OverDrive Read instant samples now live

In September, we completed rollout of a major milestone for our publishing partners: instant samples with OverDrive Read. The vast majority of EPUB titles available in the OverDrive catalog can now be sampled at thousands of library websites with the click of a button. These samples are a discovery tool for library browsers; readers can now access samples instantly from any device with a modern web browser. For our publishing partners, instant samples in OverDrive Read offer highly qualified opportunities to engage readers with title and author brands. OverDrive Read samples are flexible—able to be read on modern devices of any size, embedded into webpages, and surrounded by dynamic content. Each book sample is delivered as a persistent URL, which can be shared just like any website. OverDrive Read allows you to reach your readers on every device with targeted recommendations for what to read next. At the end of each sample, OverDrive Read is capable of presenting the reader with options to purchase the title, view similar titles, or engage more deeply with a title and/or author on websites and social media. Expect to hear more on this exciting feature in the coming months. Later this year we will be making full titles available through OverDrive Read, allowing readers with permissions to instantly enjoy an entire book. As we approach the full release, we will share more details about the ways in which OverDrive Read can help you connect readers with the books and authors they love. Stay tuned.

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Odd Temporal Milestones

The first Star Trek episode aired closer in time to the ratification of the 19th Amendment—guaranteeing women in the US the right to vote—than to today.

URL: http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/09/29/odd-temporal-milestones/

OverDrive Developer Portal now open

We’re happy to announce that the OverDrive Developer Portal is now open and accepting applications from interested developers. Our initial set of APIs gives third-party applications the ability to browse OverDrive digital media collections, search for titles, display detailed metadata for a given title, and determine the availability of a title within a given library collection. We’re excited to see the powerful new discovery tools our library, retail, and publishing partners develop to extend their digital catalogs to more readers around the globe. We hope you’ll take a moment to browse around the OverDrive Development Portal and read our documentation. We’ve included helpful guides to get you started, examples of real-world applications for OverDrive APIs, and an overview of the design and security standards that shaped our internal development process. We will review Developer Portal applications on a weekly basis. Approval will be based on the applicant having an existing customer relationship with OverDrive, or the applicant applying as a third-party developer agent for an OverDrive customer. For a third party (non-OverDrive customer) to be approved, the application must disclose the nature of the project and identify the specific OverDrive account(s) for which it will utilize the OverDrive APIs. All applications will be reviewed to confirm that they are within the scope and permitted uses for OverDrive APIs. Prior to gaining access to OverDrive APIs, all applicants will be required to accept the OverDrive API Terms and Conditions. If you have further questions about OverDrive APIs or the approval process, please contact us through the OverDrive Development Portal. Jeff Morgan is a Marketing Communications Specialist at OverDrive.

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Extend your catalog with OverDrive Read and Streaming Audiobooks

See Book, Read Book. For the past several weeks that’s been the mantra at OverDrive. It's a vision of simplicity—an idea that drove us to develop easier ways to get more readers in front of the books they love to read and want to buy. Later this year, we'll be delivering two new services that will extend publisher catalogs to more readers on a wide range of devices: OverDrive Read and streaming audiobooks. OverDrive Read OverDrive Read is our browser-based eBook reading experience. It's built using HTML5, which offers flexibility in both use and implementation. For publishers and retailers, OverDrive Read is a brandable platform. We can build custom menus, embed OverDrive Read in branded web pages, and deliver customized social features. OverDrive Read also allows booksellers, authors, and publishers to embed eBook samples in any page on the web. From those samples, readers can purchase full access to the title from various independent, local and national booksellers. OverDrive Read also features comprehensive social integration, extending your catalogs to the worldwide community of readers. As an OverDrive publishing partner, your EPUB content is already compatible with OverDrive Read. If you have questions, please contact our Publisher Partner Services team. As an OverDrive retail partner, be sure to check back soon or get in touch with the Retail Partner Services team. We will have more information about the ways OverDrive Read can support your retail services in the near future. Streaming Audiobooks As part of our upcoming Next Generation Digital Library Platform, we announced last month that we would be introducing audiobook streaming as part of our mobile application, OverDrive Media Console. This exciting development will give us the opportunity to offer WMA audiobook titles across a wider range of devices. Streaming audiobooks also provide another avenue to increase discovery. We will be integrating the streaming service into our upcoming OverDrive Media Station, giving library patrons the opportunity to sample audiobooks within the library. OverDrive Media Station features our powerful recommendation engine, displaying related titles based on a reader’s search results. We will provide more information about our streaming audiobook service as we get closer to launch. If you're interested in extending the reach of your audiobook catalog, contact our Publisher Partner Services team.

