If I Only Had A Brane...

Okay... I saw this word, "brane", and wondered what it meant.

Eventually, my searching lead me here.

Wikipedia does a pretty decent job of explaining stuff, so when I read this:

In string theory, D-branes are a class of extended objects upon which open strings can end with Dirichlet boundary conditions, after which they are named. D-branes were discovered by Dai, Leigh and Polchinski, and independently by Horava in 1989. In 1995, Polchinski identified D-branes with black p-brane solutions of supergravity, a discovery that triggered the Second Superstring Revolution and led to both holographic and M-theory dualities.

I immediately got the feeling that sometime in the near future, this would make perfect sense to the average citizen. Sort of how the equation "x + 2 = 8" can be simplified into first-grade math as "□+2=8".

But then, the average citizen doesn't even know how to define zero-, one-, and two-dimensional space. (Dot, line, polygon)

And I must admit... this looks pretty darn cool. What if our brain (HA! no pun intended) worked like this?

I wonder how many surfaces this has?

Is this your brain after drinking from a Klein bottle?

Or perhaps the instant explosion from an atomic bomb? Or maybe the instance of the Big Bang?

Or maybe God's bubble gum right after it popped?

Me, I just wonder... if you can extrapolate a circle, line, point, and various other conic sections from a cone (as well as a triangle!), what sort of 4-D shape can a cone be extrapolated from?

ALA Sunday: More Digital Comics?

Did your parents save all your artwork, from when you were very little?

Sophie Crumb's parents did. So this Fall, W.W. Norton will be publishing Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist.

Starting at age 2 1/2, this book showcases her development all the way up to last year. Lots of personal history as well, so this will generate lots of press!

What else... Supposedly OverDrive, one of the leading companies providing digital books to libraries and retailers, has signed an agreement with Marvel and Tokyopop. (I heard this secondhand, that OverDrive announced this at their luncheon today.) Now, I've seen that they've offered ebook versions of some of Marvel's and Tpop's titles since April 2010. Searching the web, I see certain issues available via public libraries. OverDrive requires an account to see the entire selection of titles, so I can't see much beyond the link above. It seems that the content is available, but only for lending, not for direct sale. Perhaps today's announcement will change that. Or maybe this is just a re-iteration of what they are already doing. I see single issues from Marvel, not graphic novels, although Marvel could easily bundle them together. I wonder how much they charge the libraries?

Oh, and the scope? According to OverDrive, they serve TEN THOUSAND libraries.
And they already work with HarperCollins, Hachette, Random House, Simon & Schuster...
Stone Arch Books GNs since November 2008.
Classical Comics
ComicsOne
Capstone

A selection from last summer...

GREAT FARKING ZARQON! The graphic novel of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe! (The Queens Public Library has 151 titles under "Comic and Graphic Books"... including The Ray Bradbury Chronicles (just the modern stuff, not the EC stories)!)

Hmmm... published by childrensElibrary, a division of ibooks, which, if memory serves, was purchased by Simon & Schuster at bankruptcy? Which raises the question... if Overdrive charges a library to carry a digital file of a defunct company, where does the money go? To the original copyright holders? The creators? The copyright still exists, but do the original contract rights still exist? Or does OverDrive restrict access to the actual file? Or does that copy "sold" to the library still continue to exist just like a paper copy does?

210 titles at the Los Angeles Public Library. Faeries' Landing is one of the Tokyopop titles.


Barnes & Noble does have a business relationship with OverDrive, so it is possible that BN.com might start selling titles as they become available. OverDrive's files are in Adobe PDF eBook format, which is readable on the nook, but not the Kindle or iPad (but readable on Macs and PCs).

Of course, if sold on the nook, the image would be in black-and-white. Might the suggested retail price be less than that of the iPad app from ComiXology? Resolution and size might not be a problem, especially if it's a digest-sized book, or if one can enlarge the image. Yes, a bit unwieldy, but Plastic Logic will be selling the larger QUE ProReader e-reader via B&N which will have a larger magazine-size screen and handle more digital formats than the nook.

