Gathering and Discerning Information in the 21st Century
Celebrating over 16 years on the web.
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“Each of us believes himself to live directly within the world that surrounds him, to sense its objects and events precisely, and to live in real and current time. I assert these are perceptual illusions. Sensation is an abstraction, not a replication of the real world.” Vernon Mountcastle

Quote from YouTube Video: Kavli Prize Laureate Lecture – The Restless Brain

The Professional Speaking Guide

Book Industry Organizations/Clubs:

R.R. Bowker
As the world’s leading source for book, serial, and publishing data and a peerless technological innovator, R.R. Bowker is one of the true giants in the information industry today. Our groundbreaking databases like booksinprint.com, ulrichsweb.com, and globalbooksinprint.com  are revolutionizing the retrieval and usage of book, serial, and publishing industry information. And future Web services like e-booksinprint.com are blazing fresh trails at the forefront of the Internet’s development. http://www.bowker.com

 

Canadian Libraries 
There are over 21,000 libraries in Canada who are all buying, borrowing and lending Canadian-authored works but this sector is woefully overlooked when it comes to statistics on what they are acquiring, how much of it is being used.

US has over 100,000 libraries in total with 61,000 memebrs in the ALA.

 

The Quill & Quire
Q & Q is Canada’s magazine of book news and reviews. They offer a few publications that are a valuable asset to authors and publishers. You may want to consider a subscription to the magazine. http://www.quillandquire.com

 

Publishers Weekly
www.publishersweekly.com

Writer’s Digest Books

www.writersdigest.com

American Society of Journalists and Authors

www.asja.org

The Authors Guild

www.authorsguild.org

Book Industry Study Group

www.bisg.org

Book-of-the-Month-Club

The Literary Guild

Quality Paper Back Book Club

Doubleday Select Inc.

Science-fact-theory-hypothesis

Definitions key to discussions:

  • Fact: A fact is a statement that is true and can be proved with evidence.
  • Hypothesis: A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon that can be tested by the scientific method. A hypothesis has not been tested.
  • Theory: Scientific theories are distinguished from hypotheses, which are empirically testable conjectures, and from scientific laws, which are descriptive accounts of how nature behaves under certain conditions. Theories have been rigorously tested and widely accepted by the scientific community who agree the theory best explains the observations or phenomenon we experience.
  • Scientific Method: The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.
  • Empirical Evidence: Empirical evidence is the knowledge received by means of the senses, particularly by observation and experimentation.
  • Reality: Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.
  • Delusion: A delusion is a belief that is held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.
  • Insanity: Insanity, craziness, or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns.