Investigative Journalist Danny Schechter Investigates “Our Economic Calamity”

Blames Loss of Trillions on Greed on Wall Street, Regulatory and Media Failures

(more to come!)

no comments »

Barbara Marx Hubbard, one of the authors of Cosimo publication The Power of Yin, will speak in the Big Tent at the Democratic National Convention in Denver today, Thursday, August 28th, at 4PM Mountain Time. To watch the video live, go to The Big Tent and click “Watch Live Feed” on the left sidebar.

Marx Hubbard — whose name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency at the 1984 Democratic National Convention — will present the CITIZENS SOLUTIONS COUNCIL, proposing that the next president of the United States establish a National Solutions Council to identify, connect, and communicate what is working in America, which is similar to the concept of the “Peace Room” that she proposed in 1984.

To read the initiative and to sign the petition please go to Citizens Solutions Council. Find out more about Marx Hubbard’s Foundation for Conscious Evolution at her Web site, BarbaraMarxHubbard.com.

The Power of Yin is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

no comments »

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman — author of Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America, from Cosimo partner Paraview, and presenter of Cosimo’s new series of classic cryptozoology books — has offered some comments on this week’s news about the hikers in Georgia who claim to have found the body of a Bigfoot-type creature.

From ABCnews.com:

Loren Coleman, a prolific writer on the Sasquatch, Yeti and other mysterious creatures, said he thinks this is going to be one of the biggest Bigfoot stories of the decade, even it turns out to be hoax.

When it comes to the alleged creature, he says he doesn’t use the word “believe.”

“I accept or deny evidence. Based upon the evidence we have [about Bigfoot], 80 percent is proof and 20 percent is myth,” he said.

With this one body found in Georgia, however, it’s “99 percent a hoax and 1 percent a probability of reality,” he said.

But he’s still excited about the alleged discovery.

“I’ll never turn down a chance to look at a body because it could be real, and we can’t choose the accident of history. & The most undesirable people might be the ones to discover it, but who am I to judge them.”

(Looks like Coleman’s already being proven right about a hoax.)

Buy Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America at Amazon, or explore the new series Loren Coleman Presents: The Book of Werewolves, The Great Sea Serpent, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, and The Romance of Natural History.

(Technorati tags: Loren Coleman, Georgia Bigfoot, cryptozoology)

no comments »

This past week New York Times columnist and Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman wrote a column called “The Great Illusion,” about the illusion that economic rationality could prevent war. He’s discussing the ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia and how it might signal an end to globalization as a force for peace. In the column Krugman reminds us that this has happened before:

Shortly before World War I another British author, Norman Angell, published a famous book titled “The Great Illusion,” in which he argued that war had become obsolete, that in the modern industrial era even military victors lose far more than they gain. He was right — but wars kept happening anyway.

As it happens, the only U.S. edition of Angell’s book is available from Cosimo: buy it at Amazon and watch history repeat itself.

(Technorati tags: Great Illusion, Norman Angell, Paul Krugman)

no comments »

Remember that book Carrie reads from to Big in bed in Sex and the City: The Movie? It’s called Love Letters of Great Men, and it doesn’t exist… at least until now. British publisher Macmillan just published a collection of those real love letters.

It doesn’t take a lot of digging around, though, to see that several similar books of a quickie nature have been tossed out to SATC fans over the last few months (including one that’s a new reprint of a 1924 book!). None of those books, however, is from a powerhouse like Macmillan, or has gotten quite to promotional push as this one will.

I do hope all those SATC fans who’ve been clamoring for this book won’t be disappointed, because — as John Mullan points out at the Guardian book blog — no one really wants to read other people’s love letters, and we probably wouldn’t want to receive one like these, either (“the intensity of the letters is usually caused by the impossibility of the passion they describe…”).

(Technorati tags: Sex and the City, Love Letters of Great Men)

no comments »

Are people actually using Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader? It seems like they are — TechCrunch is reporting that 240,000 of the things have been sold so far.

Since I first wrote about the Kindle last year, I’ve seen one in the flesh, so to speak — it’s way cooler than I ever imagined — and have heard from friends who’ve gotten hooked on them, and the general consensus seems to be that the only people complaining about them are those who haven’t actually used one. I wouldn’t mind the chance to play around with a Kindle on an extended basis…

(Technorati tags: Kindle)

no comments »

Cosimo is proud to announce the publication of a new, updated edition of Spiritual Places In and Around New York City, by Emily Squires and Len Belzer.

