide poses a sufficient threat of irreparable harm to justify an injunction. Her preliminary injunction motion should be denied.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rdrbooks.com/pdf/oppn_to_rowlings_PI_mtn.pdf">Read RDR Books' Opposition Brief filed by our attorneys</a> David Hammer, Lizbeth Hasse, Anthony Falzone, Julie Ahrens and Robert Handelsman. Also filed was <a href="http://rdrbooks.com/pdf/sorensen_declaration.pdf">expert witness testimony</a> on the Harry Potter Lexicon by Professor Janet Sorenson of the English faculty at the University of California at Berkeley. Have a look at <a href="http://rdrbooks.com/pdf/klein_note.pdf">this exhibit</a>, a thank you note from Scholastic Publication Potterologist and editor Cheryl Klein to Steve Vander Ark. All available background information on the <i>Harry Potter Lexicon</i> lawsuit is available <a href="http://rdrbooks.com/lexicon_info.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rdrbooks.com/lexicon_contacts.html">Media contacts for the Harry Potter Lexicon Case</a></span><br /><br />One of the great intellectual property law cases of our time, a dramatic work with a platinum cast, has been underway for some time now in the trademark and copyright infringement action by Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling against RDR Books, makers of an allegedly unauthorized Harry Potter En<span style="font-weight: bold;">cyclop</span>edia, who we here thus dub the Cyclopians.<br /><br />Joe Nocera at the New York Times in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/business/09nocera.html?pagewanted=print">A Tight Grip Can Choke Creativity</a> wrote on February 9, 2008:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">On Friday, a lawyer named Anthony Falzone filed his side’s first big brief in the case of Warner Bros. Entertainment and J. K. Rowling v. RDR Books. Mr. Falzone is employed by Stanford Law School, where he heads up the Fair Use Project, which was founded several years ago by Lawrence Lessig, perhaps the law school’s best-known professor. Mr. Falzone and the other lawyers at the Fair Use Project are siding with the defendant, RDR Books, a small book publisher based in Muskegon, Mich. As you can see from the titans who have brought the suit, RDR Books needs all the legal firepower it can muster.</span>"<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2008/3/10/updates-in-jkr-wb-vs-rdr-books-case">Leaky Cauldron</a> informs us that a trial date has now been set.<br /><br /><a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2264094,00.html">The Guardian</a> writes on March 11, 2008:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">On one side: global-celebrity author JK Rowling. On the other: an amateur fan site devoted to the world's favourite boy wizard. At stake: the soul of Harry Potter.</span>"<br /><br />We saw a vision of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_creatures_%28Harry_Potter%29">Hedwig</a> bringing in the last issues of <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/boundvolumes.html">US Reports</a> by mail the other day to deal with a case of mysterious first impression?<br />WHOO can be sure?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f3/Hedwig_the_owl.jpg/200px-Hedwig_the_owl.jpg" /></center><br /><br />As <a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2264094,00.html#article_continue">The Guardian</a> writes, all wizards of the legal powers convene:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[O]n March 24 when a New York court considers the injunction that Rowling and Warner Brothers have taken out against a small, Michigan-based publisher, RDR Books, to prevent publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon, an A-Z guide to all things Hogwarts. It could also be a landmark case, because what is at stake is not just an author's right to control the publication of secondary works but also the right to publish in book form information that has been previously available on the web.</span>"<br /><br />Keep your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon">dragons</a> at bay!<br /><br />What does <a href="http://tlc.usm.maine.edu/documents/Superheroes.pdf">the law of superheros</a> tell us about the rights of mere mortals?<br /><br />Hat tip to CaryGEE.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;">Update with some links about the case found online:<br /><br /></span>From <a href="http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2007/stanfords-fair-use-project-represent-rdr-books-harry-potter-lexicon-lawsuit">Stanford's Fair Use Project</a><br /><br />Nice posting and lots of comments at <a href="http://crookedtimber.org/2008/02/11/who-is-the-potter-pray-and-who-the-pot/">Crooked Timber</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15100">P2PNet</a> and <a href="http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13858">P2PNet</a>-again<br /><br />The Online <a href="http://www.hp-lexicon.org/help/lexicon.html">Harry Potter Lexicon</a> of the Challenged Book<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/fansite_view.cfm?id=14">J.K. Rowling Official Site</a> praising the online website<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rdrbooks.com/">RDR Books</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.theurbanwire.com/jun04/stevevanderark.html">Steve Vander Ark</a> at the UrbanWire. As written at <a href="http://www.theurbanwire.com/jun04/stevevanderark.html">UrbanWire</a>:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Steve Vander Ark, 46, a librarian for a K-8 school in Michigan and the resident director for the Caledonia Community Players, and published compiler of an encyclopaedia of </span><a