So Your Thinking about Writing a Book..eh?

Here are some interesting book industry statistics:

1. 2% of the 200,000 books published each year become bestsellers.
2. 84% of the bestsellers are published by the 5 largest New York publishers.
3. 2 out of 10 books published make a profit for the publisher.
4. In 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies.
5. Only 25,000 books sold more than 5,000 copies.

6. The average book in America sells about 500 copies.
7. Only 10 books sold more than a million copies in 2004.
8. Fewer than 500 books sold more than 100,000 copies in 2004.
9. The magic number for a book to be considered successful is 10,000.

His Holiness the 14th Dalia Lama Historic Visit to Iowa May 18th 2010

In a historic first time visit to Iowa, His Holiness The Dalai Lama will visit the University of Northern Iowa on May 18, 2010. Two programs will be featured:

Panel Discussion

A Conversation with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet: Educating for a Non-violent World
Tuesday, May 18; 9:30-11 a.m., McLeod Center
Tickets: $15 ; UNI students free

Violence in our schools, communities, workplace and our world affects everyone. Join His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and distinguished panelists as they discuss ways in which we, as individuals and as a society, can address issues of violence, promote civility and enhance understanding through education.

Keynote Address: The Power of Education

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
Tuesday, May 18; 2-3:30 p.m., McLeod Center
Tickets: $50, $25, $15; UNI students free

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet will give the keynote address for the 2009 Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series. His speech, “The Power of Education,” will focus on the importance of education in an increasingly global society, the role of education in developing socially responsible citizens, and the impact an individual can have on the world.

http://www.uni.edu/dalailama/

Tickets went on Sale at 8:30 a.m. CST:

http://www.uni.edu/dalailama/tickets

Cities with best and worst tap water

Cities with best and worst tap water

(Photo: Getty Images)

How safe is the water that flows out of your tap? The answer very much depends on where you live.

It’s now easier than ever for consumers to find out what’s in their tap water. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) today released the results of a three-year investigation of municipal water supplies across the U.S.

The research and advocacy group looked at water quality tests performed by water utilities since 2004 and created an extensive database that contains info on the contaminants found in 48,000 communities in 45 states.

EWG also rated 100 big city (population over 250,000) water utilities. Below are the top and bottom results.

Cities with the best water:

1. Arlington, TX
2. Providence, RI
3. Fort Worth, TX
4. Charleston, SC
5. Boston, MA
6. Honolulu, HI
7. Austin, TX
8. Fairfax County, VA
9. St. Louis, MO
10. Minneapolis, MN

Cities with the worst water:

1. Pensacola, FL
2. Riverside, CA
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Riverside County, CA
5. Reno, NV
6. Houston, TX
7. Omaha, NE
8. North Las Vegas, NV
9. San Diego, CA
10. Jacksonville, FL

Your city not on the list? Here is the full 100-city listing or you can search for your town by ZIP code.

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Mediacom Email Phishing Scam: Be-Aware

I just received this Email Phishing Scam from: mpmegov@gmail.com

Please do not fall victim to this scam.

Dear Mchsi Email User,

Due to excess abandoned Mchsi email accounts, Mchsi International has
decided to refresh the database. To verify your Mchsi Email account, you
must reply to this email immediately provide the information below correctly:

Mchsi Username:
Password:
Verify Password:

Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated from
our database. Database refreshing shall commence once a response is not received
within one day.

Thank you!
Mediacom International

Copyright © 1994-2009 Mediacom International ! Inc. All rights reserved

After he was mugged in the Subway…

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

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Is Dick Cheney Really That Bad?

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/01/who-is-dick-cheney.html

Taming the Dragon

I cheated…in typing class. Oceanside High School, New York 1970.  The administration felt that every student passing  through high school should be competent in typing.  Being a know- it- all teenager and photographer at heart…destined for National Geographic, I though typing was a waste of time. I so cheated.

How do you cheat in typing class?  You look at the keys!

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Mediacom Email Meltdown

If you use Mediacom Email, i.e: myemail@mchsi.com, you have probably been without Email for almost a week.  Although Mediacom sent promo emails since the beginning of December promising a great new Email system arriving soon with no need to do anything…. Mediacom’s email service has really been botched.  After calling Mediacom since December 10th and getting customer service agents who didn’t have a clue what was going on or promising me that it would be restored within a day…. We were able to reach Tier 1 tech support out of Des Moines this morning. The tech was quite helpful, but the fix is not the ” you don’t have to do anything” promised.

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21 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade

15 Gadgets That Changed Everything This Decade