Book Review: "Treasure of Khan"

I will make this short and as painless (for me) as possible. In an effort to broaden my reading to cover "beach reads" and popular best selling fiction, I read "Treasure of Kahn," by Clive Cussler and his son, from beginning to welcomed end. I saw this book on a best seller list somewhere, and knew that Cussler was a popular writer, although I had never read anything before by him. I doubt I will read anything else by him either.

Cussler is a master of the plot. Unfortunately, the plot of this tale is totally unbelievable. I wish I had counted the incidents in which the main characters extracted themselves from death defying situations through extraordinarily unbelievable means. I just could not believe the machine that created earthquakes on demand, nor the hiding of an entire motorcycle under a desert bush.

As for characters, I was truly disappointed in the total lack of character development in this book. There was none. Two of the main players were so poorly defined that I constantly confused one from the other.

I will invite you to read Amazon or some other cite for a formal review. I consider this one to be more in the nature of a warning.

Cussler co-wrote this book with his son--I suppose he is trying to groom the younger man to continue the Cussler dynasty. This book did nothing to pass on a brilliant legacy. Sorry.

The Dirty Dozen: Common Everyday Actions that Assholes Use

Although I have only recently graduated from library school and am now searching for a fun, satisfying position somewhere, recollections of my first career as an attorney still linger in the mind. When I reviewed the brand new bestseller noted below, I immediately recognized a work long overdue. In the workplace, there is no place for assholes. The author makes this brilliantly clear in his book. Without further adieu:

The Dirty Dozen: Common Everyday Actions that Assholes Use

• Personal insults
• Invading one's "personal Space"
• Uninvited physical contact
• Threats and intimidation, both verbal and nonverbal
• "Sarcastic Jokes" and "teasing" used as insult delivery systems
• Withering e-mail flames
• Status slaps intended to humiliate their victims
• Public shaming or "status degradation" rituals
• Rude interruptions
• Two-faced attacks
• Dirty looks
• Treating people as if they are invisible

Excerpted from "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't," by Robert E. Sutton

refdesk.com

As a librarian, I am constantly striving to find that ultimate single ready reference web site. Among some of the sites that I have discovered is the Librarian's Internet Index. Another good reference source is Bartleby's. However, I believe that I am safe in stating that the best overall reference site on the internet at this time is the Drudge version of refdesk.com. Here , in one location, you are no more than one click away from most any information you might need. refdesk.com not only aggregates many references sources--dictionaries, encyclopedias, news sources, and other ready reference sources--but it also is one click from most popular mailboxes. For instance, I hit a drop down box at the upper right corner of refdesk.com, locate Google or Yahoo, click, and am brought automatically to my two primary mailboxes. Check out refdesk.com for yourself.

test

Technorati Profile

New Competition for the Public Library?

Libraries now have another source of competition. In addition to bookstores, libraries must now compete for patrons with a new internet book rental service called "Bookswim." Patterned after Netflix, the popular movie rental program, Bookswim will charge a monthly fee and supply a stream of books to the customer. As additional enticement, Bookswim bears all costs of shipping, and there is no time limit imposed to return a book.

Several different programs are available, covering people who read only a book or two each month to those who read many, or for a family of readers to pay a single fee for all members combined.

Bookswim claims not to be in direct competition with libraries. In fact, it offers a program to libraries which Bookswim claims will alleviate the not infrequent problem when a rush of requests for a particular item exceeds the inventory in the library.

I am inclined to think that if this new book rental program survives and thrives, that it will be a bigger threat to the large booksellers than to the public libraries. After all, it is hard to compete with free! Should be interesting!

New Emerging Technologies

Emerging Technologies

Technology today is exploding! I am particularly impressed with advancements in four areas: technology that promises to protect us while on the road, technology that continues to bring us closer together no matter where we are, technology making our “stuff” smaller, faster and more efficient, and technology that affects our privacy and national security. This paper summarizes the possibilities.

I. Close to Home

Using new technology, the Emergency 911 office in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama can now triangulate the exact latitude and longitude of cell phone users. Recently this technology may have saved the life of a worker trapped beneath a gas pipeline way out in a rural area of the county. I suggest that parents should advise their children to keep their cell phones turned on whenever away from home.

