Oct 29 2012
Monday News: Murdoch rumored to bid on Penguin; South Carolina SSNs compromised; Virginity cannot be conclusively proved
Millions of SSNs lifted from South Carolina database – An alert for all the South Carolina readers:
“If you live in South Carolina, there’s a very good chance that slipshod state government security has allowed an overseas computer criminal to acquire your Social Security number.
The South Carolina Department of Revenue acknowledged the massive electronic security breach today, saying an electronic intrusion led to 3.6 million Social Security numbers being stolen. The state’s population is approximately 4.7 million. “Security & Privacy – CNET News
The Book Tour as Military Campaign – Benjamin Busch’s cross country tour of 50 states and 197 bookstores and libraries isn’t so much a story about an author’s determined march for publicity but the still beating heart of independent bookstores that exist from California to North Dakota. There isn’t a reveal at the end of how many books Busch ended up selling. And there is some irony that Busch used Amazon Author Central to see whether there was an uptick in booksales online via Amazon in the geographic regions he visited when his goal was to visit brick and mortar stores.
It’s still a somewhat sweet story that will likely be grounds for another book.Publishing Perspectives
News Corporation Is Said to Bid for Penguin – Over the weekend there was a report that Rupert Murdoch was interested in buying Penguin. According to the NYTimes, Pearson appears to want to shed its print arms: Penguin and Financial Times and focus on the educational division.
According to reports in early 2012, education accounts for more than 60% of its earnings and sales. Pearson recently bought EmbanetCompass, a company that assists colleges to move academic courses online. It has launched Pearson College in the UK, a for profit online college.
NewsCorp is reportedly willing to offer $1.6 billion in cash. NYTimes.com
UPDATE: Per the comments Bertelsmann and Penguin have merged.
Catarina Migliorini May Not Be Able To Prove Virginity, Experts Say (NSFW) – Some chick decided to auction off her virginity but experts indicate that there is no way for virginity to be proven. The hymen is usually used to determine virginity. But this membrane that partially covers the entrance to the vagina can be ruptured from running or tampon usage.
But, given that the winning bidder is going to pay close to three quarter of a million dollars for the deflowering, I’m guessing the bidder is similar to a romance hero and they always can tell with one thrust whether the heroine is a virgin. Their ability to sense virginity with their penii is unparalleled with their percentage correctness increasing proportionally with how slutty and whorish they believe the woman to be. Huffington Post
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Oct 29, 2012 @ 04:07:47
Both Bertelsmann and Pearson issued statements today to confirm the merger between Penguin and Random House.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 05:42:58
Link to the statement http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/news/2012/10/random-house-and-penguin-group-to-come-together
Oct 29, 2012 @ 06:57:38
I guess that’s better than News Corp.
And way to go, Nikki Haley!
Oct 29, 2012 @ 09:05:08
That merger happened fast. The better to troll the Internet for more fan fiction to publish. Stay classy, Penguin Random House.
Some chick decided to auction off her virginity but experts indicate that there is no way for virginity to be proven. The hymen is usually used to determine virginity. But this membrane that partially covers the entrance to the vagina can be ruptured from running or tampon usage.
That was my first thought when I heard about this story. How would she prove something like that if she doesn’t have a hymen? Caveat emptor, I guess.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 09:27:22
@Alicia: You can surgically reconstruct it.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 10:26:28
Re: virginity–
I have no problem believing that men, real or otherwise, believe that their schlong is an instrument of virgin-detection despite the fact that it is not.
I mean, I don’t expect the kind of man who think a girl’s a whore unless she’s a virgin to bow to something like science. There are men that demonstrably believe stupid things about the penis that are unsubstantiated by any medical evidence. There are women who believe the hymen is halfway up the vagina, and at some point at least some of those women had one of each.
So this trope is totally believable to me–eye rolling, yes, and demonstrating a distinct lack of body-knowledge–but that’s par for the course.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 10:40:12
And to add: They haven’t merged, they’ve agreed to do so. I think they still have to get the DOJ onboard, which is probably a formality, and there are also some EU antitrust hurdles to leap, which are almost certainly less formal. I know very little about EU antitrust law except that at this point it tends to have more bite than US law.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 23:18:35
Does this mean Penguin will settle with the DOJ/AG? I have to say Penguin has a much better website and I like many, many more of their regular authors than Random House. I hope they don’t cancel a bunch of my favorite mid-list authors’ contracts with this merge.