It was her first book, and Kelly Corrigan knew no matter how engaging her writing, how intriguing the topic or how established her publisher, a book tour was out of the question. Old-style, multicity book tours draw crowds only to celebrity authors, she was told, and even then they don't sell many books because most attendees already have a copy. What's left - word of mouth? Precisely, says Corrigan, a Radnor native and the author of The Middle Place (Voice/Hyperion Books). Corrigan and her father were diagnosed with cancer at the same time - an unusual circumstance that highlighted the overlapping roles of parents and children. Corrigan knew she needed to distinguish her memoir from others out there about surviving cancer. So she extended her options by asking friends and acquaintances across the country to host book parties in their homes.

Vista SP1 still vulnerable to speech recognition ‘analog’ hole

A little more than a year ago, Sebastian Krahmer posted a question on the Dailydave security mailing list whether Vista's speech recognition was exploitable or not via malicious sound files that could be hosted on websites. I was the first to answer his call with some initial skepticism but that turned in to astonishment when I ran some tests that confirmed the vulnerability. Stories ran a few months ago before the finalization of Vista Service Pack 1 that SP1 would close this speech recognition vulnerability but I couldn't get any confirmation or denial from Microsoft after multiple queries. I finally got tired of waiting and decided to test the exploit again with Vista SP1 RTM installed and found that the vulnerability still exists.

The test sound file I created managed to wake Vista speech recognition, highlight all the files on my desktop or all my pictures via Windows Explorer, and invoke the shift-delete command which wipes the files without the ability to undelete from the Recycle Bin.

Crude oil futures increase against unstable background

Lynch thinks OPEC will hold production levels steady, arguing that last week's price declines have largely accomplished the cartel's goals. OPEC is also worried that an oversupplied oil market would drive prices dramatically lower, Lynch said.

Antidepressants Hardly Help

What makes this one so important — the results were front-page news across the U.K. on Tuesday — is that the researchers were able to track down comprehensive unpublished trial results from the drug makers themselves before the drugs were authorized for sale in the U.S., and include them in their review of the literature. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must receive records of all relevant pharmaceutical-company trials, both published and unpublished, before it will approve a drug. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the researchers writing in PLoS Medicine were recently able to obtain those FDA records of industry-sponsored clinical trials. They yield data, they believe, that lets them avoid a bias that often plagues reviews of previous research: the tendency for conclusive positive results to be published, sometimes more than once, and thus over-represented, while mediocre results can be ignored or even swept under the rug.

Roberts: Trouble foretold

Six months ago, an out-of-state minister known for prophecy told Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts he would go through a "major storm" but would come through it.

The minister also said, "When you enter your 60th year, you'll step to a new level of ministry you've never known," Roberts recalled in an interview with the Tulsa World.

Roberts celebrated his 59th birthday on Monday and then began his 60th year, six weeks after three former ORU professors filed a lawsuit claiming wrongful termination and alleging the Roberts family has misused ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries money and resources for themselves.

Roberts is on a leave of absence as president while ORU's board and independent auditors investigate the allegations. After the investigations, the board will .

FAQs About 'The Bryant Park Project'

On the radio, The Bryant Park Project is a morning drive-time news show that will change your life, speed up your commute, and jack your test scores 50 points — in whatever order you choose. On the Web, The Bryant Park Project is a glorious digital river of podcasts, videos, photos, blogging, debating, and giblets so cool we're afraid to name them.

Why 'The Bryant Park Project'? NPR New York is right across the street from Bryant Park — which is where they have Fashion Week, which is sort of like the center of the universe, which is sort of like us.

Keeping your heart healthy at every age

As a certified EMS worker, Jeff Schaffer knows a lot about the heart. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Schaffer travels with emergency crews from three states. He teaches CPR, gives lectures on heart health, and talks to school kids about firefighting and ambulance work. His father died from a heart attack at 61. So you would think when he began to have chest pains while teaching a CPR class, 15 years ago, Schaffer would have gone to the doctor. But he didn't. He ignored his own advice. Despite his vomiting and nausea, Schaffer admits, he was in denial. "I just blew it off and said it couldn't happen to me." Schaffer finally went to the ER, but not until after having symptoms for two days. At 39, Schaffer was indeed having a heart attack. His doctors said he was lucky to be alive. The ironic part of this story is even though Schaffer knew all the symptoms of a cardiac event he never thought about his own heart.