Our Daily Red

You may not have heard of the next generation of great scientists yet. Here’s your chance to get acquainted: Read What’s Next? Dispatches on the Future of Science. The book’s editor assembled a cast of up-and-coming smart people and asked them to look into their space-time continuum portals for a look to the future of science. Among things they saw is a migration northward as climate change continues, and one doomsday scenario: The extinction of the human race. Homo sapiens exstinctus. The folks at VSL were appropriately terrified.

Publisher Random House says, “This wide-ranging collection of never-before-published essays offers the very latest insights into the daunting scientific questions of our time. Its contributors—some of the most brilliant young scientists working today—provide not only an introduction to their cutting-edge research, but discuss the social, ethical, and philosophical ramifications of their work. With essays covering fields as diverse as astrophysics, paleoanthropology, climatology, and neuroscience, What’s Next? is a lucid and informed guide to the new frontiers of science.”

Baby's got a gun

Tor.com, purveyor of sci-fi and fantasy lit, gives away a fair amount of its properties no doubt in hopes of luring dollars from grateful readers.

This can present some risk. What if readers don’t like it? Or worse: What if they just go on reading the freebies, sponging all these books and short stories without ever spending a dime?

Well, it must work on some level, because Tor keeps doing it. A recent endeavor is a whacky short story by Terry Bisson, TVA Baby.

TVA Baby starts out in the skies over the Tennessee Valley, or the Mississippi River, depending on who’s right, and things (literally) take a rapid descent from there. It’s a bumpy ride, narrated with a unique point of view. Some comments by readers that followed found the occasional lapses in logic and continuity annoying, which might  miss the point. See for yourself.

Or if you prefer, hear for yourself.

And if you’d like to get a virtually limitless stream of free stuff from Tor, sign up here.

Amazon’s explanation that the removal of certain sexually explicit materials from its sales ranking over the weekend were a clumsy accident didn’t do much to placate angry advocates of said materials.

Media portrayals (Oh, wait – we’re media too) of the wounded parties as primarily gay-rights activists seemed to only annoy critics even more.

The Seattle Times reports that Amazon is chagrined: ” ‘This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection,’ said Drew Herdener, Amazon’s communications director.

” ‘It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles — in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted  books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing books from Amazon’s main product search.’

“Amazon previously blamed a ‘glitch,’ which seemed to intensify anger among some gay and lesbian activists who suspected homophobic censorship.”

Could this become yet another Seattle-based company that has become so large and ubiquitous that it has become the Seattle behemoth we all love to hate?

Well, Amazon is the nation’s largest online retailer by far (with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of runner-up Staples, according to Wikipedia). A quick Google of “I hate Amazon” yields “about” 4,500 matches, and Yahoo finds a robust 13,800 “I hate Amazon” matches. Lotta hatin’ goin’ on.

Microsoft and Starbucks are two other Seattle bigs that have legions of haters. Perhaps Amazon’s success has made this status of  “most-hated”  inevitable. Perhaps Amazon will view it as a badge of honor. You hate us – you really hate us! Oh, joy!

There have been no reports of mass Kindle burnings or “Seattle Tea Parties” or other pointless gestures of futility at this juncture..

(Editorial aside – the editor here really dislikes the use of impact as a verb, as in “it impacted 57,310 books” as quoted above – we thought you should know this.)

Dave Wilson’s Our Daily Red is seldom daily and rarely red, but it is full-bodied, piquant and tannic. It does not necessarily represent the views of DelMio.com, its sponsors or its editor’s mother – and, in fact, his mom probably has not given a whit of thought to Amazon.com’s handling of sales rankings.

Around the time of John Updike’s death, writer Charles McGrath of the New York Times was asked to read poems from Updike’s last book of poems, Endpoint, which he composed and arranged on his deathbed.

McGrath obliged, but professed to being a tad intimidated at being asked to vocalize the words written by a writer who was himself a well-known “superb” public reader.

Wrote McGrath: “My only qualifications, if you can call them that, are that I knew Updike and that I used to read a lot to my kids. From years of fidgeting and nodding off during poetry readings, though, I know just how hard it is to read verse well. Moreover, Updike wrote many of the poems in Endpoint while literally on his deathbed. They’re heartbreakingly sad, and I wasn’t sure I could get through them without blubbing.”