Developing, as they say.

Not much else in the way of surprises. Of course, OverDrive is a pretty big surprise!

My Brain Does Not Wander...

My brain does not wander… it trespasses.

On the subway, one hears, “If you have been the victim of unwanted sexual contact, please notify a police officer or MTA employee.”

So I got to thinking, what is lawful sexual contact? Can you do it on the subway? Should I ask those sitting next to me before I engage in lawful sexual contact? Is it okay if I take pictures of others engaged in lawful sexual contact? Is it unlawful if they ask for money? Or play music?

ALA Friday Night Lite

Okay... there was a "preview" of the exhibit floor, from 5:15 (opened late) to 8 PM.

First, there was a buffet (YES, an actual spread of food), but I had just eaten lunch, so I just grabbed a can of Coke.

Trina Robbins has a new book out with Lerner, so I took a quick detour to their booth. Just arrived (due out in August), she writes middle school detective story titled "The Drained Brains Caper", illustrated by Tyler Page. Then's there's the second volume of Colleen AF Venable's Guinea PIg, Pet Shop Private Eye, titled "And Then There Were Gnomes"!

Scholastic caught me off guard with Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer teaming up again for "The Odious Ogre", a picture book. I've never been a fan, haven't read the book, but the film of The Phantom Tollbooth, directed by Chuck Jones, actually put me to sleep. Now, The Dot and The Line... that is one of the ultimate nerd romances ever written! I first saw the Oscar-winning short, and then years later found the original hardcover. (It's since been reprinted.)

Then I ventured to the graphic novel pavilion, and eventually wound up at the Drink and Draw. Free wine, five artists drawing crazy suggestions from the audience (a person, a place, a situation). The three challenges:

1. Sarah Palin, cooking a bundt cake, at the Grand Canyon
2. Albert Einstein, doing the long jump, on the Moon
3. A dwarf, performing heart surgery, in the middle of a road

One drawing was raffled off, the others will be auctioned off by ALA.

Oh, and some BIG news. The Dabel Brothers have a new business, titled Sea Lion Books. Three initial authors: L. A. Banks, Richelle Mead, and...
(let me but it up in lights so you won't miss it...)

PAULO COELHO

Yeah, my jaw dropped. That's a BIG name, an author who writes regular literary fiction, not some author known for genre work. Then they showed the book cover:

The Alchemist

Yes. THAT book. A book which has been been in print since 1987, and still sells tremendously (currently #316 among all books on BN.com). A book translated into 67 languages, and which has sold over 41 million copies worldwide.

Not much information available, although it is scheduled for November, 2010.

I'll let others discuss the Dabel's previous publishing history. This graphic novel is being published via HarperOne, which has the rights to the prose novel. The other two books seem to be under the Sea-Lion name, with an EAN prefix of 978-0-9828186.

No listing yet in Books In Print, but here are the first five EANs from Sea-Lion:

978-0-9828186-0-2 Shadow Walker by L. A. Banks
978-0-9828186-1-9 (nothing in Google)
978-0-9828186-2-6 (nothing in Google)
978-0-9828186-3-3 (nothing in Google)
978-0-9828186-4-0 Storm Born by Richelle Meade

Very interesting... and this is just Friday evening!

ALA Friday

So, I’m on my way to Washington, DC, for the annual conference of the American Library Association. It’s already started, and runs until Tuesday.

This year, there will be an actual Graphic Novel pavilion on the exhibit floor. If you’ve attended a comic-con, this would be where all the publishers and dealers would be located. ALA actually offers a variety of passes. I could spend $300 to get the full package, which includes various panels and such, or I could spend $25 just for the exhibits hall. Since I’m a stealth librarian (cataloging books and what-not for Barnes & Noble), I opted for this pass.

