Two men are being sought in connection to a robbery inside of a popular video game retailer in Irish Channel on Thursday morning, police said. The New Orleans Police Department said in a release on Thursday that the robbery took place around 11:59 a.m. inside of a GameStop store located at 520 Saint Andrew Street.
The manager of the store told police that a man wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt, yellow-and-black plaid winter hat and black rimmed glasses entered the store and acted suspiciously before the robbery took place. According to the report, the man walked in and began texting on his phone before spending several moments standing by the front door and looking out the windows before exiting.
Immediately after he left the store, a different man, wearing a black-and-grey North Face jacket, blue jeans and a black ski-mask, walked in while hiding a semiautomatic handgun behind his leg. The man walked up to the counter, drew his gun and threw a black bag onto the counter, advising the manager to "fill it up".
The manager quickly handed over $520 in cash from the register to the gunman, who, according to police, was surprised by a customer entering the store, prompting the gunman to flee the shop. He was last seen running towards Rousseau Street, police said.
Gas station robbed: Police said a camouflage rag-donning thief held up a gas station at gunpoint on Wednesday afternoon.
According to police, the gunman walked into the Murphy Oil gas station located at 3921 Behrman Highway wearing a camouflage rag tied around his face shortly after noon and brandished a gun before demanding money from a person inside of the store
The victim complied with the gunman's demands and handed him the money before he fled the scene.
Suicides in the Treme, eastern New Orleans: A man committed suicide Thursday morning inside of a Treme-Lafitte residence, police said.
Police said the man was found hanging from a ceiling fan inside of a home in the 1100 block of Esplanade Avenue around 8:22 a.m.
In another incident that same morning, a woman shot and killed herself inside of her home in eastern New Orleans, police said.
Police said the woman's son heard a loud noise coming from the master bedroom inside of a house in the 4300 block of San Remo Road around 8:10 a.m. When the son went to investigate, he found his mother dead on the floor with a gunshot wound to her head.
According to the police report, the woman had a long history of suffering with depression.
Woman beaten, robbed: Police said that a woman was beaten and had her purse stolen in the Holly Grove neighborhood early Thursday morning.
According to police reports, the woman was sleeping inside of her residence in the 9200 block of Apple Street around 8:34 a.m. when she was woken by a knock on the door. The woman, who allegedly knew the man knocking, refused to open it, prompting the man to kick the door in.
Her assailant then allegedly proceeded to choke and slap her before taking her purse and fleeing the scene, police said.?
For several years, the church we attend has been hosting a Holiday party for the ones in the nursing home. We sing, bring cookies and hand deliver presents. We have participated for many years. It is? a great way to give back.
I decided since the girls were going to be Santa's helper, they needed the appropriate attire. They wore their shirts that say Santa's Helper.
There were a few who could not come to the meeting room so we had to deliver them in their rooms.
These men and women are some of the most appreciative people. They are so excited about their gifts. For some, it may be the only present they receive this Christmas.
We could not end the night without? a few photos with Santa.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users' inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called "other."
Launched in 2011, the "other" folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely don't know, based on Facebook's reading of your social connections. Many users ignore this folder.
Now, users will be able to pay $1 to route their messages to non-friends. Facebook said Thursday that it is testing the service with a small percentage of individuals ? not businesses ? in the U.S.
"For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox," Facebook said in an online post. "For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them."
The company says charging for messages could help discourage spammers.
In October, Facebook unveiled another feature that lets users pay if they want more people to read their updates. For $7, users can promote a post to their friends, just as advertisers do.
From the dept of useless stats: Successful solo pop stars twice as likely to die early
Friday, December 21, 2012
Successful solo rock/pop stars are around twice as likely to die early as those in equally famous bands, indicates research published in the online journalBMJ Open.
And those who died of drug and alcohol problems were more likely to have had a difficult or abusive childhood than those dying of other causes, the findings showed.
The authors included 1489 North American and European rock and pop stars over a 50 year period between 1956 (Elivs Presley) and 2006 (Regina Spektor, The Arctic Monkeys, and Snow Patrol)
Their achievements were determined from international polls and top 40 chart successes, while details of their personal lives/childhoods were drawn from a range of music and official websites, published biographies, and anthologies.
During the 50 year period, 137 (9.2%) famous rock/pop stars died. The average age of death was 45 for North American stars and 39 for those from Europe.
The gap in life expectancy between rock and pop stars and the general population widened consistently until 25 years after fame had been achieved, after which death rates began to approach those of the general population?but only for European stars.
Solo performers were around twice as likely to die early as those in a band, irrespective of whether they were European (9.8% vs 5.4%) or North American (22.8% vs 10.2%).
A successful solo career may be a proxy for fame, it also raises the question of whether the peer support offered by band-mates may be protective, suggest the authors.
While gender and the age at which fame was reached did not influence life expectancy, ethnicity did, with those from non-white backgrounds more likely to die early. And the chances of survival increased among those achieving fame after 1980.
Nearly half of those who died as a result of drugs, alcohol, or violence had at least one unfavourable factor in their childhoods, compared with one in four of those dying of other causes.
These factors?referred to as adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs for short? included physical, sexual, or emotional abuse; living with a chronically depressed, suicidal, mentally or physically ill person; living with a substance abuser; having a close relative in prison; and coming from a broken home or one in which domestic violence featured.
Four out of five dead stars with more than one unfavourable childhood factor died from substance misuse or violence-related causes.
A career as a rock/pop star may be attractive to those escaping an unhappy childhood, but it may also provide the resource to feed a predisposition to unhealthy/risky behaviours, say the authors.
"Pop/rock stars are among the most common role models for children, and surveys suggest that growing numbers aspire to pop stardom," they write. "A proliferation of TV talent shows and new opportunities created by the internet can make this dream appear more achievable than ever."
But they caution: "It is important they [children] recognise that substance use and risk taking may be rooted in childhood adversity rather than seeing them as symbols of success."
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[Dying to be famous: retrospective cohort study of rock and pop star mortality and its association with adverse childhood experiences doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002089]
BMJ-British Medical Journal: http://www.bma.org
Thanks to BMJ-British Medical Journal for this article.
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A group of New York City designers have come together to turn wreckage from Hurricane Sandy into beautiful housewares that will be auctioned off to benefit storm victims. Reclaim NYC, a group started by design/architecture writer Jennifer Krichels and some of her colleagues and friends, called on local designers and artists to create furniture from materials gleaned from Sandy cleanup sites. The group now has the work of 24 contributors to auction off.
"We hope our fallen trees and storm-damaged building materials can be reborn as objects that represent the city's recovery," the group's founders said. Reclaim NYC is having its first auction on Thursday. The proceeds from the lamps, tables, chairs and other craft objects will go to the American Red Cross in Greater New York.
See the Reclaim NYC Charity Auction's Facebook event, and learn more about Reclaim NYC's mission.
See also: Hurricane Sandy Victims' Electric Bills Show Charges for Power Despite Blackout Hurricane Sandy Batters Home Sales in Storm-Affected Areas Home Insurance for Hurricanes and Floods
More on AOL Real Estate: Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area. Find homes for rent in your area.
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We have a little bit of glam-spiration coming your way in photo shoot form thank to?Ovyian Photography?and?Sara Baig Designs, and you just might want to sit down for this one. The texture and topknots are enough to make any lady want to add a little sparkle to their day to day, but when you add in jewels and feathers and fabulous details? You simply must surrender to the pretty. And surrender we shall, in the?full gallery.
From Ovyian Photography? With so many inspiration to reality shoots being beautifully captured and shared every day, I thought it might be great to share the South Asian side of fashion and design for the Style Me Pretty brides planning an eventful Indian wedding. Or better yet, for brides looking to infuse the Indian culture into their big day. ?I teamed up with a great group of vendors and together we decided to do a side of India we don?t often see in South Asian Weddings. We took an inspiration board Dreamers Events created envisioning Nepal or North India, and brought it to life. The talented Sara from Sara Baig Designs designed the table landscape to include the concept and feel of a South Asian winter wedding. The bold colours against the stark white instantaneously warms the heart and immediately reminds you of the rich beauty and colours of India. It was just as beautiful as we envisioned it.
The additions of pine cones, red chillies and cinnamon paid homage to the Indian cuisine and we knew this was something simple that brides can do themselves. We knew our focal point had to be the sweets wall which was brought to life with a beautiful adventure quote from Jawaharlal Nehru; it was the essence of the room. ?Our ?sweets wall? included; marshmallows, hot chocolate, caramels, cookies, cupcakes, mini cakes and cake pops. The entire team worked so well together. The stunning fashion pieces from CTC West really took in the colors of the design palette. We had so much fun with it and we really hope to inspire all the winter brides with the feel, tones and details of the shoot. Naz from NazFilms captured the entire shoot on 8mm. The use of the white room helped us explore our options and together we tried to captivate the simple details and beauty of India. Often times we forget that India is a country of many languages, culture and seasons and with this shoot we aspired to capture the north end of it.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- It must be December because Alabama is preparing for a national title game and Nick Saban's future is a popular topic.
The second-ranked Crimson Tide started practicing Tuesday for the BCS championship game Jan. 7 against No. 1 Notre Dame with All-America center Barrett Jones on the mend and Saban laughing off rumors about returning to the NFL.