Parents might also want to consider a new technology enabling them to monitor the driving habits of their kids. Teenarivealive.com offers a global positioning system chip that is built into the teen’s cell phone, and serves to locate the teen and to determine his speed of movement. If the driver exceeds a predetermined speed, a beeper warns both the parents and the teen. Technology has no answer as to what to do after that, however.

II. On the Go

Additional new technologies will someday serve all people whenever they are on the go, and wherever they are located. Cheetah Wireless Technologies is near completion of the country’s first pilot mobile broadband network in Las Vegas, Nevada. This network employs routers located on city owned light poles, streetlights and road signs. Signals are transmitted in a mesh pattern instead of the conventional hub and spokes pattern seen in cellular and Wi-Fi networks. As long as a laptop is near any of the routers, its signals can be channeled in random fashion through any of the other routers to any destination, including the internet, thus extending the range of the system beyond previous technologies.

Wireless broadband is spreading rapidly. From Orlando to Denver to Salt Lake City, and soon to be everywhere else it appears, are wireless networks featuring high-speed rates of broadband data transfer. MeshNetworks Inc. and others are also employing these systems to assist cities, fire and police departments, as well as computer users. These pilot programs are not identical, and I think it will be very interesting to see how this technology plays out. The next “Microsoft” may arise from one of these ventures!

III. Smaller, Faster, Better

One of the most exciting single ventures under development at this time is that being undertaken by Neah Power Systems, Inc. They, and some competitors, are working on technology to replace batteries in cell phones, PDAs and small devices with fuel cells powered directly by alcohol and alcohol mixtures. The technology will increase “battery life”, and make recharging the fuel cell cheap, easy and fast. There are problems to be worked out, not the least of which is the law forbidding the presence of alcohol products on airplanes, a favorite location of the trendy, “wired “set.

Intel is working on a new microchip architecture that will lower user electric bills, will facilitate easier computer management, and lower IT management costs. They have promised to deliver processors with two or more cores that can each operate slower and cooler, but provide more performance than today’s single-core chip. Intel is promising other advances, too, such as “virtualization”, which allows computers to run multiple operating systems and applications in virtual partitions. This should allow for a computer to continue functioning even after an individual application has failed.

Intel has already designed the Pentium-M, a cooler-running, more power-efficient processor. With the emergence of wireless Internet, Intel combined the Pentium M, a Wi-Fi radio, and a low power chipset to create “Centrino”. Intel has termed this combination “platformizations”, meaning “the convergence of computing and communications.” Intel has installed Centrino certified Wi-Fi stations in many locations. Users now expect new laptops to be wireless.

IV. Privacy Matters!

Technologies aimed at increasing automation tend to lower costs and increase convenience. According to the article by Kumagai and Cherry, they also represent a threat to personal privacy. RFID tags (a small microchip coupled with a tiny radio antenna) and enormous databases of consumer activity created through data mining and other consumer tracking devices will eventually provide a very clear picture of every individual. If the security of this information is ever compromised or misused, the personal privacy of a person could be in grave danger.

Researchers are working on biometric sensors to identify individuals by their walking style (gait). “GPS” receivers are being developed to track an individual with pinpoint accuracy. Digital cameras and video cameras are becoming smaller with higher resolution and are now being implanted in cell phones. Expect to see mass-produced sensors to monitor such things as groundwater content. One researcher has developed a technology to perform surveillance on surveillance devices! His device will have the capability of being built into watches or cell phones. In the future, expect to be able to wear (woven into our clothing) multimedia devices and cameras.

Researchers anticipate equipment that can trace every individual at any location, any time, all the time! Also coming are artificial noses that can detect traces of explosives in an individual’s hair. RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags can be implanted under an individual’s skin for identification. The federal government is pushing researchers to develop biometrics as surveillance tools. This involves face recognition and increased-distance iris scanning. A wireless technology recently developed has the ability to differentiate the “background radiation” between objects and humans, and could be useful in airport security.

