College student tackled homeless books

College student tackled homelessness along with books (McClatchy Washington Bureau)
KANSAS CITY - As daylight faded, Ed Charles would begin packing up his books in the Penn Valley community college library and worrying about a test most classmates need not worry about.

Anti-Doping Books for Children Available

WADA: New Anti-Doping Books for Children Available (FasterSkier.com)
Always Picked Last The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has partnered with Chooseco, a publisher of interactive children's books, to publish two titles focused on good decision-making and sport values. The objective of the books is to present the reader with difficult, graphic decisions in competitive sports, including choices about doping and cheating. The title aimed at younger readers discourages them from using steriods and having others inject them with anything that can be tested for.

Librarians say Books Are Cooked

Connecticut librarians say $5.4 million cut would mean fewer books, hurt basic services (The Washington DC Examiner)
By: EVERTON BAILEY Jr. Associated Press 07/29/09 11:20 AM EDT HARTFORD, CONN - Librarians across Connecticut say Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposed $5.4 million funding cut for libraries would mean fewer books and basic services, drastically changing what libraries can do for their communities.

Books of condolence

Books of condolence in memory of Guardsman Chris (North Devon Gazette & Advertiser)
BOOKS of condolence have been opened in two village churches for friends to record their memories of Guardsman Chris King, 20, who died in Afghanistan last week.

Madoff Books Seek To Make Money

Coming at you rapidly: the Madoff books (The Christian Science Monitor)

Heaven forbid that, now that he's been sentenced and sent to jail, public interest in disgraced financier Bernard Madoff cools down too much. So to prevent the public's attention from drifting too far, publishers are rushing three Madoff books to print this summer. (All had originally been scheduled for release just after his untimely death, which has been postponed.)

You Can Run Your Own Radio Station For Free

Get Your Own Radio Station For Free

I'm listing to some music right now from an online radio station that I own. My play list is not too big at the moment, only 7 songs, but I was just testing how the site worked and those 7 songs only took me 2-3 minutes to find and then add to the play list.

I didn't have to upload anything.

This new site is called Live IPs (http://www.liveips.com). Unlike other radio stations that you an create, all of your selections must come from YouTube. Yes, these are not just songs, but videos so I guess saying you can have your own MTV (The way it USED to be) would be more accurate than saying it's a radio station, but everyone knows and understands radio. Besides, if you minimize the station player window (it's completely browser-based) you only hear the music just like a radio station.

You can use the station you create in two ways: 1) LIVE is much like a live radio show and you have to keep selecting songs and add them to the station. or 2) you can use a play list and build your list ahead of time and them play them all at once. If you create a play list it will repeat and keep playing as long as you have your DJ window open on your computer.

Registering for an account is easy just like you would find on most other sites. When you register for a station or channel, you also are registered for the site forums which can be accesses from the menu menu of the site. There you can talk to other DJs, learn more about the site, tell others about the station you create, and ask questions if you need help using the system.

To add songs to your play list, select the option for play list. Then you can click on the link for "Search YouTube!". This will open a window that gives you access to Youtube videos. You can also open a new browser window and go to YouTube that way. After you find a video you need to add the information to LiveIPs. Enter in the artist name and title first. Then add the link to the video and you can drag and drop the title into this field. The URL that you want will look like this one: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=-DMYDp8y6SU.

You can describe your video if you want to and then rate it so people know what you think about it. The last thing is to enter in the length of the video you are adding in minutes and seconds. Then click on "insert" and it will be added to your play list. This doesn't take long and you if you add 10 3 minute songs you have programmed about 30 minutes of music in about 3 minutes.

Some may complain that this is not like real radio because you cannot talk live and I admit that is one limitation that the site owners have not addressed yet, but I don't think it's a huge problem given all that you can do with a station. It shouldn't be too hard to create a video of yourself and add it whenever you want to talk to listeners of your station. You could also create ads to play in between songs the same way.

Take a look at http://www.liveips.com and see what you think. Listen to one of the channels and open an account for your own free radio station. If you have questions they have a community forum where you can get tips and make suggestions. I think you will the site easy to use and a lot of fun.

---

Product or Service Reviewed: LiveIPs.com
Description: Offers uses free accounts they can use to create online radio stations. The only limitation is that the material must be videos found on YouTube.com. Stations can play 24 hours a day and there are no bandwidth limitations at this time.
URL: http://www.liveips.com/

New Books on Madoff

Get'em While They're Hot: New Books on Madoff (New York Times)
Before the public fervor for all things Madoff wears off, three publishers are ramping up release plans for books about the Ponzi-scheme perpetrator.

Publish local books

HR. GOVERNMENT has called for local authorship of books following a decline in the publications written and published in local languages.

Google Begins Books Game

10 Days In Google Books Game Begins (WebProNews)
Free stuff has a way of piquing people's interest, and Google intends to capitalize on this fact with a new competition that is starting today. 10 Days in Google Books may drive use of the search giant's literature-related service by putting Sony Readers on the line. Every day, would-be contestants are supposed to answer five questions. (Today's first one relates to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Shanghai Sentiments Book

Vail Valley books: Shanghai sentiments (The Vail Trail)

Vail Valley books: Best selling author Lisa See sets sights on contemporary times

AT&T phone books now optional reading

Regulators said Friday that AT&T Inc. is allowed to quit delivering residential phone books to customer doorsteps in Missouri's largest cities after it was determined that most of the small percentage of people that have phones, cannot read.

AT&T has has been pushing for this change for years, once it realized, "We can pay to print and deliver phone books each year for free, or we can have customers pay us to have someone look up the numbers for them. Duh??"

People Magazine

People

by William J. McGee , Thursday, July 23, 2009
Most of us undoubtedly think of magazines as year-round reads, not tied to a particular season. But I know quite a few newsstand buyers who equate People, Us, and other frothy entertainment mags with beach chairs and chaise lounges. I even had a friend who only bought People in May and June, just so she could stock her beach house with a few weeks' worth of guilty reading pleasures each summer.

And why not? Earlier this month I promised my teenage son he could spend the first few weeks away from his grueling high school curriculum, free from any serious intellectual pursuits. As for the rest of us, maybe being tasked with nothing more challenging than identifying body parts in an annual celebrity bathing suit issue is a necessary form of battery-charging on vacation.

If so, People remains up to the task. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, it's still the largest of all the 800-pound gorillas, with the highest ad revenue for the year to date. And as noted on this site last year by Phyllis Fine, People still stands out from other gossip and tabloidy mags because it "acknowledges humans beyond the Hollywood axis," focusing not just on the famous, but on interesting unknowns.

As Jeff Goldblum's character so memorably stated in "The Big Chill," the average People article can be read during a bathroom visit. Heck -- if anything, that challenge should be upped to about 2.5 articles. And there remains something vaguely summery about the content; the pages themselves seem particularly well suited to withstand suntan lotion and sand.

Even the correction in the July 20th issue makes for great beach reading: "In our July 6th issue we incorrectly printed the location of where Christina Aguilera shopped. She shopped at Color Me Mine in Studio City and not at the store's Beverly Hills location. We regret the error." Not exactly an editorial transgression to rival what or when Dick Cheney knew about yellowcake uranium in Iraq -- but then how many among us can spend all 52 weeks of the year mulling such weighty topics?

Yet despite the fluff, People seems to view itself as something of a periodical of record when it comes to celebs. For example, Karl Malden's short obituary on the Passages page was reported sooner, more thoroughly, and more eloquently by scores of other media outlets. Yet Passages reminds us this mag itself arose from Time's People page -- which dryly documented weddings, births, and deaths -- and that dogged spirit lives on somehow, even amidst the treatises on Beyonce's mascara.