Even in the most hectic, most busy, most never-sleeping city in the world, comfort for the heart, mind, and soul is only a step away. And here’s your quick-and-easy guide to finding it. Spiritual Places In and Around New York City is your roadmap to the myriad spaces and places around the boroughs that soothe the psyche and gladden the spirit (as well as a few extraordinarily peaceful destinations worth venturing over the city line for).

From restful gardens to quiet galleries to restaurants that feed both our corporeal and incorporeal bodies, and more, Emily Squires and Len Belzer share those locations — some almost secret, others surprisingly public — that help them maintain their sanity amid the frenetic pace of the city. In brief sketches of these spiritual respites, they reveal the insights they’ve come to while visiting each, and convey a palpable sense of the wise and serene essence each imparts upon us.

Newly updated, with even more calming locales for you to explore and enjoy, this is a must-have for harried New Yorkers and curious visitors alike.

Click here to buy at Amazon.

(Technorati tags: Spiritual Places In and Around New York City, Emily Squires, Len Belzer)

no comments »

It’s all the rage, apparently: authors are making movie-style trailers for their self-published books:

(If you’re intrigued, buy Tied to the Tracks at Amazon.)

(Technorati tags: Tied to the Tracks, book trailers)

no comments »

When I first heard about Amazon’s new e-reader, Kindle, last week, I was pretty excited. Yes, it’s pricey, at $400, but the idea of being able to read not just books but newspapers and blogs wirelessly and comfortably really appeals to me, as does the idea of being able to carry around a lot of reading material in a small package. (As a subway rider who hauls around a lot of stuff with me every day, this can be a matter of some concern. If I’ve got only a few chapters left in a book, do I take it with me on my trip plus something else to read when I finish that — which means carrying around an extra book all day — or do I put the almost-done book aside to finish later and just start on a new book? Truly, this is a dilemma of literary proportions.)

But now the reviews are coming in, and it seems as if the ideal e-book is not yet here. Tech columnist Walter Mossberg in The Wall Street Journal has panned it. David Rothman of Publishers Weekly worries about the Kindle’s “Big Brotherish terms of use” and the privacy issues involved: Amazon keeps track not only of what you read on your Kindle but where you place bookmark and what electronic notes you make on your reading. Yikes.

Publishing industry consultant and observer Laura Dawson has a nicely concise take on the Kindle:

By now, the Kindle device from Amazon has been out for a full week and the reviews are in. In the “plus” column: The E-Ink technology is great. The battery technology is amazing. The fact that it doesn’t have to be connected to a computer to download content is really cool. The wireless subscription getting picked up by Amazon (so you can have delivery of newspapers, blogs, magazines to your Kindle) is also great. Some say it’s not quite as ugly as the prototype. In the “minus” column: While the wireless subscription is free, the content (which is normally free on the web) is not. The selection of Kindle-ready books offered for sale on Amazon could be much better. The device does not read PDFs. You cannot text portions of what you’re reading to anyone. And it looks like something from Toys ’R’ Us.

(That’s from her email newsletter “The Big Picture,” which you can read online with a free subscription.)

I don’t think it looks like a toy — I think it looks like something out of Star Trek (a good thing, as far as I’m concerned). And while it’s true, as Dawson says, that you can read blogs and newspapers online for free, books still demand to be paid for. Still, she eventually concludes that the Kindle is “yet another artifact of interesting-but-not-very-useful technology.”

Which seems to be the general consensus in both the book and geek-toy worlds. Oh well: I guess I’m sticking with paper books for now.

(Technorati tags: Amazon Kindle)

no comments »

Loren Coleman — author of the Cosimo-Paraview titles Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters, and others — will speak on matters cryptozoological at New York’s American Museum of Natural History on December 1. From the AMNH’s site:

Loren Coleman: Adventures in Cryptozoology
December 1, 2007
Kaufmann Theater, first floor
Free with Museum admission
1:00 p.m.

Discover the world of “hidden” creatures with Loren Coleman, one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists and author of numerous articles and books on unexplained animals, including The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Mysterious America. He has traveled extensively interviewing witnesses of lake monsters, Bigfoot, Mothman, and other such unsubstantiated beings, and has served as consultant to NBC-TV’s Unsolved Mysteries and A&E’s Ancient Mysteries.

For regular news and discussion about strange monsters and weird happenings, check out Coleman’s popular cryptozoology site, Cryptomundo.

Bigfoot!, Mothman, and other books by Loren Coleman are available from Amazon and other online booksellers.

(Technorati tags: Loren Coleman, cryptozoology)

no comments »