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A morbid Python script

Comics #493 and #893 involve actuarial tables, which are tables for calculating the probability that someone of a given age will die within a given amount of time. One evening, when I was feeling morbid, I wrote a Python script to calculate death probabilities for any collection of people: actuary.py (.txt). It takes a list of ages and genders and produces various statistics. Here’s the report for the nine living people who have walked on the moon: ~$ python actuary.py 81m 82m 80m 81m 80m 81m 76m 78m 77m There is a 5% chance of someone dying within 0.08 years (by 2012). There is a 50% chance of someone dying within 1.1 years (by 2013). There is a 95% chance of someone dying within 4.08 years (by 2016). There is a 5% chance of everyone dying within 10.78 years (by 2023). There is a 50% chance of everyone dying within 16.12 years (by 2028). There is a 95% chance of everyone dying within 22.57 years (by 2035). Probability of all dying in 1.0 year: <0.001% Probability of a death within 1.0 year: 46.32% And here’s the table for four of the main stars of the original Star Wars (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hammill, James Earl Jones): ~$ python actuary.py 69m 55f 60m 81m 10 There is a 5% chance of someone dying within 0.42 years (by 2012). There is a 50% chance of someone dying within 4.74 years (by 2017). There is a 95% chance of someone dying within 12.83 years (by 2025). There is a 5% chance of everyone dying within 18.17 years (by 2030). There is a 50% chance of everyone dying within 31.28 years (by 2043). There is a 95% chance of everyone dying within 42.62 years (by 2055). Probability of all dying in 10.0 years: 0.272% Probability of a death within 10.0 years: 85.94% Of course, these are based on average death rates based only on age and gender. Adding more specific information about the people in question will refine the calculation. For example, I’d guess former astronauts are more likely to be in good health—and have longer life expectancies—than the rest of us.

URL: http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/

Groundhog Day correction

A number of people have mentioned an issue with today’s comic—in the movie Groundhog Day, it’s actually implied that Phil, Bill Murray’s character, didn’t have sex with Rita. He took her home to his room, but they woke up in the same clothes they fell asleep in. I haven’t seen the movie in a number of years, but I think they’re right—and bit of Googling suggests that I’m not the only one who was confused on that point. Groundhog Day is, like Office Space, a comedy containing a gimmick that really sticks with you, even as the rest of the story fades. Or, at least, it did with me—I’ve probably seen the movie a couple of times, but I think I’ve spent a lot more time dwelling on the time loop scenario it describes. Now that people have raised the question, I’m not even sure that I interpreted the scene this way when I was watching it. From a sci-fi point of view, the whole idea that the time loop was broken by emotional/personal development seemed kind of cheesy, but I just chalked that up to one of those things movies do because that’s how we like stories to work. Nobody wants a movie where the climax consists of an hour of excitedly inferring and testing revisions to the standard model of physics. (Or, at least, there aren’t enough of us to support a big-budget movie.) So while drawing my comic, I remembered that the time loop ended after he took Rita back to his room, and I filled in the typical romanticized Sleeping Beauty idea that I assumed had gone with it. I appreciate the corrections—in addition to being a reminder to double-check pop culture references, it’s driven home for me what a neat, original movie Groundhog Day really is. And now I wonder what kind of misconceptions I have about Ghostbusters.