But oblige he did, and The Times posted the results for the world to hear.

Your humble editor considers Updike one of the great writers of his time. Some critics accused him of being sexist or this or that – I say he was a product of his time who learned and grew enlightened, but remained informed by those formative years, much like his characters.

Rabbit comes first to mind.

But that character kept re-emerging, slightly different, but still (perhaps in my mind) harboring Rabbit’s voice, whether the checkout clerk in the grocery store enchanted by the slightly chubby girl in the swimsuit, or the Tyrannosaurus or Iguanadon at the cocktail party During the Jurassic.

Our Daily Red is rarely daily and seldom red, but it is written by DelMio editor Dave Wilson.

Suze Orman didn’t start out a TV star and author so rich that she could afford to give away her books on Oprah.

In fact, Orman is very much a by-the-bootstraps success story who long ago confessed that she did not know how to write, even as bids were piling in for her second book. Lucky for her, her message was more important than her literary talent.

Portfolio.com tells the tale:
“The bidding was going up and up and up,” says Orman, “I said, ‘Stop the bidding, Binky (Urban, her agent). I can’t take it anymore. Somebody’s going to pay me $800,000 to write a book. I can’t write. I’m a finance person.’” She continues: “I told Chip Gibson [then the head of Crown Publishing], ‘Sir, before I sign this contract I have two things to tell you. No. 1: I don’t know how to write. So I don’t want you giving me $800,000 to write. And No. 2: Are you aware that I’m a lesbian?’

“As it happens, neither turned out to be roadblocks. For one, Orman was a personal finance expert, not a movie star. And for another, Gibson says, ‘We weren’t hiring Suze to win the Nobel Prize in literature.’

“Urban seconds that.  ‘I just thought, ‘Great. Finally an author who knows she can’t write.’

“Orman’s book was called The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom; it drew heavily on her New Age sensibility and sold over 3 million copies. From there, shows like Today and Oprah came calling and money began to pour in.”

This is what you call a loss leader.

When Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father was published in 1995, the book didn’t sell enough copies to pay back his $30,000 advance, says the New York Times. At least not right away.

Along comes the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and this kid from Chicago makes a splash (a more positive impact than a certain former president-to-be made in a similar setting in 1988). Sales skyrocket, Obama follows with The Audacity of Hope and now he’s a millionaire. So he packs up his things … and you know how it goes from there.

Now the president has an agreement to publish a slimmed-down version of Dreams From My Father for young readers. He apparently has a deal to produce a third nonfiction work, to be published after he leaves office because, well, he’s kind of busy right now.

On another presidential front, George W. Bush has inked a book deal worth $7 million, according to Lynn Sherr, a former ABC News correspondent. Tentatively title Decision Points, the book will focus on important life decisions, Bush told The Associated Press.

Still more to read on the subject HERE.

Would you sing it to a fox?

The Dr. is no longer with us, but fans of Ted Geisel – aka Dr. Seuss – are celebrating his birthday today.

If you were out and about over the weekend you might have spotted tall red-and-white-striped hats bobbing about in libraries or stores in an homage to the good doctor.

Theodore Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904. He died in 1991.

http://www.seussville.com/

http://www.catinthehat.org/

http://www.drseussart.com/

We’ve been waiting for this one.

As usual, colleges and universities are at the forefront of adapting digital technologies. Music downloads, texting and other media uses are a ubiquitous part of campus life.

And now Northwest Missouri State is looking to go totally digital with textbooks.

Junior Kevin Green tells NPR, “I find it easy to just go through it as [the instructor] discusses it in class and highlight things as he brings them up,” using his school-issued laptop to access the textbook. He is one of 500 students in a test group going all-digital.

Digital textbooks haven’t exactly swept the country yet, finding pockets of acceptance and pockets of resistance.

The digital textbook of the future will go way beyond simply reformatting text for e-reader — it’s likely to include video and all form of interactivity, adapting available Web technology. Modern students expect no less.

Cost is a big factor in the move: One book can cost upward of $200. E-book versions cost about half that, says NPR – which still seems ridiculously high.

Seems an enterprising professor and a few media-savvy undergrads (is that redundant?) could put together a nice e-book with a few bells and whistles for one-quarter the going rate and still make a killing. Viva la revolucion!