Conclusion

Well, there you have my overview of the technology that most fascinates me. Some of it also scares me a little. We must hope to embrace it, and use it well in our lives. We must pray that it does not engulf us, and make us its victims!

Ossuary of Jesus and Mary at New York City Public Library?

According to this website, the ossuaries of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were displayed today at the New York Public Library, in connection with the upcoming documentary about the Tomb at Talpiot, just south of Jereusalem.

Google Search Using Government Documents

If you are looking for government information, or just looking for any information, but want to be certain that the information is dependable, instead of just entering a query into Google, enter the query into Google/ig/usgov . What looks like your standard Google search bar is, on closer observation, limiting the search to government information. Only government websites will be returned for your search! Try it—enter “wild flowers” and determine for yourself if this information is superior to a standard Google search.

Although the US Government is the world’s largest publisher of information, you will not be able to locate all the answers on a government web site. But you should try a government source if there is any chance that your answers could be there. Limiting the scope of the Google search by eliminating much of the commercial garbage is refreshing.

Google has finally "made it" officially. The term "google" has been incorporated into two of our major dictionaries. I cannot wait to see the term in a real, printed edition of the dictionary. I always wanted to know what "google" actually meant.

Book Review- "The Places in Between"

Americans know nothing whatsoever about how people live in far off countries such as Afghanistan. This ignorance leads the governments of Western nations to do many foolish things in a vain attempt to assist the less advantaged peoples of these third-world nations.

This is one of the many impressions to be gained by readers of Rory Stewart's book, "The Places in Between." Stewart walked across Afghanistan in 2002, from Herat to Kabul, employing his rudimentary knowledge of the lanquages of the people, plus quickly assimilated details of local customs. He maintained a quick wit, in lieu of any weapon besides a walking staff. Otherwise he undoubtedly would not have survived the trip.

His trip took about a month to complete, and included confrontations with packs of dogs, snow storms, rock-throwing kids, rifle toting militiamen, and many other adventures. It will become quite evident to the American reader that although Stewart engineered the distance successfuly, that the reader likely would not have.

Stewart is a brilliant writer. His detail of the people, mostly men, and the customs of the people he encounters, is spellbinding. Through his writings one comes away with an understanding of just how very different are the peoples of Afghanistan from us. At the same time, he is careful to detail the ways in which modern society has impacted the way of life of the people of the various tribes he came across.

This book was included by the New York Times on its list of best books for 2006. After reading it, I concur with the opinion of the experts.

Book Review--The Looming Tower

Just completed "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright. I chose to read this book because I was anxious to read a concise and accurate story of the events leading up to the trajedy of 9/11. I try to limit my reading to books of high quality, and this book was listed among the one hundred best books of 2006 by the New York Times Book Review--and it was dead on target, all about how 9/11 came to happen. Reading it has been an eye-opening experience!

Several assumptions that I have carried around for were reversed by this book. For instance, I was of the thought that Osama bin Laden was a wealthy man. In fact, although he had been fairly wealthy at one time, due mainly to the efforts of his father before him, but attributable in part to his own successes in business, I learned that bin Laden was wiped out financially when he departed Sudan in the mid-90s. That government was happy to see bin Laden go, but being a corrupt government, it decided that since he was leaving for good, why not take most of his assets from him as they booted him out. So they did just that, forcing him to sell most of his assets for pennies on the dollar or for nothing at all. After that, donations funded his operations.

A second assumption that I have long harbored was that there is some degree of solidarity among Muslims and Arabs concerning bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. This appears not to be the case. In fact, a number of the governments of the Middle East would like nothing better than to see him dead. These include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey among others. This has been the case for many years. Al-Qaeda brews discontent, and discontent is not a good thing for those in positions of government power. So when it comes to Muslim governments at least, Bin Laden and his accomplices are enemy #1.

I had heard and read numerous sources all to the effect that the US government had bungled matters in its investigation of Al-Qaeda prior to 9/11. This formed the core subject of the book. In vivid detail, the web of facts is presented to the reader. It is clear that 9/11 probably would not have occurred had the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) not been cut off from each other by the wall of silence that existed. These agencies each had information that the others could have used to put the puzzle together. Interagency competitiveness prevented cooperation. The reader will be very angry with our government beurocracy when the truth is revealed!

