FYI, I just got word today from someone who had a "pre-order" in at Amazon, that they received their copy this morning. So that's about 10 days from the official "release" date of March 28, but at least it's good to know that they're finally shipping! I also spoke to a store manager at Borders today, who said that for their chain at least, he got word that the books have left the warehouses, and are "IT" (In-Transit) to the stores. His guess is that they'll be on shelves within the next few days. He also mentioned that most new books only do a preliminary shipment of 1 book to each store, but for mine, the buyers pre-ordered 2-4 for each store, which he says is unusual but a good sign that they're optimistic it'll sell well. So, I'm encouraged!

Elonka :)
http://www.elonka.com/mammoth/

This week Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, revealed that his wife Blythe helps him write his bestsellers. It puts him in good company, writes Hadley Freeman

This article is very little about Blythe, but it has many fascinating examples of other spouses (both male and female) over the years, who helped, and sometimes wrote, the work that brought attention to the more famous member of the couple.

UK Guardian: Behind every great male writer ...

An attorney for the authors told the court that Brown's wife, Blythe Brown, and Planton scoured religious and historical texts on Brown's behalf as he wrote his novel, typing up notes and in some instances, copying parts of the 1982 book.
Planton said he doesn't know anything about that.

"His wife was doing much of the research," said Planton, who said he didn't save any of his e-mails. "They work in a very symbiotic relationship."

Librarian comments on 'Da Vinci' lawsuit

Go to this link. Watch "The Big Finale".

Elonka

Chris Bliss

Very pretty site. At first glance it's your typical personal page. But then, move your mouse . . .

hello

"Four-dimensional models are useful for thinking about and finding new relationships and phenomena," said Ocneanu. "The process is actually quite simple -- think in one dimension less." To explain this concept, he points to a map. While the Earth is a three-dimensional object, its surface can be represented on a flat two-dimensional map.

Ocneanu's sculpture similarly maps the four-dimensional solid into a space perceptible to the human observer. His process, radial stereography, presents a new way of making this projection. He explained the process by analogy to mapping a globe of the Earth onto a flat surface.

"We place a light bulb at the north pole of the Earth and we project onto a sheet of paper placed underneath it," he said. "The southern hemisphere, away from the north pole, will remain quite small, while the northern hemisphere, near the projection pole, will become very big and north pole itself will be sent toward infinity."

The technique can be used to make a two-dimensional projection of a cube by first mapping the cube radially onto the surface of a globe. Ocneanu explained, "The edges of our cube become circles on the map, just like straight highways are slightly curved on maps of the Earth. Its angles, however, remain true in this projection, so the map retains the key aspects of the symmetry of the original cube, unlike a photograph of a cube."

When the same technique is applied to project a four-dimensional solid into three dimensions, the inner part of the projection -- equivalent to the south pole on the map -- has smaller, undistorted faces, while the outer part extends toward infinity. Linear edges of the solid become circles in the projection.

3D sculpture depicts 'shadow' of a 4D object

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of James Bond movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82.
 . . .
The spy gadgets [of the show], which aped those of the Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the pre-cell-phone telephone in a shoe.
 . . .
Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing a spy spoof. When he learned that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry had written the pilot script, he accepted immediately.

"Get Smart" debuted on NBC in September 1965 and scored No. 12 among the season's most-watched series and No. 22 in its second season.

"Get Smart" twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with three Emmys for Adams as comedy actor.
 . . .
In a 1959 interview Adams said he never cared about being funny as a kid: "Sometimes I wonder how I got into comedy at all. I did movie star impressions as a kid in high school. Somehow they just got out of hand."
 . . .
Adams, who married and divorced three times and had seven children, served as the voice for the popular cartoon series, "Inspector Gadget," as well as cartoon character Tennessee Tuxedo. In 1980, he appeared as Maxwell Smart in a feature movie, "The Nude Bomb," about a madman whose bomb destroyed people's clothing.

As a kid, I remember watching endless reruns of the "Get Smart" show. For me, one of the best parts was the very beginning sequence, as he walked through all the different doors and into the phone booth. I remember being utterly fascinated by how each door opened in a different way, including the (implied) trap door in the booth!

Strange, the little things that stick in a child's mind . . .

Don Adams of 'Get Smart' dead - Sep 26, 2005

Here are the economics of publishing a typical novel. For the sake of mathematical cleanliness, let's assume a first print run of 10,000 copies, an advance of $10,000, and a price tag of $20.

10,000 x $20 does not add up to $200,000. The average discount to bookstores, libraries, etc is 48%, which means that if the whole run sells out, the publisher gets $104,000. Almost never does the whole run sell out. If the author is lucky, 7500 copies will sell - a "75% sellthrough," a very good percentage. (50% is more typical.) This means that the publisher actually gets 75% of that $104,000, or $78,000.

From this money must be deducted direct expenses for production . . .

Nice set of data on the costs and potential revenue of writing a book . . .

Mystery Writers of America - The Economics of Publishing

A friend of mine has been bringing the OS-tan subculture to my attention. It's a type of anime, where some of the girl characters represent different Operating Systems. This page is cute, because it has pictures of real girls who are dressed up to look like the anime characters. See if you can figure out which one represents which OS. :)

More OS-tan resources here: http://www.gallo.ws/12

And here's the OS-tan wikipedia article

Elonka :)

Live OS-tan

Twenty years ago, Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran, nearly lost his life when his yacht capsized during the Rolex Fastnet yacht race. Now he’s back to try again, on the same yacht. Le Bon sold the 77-foot yacht, Drum, to Scottish car dealer Arnold Clark who renamed the boat Arnold Clark Drum. Clark has agreed to loan the boat to Le Bon for this year’s Rolex race which starts August 7.

Interesting. I know Drum well. I was aboard a couple times, when I visited the Whitbread race in New Zealand and England, and chatted with some of her crew. And I even wore a "Drum" T-shirt when I went to the Duran Duran concert here in St. Louis last night (excellent show, btw). I've even got bits and pieces of a short story I wrote about Drum way back when, that featured the boat. Maybe it's time to dig it out and actually finish it! ;)

Simon Le Bon Will Race Again