This issue also contains a single-page "Life is About Choices" piece that details Sarah Palin's sudden resignation as Alaska's governor yet doesn't provide new or particularly noteworthy information or insights. With hundreds of newspapers, news magazines, and blogs covering the same story, the question arises why People would even bother.

However, when the magazine does focus its full editorial and photographic resources on a story, few rivals can touch it. Thus the cover story on Michael Jackson's memorial service, which is the type of event People was founded for in the first place.

What's interesting is how Jackson's passing so polarized the country, as reflected in the cautious commentaries issued by the White House and Congress and cable news shows. Clearly the millions of heartbroken fans seemed to be matched by at least as many who viewed MJ as tragic at best and a child abuser at worst. That's another debate for another forum, but it's worth noting that People quite deliberately did not attempt to take the journalistic middle road: "Farewell to a King" offers a passing reference to "his troubles offstage" but is as much about praising as it is about burying.

The 10th anniversary of the untimely death of another scion of another famous American family makes for an even better read. "My Friend John" provides personal commentary and photos from Sasha Chermayeff, a close and long-time pal of JFK Jr. It's People at its best: original, interesting, and even compelling. Just as interesting is the portrait of a San Diego man who founded a nonprofit organization that provides needy families with rides to local hospitals, a profile unlikely to make the cut in rival mags.

But there's plenty of nonsense in these pages too. Most entertainment mags would be happy to print a photo of Kim Kardashian in a red bikini on a waterslide. People ups the ante by printing two versions side-by-side and then, in the spirit of a preschooler's activity book, challenges sharp-eyed readers to find ten differences ("#6: Her bikini top has no clasp in the middle.")

The Kardashian reference reminds us that ultimately People has evolved into a litmus test for each succeeding generation. I'll confess I was hit by a severe case of culture shock several weeks back when I stood before a newsstand and saw the same woman in the same orange bikini simultaneously gracing the covers of seven -- seven! -- gossip rags. I had the odd sensation I was in another English-speaking country, reading about British rugby players or Australian soap stars I had no clue existed. Even though I was spotted the huge hint of her first name, I still didn't recognize Kate, and had to be told about her and her husband Jon and her eight kids and her reality show. Even then, I remember thinking: So are we supposed to care?

Obviously the answer is yes. Those PIB figures don't lie.

MAG STATS

Published by: Time Inc.

Frequency: 53 issues per year, including 2 double issues

Web site: www.people.com

Post your response to the public Magazine Rack blog.

See what others are saying on the Magazine Rack blog.

William J. McGee is a freelance journalist who writes a monthly travel column for USAToday.com.

Do you have strong opinions and inside knowledge about the topic of this newsletter -- and do you want to share your insights, observations and points of view regularly with the readers of MediaPost? To be considered as a MediaPost contributing writer, please send pertinent info about your credentials, plus several column ideas and one example of your writing on the topic, to pfine@mediapost.com. Please see our editorial guidelines here first.

Magazine Rack for Thursday, July 23, 2009:
mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=110370

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this issue was forwarded to you and you would like to begin receiving a copy of your own, please visit our site - www.mediapost.com - and become a complimentary member.
For advertising opportunities see our online media kit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you'd rather not receive this newsletter in the future click here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We welcome and appreciate forwarding of our newsletters in their entirety or in part with proper attribution.
(c) 2009 MediaPost Communications, 1140 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001

Clay County Jail Seeks Paperback Books

The Clay County Jail's accumulation is seeking public donations of used paperback books for inmate use. The jail accumulation can accept adult fiction, including best sellers, mysteries and westerns; adult nonfiction, including biographies (especially athletes), history and humor; and juvenile and young adult fiction and nonfiction, according to a news release. Hardback or damaged books are not accepted as are most "How To" books.

Kasab reads books on fallen Arab star conqueror

Mumbai, July 23 (PTI) Stories on 'a star which broke' is among the books that arrested 22-year-old Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Kasab has read in jail during his recent trials where he admitted his guilt in 26/11 attacks.

Cutline Village Books & Things Back

After an absence of many years, a bookstore has returned to Springvale. Located downstairs from the former Upper Story Bookstore in Colonial Marketplace on Main Street, Deb Lund of Alfred offers gently used books and locally made gifts at Village Books & Things.

Bruce books spot to promote library

Bruce books spot to promote library

KIAMA resident Bruce Elder will have free rein over books in Kiama Library in the coming months as he takes on the persona of Library Ambassador.

Barnes & Noble selling multi-format e-books (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Barnes & Noble yesterday stepped up its fight in the small but highly competitive market for electronic books with the launch of a new e-bookstore offering titles to be read on a variety of devices.

EU seeks opinions on Google Books

European Commission asks authors and publishers in Europe for opinion on Google plan to digitize and publish out of print books that have copyright protections. Compare your salary Use the IT salary benchmark wizard and know the average salary differences between different job functions. Join activeTechPros. http://www.becomeatech.com/

Hearing set for Google books deal

BRUSSELS, July 20 - The European Commission is to hold a hearing on Sept. 7 for interested parties to comment on Google's deal with publishers to make millions of books available online and its impact on EU writers' rights. "Participants were invited to it three weeks ago," Commission spokesman Oliver Drewes said on Monday of the Sept. 7 hearing. The European Union executive had said ...

Library offers more than just dumb books

BERLIN - The Berlin-Peck Memorial Library has entered the age of technology with YouTube contests and MP3 videos, but patrons can also still find all the traditional trappings including hundreds of books on the shelves.

Amazon burns Orwell books

In a case of life imitating art, Amazon has angered some customers of its Kindle electronic book service by remotely deleting two George Orwell books, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Some E-Books Are Still More Equal Than Others

EDITOR'S NOTE | 8:41 p.m. The Times published an article explaining that the Orwell books were unauthorized editions that Amazon removed from its Kindle store. However, Amazon said it would not automatically remove purchased copies of Kindle books if a similar situation arose in the future.

Old books become artwork at library (Papillion Times)

As a librarian, Mary Gubbels said it wasn’t easy for her to cut up books. But that didn’t stop her from starting a new club at the Sump Memorial Library encouraging people to do exactly that.

Library offers more than just traditional books (The New Britain Herald)

BERLIN â€" The Berlin-Peck Memorial Library has entered the age of technology with YouTube contests and MP3 videos, but patrons can also still find all the traditional trappings including hundreds of books on the shelves.

Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

Pogue's Posts: "This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for and "thought they owned."

In Books on Two Powerbrokers, Hints of the Future

The New York Times says new books on the Republican senator Mitch McConnell and on the Democratic representative Henry A. Waxman explain their political paths and may predict whatever of their coming moves.

Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

EDITOR' NOTE | 8:41 p.m. The New York Times published an article explaining that the Orwell books were unauthorized editions that Amazon removed from its Kindle store. However, Amazon said it would not automatically vanish purchased copies of Kindle books if a similar situation arose in the future.

Amazon deletes Kindle books, vows never again

Amazon found itself in controversy on Friday when it deleted Kindle books on accounts based on the demands of publishers, according to an update from David Pogue. The New York Times writer says that "hundreds" of users, who had ironically purchased Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, noticed the removal this morning after the publisher MobileReference decided to back out of offering digital ...

Vegas Magazine

Vegas

by Fern Siegel , Wednesday, June 24, 2009
I arrived at work one morning to find a copy of Vegas on my desk, with a Post-it slapped above the strangely death-like gaze of actress Heather Graham. The note read: "Mock me." As my colleagues will attest, I'm the first to do a coffee run and aim to be a congenial office mate. So let the jabs begin!

In all seriousness, it wasn't that hard. What is it about Las Vegas that brings out the big hair and big jewelry? Or the nightclub ads that give Calvin Klein's a run for their money? It helps explain why the lifestyle magazine's mission, per its company president, is to "arm readers with all the ingredients necessary for their pursuit of Luxury, Access, Money and Power." Wait till this guy finds out about the recession, will he be surprised!

