“A book critical of Standard & Poor’s credit-rating service will be published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. after the author took back his manuscript from S&P-owner McGraw- Hill Cos.” Author Barry Ritholtz has said that “he withdrew the manuscript from McGraw-Hill after the New York-based publisher edited a section in which he wrote that its S&P unit, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service inflated their opinions in exchange for fees.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Silencing Kindle A Needless Response To Erroneous Claim
Amazon was wrong to cave in to the Authors Guild demand that it enable the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech function only after getting authors’ and publishers’ okay. “Most fundamentally, there is no such thing as ‘audio rights’ in copyright law. Authors and publishers control the rights to create derivative works, such as audio books, but such works need to be ‘original works of authorship’ preserved in a permanent form.”
Orchestras Of Pasadena Get A Name Change
“Scratch the Orchestras of Pasadena. No, the financially up-against-it Pasadena Symphony and Pasadena Pops have not gone belly up, but their new management has determined that the name the formerly independent organizations had adopted when they merged in 2007 was a flop.” Now dubbed the Pasadena Symphony Association, it “has raised about $2 million since November, when it declared a fiscal emergency, laying off staff and canceling several concerts.”
NEA Moves Swiftly To Post Stimulus Grant Guidelines
“The National Endowment for the Arts is fast off the block today with [stimulus] grant guidelines,” which it has posted on its website. “The deadline for applying is April 2, with grants being awarded as soon as July 1. Among the options is salary support — full or partial — for jobs that have been eliminated (or are in jeopardy) because of the current economic slide but are critical to carry out an organization’s artistic mission.”
Gelb Downplays Import Of Using Chagalls As Collateral
The Metropolitan Opera’s general manager, Peter Gelb, “played down the recent Chagall deal,” in which the opera house put up its two iconic murals as collateral for an existing loan. “‘We have no intention of giving up the Chagalls,’ he said. ‘We don’t think it’s a major event.'” In another financial maneuver, the Met is requesting “an across-the-board 10 percent pay cut from its singers next season.”
Broken Deal With Hotel Leaves NYPL In A Financial Fix
“A decision by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. to back out of its plans to buy the former Donnell Library building in Midtown Manhattan is likely to deprive the New York Public Library of millions it was counting on. The sum was to help jump-start a $250 million renovation of its central library on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. … The company’s move is likely to stoke anxiety among cultural organizations with outstanding commitments vital to major capital projects.”
Review Of The Facts Finds Baseball Memoir Can’t Be True
“Matt McCarthy, a graduate of Yale and of Harvard Medical School now working as an intern in the residency program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in New York, has gained national attention in recent weeks for ‘Odd Man Out,’ his salacious memoir of his summer as an obscure minor league pitcher. … But statistics from that season, transaction listings and interviews with his former teammates indicate that many portions of the book are incorrect, embellished or impossible.”
Even Slight Tweaks Of The Brain Can Make A Life Livable
“Sci-Fi author Philip K. Dick may have best anticipated neuroengineering in his most famous work, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” in which the “main character and his wife get up in the morning and select their moods on what Dick called a Penfield mood organ. We’re a long way from building a Penfield mood organ, but we already have ways of prodding our brains.”
Russians, Germans Ask Govt. Support To Track War Booty
“Art historians from Russia and Germany urged their governments to help track down treasures looted by Soviet and Nazi troops during World War II. About 120 museum representatives and art historians from both countries met in Moscow to agree on steps to improve access to archives so that they can better document what was lost in the war-time trophy-hunting spree.”
Art Keeps Deepening Tacoma’s Appeal
“Tacoma is the town that art built. [Dale] Chihuly, a native son, is key. But he had help. Before art moved in and took over, the place was minor league with a major inferiority complex. Its reputation for organized crime, pollution and cheesy weirdness undermined efforts to lift the gray fog of its depression.” Things are different now.