Lawrence Wright lists at the end of this book all the people he interviewed prior to writing. His evidence is first hand, all gleaned from talking to principals. He lists over 500 persons with whom he spoke. He includes an extensive bibliography as well. I suggest that if a person seeks to understand Al-Qaeda, and the threat it poses, read the book. As a truthful history of an event, it just doesn't get much better than this.

Free Music to You from the Internet

I love my laptop computer. Unfortunately it is not as fast as my desktop computer. For this reason I do not download music files --take up too much storage space. But since I do love to listen to music while working, I spent some time locating good music--free--to listen to on my laptop.

Here are three free and totally different types of music sites on the web. Download the one you like the best, or all three as I have done.

Pandora allows you to play music just like you like. Start out with a song or artist that you enjoy. Pandora will play that artist, plus will mix in similar songs or artists. You indicate how you like the selection, and the music gradually is tailored to your tastes. You can create additional "stations" to fit your changing moods.

Radio Paradise is more of a conventional radio station. The music is mellow and varied. A playlist is included. You will hear a disc jockey occasionally, but otherwise there is no advertising or interruption between songs. This site is just click and go; no listener involvement necessary. If you wish, you can join as a member, chat, comment, etc. The "LRC" tab enables one to rate a song and to upload songs, though it appears not all songs played can be uploaded.

Last.fm makes full use of the latest technologies to bring music to the listener tailored to his or her tastes. The site makes use of "cloud tags" and monitoring techniques. You can see what is the most popular type of music, the most popular songs, tracks, artists, albums etc. Or, you can just listen to music after picking the genres you favor. Similar to Pandora, the station will gradually learn what you like best, and tailor itself to your tastes.

Best of all, these three sites are free, although you will be asked to join. So check them out, and if you decide to utilize any of them, consider the site my gift to you this Christmas.

Christmas at the Whitehouse

Christmas is special at the Whitehouse. Today I want to take you on an internet tour of the festivities there. First we have the Christmas tour of the wonderful old home, brought to us through the colorful paintings of Pamela Carroll. Learn a little history as you tour the rooms and see what the first family has been up to this Christmas. (hint: their pretty good at decorating!) Next, I know you want to read the official Whitehouse Christmas skit. This year's main performer is Barney, the Bush family terrier. He shares the stage, however, with Ms Beazley and the family kitty, known to those who love her as Ms Kitty. After you have read the skit, just click on any picture of Barney you see, and take the picture tour of the First Pets as they prance around the Christmas tree and all about the Whitehouse. Gosh, the way they act, you'd think they owned the place!

A New Way to Post Blog Entries

Today I am utilizing new technology to write this blog entry.  A post came to my attention this week through my RSS feeder on the subject of easing the burden of blogging.  Blogging is lots of fun, and when time allows can be a mental challenge. By that I mean it can be a challenge to put together an article of real interest.  Most of what  I post I confess is thrown together, grabbed from other sites, or very short.  Only a few articles have been challenging.  One of the reasons is that it takes time to undertake the interesting stuff, such as include pictures or links to other sites.  Well, This new website I discovered has changed that.

I am writing this piece on a site called WriteToMyBlog.  When I'm done, I will click a few buttons and this post will automatically appear on the Montgomery Advertiser blog.  It will also appear on my other blog, "Library Universe".  To create the link in this paragraph, all I had to do was click a button, cut and paste the target URL, click another button, and done!

WriteToMyBlog looks like a standard Microsoft Word application, with a few additional icons to enable doing those things that bloggers like to do, like post pictures easily and add links.  Word is familiar to most people, so using this new site is second nature. Oh, and I failed to mention, it is a web-based application.  This means that one can work on any computer through WriteToMyBlog. It does not require that you be on the computer that you usually use.  So go to the beach and write a blog!

It's pretty cool! 

Tags: Technology

NY Times Announces LIbrarians of the Year

This year's award winners are out in the New York Times annual award for Best Libarian.  The award is given to the best librarians in various categories.  To view the winners, click .

LibraryThing

Library Thing

1) Background

a) Launched August 29, 2005 by Tim Spalding, a computer programmer, as a means to catalog his own book collection and to foster an online community of bibliophiles.

b) As of today (2 November 2006) according to the site (see Zeitgeist tab) there are 97,412 members, 6,815,330 books cataloged, 9,260,407 tags added, 1,349,659 unique works, 81, 911 reviews, 55,177 works reviewed, and 966 user groups (“Librarians who LibraryThing” is the largest!).

2) Add books to your library very quickly

a) By any of these entry points:

i) Title

ii) Author

iii) ISBN

iv) LC Card Number

b) Just insert one item of information and hit “enter”—LibraryThing does most of the data entry for you!

3) Useful uses

a) People can use LibraryThing to catalog all of the books that they own.

b) People can use it to look up specific works using the above entry points, or to serendipitously browse books using several means, such as tags, similar works lists, or can view libraries of other members, etc.

c) Once a work is located, LibraryThing can tell you what nearby library holds the work.

d) Swap a book that you hold for another that someone else owns through third party intermediaries such as Bookmooch, which are linked to LibraryThing. Never buy another book again!!!

e) Pull up books in your collection on LibraryThing by all of these entry points: title, tag, LC call number, self-created “call number”, subject, ISBN, author, date of publication, your personal five- star rating, publisher, or date that you enter the work into your LibraryThing library.

f) Display your books visually (Your Library tab> cover view).

g) Read reviews of books—write your own reviews. Reviews are found under the “Your profile” tab. Some reviews are surprisingly well done.

h) See pictures of the authors of works. (Your Profile tab>Author Gallery).

i) Find the highest rated books and check out LibraryThing recommendations that seem to reflect your current library/interests. (All under the “Pssst! Tab)

j) Import libraries from outside sources or URLs.

Popular Cataloging Services and their URLs

1. LibraryThing

• http://www.librarything.com

2. Chainreading

• http://www.chainreading.com

3. Librarious

• http://www.lib.rario.us

4. Listal

• http://www.listal.com

5. GreedyMe

• http://www.greedyme.com

6. Lendmonkey

• http://lendmonkey.com

7. Dine52

• http://dine52.com

8. MyProgs

• http://www.myprogs.net

9. Twofifty

• http://www.twofifty.org

10. Bookmooch

• http://www.bookmooch.com

ISBN Numbers are Changing Soon!

Beginning on January 1, 2007, the ubiquitous ISBN number found on all books will complete a radical transformation. It will no longer be comprised of only ten digits. It will instead be thirteen digits in length. For more information on this change, Click Here.

Co-Founder to Launch Edited Version of Wikipedia

Pilot Project for the Citizendium to Launch This Week

MOUNT HERMON, California – October 17, 2006 – A major new encyclopedia project will soon attempt to unseat Wikipedia as the go-to destination for general information online. Like Wikipedia, the Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), or "the Citizen’s Compendium," will be a wiki project open to public collaboration. But, unlike Wikipedia, the community will be guided by expert editors, and contributors will be expected to use their own names, not anonymous pseudonyms.

The initiative is being spearheaded by Wikipedia’s co-founder, Larry Sanger, who, after leaving the well-known wiki project, became one of its more vocal critics. Sanger first announced the effort on September 15 at the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin. Sanger, who holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Ohio State University, has taken a leave of absence from the Digital Universe Foundation in order to lead the new project.

This week, the fledgling Citizendium Foundation will launch a six-week pilot project open to potential contributors by invitation (see http://www.citizendium.org/cfa.html).

"Not only enormous and free, but reliable"

"Wikipedia has accomplished great things, but the world can do even better," said Sanger. "By engaging expert editors, eliminating anonymous contribution, and launching a more mature community under a new charter, a much broader and more influential group of people and institutions will be able to improve upon Wikipedia’s extremely useful, but often uneven work. The result will be not only enormous and free, but reliable."