"We're really, really pleased and happy to be here," the former Miami Dolphins coach said Tuesday after the first bowl practice. "We've been able to accomplish a lot. But like I've talked about before, this is a work in progress all the time. You've got to stay focused on the process to try to continue to make the next game the most important game, the next season the most important season, developing the team every year.
"We certainly look forward to those challenges. I'm not sure, regardless of what I say, that anybody believes what I say because I say it all the time. This is what we're happy doing. This is what we like to do. But nobody really believes that. So, you know, maybe it doesn't matter. I don't know what I have to say or do, but it's kind of funny to me," he said.
Saban and Alabama will try to capture their third national title in four years.
The Tide will practice five days before taking a three-day break for Christmas.
Jones won't practice until after the team returns after spraining his left foot in the first quarter of the Southeastern Conference championship game against Georgia, a 32-28 victory that ended with the Bulldogs on Alabama's 5-yard line.
"I will be playing in the game," said Jones, who won the Rimington Award as the nation's top center a year after claiming the Outland Trophy while playing left tackle.
Wide receiver Kenny Bell has been cleared to do some work after recovering from a broken leg. He was expected to be out 5-6 weeks after surgery to repair the injury sustained against Auburn on Nov. 24.
"How he does, how he manages, what his tolerance is to activity will be determined as we go," Saban said. "I can't make a call as to whether he'll play in the game or not at this juncture."
As usual, the Tide is applying Saban's back to basics philosophy for the first few days of practice before focusing heavily on Notre Dame.
Jones thinks the fact that most players went through the drill in 2011 and veterans like him were part of the 2009 championship team is "overrated" in getting ready for this one.
"The fact that Alabama has been in the national championship before, that's not going to help us once the ball is snapped," Jones said. "It's not going to be who is the more experienced fighter. It's going to be who fights the better fight that night. Certainly, Coach has been through this and has a specific formula of how to handle long layoffs. As players, we trust that formula."
It worked in a 37-21 win over Texas in Pasadena, Calif., and a 21-0 victory over LSU in New Orleans.
The NFL question hasn't been resolved for three All-Americans -- linebacker C.J. Mosley, cornerback Dee Milliner and right tackle D.J. Fluker -- or tailback Eddie Lacy. Quarterback AJ McCarron already has said he'll be back next year.
Saban said the answer for the others probably won't come before the title game.
"We always have that issue here with several guys," he said. "We have several more guys that will have to make that decision. We don't press guys to make the decision. Some guys are more driven to do it than others.
"We're certainly pleased and happy to have AJ back. I think AJ's decision was based on the fact that with the quarterbacks, if you're not going to be one of the very, very top picks, one of the first few guys picked in the draft, where they're going to make an investment of you being the guy ... it's very difficult to develop because you don't get to play very much."
Comfortable temperatures are a great luxury and necessary to maintaining the quality of life that you deserve in Beaverton. The heating and air conditioning professionals at The Clean Air Act, though, believe that comfortable temperatures are just the beginning to the total comfort that you deserve. We know that the quality of the air that you breathe is just as important as the temperature, which is why we offer great indoor air quality products such as air cleaners for installation in your home. Contact us today for more information about improving the quality of your indoor air.
An air cleaner can be easily incorporated into most any forced air heating and air conditioning system. Whole-house air cleaners, including mechanical filters and UVGI devices, are installed directly into the ductwork of a forced air heating and cooling system. Because all of the air that your system heats and cools is dispersed throughout this system an in-duct installation allows all of this air to be filtered or otherwise cleaned.
These types of air filters and cleaners are really necessary with forced air systems for a few different reasons. To begin with, while all houses have a certain amount of dirt and dust within them, homes using forced air heating and air conditioning systems have this dirt and dust stirred up the circulating air. Once the pollutants are airborne they can be pulled into the ductwork and redistributed throughout the house. If they are allowed to settle within the air ducts they can cause efficiency problems with your heating and air conditioning system.
If you use a forced air heating and cooling system in your Beaverton home you should have some sort of air cleaner in place. To learn more about the integration of an air cleaner into your heating and cooling system call The Clean Air Act. We will be able to answer any questions that you may have.
Tags: Air Cleaner, Beaverton, Indoor Air Quality
Monday, December 17th, 2012 at 3:17 pm | Categories: Indoor Air Quality |
Here is an interesting move by Google, which is clearly stepping up its mobile game in recent months: you can now download a dedicated YouTube camera app - YouTube Capture - for iPhone and iPod touch. The app lets you record a video clip and right after you are done filming, you can write a caption, select which networks you want to share to and publish.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The trailer, the casting, even the title of "The Guilt Trip" sets us up for a specific kind of movie: Nice neurotic boy henpecked by his nagging, smothering Yiddishe mama. It's a dynamic we've seen everywhere from the novels of Philip Roth to Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks" and countless other movies and sitcoms over the last half-century or so.
But "The Guilt Trip," starring gravelly voiced everyslacker Seth Rogen as the son and Barbra Streisand as the mom, has its own agenda that goes far beyond cheek-pinching and boiled chicken.
The movie, directed by Anne Fletcher ("The Proposal," "27 Dresses") from a script by Dan Fogelman ("Crazy Stupid Love," "Cars"), may occasionally err on the side of innocuousness, but at least it explores actual facets of the mother-adult son relationship without veering into caricature.
Young inventor Andrew Brewster (Rogen), at the end of his financial rope, sets out on a cross-country road trip in an attempt to sell his organic cleaning product to one of the major retail chains. Flying to his home in New Jersey from L.A., he pays an all-too-rare visit to his mother Joyce (Streisand), who dotes on her son cross-country with a seemingly endless series of phone messages, sharing everything from encouragement to tips on underwear sales at The Gap.
During his visit, Andrew tries to get Joyce to go to a singles' mixer for older people, but she's clearly not having it. That night, she tells him about her first love, a boy from Florida whom she loved passionately but who ultimately never proposed to her, suggesting instead that she accept the offer from Andrew's father.
Andrew tracks the man down on Google, finds him in San Francisco, and suggests that Joyce accompany him on the trip, mainly so he can attempt a reunion by the bay for his mom and the guy she never fully got over.
In a cheesier movie, the rest of the film would just be about overbearing Joyce getting on Andrew's nerves in an enclosed space, but "The Guilt Trip" goes in smarter directions than that, whether it's the two of them listening to the audiobook of Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" (a constant source of discomfort for Andrew, who feels awkward listening to discussion of genitals in his mother's presence) or Joyce's attempts to help Andrew out with both his professional and romantic life.
Viewers of a certain age will be thrilled to know that Joyce's advice is right far more often than it's wrong. In fact, one of the film's strengths is that both characters genuinely learn things from and about each other in ways that rarely feel contrived or phony. Mother-love tends to get a bad rap in pop culture, but not here.
There's not a ton of plot, granted, but the real pleasure of the film comes from watching Rogen and Streisand (looking more loose and relaxed than she's appeared in any medium for some time) interact.
I will always, always laugh uproariously at "What's Up, Doc?" no matter how many times I see it, so it's been disappointing to see Streisand ignore her comedic roots for so long. (And let's not count the "Fokkers" movies, which did no one's funny bone any favors.) Her unflagging insistence and his laid-back withdrawal mesh perfectly; this is a comic duo that should keep working together.
The movie's also peppered with lots of great character actors, who apparently agreed to glorified walk-ons just for the opportunity to spend a day with an icon like Streisand: Keep an eye peeled for the likes of Kathy Najimy, Adam Scott, Casey Wilson, Rose Abdoo, Miriam Margolyes, Colin Hanks, Dale Dickey and Nora Dunn, among others. (Special mention to Brett Cullen, most recently seen in the "Red Dawn" remake, as a soft-spoken Southwesterner smitten with Joyce and her skill at putting away a big steak dinner.)
"The Guilt Trip" is too gentle to be uproarious (although no one makes a comment like "This place smells like strawberry gum" about a topless bar the way Streisand can), but if you're in the mood for something easygoing and well-acted, it's a sweet little character piece. Take your mom - or at least call her. You know how she worries.
Zombies are so hot right now. And lest we be worried about an over-saturation of the undead walkers in pop culture at the moment, we're still psyched about Brad Pitt's foray into the genre with "World War Z." Thankfully, there's a new trailer and "Entertainment Weekly" has a brand new photo from the film to [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court will consider eliminating the government's most potent weapon against racial discrimination at polling places since the 1960s. The court acted three days after a diverse coalition of voters propelled President Barack Obama to a second term in the White House.
With a look at affirmative action in higher education already on the agenda, the court is putting a spotlight on race by re-examining the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were systematically excluded.
"This is a term in which many core pillars of civil rights and pathways to opportunity hang in the balance," said Debo Adegbile, acting president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
In an order Friday, the justices agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to the part of the landmark Voting Rights Act that requires all or parts of 16 states with a history of discrimination in voting to get federal approval before making any changes in the way they hold elections.
The high court considered the same issue three years ago but sidestepped what Chief Justice John Roberts then called "a difficult constitutional question."
The new appeal from Shelby County, Ala., near Birmingham, says state and local governments covered by the law have made significant progress and no longer should be forced to live under oversight from Washington.
"The America that elected and reelected Barack Obama as its first African-American president is far different than when the Voting Rights Act was first enacted in 1965. Congress unwisely reauthorized a bill that is stuck in a Jim Crow-era time warp. It is unconstitutional," said Edward Blum, director of the not-for-profit Project on Fair Representation, which is funding the challenges to the voting rights law and affirmative action.
But defenders of the law said there is a continuing need for it and pointed to the Justice Department's efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state's large and growing Hispanic population. "What we know even more clearly now than we did when the court last considered this question is that a troubling strain of obstructing the path to the ballot box remains a part of our society," Adegbile said.
Since the court's decision in 2009, Congress has not addressed potential problems identified by the court. Meanwhile, the law's opponents sensed its vulnerability and filed several new lawsuits.
Addressing those challenges, lower courts have concluded that a history of discrimination and more recent efforts to harm minority voters justify continuing federal oversight.
The justices said they will examine whether the formula under which states are covered is outdated because it relies on 40-year old data. By some measures, states covered by the law are outperforming some that are not.
Tuesday's election results also provide an interesting backdrop for the court's action. Americans re-elected the nation's first African-American president. Exit polls across the country indicated Obama won the votes of more than 70 percent of Hispanics and more than 90 percent of blacks. In Alabama, however, the exit polls showed Obama won only about 15 percent of the state's white voters. In neighboring Mississippi, the numbers were even smaller, at 10 percent, the surveys found.
The case probably will be argued in February or March, with a decision expected by late June.
The advance approval, or preclearance requirement, was adopted in the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.
The provision was a huge success, and Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent occasion was in 2006, when a Republican-led Congress overwhelmingly approved and President George W. Bush signed a 25-year extension.
The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan and New Hampshire. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaskan Natives and Hispanics.
Before these locations can change their voting rules, they must get approval either from the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division or from the federal district court in Washington that the new rules won't discriminate.
Congress compiled a 15,000-page record and documented hundreds of instances of apparent voting discrimination in the states covered by the law dating to 1982, the last time it had been extended.
Six of the affected states, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas, are backing Shelby County's appeal.
In 2009, Roberts indicated the court was troubled about the ongoing need for a law in the face of dramatically improved conditions, including increased minority voter registration and turnout rates. Roberts attributed part of the change to the law itself. "Past success alone, however, is not adequate justification to retain the preclearance requirements," he said.
Jurisdictions required to obtain preclearance were chosen based on whether they had a test restricting the opportunity to register or vote and whether they had a voter registration or turnout rate below 50 percent.
A divided panel of federal appeals court judges in Washington said that the age of the information being used is less important than whether it helps identify jurisdictions with the worst discrimination problems.
Shelby County, a well-to-do, mostly white bedroom community near Birmingham, adopted Roberts' arguments in its effort to have the voting rights provision declared unconstitutional.
Yet just a few years earlier, a town of nearly 12,000 people in Shelby County defied the voting rights law and prompted the intervention of the Bush Justice Department.
Ernest Montgomery won election as the only black member of the five-person Calera City Council in 2004 in a district that was almost 71 percent black. The city redrew its district lines in 2006 after new subdivisions and retail developments sprang up in the area Montgomery represented, and the change left his district with a population that was only 23 percent black.
Running against a white opponent in the now mostly white district, Montgomery narrowly lost a re-election bid in 2008. The Justice Department invalidated the election result because the city had failed to obtain advance approval of the new districts.
Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis, left, and manager Buck Showalter watch a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels on a center field scoreboard after beating Boston Red Sox 6-3 in Baltimore, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. If the Angels had lost, Baltimore would have clinched its first playoff berth since 1997. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis, left, and manager Buck Showalter watch a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels on a center field scoreboard after beating Boston Red Sox 6-3 in Baltimore, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. If the Angels had lost, Baltimore would have clinched its first playoff berth since 1997. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Tommy Hunter (29) acknowledges fans as he follows teammates into the clubhouse after a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in Baltimore, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Members of the Baltimore Orioles walk onto the field after beating the Boston Red Sox 6-3 in a baseball game in Baltimore, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Baltimore Orioles' Nate McLouth, left, watches his solo home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in Baltimore, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Joe Saunders throws to the Boston Red Sox in the first inning of a baseball game in Baltimore, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
BALTIMORE (AP) ? The champagne was on ice, plastic shields were in place above the cubicles in the Baltimore clubhouse and couches were removed to accommodate a celebration 15 years in the making.
The party never happened.
After the Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox 6-3 Sunday, around two dozen players and coaches took scoreboard watching to a new level by staying on the field at Camden Yards and rooting for the Texas Rangers to defeat the Los Angeles Angels.
If the Angels had lost, Baltimore would have clinched its first playoff berth since 1997. After exchanging high-fives and fist-bumps following their fourth straight win, the Orioles gathered along the first-base line to watch the scoreboard telecast of the ninth inning, which began with Texas winning 4-3.
Many in the crowd of 41,257 stood and watched, too.
But a two-run double by Torii Hunter put the Angels in front and ruined the fun. As the Orioles walked off the field, manager Buck Showalter waved to the crowd and offered a fist-pump of encouragement.
The Angels' 5-4 win kept the Orioles' magic number to clinch a wild-card berth at one. The Angels and Rangers were scheduled to wrap up the doubleheader on Sunday night, and while a loss by Los Angeles would put Baltimore in the postseason, that wouldn't do anything to get the champagne out of that enclosed container.
Sitting in front of his locker with a beer in his hand, first baseman Mark Reynolds said, "It would have definitely been cool to celebrate with our fans. They've been supporting us all year. To be able to celebrate out there with them and take in the moment, it would have been pretty neat."
Baltimore, on the other hand, is looking to go into the postseason as AL East champions. The Orioles remain tied atop the division standings with the New York Yankees, who rallied to beat Toronto 9-6.
Both contenders have three games left. New York begins a season-ending series against visiting Boston on Monday night, and the Orioles travel to Tampa Bay.
Baltimore held out hope of cracking open a few cases of champagne in Florida.
"I take particular enjoyment in ruining someone else's clubhouse," reliever Darren O'Day said.
Shortstop J.J. Hardy added, "I'm not going to say there's no disappointment, but we all understand we need to keep playing good baseball to get where we want to be. We'll just worry about ourselves and win the next three games."
Who'd have thought the Orioles would be talking about division titles, playoff berths and champagne after 14 consecutive losing seasons and four straight last-place finishes? The Orioles (92-67) already have 23 more wins than a year ago.
"Our goal now is try to figure out a way to play some more baseball games here at Camden," Showalter said. "Hopefully, it's see you later."
Hardy, Nate McLouth and Chris Davis hit solo homers, and Jim Thome drove in two runs for Baltimore. The Orioles completed a sweep and went 13-5 against Boston, their most wins in a single season versus the Red Sox since 1970 (13-5).
Joe Saunders (3-3) allowed three runs, eight hits and no walks in 7 1-3 innings for Baltimore. Obtained in a late-August trade with Arizona, Saunders has yielded a total of 12 earned runs in his last six starts.
Jim Johnson worked the ninth for his 50th save.
Cody Ross and Daniel Nava homered for the last-place Red Sox, who have dropped five straight and 16 of 22. Boston (69-90) last lost 90 games in 1966.
"We haven't had a good season," manager Bobby Valentine acknowledged.
Zach Stewart (0-2) gave up five runs and seven hits, including two homers, in 2 2-3 innings. In three starts this season he's surrendered eight home runs.
After being beaten and bashed by the Orioles, who hit seven homers in the three-game series, the Red Sox now head to Yankee Stadium.
A sunny, breezy fall afternoon couldn't have started much better for the Orioles. After the video board showed the Yankees and Angels losing early, McLouth hit the fourth pitch from Stewart over the left-field wall.
"After that just trying to do damage control," Stewart said. "Try to keep it at that score. Obviously I didn't do that."
Hardy and Davis followed with singles before Stewart hit Jones with a pitch to load the bases. After Matt Wieters bounced into a run-scoring 4-6-3 double play, Thome followed with grounder up the middle that beat the shift and rolled into the outfield, scoring Davis for a 3-0 lead.
Boston wasted doubles in the second and third innings before Hardy led off the bottom of the third with his 22nd home run. Jones singled with one out, and Thome chased Stewart with an RBI single.
Ross homered in the fourth to get the Red Sox to 5-1. Davis connected off Clayton Mortensen in the fifth, his 31st homer of the season and fourth in four games.
Nava homered in the seventh with a man on.
NOTES: Jones was chosen Orioles MVP in a vote among media covering the team, the second straight year he's won the award. "It is given to me, but I think the whole team deserves it," he said. ... Boston hit three doubles and now has a major-league leading 214 for the season. ... Red Sox RHP Clay Buchholz, who's 2-4 with a 5.84 ERA lifetime against the Yankees, starts Monday night against CC Sabathia. Rookie Wei-Yin Chen (12-10) starts for Baltimore in Tampa Bay against Alex Cobb (10-9). ... The top three players in the Baltimore lineup ? McLouth, Hardy and Davis ? combined to go 6 for 10 with three HRs and five runs.
