Archive for 2010
Peter Jackson set to direct J.R.R Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ in a two-part 3D-production of extraordinary scope.
The two films based on “The Hobbit” are now greenlit and will begin principal photography in February 2011, under the direction of Peter Jackson, it was jointly announced by Toby Emmerich, President and Chief Operating Officer, New Line Cinema, Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros. and Steve Cooper, co-Chief Executive Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
Continue Reading October 17th, 2010
The Department of Defense recently purchased and destroyed thousands of copies of an Army Reserve officer’s memoir in an effort to safeguard state secrets, a spokeswoman said Saturday.
“DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security,” Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. In a statement to CNN, Cunningham said defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of about 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s new memoir “Operation Dark Heart.”
Shaffer says he was notified Friday about the Pentagon’s purchase. “The whole premise smacks of retaliation,” Shaffer told CNN on Saturday. “Someone buying 10,000 books to suppress a story in this digital age is ludicrous.” Shaffer’s publisher, St. Martin’s Press, released a second printing of the book that it said had incorporated some changes the government had sought “while redacting other text he (Shaffer) was told was classified.”
From single words and names to entire paragraphs, blacked out lines appear throughout the book’s 299 pages.
CNN obtained a memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency dated August 6 in which Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess claims the DIA tried for nearly two months to get a copy of the manuscript. Burgess said the DIA’s investigation “identified significant classified information, the release of which I have determined could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security.”
Burgess said the manuscript contained secret activities of the U.S. Special Operations Command, CIA and National Security Agency.
Shaffer’s lawyer, Mark Zaid, said earlier this month that the book was reviewed by Shaffer’s military superiors prior to publication.
“There was a green light from the Army Reserve Command,” Zaid told CNN.
But intelligence agencies apparently raised objections when they received copies of the book.
The Pentagon contacted St. Martin’s Press in early August to convey its concerns over the release of the book. According to the publisher, at that time the first printings were just about to be shipped from its warehouse. Shaffer said he and the publisher worked hard “to make sure nothing in the book would be detrimental to national security.”
“When you look at what they took out (in the 2nd edition), it’s lunacy,” Shaffer said. The Pentagon says Shaffer should have sought wider clearance for the memoir.
“He did clear it with Army Reserve but not with the larger Army and with Department of Defense,” Department of Defense spokesman Col. David Lapan said earlier this month. “So he did not meet the requirements under Department of Defense regulations for security review.”
One of the book’s first lines reads, “Here I was in Afghanistan (redaction) My job: to run the Defense Intelligence Agency’s operations out of (redaction) the hub for U.S. operations in country.”
In chapter 15, titled “Tipping Point,” 21 lines within the first two pages are blacked out.
In the memoir, Shaffer recalls his time in Afghanistan leading a black-ops team during the Bush administration. The Bronze Star medal recipient told CNN he believes the Bush administraton’s biggest mistake during that time was misunderstanding the culture there.
Defense officials said they are in the process of reimbursing the publisher for the cost of the first printing and have not purchased copies of the redacted version.
At least one seller on the online auction site eBay claiming to have a first-edition printing is selling it for an asking price of nearly $2,000. The listed retail price for the second printing is $25.99.
Source: CNN
September 25th, 2010
Police made a “small number” of arrests in Dublin where former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was due to sign copies of his autobiography Saturday, a spokesman for Ireland’s national police service said.
Despite reports that shoes and eggs were thrown at Blair, police could not confirm whether anything was thrown at him, and video from inside the store showed him unscathed, without any stains on his jacket.
A crowd of people, some of them anti-war protesters, gathered outside the shop to protest Blair’s role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A line of police wearing fluorescent yellow jackets kept them back from the street in front of the Eason bookshop in central Dublin.
Blair: Bush world view had ‘immense simplicity’
Dozens of police were on duty in the street outside the bookshop since early Saturday and sections of the main thoroughfare were cordoned off to traffic.
Blair’s book, “A Journey,” describes his time in office, including his decision to go to war in Iraq. All proceeds from the book are going to the Royal British Legion, Blair has said.
Source:Â cnn.com
A limited number of signed copies will be available at www.BooksTellYouWhy.com beginning October 2010.
September 4th, 2010
WASHINGTON – Over the past two years, economic hard times have loomed as large at Washington National Cathedral as the Gothic spires that grace the city’s skyline. The Rev. John Runkle, conservator of Washington National Cathedral, leafs through a rare Dutch Bible. Runkle is being let go at the end of June, a casualty of the cathedral’s third round of staff cuts to help balance the budget.
Continue Reading June 12th, 2010
At least one example of the printed word is in great demand even in the digital age: ancient Bibles. With a goal of establishing a national Bible museum of great depth and size, the evangelical Christian family behind the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores has been spending heavily to amass a collection that has set dealers buzzing in the staid world of rare books.
Continue Reading June 12th, 2010
Thousands of rare books and manuscripts at Camrbidge University Library – including handwritten notes by Sir Isaac Newton – are to be made available on line thanks to a £1.5m donation.
Continue Reading June 5th, 2010
A collection of rare books, described by experts as the most important of its kind in Ireland outside Dublin is being taken into State care by the Office of Public Works.
Continue Reading June 1st, 2010
An early copy of Paradise Lost could be paradise found for a John Milton enthusiast as the annual Calgary book sale has unearthed a rare copy of this epic poem. The early edition, from the 1700s, is expected to fetch several hundred dollars when it goes up for sale in a couple of weeks.
Continue Reading May 31st, 2010
By the end of his life, Samuel Langhorne Clemens had achieved fame as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, a globe-trotting lecturer and, of course, the literary genius who wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and other works under the name Mark Twain.
Continue Reading May 8th, 2010
Entering new territory. Amazing. Speechless. Puzzled. The following from the Blog of the Library of Congress, i.e., it must be true ?! As this posting is being twitterized too, Library of Congress, here we come:
How Tweet It Is!: Library Acquires Entire Twitter Archive
Continue Reading April 14th, 2010
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