October 12, 2005

Publishers Marketplace reports: “Jason Rich’s CLEANING UP YOUR CREDIT REPORT AND BOOSTING YOUR FICO SCORE, about how average consumers can enhance their credit worthiness, to Jere Calmes at Entrepreneur Press, in a nice deal, by Jeff Herman at the Jeff Herman Agency (world).”

This is a worthy subject, but you would be much better off spending $14.99 to purchase your FICO score on-line at myFICO.com. The service comes with on-line analysis and recommendations on how to improve your score.

Skipping ahead to the denouement, tere are not likely to be any “easy fixes” to your FICO score — most of the things that affect it require a long timeline to change by the application of good old-fashioned financial discipline.

PublishersMarketPlace reports:

“CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s memoir DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, to Jonathan Burnham at Harper, in a major deal, at auction, reportedly for ‘about $1 million’ (NY Post dollars), for publication in summer 2006, by Luke Janklow at Janklow & Nesbit.”

It will be interesting to see what Cooper’s got inside him.

AFFC sales ranks 9/21/2005 - 10/12/2005.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Dino reputation ‘is exaggerated’: “The Velociraptor dinosaur made famous by the Hollywood movie Jurassic Park may not have been quite the super-efficient killer we all thought.

Like other dinos in its family, it had a distinctive sickle-shaped claw on the second toe which many have assumed was employed to disembowel victims.

But tests on a mechanical arm suggest this fearsome-looking appendage was probably used just to hang on to prey.”

Initial reaction on DINOSAUR mailing list was that this is a pretty plausible study.

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Posted by wfzimmerman to Science Phile at 10/12/2005 08:37:27 AM

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Dino reputation ‘is exaggerated’: “The Velociraptor dinosaur made famous by the Hollywood movie Jurassic Park may not have been quite the super-efficient killer we all thought.

Like other dinos in its family, it had a distinctive sickle-shaped claw on the second toe which many have assumed was employed to disembowel victims.

But tests on a mechanical arm suggest this fearsome-looking appendage was probably used just to hang on to prey.”

Initial reaction on DINOSAUR mailing list was that this is a pretty plausible study.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | A-bomb system can warn of tsunami: “Monitoring stations set up to detect atomic explosions could help predict the path of a tsunami, research shows.

Californian scientists have analysed sound waves produced in the Indian Ocean by last December’s Asian tsunami.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the team says the tsunami produced a ‘unique’ signal.

This indicates, they say, that stations set up to implement the A-bomb test ban treaty could be involved in the new Indian Ocean tsunami warning system.”

There are also much more sensitive sensor networks set up for other military purposes such as submarine detection.

The science in the article seems a little bit fuzzy … they are relying on the unique signature observed with the Dec. 26 tsunami, but two immediate concerns come to mind: 1) the Dec. 26 tsunami was a very large event and 2) the tectonic event that triggered the tsunami had a very distinctive shape — a long thin displacement of water. A very different shaped displacement of water could also cause a very serious tsunami — would it generate the same signature?

Henry Blodgett asks, Is Microsoft Getting Pragmatic in Middle Age?

His examples of increased willingness to “partner for strength” in a non-hypercompetitive and non-monopolistic way (negotiations with AOL, partnering with record companies, linking MSN and Yahoo messaging) are pretty small beer, compared to the vast armada of not very resigned behavior that we see in the news practically every day — Ballmer throwing a chair when an engineer goes to Google, Bill Gates getting in a shouting match with Sony over DVD formats.

There does seem to be an increasing aura of sclerosis and desperation around Microsoft. Was Longhorn their “bridge too far”?

PublishersMarketPlace reports:

“CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s memoir DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, to Jonathan Burnham at Harper, in a major deal, at auction, reportedly for ‘about $1 million’ (NY Post dollars), for publication in summer 2006, by Luke Janklow at Janklow & Nesbit.”

It will be interesting to see what Cooper’s got inside him.

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Posted by wfzimmerman to What’s New for Book-Lovers at 10/12/2005 09:19:09 AM

The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News - 12-Oct-05 - Dan Brown enthralls fans, bars media: “MANCHESTER - Even though author Dan Brown banned news media from covering his speech at a sold-out New Hampshire Humanities Council dinner last night, word got out.

‘He talked about thinking and faith, and the search for truth,’ Roger Lenfest of Salem said. ‘What a brilliant speech.’

A New Hampshire Union Leader reporter was not allowed into the event, but heard plenty from those who attended the event at the Radisson Hotel, Center of New Hampshire.

Lenfest said if Brown’s true quest in writing ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was to get the masses talking about science, art, faith and the power of myth, he succeeded in a big way.

‘One of the beautiful things he said was that it’s not so much that people agree or disagree with his book,’ Lenfest said. ‘It’s about getting the conversation started and inspiring debate.’

‘It’s about a resistance to apathy,’ said his wife, Jen.”

Resisting apathy is important. I have to note, though, that being correct about facts is also important …

AFFC sales ranks 9/21/2005 - 10/12/2005.

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Posted by wfzimmerman to Unauthorized A FEAST FOR CROWS Analysis at 10/12/2005 08:52:00 AM