Pen still works after 25 years in woman's stomach

This must be the oddest written word item of the year

And I'd love to know what brand of pen ...

A 76-year-old British woman recently had a pen removed from her stomach, and doctors were amazed to discover that after 25 years of gestation the pen still works.

The British Medical Journal Case Reports chronicled the medical case of the woman (not identified), who was sent to a GI specialist after various symptoms, including weight loss.

When doctors scanned the woman's intestinal tract, they discovered, "A linear foreign body in the stomach."

After the discovery, the woman said she remembered accidentally swallowing a black felt-tip pen, more than a quarter century ago.

While the pen was corroded after two decades of exposure to stomach acid, it still contained usable ink and could be used for writing.

The woman, it seems, was probing a spot on her tonsils with a pen, slipped, fell, and swallowed it.  When she told her GP husband, he thought she was making it up.

As the writer of the report, Dr. Oliver Richard Waters, observed, "Occasionally it may be worth believing the patient's account however unlikely it may be."

Personally, I would NOT suggest swallowing a pen as an alternative to dieting.

Read More

12:11 PM | 0 comments

Bestsellers from Publishers Weekly

The names are so familiar ....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stephen King's "11/22/63" held on to the top spot of the Publishers Weekly best-sellers list on Thursday for the second week.

The list is compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

Hardcover Fiction Last Week

1. "11/22/63" by Stephen King (Scribner, $35) 1
2. "Locked On" by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney (Putnam, $28.95) -
3. "The Litigators" by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95) 3
4. "Kill Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, Brown, $28.99) 5
5. "Death Comes to Pemberley" by P.D. James (Knopf, $25.95) 4

6. "The Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central, $25.99) 8

7. "Red Mist" by Patricia Cornwell Putnam, $27.95 2

8. "Explosive Eighteen" by Janet Evanovich (Bantam, $28) 7

9. "The Drop" by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $27.99) 6

10. "V Is for Vengeance" by Sue Grafton (Putnam, $27.95) 9

Hardcover nonfiction

1. "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, $35) 1

2. "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard (Holt, $28) 2

3. "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House, $27) 3
4. "Go the F**k to Sleep" by Adam Mansbach, illus. by Ricardo Cortés (Akashic, $14.95) 4
5. "Jack Kennedy" by Chris Matthews (Simon & Schuster, $27.50) 6
6. "Nearing Home" by Billy Graham (Thomas Nelson, $19.99) 14
7. "Being George Washington" by Glenn Beck (Threshold, $26) 5

8. "Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible" by Paula Deen with Melissa Clark (Simon & Schuster, $29.99) 15

9. "Guinness World Records 2012" (Guinness World Records, $28.95) 7

10. "Through My Eyes" by Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker (Harper, $26.99) 10

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)

Read More

11:58 AM | 0 comments

eBook sales figures still falling

From Publishers Lunch

eBook Sales Dip Further in October

The AAP announced their tabulation of sales for October from reporting publishers. In the closely-watched ebook sales category--where the AAP's monthly number is the only standing statistic we have to go on, the now 20 reporting publishers recorded sales of $72.8 million, down from $80.3 million in August. (Rizzoli is now among those contributing data.) It's the lowest monthly ebook total recorded since April, and lower as an absolute comparison since the matching results that month came from just 14 publishers.

Seasonably sizable shipments of print books and flat month-to-month ebook sales trends left digital books in fourth place, trailing hardcover and trade paperback adult sales as well as hardcover children's books. eBooks comprised just 12.6 percent of all recorded trade sales. (As a reminder, the AAP counts religious sales as trade; Publishers Lunch does not in calculating percentages, in part because their "religious" category includes both print and ebook sales.)

There was a decline in book sales overall, unfortunately -- by is much as $62 million.

The monthly trade sales total for October of $577.6 million was down almost 10 percent from $639.5 million a year ago.

Read More

11:48 AM | 0 comments

25 Worst Passwords of 2011

Is your password in the silliest list?

Internet security firm SplashData created the rankings of the 25 most idiotic passwords based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. Here is the complete list:

• 1. password
• 2. 123456
• 3.12345678
• 4. qwerty
• 5. abc123
• 6. monkey
• 7. 1234567
• 8. letmein
• 9. trustno1
• 10. dragon
• 11. baseball
• 12. 111111
• 13. iloveyou
• 14. master
• 15. sunshine
• 16. ashley
• 17. bailey
• 18. passw0rd
• 19. shadow
• 20. 123123
• 21. 654321
• 22. superman
• 23. qazwsx
• 24. michael
• 25. football

In England, names of popular football teams (arsenal, liverpool) are also highly vulnerable.

SplashData CEO Morgan Slain urges businesses and consumers using any password on the list to change them immediately.

“Hackers can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords,” Slain says. “Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft.”

Tips: 

Short words should be separated with symbols, eg. let##me%in/? is a whole sight stronger than letmein.  Underscoring the spaces works, too.

Avoid using info that is readily available, such as your address, your birthdate, or your social security number.

Make your passwords at least 8 characters long, mixing upper and lower case, and adding symbols if the site allows it

Don't use the same password for multiple sites.  H'm, that's a hard one for me ...  However, there are password manager apps to help you remember what password works for which site, and SplashData (of course) has one available.

CLOSE

Read More

3:01 PM | 0 comments

Nokia Belle to replace Symbian Belle - End of Symbian OS?

It seems that the End of Symbian Operating System is near and Nokia is trying to packing up its homemade Symbian OS and finishing it off with new brand name Nokia itself. Nokia today has just announced that they are soon going to release a new brand name for Symbian Belle and will replace it with the new name Nokia Belle, it has been observed this whole year after Nokia and Microsoft partnership for Windows Phone that both companies are trying to focus more on Windows Phone Smartphone devices so may be Nokia is trying to cut off the brand Symbian from its recommended list.

