Double Digits DownLoaded Double Dragon
Downloads of the Adobe Acrobat e-book reader have increased by 70% this year over last and more than five million copies of Microsoft Reader have been distributed. Random House trade imprints now publish lead titles as print books and e-books simultaneously. And e-wholesaler OverDrive reports about 450 publishers offering a commercial e-book list.
The OeBF is a trade association of e-publishers and e-vendors organized to create digital standards and promote electronic reading
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
''MY DEAR FELLOW citizens,'' Vaclav Havel said in his inaugural address as Czech president, ''for 40 years on this day you heard from my predecessors the same thing in a number of variations: how our country is flourishing, how many millions of tons of steel we produce, how happy we all are, how we trust our government, and what prospects lie ahead of us. I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, should lie to you.''
Culture of Self Deception
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Law Lessons (4) Displays the Virtue of Brevity and Expressiveness
In late 1996, the Court of Appeal in New South Wales passed upon the use of the word fuck by a policeman to his (female) subordinate. Although the decision turned on other points, a question arose whether it constitutes offensive behavior to use the word, and its variants, in a police station. The decision in Commissioner of Police v. Anderson (CA NSW unrep 21 October 1996) thus provides an interesting starting point for a bit of harmless etymology.
4 Letter Word
In late 1996, the Court of Appeal in New South Wales passed upon the use of the word fuck by a policeman to his (female) subordinate. Although the decision turned on other points, a question arose whether it constitutes offensive behavior to use the word, and its variants, in a police station. The decision in Commissioner of Police v. Anderson (CA NSW unrep 21 October 1996) thus provides an interesting starting point for a bit of harmless etymology.
4 Letter Word
Monday, July 29, 2002
Doctor says 'Drink beer every day for healthy sex life'
A Czech doctor is advising men to drink beer every day to keep their sex lives active.
Prague-based Dr Pavel Zemek said: "If men drink two beers a day they can stave off impotence."
Dr Zemek of the Czech Centre for Gerontology says his research shows beer can have a "powerful effect" to stop the arteries becoming blocked.
He told Slovak daily Narodna obroda: "On the basis of clinical tests we can say moderate amounts of beer lessens arterial sclerosis, one of the causes of erectile dysfunction."
But he's warning against excessive drinking.
He said: "Drink too much beer in one go and the positive effects are negated, but, as the saying goes, a little bit of what you fancy does you good."
a little bit of what you fancy does you good
A Czech doctor is advising men to drink beer every day to keep their sex lives active.
Prague-based Dr Pavel Zemek said: "If men drink two beers a day they can stave off impotence."
Dr Zemek of the Czech Centre for Gerontology says his research shows beer can have a "powerful effect" to stop the arteries becoming blocked.
He told Slovak daily Narodna obroda: "On the basis of clinical tests we can say moderate amounts of beer lessens arterial sclerosis, one of the causes of erectile dysfunction."
But he's warning against excessive drinking.
He said: "Drink too much beer in one go and the positive effects are negated, but, as the saying goes, a little bit of what you fancy does you good."
a little bit of what you fancy does you good
William Safire, in his weekly language column in the New York Times Magazine, discusses the origin and meaning of the word 'blog' IMHO : "The first use I can find of the root of blog in its current sense was the 1999 'Robot Wisdom Weblog,' created by Jorn Barger of Chicago."
BlogRoots
Corporate crime is a warning to Al Qaida, says P.J. O’Rourke.
If Americans will screw their own grannies on Wall Street, imagine
what they’d do to Osama bin Laden.
Corporate corruption has its advantages. It endangers everything in which we have, over the past many years, invested our time, effort, and money--particularly Republican control of the House of Representatives. And our 401(k) plans aren't doing so well either. In this period of gloom--with liberals seeking to make hay from capitalist foibles and our own capitalist foibles reduced in value to bales of ditto--it behooves us to look for a moment at the bright side of corporate corruption.
Bales of Foibles
If Americans will screw their own grannies on Wall Street, imagine
what they’d do to Osama bin Laden.
Corporate corruption has its advantages. It endangers everything in which we have, over the past many years, invested our time, effort, and money--particularly Republican control of the House of Representatives. And our 401(k) plans aren't doing so well either. In this period of gloom--with liberals seeking to make hay from capitalist foibles and our own capitalist foibles reduced in value to bales of ditto--it behooves us to look for a moment at the bright side of corporate corruption.
