No One Would Listen is the exclusive story of the Harry Markopolos-lead investigation into Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. (Worldwide release on 2nd March 2010)

How did security staff at LA International Airport miss 75 per cent of bomb-making materials that went through screening? Which way should you turn before joining a supermarket queue? Why should a woman hope it was a man who witnessed her bag being snatched? And what possessed Burt Reynolds to punch a guy with no legs? Human beings can be stubbornly irrational and wilfully blind …but at least we’re predictably wrong. From minor lapses (why we’re so likely to forget passwords) to life-threatening blunders (why anaesthetists used to maim their patients), Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Joseph T. Hallinan explains the everyday mistakes that shape our lives, and what we can do to prevent them happening in ERRORNOMICS.

OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESS

“Gladwell, author and journalist, sets out to provide an understanding of success using outliers, men and women with skills, talent, and drive who do things out of the ordinary. He contends that we must look beyond the merits of a successful individual to understand his culture, where he comes from, his friends and family, and the community values he inherits and shares. We learn that society’s rules play a large role in who makes it and who does not. Success is a gift, and when opportunities are presented, some people have the strength and presence of mind to seize them, exhibiting qualities such as persistence and doggedness. Successful people are the products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy, and success ultimately is not exceptional or unattainable, nor does it depend upon innate ability. It is an attitude of willingness to try without regard for the sacrifice required. This is an excellent book for a wide range of library patrons.” (Mary Whaley, The Booklist)

“…The explosively entertaining Outliers might be [Gladwell's] best and most useful work yet…there are both brilliant yarns and life lessons here: Outliers is riveting science, self-help, and entertainment, all in one book.-A.” (Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling )

“In the vast world of nonfiction writing, [Malcolm Gladwell] is as close to a singular talent as exists today…[Outliers] is a pleasure to read and leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward…Outliers represents a new kind of book for Gladwell…It is almost a manifesto.” (New York Times Book Review David Leonhardt )

“Like his previous work, THE TIPPING POINT, BLINK is a thought-provoking, category-defying book. The audio is read by the author with care and conviction.” (AudioFile Magazine 2009)

“….[Gladwell's] flair for narrative serves him well as a reader. Gladwell builds dramatic tension into his storytelling from the unique childhood of software tycoon Bill Gates to the secrets of success found along the rice fields of ancient China and Japan making for an engaging listening experience….” (Publishers Weekly )

“Malcolm Gladwell reminds us that authors can effectively read their own books by turning in a well-crafted, subtle performance. His slightly husky upper-register voice is calm and assured, and he knows exactly where to pause, provide emphasis, and how to deliver a punch line.” (AudioFile )

“Gladwell pulls double duty as author and narrator…the material is frequently astonishing, and his reading is clear, heartfelt, and makes for genuinely pleasurable listening.” (Publishers Weekly ) –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

E-readers are finally for sale in Malaysia! CHAN SIEW FUN reviews the Hanlin V5 E-reader.

I FIRST SAW AN E-READER ON OPRAH. She gave her blessing, sang praises, and held it up for all the world to see like a proud mama. Now everyone will go out and get one.

This is the nifty gadget naysayers predict will see the end of books.

I wasn’t given the manual for my e-reader, and later found out that it contained a manual inside. What if I did not know how to turn it on in the first place? Perhaps it will also make an interesting read later when I get bored of all the books I have inside.

I happily played around with the keys and soon downloaded some free e-books. I sometimes got into the habit of reading more than one book at a time. With the e-reader, I found I could leave the page of a particular e-book I was reading and jump to the next. When I wanted to resume the first e-book, I only needed to select the title and it would bring me back to the page where I left it at, provided no one else had leafed through it. I could also bookmark the page to be safe as it allowed up to eight bookmarks per e-book.

Should I accidentally turn off the device while reading halfway, it would resume the page when I turn it back on. Holding the power button any longer will turn it on/off completely. Pressing it momentarily is akin to putting it on standby mode.

There are two buttons that allow you to go one page forward or back. Hold it longer to ‘flip’ 10 pages at one go.

It takes about half a second to get to another page, which is like listening to someone tell a story with pauses every so often as the storyteller takes sips of water. Unlike reading a conventional book where you are an active participant at turning the pages, this waiting period can get on your nerves, especially during the exciting bits.

If you are one of those people who like to read endings first, it has a function to bring you straight to the last page. Or the first page, if you realised halfway through that you would like to reread because you cannot remember what that particular story was about.

Aside from the ease of jumping pages, the e-reader I had has another magnificent function: the magnifier. Fonts can be enlarged and read horizontally. If there are pictures in your story, you can adjust the brightness and contrast, but I fail to see the use in that since it’s black and white.

Tired of reading? You can play some music! Or better still, find e-books you like in audio format, convert it into MP3 and play it on this baby. As this is first and foremost an e-reader, do not expect to get high quality sound if you are listening to music.