A policeman stands guard in front of a graffiti with Egypt?s former president Hosni Mubarak, former Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, along Mohamed Mahmoud street near Tahrir Square in Cairo, September 26, 2012. ? Reuters pic
CAIRO, Sept 30 ? Egypt?s most senior military commander has promised better training and more modern weaponry for the army in an apparent effort to satisfy officers? demands for change, which have multiplied after an uprising last year.
Commander-in-Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also the defence minister, was appointed by the country?s first Islamist president Mohamed Mursi only last month and is under pressure to shake up a military which until recently had held the balance of power in Egypt for decades.
Addressing troops last week during the first military drill in a series to mark the 39th anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel, Sisi reassured troops that change was on its way despite the fact that the drill was being conducted using old arms like the Soviet BM-21, a rocket launcher in use for 40 years.
?We will devise a comprehensive programme that develops real training for the forces in all military branches to maximise the performance of individual officers and soldiers during my time here,? he said, according to a live recording of his speech obtained by Reuters.
Addressing troops participating in the drill, which took place along Egypt?s western border with Libya, Sisi, 57, acknowledged that Egypt?s military capabilities trailed those of other armies.
The army would replace some of its arsenal within 3-6 months and was working to extend the range of a missile system known as ?Saqr? to 45-kilometres, he said.
?Regarding the status of our military equipment, we may feel that some of it is modest but we must work with what arsenal we have.
?We will not be able to change all of our hardware completely. What we can do is achieve the highest standards of shooting and efficiency.
?This will compensate for the modest equipment we are gradually trying to replace,? he said.
Egypt receives US$1.3 billion (RM4 billion) in military aid annually from the United States but officials say that is not enough for the country to keep up with rivals such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Officers have said the US money benefits American arms manufacturers as it forces Egypt to buy outdated weaponry.
Pressure over Sinai
Sisi?s comments appeared to be aimed at army officers who have said they view Egypt?s revolution ? which toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak last year ? as their own chance to win better salaries and improved conditions and training.
Sisi is also under pressure to tighten up security in the Sinai Peninsula, a desert area which borders Israel, and to crack down hard on Islamist militants operating there.
President Mursi sacked Sisi?s predecessor, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi last month along with other senior military and police officials after an attack blamed on Islamist militants killed 16 Egyptian border guards in the area.
Israel, which has repeatedly urged Egypt?s new rulers to tackle the Sinai problem is looking on nervously and is uneasy that Egypt is now being governed by Islamists.
Israeli troops used to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, the scene of several conflicts between it and Cairo, but withdrew in 1982.
To many officers, Sisi?s words were a break with previous senior commanders who had been criticized for not developing the army?s capacities.
Unlike previous drills, Sisi organised a discussion between lower ranking officers and commanders to try to ensure that lessons were learned and that the concerns of officers were heard.
One commander later remarked that Sisi ?had introduced a new approach? to communications between officers and their superiors.
Officers say Sisi?s elevation to the country?s most senior military role upset many senior commanders who had a longer and richer record of service than him.
Earlier this month, Sisi ? in coordination with Mursi ? issued a list of long-serving generals who he said would retire, opening the door to more promotions, local papers reported. ?? Reuters
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has proposed legislation that would rename a Fremont street in honor of J.P. Patches.
Chris Wedes, aka JP Patches, passed away in July after a long illness.
The legislation would rename North 34th St. between Fremont Ave. N. and Troll Ave. N. as "J.P. Patches Place."
In announcing the proposed street change, McGinn called J.P.? Patches "one of our most treasured and enduring icons."
The J.P. Patches show ran from 1958 to 1981 - the longest running local children's show in the country. When the show ended in 1981, Wedes continued on with the J.P. character, appearing at fairs, festivals and private parties.
Said McGinn, "J.P. Patches made such an impact on our community that when he passed away earlier this year, many Seattleites felt that they had lost a member of the family."
The street that would be renamed is where the J.P. Patches and Gertrude statue is located.
"Thanks for all the joy, friendship, and laughs you?ve given us, JP.? We will never forget you," said McGinn.
In the herd is quite an ambiguous phrase. It could refer to the dynamics of animals that live in groups. Biologists, zoologists and agriculturalists would certainly be well employed in studying this topic. Human beings themselves display many characteristics of herd behavior and poets are justified in imagining the reality of it. However, it is also pertinent to note that the name of a popular US radio show is ?The Herd with Colin Cowherd?.
The phrase could therefore be a pun, with a play on the word ?heard? and the name of the radio show presenter. This radio show is apparently branching out into podcast s that can heard over the Internet. Presumably this would convert many smart phones into what used to be called portable radios. In the distant days of the twentieth century portable radios were an exciting innovation that allowed people to take sports broadcast with them on fishing expeditions or out into a workshop.
The word podcast will not be found in a dictionary published in 1982. Nevertheless it is widely understood in 2012 to mean spoken messages or music sent through computer rather than radio channels. With the relegation of many portable radio sets either to museums or to outside storage sheds podcasts seem to be a way forward for the presenters of messages through the primary medium of sound.
Gadgets are only one of a set of elements in the communication process, They are the channels through which senders send messages to receivers. The communication process needs several elements all of which are subject to interference. The hiker in Pakistan listening to a cricket match commentary from London does not wish to be distracted by images because his eyes could be occupied in keeping an eye on his immediate environment.
Though communication in the Information Age is complex and effective there is evidence to suggest that Stone Age people also had deep insights into animal communication systems. This was used in hunting activities and in killing animals whereas the efforts of contemporary scientists and psychologists are directed to preserving the few wild animals that have managed to survive.
Academics in the twenty-first century may be engaged in rediscovering much of the knowledge that was available to primitive tribes. It is now known that elephants can communicate by sound and vibration over wide areas of a continent. Whales may communicate even further from one part of the world to another through undersea vibration and sound. In some ways it seems that the pachyderms and behemoths might have used their own Internet like systems even before human beings created artificial versions of similar systems.
It would appear that communication is a fundamental element in the welfare of all social groups. The advent of cell phones and similar gadgetry has enabled human beings to create artificial communication systems that are at least as good as those of elephants and whales, and probably much better.
The instinct to live in groups seems common to species that do survive better than solitary creatures like endangered tigers and polar bears. Some human beings are instinctively loners, especially if they have known solitude during their formative years. Though such solitary people usually are happy with their own company and enjoy being habitually alone there remains a deep instinct in most of them to be, at least for a limited time, in the herd.
The homepages at www.intheherd.com offer details about the concept of being in the herd. You can learn more about the philosophy of herd instincts at http://www.intheherd.com now.
PARIS ? ?Crossover? can mean just about anything in the automotive industry. But with the Crosslane Coupe Concept, introduced here on Thursday, Audi shoehorned a remarkable number of referents into what was already something of a catch-all notion.
The Crosslane is a coupe, a convertible, a high-riding compact S.U.V., and, for good measure, a dual-mode plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid. Throw in features like a movable trunk and removable rear seats, and you have the makings of a walk-on in the next ?Transformers? film.
Audi says the hybrid powertrain is capable of fuel economy in excess of 200 miles per gallon, partly because of a lightweight, carbon-fiber-infused chassis and body structure. Audi said total vehicle weight was kept to 3,064 pounds, rather svelte among crossovers, by using an exotic mix of aluminum, carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer and fiberglass-reinforced polymer to create the concept?s space frame.
Looking like a potential challenger to the Land Rover Evoque, the Crosslane is powered by an equally exotic m?lange of technologies. The hybrid system combines a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder gasoline engine, rated at 130 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque, with two electric motors. The larger of the electric units produces the equivalent of 116 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque, and provides the only source of motive power up to 34 miles per hour. The smaller adds 68 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque and brings in an assist from the 3-cylinder engine at speeds up to 81 m.p.h. Above that, to its top speed at 113 m.p.h., the engine completely takes over.
For all those numbers, total system power averages out to a relatively lackluster 177 horsepower, Audi asserts. Still, the company says its Crosslane will sprint from a stop to 62 m.p.h. in a respectable 8.6 seconds.
The electric motor package uses a 17.4-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery and has a range of around 53 miles in gas-free E.V. mode, Audi said.
Ergonomically, the Crosslane has a movable trunk space, which can be pushed forward to allow easy access from inside of the cabin, or it can be moved backward to open up space for two rear seats. The concept has a removable targalike top that, when stowed, serves as a cover for the cargo space.
Whether a vehicle like the Crosslane could find its way into the Audi lineup is debatable. But as automakers adjust to more stringent fuel-economy standards worldwide, the prospects of a hybrid system like this finding its way there are far stronger.
Only hours following Apple CEO Tim Cook's open letter to customers regarding Maps on iOS 6, Apple has added a featured box in the App store for users to "find apps for your iPhone" that takes you to a section devoted to maps apps.
This is a very impressive and humble move by Apple. Apple is typically a rather arrogant company, so Tim Cook's letter and this new section of the App Store show a side of Apple that is willing to admit fault and do what's needed to improve their users' experience.
eBook Pricing: Help Support Jo Rowling / Owen, Tait
New Moves and Models: Rogue & Brightline / Shatzkin
Libraries: Fingers Pointed / Gonzalez
Penguin Sues Authors: Your Advance, Please
Conferences: Friedman at LitFlow in Berlin, and more
Books: Reading on the Ether
Last Gas: Saltwater Nooks? / Reilly
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Suppose you knew nothing about publishing today. (Blissful thought, isn?t it?)
