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Rowling trades wizards for gumshoes

J.K. Rowling (pictured) has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday.

The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Ian Rankin, a fellow author and neighbor of Rowling's, as saying the creator of the Harry Potter books is turning to crime fiction.

"My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel," the newspaper, which was available late Saturday, quoted Rankin as telling a reporter at an Edinburgh literary festival.

"It is great that she has not abandoned writing or Edinburgh cafes," says Rankin, who is known for his own police novels set in the historic Scottish city.

Rowling famously wrote initial drafts of the Potter story in the Scottish city's cafes. Back then, she was a struggling single mother who wrote in cafes to save on the heating bill at home.

Now she's Britain's richest woman worth $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine and her seven Potter books have sold more than 335 million copies worldwide.

Mad Money 'only makes you meager moolah'

Jim Cramer's stock picks on his nightly CNBC show Mad Money haven't beaten the market over the past two years, according to an article in the August 20 edition of Barron's.

Over that period, Cramer's stocks rose 12 percent, compared with a 22 percent rise in the Dow Jones industrial average and a 16 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, Barron's said.

The data is based on a record of 1,300 of the CNBC star's buy recommendations compiled by YourMoneyWatch.com, a website run by a retired stock analyst and loyal Cramer-watcher, says the report.

The Barron's article adds that it also looked at a database of Cramer's Mad Money picks over the last six months, which is maintained by his website, TheStreet.com. The data shows his picks were flat to down in relation to the market, according to the Barron's report.

CNBC officials said that viewers should buy Cramer's picks a week after they're aired. They said that the show is mainly educational, and not just about stock-picking, according to the article.

Brooks to tour but only to talk about the hits

Garth Brooks (pictured) may be retired from touring, but he's not slowing down.

Brooks announced Saturday that a greatest hits package called The Ultimate Hits, with four new songs and a DVD full of videos, will be released on November 6.

Brooks, 45, retired in 2001 to be a stay-at-home dad. He says he has no plans to tour, but he assured more than 200 radio executives and music retailers that he will be promoting the album.

"You're going to see us everywhere," says Brooks. "It's my job to let people know it's out there. And then after February, I'm going to go back to whatever I was doing before this."

Brooks' hits include Friends in Low Places, Shameless and Longneck Bottle.

Future Project gives college kids a chance

A 9 million yuan ($1.18 million) donation from Beijing Wanhe Holdings Co to the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation will go toward helping poor university students achieve their dreams.

The Foundation's Future Project is designed to financial support university students from impoverished families. Since it was initiated in 2003, the Future Project has helped 14,560 students from 90 universities and colleges across the country, Yu Guilin, vice-chairman of the foundation says.

So far, the foundation has received about 120 million yuan ($15.8 million) for the Future Project from individuals and business firms in China, according to Yu.

China Daily/Agencies

(China Daily 08/21/2007 page18)