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The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

A new book from prominent primatologist Jane Goodall "contains borrowed passages without attribution," according to a report in The Washington Post. The book, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder From the World of Plants, is due out next month and was co-authored by Gail Hudson, who worked on two of Goodall's previous books.. The Post alleges that the "borrowings ... range from phrases to an entire paragraph from Web sites such as Wikipedia and others that focus on astrology, tobacco, beer, nature and organic tea." Goodall did not contest the allegations, telling the Post in an email that she was "distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies." Seeds of Hope publisher Grand Central expressed surprise, telling the Post: "We have not formulated a detailed plan beyond crediting the sources in subsequent releases."

Photography magazine Fotopedia has published a stunning photo essay of the famous Paris bookstore Shakespeare & Company, the haunt of writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and others.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is coming out with a book, according to a press release Tuesday from Henry Holt, her publisher. It says Rice's book will focus on "the never-ending process of building democracy as citizens — and their governments — strive to attain and secure the ideals of self-rule."

Edward Jay Epstein writes in The New York Review of Books about taking a class with Vladimir Nabokov (paywall protected): "He made it clear from the first lecture that he had little interest in fraternizing with students, who would be known not by their name but by their seat number. Mine was 121. He said his only rule was that we could not leave his lecture, even to use the bathroom, without a doctor's note."

Poet T.R. Hummer on Walt Whitman: "The poetry is so vast, so manifold — and exists in so many revised forms — that Whitman is the American poet most like the fabled elephant as described by blind witnesses, each touching a different part of the creature thinking it to be a wall or a snake."

Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen write about the computer worm that attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in a passage from their forthcoming book, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business: "When we asked the former Israeli intelligence chief Meir Dagan about [Stuxnet], his only comment was, 'Do you really expect me to tell you?' "

Cypriot politicians are busy trying to come up with an alternative plan to raise the cash needed to stave off a collapse of its banking sector after they unanimously rejected an international bailout package that would have imposed a levy on the nation's savings accounts.

Here's a quick look at some of Wednesday's developments:

— German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she regrets the decision by Cyprus to turn down the $13 billion bailout package: "From a political point of view, I say that Cyprus needs a sustainable banking sector. Today's banking sector is not sustainable," she said. "We will continue negotiations ... Germany wants a solution."

— Cyprus' Finance Minister Michael Sarris is in Moscow Wednesday for talks with his Russian counterpart, Anton Siluanov. The two discussed the possibility of financial help from Russia, whose citizens have billions of dollars deposited in Cypriot banks.

— Officials from the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission — the so-called troika of lenders — were in Cyprus discussing capital controls and the possible extension of a bank holiday aimed at preventing a wholesale withdrawal of money from Cyprus' banks. Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that without the approval of some sort of bailout plan, he believes "there's a danger that they won't be able to open the banks again at all."

— Meanwhile, despite Tuesday's thumbs down on the bailout, European stocks and the euro gained as investors bet that the European Central Bank will keep supporting the Cypriot banks, at least for the time being.

In practical terms, a project known as E-1 would provide 3,000 or so new housing units for Israelis in an area between east Jerusalem — which the Palestinians hope will someday be their capital — and the large Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

But numbers can be deceiving: Palestinians are renewing their objections to the growing number of Israeli settlements, and many fear E-1 could tip the balance in a way that makes an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement impossible.

To understand why the Israeli government wants to build E-1, climb to the top of Mount Scopus. From there, former government spokesperson Miri Eisin says, it's obvious that Jerusalem doesn't have much room to grow.

Abu Dhabi, the most oil-rich of the United Arab Emirates, is now home to the world's single-largest concentrated solar power plant.

The 100-megawatt Shams 1 plant cost an estimated $750 million and is expected to provide electricity to 20,000 homes, according to the BBC.

Why, you might ask?

Bloomberg says the less oil Abu Dhabi uses for local consumption, the more it can export.

Sultan Ahmed al Jaber, head of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., speaking at a news conference for the plant's opening over the weekend, said it is part of a "strategic plan to diversify energy sources in Abu Dhabi."

"Together, with clean energy and nuclear energy, it will make up 7 percent of Abu Dhabi's energy sources from renewable energy sources," he said.

Shams 1 uses 768 adjustable parabolic "trough mirrors" to focus sunlight onto a water boiler that produces steam, activates turbines and finally generates electricity, reports the website Clean Technica. The middle step in the process, it says, is to use natural gas to superheat the water.

The plant, located about 75 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, is similar in design to Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) located in California's Mojave Desert. Although Shams 1 claims to be the single-largest plant, the nine SEGS plants taken together generate more than three times as much energy and serve more than 10 times as many households at peak output.

Officials in Abu Dhabi hope Shams 1 will save 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road. The plant is the first of several more on the drawing board.

The UAE's neighbor, Saudi Arabia, is on a similar tack with the most extensive renewable-energy program in the Middle East, Bloomberg reports:

"The country is seeking about $100 billion in investments to generate about 41,000 megawatts, or a third of its power, from solar by 2032. That compares with about 3 megawatts now, which puts it behind Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates in capacity, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance."