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Flow battery breakthrough can store renewable energy cheaply

Storing solar energy for when the sun doesn't shine or wind power for a calm day costs too much. But that could all be changing.




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Put a cork in it: Natural renewable cork makes a comeback as home insulation

For his renovation of a 200 year old farmhouse, Alex Wilson tries out the greenest insulations on the market




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Minimalist cork and brass wallet makes a stylish statement with renewable materials

If you'd like to get the junk out of your back pocket or purse, consider downsizing into a wallet such as this one, which holds just the essentials.




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Connecticut Could Be First State to Roll Back Its Renewable Energy Standard

A quick one to keep an eye on and get your best booing voice reader for: New York Times is highlighting a bill passing through Connecticut's legislature that would slash in half the state's current renewable energy goal of




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Bogota's Amazing Bikeways! (Video)

A Model for the World This video by our friends at Streetfilms is not only great because it shows us a powerful example of bike infrastructure improving a city, but also because it shows how you can change the perception of riding a bike among citizens




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Almost everyone is underestimating renewables

Most reports suggest a gradual increase in renewable energy. But don't believe the anti-hype.




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Developing countries outspent developed ones on renewable energy last year

For the first time, developing countries outpaced wealthier nations in green energy development.




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Cobb County, Georgia sees Agenda 21 plot in bike lanes and sidewalks

Putting money into non-motorized transportation is just the thin edge of the Agenda 21 wedge.




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Sidewalk etiquette in the time of COVID-19

If you need to be out and about during physical distancing, please mind your sidewalk manners.




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Alley Cat laneway house looks a lot bigger than it is

Laneway housing is a terrific option to deal with aging boomers and their children.




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E-scooters are not a menace; the real threat on the sidewalks is still the car

A new study finds that dockless cars cause more problems than dockless bikes and scooters.




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In Honor of Its One-Year Anniversary, Barclaycard Arrival Improves Travel Rewards and Benefits Program and Introduces Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® - Barclaycard Arrival Plus now with EMV

Barclaycard Arrival Plus now with EMV






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Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower Wants You to "Take Vegas Back" and Receive Random Acts of Rewards - Stratosphere on mixologists

Stratosphere is taking Vegas back from the pricey and pretentious. From the casino to the top of the Tower, Stratosphere offers great fun and real values backed up by an unforgettable experience.




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Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower Wants You to "Take Vegas Back" and Receive Random Acts of Rewards - Stratosphere on mixologists

Stratosphere is taking Vegas back from the pricey and pretentious. From the casino to the top of the Tower, Stratosphere offers great fun and real values backed up by an unforgettable experience.




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Beware: Your coronavirus unemployment benefits will be taxed. How to avoid a huge hit

More than 22 million Americans who have lost jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic are currently collecting unemployment benefits. Most are unaware this is considered taxable income. Here are three ways to avoid a huge tax bill in 2021.




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A massive renewable energy scheme in Australia has been recommended for environmental approval

Several big firms, including Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, are involved in the project.




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Social-distancing measures look set to transform London's roads and sidewalks

More specific measures relating to the program will be published in next few weeks.




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Cargo carriers reap rewards of coronavirus chaos

Cargo carriers have become a hot corner of the airline industry as airlines idle planes to face the coronavirus pandemic




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'Buyer beware' at this point — it's going to be a grind from here, strategist warns

Hani Redha, multi-asset portfolio manager at PineBridge Investments, discusses investing amid the coronavirus crisis.




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Op-ed: Investors will reward companies that take care of others in the coronavirus pandemic

Acts of charity, compassion, and creative generosity may resonate with investors increasingly drawn to socially responsible investing.




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Disney hit by 'shocking reversal of fortune' The New York Times' Jim Stewart warns

James Stewart, The New York Times columnist, on whether Disney can make up for its parks shutdown. With CNBC's Melissa Lee and the Fast Money traders, Guy Adami, Tim Seymour, Steve Grasso and Karen Finerman.






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Writing Contest Beware: Pressfuls


Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

On Sunday morning, I woke up (late, I admit) to a flurry of emails about an website I'd never heard of before: Pressfuls.

The writers who contacted me reported that they'd entered a free short story contest this past September.


As you can see, pretty minimal information. At the end of October, they received a mass email (which, curiously, cc'd all the recipients instead of bcc'ing them, so that all email addresses were visible to everyone), announcing the winner:


Although the contest entry info hadn't mentioned that the winner would be published, the writers thought they were done and moved on. Some submitted their contest stories elsewhere. Some of those stories got accepted.

Then, just a few days ago, on December 19--surprise!


Writers were shocked. As far as they knew, they had never granted permission for their stories to be published or turned into audio versions--much less made part of some sort of pay-per-view subscription service. As for the request for PayPal information, that sounded really scammy. Writers who emailed Pressfuls to ask questions or emphasize that they hadn't granted publication rights received a non-responsive response reiterating that their story was going to be published, and that "We will give you more details about it in short time [sic]."

So what is Pressfuls? With a web domain registered just six months ago, its current website (which writers tell me has been overhauled since the contest) presents as a short fiction subscription service, with a bizarrely large variety of paid subscription plans. There is no information whatever about staff, owners, the company, or, on the submission page, payment structure and publishing rights.

There's also a couple of new short story contests with 2020 entry deadlines. And that brings me to my main reason for writing this post. Beyond the questionable happenings in this particular case, Pressfuls is like an archetypal object lesson on the kinds of contests you want to avoid.

Count the red flags:

- No rules or guidelines. The page for the September contest is gone, but writers who contacted me say that there were no posted rules or guidelines--and certainly there are none for the current contests. Bad contest rules are a red flag...but no rules at all is a giant, klaxon-blaring, run-away-now warning sign. Pressfuls' attempt to monetize entries it was never authorized to publish in the first place illustrates why.

Never, never, NEVER enter a contest if you can't find, read, and/or understand the rules.

