Interesting stuff. I was brought up using the “traditional” algorithm, rather than the methods taught by TERC. Nowadays I usually use Excel formulas to calculate out numbers, but agree that the traditional algorithm provides the most solid foundation for learning simple calculation.

McCain/Palin logo held up by the crowd at the 2008 RNC:

Who knew publisher logos could be so… Republican?

I’ve wandered into an alternative universe, and I’m trying to decide if I want to stay. The setting is the lovely, old-fashioned library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, in midtown Manhattan. The event is a gathering called “SPLAT! A Graphic Novel Symposium.” I’m here because the organizers have promised to lay out, in the course of a single day, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Graphic Novels.”

What I want to know is: How did this formerly ghettoized medium became one of the rare publishing categories that’s actually expanding these days?

More at: Drawing Power

Found at: Metafilter.

When a job comes up on the set that no one else has to do, according to job definition, the producer gets to do it. This comes up on a regular basis, usually because someone else didn’t do his job, didn’t do his job well, or didn’t think of the job in the first place.

page 519, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again“

An intriguing definition, from a movie Producer who routinely had to deal with the most intense crises imaginable.

Houghton Mifflin Selling College Unit

Houghton Mifflin to Sell College Division to Cengage for $750M

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Houghton Mifflin Co. is selling its college textbook unit to Cengage Learning for $750 million so it can focus on its publishing business geared toward kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as trade and reference publications.

Cengage, previously known as Thomson Learning, said Monday’s cash transaction would help broaden its education products, including textbooks and study guides.

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin and Stamford, Conn.-based Cengage also said they planned a long-term agreement to cooperate in expanding distribution of Cengage’s book titles into the U.S. market for high school advanced placement textbooks.

More here.

It’ll be interesting to see how the various moves and shakes affect the quality of the books, which never seems to be talked about.  It’s easy enough for a new edition or a 10th edition to get ground down beneath the HR shakeups and employee migrations that accompany a sale like this.

The interface is outstanding – no cluttered TOCs, index, or taxonomies – just click and turn the page. The Flash even sizes to match the book’s spine, so there’s no awkward white space around the book.

It’s most useful for children’s books and other books with lots of illustration (where you don’t have to scan text or see a lot of detail) but the idea of embedding an ENTIRE BOOK into a blog or web site is incredibly impressive. There’s a certain tactile sense of turning the page, and it would be easy to layer additional features (search for word etc) on top of the application, much like YouTube’s ability to rate videos within the page itself.

Kudos! Found via Drawn.

State House hearing focuses on costs of college textbooks

A month into the fall semester, Nathassia Torchon has already had two tests in her precalculus class and is approaching her first history exam. But the Massachusetts Bay Community College student said she could not afford the $330 price tag for two of the required textbooks until this week.

“They always tell you 20 hours is good enough to work and go to school full time,” said Torchon, 21, of Mattapan. “I have to work three jobs to pay for two books.”

Also of interest:

Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education with the Association of American Publishers, said one of the most popular college art books is required to be sold with a CD that includes thousands of high-resolution images.

“You take that apart and neither of them will be of any value to anybody,” Hildebrand said.

Full article can be found on here.

I think this is actually a good thing for publishers.  Most “media ancillaries” don’t add that much value to the book itself; publishers create them to ensure that each of their books can match up against their competitor’s.  (This book has a CD-ROM, and that one doesn’t – ergo this book gets adopted by the school system.)

In reality, the entire package (books, CDs, media, etc) should be judged based on how well they educate students on new concepts, not whether they can close adoptions.  However like many industries, the need to close the sale often wins out over the need to demonstrate the effectiveness of the product.

Crosspoint Associates Inc., a Natick real estate company, said yesterday that it paid $120.5 million for 10 historic buildings in Boston’s Seaport District…

Crosspoint, in partnership with Anglo Irish Bank, bought the 10 buildings on Thomson Place and Farnsworth Street from an undisclosed owner who was represented by HDG Mansur Investment Services Inc., an international real estate investment firm based in Indianapolis. The buildings, totaling about 380,000 square feet, were constructed by the Boston Wharf Co. in the early 1900s. They are occupied by Thomson Financial, the Toronto information firm, which has a lease through 2014.

More here.

Sounds like there are no immediate changes, but the change in ownership comes at a rather turbulent time for the area.

STAMFORD, Conn., July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Learning, one of the

world's largest providers of print and digital information services for the

educational and library reference markets, announced today that it will

change its name to Cengage Learning. The company, recently acquired by Apax

Partners and OMERS Capital Partners, says the new name is based on being at

the "center of engagement" for its customers worldwide.

More here.

Strange times. I expect a bigger emphasis on posting a profit, and less and less thought to the quality of products. Naturally some products are going to sell no matter what but it’ll be interesting to see if the ancillaries (CDs, WebCT courses, etc) get cut back.