See the NPR story here.

LISTEN

Our Daily Red isn’t often daily and is seldom red, but it is written by DelMio Editorial Director Dave Wilson.

Some books would be better left unwritten. This is one such book.

Gary Condit disappeared from headlines after his brush with infamy in 2001, but a recent breakthrough in finding a suspect in Chandra Levy’s death has returned the former congressman to the spotlight.

Condit, who had a “relationship” with the 23-year-old Levy and was questioned about her disappearance but not ever charged with a crime, nonetheless saw his political career come to an end. After years of silence, he is reportedly shopping for a publisher to tell his story.

Publishers Marketplace reported that Condit’s agent says the book will address his long silence and also “the media and the public’s power to destroy a public figure and keep on punishing them without end, regardless of guilt or innocence.”

Condit told an Arizona television station, “I had always hoped to have the opportunity to tell my side of this story, but too many were not prepared to listen. Now I plan to do so, but I will have no further comments on this story at this time.”

Levy’s family cannot be overjoyed to have to relive the slow torture of her disappearance months before her body was found in a park, or the lurid circumstances surrounding the whole thing.

The suspect, a Salvadoran immigrant in prison for attacks on two other women in the same park, was a known entity for some time. Apparently sloppy police work hasn’t helped matters there.

Now, Condit’s plans to write a book seem to be just adding insult to injury.

Gary, let it go already.

Our Daily Red is not quite daily and seldom red, but it is written by DelMio Editorial Director Dave Wilson.

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/archives/005087.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090222/ap_on_re_us/chandra_levy

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0209/597553.html

Amid all the hubbub about who’s getting what in the economic stimulus package, a voice of reason can be hard to find. Enter the man who declared The World is Flat.

Thomas Friedman on economic stimulus plans: “When it comes to helping companies, precious public money should focus on start-ups, not bailouts.”

Instead of pouring billions and billions of dollars into GM and Chrysler, take just some of that money and put it toward startups that have bright ideas and no megamillion-dollar CEOs to subsidize. Amen, and verily.

Read the column here.

Our Daily Red is written by Delmio Editorial Director Dave Wilson.

Oops.

That must be what Congress is thinking as the prospect of yanking children’s books off shelves to prove they’re not toxic looms with coming enforcement of the Consumer Product Safety Act.

Banish Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too?

Opines the San Jose Mercury News: “As Tigger would say, that’s re-dikorus.
“The lawmakers thought they were voting to protect kids from exposure to lead and plastic. But they may have forced publishers, libraries and bookstores to conduct safety testing of all books to prove they aren’t toxic. Especially books with plastic or cloth covers geared to toddlers.”

The Merc suggests an exemption for libraries might be in order.

The Mercury News editorial is HERE.

View legal opinion HERE (PDF):

View the video from the publishers meeting HERE.

They’re at it again. Oprah Winfrey and Suze Orman are collaborating on another free book download promotion, this time for Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan. It’s not like Orman or Oprah need the money, so have yourself a guilt-free download on Suze. This latest work is a survival guide of sorts in the wake of the financial crises that have erupted in the last couple of years

Just to make sure readers know Orman’s paying attention to the mayhem breaking out on the financial markets and in all likelihood in your life, an excerpt:
“Every U.S. taxpayer is now on the hook for a massive bailout—a bailout enginee red by the
same players in the federal government that had
turned their back on regulating the very practices
at the root of today’s fi nancial crisis. Angry? You
should be.
“But wait—it gets worse: Th e colossal miscalculations
on Wall Street have contributed to a massive
decline in the value of your 401(k) and IRA.
Years of diligent saving have been wiped out, and
you are afraid that your retirement accounts will
never fully recover.”
(Your humble editor just got his latest 401(k) statement, and it’s down more than 40 percent in the past year – ouch!)

To grab Oprah’s free download (only good until Jan. 15, 2009), CLICK HERE.

Otherwise, go to your friendly neighborhood bookstore to pay full price.

And to register for the live Webcast Thursday, CLICK HERE.

Dave Wilson, a former editor for Knight Ridder newspapers, is editorial director at DelMio.com.

The title says it all.

Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy is the just-released report by the National Endowment for the Arts,  and it says that for the first time in 25 years, literary reading is up among American adults.