URL: http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/02/groundhog-day-correction/

Publisher Spotlight: Baker Publishing Group

Just a few weeks ago, team OverDrive was exhibiting at the Javitz Center amidst the hustle and bustle of Book Expo America. Between participating in IDPF’s Digital Book 2012 and getting our books signed by Michael Ian Black, we were also sitting down with our publishing partners. We were happy to hear success stories from Baker Publishing Group, which publishes a wide range of Christian fiction and nonfiction for evangelical readers. We took some time post-BEA to talk with Nathan Henrion, the company's national sales manager, about Baker Publishing Group's digital content offering and its growth in the library space. OverDrive: How long have you been working with OverDrive, and what drove your initial transition into the digital marketplace? Baker Publishing Group: Baker Publishing Group began working with Overdrive in April of 2010. We had made a start in the digital marketplace in early 2009, but it took us about a year to get our ebook inventory built and our conversion system in place. OD: Have you been surprised by increased sales in a particular section of your catalog? For example, are mid and backlist titles selling more than you had anticipated? Is there a particular genre that is doing exceptionally well? BPG: The most surprising aspect of the digital marketplace (and this is thinking back to the mindset of 2010) is the uptick in backlist sales. "Backlist" and "Frontlist" are industry terms, and are not consumer terms. As long as the content is relevant, and it fulfills a reader's interest at the time they are looking for it, then an old title will perform just as well, if not better, than a new release. Now, obviously certain titles and genres age quicker than others as far as reader interest is concerned, but for us, many of our most successful titles in digital sales are those that released more than 5 years ago. One of the interesting facts about working with OverDrive in particular is that in the past 12 months Overdrive has booked sales on 74% of the titles making up our digital trade catalog. This compares to 49% of our print catalog having library sales over the same time period. Another great surprise has been the increase in international sales. We are getting our authors' content into more international libraries than ever before. The hurdles for a small to mid -size publisher to execute these placements are very high in the print environment. Not so with digital. While this is no longer a revelation, I don't believe we were expecting it back at the beginning. OD: What factors influenced the decision to work with the library market? BPG: Baker Publishing Group has always had a robust presence in the library market for print, so moving to participation with the digital side of the channel was just a natural step. We view it as a lateral move, and not a completely different paradigm. With publishers there is much contention on that point, but it is how we choose to see the landscape. OD: How have sales and promotions through OverDrive affected your digital strategy? BPG: Working with OverDrive has opened up more promotional opportunities directed to the library market. As we do not sell direct to libraries, we rely on the distributors taking promotions to market. OverDrive has offered us creative access to this process and has worked with us to offer libraries promotional opportunities that really are unparalleled in the print environment. – – To learn more about how OverDrive can help increase sales of your digital content, contact pubinfo@overdrive.com.

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OverDrive and Nokia Reading

Earlier this month, Nokia began the roll-out of Nokia Reading, an eReading app and service for Nokia's Lumia 900, 800, 710, and 610 Windows Phone devices. Nokia Reading will offer popular eBooks in local languages to readers in established and emerging eBook markets. OverDrive's global reach and extensive catalog made us a natural partner for the fulfillment of Nokia Reading titles as the service expands from the UK and Russia to Spain, Germany, Italy, France and beyond. By offering local language titles, Nokia hopes to drive and develop interest in eReading in places where eBooks may not yet be popular or widely available. Readers that use Nokia Reading will also have access to today's bestselling titles in English, including international hits like "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and thousands of classic titles. For Nokia, the development of the Reading app was about capturing the way readers engage with books. As Nokia Reading lead designer Tim Geoghegan said on the Nokia Conversations blog, "We realised early on that people were more likely to 'snack' on a phone-based book. They'll most likely use it for shorter periods of time: while they're on the bus or waiting for their kids to come out of school, for example. But it should be an immersive reading experience, nonetheless." For OverDrive, supporting that immersive experience means seamless delivery of the world's best content through Nokia Reading. Our experience delivering content to every corner of the globe provided the backbone necessary to support a company of Nokia's scale. We’re excited to support the eBook market with Nokia, but we don't stop at eBooks. OverDrive currently handles fulfillment of all forms of digital content, including digital audiobooks, video and music to libraries, schools and booksellers in 20 countries and 52 languages. If you're looking to find a supply channel for digital content, we want to hear from you. Contact retailpartnerservices@overdrive.com for more information.