On the plus side, the battery lifespan would make the Duracell bunny proud. I’m not sure if it’s because I always lock the keyboard when I’m not reading or I only read for short periods every day. It is possible, like all things shiny and new, it is only good at the beginning.

Would I want one?

Of course! It gives me choice. At 32MB in memory and 4GB with an SD card, I can have hundreds of books to change and read as and when I like. I am also inclined to believe I may in some way help Mother Nature if I own an e-reader. But I would still want to have certain books in their traditional forms because nothing beats having the ‘real thing.’

Let’s welcome the year of the tiger!  Happy Chinese New Year to all our Book Galaxo fans!

Bernie Madoff

Bernard Madoff by U.S. Department of Justice 2008

Bernard Lawrence “Bernie” Madoff (born April 29, 1938) is the former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme. In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the 1980s, and the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The court appointed trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed “specialist” firms by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff’s sons told authorities that their father had just confessed to them that the asset management arm of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme, and quoting him as saying it was “one big lie.” The following day, FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted several investigations into Madoff’s business practices since 1992, which critics contend were incompetently handled.

Investment Scandal

Concerns about Madoff’s business surfaced as early as 1999, when financial analyst-whistleblower Harry Markopolos informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he believed it was legally and mathematically impossible to achieve the gains Madoff claimed to deliver. He was ignored by the Boston SEC in 2000 and 2001, as well as by Meaghan Cheung at the New York SEC in 2005 and 2007 when he presented further evidence. Others also contended it was inconceivable that the growing volume of Madoff accounts could be competently and legitimately serviced by his documented accounting/auditing firm, a three-person firm with only one active accountant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint says that during the first week of December 2008, Madoff confided to a senior employee, identified by Bloomberg News as one of his sons, that he said he was struggling to meet $7 billion in redemptions. According to the sons, Madoff told Mark Madoff on Dec. 9 that he planned to pay out $173 million in bonuses two months early. Madoff said that “he had recently made profits through business operations, and that now was a good time to distribute it.”Mark told Andrew Madoff, and the next morning they asked their father to explain how he could pay bonuses if he was having trouble paying clients. They went to Madoff’s apartment, with Ruth Madoff nearby. Madoff told them he was “finished,” that he had “absolutely nothing” left, that his investment fund was “just one big lie” and “a giant Ponzi scheme.”According to their attorney, Madoff’s sons then reported their father to federal authorities. On December 11, he was arrested and charged with securities fraud.

Under 24-hour monitoring and house arrest in his Upper East Side penthouse apartment after posting bail in December 2008, Judge Denny Chin, after accepting his plea, revoked Madoff’s $10 million bail and remanded him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center on March 12, 2009 after accepting Madoff’s plea. Chin claimed Madoff was a flight risk, due to his age, wealth, and the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors filed two asset forfeiture pleadings which include lists of valuable real and personal property as well as financial interests and entities.

Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Sorkin filed an appeal, and prosecutors responded with a notice of opposition. On March 20, 2009, an appellate court denied Madoff’s request to be released from jail and returned to home confinement until his June 29, 2009 sentencing. On June 22, 2009, Sorkin hand-delivered a customary pre-sentencing letter to the judge requesting a sentence of 12 years, due to tables cited from the Social Security Administration that his life span is predicted to be 13 years.

On June 26, 2009, Chin ordered Madoff to forfeit $170 billion in assets. Prosecutors asked Chin to sentence Madoff to the maximum: 150 years in prison. Irving Picard indicated that “Mr. Madoff has not provided meaningful cooperation or assistance.”

In settlement with federal prosecutors, Madoff’s wife Ruth agreed to forfeit her claim to US$85 million in assets, leaving her with $2.5 million in cash. The order allowed the SEC and Court appointed trustee Irving Picard to pursue Ruth Madoff’s funds. Massachusetts regulators also accused her of withdrawing $15 million from company-related accounts shortly before he confessed.

In February 2009, Madoff reached an agreement with the SEC, banning him from the securities industry for life.

Picard has sued Madoff’s sons, Mark and Andrew, his brother Peter, and Peter’s daughter, Shana, for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, for $198 million. The defendants had received over $80 million in compensation since 2001 and “used the bank account at BLMIS like a personal piggy bank.” The trustee believes they knew about the fraud because of their personal investments in the scheme, the longevity of the fraud, and because of their work at the company including roles as corporate and compliance officers. Since 1995, Peter Madoff had invested only $14, but withdrew over $16 million. Mark and Andrew Madoff withdrew more than $35 million from a small original investment.

Affinity fraud

Madoff’s Ponzi scheme preyed heavily on his fellow Jews, destroying the fortunes of numerous Jewish charities and institutions. Affected institutions include Yeshiva University, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation. Jewish federations and hospitals have lost millions of dollars, forcing some organizations to close. The Lappin Foundation, for instance, was temporarily forced to halt operations because it had invested its entire $8 million endowment with Madoff.