style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);" href="http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/index.html"><b>Star Trek the Next Generation</b></a><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">, is renowned throughout the </span><a style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);" href="http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/home.asp"><b>Harry Potter</b></a><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> Fandom online for creating </span><a style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);" href="http://www.hp-lexicon.org/"><b>The Harry Potter Lexicon</b></a><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> - the first, and only complete online encyclopaedic companion to the </span><b style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Harry Potter</b><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> books. Started in the year 2000, The </span><b style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Harry Potter Lexicon</b><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> contains every single fact, feature, character and detail from the books in a systematic catalogue, and was recently awarded the third prestigious </span><b style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Fan Site Award</b><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> [by </span><b style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Harry Potter</b><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> author <a href="http://www.jkrowling.co.uk/">J.K. Rowling</a> on her official site.] Steve is also an active speaker at <b>Harry Potter</b>-related academic symposiums held in America.</span>"<br /><br />Read the rest here at <a href="http://www.theurbanwire.com/jun04/stevevanderark.html">UrbanWire</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6537729.html?industryid=47175">Library Journal</a> where Rowling says the book is a "Harry Potter rip-off"<br /><br /><a href="http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/j.html">Beattie's Book Blog</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-46771489370349240922008-01-30T21:51:00.000+01:002008-02-01T16:51:08.101+01:00Science Fiction SFFaudio Blog Reviews Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Live in Concert by Douglas Adams<span style="font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >The SFFaudio Blog has a review of<br /></span><div style="font-family: georgia;" class="post-title"> <h3><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=711" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Review of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Live in Concert by Douglas Adams">Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Live in Concert by Douglas Adams</a></span></h3></div><span style="font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >Take a look.<br /><br />Off to the Stars of the <a href="http://www.myspace.com/kaulinsium">Galaxy</a> by Kaulinsium.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-7381319812281300382007-08-23T16:27:00.000+02:002007-08-23T16:28:49.577+02:00Spooner or Later : Um ... a New Book on Verbal Blunders by ErardUm ... er .... ah. Having trouble speaking or writing? Do you suffer from <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/wassink/LING200/lect9_phonology3.ppt">lips of the stung</a>? Do you sometimes write <span style="font-style: italic;">there</span> for <span style="font-style: italic;">their</span>? You are not <span style="font-style: italic;">a loan.</span> Life is a process of communication, beset with surprising linguistic obstacles.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.michaelerard.com/">Micheal Erard</a> is "<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">a journalist who writes mainly about language at the intersection of technology, policy, law, and science."</span> He has a new book out <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Um-Slips-Stumbles-Verbal-Blunders/dp/0375423567">Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean</a>.<br /><br />Erard talks about those slips of the tongue that befall most of us at <span style="font-style: italic;">tome sime</span> or another. It is an instructive world of verbal blunders made famous in our own day by US President Bush's "<a href="http://www.dubyaspeak.com/">Dubyaspeak</a>", which led to Erard's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Um-Slips-Stumbles-Verbal-Blunders/dp/0375423567">Um</a>.<br /><br />But the problem of dubyaspeak is older than President Bush. Former US President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover">Herbert Hoover</a> was, for example, also famed indirectly by a spoonerism, a lexical flip by radio announcer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Von_Zell">Harry von Zell</a>, who referred to Hoover once as <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Hoobert Heever</span> (read <a href="http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/radio/vonzell.asp">this account</a> as a general lesson in evidence).<br /><br /><a href="http://umthebook.com/index.php?/reviews/">In his review of Erard's book</a>, Dennis Lythgoe at the Desert Morning News writes as follows about "Um" and "Dubyaspeak":<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Erard became interested in the subject of verbal blunders during the 2000 presidential campaign, when George W. Bush’s malapropisms were referred to as “abnormal” in media reports. Erard thought critics were too hard on Bush, because he believes all of us commit verbal blunders.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">He is convinced that making mistakes in speech is not a sign of a lack of intelligence. It is often caused by anxieties — people repeat words and restart sentences if they’re nervous. Or they may simply be accidental.