Bales of Foibles
The Plot Thickeners
Brand-Name Authors Hire Writers to Flesh Out Their Bare-Bones Stories
How do big-name authors find the time to produce all those fat novels? Easy! They simply hire small-name authors to write the books for them.
In Life's Lottery Winning Plays a Key Role: Take Note Losers
Brand-Name Authors Hire Writers to Flesh Out Their Bare-Bones Stories
How do big-name authors find the time to produce all those fat novels? Easy! They simply hire small-name authors to write the books for them.
In Life's Lottery Winning Plays a Key Role: Take Note Losers
Sunday, July 28, 2002
Reality blurred by star-spangled politics
All the world might be a stage, but Hollywood actors should probably stay off it.
Hollywood's A-list has morphed into a political epidemic that cannot be contained. Once content to limit their extracurricular activities to fashion advertisements, adulterous sex and sunbathing, actors have recently taken an interest in how to run America - nay, the world.
Emma from Sydney
All the world might be a stage, but Hollywood actors should probably stay off it.
Hollywood's A-list has morphed into a political epidemic that cannot be contained. Once content to limit their extracurricular activities to fashion advertisements, adulterous sex and sunbathing, actors have recently taken an interest in how to run America - nay, the world.
Emma from Sydney
Friday, July 26, 2002
The unbearable duress of being reviewed ...
22 July 2022
Milan Kundera fans are wondering why his latest book, Ignorance, which has already been available in Spanish for two years, is still not available in Britain. According to Faber, the book will be published here "to coincide with publication in the States and it is just down to what the author wants". So why has Kundera decided to delay publication in England for so long? His last book, Identity, in 1998 was criticised by The Times for the "clumsy English translation", and the Evening Standard said it was "an impossible novel to review", but otherwise it was greeted with enthusiasm. Perhaps the answer lies with the Birmingham Post, which had the gall to suggest that a central character, Chantal, was prey to "a heightened selonsciousness [sic]". The czeech of it!
22 July 2022
Milan Kundera fans are wondering why his latest book, Ignorance, which has already been available in Spanish for two years, is still not available in Britain. According to Faber, the book will be published here "to coincide with publication in the States and it is just down to what the author wants". So why has Kundera decided to delay publication in England for so long? His last book, Identity, in 1998 was criticised by The Times for the "clumsy English translation", and the Evening Standard said it was "an impossible novel to review", but otherwise it was greeted with enthusiasm. Perhaps the answer lies with the Birmingham Post, which had the gall to suggest that a central character, Chantal, was prey to "a heightened selonsciousness [sic]". The czeech of it!
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Theodore Dalrymple had just refused drugs to a prisoner in heroin withdrawal. “You’re a butcher, a f***ing butcher!” he screamed. “Take him away,” the doctor ordered...
Spectator & Storyteller
Spectator & Storyteller
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Aleksandr Ginzburg Samisdat Relived
Soviet dissident who spent 20 years in and out of labour camps, but who was none too pleased to be set free in America
One of the most significant Soviet dissidents, and for 20 years a thorn in the side of the authorities, Aleksandr Ginzburg was the founder of the samizdat poetry journal Syntaxis, the first independent magazine to appear in the Soviet Union.
Birth & Obituary of Dissident Samizdat
Soviet dissident who spent 20 years in and out of labour camps, but who was none too pleased to be set free in America
One of the most significant Soviet dissidents, and for 20 years a thorn in the side of the authorities, Aleksandr Ginzburg was the founder of the samizdat poetry journal Syntaxis, the first independent magazine to appear in the Soviet Union.
Birth & Obituary of Dissident Samizdat
Monday, July 22, 2002
The theme of exile appears to hold great fascination for literary critics ... and a week or two had hardly passed after my vanishing trick from my homeland before I began to be bombarded with enquiries about how exile was affecting my writing: "Are you still able to write?"
"What does exile mean to your writing?"
"What does exile mean to your writing?"
Sunday, July 21, 2002
How Can I Serve? A Path of Spiritual Activism
“If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
--Australian aboriginal woman first quoted on Victory Over Want Discussion Group
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