Friday, October 6th, 2006
For hitting the USA Today list with the The Night Before Christmas anthology. :)
Archive for October, 2006
Thursday, October 5th, 2006
My favs…
Survivor
Project Runway
America’s Next Top Model
Okay, Jay isn’t a contestant, but I just can’t decide yet–and who doesn’t love Jay?
Thursday, October 5th, 2006
What Is Your Supernatural Gift? (Descriptions & Pics)
Lucid Dreaming.Although science has proven that we all dream every night, many people often remember no dreams at all, and even when they do, it is almost exclusively upon awakening, after the fact.Lucid dreams are uniquely different. One realizes that one is dreaming while the dream is still happening. The scene often suddenly expands in richness and color as the dreamer becomes aware that the world being experienced, although appearing very believable, is actually a dream and that his or her physical body is elsewhere safe asleep in bed. With this new understanding, the lucid dreamer is free to explore remarkable worlds limited only by imagination, and now not just as an actor, but also to some degree as a producer and director.Lucid dreaming was brought into the academic and public spotlights around the world once it’s scientific validity was separately proven by researchers at Stanford University, California (where it has also been proven to be a learnable skill), and at Liverpool University, England. Proof was achieved by performing, during REM sleep, a series of extreme left-right eye signals which were agreed upon prior to sleep. Though most of the body’s muscles are de-activated during REM sleep, the eye muscles are not, and repeated experiments at Stanford, the Sacr-Coeur Hospital Dream and Nightmare Laboratory and elsewhere have proven that the eyes (and to some extent other physiological responses) can be brought under conscious control by a dreamer who realizes that she or he is dreaming.
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Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
A book seller in the Netherlands has launched a new inventory device–microchips in books. Here’s a bit from the Shelf Awareness newsletter.
The new technology is radio frequency identification (RFID), which is being used already by a handful of libraries in the U.S. As applied to the Almere project, CB puts RDIF tags on each book it supplies to Selexyz Almere; every tag has a unique number that identifies and applies only to that copy of the book. On leaving the warehouse, books for the store are packed in boxes that go through an RFID “tunnel.” The complete contents are identified in seconds regardless of the placement of the books in the boxes; CB then generates an electronic advance shipping notice to Selexyz Almere. On arrival at the store, the boxes are read in a similarly quick and accurate way. By contrast, at other BGN stores and like most traditional stores, the process of checking shipments against packing slips and ASNs takes a minimum of five to six minutes.
This allows the book seller to process 35,000 books in three days instead of two weeks, and only two employees to inventory the entire store in just two days. A major time and money savings over thier old technique which required closing the store.
Here’s another benefit…
RFID lets the bookseller keep track of books much more accurately, particularly in the cases of those that “walk” from their original places on shelves or are stolen. The store inventory is available to customers on four kiosks, which can tell them exactly where the books are. (The tags are deactivated when the book is sold.)
So, the book is sending out its radio signal from where ever it is in the store–even if it is shoved under a book shelf somewhere or tucked in somone’s shopping bag. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
The bookseller estimates its sales ar 6 to 8% higher using this system because it helps them stock better (they actually know what is on their shelves) and frees up time for employees to work with customers.
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
This article kind of stumped me. It’s about the woman who ghost wrote Fantasia Barrino’s (from American Idol) autobiography. She complains no one consulted her before the made-for-TV movie was made.
The book wasn’t about her and since theoretically it is a true story, she didn’t make any of it up. Plus they had Fantasia herself as a resource. Why would they need to consult the person who put it into words?
The article also says she is frustrated that she isn’t getting any credit. Ghost-writer = no credit. Or am I missing something here?
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
Did you know there was such a thing? Fun, no?
For your reading/re-reading pleasure here is a list of the top 100 banned books from 1990 to 2000. How many have you read? How many did you like? How many would you ban?
My answers: 12, 7, none–although I wouldn’t recommend anyone read The Lord of the Flies (shivers). Man, I need to get out more.
And in answer to Jennifer’s quesiton about why Where’s Waldo? Here’s what I found out…
An amazon.com book reviewer, Mr. Sir, wrote: I have looked into it, and it appears that the reason “Where’s Waldo” got banned was because it features adult material such as “topless sunbathers,” and other adult “hidden pictures.”
Here’s a link to the entire article. You know the beach scene, with the kid throwing sand on the woman who has her top untied–yeah, that’s what they think it is.
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
Then go here to enter.
I know nothing about this prize–but 100K? Something to consider if you fit the bill. There is, however, an entry fee of $85. That’s a pretty steep price for a lottery ticket. And IMO that’s what all contests are–you just have no control over who is reading the book and what they bring to the table.