- No information about rights or payment. Plenty of contests have unfriendly rights demands. For instance, you may have to grant publication rights simply by entering, and the contest sponsor may never release them. At least when that info is present on the sponsor's website, you can't say you weren't warned. But if there's no rights or payment information whatsoever, you are really setting yourself up for the possibility of a nasty surprise...like finding out your entry has been included in a subscription service with a sketchy payment plan.

- No information about the company. Do you seriously want to enter a contest whose organizers or sponsors you know absolutely nothing about--not even where they're located or how long they've been around? I'll give you a hint: No. If you can't confirm who's running the contest, don't enter.

- No information about judges. Part of the prestige of a contest (if it has any--and most contests don't) depends on who is doing the judging. Reputable contests disclose their judges.Otherwise, you have no guarantee the contest isn't just pulling names out of a hat.

- English-language errors. Sure, anyone can make mistakes or typos (although you have to wonder about the professionalism of a contest sponsor that isn't capable of proofing its own website). But if it's an English-language contest, and you see errors or odd syntax that suggest the website has been created by people whose first language is not English, be wary. A lot of scams these days are coming from overseas. The Pressfuls website isn't as bad as many I've seen, but there are enough lapses (dropped plurals, missing articles, mis-spellings--for instance, in several locations "Fantasy" is spelled "Fanstasy") to prompt caution. (Pressfuls' emails provide much clearer examples.)

So what is Pressfuls, really? A phishing scheme? A sleazy way to acquire and monetize content? A clueless would-be publisher with no idea how things should be done? I really can't tell. But none of these possibilities are good ones.

A couple of the writers who contacted me told me that Pressfuls complied (though without any acknowledgment) when they demanded that their stories be taken down. However, another writer said that they tried several times and their story is still online.

Since Pressfuls has no real "contact us" option on its website, my suggestion is to send a DMCA takedown notice to its email address (shortstorycontest@pressfuls.com) or, if that yields no response, to the email address of its web host (abuse@in2net.com). You can find out more about DMCA notices (which are legal notices demanding removal of infringed material from the internet) here. SFWA offers a handy DMCA notice generator.

For more information and cautions about contests, see Writer Beware's Contests and Awards page. I've also written a blog post that covers some of the same ground: Some Tips on Evaluating Writing Contests.

UPDATE 12/24/19: Since I put this post online yesterday, Pressfuls has amended the descriptions on its contests. Originally they looked like the description for the original contest (see above). Now they look like this:


This is not an improvement, since there's still nothing about publication or rights. Also, the copyright info is ignorant on multiple levels. WGA and WGC registrations (which are primarily for screenwriters) are not legally equivalent to US copyright registration--and they don't prove anything anyway, since the author already owns copyright, by law, as soon as the words are written down.

I shouldn't need to say that you really want your publisher to have an accurate understanding of copyright.

Writers tell me that Pressfuls sent out another mass email with instructions on how to have content removed, so it seems they're paying attention. We shall see.




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Beware: Wid Bastian a.k.a. Widtsoe T. Bastian / Genius Media Inc. / Kairos Phoenix Company


Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

Scroll down for updates

Early in 2019, seventeen writers were recruited to participate in a box set of medical thrillers, called (with unforeseen irony) Do No Harm.

The buy-in: $750, with net income from sales going to two designated charities, and participating writers receiving a pro-rated share of any net income above those contributions. The goal: through cooperative marketing efforts, to get the set on the USA Today bestseller list.

Here's how the opportunity was presented to potential participants (this is from an email that was shared with me):


In other words, right off the bat, authors were being primed not to expect to make money.

Helming the endeavor was a five-year-old PR company called Genius Media Inc., owned by a man called Wid Bastian (full name: Widtsoe T. Bastian). Per this long 2017 discussion on KBoards, one of Genius Media's not-so-genius MOs was to cold-contact writers by form email and offer glowingly-described Kindle Unlimited promotions. "For you, my estimate on an eBook promo is 10,000 plus downloads and 700 plus sales, positive ROI right out of the gate and huge page read income."

The cost: $2,000.

KBoards members urged caution, especially after expert analysis of Genius's claims indicated that its promotions weren't as successful as it advertised, and information offered by a writer who'd paid for a promo suggested that Genius was violating the TOS of the advertising platforms it used. Also noteworthy: this post from a writer who bought two promos from Genius, and lost money on each one. "That is what Genius Media told me to expect, that the first promo would not show a profit, but that by the second or third promo, they would show a profit." (The writer bought a third promo.)

As it turns out, these concerns were a sign of things to come.

Do No Harm was published, as promised, and made the USA Today bestseller list, also as promised. On October 3 (or possibly October 4), it was unpublished--three (or possibly four) days after the contractually-stipulated end date of September 30.

Per the contract (which you can see here), final reporting and payment was due to authors "no later than December 1". December 1 came...and went. Bastian promised anxious authors they'd get everything by December 15.

One day past that deadline, they did receive a report...but not from Genius Media. Between early December and December 16, with no notice or warning, a company called Kairos Phoenix had purportedly acquired Genius. Other than its business registration--in Wyoming, just like Genius's--and hometown--Logan, Utah, again just like Genius's--Kairos was a black box, with zero web presence. It had incorporated less than a month earlier, on November 22. (You can see the report here.)

That wasn't all that was suspicious. Here's Kairos's financial breakdown:


In other words, USA Today bestselling box set Do No Harm hadn't just failed to make a profit, it had lost money. But...where was the revenue from the $750 buy-in fees--which, with 17 authors, totaled $12,750? (Kairos's explanation: it wasn't included because it was "ordinary income" for Genius Media. "As stated in the contract, the fee was paid to 'participate' in DNH Collab by the author and for no other purpose".) Where were revenues for the days the set had been on sale past the unpublish deadline? (Kairos: "The contractual period for DNH Collab was strictly defined in the contract" as September 30, so any revenue past that date was "irrelevant".)