Gareth Leng, Professor of Experimental Physiology of the University of Edinburgh, has agreed to serve as one such Citizendium editor. Professor Leng said, "Public understanding of science needs scientists to help to explain, clearly and objectively, what science can do and what it can’t, its weaknesses as well as its strengths, its failures as well as its promise. At the Citizendium, our role will not be to tell readers what opinions they should hold, but to give them the means to decide, rationally, for themselves."

The Citizendium will begin by "mirroring" Wikipedia’s content, which its license, the GNU Free Documentation License, permits. Contributors will then be able to edit articles under the new system. The eventual goal will be to either improve or replace all Wikipedia-sourced content. The Citizendium’s expert editors will also be able to bless versions of articles as "approved," but without freezing further article development on the wiki. Participants hope a giant body of trustworthy free content will result.

Organizational work ramping up quickly

The Citizendium is ramping up organizational work quickly and a number of people have already put in many hours on the project. Since its initial announcement, the project has added over 340 members to its main e-mail discussion list, where discussions have focused on what policies the new project should follow. There is also an active Web-based forum and a planning wiki.

The pilot project will be invitation-only. Invitations can be applied for on the website (see http://www.citizendium.org/cfa.html). During this time, editors, community managers called "constables," as well as rank-and-file authors will together develop the rules of the project. They will also actually get to work editing and creating new articles.

For the pilot project, Steadfast Networks of Chicago is providing a server and bandwidth free of charge. Three experienced system administrators, including Peter Hitchmough of the U.K. and Greg Sabino Mullane and Jason Potkanski of the U.S., are leading the Citizendium’s technical efforts. The Chief Constable for the project is Ruth Ifcher, who played early, key roles in the Citizendium’s predecessors, Nupedia and Wikipedia. The project mailing lists are being hosted by Purdue University, and the main mailing list moderator is Australian Phil Wardle.

Project leaders have launched a contributor recruitment drive to attract college students and professors, research scientists, independent scholars, and people who simply like to read books. Already, partly as a result of early news coverage of the Citizendium on Slashdot.org, the Guardian, and in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, dozens of well-qualified people have already applied to become editors. One of these is Jaime Nubiola, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Navarra (Spain). "I was involved in Nupedia years ago," Nubiola said, "and I am excited now to take part in the Citizendium."

The project will also be reaching out to professional and academic organizations. "Such organizations usually have an educational mission, with which we will be uniquely positioned to help," said Sanger. "So we want to make a special place for representatives of these organizations in our editorial workgroups. We hope they’ll respond positively to our solicitations, which we’ll be sending out soon."

After initial work, the project will be opened up to public view, and to contribution by anyone who supplies his or her real name, a working e-mail address, and a statement of commitment to the Citizendium’s "social contract," or basic policies.

A new Citizendium Foundation looks to the future

The Citizendium Foundation has started the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status. The organization has received a firm commitment for a significant seed grant from a foundation, as well as small personal donations. Finally, discussions are under way with a major computer manufacturer about the possibility of project support.

The project will launch initially in the English language. There is some interest in similar Wikipedia branches in other languages, so some may be launched next year. Project participants are also interested in pooling their resources for related projects in the future.

CONTACT: Dr. Larry Sanger The Citizendium Foundation sanger@citizendium.org http://www.citizendium.org/

Introducing the Book

I wish I could claim this piece as my own, but I cannot. I got it from another blogger, named Treehugger. Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge:

BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology; no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere, even sitting in an armchair by the fire, yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here is how it works: BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of recyclable paper, each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder, which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of your finger takes you to the next sheet. BOOK may be taken up at any time and used merely by simply opening it.

BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting. The Browse feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an Index feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval. An optional "BOOKMARK" accessory allows you to open BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session, even if the BOOK is closed. BOOKMARKS fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKMARK can be used in BOOKS by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOKMARKS can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited by the number of pages in the BOOK.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, named: "Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus"-or-"PENCILS."

Portable, durable and affordable, the BOOK is being hailed as the precursor of a huge entertainment wave. BOOK'S appeal seems so certain that thousands of content-creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to the new phenomenon. Look for a flood of new titles soon.