What if you walked into Digital Book World?s (DBW)? Discoverability and Marketing Conference this week, sat down in New York?s spacious Metropolitan Pavilion with its gleaming-shipboard floors, and spent two days with us?
Hashtagging #DBWDM with the best of us on deck.
You might have come away from Monday and Tuesday?s conference with an admiration for our industry professionals? capacity to withstand?confusion.
You might even think we enjoy it; eagerly checking our box lunches to see if any good confusion is in there, scarfing it down with the pasta salad, asking for more.
Because that?s what we discovered at Discoverability ? we discovered there?s a lot of confusion about how to get there from here.
Febreeze and Angry Birds will help us understand how books are sold @? #DBWDM
Rich Fahle
You know Rich Fahle of Bibliostar.tv and Astral Road Media, right? He?s a videographer and works in author marketing. He regularly tapes on-site conference conversations for Digital Book World.
In a DBW Expert Blog Post, Discoverability Tools and the Writer?s ?Fight for Time,? Fahle has this? observation about the confab:
This, finally, is the important next phase of the digital transition?the industry is ready to address discoverability with its full attention? Those focused discussions?(are) possibly the best news to come out of the conference.
Fahle?s concern in his post is on writers. But the whole community of publishing is at sea until it can sort out the pivotal problem of how you make a book discoverable when, as Laura Dawson tells us, there are 32 million active titles in Books in Print.
I?m going to propose here that the Discoverability and Marketing Conference didn?t quite get it ? or didn?t always get it, let me put it that way. As Fahle writes, the best thing is that it happened at all. And plenty of good experiences in the conference?s debut will mean an even better gathering the next time.
Perils of Twitter: I took a mid-afternoon nap, and dreamed I was at #DBWDM. Woke up very confused? I blame @.
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Don?t get me wrong.
I?m not saying that this wasn?t a valuable conference. It was.
I?m not saying it was badly put-together. It was not.
And I?m certainly not saying it was presented by anything but great folks with a good idea and a lot of talent and hard, long work ? if anything, I was lucky to be part of the team, as I live-tweeted and wrote about the confab.
Kate Rados
No, what I?m saying is that host Kate Rados, DBW Community Manager Gary Lynch, DBW Editorial Director Jeremy Greenfield, and their many colleagues created a conference the very makeup of which reflected the confusion with which a transition-traumatized industry is facing this problem.
Rick Joyce
After all, that?s what Perseus? Rick Joyce told us in his fine opening keynote on Monday:
If you came here looking for a map, good luck.
Your GPS is useless this time. To follow these trade routes, we have to find them first. And in that regard, the exhilarating opening block of presentations in the conference on Monday ? as I wrote in my Day One wrap for the DBW Expert Blogs ? was right on the money.
Joyce?s curtain-raiser, ?The Next Wave of Discoverability,? was themed on Old World exploration and it included these gems, which I?m drawing from my tweeterie:
Context Optimizers, ?tools yet to be invented.? We must enhance metadata with new categories, reinvent browsing.
We need to ??Understand the Natives??what seems to motivate anybody?..connect, collect, compete, accrue, assist??
Needing ?new instruments,? Joyce says we?re trying to find ?assets that are built to travel (as) behavioral enablers.?
Assets that travel include ?links with headlines, images, personalization, humor, inspiration?authenticity.?
The final New Territory is Big Data: ?At any given moment 1% to 2% of all pages on #book-retailer sites are down.?
For its eloquence and point of view, Joyce?s presentation was never topped during the conference?s two days. In the easy glow of hindsight, I can say now that I?d love to have seen Joyce return with a final, shorter observation on what we?d seen and heard in the two days. This excellent opener deserved a benediction.
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And there were more strong entries from other folks to follow, high points throughout the two days. By midday Monday, however, hints at the confusion were starting to show in our own experience in the room. And by Tuesday, the conference was ? nobody?s fault, mind you? adrift in a slow current that felt almost as baffling as our over-arching theme.
Partly the effects of fatigue, of course, and partly the product of a low-energy presentation or two, things felt more scattered than conclusive as we finished up.
The last sessions seemed to be ?all over the place,? one attendee put it. Nothing fell apart, by a long shot. But it was as if we lost our breeze and the good ship DBWDM was idled in the calm.
Sharing the #DBWDM love-glow with the team: We?re crashing ways to incorporate more images/video content into our work.
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Do you know the nautical term ?tacking?? Not tacky. Tacking is zigzagging, a pattern a sailor might use to take advantage of a wind, changing direction with the helm alee.
This conference did a lot of tacking in its two days. That?s not necessarily bad. It just requires your crew to know where they?re going with each shift.
Kelly Gallgher
We veered mainly between brightly informative conceptual overviews to course-like instructional sessions. Not a thing wrong with either. It was the juxtaposition that was a little hard to read.
There were the bracing data arrays of Bowker?s Kelly Gallagher (whom we?ve just learned is headed for Ingram ? congratulations, Kelly) and Google?s Gavin Bishop. And then there was a? presenter telling us what happens when you start a tweet with an ?@-symbol? handle. If you don?t know about that use of the ?@-symbol? ? it?s the ?reply? protocol ? that?s OK, don?t feel bad. But in a Manhattan conference of professionals in publishing and/or marketing, that?s an awfully basic fillip of one social media platform.
Rados ran a nice, tight ship, agreeably moving things along precisely on time. And the parade of presentations went off with precious few technical glitches, also no mean feat.
And fanned by the efficiency with which Joyce sustained his keynote metaphor ? our need to brave terra incognita and search for new answers ? we had two very valid, major winds of trade, if you please, cross-cutting the conference:
Theoretical and/or conceptual issues of publishing?s response to a content-drowned market; and
Technical approaches to online procedures in modern marketing.
Even within the second group, the more technical presentations, we tended to veer from the open water of sophisticated schooners to the paper-boat shallows ? from glimpses of the scope of what?s out there to handy-but-basic material.
Come, shall we tack?
huge congrats to @ on joining Ingram!
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Marshall D. Simmonds
Schooner: This is a keenly domesticated geek, the Greystoke of ?Authorship and SEO.? Marshall Simmonds told us not to ignore Google+ because the wider Google-verse is integrating so many of its assets there. Our social graphs sailed when he quoted Othar Hansson: ?We know that great content comes from great authors.??
Jessica Best
Paper Boat: She is a vivacious and well-dressed presenter. And Jessica Best?s ?Back to Basics: Email Marketing Still Works!? made the most of that exclamation point: ?Your email should be permission based,? she said, and she?s completely right. But somehow we?d tacked over to workshop mode ? from principle and precept to the special needs of mobile emails: look out for the ?fat thumb? of the recipient.
Dan Lubart
Schooner: Dan Lubart and Angela Tribelli of HarperCollins make ?team teaching? interesting again. They brought a competent, shared delivery to? ?Marketing Analytics: You Can?t Grow What You Can?t Measure.?
Angela Tribelli
Among the best messages delivered in this survey of philosophy:
?Dig Deep ? or why creatives need to sit with quants,? and
Prepare to be surprised,? because If you go into analytics with bias, you?ll see only what you want.
Clinton Kabler
Paper Boat among the Schooners: Clinton Kabler of BookRiot has the drop on Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood. There?s nothing here at the Ether but highest regard for His Sandmanfulness and for The Great Lady Who Tweets, I love both writers. But, dude, Kabler showed us how neither of Gaiman nor Atwood has a ?buy? button on her or his home pages. Get out, right? But it?s true. I clicked over and looked.
From my tweeterie: ?What do you anticipate achieving with this landing page??You?ve got about two seconds of their attention.? And he?s right.
Kabler was an instant hybrid in our little regatta here. He came in with some schooner-class observations, but operated (in the conference?s setting) in the workshop/paper-boats mode, starting with that overlong title for his presentation, a bit of titular verbosity shared by many presenters in this show: ?Creating Landing Pages That Don?t Suck: Converting Click-Throughs to Buyers.?
Note for future confab presenters everywhere: Your title need not be a Kindle Single.
Let me show you how close Kabler came to getting us into deeper waters of healthy debate in ethics, efficacy, or both:
What bundling (ebook + print book) does is?destroy the correlation users have between value and price.
That statement involves the ?default bias? with which marketers can drive consumers to choose the ?best value? option among prices. ?Destroying the correlation users have between value and price,? for some, is a pretty questionable pastime. Presented as a commercial coup, it might leave a bit of guilt gnawing at your conscience.
Fauzia Burke
It was FSB Associates? president Fauzia Burke who, at lunch Monday, was the first I heard to renounce such marketing modes as something some of us feel is incorrect and/or at the least unnecessary. We?d glimpsed a grand, worthy debate there, thanks to Kabler, standing as we do on the edge of a flat world suddenly gone round in marketing.
But instead of entering a conference forum that could test such? considerations of what?s right and what isn?t (and who says so) , we were off again that afternoon, on a series of associated topics.