Equally troubling, why were there more than $15,000 in expenses--three-quarters of which were for "labor"--when the contract stipulated that expenses were not to exceed the total of the buy-in fees? According to Kairos, this wasn't really an expense cap: "This provision was specifically and intentionally included in the contract language to avoid the possibility of a 'cash call' – Genius Media asking authors to contribute more to DNH Collab to achieve the goal of making USA Today Bestseller status. No 'cash call' was ever made in the DNH Collab."

Here's the actual contract wording, though (my bolding):
For the purposes of the USA Today Bestseller Medical Thriller Author Publishing Collaborative Boxed Set program, Genius Media shall not incur any publication and promotion expenses of any nature in excess of the fees paid under the terms of its author agreements and shall have no power to obligate [redacted] or any other author for any publication and promotion expense above author fees paid whatsoever.
There's a "cash call" prohibition and an expense cap. But Kairos wanted writers to believe otherwise, so it could inflate expenses and ensure a loss.

It was obvious to Do No Harm participants that Kairos was taking the money and running--avoiding the substantial payouts it would otherwise have to make by retroactively interpreting contract language, and also enabling Bastian himself to claim he was blameless because of Genius's supposed takeover by an unrelated company. (No one was under any illusion that Kairos Phoenix was anything other than Bastian in a different guise.)

Authors were furious. On December 22, two of them, Christoph Fischer and Dan Alatorre, went public with their experience. Others posted warnings on Kairos's corporate business listing.

Do No Harm isn't the first time Bastian has run this scheme, either.


The box set in question appears to be Tales From Big Country, which was published around the same time as Do No Harm. A third set, Galaxia, was pubbed in September, with profits supposedly going to the Well Aware clean water charity. I've been told that Bastian is recruiting for other sets, including a collection of thrillers.

So who is Wid Bastian, a.k.a. Widtsoe T. Bastian?

His LinkedIn profile ("EXPOSE your new book to develop your author brand and sell more books!") identifies him as the owner of Genius Media, and also of an ebook promotion program called Book Dynamite. In an earlier profile on a freelancers' job site, he describes himself as a "published novelist and screenwriter" (more on that below) who "makes most of my daily bread as a ghostwriter." He also has an IMDB profile, presumably because of his efforts to make a film of the life of Greek Orthodox priest Fr. Themi Adamopoulos.

Genius Media's website has been taken offline, but traces remain in the form of cached pages, and here's how it looked in January 2016, courtesy of the Internet Archive (more recent versions haven't been archived). The company has a D+ rating from the BBB. Bastian also owned or was an officer with at least three other companies during the early to mid-1990s: Off & Flying, Prospex Interntaional [sic] (yes, it really was registered with a typo in the name), and Nevada Pension Investment Fund. Both Off & Flying and Prospex had their statuses "permanently revoked" a few years after incorporating. All three are long dead.

There is also a Widtsoe T. Bastian who pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts including embezzlement, money laundering, and bankruptcy fraud in US District Court in North Carolina, and in 2005 was sentenced to one hundred and forty-four months in prison and restitution of more than $3,000,000. Nothing I can find online directly connects Widtsoe T. Bastian of Genius Media to Widtsoe T. Bastian of North Carolina, so it may be a different person. But Widtsoe T. Bastian is quite an unusual name, as a websearch will make clear.

Finally...I can't say "what goes around comes around", since this pre-dates the ripoff that's the subject of this post, but it certainly seems like a case of advance karma: Bastian's own 2010 novel, Solomon's Porch, was published by none other than Tate Publishing & Enterprises, a notorious vanity publisher that scammed thousands of authors and a multitude of staff, and whose owners pleaded guilty in 2017 to an array of felony charges very similar to the ones described in the previous paragraph.

Tate authors suffered terribly at the hands of their unscrupulous publisher, but Wid Bastian is one Tate author I can't feel all that sorry for.

UPDATE 12/31/19: PACER was down yesterday, so I wasn't able to do a case search. I did so this morning, and here's what's there for Widtsoe T. Bastian:


Some of the listings are redundant, and several cite court documents without any links to those documents. But there's enough available to paint a tangled picture of a 1995 Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Nevada involving several companies in addition to the three mentioned above (the case was finally closed in 2002); a 1999 indictment in Nevada "on charges related to the operation of [Bastian's] venture capital firm"; failure to appear in a Nevada court in 2001; and a 2002 arrest in North Carolina, leading to the plea of guilty on 13 felony counts referenced above.

In 2012, Bastian was placed on probation or supervised release, and jurisdiction over his case was transferred to US District Court for Utah. His probation ended on May 4, 2015.

UPDATE 2/21/19: I'm featuring this comment from yesterday, as it's more indication of a pattern (the commenter has shared documentation with me that confirms what they say below):
In 2013-15, I hired Mr. Bastian as a ghost writer and later co-author of a novel we wrote together called Henry and Tom, sold through Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

In mid 2015, Mr. Bastian embezzled money from a joint bank account we opened to pay for marketing campaigns for Henry and Tom. Rather than pursue embezzlement charges, I hired an expensive lawyer in Washington DC to transfer all rights for Henry and Tom to me in exchange for a $4K payment to Wid and a non-disparagement clause for both of us. This seemed at the time like the most expedient and cost effective way to deal with all the problems Mr. Bastian had caused.

I thought this matter was concluded until recently when Amazon/KDP informed me that a debt collection firm had placed a lien on Henry and Tom due to a bankruptcy filed by Wid Bastian/Genius Media Inc. KDP is currently sending my royalties to the collector per the lien. I have filed formal complaints with Attorneys General in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York in an attempt to have the lien removed in states where the debt collectors are registered. I have also filed formal complaints against Wid and Genius Media Inc. with the Attorney General of Utah and the County Attorneys Office in Providence, Utah.

I think blogs like this are creating awareness of the depth and extent of Wid’s continuing criminal activities so we can all work together to stop him from doing this to others and get him to face justice.
You'll note a reference to a bankruptcy. Wid Bastian filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition on January 13, 2020.


A number of victims of his box set schemes are listed as unsecured creditors; if you're one of them, you should have received a snail mail notice, but if you haven't, and are wondering if you're included, here's the Certificate of Notice, with all Bastian's claimed creditors.

The bankruptcy filings also confirm what everybody already knew: Kairos Phoenix was Wid Bastian. The reason he set up this company probably won't surprise you, either.




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Writer Beware: 2019 in Review

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

Happy New Year! It's that time again--time for a look back at the schemes, scams, and issues Writer Beware covered in 2019.

PUBLISHER TROUBLES

Sadly, there's never a shortage of stories like these.

Scandal Engulfs Independent Publisher ChiZine PublicationsArguably the biggest small press story of the year, the spectacular collapse of Canadian indie ChiZine Publications--amid allegations of non-payment, financial mismanagement, and a horrifically toxic work culture rife with bullying, sexual harassment, racism, and more--posed thorny questions for the small press community about cultures of silence, the treatment of whistleblowers, and the tacit enabling of unprofessional behavior.

Authors' Concern Grows Over Late Royalty Payments At Dreamspinner Press: Multiple author complaints of nonpayment and other problems, for which Dreamspinner has provided confusing and conflicting explanations. (Dreamspinner has become part of the implosion of Romance Writers of America, with RWA accused of failing to assist Dreamspinner authors who requested help.)

Fireside Press Cancels Multiple Contracts: Mass contract cancellations don't generally bode well for publisher health.

Complaints At Month9Books, Nonstandard Business Practices at Black Rose Writing: Long-standing issues, including late payments and bullying, appear to be ongoing at Month9. As for Black Rose, it presents as a "traditional" publisher but, vanity publisher-style, sells a large menu of marketing services to its authors.

Trouble at Dog Ear Publishing: Multiple, long-standing author complaints of nonpayment by this assisted self-publishing company (this publishing model is in trouble generally).

AWARDS TO AVOID

If you've been reading here for a while, you'll know that I'm no fan of contests and awards--not just because they often involve big entry fees (even the legit ones), but because they so often have author-unfriendly rules and guidelines. Here are a few I encountered in 2019.

Can We Get a Do-Over? What do you do when you get caught with predatory language in your contest guidelines? You hastily switch it out, of course. That's what Harper's Bazaar did when the copyright grab in its annual short story competition was outed on Twitter.

Rights Grabs by the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award: Another prestigious (and rich: the winner gets £30,000) contest with a predatory rights grab.

The Pressfuls Short Story Contest: Why not to enter a contest that doesn't post rules and guidelines: you may discover, as writers who entered this contest did, that your work has been published without your permission.

SAVE YOUR CASH

The shady underbelly of the publishing world is chock-a-block with those who scheme to take authors' money, by fair means or foul. Here are some especially foul examples.

Seven Prolific Vanity Publishers: A look at the vanity publishers about which I get the most questions, including Austin Macauley, Page Publishing, and Christian Faith Publishing.

Anatomy of a Book-To-Screen Scam: One of the most unlikely outcomes of publishing a book is selling film rights. Book-to-screen scammers--who purport to turn your book into a screenplay, shop it to Hollywood, and more--don't want you to know that.

Vanity Radio: Why You Should Think Twice: Should you ever pay for a radio interview? Like paid book reviews, this is an iffy proposition--even if you're not being solicited by a scammer.

A Pack of Scammer Lies: Dissecting the highly deceptive pitch by one especially egregious publishing and marketing ripoff.

ADVICE YOU CAN USE

When a Publisher Claims Copyright on Edits: This predatory practice is a big publishing contract red flag.

How Predatory Companies Are Trying to Hijack Your Publisher Search: Among other sneaky techniques: fake publisher matching sites that purport to guide you to appropriate publishers but steer you to vanities and self-publishing companies; deceptive use of Google ads to do the same thing; fake facts and statistics about traditional publishing designed to make the vanity model seem preferable.

Awards Profiteers: How Writers Can Recognize Them and Why They Should be Avoided: Profiteering awards programs have a secret agenda: making money for the sponsor with huge entry fees. They're not about honoring writers.

GENERAL BEWARES

Be careful out there!

From the Philippines, Not With Love: A Plague of Publishing and Marketing Scams: This is one of the biggest new scam trends threatening self-pubbed and small press authors. Some background on how the scams came to be, plus a list of the nearly 70 scammers I've discovered so far.

Issues at Audible's ACX: Including attempted rights fraud and inexplicably withdrawn promo codes.

Caution: Turkish Publisher Mavifil Publishing (Mavifil Yayinlari): Old scammers never die; they just change their names. A non-paying publisher that stalked writers in 2011 returns to stalk them in 2019.

AMS Literary Agency: Approach With Caution: Old scammers never die; they just change their names. Whoops, didn't I just say that? The owner of one of the most notorious vanity publisher scams ever returns in the guise of a literary agent.

Beware: Wid Bastian aka Widtsoe T. Bastian/Genius Media Inc./Kairos Phoenix Company: A convicted felon, an ebook promo and box set scheme. What could go wrong?

Publishizer: Do Authors Really Need a Crowdfunding Literary Agency? Yet another of those reinvent-the-wheel attempts that are so common in publishing: a crowdfunding site for writers that claims to represent manuscripts to publishers, but is mostly used by vanities and other fee-chargers (some of them seriously questionable).




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Beware: Pigeon House Literary / Druella Burhan


Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

The internet and social media have transformed writer/agent/publisher interactions in many ways, one of which is the proliferation of Twitter pitch events, such as #PitMad, #DVPit, and others.

While no online innovation has (so far) managed to supplant the traditional query-and request route, these events do attract plenty of reputable agents and publishers--unlike other purported shortcuts (*cough*Publishizer*cough*). However, inevitably, they are also stalked by marginals, amateurs, and even scammers.

For instance, Eliezer Tristan Publishing, which charged a $500 fee and went out of business just months after opening up, haunted #PitMad. Ditto for GenZ publishing, which charges authors $2,500. Burchette and Ferguson, a brand-new publisher staffed by people with zero relevant experience, participated in pitch events before they even launched (and went out of business shortly thereafter).

Then there's this:


I've gotten many, many other questions about approaches by dubious companies and individuals as a result of pitch events. All in all, therefore, it pays to be careful, and if you haven't heard of an individual or publisher who approaches you, to research them before responding. (You can contact me; I may have heard something.)

Which leads me to the subject of today's post. I might not normally devote an entire blog post to one marginal agent, but this one is such an egregious example, and seems to be so active on social media--including #PitMad--that I think she's worth a special feature.

Pigeon House Literary Agency launched just this past February. It's run by Druella Burhan, whose resume includes none (zero, zip) of the relevant background experience you typically want to see from a new literary agent--such as a professional writing resume, or having previously worked for a reputable agency or publisher.


The lofty claims Burhan does make are either unverifiable, or provably false. For instance, here's Harvard Medical's publication on its 2011 MD-PhD graduates. Surprise! There's no mention of Druella Burhan.

Here's some of Burhan's agenting philosophy:


The logo (for lack of a better word) at the top of this post provides a preview of the rest of the Pigeon House site (a Wix freebie), which is amateurishly formatted and clearly not proofread (several pages have fully-justified text, with words cut off at the end of lines--I mean, it's a Wix freebie, it's not like you have to be an expert to get it right) and rife with typos, grammatical errors, and bizarre word use. For instance,


That's bad, but here's what it originally looked like. Burhan changed it shortly after I tweeted about it:


There's more: the Who We Are page, which bafflingly proclaims that the agency will "strive to bring a supreme appealingness and picturesque style of books from darkness to life"; the Foreign Rights page, which erroneously cautions writers that "If a literary agent does not agree to take you on as an international client/author, you will not be able to sell books overseas"; the Referrals page, where Burhan bizarrely invites other agents to send her clients. And here's the contract she is sending out, which includes the same formatting/proofreading errors as her website, and is really just an embarrassment.

It's a perfect carnival of amateurism.

Am I being mean here? Maybe, but before you whip out the "everyone has to start somewhere" argument, consider Burhan's false claims about herself and her aggressive use of social media to recruit clients despite her obvious ignorance and complete lack of relevant qualifications (I first heard of her because she was trolling on Reddit, and she is actively inviting queries on her Twitter feed).

The damage an amateur agent can do is considerable--squandering clients' chances with substandard submissions, submitting to disreputable or incompetent publishers, inadequately understanding publishing contract language and therefore not capable of effectively negotiating it. An amateur agent may not drain a writer's bank account the way a scammer would, but the bottom line isn't that different: no sale, and lots of wasted time.

Writer Beware.




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Writer Beware in the Time of Coronavirus

My home office, with feline assistant.
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

I rarely make personal posts on this blog. But, as I don't need to remind anyone, these are scary times.

My husband and I are physically fit and in general good health, but we are both 64 and he has an underlying health condition. Based on everything we're seeing and reading, we've concluded that our best covid-19 strategy is either a) not to get sick, or b) to delay getting sick as long as possible in hopes of more treatment options or at least less hospital crush.

Our social distancing began last weekend. We've completely withdrawn from face-to-face social interaction, and are ordering non-perishables and household items online. No more routine doctor or dentist visits. No more stores, library, restaurants, or gym (we're in Massachusetts, where a lot of things are shut down anyway). I'm still on the fence about careful, non-peak hour grocery shopping for fresh produce--but I certainly won't be going while shelves are bare from people's absurd panic buying (some of the same people, probably, who are still having parties and crowding into bars *eyeroll*).

Sarah, my other assistant. Kittehs are a comfort.
We're acutely aware that this is MUCH easier for us than it is for most. We both already work from home. We have decent financial resources. We don't have kids. Elderly relatives are all dead. Family and many friends are geographically distant, so we're already socially distanced there. We can still go out for walks and runs. I can still garden (one of my major passions).

So the changes to our routine are relatively small, compared to many. It's tougher for my husband than for me--the majority of my social life is online, but he is a gregarious person with a wide circle of friends, colleagues, and peers. But there's always Zoom and Skype, and he's making use of both.

For us as for many, stress and fear are daily companions. This is not the zombie apocalypse; there will be a vaccine eventually, and civilization will survive, as it survived the flu pandemic of 1918. But...how bad will it get? How long will it last--will we have to live this way for a year? More? What will happen to friends and family? What will happen to the people who are thrown out of work by widespread (and, I'm guessing, soon nationwide) business closures? The people who have no insurance? The people in prisons and ICE jails, the immigrants packed together at the border? And what about the election? I didn't think, back in innocent December, that that could become more crucial. But, as I stand in horror before the shitshow happening in Washington, it's clear to me that it has.

These and other questions haunt me on a daily, sometimes an hourly, basis. I suffer from depression--have done since childhood--and one of my fears is that I'll sink into a clinical episode. I can feel that possibility stalking around the edges of everything now. I am doing my best to resist. My husband, thank goodness, is more resilient. We work to keep each other's spirits up.

At a time like this, ordinary activities--like maintaining this blog--start to feel irrelevant. But they're not. Life goes on, even in the face of catastrophe. I seriously doubt that covid-19 will put a dent in the volume of schemes and scams that target writers who will still be writing, still seeking agents, still publishing. And one of the most important strategies for resisting helplessness and depression is work, for those of us who are still lucky enough to be able to do it.

Emily: Why are you taking my picture _again_?
So Writer Beware will go on. I'll continue to be active on Facebook and Twitter. As much as possible, I'll post here as I usually do--not always weekly, but as often as I find things to write about. And I urge you to continue to email me with your questions, concerns, reports, and complaints. Please, keep the emails coming.