</span>"<br /><br />That may in part be confirmed at the blawg <a href="http://yayarolly.blogspot.com/">Yayarolly goes to law school</a>, where "<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">a 30-something's adventure in law school writes</span>" in "<a href="http://yayarolly.blogspot.com/2006/05/stick-fork-in-1l-im-done.html">Stick a fork in 1L, I'm done</a>":<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Seriously. I'm tried. That's really the only way to describe what I am feeling right now. Not euphoric, not relieved, just tired. And a little concerned if my speech will ever be the same again... I've been spitting out spoonerisms over the last week like it's going out of style.</span>"<br /><br />For more details about <a href="http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enDE231DE231&q=define%3Amalapropism&btnG=Search">malopropisms</a> , <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Aspoonerism&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enDE231DE231">spoonerisms</a>, and similar verbal blunders, <a href="http://umthebook.com/index.php?/reviews">see these reviews</a> of Erard's book.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-61920067903101769972007-06-21T14:14:00.000+02:002007-06-21T14:55:44.731+02:00Finders Seekers : Dichotomy in InnovationArt and Literature<br />have something to do with innovation.<br /><br />Are innovators "seekers"? or "finders" ?<br />and does it make a difference ?<br /><br />We refer here to the website <a href="http://www.artsofinnovation.com/">Arts of Innovation</a><br />and its sister <a href="http://artsofinnovation.wordpress.com/">Arts of Innovation blog</a><br />which are <a href="http://www.artsofinnovation.com/about.html">described as follows</a>:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">The author</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><a href="http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/atoz/article_768634.php">Colin Stewart</a>, innovation columnist for the <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/">Orange County Register</a>, runs this Web site and the associated Arts of Innovation blog. He can be reached by e-mail at cestewart (at) cox.net.</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><br /><br />The researcher</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">ArtsOfInnovation.com and the Arts of Innovation blog elaborate on research into the careers of experimental and conceptual innovators by University of Chicago economist <a href="http://www.davidgalenson.com/">David Galenson</a>.</span>"<br />[links added]<br /><br />Galenson is the author of<br /><a href="http://www.davidgalenson.com/">Old Masters and Young Geniuses:<br />Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity</a><br /><br />which has been reviewed by Malcolm Gladwell <a href="http://www.davidgalenson.com/">as follows</a> in <a href="http://www.davidgalenson.com/malcolmgladwell-lecture.pdf">Age Before Beauty</a>:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">There’s a really wonderful book that’s come out by a guy named David Galenson, who’s an economist at the University of Chicago... There’s something very interesting and important to be learned about the way our minds work by entertaining the notion that there are two very different styles of creativity, the Picasso and the Cézanne.</span>"<br /><br />Definitely worth a read and we have blogrolled them at <a href="http://literarypundit.blogspot.com/">Literary Pundit</a> and <a href="http://www.lawpundit.com/blog/lawpundit.htm">LawPundit</a>.<br /><br />See also <a href="http://insideinnovation.wordpress.com/">Inside Innovation</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-37948776954436036602007-06-18T15:54:00.001+02:002007-06-19T12:58:24.127+02:00Vanity Fair and the Images in MirrorsIn Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray writes:*<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face</span>." (p.8)<br /><br />By the same token, society for its part rewards most highly those who mirror its own image:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Vanity Fair -- Vanity Fair! Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read -- who had the habits and the cunning of a boor : whose aim in life was <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/01/24/pettifogger/">pettifogging</a> : who never had a taste, or emotion, or enjoyment, but what was sordid and foul : and yet he had rank, and honours, and power, somehow : and was a dignitary of the land, and a pillar of the state. He was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sheriff">high sheriff</a>, and rode in a golden coach. Great ministers and statesmen courted him ; and in Vanity Fair he had a higher place than the most brilliant genius or spotless virtue.</span>" (p. 77, links added by LawPundit)<br /><br />Not those who are "better" or "worse" are loved, but those who are mirrored faces of the beholder.<br /><br />This mirror also determines how we view the rest of humanity and the groups within it.<br /><br />Just a thought.<br /><br />*From William Makepeace Thackeray, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Penguin-Classics-William-Makepeace-Thackeray/dp/0141439831">Vanity Fair, Penguin Popular Classics</a>, 1994, first published in 1877Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-23919316101385586742007-01-22T23:40:00.000+01:002007-01-22T23:43:07.914+01:00Short Book Review of WordglossThe following is our book review of Jim O'Donnell's book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wordgloss-Cultural-Lexicon-John-Banville/dp/1843510731/">Wordgloss : A Cultural Lexicon</a> , which we have reviewed at <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wordgloss-Cultural-Lexicon-John-Banville/dp/1843510731/">Amazon.co.uk</a>:<br /><br />"<span style="color:#7f3f00;">Was this the wish of the Demiurge? Boston to Washington DC is a conurbation! Cui bono?! Do we live in a lexical dystopia awaiting a thaumaturgic gloss revival? Who today knows that "pleonasms are tautologous and should be avoided"? Errata need not be repetitive - a verisimilitude!