Like I said, the GN pavilion is on the exhibits floor, it’s a mini comic-con within the bigger librarian conference. Lots of publishers promoting graphic novels, lots of librarians seducing other librarians with graphic novels, and everyone having a grand time.

I’ll be staying at the AYH youth hostel, where I used to live and work. Dormitory beds, bath down the hall, but it’s super cheap, has free wi-fi, a kitchen, and is a short walk from the convention center. North of the convention center is a Giant Foods store (once considered massive, now just a regular grocery store) so I’ll probably dine there instead of partaking of the overpriced dining options.

Oh, and unlike a regular comic-con, there will be lots of free books handed out! Librarians are on the front lines of advocacy. We’re kind of like bloggers without blogs. People ask us what’s good, and we recommend what’s good. If we really like something, we give it an award, which is a Seal of Approval for books, which publishers love.

What was the last good free book I read? It was a book set in middle school. A weird kid makes an origami Yoga finger puppet. Other kids start asking Yoda for advice, advice which turns out to be really good. It’s a fun book, teaches a soft lesson, and even includes easy, do-it-yourself origami Yoda instructions! (Advice not included.)

(Sorry, I’ll try and find the exact title information later. No wi-fi on the hoi polloi Boston-DC trains, only on Acela.

[Edit: Here it is: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger.]

That’s all for now. Just left Wilmington. Four more stops.

What I've Been Up To...

I haven't posted anything lately, so I thought I should at least try for once-a-month posting...

A few months ago (April) I somehow discovered Yahoo Answers.

Being a librarian, and living with a Boy Scout complex, I immediately began to help people by researching answers online.

My profile can be found here which includes the various answers I've posted.

I'm proud of my 1600 points, but I have been slacking a bit lately... usually I answer a few at work while I wait for my computer to process files, or I spend a few hours on the weekend helping people.

The mathematics questions are the most fun, as they are more of a puzzle than a question. I try to be vague... instead of just giving the answer, I show how to solve it. Sometimes, my answer usually just gives the first step, then "solve for x".

A LOT of questions get repeated... some are nothing more than simple self-esteem or dating questions. Some sections tend to attract trolls and other extremes of human behavior, but that's the Internet for you... One can rate each answer with an UP/DOWN vote, and Yahoo does sometimes pull offensive questions (sometimes while I'm answering them!) so it there is some remedy.

The interface is quite easy to use... I recommend the site.

Take a minute. Can you remember any great books you read in school? Not the required reading, like Johnny Tremain or The Red Badge of Courage. Stuff you checked out of the library because a friend liked it, or a librarian recommended it. How many of those titles would you recommend now to a child, or would read again if you could find the time?

Judy Blume? Donald Sobol? Beverly Cleary? J. K. Rowling? C. S. Lewis? Ellen Raskin? Shel Silverstein? Isaac Asimov? James Marshall? Jolly Roger Bradfield?

Via Robot6, the School Advocacy Wiki has commissioned artwork to publicize the proposed cuts to California school libraries, and to fight to keep school districts from cutting positions across the state (and country, as other states face similar cuts).

There is some good news, at least in Fremont, as funds have been found to restore cuts next year, but that article already has proven how devastating these cuts are to students and literacy. (Half a million fewer books checked out system-wide.)

Full disclosure: I'm a librarian. I am an uncle who actively encourages my nieces and nephews to read. Reading is the foundation of all education, it's ACTIVE learning. Every student who visits a library is looking for something to read. Let me make this clear:

Children are visiting school libraries to read. 

They are not sitting in desks, listening to a teacher teach. They are not taking tests, or writing reports, or filling out worksheets, stuff which every student finds boring but necessary. They are seeking books and information. They are exploring worlds, feeding their imaginations, and, even though they do not realize it, are learning. By themselves.

School budgets are difficult to manage. How does a school board cut any budget, when the investment in students is so important? Even before the current economic mess, teachers were buying school supplies from their own pocket. I just feel that cutting library budgets, especially staff positions, should be one of the last items to be cut in any year.