One the NEA’s flagship programs, the Big Read, is earning some credit for the success of the last few years. Other programs include Shakespeare in American Communities and Poetry Out Loud. All of these programs did not exist in 2002.

In his preface to the report, Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wrote: “Cultural decline is not inevitable. For those of us who have studied the impact of active and engaged literacy on the lives of individuals and communities, Reading on the Rise provides inspiring news. I can think of no happier way to end my tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts than by sharing such felicitous data and congratulating the legions of teachers,
librarians, writers, parents, public officials, and philanthropists who helped achieve the renascence. While we cannot be complacent, we can surely pause to celebrate our common success.”

While improvements have been tracked across most demographic groups, the report took the greatest gain to be among young adults. “The youngest group (ages 18-24) has undergone a
particularly inspiring transformation from a 20 percent decline in 2002 to a 21 percent increase
in 2008—a startling level of change.”

The report is based on data from “The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008.

To view report (PDF) CLICK HERE.

The New York Times reports: “Among its chief findings is that for the first time since 1982, when the bureau began collecting such data, the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen.”

To read the NYT story, CLICK HERE.

Some of us suspected all along. Children’s books are overflowing with left-wing idealism: sharing and caring, protecting the well-being of Chicken Littles everywhere. Even Dr. Suess’ The Lorax, an environmentalist manifesto, has fallen under suspicion. Professors Julia Mickenberg and Philip Nel have exposed this pattern in Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature.
Caleb Crain writes about this New York University Press publication in that bastion of liberalism, The New York Times.
Lest we get ourselves in a lather over this commie threat in perfect binding (it could already be on your bookshelves!), Crain divides the works into three categories: Charming, Insufferable and Inappropriate.
The charming stuff you pat on the head and think, Well, isn’ that cute? The Insufferable will make you (or your kids/grandkids/wards of state) roll their eyes and the Inappropriate will probably leave some readers wondering, What was the editor thinking??
In other words, impressionable young minds will soon outgrow the message, for better or for worse.
To read the Sunday Times essay, CLICK HERE.

From NYT essay:

“Julia L. Mickenberg and Philip Nel document in Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature (New York University, $32.95), Marxist principles have been dripping steadily into the minds of American youth for more than a century. This isn’t altogether surprising. After all, most parents want their children to be far left in their early years — to share toys, to eschew the torture of siblings, to leave a clean environment behind them, to refrain from causing the extinction of the dog, to rise above coveting and hoarding, and to view the blandishments of corporate America through a lens of harsh skepticism. But fewer parents wish for their children to carry all these virtues into adulthood. It is one thing to convince your child that no individual owns the sandbox and that it is better for all children that it is so. It is another to hope that when he grows up he will donate the family home to a workers’ collective.”

It’s hard to verify whether America’s most wanted fugitive is still alive, let alone if he’s an author in the making, but there are reports out of Pakistan that Osama bin Laden is writing a book in Arabic about his al-qaida cause and the motivation behind his terrorist campaign.

We wish to take this opportunity to editorialize and wish only death, suffering and misery upon bin Laden, not necessarily in that order, but definitely all three in extra-large doses. He is a disgusting piece of filth worthy only of our scorn and many, many, many bullets. Ahem. Sorry, kind of lost our cool there.  Now back to the news.

Following is a report from Press Trust of India:
Islamabad, Oct 25 (PTI) World’s most wanted fugitive, Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is reportedly writing a book on the struggle of his terrorist network that dispenses money, logistical support and training to radical groups in over 50 countries.
The book, being written in Arabic, will later be translated into English. Bin Laden decided to write the book to counter “propaganda” against Al Qaeda, Geo News channel reported.

Bin Laden is writing the book with the assistance of a “young man with a Middle Eastern background who will later translate the text into English”, the channel reported. The book will reportedly highlight atrocities allegedly being committed on Muslims by the Western world.

Bin Laden will also discuss how the medieval Crusades greatly impacted the growth of Western influence in world affairs and ultimately helped the US to control the oil reserves of the Muslim states.

The book will shed light on the evolution of Al Qaeda and 9/11 terror attacks on the US.

Bin Laden, who was born in Riyadh on March 10, 1957, is a member of the prominent bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia.

The Al Qaeda leader has been indicted in a US federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of 10 most wanted fugitives.