We?d missed the chance Kabler had held out to us to explore the white-sand beach that lies between Discoverability and Marketing.
But for Kabler?s part, even within the crass cartography of such salesboy technique, we must credit him for making something more of his session than it might have been. I like him for that.
Add a like button, post more photos, reply to every comment to quickly increase FB reach #DBWDM @
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Paper Boats: In a purely praiseworthy effort to include authors in the program, the conference presented Elle Lothlorian and Erika Napoletano in the mix, and the organizers are to be commended for that.
It turns out that these two writers? presentations turn on some very negative experiences.
Elle Lothlorian
Lothlorian has attracted condemnation from some for her practice of engaging with negative review-writers:
My goal is to make it right, treat the customer the way they should be treated when not liking the product.
Erika Napoletano
Napoletano pictures herself as a poster redhead for the publicity support she believes publishers don?t provide authors:
Authors believe their publishers are partners?
?only to find this may not be how a publisher sees it.
Both these handsomely ambitious, committed, publishing writers opened with somewhat rambling expressions of their displeasure at how they?ve been treated, either by critics of their reader relations or by publishers? publicity efforts (or lack thereof). And their complaints seem valid and understandable.
But ?look how badly I?ve been treated? doesn?t engender a lot of audience support in any setting, not just in a publishing arena.
And while coarse language may seem a fun way to offer one?s fiery-redheadedness to an audience of peers gathered in a professional conference in New York, it actually doesn?t play that well out in the house.
Someone referred later to this as ?colorful.? I?ll go with that, too.
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Schooners, quickly: Among more of the stronger high-view presentations at DBW?s Discoverability and Marketing, the standouts included:
Gavin Bishop?s ?How Searchers Become Readers: Audience Insights from Google? (the lead on a coming white paper about search as a gateway to for consumer interest): Google?s study shows some 1.5 billion searches each year related to books.
Mike Grehan
Mike Grehan of ClickZ?s ?The Future of Digital Marketing? I?m told is a 45-minute presentation compressed into 30 minutes. That?s too bad because the breathless speed at which Grehan raced through it left a lot of it hard for the attentive crowd to catch, and this was good stuff, I?d love to have heard more. ?We move away from ?influentials,?? he said, ?and start to focus on small groups of connected friends.?
Jon Fine
Jon Fine?s fine presentation from Amazon, ?Secrets to More Effectively Marketing and Promoting Your Books on Amazon? contained only one real secret, it seems (or at least one bit of info few of us had heard) ? that Facebook elements will ?soon? be added to author pages. Sounds like yet another smart move among the industry?s largest apparatus of smart retailing moves. And I want to congratulate DBW on having both Fine and B&N?s Sasha Norkin on the program. In terms of presentational presence and informational value, there was no comparison who was the stronger, but the presence of both companies onboard gave us the conference its even keel. Good programming.
Fine is a thoroughgoing asset to his company. He presents without snark or hubris Seattle?s formidable assets, made available to some 40,000 publishers. He spoke of how authors are considered ?the other customer? because of their importance to the operation. Of everything heard in the conference, Fine?s statement may have been one of the most meaningful to the topic in terms of discoverability:
For better or worse, Amazon has become the common ground for publishing.
So, @ and I are starting a band called ?Milkshake in My Fanny Pack?
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One fine paper boat: Corey Hartford?s ?Marketing Results via Keyword Research? made the F+W home team look even better (as if it needed help).
Corey Hartford
Here, we were squarely in workshop/how-to mode, yes. But put aside the seeming friction between such sessions and more conceptual presentations, and what you have is a winningly devoted master of metadata.
He?s hardly the only presenter from DBWDM who could use some stage-presence coaching. In any field, the experts may not be the most natural front people. But in Hartford?s case, this was no problem because the guy?s sheer love of his keywords and how he makes them dance was a pleasure to see in action.
Richard Nash
Schooner, explained: Tucked into the second day?s afternoon was a chat led by Greenfield with GoodReads? Patrick Brown and Small Demons? Richard Nash. In that conversation, we got a succinct and useful delineation from Nash about Small Demons and what it?s meant to do.
While the point of GoodReads, of course, is to connect books with other books that readers may enjoy and want to share, Nash said the point of Small Demons is to connect books with other parts of our culture, to draw those lines of reference and revelation that enrich our understanding of a ?storyverse? (his phrase) that goes beyond our books and deep into our lives.
And in wrapping this wrap, I want to point out to you the importance ? in our industry?s storyverse ? of the Discoverability and Marketing Conference?s newness. There are pitfalls in creating new events of this kind, as any producing organization can tell you.
Gary Lynch
I spoke in May for the Ether with DBW Community Manager Gary Lynch about his plans and concepts for this new vessel from F+W Media on our annual journey of major publishing conferences.
I liked his candor:
There?s always a risk when you launch a new event on a subject that?s still very much in the early stages of acceptance in the market. If you do it too soon and the market doesn?t think they need it, then the conference doesn?t work. If you wait too long, then competitors fill the void and your conference becomes a ?me too.? My sense is that our timing is spot-on.
Lynch?s sense for timing, clearly, is right.
And if the organization of the conference seemed to lurch at times between the ?tutorial?-style sessions he had envisioned in the spring and the 30,000-foot overview presentations that to me seem more useful at this point, I can?t help but feel that getting this critical component of the digital dynamic, discoverability, squarely onstage as DBW did was an important, worthy, and salutary exercise.
Joe Pulizzi
And some of the best insights moved fast, the program so rich that catching it all was tough.
Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing Institute, for example, captured a lot of attention with his fly-by question about why publishers aren?t the ones platforming. He called the current model flawed ?? authors madly platforming, shouldering ever greater loads of PR and marketing burdens while writing less and less.
And he asked publishers, rhetorically:
Why don?t you get authors involved in YOUR platform?
As part of his own conference coverage, DBW?s Greenfield wrote Book Discovery Landscape Becomes More Complicated as Reader Behavior Fractures, based on? Gallagher?s presentation from Bowker, ?Looking Beyond the Book.?
Bowker Market Research, from Kelly Gallagher?s DBWDM presentation
Gallagher deftly drove home for all of us just how complex this moment is in book discoverability today.
During his presentation, he was tweeted saying:
How do tablet owners discover books? We find that an excerpt becomes very important for tablet owners.
How do overall readers discover new ebooks? Again, the excerpt online is a key but also an author site, as well.
A female YA reader, 30-44, relies on social network tips, a teaser chapter in a print book, and online retailer recommendations.
And as Greenfiled writes it:
Tablet owners discover new books through free excerpts about 15% of the time; but readers of young adult fiction discover new books through the same way about 6% of the time. So marketers of young adult fiction have a lot to think about when they want to reach readers who read on tablets.
Jeremy Greenfield
Or try on this challenge for marketers, see how it suits you (this is Greenfield again):
A 27-year-old female romance reader from suburban Indianapolis who reads on a tablet computer but spends most of her time browsing the Web on her laptop versus a 43-year-old female romance reader living in Los Angeles who reads and buys exclusively on her e-reader. They?re both romance readers and female, but couldn?t be more different otherwise when it comes to how they discover and read books ? and reaching them takes different marketing tactics.
Then look at how blogger ?Ellen? at Word Thief writes up what struck her from Jon Fine?s presentation, in her post Digital Book World: Books vs. Everything Else, recalling his line:
?It?s not about Print vs. Digital. It?s about Books vs. Everything Else.?
Ellen goes on to write:
So our real enemy is not the e-readers popping up in every direction. Our real enemy is every other activity that distracts people from reading nowadays: TV, movies, video games, Facebook, the internet, blogging (ha), etc. Later in the day, Charles Duhigg gave a talk on ?Using the Power of Habit to Market and Sell Books.? His thesis, briefly?
Angry Birds is your biggest competition.
I miss being at #DBWDM ? where people understood the jargon and didn?t just throw around buzzwords.
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As for my desire (this is just my opinion) for a more conceptual understanding of what we need and want in discoverability, over at Harvard Business Review, Irfan Kamal writes in Metrics Are Easy; Insight Is Hard:
It isn?t uncommon to see reports overflowing with data and benchmarks drawn from millions of underlying data points covering existing channels like display, email, website, search, and shopper/loyalty?In contrast to this abundant data, insights are relatively rare. Insights here are defined as actionable, data-driven findings that create business value.
That?s the seaworthy promise of DBW?s Discoverability and Marketing Conference in its next iteration.The promise, and the challenge.
No conference can be all things to all people, and the more brightly a line is drawn around what?s wanted in a given confab, the more assuredly it will draw its audience, its speakers, and its conclusions. In that world of abundance our friend Brian O?Leary loves to tell us about, I believe that the victory belongs to the selective, the discerning, and the focused.
DBWDM has had a fine start, something to be really proud of. I?m so glad I was there on the first outing.
And now, it?s time for it, too, to take to the higher seas. I think there?s a good chance that if some smart decisions are made and honored, this conference will, itself, be an admired schooner in our annual fleet of confabs.
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If you?d like to look further into issues of discoverability and marketing in the industry! the industry! consider joining the free webcast on October 4 at 1pET / 10aPT / 1800BT for the Bowker Consumer Presentation on ?Beyond the Book ? Marketing in the Right Place at the Right Time,? presented by DBWDM.
