Is happiness measurable?

July 31, 2009

According to Wikipedia happiness is defined as a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.

Science and Religion Today recently posted that researchers have come up with a new way to measure our collective happiness—by analyzing the millions of blog entries that include the words “I feel” or “I am feeling.”

Now you can buy iPhone apps designed to boost happiness. Elizabeth Scott from About.com describes the iPhone app, LiveHappy, as being “truly useful tool for stress relief in that it’s based on the principles of positive psychology, and can help you actually create habits that are proven by research to help you live a life that includes more happiness and less stress (or more resilience toward stress).”

Below Stephen Post, author of Why Good Things Happen to Good People, discussing the science of happiness and the effects of negativity.

What do you think, is happiness measurable? Do you believe an app can make you happier?

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Kindle Rankles The New Yorker

July 28, 2009
"A century and a half of evolved beauty and informational expressiveness is all but entirely rinsed away in this digital reductio."

"A century and a half of evolved beauty and informational expressiveness is all but entirely rinsed away in this digital reductio."

Of all the e-book reading devices out there (the Sony Reader, various smart phones, the iRex Iliad, and others), few seem to cause as much consternation as the Kindle. Amazon has put a lot of effort into launching both the device and the format to the forefront of the e-book market, but not everyone is ready to jump on board the Kindle train. Some publishers are worried that if the Kindle earns too much market share that Amazon will be able to asert too much power when it comesto pricing decisions.  Many avid readers are fascinated by the idea oif the Kindle, but feel that they won’t enjoy the experience of reading on a dull gray screen as much as a real book. All the while Amazon does everything it can to get you to the think of their device as THE e-book reader and to think of downloading e-books as “Kindling” them, much like you would “Google” a piece of information or “Xerox” a dcoument that needed duplicating.

Nicholson Baker explores the Kindle phenomenom in a piece that will appear in this week’s New Yorker magazine. He offers a plethora of perspectives on the devices ranging from historical, to practical, to technical, to emotional angles. He weighs it against the competition, both the old guard of printed books and the new crop of other e-reading devices, and while he stops short of offering a conclusive judgement on the value of the reader, the portrait he paints is none too flattering.

Templeton Press hasn’t yet made any of our titles available as Kindle editions, but we’re heavily considering it. What do you think? Would you like to see our titles available in Kindle format?

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You Tube

July 23, 2009

The Press created a You Tube channel! We collected over sixty videos featuring our authors.

View John Polkinghorne speaking on the topic of “God, Time, and Causality,” Paul Davies addressing the possibility of an ultimate explanation for our universe; Everett Worthington on why it is so hard to forgive, Keith Ward on his book Concepts of God, and more.

Click here to view our Templeton Press You Tube channel.

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Barnes and Noble to launch e-bookstore

July 22, 2009

barnes-noble-ebook-reader-releasedAs more and more consumers begin reading digital books on phones and reading devices, its no wonder e-books are a hot topic amongst publishers. Now there is more to talk about, Barnes and Noble (B&N) announced on Monday that it will launch its own mega e-bookstore on its website.

B&N stated that it will be the largest e-bookstore worldwide. It will allow customers to buy books to be read on a variety of handheld devices and computers. Its e-book store will have more than 700,000 titles, compared to its competitor, Amazon’s 300,000.

B&N announced that best sellers and new releases would be priced at $9.99, which is on the same level as Amazon’s current pricing. However, B&N is currently working with publishers to create price models. If necessary, B&N stated they will adjust pricing.

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When is the right time to release an e-book?

July 16, 2009

The New York Times recently published an article on their website titled, A New World: Scheduling E-Books by Motoko Rich and Brad Stone. The article describes the controversy over whether publishers should release the print edition and the e-book edition of a new title simultaneously.

No topic is more hotly debated in book circles at the moment than the timing, pricing and ultimate impact of e-books on the financial health of publishers and retailers. Publishers are grappling with e-book release dates partly because they are trying to understand how digital editions affect demand for hardcover books. A hardcover typically sells for anywhere from $25 to $35, while the most common price for an e-book has quickly become $9.99.

The article looks at both sides of the argument. Some believe the price difference will sway consumers to purchase the e-book format. The other side of the argument states that there is a fine line between e-book buyers and those that buy the print edition. In the article Mike Shatzkin, founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, says “People who read e-books don’t buy physical books, and people who buy physical books don’t buy e-books.”

