“We’ve had time to act — and essentially we haven’t acted,” says science journalist Michael Lemonick. He describes the threats posed by climate change in his new book, Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas, and the Weather of the Future.
Full piece on NPR
There are scores of podcasts about books and reading, and some of them are quite good. Some of them are bad. With a few exceptions, podcasts are the aural equivalent of self-published books: No one is editing them, no one is telling the host to stop addressing his or her co-host as “dude” or to explore the wide world of adjectives beyond “awesome.”
Author Fights For His Book On The Internet After Slacking Student Pleads For A Quick Summary
Yet still, there are students who see reading as work rather than a joy, which is partially to be blamed on an increasingly visual world, and partially to be blamed on the fact that most of the educational system has yet to fully adopt students’ digital lives. This leaves it up to the authors to defend the value of their work, which is exactly what DC Pierson did.
Roughly two weeks ago, the popular e-book lending site LendInk was taken offline thanks to a group of terrified authors who couldn’t be bothered to read the fine print. LendInk was a website dedicated to helping book lovers lend books to each other through features implemented by Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The site’s only purpose was to serve as a front end — it hosted no e-book files, linked no torrents, and never directed users to a file locker.
Excerpt: Why do mainstream authors dislike Indie publishing to the point where some even disagree with the coined term “Indie”? It comes down to worldview. Bestselling authors who are talented and hard working – like Thor and Grafton – are inclined to believe that publishing is a meritocracy where the best work by the most diligent writers gets represented, acquired, published and sold. But this is demonstrably untrue. The most famous counter example is that of John Kennedy Toole.
Full article at Forbes
From tech site <a href=”http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/15/3244003/watch-this-kids-1995-internet-PSA”>The Verge</a> Back in the early-to-mid 90s a lot of people remained unconvinced by the internet’s potential — perhaps not surprising, given the spartan nature of early web pages. The fifth-grade students at Ray Bjork Elementary School in Helena, Montana knew better, though, and put together this PSA that not only details the internet’s many uses in 1995 but also predicts its future.
Cornell University Library’s Hip Hop Collection has Announced Cornell University Library’s Hip Hop Collection is honored to announce the appointment of DJ Afrika Bambaataa as a visiting scholar for a three-year term.
Bambaataa will visit Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, NY for several days each year to meet with classes, talk to student and community groups, and perform.
This is the first faculty appointment for a hip hop pioneer and legend at a major university.
Cornell University Library is the home of the largest national archive on hip hop culture, documenting its birth and growth by preserving thousands of recordings, flyers, photographs, and other artifacts.
Details and updates, such as schedules, photos, and events will be posted on this space.
[Thanks Ken!]
Books were still available for checkout Tuesday but from the sidewalk outside the vacant city building that briefly had been occupied as a “people’s library” before police shut it down.
Ten to 15 people left the property at 1449 Miller Ave., near International Boulevard, shortly after officers entered the building at about 11 p.m. Monday and told the activists they were trespassing, said Officer Johnna Watson, a police department spokeswoman.
Why we need books more than ever
The entire book world is in turmoil right now. Bookstores are shuttering their doors and age-old presses are closing down. I met with a book editor this summer who told me, quite frankly, “Young moms aren’t reading books anymore. They’re on the Internet.”
Should this be a cause for alarm? What makes the book still relevant for us, and what exactly are we missing when we fail to crack those pages?
Last month the History News Network voted David Barton’s book “The Jefferson Lies” the “least credible history book in print.” Now the book’s publisher, Thomas Nelson, has decided to stop publishing and distributing it.
The book, which argues that Thomas Jefferson was an enthusiastic orthodox Christian who saw no need for a wall of separation between church and state, has attracted plenty of criticism since it appeared in April, with an introduction by Glenn Beck. But the death knell came after Jay W. Richards, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and the author, with James Robison, of “Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It’s Too Late,” began to have doubts and started an investigation.
More from The New York Times.
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