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalDistributionBlogOverdrive/~3/-g99FUuPAYw/

Supplementing First Year Common Reading Programs with eBooks

Incoming college freshman are often given their first homework assignment over the summer (gasp!) before the fall semester begins. Taking a page from the City Reads programs, many colleges are selecting a book that all incoming freshman students are "required" to readin preparation for first year orientation. The books selected typically serve as a jumping off point for a discussion on social, gender, race or other meaty issues. Many publishers have entire divisions and department focused on supporting these programs. Random House, for example, has its Freshman Year Reading program and supporting materials. There are also educational organizations promulgating these programs and the addition of a digital component, including The National Resource Center for First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina and the National Orientation Directors Association. Some universities subsidize the cost of the selected title and send out physical copies to students, while others provide the book at a discounted rate. Many colleges and universities are interested in offering eBook and/or digital audiobook versions of the selected title to supplement the physical book offerings. OverDrive can help! Last summer, OverDrive worked with Purdue University to support its Common Reading Program by delivering the Random House title “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” in eBook formats. OverDrive hosted a custom branded microsite where first-year students were able to enter a redemption code distributed by Purdue University. Students were then presented with a link to download their copy of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” in eBook format. OverDrive provided FAQs and other best practices documentation for inclusion on the microsite. We encourage publishers, colleges and universities to contact OverDrive for more information about adding digital content to First Year Reading Programs around the country. Email OverDrive's Publisher Partner Services team to get started.

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalDistributionBlogOverdrive/~3/onrOhdg6kvU/

Guest Post: Social Rewards and Consumer Engagement

This guest post was written by Josh Gertz, the VP of Marketing and Content Licensing for Hip Digital Media. Previously, Josh pioneered digital promotions as SVP at Neurotic Media and co-founded XACT Radio, an Internet radio network partnered with virtually every major broadcasting group. When not working, you can usually find him in the kitchen or at a poker table. Follow him on Twitter @joshgertz and @hipdigitalmedia. I am constantly amazed at how quickly our world seems to change. Lately it feels like modern technology is a snowball rolling down a mountain growing ever faster, challenging consumers to have the latest and greatest almost hourly. As a child of the 70's I can honestly say I remember a simpler time when the things we bought were expected to last forever. The family car, the family TV, dad's home video camera – it seemed like these things never changed. Today our insatiable hunger for all things new leads thousands of crazed consumers to camp out overnight yearly in front of retail stores for the newest iPad or an unheard of discount on a flat screen for Christmas. We have even reached a point where TV commercials tout wireless customers who have new and exciting information 15 seconds before others. This obsession with new technology fuels a worldwide connected web of computers and phones (and phones that look like computers) where everyone who's anyone feels the need to check their friends status updates every 30 seconds. It also leads us to find our favorite brands online. Just like we wear them on our clothes, the logos and "likes" of our favorite brands on our profile page is a key part of our online identity. What logos adorn our pages – who we "wear" online, is a reflection of who we are. So for brands who work so hard to generate fans and be worn by the coolest kids at the back of the bus…I ask you: What are you doing to reward or incentivize your fans? What are you doing to keep them fans? At Hip Digital we believe that offering people something in exchange for their loyalty, their engagement and their attention is a winning strategy for all involved. The ROI for brands is simple. Spend less money in promotional marketing than you see in sales lift, Facebook likes, tweets or whatever metric you feel is important. For content owners, these one to one relationships mean an entirely new channel of distribution has emerged. The model of brand supported legal downloads is growing almost as fast as the traditional brick and mortar retail channels are shrinking. And still the real winner is the consumer. Love me on Facebook, buy my products, spend your time with me – I will offer you the best music, movies, ebooks, apps, games and virtual currencies. Social rewards are a key component to engaging your fans in social media. Hip Digital licenses the most desirable content available including: Millions of MP3 tracks from all the majors and key indie labels A partnership with OverDrive that supplies us with nearly 200,000 eBooks and more than 40,000 audiobooks from the top publishers in the world Thousands of mobile apps, games, ringtones, wallpapers and assorted other mobile goods Every type of virtual currency including Facebook Credits, Zynga, Playstation, XboX and Wii You have probably seen our work 100 times but didn't know it was Hip Digital because we create white labeled solutions like: Madonna/Smirnoff: Smirnoff Vodka and Madonna teamed up to offer Madonna fans an exclusive "Nightlife Edition" of her new album MDNA. With 4 remixes that can't be found anywhere else Smirnoff is a brand who knows how to engage and reward their fans. Starburst: Starburst offers more than 3,000,000 fans a free MP3 download with a purchase of specially marked packages. By leveraging the entire Hip Digital music catalog users get to choose from millions of tracks from every label in every genre. McCain: Canadian customers can experience Pizza and a Movie with specially marked McCain Rising Crust Pizzas. With 25 films from Warner Brothers to choose from including: Oceans 11, Troy, Happy Feet, I am Legend and The Matrix, consumers can stream one of Hollywood's biggest hits to their PC or MAC unlimited for 48 hours. Having run more than 3,000 promotions in our 7-year history we have solutions for every sized brand. Our team can integrate social rewards into any website or Facebook page. Our customers know that differentiating their products from the others on the shelf is as easy as 1-2-3: Contact Hip Digital and we will design a customized and turnkey solution for your brand Choose the content that is right for your audience and budget Enjoy increased sales and customer engagement When you are ready to supercharge your online marketing we would love to hear from you.