And: wash your hands.

Don't touch your face.

Cough or sneeze into your elbow,.

Keep your distance: 6 feet is optimal.

Stay home if you can, especially if you're sick (I know this is tough for many to do).

Check on your elderly neighbors (from a distance).

Resist panic buying.

Don't share health information unless you're sure it comes from a reputable source (Facebook, oh my God).

Be safe.

I'll be seeing you.




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Indonesia Mah Lewat, Kebiasaan Ini Cuma Ada Di Rusia!!

Setiap orang pasti akan mengikuti suatu kebiasaan yang memang dari dulu sudah tercipta di negaranya tersebut. Misalnya saja kebiasaan orang Indonesia, yang dimana sering kali mengejar layangan yang sudah putus (kaum anak kecil, secara turun temurun masih menggunakan kebiasaan ini ), lalu kebiasaan melakukan tindakan seperti ” Salim..” setiap hari ke Orang yang lebih tua […]

The post Indonesia Mah Lewat, Kebiasaan Ini Cuma Ada Di Rusia!! appeared first on anni-sanni.com.




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Rory Stewart quits Mayor of London race

The former cabinet minister says he cannot ask campaign volunteers to work for another year.




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Building Redux Middleware

After writing my post a few months ago on building your own redux app, I have been asked a couple times to write a guide on creating redux middleware and how it works. This will be a quick post on how you can acheive anything with your own middleware!

##Basic middleware


const customMiddleware = store => next => action => {
  if(action.type !== 'custom') return next(action)
  //do stuff!
}

Applying it:

import { createStore, applyMiddleware, } from 'redux'
import reducer from './reducer'
import customMiddleware from './customMiddleware'

const store = createStore(
  reducer,
  applyMiddleware(customMiddleware)
)

Whaaa? store => next => action => I know that looks confusing. Essentially you are building a chain of functions, it will look like this when it gets called:

//next looks something like this:
let dispatched = null
let next = actionAttempt => dispatched = actionAttempt 

const dispatch = customMiddleware(store)(next)

dispatch({
  type: 'custom',
  value: 'test'
})

All you are doing is chaining function calls and passing in the neccesary data. When I first saw this I was confused a little due to the long chain, but it made perfect sense after reading the article on writing redux tests.

So now that we understand how those chained functions work, let’s explain the first line of our middleware.

if(action.type !== 'custom') return next(action)

There should be some way to tell what actions should go through your middleware. In this example, we are saying if the action’s type is not custom call next, which will pass it to any other middleware and then to the reducer.

##Doing Cool stuff

The official guide on redux middleware covers a few examples on this, I’m going to try to explain it in a more simple way.

Say we want an action like this:

dispatch({
  type: 'ajax',
  url: 'http://api.com',
  method: 'POST',
  body: state => ({
    title: state.title
    description: state.description
  }),
  cb: response => console.log('finished!', response)
})

We want this to do a post request, and then call the cb function. It would look something like this:

import fetch from 'isomorphic-fetch'

const ajaxMiddleware = store => next => action => {
  if(action.type !== 'ajax') return next(action)
  
  fetch(action.url, {
    method: action.method,
    body: JSON.stringify(action.body(store.getState()))
  })
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(json => action.cb(json))
}

It’s pretty simple really. You have access to every method redux offers in middleware. What if we wanted the cb function to have access to dispatching more actions? We could change that last line of the fetch function to this:

.then(json => action.cb(json, store.dispatch))

Now in the callback, we can do:

  cb: (response, dispatch) => dispatch(newAction(response))

As you can see, middleware is very easy to write in redux. You can pass store state back to actions, and so much more. If you need any help or if I didn’t go into detail enough, feel free to leave a comment below!




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Navi Mumbai Municipal Corp offers reward to people who report illegal debris


Representational picture

The Navi Mumbai Municipal corporation (NMMC) has offered cash reward to those people, who report about illegal dumping of debris or garbage within the city limits, especially in mangrove areas. This announcement was made yesterday by municipal commissioner N Ramaswamy, an official said today.

The move is aimed at ensuring that debris is not dumped illegally or in a haphazard manner, the official said adding that the NMMC wants people to send pictures of illegal debris or garbage dumping. "The civic body has offered cash reward of Rs 1,000 to those who expose the people or vehicles dumping debris or garbage illegally in the city, especially in the mangrove areas, " an NMMC spokesperson said.

"The corporation wants people to take photographs of the vehicles dumping debris and send it to us. We will not only act against the vehicle owners or the persons who dump it, but will ensure that they clear the dumped debris from the spot," the spokesperson added. In order to implement this scheme, civic ward officers have been appointed as the nodal officers, he said.

Citizens can share the pictures of illegal dumping of debris on the WhatsApp number- 8422955912. They can also register complaints on the NMMC website- /www.nmmc.gov.in/. In the recent past, illegal dumping of debris in mangroves has been reported widely from the several sections of the society at several places, including Palm Beach Road and Ghansoli. "Names of those who report about debris dumping will not be disclosed," he said.





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Why Anushka Sharma called herself a 'bewakoof ladki'

Actress Anushka Sharma gave Instagram's viral 'Guess The Gibberish' filter a shot, but she failed to come up with the right word.

Guess The Gibberish filter works by showing you seemingly meaningless words until you can crack it and arrive at the correct phrase. A user gets 10 seconds to figure out the right words. The filer was created by a user named @gu_christopher, and has caught on.

Anushka posted a video on Instagram story, where she is seen participating in the guessing game.

Her Gibberish filter read: "Stir Range Earth Inks".

In the video, she is seen repeating the sentence and finally decides the correct answer to be "Strange Things", but the reply is actually "Stranger Things".

Seeing her guess is wrong, Anushka calls herself "Bewakoof ladki".