Information and free registration at Free Webcast: How Social Networks and New Media Are Changing the Ways Readers Discover New Books.
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In the US? What?s that globally? RT @: B&N?s @: Barnes & Noble now 30% of the e-book market #DBWDM
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Why is the ebook edition of J.K. Rowling?s new novel, ?The Casual Vacancy,? $17.99? Thank the fact that publisher Hachette is in a sweet spot between the ebook settlement?s approval and the time that it actually takes effect at non-Apple retailers.
Laura Hazard Owen
Yes, Laura Hazard Owen at paidContent expertly parses the pricing on JK Rowling?s new ebook,The Casual Vacancy, as it Hachette releases it to the digi-verse.
In Why JK Rowling?s new ebook is $17.99, Owen ? with a nod to attorney and Dear Author blogger Jane Litte for some assists ? writes it this way:
The settling publishers have longer to terminate agreements with other retailers (than Apple), like Amazon: ?Starting 30 days after the Court enters the proposed Final Judgment,? they may terminate those contracts??as soon as each contract permits? (i.e., when it expires), or the retailers can terminate the contracts on 30 days? notice. That adds up to about sixty days of wiggle room.
And as luck would have it for Hachette, that wiggle room includes the release of La Rowling?s eagerly awaited new aria.
In the meantime, Hachette?s in a sweet spot where it?s no longer limited by Apple?s price bands, but non-Apple retailers like Amazon also aren?t allowed to discount its books. So if you want?The Casual Vacancy (now) you?ll be paying $17.99.
Owen includes the caveat that should Apple now be on a new contract with Hachette, it could discount ? and Amazon and other retailers might then be able to discount, as well.
But even more interesting, Owen includes a footnote to get at the usual emotionals around such issues as this:
I?m aware this post is likely to engender a lot of ?greedy publishers? comments. The fact is that the ebook pricing settlement incentivizes publishers to set higher ebook list prices. Depending on the new contracts that Hachette works out with retailers, there may be little difference between the money that Hachette gets from?Casual Vacancy sales now and the money it gets once those new contracts are enacted.
J.K. Rowling?s new book on Kindle: Literally unreadable http://t.co/NcAFegqm (via @) wow how can they screw it up so badly
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And if you?re eager for early reviews, Theo Tait is out at the Guardian (which also has one of only two reviews Rowling did prior to the book?s release).
Tait does address the ?Harry Potter and the Miraculously Unguarded Vagina? joke. One probably has to. And then he goes on to deliver himself of an opinion you?ll have to read for yourself, I won?t tip it here, other than to note that he uses the odd phrase ?artificial contrivance.? I?m wondering how many times one encounters a natural contrivance.
Perhaps we?ll find out in Rowling?s book.
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On the internet, everyone knows you?re not funny.
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Two new partnerships announced last week suggest the emergence of new commercial models for publishing.
Mike Shatzkin
Mike Shatzkin, has a followup to comments he?s been making since 2007 about what he called then ?The End of General Trade Publishing Houses.?
He goes into his telling new essay, New publishing companies are starting that are much leaner than their established competitors, to size up the new Diller-Rudin Brightline announcement and the Movable Type Management initative, The Rogue Reader (currently in soft-launch beta), which we introduced last week in WRITING ON THE ETHER EXCLUSIVE: ?Rogue? Authors on a New Route.
The publishing ambitions here are quite different, but the point they make about the direction of publishing?s future are very much the same.
While pointing to the Diller-Rudin-Coady operation?s ability ?to compete with major publishers for major books,? he rightly contrasts The Rogue Reader project of Jason Ashlock and Adam Chromy for its entrepreneurial dexterity in ?a young and developing literary agency.?
The message here is that we see a similar answer coming from the opposite ends of the continuum of investment and power of what the genesis of a successful future publisher might look like. Both an ambitious well-funded highly-commercial list headed by a publishing veteran and fledgling authors publishing in a niche under the direction of a young entrepreneur with much less seasoning are being launched on new publishing platforms which have copious capabilities to do digital publishing efficiently.
A clarification occurs in the comments under Shatzkin?s good piece ? there, Ashlock echoes the point he made in our piece, that the Rogue authors are self-publishing as part of a collective curated by Ashlock and Chromy.
But Shatzkin says very well where the trend can lead:
We are getting closer to the day when all a publisher really will need to ?own? is the ability to acquire and develop good books and ways to reach the core audience for them persuasively and inexpensively.
And the other side of that coin has to do with author-initiated versions of this kind of formulation. In time, more variants on these models may involve an authorial direction of? publishing functions hired as needed.
Even in terms of the place of print in the future, Shatzkin sees the same mechanism others are understanding:
These new publishers can treat the diminishing print-in-store marketplace as a bit of an afterthought because there are more and more sources from which to purchase those capabilities for as long as they are needed.
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The AAP?s response to ALA?s open letter to publishers re: ebooks is fascinating for what it DOESN?T say.
That?s the Association of American Publishers and the American Libraries Association.
As usual, they?re not happy with each other. This time things are a bit more strident. And in Dear Libraries: No more free handouts for you freeloaders! Guy LeCharles Gonzalez ? former Ether sponsor and an employ with Media Source/Library Journals ? picks up on the latest exchange, taking issue with the implications he sees in the AAP?s widely decried letter.
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
He cites this passage from the publishers? letter:
Publishers and local libraries have had a lifelong partnership dedicated to increasing literacy and nurturing the love of reading. The publisher members of AAP provide libraries with innumerable free resources, programs and services ? all designed to serve their cardholders, inform their librarians and sustain the vitality of their institutions.
And Gonzalez then follows up, emphasis his:
Based on that, you?d think publishers view libraries as social marketing endeavors, making zero reference to the fact that libraries BUY BOOKS, and that a significant percentage of patrons who borrow also BUY BOOKS.
Critics hammer JK Rowling?s ?Casual Vacancy.? Will it earn back its (rumored $7 million) advance? http://t.co/YBlLJMsY
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If you need to catch up on all this, Gary Price at InfoDocket can help you.
Here is a part of Monday?s open letter from ALA chief Maureen Sullivan, in which she writes, emphasis hers:
If our libraries? digital bookshelves mirrored the New York Times fiction best-seller list, we would be missing half of our collection any given week due to these publishers? policies. The popular ?Bared to You? and ?The Glass Castle? are not available in libraries because libraries cannot purchase them at any price. Today?s teens also will not find the digital copy of Judy Blume?s seminal ?Forever,? nor today?s blockbuster ?Hunger Games? series.
Sullivan?s intent seems to be to push the long-running standoff between libraries and publishers on ebooks to something of a head:
We librarians cannot stand by and do nothing while some publishers deepen the digital divide. We cannot wait passively while some publishers deny access to our cultural record. We must speak out on behalf of today?s ? and tomorrow?s ? readers.The library community demands meaningful change and creative solutions that serve libraries and our readers who rightfully expect the same access to e-books as they have to printed books.
The publishers? side was, in a phrase, not amused, referring to Sullivan?s letter as ?a harshly critical open letter to the US publishing industry about e-lending.?
The AAP, as trade organization representing some 300 publishers, writes back ? and note the reference at the end of this passage to a caution about ?antitrust restrictions?:
Publishers support the concept of e-lending but must solve a breadth of complex technological, operational, financial and other challenges to make it a reality. Each publishing company is grappling individually with how to best serve the interests of its authors and readers, protect digital intellectual property rights and create this new business model that is fair to all stakeholders. And while the 9000-plus library systems? non-profit status permits them to convene, debate and reach consensus on these issues, commercial publishers cannot likewise come together due to antitrust restrictions.
And the publishers? side signs off with regret about the sentiments of the libraries? camp:
At a time when individual publishing houses are more actively engaged than ever in exploring viable solutions to e-lending, we are disappointed that the new leadership at ALA chose this path, with this particular timing, to criticize those efforts.
What may be in the offing here is an effort by the library community to take the ongoing crisis public ? or, at least, more public than has been done so far, in order to pressure more movement from the publishing contingent. It?s likely, after all, that libraries, rather than the publishers, will enjoy the favor of the public in almost any outcome.
Ugh. ?Limn,? along with the verb ?keen,? is one of the most annoying words ever: http://t.co/j5CfnWiw
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As we continue to watch things develop ? talks have been going on since last winter ? Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly in Macmillan Poised to Test Library E-book Model has this:
Macmillan officials have confirmed to PW that the publisher has developed a pilot project that would enable e-book lending for libraries?a potentially major development. However, details of the pilot remain undisclosed.
There?s hardly a sense of big smiles and high fives anywhere, though. Text from Macmillan, quoted by Albanese, reads:
We are currently finalizing the details of our pilot program and will be announcing it when we are ready, and not in reaction to a demand.
Good times.
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@ Fiction trailers have to compete with Hollywood trailers in quality. Not cost effective ROI #DBWDM@ Honey, I?m not talking about fiction book trailers. You are. Why are you dead set on embroiling me in this?@ It was just FYI for the larger conversation. No broiling or embroiling intended.
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I guess my primary criterion is ?engagement.? Am I engaged/captured/gripped by the words and deeds on the page, by the emotional reaction they create in me?