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalDistributionBlogOverdrive/~3/b9OyXBlhpq8/

I’m visiting CNU on April 4th

I’ll be in Newport News, Virginia this April 4th to give a talk at my old school, Christopher Newport University. I’m really looking forward to it! The chaos of the past year and a half didn’t leave me with much time or energy for travel or events, so it’ll be fun to get out and meet people again. I’m also looking forward to seeing the campus, which I hear has changed substantially since I left. The talk isn’t limited to CNU students, so if you live nearby, you’re welcome to come! Admission is free, but since space is limited, you’ll need to reserve tickets here. Hope to see you there!

URL: http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/03/22/im-visiting-cnu-on-april-4th/

New Audiobook Retailer: Audiobooks Online

Based in the UK, Audiobooks Online has adapted with changing technology to provide their customers with the audiobooks they love. Audiobooks Online began in 1997 by renting audiobooks on cassette tapes under the name the Tape Exchange. The company has grown and evolved over time to include a separate retail store on their website alongside their rental business. Through this retail store, Audiobooks Online prides itself on offering "a wide range of formats to suit your individual needs." Indeed, their thousands of customers can purchase favorite audiobook titles as CD ROMs, preloaded MP3 Players, USB Cards, and now audiobook downloads provided through OverDrive. Audiobooks Online describes their customers as people who "love books, but don't have the time to read." The addition of audiobooks from OverDrive will speed up delivery for those busy customers by allowing them to purchase, download and listen to their title, all within minutes.

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalDistributionBlogOverdrive/~3/zZlVpcSip_A/

Congratulations to the 2012 Audie Award Finalists

The Audio Publishers Association has announced the finalists for the 2012 Audies Competition. The Audies, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA), is the premier awards program in the United States recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment. The APA has nominated 140 individual titles for categories such as best Audio Drama, Fiction, History, Humor, Non-Fiction, Solo Narration and many more! We would like to congratulate our publisher partners who have 104 titles nominated for an Audie! AudioGO/BBC Audio has 6 titles nominated in 6 categories Blackstone Audio has 11 titles nominated in 7 categories Brilliance Audio has 6 titles nominated in 5 categories eChristian has 5 titles nominated in 2 categories Hachette Audio has 9 titles nominated in 6 categories HarperAudio has 11 titles nominated in 8 categories HighBridge has 2 titles nominated in 2 categories Hyperion Audio has 1 title nominated in 1 category L.A. Theatre Works has 3 titles nominated in 2 categories Listen & Live Audio has 3 titles nominated in 3 categories Live Oak Media has 3 titles nominated in 1 category Macmillan Audio has 9 titles nominated in 8 categories Oasis Audio has 4 titles nominated in 3 categories Penguin Audio has 1 title nominated in 1 category Random House Audio/Books on Tape/Listening Library has 9 titles nominated in 8 categories Recorded Books has 3 titles nominated in 2 categories Scholastic Audio has 2 titles nominated in 2 categories Simon & Schuster Audio has 1 title nominated in 1 category Symphony Space has 1 title nominated in 1 category Tantor Audio has 16 titles nominated in 11 categories Weston Woods has 1 title nominated in 1 category Zondervan has 2 titles nominated in 2 categories Visit www.theaudies.com or the APA website for more information about the 2012 Audies competition and about the titles nominated. Congratulations to the publishers, authors, narrators and production staff for all the wonderful material!