Then again, Sin City is billed as an escape from America. That means you can gamble 24/7 while being served endless cocktails, then get married by an Elvis impersonator to a stripper you met 15 minutes earlier in a neon-lit chapel.

Yes, I know all about the family-friendly efforts and the hotels that make the Sphinx look like a hood ornament, but when it comes to glitzy overkill, Las Vegas stands alone. (The Venetian's Tao Beach features a pool surrounded by 14-foot-high columns of fire, Xboxes, daybeds and a 30-foot bar.) Too often, luxury and money are used for conspicuous consumption. People, try emulating fashion icon Diana Vreeland, who said less jewelry made more of a statement. As for Power, there is the power to indulge your fantasies -- just ask your LV cabdriver -- and the power to jump-start sane health care. Given how most of us treat our bodies, it's probably a toss-up.

Vegas, however, celebrates the body beautiful, which can mean full-time work in its namesake, according to the "model couple" profiled in the "Voyeur" section, which is top-heavy with local talent -- from Michael Curry, a master puppeteer, to poker champ Phil Hellmuth. Laura Diane and Jay Rebholz run a modeling agency that provides DJs, go-go dancers, valet parkers and golf caddies. Posed among mannequins and scattered limbs, a la "Dexter," Jay is draped in black, apparently fulfilling George Costanza's dream to be "ensconced in velvet," while Laura is sporting a hot pink teddy, her hands perched possessively on Jay's thigh.

Laura, 28, was once a pussycat doll at Pure, a local hotspot, but admitted, "My knees started hurting." I feel your pain! Ask anyone who spends hours at work in front of a computer, moving only to order lunch. The joints are the first thing to go; idealism is the second.

Perhaps we could take a page out of Elaine Newton's book. Vegas pop-culture editor Michael Shulman asked local VIPS "What can't you live without?" Newton, who is slugged "hostess/icon," picked the agedashi tofu at Raku, since "freedom" and "culture" were probably too generic. Her dogs, Troy and Geisha, came in second. She's also a big fan of Botox, which, judging from the photo, may be used on the poodles. I was stunned, however, by "icon," a term usually reserved for a name, face, picture or edifice that carries well-known significance and embodies certain qualities, like the Empire State Building or JFK.

Hold the presses! Newton isn't alone. Apparently, there is a second icon in LV: Jojo Zanone-Pucci, who has a passion for and expertise in upscale timepieces. There are macro icons and micro icons. Now, I agree with Ms. Z-P about the artistry of classic watches. To quote Keats, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever," but a Cartier Tank Louis is also an acquired taste. The under-30 crowd tells time via their cell phones. I'm guessing they take the same approach to an exquisitely crafted Bucherer chronograph, profiled in the mag's "Indulge" section, as they do to newspapers.

Vegas, which is heavy on profiles and accessory features, is splashy, like the city. In short, it's oversized, loaded with pretty women and divorced from current economic reality. Then again, if you are nostalgic for the Reagan era, Vegas leads the way.

MAG STATS
Published by: Niche Media Holdings/Greenspun Media Group
Frequency: 10 times a year
Web site: http://www.vegasmagazine.com


This commentary is insightful. I recommend it to others.
Post your response to the public Magazine Rack blog.
See what others are saying on the Magazine Rack blog.
Fern Siegel is Deputy Editor of MediaPost. 

Magazine Rack for Wednesday, June 24, 2009:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108617

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this issue was forwarded to you and you would like to begin receiving a copy of your own, please visit our site - www.mediapost.com - and become a complimentary member.
For advertising opportunities see our online media kit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you'd rather not receive this newsletter in the future click here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We welcome and appreciate forwarding of our newsletters in their entirety or in part with proper attribution.
(c) 2009 MediaPost Communications, 1140 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001