On the work front, Anushka is all set to come up with a new web series as a producer on Amazon Prime Video web series, bankrolled by her production house Clean Slate Company.

Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps.

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Sanya Malhotra recreates her 'Photograph' moment at Gateway of India

Embarking on a promotional spree, Sanya Malhotra had a fun interaction with real-life photographers clicking pictures against Gateway of India as well as with the photographers. Sharing her picture from the visit Sanya Malhotra says,

"Saalon baad jab ye aap photo dekhengi, aapko aapke chehre pe yahi dhoop dikhayi degi, aapke baalon mein ye hawa aur apke kaano mein hazaro logo ki awaaz.. hamesha ke liye sab chalajayega."

The film brings to the screen the story of a photographer at Gateway of India who convinces a stranger to act as his love interest to help his ailing grandmother. Nawazuddin Siddiqui will essay the role of the photographer, while Sanya Malhotra plays his muse.

Earlier, Sanya Malhotra who had a working birthday took out time and celebrated the special occasion with the paparazzi. Recently, National Award-winning filmmaker Ritesh Batra hosted a special screening of Photograph for film students prior to its theatrical release. Post the screening, the director interacted with the students and engaged in a discussion about films and their making.

Sanya garnered immense love and appreciation for her performance in Photograph when the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival 2019. The trailer brings to screen a sweet, innocent, and refreshing chemistry with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra's first association.

Written and directed by Ritesh Batra, Photograph is presented by Amazon Studious in association with The Match Factory and is slated to release in India on March 15, 2019.

Also read: Team Photograph shares a video on Nawazuddin Siddiqui's character

Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates





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Three labourers choke to death in sewage treatment plant in Thane

Three labourers died after inhaling toxic gas while cleaning a sewage treatment plant of a local civic body in Thane district of Maharashtra, a police official said on Thursday. The deceased were daily wage labourers and had no formal training in sewage cleaning, he said.

The incident took place on Wednesday when the labourers were cleaning a chocked valve in a chamber of the non-operational sewage treatment plant located in Mira Road area, an official at Thane rural police's control room said.

One of the labourers climbed down into the sewage treatment plant to clean it, but felt suffocated and collapsed, he said. Two more labourers later went inside to check their colleague but they also inhaled toxic gas and died, he said. Another 17-year-old labourer, who also inhaled the toxic fumes, was admitted to a hospital where he was undergoing treatment, the official said.

The labourers were hired by a civic contractor from near the Mira Road railway station for the cleaning work but they were not given any protective gear like masks, he said. They were also not trained in such cleaning operations, he said. The deceased were identified as Muzaffar Moulik (24), Rafique Mandal (50) and Mofjum (18). The bodies were sent to a local hospital for post mortem, the official said, adding that a probe was underway.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever





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Research Headlines - A collaborative approach to renewable energy

An EU-funded project has driven collaboration on renewable energy between businesses and researchers in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova with counterparts from EU countries. The links are boosting innovation - helping the participating countries make the transition to more sustainable energy sources.




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Radio City Extends An Helping Hand Towards Dabbewale in Mumbai through Dabbawalo ka Dabba Bharo Initiative

While the world is grappling with the impact of the horrific COVID-19, and the entire nation is under the lockdown, there are people who are finding it difficult to make both ends meet. Mumbai’s Dabbawalas, who ensure that a delicious, warm ,home cooked meal reach in time every single day at work, today are battling to have a meal in their own plates. Radio City, India’s leading radio network, has launched a fund raiser initiative, Dabbewale ka Dabba Bharo, and have been urging Mumbaikars to come forward and contribute towards the initiative.

Radio City in Mumbai, kick started this initiative on 22nd April, where all the RJ's across their shows have been sharing the current state of Dabbewale's, with around more than 5 thousand of them are finding it difficult to feed their families since the lockdown was announced. Radio City has been urging Mumbai city to come forward and contribute towards the initiative. There has been an overwhelming response from the citizens and uptill now, approx. 62 thousand rupees has already been collected

To garner a wider reach and raise more funds, Radio City has created a video (https://youtu.be/e1XCjt8FSBI) that has been promoted across Radio City’s social media handles. Radio City has always been at the forefront to help the city and its citizens through various initiatives like these and spread a wave of positivity.

If you wish to contribute Please click on the link: www.ketto.org/radiocity

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever




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Madhuri Dixit, Shashank Khaitan, Tushar Kalia's Dance Deewane 3 begins virtual auditions

With everything going digital amid lockdown due to Coronavirus outbreak, reality shows have found a new way to conduct auditions. Madhuri Dixit, Shashank Khaitan, and Tushar Kalia will return as judges for Dance Deewane 3.

For the show, the makers have begun virtual auditions. Madhuri Dixit kicked off her work by recording the promo for the show and asking the audience to participate by uploading their videos oh Viacom18's digital platform.

The final aspirants will be selected for the show once the film and TV bodies resume shoots. Arjun Bijlani will be returning as the show host. They'll kick off the new season after everything goes back to normal.

ALSO READ: Madhuri Dixit and Kajol reminisce about sharing screen space with late Rishi Kapoor




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Coronavirus: IRCTC gives popular Deewar dialogue a twist on Twitter to make people wear masks

Even as the country has been fighting hard to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, the authorities know how to use humour in their social media posts while urging people to take the necessary precautions to stay safe. IRCTC has been following government authorities such as Mumbai Police, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Pune Police and has been posting hilarious memes to explain why is it necessary to follow the precautions.

The popular line "Mere paas maa hai!" from 1975 Amitabh  Bachchan- Shashi Kapoor drama Deewar has been a part of many jokes and memes. To refresh your mind, the line was a part of a dialogue in the film which is about two brothers –Shashi Kapoor who plays the role of Ravi, the good cop and Amitabh Bachchan, who plays Vijay, a criminal. In the iconic scene, Vijay asks Ravi, "Aaj mere paas property hai, bank balance hai, bangla hai, gaadi hai.. kya hai tumhare pass?" (Today I own a bungalow, a property, a car, have a bank balance… What do you have?) In his reply, Ravi emotionally mouths the line, "Mere paas maa hai!" (I have mother.)