If you wanted to purchase a specific title, what would be your deciding factor: price or format?

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The Battle Royale of Publishing Formats: Electronic vs. Audio vs. Print

July 14, 2009

The Chronicle Review, which is the section of The Chronicle of Higher Education that focuses on all things book-related, ran an intriguing feature article last month. The article, titled “Reading Dickens Four Ways,” examined the novel Little Dorritt through four different text formats. The  author explains her study thusly:

Do I love books or do I love reading?

When my book group picked Little Dorrit, I found myself asking that question.

…I went automatically to my old Penguin paperback, standing ready on the shelf. Never mind its familiar and friendly orange spine — I hesitated. Maybe it would make sense to read the book on the Kindle that my husband bought me last year. Then again, for my daily Manhattan life, I love audiobooks, the best choice for crowded public transportation and a wonderful companion for walking. And now that I use an iPhone, I have been surprised by the ease of reading its crisp, bright screen.

So, between the print edition, the audiobook, the Kindle, and the iPhone, who wins? As it turns out, the answer isn’t so simple. Click here to head over to the full article. If you’re at all interested in the future of publishing, it’s well worth a read.

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Markets and Morality

July 10, 2009

For some time, the effect of the market economy on moral values has been strongly debated amongst many.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI released his third encyclical titled Caritas in Veritate or “Charity in Truth.” The encyclical addressed a variety of issues but it focused on ethics and the economy. In his encyclical, Benedict stated the need for a “true world political authority” with “real teeth” to manage the global economy with God-centered ethics.

In October, the John Templeton Foundation also addressed the issue of ethics and the economy in its conversation on “Does the free market corrode moral character?” It is the fourth question in a series of conversations that the Foundation hosts among leading scientists, scholars, and public figures about the “Big Questions.” A few of the respondents answered with a strong “No!”, while others answered with an indecisive “Yes, sort of” or “Yes and no.”

Few agree on what exactly is moral, not to mention what corrodes morality. However, if the question Does the free market corrode moral character? was posed to you, how would you respond?

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One Year Ago

July 7, 2009

Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of the passing of our founder, Sir John Templeton. You can read more about his legacy as an investor, philanthropist, and visionary in our memorial post from last year. 

1912-1998

1912-2008

One of the hallmarks of his personal philosophy was the idea of seeking “progress” in all endeavors. I think he would have found the past year fascinating — especially with regard to the progress we’ve been pursuing in our little corner of the publishing world. In our mission statement, he tasked us with seeking progress “through the development, acquisition, and publishing of books, videos, and other publications that will ultimately result in distribution of the materials to individuals and institutions through domestic and international sales, distribution, and translations.” In other words, he wanted us to disseminate knowledge on our core subject areas through any and all means to the widest possible audience.

In the past year we’ve not only witnessed the blossoming of new technologies that will bring our titles to a wider global audience (e-books, widgets, downloadable audio books, freely browsable online samples, etc.), but also an explosion of new ways of spreading our message beyond the book format through social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, our blogs, etc.). We’re even working on building our first iPhone App. It’s an exciting time to be involved in the publishing business — full of uncertainty, but also full of the kinds of possibilities that Sir John famously sought during other uncertain times.

Things are changing. The publishing world is experiencing progress on an unprecedented scale, and by embracing these advances we hope to honor his legacy as a true forward-thinking visionary.

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The Victor Mansfield Memorial Speaker Series

July 2, 2009

Vic_MansfieldVic Mansfield was a professor of physics and astronomy at Colgate University. Along with a wide range of science courses, he taught courses focusing on Tibetan Buddhism and Jungian psychology. He is an award-winning teacher who published scores of technical articles in science and several dozen interdisciplinary papers connecting physics to Tibetan Buddhism and depth psychology. For nearly four decades, he practiced and studied with spiritual leaders in the U.S., Europe, and India.

On July 10, 2009, the inaugural Victor Mansfield Memorial Speaker Series will take place from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM in the Human Services Building, Ithaca, NY. The goal of the Speaker Series is to honor the memory and further the intellectual work of Vic Mansfield (1941-2008).  Each year the series will host a Western scholar who has enhanced the study of Tibetan Buddhism. This year’s scholar is Dr. B. Alan Wallace, Founder and Director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

The Speaker Series events are free to the public. Donations are welcomed. For more information click here.

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