Though bin Laden has not been indicted for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, he has reportedly claimed responsibility for the strikes. Reports suggest he earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979, or a degree in public administration in 1981.

Bin Laden also operated from Pakistan for a brief while in the 1980s as part of the mujahideen movement against the Soviet forces that had occupied Afghanistan.

For more information, CLICK HERE.

Vanguard Group Inc. founder and former CEO John Bogle is coming out with a book in November, written long before the current financial doomsday erupted, that warned about the dangers of overleveraged banking and the obscene (his words) compensation awarded to CEOs of failed — failed! — companies.

His book, Enough: True Measures of Money, Business and Life, harshly (and rightly) criticizes the rampant greed that has triggered the global market chaos, which began more than a year ago as the subprime mortgage nightmare-in-the-making came home to roost. As banks began writing down their losses, the derivatives (here’s where it gets fuzzy) that were supposed to back or be backed by mortgages (did I mention fuzzy?) and the insurers and bankers that were supposed to vouch for one another suddenly found themselves in deep doo-doo.

Suddenly governments are bailing out the banks that were supposed to be invulnerable and the world’s largest insurers of insurers of banks of insurers of banks of governments. Or something like that.  Seven hundred billion dollars here, $700 billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

And suddenly, Iceland is bankrupt!

Bogle laments the greedy profit motive that has no anchorage in value. Bogle should know value. One of Vanguard’s most successful funds, the Windsor Fund, is known as a  “value” fund (disclosure: I have a fair sum invested in Windsor). A simple summary: Value fund managers seek companies that they believe are undervalued on the market and expect to rise in value over time. It might be an unglamorous company in an out-of-fashion sector (one thing I know: Investors are not rational) that is otherwise a solid company.

To view the news feed, and follow it to the Philadelphia Inquirer column, CLICK HERE.

Our Daily Red is written by Delmio Editorial Director Dave Wilson, who is not looking forward to his next 401(k) statement.

Google’s boss points out something I’ve railed about before: blogs and Internet “news” outlets that play fast and loose with the truth and facts.
Advertising Age (adAge.com) writes: “The Internet is fast becoming a ‘cesspool’ where false information thrives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted.

” ‘Brands are the solution, not the problem,’ Mr. Schmidt said. ‘Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.’ ”

Yes, brands that build reputations for credibility, with rules of acceptable procedures. Credibility doesn’t happen overnight. But it can be destroyed overnight.

Meanwhile, the institutions that protect the integrity of journalism, newspapers and magazines and — to a degree — broadcast news, are shriveling as market share and advertising dollars migrate to the cesspool.
So the $64 million question is, who will uphold some standards of journalism if print news disappears?

See more about the Ad Age piece on Schmidt, CLICK HERE.

Our Daily Red is written by Dave Wilson, editorial director at DelMio.com.

Well, the House just passed its version of the Wall Street rescue bill on the second try, days after the Senate passed its sweetened bill (Who knew pork was so sweet???). This time the bill passed pretty easily. I just felt my wallet get a little thinner. Ouch.

I guess I’m like a lot of other people: Not really sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, given the dismal performance of government when it comes to minding the hen house. I can’t help suspect that some sorry SOB is going to get rich(er) off this, and that really irks me.

We shall see.

Our Daily Red is a blog by DelMio’s Grand Poobah of editorial content, Dave Wilson. Dave moonlights as chief cook and bottle washer and captain of the mop brigade. He can be reached at Dave.Wilson@delmio.com. Or you can post a reply to this posting.

The bailout plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a few other bigs, like AIG, aren’t going over so well with Congress now that the initial pangs of panic have worn off. Paulson and Bush have rushed in with a pile of money, if you consider $700 billion to be a pile of money, to save this financial behemoths from their own arrogance and screwups. Sound familiar?

This story will have the nonfiction aisles clogged with stories of recriminations. At least for those left who can afford to buy the books.

If it hadn’t already been established as fully mainstream it is now: Today’s Martha Stewart show featured How to Write a Blog, with instructions to go to her site, read her blog and sign up a WordPress account. Anyone can do it! Make millions!

With apologies to Bob Dylan: Everybody must get blogged.

See Martha Blog with Perez Hilton: CLICK HERE.

And see the Queen of all Media, Perez Hilton.