<br /><br />Do you need this book? Do you know the words?<br /><br />Author Jim O'Donnell (book Foreword by John Banville) writes in his preface that "the extraordinary expansion of modern knowledge and its fission into micro-specialties" has created "a niagara of words and concepts flowing from a wide range of disciplines that we have never explored."<br /><br />The everyday result is that our increasingly sophisticated modern world of communications is confronted by the Hydra-headed cultural stumbling block of a classics-based "verbal universe" manifesting an erstwhile lexical heritage to which most readers no longer have any personal or educational connection.<br /><br />Wordgloss is not a quintessential corrective panacea for this problem, but O'Donnell writes that "Wordgloss is full of the words and concepts you always meant to look up. It tells you where they came from and how they acquired the meaning or meanings they now have."<br /><br />The book is written "associatively", which is "pedagogically" more effective than the "linear" scientific style of dictionaries.<br />Definitely a fun and educating vade-mecum read.<br />Fons et origo!</span>"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-35076950640711102152007-01-22T01:16:00.000+01:002007-01-22T01:18:05.975+01:00Cosmology and Religion at Science a Go Go<a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/">Science a Go Go</a> (<a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/">http://www.scienceagogo.com/</a>) has a zippy website from down under devoted to "<span style="color: rgb(127, 63, 0);">the latest science news, research tidbits and science discussion</span>".<br /><br />What caught my attention were their science book reviews. See:<br /><a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/books_2005.shtml">Science a Go Go Book Reviews 2005</a><br /><a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/books_2006.shtml">Science a Go Go Book Reviews 2006</a><br />for a good overview of what is going on in science,<br />through the medium of books.<br /><br />Online book reviews, still fairly rare outside of e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Stones-Scholars-Decipherment-Megaliths/dp/1412013445/sr=8-2/qid=1169422345/ref=sr_1_2/102-4419686-0815329?ie=UTF8&s=books">Amazon</a>,<br />or involving the payment of online fees for viewing, as at <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3284/is_200406/ai_n13169154">Antiquity</a> magazine,<br />will surely play an increasingly greater role in science and literature,<br />and we were gratified to see <a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/books-21-9-06.shtml">Science a Go Go</a> <a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/books-21-9-06.shtml">review</a> our book <a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/books-21-9-06.shtml">Stars Stones and Scholars</a><br />on the same page as their review of <a href="http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/books-21-9-06.shtml">Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory</a><br />by legal expert and <a href="http://www.arn.org/larson/elhome.htm">Pulitzer Prize winning author</a> <a href="http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/larson.html">Edward J. Larson</a> (2006).<br /><br />Tim Radford in an interview with Larson in the Guardian titled <a href="http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/larsonart.html">A Life in Writing: A Voyage to the Origin of Species</a>, writes:<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Larson won the Pulitzer Prize for his <a href="http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/17.2/br_13.html">Summer for the Gods</a>, a book on the Scopes trial, in which American anti-evolutionists challenged science in the 1920s. He followed with Trial and Error, once again about the creation-evolution controversy. Right now, he is contemplating one book on the coming of telegraphy, another on Antarctica. Evolution's Workshop grew out of a preoccupation with the history of ideas, rather than of kings and presidents. In the course of looking at the progress of the great Darwinian idea, it seemed to him that the Galapagos were the Clapham Junction of biology: all sorts of people passed through.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">"I believed that ideas in general are the most powerful thing in the world. An idea was more powerful than an army. In the western world it seemed to me that science was the criterion for truth," [Larson] says. "Darwin wrote his Origin of Species in 1859. At that time Queen Victoria was on the throne in England and James Buchanan was president of the United States. Now who has a greater impact on us today? How we think, how we live, who we are?" </span>"<br /><br />We agree.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-71856072970579198212007-01-15T02:55:00.000+01:002007-01-15T02:55:21.725+01:00Books Most Searched For in 2006Gee, a lot of surprises in this list at AbeBooks.com of the most searched for books in the year 2006:<br /><a href="http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Community/Featured/2006-search.shtml?