Size of loss to investors

David Sheehan, chief counsel to trustee Picard, stated on September 27, 2009, that about $36 billion was invested into the scam, returning $18 billion to investors, with $18 billion missing. About half of Madoff’s investors were “net winners,” earning more than their investment. The withdrawal amounts in the final six years are subject to “clawback” (return of money) lawsuits.

Former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt has estimated the actual net fraud to be between $10 and $17 billion. Erin Arvedlund, who publicly questioned Madoff’s reported investment performance in 2001, stated that the actual amount of the fraud will never be known, but is likely between $12 and $20 billion.

Blowing the Whistle on Madoff

After blowing the cover off Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Harry Markopolos, author of “No One Would Listen“, tells Michael Yoshikami of YCMNET Advisors, CNBC’s Karen Tso & Martin Soong to create public awareness on how to prevent this from happening again.

Popular Books about Bernie Madoff

• Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff by Andrew Kirtzman
• Madoff: Corruption, Deceit, and the Making of the World’s Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme by Peter Sander
• Madoff with the Money by Jerry Oppenheimer
• No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller by Harry Markopolos

Popular books by Bernard Madoff

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron (or Aron) Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American musician and actor. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll” or simply “the King”.

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley at the age of 13 moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee. He began his career there in 1954 when Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, eager to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience, saw in Presley the means to realize his ambition. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was one of the originators of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley’s first RCA single, “Heartbreak Hotel”, released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

Conscripted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts, however, and, guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973, Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.

Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music. Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into four music halls of fame.

Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock 1957

Popular Songs by Elvis Presley

• (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
• A Big Hunk o’ Love
• A Little Less Conversation
• All Shook Up
• Are You Lonesome Tonight?
• Can’t Help Falling In Love
• Don’t
• Don’t Be Cruel
• Good Luck Charm
• Hard Headed Woman
• Heartbreak Hotel
• Hound Dog
• I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
• It’s Now or Never
• Jailhouse Rock
• Love Me Tender
• Stuck on You
• Surrender
• Suspicious Minds
• Too Much

Books about Elvis Presley

Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him by Alanna Nash

Baby, Let's Play House by Alanna Nash

Elvis Presley: Icons of Our Time by Alison Gauntlett

Elvis Presley: Icons of Our Time by Alison Gauntlett

Master MBA key concepts without stepping foot in a classroom

Save yourself the thousands of dollars it cost for an MBA education. Dr. Milo Sobel presents core concepts taught in prestigious MBA programs such as Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford—without the heavy price tag and heavier classroom hours.

With MBA in a Nutshell, you can quickly and easily implement essential MBA core curriculum into your professional life—stripping away useless theory and focusing on practical application, which is what you really need to be successful in business. In MBA in a Nutshell, you’ll learn how to:

• Accelerate and increase incoming cash flow
• Assess and rank investment opportunities
• Evaluate company performance using financial statements
• Follow step-by-step instruction to draft strategic business plans
• Turn uncertain business forecasts into reliable estimates
• Find ways to increase revenue and profit while dramatically reducing costs

Chock-full of practical examples, formulas, and concepts and skills that can be immediately used and implemented, MBA in a Nutshell is a must-read to build skills to enhance your career and help your company grow and succeed.

Living With Someone Who’s Living With Bipolar Disorder

An essential resource for anyone who has a close relationship with a person who is bipolar

This book provides a much-needed resource for family and friends of the more than 5 million American adults suffering from bipolar disorder. From psychotic behavior that requires medication to milder mood swings with disturbing ups and down, this book offers a warm and often humorous user-friend guide for coping with bipolar loved ones, colleagues, and friends.

The book includes

1. Guidance for identifying bipolar disorder symptoms and how to get the diagnosis confirmed
2. Strategies for dealing with rants, attacks, blame, depression, mania and other behaviors
3. Crucial information on medication and its effectiveness and potential side-effects
4. Techniques for dealing with attempts to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol
5. How many people with bipolar disorders can care for themselves, get help, feel supported and go on with their own lives

This important book contains real-life illustrative examples and a wealth of helpful strategies and coping mechanisms that can be put into action immediately.

ISBN 0470475668 Understanding Bipolar Disorder

Calling all BlackBerry users
Are you a BlackBerry addict? Or worse still – do you live or work with one? You know who we’re talking about… eye always on their palm, little leather case always on the table… sound familiar? From the Blackberry Whine to the Blackberry Crumble, this little guide will help you recognise the seven major symptoms and, more importantly, tell you what to do about them.

Your alternative BlackBerry helpdesk
Whether you want to break the cycle of abuse, or you just want to break someone’s phone, you’ll find this book more effective than self-hypnosis, less painful than repetitive strain injury and cheaper than a divorce.

READ BLACKBERRY FOOL