IRCTC played around the line and came up with a witty meme posted on their Twitter page to spread awareness about wearing masks.

The meme posted on Tuesday garnered 147 likes and was retweeted 16 times. It received many praises in the comments for its innovation and creativity.

What do you think about the post?

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'Firewall' for smartphones may protect your privacy

Representational Image

Scientists have developed the first ultrasound-firewall that can prevent hackers from eavesdropping on hidden data transmission between smartphones and other mobile devices. The permanent networking of mobile devices can endanger the privacy of users and lead to new forms of monitoring.

New technologies such as Google Nearby and Silverpush use ultrasonic sounds to exchange information between devices via loudspeakers and microphones. More and more of our devices communicate via this inaudible communication channel. Ultrasonic communication allows devices to be paired and information to be exchanged.

It also makes it possible to track users and their behaviour over a number of devices, much like cookies on the Web. Almost every device with a microphone and a loudspeaker can send and receive ultrasonic sounds. Users are usually unaware of this inaudible and hidden data transmission.

Researchers from the St Polten University of Applied Sciences in Austria has developed a mobile application that detects acoustic cookies, brings them to the attention of users and if desired, blocks the tracking.

The app is, in a sense, the first available ultrasound-firewall for smartphones and tablets "The most challenging part of developing the app was to devise a method that can detect different existing ultrasound-transmission techniques reliably and in real time," said Matthias Zeppelzauer, who led the project.

Such ultrasonic signals can be used for so-called "cross-device tracking". This makes it possible to track the user's behaviour across multiple devices, and relevant user profiles can be merged with one other. In this way, more accurate user profiles can be created for targeted advertising and filtering of internet content.

Unlike their electronic counterparts when visiting web pages, up to now it has not been possible to block acoustic cookies.

"In order to accept voice commands, the mobile phone microphone is often permanently active. Every mobile application that has access to the microphone, as well as the operating system itself, can at any time without notice: activate the microphone of a mobile device, listen to it, detect acoustic cookies and synchronise it over the Internet," said Zeppelzauer.

Users are often not informed of this information transmission during ongoing operation. Only a permanent deactivation of the microphone would help, whereby the device as a telephone would become unusable. Researchers developed a procedure to expose the cookies and inform device users. For masking and blocking the ultrasonic data transfer, interference signals are transmitted via the loudspeaker of the mobile device.

Thus, acoustic cookies can be neutralised before operating systems or mobile applications can access them. Users can selectively block cookies without affecting the functionality of the smartphone. The masking of the cookies occurs by means of ultrasound, which is inaudible to humans.

"There is currently no technology on the market that can detect and block acoustic cookies. The application developed in this project represents the first approach that gives people control over this type of tracking," said Zeppelzauer.

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.




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Google rewards Uraguyan teenager for finding security flaw

Representational Image

Google has rewarded an Uruguayan teenager a "bug bounty" of more than $36,000 for disclosing a severe security flaw. Ezequiel Pereira's sporadic poking around has finally paid off in a big way: Google just awarded the Uruguayan teenager $36,337 for finding a vulnerability that would have allowed him to make changes to internal company systems, CNBC reported on Saturday.

"I found something almost immediately that was worth $500 and it just felt so amazing. So I decided to just keep trying ever since then," Pereira was quoted as saying by CNBC.

"It feels really good - I'm glad that I found something that was so important," he added.

Although, Pereira found the bug earlier this year, he only just got permission to write about how he discovered it this week, after Google confirmed that it had fixed the issue, the report said.

It marks Pereira's fifth accepted bug, but it's by far his most lucrative.

Pereira was about a month shy of 17 when he first got paid for exposing a Google security flaw through its bug bounty programme.

Pereira got his first computer when he was 10, took an initial programming class when he was 11 and then spent years teaching himself different coding languages and techniques.

In 2016, Google flew him to its California headquarters after he won a coding contest.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.




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Why is the daylight robber being rewarded instead of punished or fired BEFORE he proves hi (Kashyap)

(this is continuation of the title): Why is the daylight robber being rewarded instead of punished or fired BEFORE he proves he has value ?! Your proposed role for him doesn't seem to offer any value to us. I saw the mails about Ankit stealing research id..




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Press Centre - Three islands receive EU Prize for innovative renewable energy solutions

[Source: Research & Innovation] The Danish island of Bornholm is the first ever winner of the EU RESponsible Island Prize. The Danish island won the title in recognition for its innovative energy solutions and its contribution to a sustainable and climate-friendly Europe, the European Commission announced today. The second prize went to the island of Samsø, also in Denmark, and the third prize to the Orkney Islands in the United Kingdom.





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EurekAlert.org: Vast amounts of valuable energy, nutrients, water lost in world’s fast-rising wastewater streams

Furthermore, the paper says, wastewater volumes are increasing quickly, with a projected rise of roughly 24% by 2030, 51% by 2050.




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WaterActive.co.uk: Vast Amounts of Valuable Energy, Nutrients, Water Lost in World’s Fast-Rising Wastewater Streams

The energy embedded in wastewater, meanwhile, could provide electricity to 158 million households – roughly the number of households in the USA and Mexico combined.




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EnvirotecMagazine.com: Vast amounts of valuable energy, nutrients, water lost in world’s fast-rising wastewater streams, says study

The energy embedded in wastewater, meanwhile, could provide electricity to 158 million households – roughly the number of households in the USA and Mexico combined.




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YubaNet.com: Vast amounts of valuable energy, nutrients, water lost in world’s fast-rising wastewater streams

Current wastewater nutrient recovery technologies have made significant progress. In the case of phosphorous, recovery rates range from 25% to 90%.