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalDistributionBlogOverdrive/~3/1SMgaGB7-So/

Geohashing

Almost four years ago, I posted a comic laying out the Geohashing algorithm. The algorithm generated a set of random latitudes and longitudes each day, spread out across the globe so there was generally always one within a few dozen miles of every location. I figured they could be used for hiking destinations, sightseeing, meetups, or whatever else people came up with. I wanted to make an algorithm that anyone could implement, which didn’t rely on a central authority or ongoing support from any one maintainer. I also wanted to make it impossible to know the locations more than a day or so in advance, so that if geohashing became popular in an area, no one could publish a list of future locations that woud give property owners, park rangers, or local police time to prepare. So each day’s coordinates are randomized using the most recent Dow Jones opening price, which isn’t known until the morning of that day—or, in the case of weekends, a day or two in advance, which helps with planning larger weekend trips. In the days after I posted the comic, there was a flurry of geohashing activity, which quieted down as the initial novelty wore off. But it didn’t die, and for the past several years there’s been a small but vibrant community building around the Geohashing Wiki. There are numerous daily expeditions, and they’ve taken some beautiful pictures and come up with a lot of neat tools, games, and achievements. One of the many things they did was use a tweaked version of the algorithm to come up with a globalhash, a single coordinate for the day somewhere on the planet (biased toward the areas near the poles). They’re usually over the ocean, but a few of the land ones have been reached. Yesterday’s globalhash fell less than a kilometer from the South Pole. User Carl-Johan got in touch with the Scott-Amundsen research station, and later that day, the hash was reached by Katie Hess, Dale Mole, and Joselyn Fenstermacher of the US, Robert Schwarz of Germany, and Sven Lidström of Sweden. Wow. Just wow. Congratulations. If you want to look up today’s geohash for your location, you can use this online tool, or one of the others listed on the Coordinate Calculators page.

URL: http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/02/27/geohashing-2/

Tsunami photos and videos

In xkcd.com/1010 (I have a hard time not reading that as “ten”) I said that before 2004, there weren’t really any photos or videos of tsunamis. This isn’t quite true—there were a handful of photos and at least one video. When I was a kid, I was had an irrationally powerful fear of tsunamis (Etymology-Man would suggest “cymophobia”). I swam in the ocean a lot when I was very young, so waves were a big part of my world.  I would fret about tsunamis whenever I was near the coast, and to this day I have occasional nightmares about a wave coming out of nowhere and sweeping me away. Looking back, part of what made tsunamis frightening was was that I didn’t know what they looked like, and my imagination ran wild filling in the gaps. I read what I could find about them. In particular, I remember being just old enough to work my way through this book, and carrying it around with me so I could read the tsunami section over and over. It included a grainy photo of a ship in a Japanese harbor plowing through an unimpressive-looking line of breakers. I think that’s also where I found a photo of some people running away from something (it was this photo, but the reproduction in my book was too grainy to see what they were running from). Years later, after the rise of the web, I realized maybe I could now find a video of a tsunami, and finally see the thing that had so captivated me as a child. But my searches for videos didn’t turn up much of anything. Then the 2004 tsunami happened. Shortly after, as YouTube and its various clones proliferated, there was more horrifying footage available than I could handle. A year or two ago, I read an article somewhere (I have tried to find it again with no luck) which mentioned that before 2004, there hadn’t been much in the way of photographic or video records of tsunamis, and that this had contributed to a lack of understanding of their form. My childhood impression seemingly confirmed, I worked this into a comic. It turns out I was mistaken. There are several photographs, some of which can be seen here, here, and here. There’s also a video here (sent in by Phil Plait). I think what confused me as a child was that none of the photos showed the wave I expected—just debris, and occasionally some visible water. Now that I’ve seen horrifying videos like this, I’ve gone back to some of those old photos and realized that they did show a tsunami. It was just so unlike what I was expecting that I didn’t recognize it. So thank you to everyone who sent in information. It’s really fascinating stuff. Oh, and anyone interested in the history of tsunamis might want to check out a Google Books advanced search for material published before 1850 containing phrases like earthquake wave, earthquake tide, or earthquake water feet. There are some gripping historical accounts buried there, along with some really interesting speculation by 19th-century scientists about the mechanisms behind earthquakes and their associated waves (the consensus seemed to be hot gas moving between subterranean chambers).

URL: http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/01/31/tsunami-photos-and-videos/