British American Study" Salted owl is a cure for gout? 'Wonderful Therapies Database' opens online at Cambridge University, and other art texts

Written by | Sway, Bambook (Written Worker)

Industry news

■ Are salted owls and scorched puppies a cure for gout? If you have a weak bladder or hear the devil's call, what should you do? All the incredible solutions are in the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries!

The 500,000-pound digitisation project, sponsored by the Wellcome Trust (Note: one of the UK's largest funders of biomedical research), will bring the Cambridge University Libraries, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and (Fitzwilliam Museum) and Cambridge colleges more than 180 scans of unedited medieval manuscripts. These high-quality images will be uploaded to the Cambridge University Online Library in the future for researchers and the general public. This achievement is not only beneficial to medical and historical research, but also to satisfy the curiosity of the public. In addition to showing the medical concept of medieval Europeans, the manuscript also records the hope and despair of the medieval people, reflecting their unstable life.

■Swedish game giant Embracer Group acquired Middle-earth Enterprises and obtained the intellectual property rights of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit", which means that Embracer will be able to use Gandalf, Ya The IP of popular characters such as Lagun is adapted into movies, or used for other purposes. The copyright ownership behind "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" is quite complicated. For example, the film adaptation rights previously belonged to Middle-earth Enterprises, but the film adaptation rights within 8 episodes belonged to the Tolkien Heritage Committee. Therefore, it is specifically stated in the acquisition agreement that Embrother has the "matching rights" of other related works (such as "The Silmarillion") by the Tolkien Estate Committee and the original publisher Harper Collins.

Before this acquisition, Embreser had obtained the board game adaptation rights of these two works through other channels; after the acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprise, he could also use the American mobile game " The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth " , and related proceeds from the 2024 animated film adaptation The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim . Embrother also said that more cross-media IP utilization will be developed in the future.

■ Penguin Blue Lantern Book House made a bid to acquire S&S at the end of 2020 , but due to the suspicion of monopolizing the market, the anti-monopoly department of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint in November last year, believing that the merger plan would reduce market competitiveness and damage if passed. Author rights. Recently (August) finally completed the three-week oral argument court , and it is expected that the verdict will be announced as soon as November this year.

The DOJ contends that the monopoly of the publishing industry has led to a significant reduction in the amount of advance payment for "expected best-selling authors", or that the author loses some room for negotiation of rights (for example, having to do audiobooks). Bestselling author Stephen. King also testified for the DOJ, saying: "The phenomenon of consolidation and concentration in the publishing industry in recent years has led to fewer publishers bidding and writers' income has dropped significantly.

Penguin Blue Lantern Bookstore retorted:

1. Generally speaking, the criterion for "monopoly market" is to see whether the rights and interests of consumers are damaged. DOJ has no evidence or claim in this regard, and focuses on a small number of "expected best-selling authors", which is fundamentally wrong;
2. Stephen. The prepaid royalties of super writers like Jin are about 250,000 to 1 million US dollars per book, which is extremely risky for publishers and may not be welcomed by publishers;
3. The author's prepaid royalties are usually estimated by the publisher based on the opinions of the channel or business, and the market reaction has little influence (Note);
4. There are usually three ways to sell book manuscripts. 6. Become the author (or broker) to negotiate with the publisher, 20% is the bid by multiple publishers to bid for the higher price, and the remaining 20% is due to fierce competition. Circular multi-round bidding. However, in the past, the bidding success rate of Penguin Blue Lantern Bookstore or S&S only accounted for about 6% of the whole, and the two combined were only about 12%, which means that even if S&S merged into Penguin Blue Lantern Bookstore, the impact of market share on the success rate of manuscript bidding will also be affected. Not much.

S&S also claims:

1. The definition of the "Big Five" is actually imprecise, because if Scholastic (the publisher of the "Harry Potter" and "Hunger Games" series in the United States) and Disney are regarded as large publishers, then in terms of market share , neither the "Big Five" nor the "Big Four" are true;
2. Penguin Blue Lantern Bookstore has the ability and sincerity to sign contracts with authors to buy manuscripts, do a good job in marketing and sell books, and even critics agree that this merger is beneficial to authors.

Writer Dynamics

■ British-American Indian writer Salman. Salman Rushdie was stabbed before giving a speech in New York on August 12. The injury was serious and he was immediately taken to the hospital. After first aid, he is now out of danger. Rushdie is both a best-selling author and a controversial author. His 1981 novel "Midnight's Children", which tells the turmoil of independence and division in India from the perspective of a super-powered child, has won three awards. In 1988, Rushdie published "The Devil's Psalm". The description of Islam in the book was regarded as a major blasphemy by some Islamic religious leaders. The former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini even issued a killing order and offered a reward of 3 million. Dollar.

The attacker was Hadi Matar, 24, a Lebanese immigrant who grew up in the United States. Mata was arrested and detained on the spot, and has denied that the attack was related to Homeni's killing order. The Iranian government said it should not be accused of being involved in the attack, blaming Rushdie and his supporters for the attack.