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=com-2007-01&cm_pla=content&cm_ite=most-searched&cm_lm=el:83e794d96e">AbeBooks: The Most Searched For Books in 2006</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5919167.post-67336757508041658532007-01-12T13:54:00.000+01:002007-01-12T13:55:12.553+01:00ISBN Numbers have 13 Characters Starting January 1, 2007<a href="http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp">Are You Ready for ISBN-13?</a><br />and the fact <a href="http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp">that</a>:<br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Beginning January 1, 2007, all books will be published with ISBN-13s</span>."<br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.isbn.org/converterret.asp">this link</a> to go the <a href="http://www.isbn.org/converterret.asp">ISBN-13 Online Converter</a>.<br /><br />Not everyone needs this, but every reader of books should know about it, and most authors and readers out there probably are not yet aware of what is going on, so we alert to it here.<br /><br />The reason for this posting is that a monumental change which affects the entire world of books on our planet started January 1, 2007 (actually, the sunrise period began in 2005). It is a change in <a href="http://www.isbn.org/toolkit.html">ISBN numbers</a>. ISBN numbers are the unique numbers given to books by publishers and used to order books wherever you order them as a user. The reason for this change was that <a href="http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp">ISBN</a> was running out of numbers.<br /><br />Take a look at the following numbers for our book <a href="http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/robots/03-1722.html">Stars, Stones and Scholars</a> where the ISBN-10 numbers (the ISBN-10's) have been converted by our publisher to ISBN-13 numbers (the ISBN-13's). These will be called ISBN-10s and ISBN-13s.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.starsstonesscholars.com/">Stars Stones Scholars</a> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412013445/">softcover</a>)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"># ISBN-10:</span> 1412013445<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"># ISBN-13:</span> 978-1412013444<br /><br /><a href="http://starsstonesandscholars.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_archive.html#106769679986997619">Stars Stones Scholars</a> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412201357/">hardcover</a>)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"># ISBN-10:</span> 1412201357<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"># ISBN-13:</span> 978-1412201353<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">ISBN-10 Numbers</span><br /><br />Prior to January 1, 2007, ISBN numbers had 10 characters.<br />Those are the ISBN-10 numbers.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">ISBN-13 Numbers</span><br /><br />Beginning on January 1, 2007, ISBN numbers are 13 characters.<br />Those are the ISBN-13 numbers.<br /><br />"<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Beginning January 1, 2007, all books will be published with ISBN-13s</span>."<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Important Links</span><br /><br />Below are <a href="http://www.isbn.org/toolkit.html">important links from ISBN</a> for authors, retailers, publishers and everyone interested in books and the book trade:<br /><br />"<a href="http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp">Are You Ready for ISBN-13?</a><br /><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">An overview for publishers with the critical do's and don't and the recommended implementation timeline. Why is this transition taking place and how does it impact your copyright page, your book covers and your bar codes? Find out now.</span></li></ul><br /><a href="http://www.pubnet.org/scs/isbn13.html">Pubnet EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) 13-Digit Conversion News</a><br /><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">If you receive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange">EDI</a> orders via <a href="http://www.pubnet.org/">Pubnet</a>, be sure to learn more about changes needed to support EDI transactions.</span></li></ul><br /><a href="http://www.bisg.org/pi/index.html">BISG Resources on ISBN-13</a><br /><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">The <a href="http://www.bisg.org/">Book Industry Study Group</a>, Inc. (BISG) ISBN-13 Task Force maintains this site as a source of authoritative information and recommended implementation guidelines for ISBN-13.</span></li></ul><br /><a href="http://www.isbn.org/ISBN13_faq.pdf">ISBN-13 Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)</a><br /><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Brochure from <a href="http://www.bowker.com/">Bowker</a>, the US ISBN Agency</span></li></ul><br /><a href="http://www.isbn-international.org/en/download/implementation-guidelines-04.pdf">Guidelines for the Implementation of 13-Digit ISBNs (PDF)</a><br /><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Information from the <a href="http://www.isbn-international.org/">International ISBN Agency</a>.</span></li></ul><br /><a href="http://www.bisg.org/docs/Planning_for_ISBN-13.pdf">A BISAC Briefing on How to Manage the Transition (PDF)</a><br /><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Information from <a href="http://www.bisg.org/">BISG</a> on operations planning.</span></li></ul>_________________<br />The <a href="http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/resources/readability-score/">readability score</a> for this posting:<br />Gunning-Fog Index: 20<br />Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12<br />Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 41Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0