Ray Rhaymey
When Ray Rhaymey judges manuscripts for contests, he writes, he has a list of elements that go into that sense of engagement he?s looking for.
And in his post Here Comes the Judge for Writer Unboxed, he works up a three-point list of what goes into the engagement he looks for:
Story. Something is happening, a story is taking place. It?s in a place I can see, and there are people doing things.
A scene: That?s how a good writer shows what is happening, what I call an ?immediate? scene. It?s not a summary of information, it?s not exposition, it?s not what happened then, it is what is happening now.
Voice: I frequently read where agents name ?voice? as the number one thing that pulls them in. I can see that. Voice can translate into a personality of the story, and we all react to likeable personalities.
One reason I?ve included this post on the Ether this week is that I like how forthright Rhaymey is about the speed with which an experienced judge can recognize whether what?s needed is in place or not.
I spent a part of my career ? back in the 18th Century ? judging actors who were auditioning for university graduate programs in the theater arts. And what actors never liked hearing (understandably!) was that an experienced audition judge or casting director can tell within seconds whether someone is right for a role or a spot in an ensemble. Normally, by the time an actor has said her or his name and which monologue she or he is about to perform, you know. The ?acting? part is almost secondary.
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Rhaymey is getting at a similar phenomenon here when he writes:
Many of us have faced the toughest judges in the business, literary agents. I think my take on what is good storytelling/writing comes close to theirs?I?ve judged over 600 opening chapters?and, let me tell you, your eye becomes quickly trained to see what works and what doesn?t work. Agents and editors will tell you that they can usually reach a yes/no decision on the first page. I believe them.
None of this should be taken by authors as depressing or hostile to their work and dreams and efforts. But it helps us all to face the fact that the kind of work we really want to do ? the stuff our own dreams are made on, to paraphrase a line I heard frequently in those stage auditions ? is work that arrives with its soul intact, its presence in place, its story, scene, and voice down pat.
And all this you hear about ?good writing? being the key? Here?s Rhaymey again:
The main criterion isn?t, really, good writing. That?s the price of entry, the foundation upon which a good story can be built. You don?t get any credit for good language/grammar/etc. from me or an agent or an editor. It makes a ?yes? decision possible, but that?s all.
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Hey @ could you please devote an entire column to why Michi loves the word ?limn? so damn much? Thousands of minds want to know!!
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Sometimes we lose perspective with our stories.? The plot and the characters become wallpaper to us.? We know we need an extra set of eyes to find the problems with our book?the plot holes, the echoes of repeated words, the loose ends we forget to tie up.
Elizabeth Spann Craig
Elizabeth Spann Craig?s output? in cozy and traditional mysteries is admired by many of her blog readers. It?s likely that many people think Craig is always entertained by and engaged with her characters and stories.
On the contrary, in Discovering What Delights, Craig tells of how a neighbor child?s thrill over seeing hummingbirds ? at a backyard feeder that, for Craig, becomes ?wallpaper to us? ? reminded her how remarkable the birds are.
And because writing, editing, revising can become so grueling, of course, one?s story and characters and settings can become that backyard wallpaper to a writer.Craig has the answer:
It?s just as important to have that extra set of eyes to find what?s right with our story?what?s special.? A turn of phrase, a genuine character, a well-drawn villain. The hours of editing can make us lose perspective on the good parts, too.? We need to know what works so that we can provide more of it.
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In Book Publisher Goes To Court To Recoup Hefty Advances From Prominent Writers, the Smoking Gun reports:
The Penguin Group?s New York State Supreme Court breach of contract/unjust enrichment complaints include copies of book contracts signed by the respective defendants.
Authors involved in the court action, according to the report, include Elizabeth Wurtzel, Ana Marie Cox, and Holocaust survivor Herman Rosenblat (whose story of concentration-camp love turned out to be false).
Some large advance figures are involved, and commenters include Don Wiggins, who writes:
I believe I?ll write a book about the disintegration of traditional publishing methods. Just send me the 30K advance and I?ll get right on it.
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Ce que les zombies peuvent nous apprendre sur le droit d?auteur et la cr?ation,par Lionel Maurel (@)http://t.co/KPIOzKhE
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Friday and Saturday, Jane Friedman, digital editor with VQR, long-suffering host of the Ether, and hashtag unto her verified self, will be engaging with colleagues in Berlin at the LitFlow conference.
The sessions are conducted in think-tank format, as a kind of big-table debate, which is an exciting and highly immersive format ? I wish we saw it more frequently in the States.
Here?s the LitFlow site, and Jane will be tweeting from time to time as the sessions go forward, keep an eye out.
And for an updated list of planned confabs, please see the Publishing Conferences page at PorterAnderson.com.
Frankfurt-bound folks may want to give special consideration to the Tools of Change (TOC) Metadata Goes Global program with Brian O?Leary and Laura Dawson, and a very promising-sounding Publishers Launch event from Mike Shatzkin and Michael Cader.
Ed Nawotka has announced that his Publishing Perspectives will host a free two-hour session in in Frankfurt on the morning of October 13, an ?ignite?-style round of presentations on the subject of self-publishing. You?re asked to RSVP to warmuth@book-fair.com
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I am lucky because I have a rabbit on my couch. She also matches the couch.
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The books you see here have been referenced recently in Writing on the Ether.
I?m bringing them together in one spot each week, to help you recall and locate them, not as an endorsement. And, needless to say, we lead our list weekly with our fine Writing on the Ether Sponsors, in gratitude for their support.
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Writing on the Ether Sponsors:
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World: Please turn off the tap tap tappy sound on your iPhones and iPads. Thank you.
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A multidisciplinary team led by University of Cincinnati researchers came out Sept. 26 with a paper that aims to help biologists who work with color-changing creatures and engineers who work with e-Paper technology.
Even as the news of Barnes and Noble?s new HD Nooks breaks ? here is Steve Kovachat Business Insider with the (perhaps overstated)? Amazon?s Kindle Fire Just Became A Dud ? this quaint report from ScienceDaily about scientists looking to enhance their concepts of eInk through studies of color-changing sea creatures.
The original story is credited to M.B. Reilly and this write is put together with materials from the University of Cincinnati.
One of the researchers? key findings is that there are numerous approaches to change the reflective color of a surface and that the highest-performance approaches developed by both humans and nature share some powerful common features. Both use pigment, and both change or achieve color expression by either spreading or compacting that pigment. Animals use muscle fiber to spread or compact pigment, and electronics make use of an electric field to do so.
Not surprisingly, we?re being passed like we?re standing still by color-flipping cephalopods.
Overall, animals ?outscore? synthetic devices when it comes to sophistication and integrated systems; required energy use for color change; size scalability (cephalopods? adaptive coloration works over a wide range of sizes in the organisms? class ? from small-size cuttlefish to large-size octopus and squid); and surface texture (cephalopods can selectively adapt or ?crinkle? their skins to match a variety of three-dimensional textures, which provides additional light scattering and shadowing).
Where do we have an advantage? Speed. Our color changes are faster than their color changes. In historical terms, though, we?ve been dragging our pods. As a researcher puts it:
?The highest performance human-made approaches have been only recently developed, well after numerous other approaches were tried. Perhaps in the past, if we had more closely trusted nature?s ability to find the best solution, we would be further along today in creating better display technology.?
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Okay, you?ve all ten hours. NOW have you finished A CASUAL VACANCY? *taps foot impatiently*
Here is an interesting move by Google, which is clearly stepping up its mobile game in recent months: you can now download a dedicated YouTube camera app - YouTube Capture - for iPhone and iPod touch. The app lets you record a video clip and right after you are done filming, you can write a caption, select which networks you want to share to and publish.
What if you walked into Digital Book World?s (DBW)? Discoverability and Marketing Conference this week, sat down in New York?s spacious Metropolitan Pavilion with its gleaming-shipboard floors, and spent two days with us?
You might have come away from Monday and Tuesday?s conference with an admiration for our industry professionals? capacity to withstand?confusion.
Paper Boats: In a purely praiseworthy effort to include authors in the program, the conference presented Elle Lothlorian and Erika Napoletano in the mix, and the organizers are to be commended for that.
But ?look how badly I?ve been treated? doesn?t engender a lot of audience support in any setting, not just in a publishing arena.
Then look at how blogger ?Ellen? at Word Thief writes up what struck her from Jon Fine?s presentation, in her post Digital Book World: Books vs. Everything Else, recalling his line:
And as luck would have it for Hachette, that wiggle room includes the release of La Rowling?s eagerly awaited new aria.
While pointing to the Diller-Rudin-Coady operation?s ability ?to compete with major publishers for major books,? he rightly contrasts The Rogue Reader project of Jason Ashlock and Adam Chromy for its entrepreneurial dexterity in ?a young and developing literary agency.?
Here is a part of Monday?s open letter from ALA chief Maureen Sullivan, in which she writes, emphasis hers:
The AAP, as trade organization representing some 300 publishers, writes back ? and note the reference at the end of this passage to a caution about ?antitrust restrictions?:
The sessions are conducted in think-tank format, as a kind of big-table debate, which is an exciting and highly immersive format ? I wish we saw it more frequently in the States.