■Published for 50 years, the fantasy novel classic "The Last Unicorn", which has never been out of print for 50 years, finally returned to author Peter. Peter Beagle, and the sequel, The Way Home , will be released next year. The 83-year-old Bigger, in addition to being a writer and a well-known screenwriter (such as the animated film "The Lord of the Rings" in 1978), handed over the copyright of all his works, along with personal financial management, to his partner Connor Freff Cochran 20 years ago. Dealing with it, Kirkland unexpectedly spread the news of Bigger's dementia (details unknown) to Bigger's surrounding relatives and friends, thereby depriving Bigger of his control over his own finances and authorship. Bigger then proposed to Kirkland in 2015. Tell. Although the lawsuit has not yet been settled, Bigger has raised enough money to buy back the rights to "The Last Unicorn" and republished it in July this year, paving the way for next year's sequel.

■ American heavyweight history and biographer David. David McCullough has passed away at the age of 89. Known for his exhaustive research and storytelling skills, McCuller's themes are all-encompassing, but none of them stray from the "American experience." His " The Path Between the Seas ", which describes the history of the Panama Canal, and " Mornings on Horseback ", his biography of President Roosevelt, were awarded the National Book Award, and he was awarded the National Book Award for his biography of the President of the United States, "Truman". " and "John. Adams has won the Pulitzer Prize twice, and the former even topped the New York Times bestseller list for a whole year, a rare biography.

In America, even people who haven't read McCuller's work must have heard his voice. He narrated the " The Civil War " documentary series and the Disney biopic "The Galloping Age," and was the host of the "American Experience" series on PBS' long-lived documentary series. "Jobs biography" author Walter. Isaacson commented on McCuller: "His excellence in writing, combined with his sense of honor, generosity, and intimacy, has reached the highest level of storyteller and gentleman."

New Book Express

■Lorna Jeffrey Women Writers Award and Whiting Writers Award for Non-Fiction Writers - Elyf. Elif Batuman, who was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize 5 years ago for his youth novel " The Idiot ", will release " Either/Or " this year, continuing the story of the protagonist Celine. The story has once again won praise from the media with its clever writing.

Celine, who was born into a Turkish immigrant family, was the luckiest member of the family, not only was the only child born in the United States, but also attended Harvard University to study languages and literature. Before entering her sophomore year, Celine had to clarify everything that happened during the summer vacation: Why did Ivan, the head of the mysterious mathematics department she secretly love, find a summer job in the Hungarian countryside for her? What happened to the group of people in the Hungarian countryside? Why would Ivan's weird ex-girlfriend contact her? Celine entered her sophomore year with a lot of doubts, and was immediately filled with the schedule of the literature department and her well-rounded classmates. She thought, maybe parties, alcohol and sex are of universal importance, waiting for her to try them one by one, no matter the cost. As the events interlock, the youth-exclusive intensity and agitation come to the fore, and readers follow Celine's footsteps in "Choose One" to find themselves and embark on an unforgettable journey full of laughter and inspiration.

■Even if plants don't have brains, they don't move as freely as animals, but in recent years, more and more scientific studies have confirmed that plants actually possess incredible "intelligence"! For example, the pitcher plant will fall into a "sleep state" because of the anesthetic and let go of the fat insects in the entrance? Silent plants are actually super noisy, using 1,700 volatile chemicals to gossip with neighbors?

Professor Paco Calvo, who studies "Minimal Intelligence", in his new book " Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence ", uses electrophysiological recordings, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron tomography (PET), etc. One after another, wonderful experiments reveal the silent wisdom of plants, lead readers to examine the world around them from a new perspective, and break the narrow imagination of human beings about life.

■The author Mo Xin, who is well-known in the international literary circle, literary award list and annual good book frequent guest. Mohsin Hamid, following the 2017 release of his touching novel The Door, which explores exile and pursuit, has recently raised the topic again with his new book The Last White Man , which was hailed by Kirkus Review of Books as a "comparable book". A Modern Racial Allegory for Kafka's Metamorphoses".

"The Last White" actor Anders woke up and found that his white skin had turned into a dark brown that couldn't be denied by looking left or right. He couldn't help worrying: what would his family, colleagues and friends think of him? The irreversible "white-to-brown" disease has gradually spread in the local area. Some people believe that the existing order must be prevented from collapsing at any cost. Some people find that deep love can overcome great confusion and anxiety. What will the world be like when Anders' father -- the last white man -- dies?

Hami believes that literary novels are the best way to resist social polarization and dichotomy at present. When people read them, they will enter into the emotions and experiences of "it's me" and "not me", with similarities and differences coexisting. "The Last White Man" beautifully invites readers to enter the hearts of the characters and examine themselves and others from a new perspective. It is a novel that boldly challenges issues of race and color. ●( The original text was first published on the OPENBOOK official website on 2022-08-30)