In Nokia's today announcement, company said that they are going to replace old Symbian Belle UI with the new Nokia Belle UI, the company took survey this year about the new interface of Nokia Belle and people actually likes the new Belle interface that�s the reason company has decided to introduced Nokia Belle in all of its Smartphones include Nokia 701, Nokia 700 and Nokia 603 smartphones and will be pre-installed on the new and enhanced versions of the Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01 smartphones. Nokia further said that the enhanced versions of Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01 have now started their journey from the factories to the shops with Nokia Belle preinstalled, arriving first in China, then around the world.

For those People who already owned the Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7, and Nokia Oro smartphones will get a free over the air software update that will update their phones with the new Nokia Belle UI bringing a whole heap of improved features in February 2012.

What you guys think about this new effort from Nokia? Is it the end of an Symbian era for the name of Nokia's home grown operating system which has been the basis for many of its smartphones. Nokia is still working with Microsoft with developing smartphones based on the Windows Phone operating system. Indeed, we can expect some big announcements from Nokia and Microsoft when CES 2012 is held in January 2012.

Click here to know more details, features, facts and get pictures about new Nokia Belle.

Read More

11:50 AM | 0 comments

Nielson's list of 2011 bestsellers

Nielsen Ranks 2011's Top Bestsellers

Nielsen Bookscan published top ten bestseller lists across a number of disciplines, including print fiction, print non-fiction, and print children's/YA (Bookscan, of course, still does not measure ebook sales, and accounts for somewhere in the vicinity of 75 percent of print sales, excluding Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and other outlets.) Please note the lists do not include sales figures, and that they track data from January 3 through December 11. (A Nielsen spokesperson told us that complete year-end sales data will be available after January 4.) These lists also reflect Nielsen BookScan's practice of listing bestsellers by individual editions/ISBNs, rather than combining sales across multiple versions of the same work.

Adult Nonfiction

1. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, by Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson, trade paper)*
2. STEVE JOBS, by Walter Isaacson (S&S, hardcover)
3. UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House, hardcover)*
4. KILLING LINCOLN, by Bill O'Reilly (Holt, hardcover)
5. STRENGTHS FINDER 2.0, by Tom Rath (Gallup Press, hardcover)*
6. A STOLEN LIFE, by Jaycee Dugard (S&S, hardcover)
7. BOSSYPANTS, by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur Books, hardcover)
8. THE 17 DAY DIET, by Mike Moreno (Free Press, hardcover)
9. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot (Broadway, trade paperback)*
10. IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS, by Erik Larson (Crown, hardcover)

Adult Fiction

1. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett (Berkley, trade paperback)
2. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett (Berkley, trade paperback movie tie-in edition)
3. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen (Algonquin, trade paperback)*
4. CUTTING FOR STONE, by Abraham Verghese (Vintage, trade paperback)*
5. A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, by George R.R. Martin (Bantam, hardcover)
6. THE CONFESSION, by John Grisham (Dell, mass market paperback)
7. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson (Vintage, trade paperback)*
8. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, hardcover)*
9. THE LITIGATORS, by John Grisham (Doubleday, hardcover)
10. ROOM, by Emma Donoghue (Back Bay Books, trade paperback)

Children's/YA

1. THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, trade paperback)*
2. CABIN FEVER, by Jeff Kinney (Amulet, hardcover)
3. CATCHING FIRE, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, hardcover)*
4. INHERITANCE, by Christopher Paolini (Knopf Children's, hardcover)
5. MOCKINGJAY, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, hardcover)*
6. THE SUN OF NEPTUNE, by Rick Riordan (Hyperion, hardcover)
7. THE THRONE OF FIRE, by Rick Riordan (Hyperion, hardcover)
8. THE UGLY TRUTH, by Jeff Kinney (Amulet, hardcover)*
9. THE WIMPY KID DO-IT-YOURSELF BOOK, by Jeff Kinney (Amulet, hardcover)
10. ELF ON THE SHELF, by Carol Aebersold (Cca & B, hardcover)*

*These editions were first published prior to 2010

Read More

11:44 AM | 0 comments

iPhone's Siri Hacked to Start Car

The new iPhone 4S has some incredible new features. Amongst these would be its ability to provide a weather report or directions to a particular destination. Siri is able to read your text messages to you. Siri can even be asked to remember dates and appointments. Now, another function for Siri has been discovered. Siri can be used to start up your car.

An IT professional from New York by the name of Brandon Fiquett was able to create a way in which for Siri to do this. Using a proxy SIRI server, Fiquett created a plug-in that allowed him to use Siri on his iPhone 4S to send commands to his car, which is an Acura TL. The plug-in he created takes Siri commands and passes then on to Fiquett's personal web server. After this, a connection is made to a special module that has been installed in the vehicle. This module is known as a Viper SmartStart module. Through this process, Siri can not only start the car�s engine and stop it, it does even more. The alarm system can be either armed or disarmed. The trunk can be popped using Siri. Additionally, Siri can be used to put the alarm into panic mode.

Fiquett�s work was in an effort to prove a concept. However, some hackers have already been using the iPhone 4S�s Siri to target certain vehicles for theft. Some have even taken what Fiquett determined and going through other technological devices found within a car such as media players and GPS systems. 

Keep in mind only people who are rather technological savvy can do this. Since Siri is relatively new, coming out with the iPhone 4S release in the middle of October, it will be interesting to see what other alternative users people find for their iPhone 4S using Siri. 

There's a range of new humourous sites that look into the silly things that Siri says, such as Whatsiriissaying.co.uk, so check out these sites to see what Siri's take on your questions is.

Read More

10:57 AM | 0 comments