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| Wednesday, January 31, 2007 |
Man, today started out nice and quiet and then quickly descended into chaos and complications. Today's links are, therefore, simple and minimalist.
Was Stonehenge really an old festival site? Was there a burning man? It's possible!
Cool stuff to do this weekend if you're in Europe: the technology-mad Transmediale is going on in Berlin (this year's theme: "Unfinish") , while the International Circus Festival of Tomorrow begins in Paris.
Why the internet is cool, part 4598: you can learn something you never knew, like the Netherlands' plan to annex part of Germany after WWII, and then only a few moments later you can find yourself looking at something absolutely bizarre like a Discordian coloring book. Needless to say, I think the internet is awesome.
If you like spooky odd things, there's a huge list of online videos for you. If you'd like to be more active, the astrology site sent in by Cassandra is looking for participants!
Jinnet @
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| Tuesday, January 30, 2007 |
How would you like to start off your day with a caffeinated donut? Buzz Donuts are coming! (They have a website, but there isn't much there yet. Perhaps they need some more caffeine.) Then you'll be able to stay up late and study the night sky. Alternatively, you could watch old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and look for all the stuff Wil Wheaton is talking about in his reviews.
Cool toys alert: Plen is a cute little robot that rollerskates and skateboards! Whee! (The main site takes a while to load; the other links are short YouTube uploads of the robot in action.) For the spooky among us, My Little Cthulhu is on the way (woohoo!); if you can't wait, you can read some Lovecraftian comics in the Unspeakable Vault of Doom.
Jinnet @
: comments: 1
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| Monday, January 29, 2007 |
Art: you can look at pretty Alice in Wonderland-inspired art, or you can create your own little (non-Wonderland) character and make it dance like a fool over at Pictaps.
Music from the past: the lost art of mix tapes. You don't even want to know how many dozens of mix tapes I still have.
Music from the future: brain wave music! Cue the theremin!
Literature: which science fiction author are you most like? I'm like Samuel Delany, apparently. Also, make your own blank books and then write your own stories, and perhaps you too can be an answer in an online personality quiz.
Jinnet @
: comments: 1
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| Friday, January 26, 2007 |
Happy Australia Day, everyone! Here are some links from others.
From Holly: a Pet Spa which cats will rise up against and destroy in short order, plus a story about ninja kittens. The two are not related...yet.
From Satori: Boy George is on YouTube and posting interviews!
An '80s music question: what was the deal with der Kommissar, anyway?
Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.
Jinnet @
: comments: 0
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| Thursday, January 25, 2007 |
Ooo, look, there's a monster librarian out there now! Sweet!
In search engine news, Google Video now includes results from YouTube in its searches, which is lovely. Meanwhile, Microsoft got caught hiring a blogger to edit entries in Wikipedia for them. Oops. (Thanks for the link, Zazoo.)
Hey, law librarians: AALL is again documenting a day in the life of a law librarian, like they did last year. Pick up a camera in February and show off what you do.
LISNews features "10 blogs to read in 2007." Impress your colleagues!
And finally, here's an interesting report on the most environmentally-conscious universities in the U.S. (My alma mater's not included, but I'm not sure of the criteria for getting listed. OU was green before green was cool, man.)
Tomorrow: links from others!
Jinnet @
: comments: 1
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| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 |
Today we have creepy spooky stuff. You've been warned!
First, the creepy: the story of the first head transplant, which took place in Soviet Russia and involved a puppy and an adult dog. Humans are next on the list.
If sword swallowing squicks you out, you probably don't want to look at this page of x-rays. (There's no documentation of horrible accidents here, although I could tell you some stories of what our sword swallower friends have gone through if you like.)
Forget Sundance; Tromadance is going on all this week, in Utah of all places.
Hey, Rue Morgue finally has a weblog!
We all know about decay in the tangible world, but what about cyber-decay, when websites are abandoned and left to die slow, broken-linked deaths? Ghost Sites of the Web helps track down the neglected corners of the internet.
From Tim: ginger kids are becoming extinct. Who will save the redheads? (Yes, my grandfather and my husband are both redheads; no, this is not a convincing enough argument for my having kids in the near future.)
If you'd like to freak out some zombiephobes, consider Zombie Portraits. Muhahahaha!
Jinnet @
: comments: 1
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| Tuesday, January 23, 2007 |
Beep beep beep. I bring you warning signs of the future!
Warning signs from the present for the nostalgic: they're making new (live action) versions of Flash Gordon and Ghost in the Shell. Just a heads-up.
A different sort of warning sign: Euro banknotes are crumbling to dust because they're used for drugs. Golly, and they say America has a substance abuse problem...
The French COROT telescope project aims to search for other planets, and it was just launched (literally).
For those of us who studied psychology or know someone who did: the New Yorker has a really interesting article about the development of the DSM.
And finally, some happy fluff. More information about Frango mints than you ever thought you'd want to know, for instance! And don't Zubbles look amazing? I can't wait to see them in action.
Jinnet @
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| Monday, January 22, 2007 |
Happy Blue Monday! Here are some links to cheer you up.
Music: The Puppini Sisters are fantastic. Anyone who adapts "Panic" by the Smiths to '40s acapella has to be, right?
Music and film: Hitchcock movies used music in all sorts of ways.
Literature: get ready, bookstores and libraries - Oprah's book club has returned.
Art: if you like dada, you will probably love The Soci�t� Anonyme.
More art plus folklore: Endicott Studio has a lovely blog with all sorts of great stuff, plus galleries and articles like this one on women's illustrations of fairy tales (and all the underlying symbolism of many of the stories).
Jinnet @
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| Friday, January 19, 2007 |
Links from others! Thanks, everyone.
From Holly: Let's go zorbing!
From Satori: "North Dakota is actually DEBATING a 1889 law that lists opposite sex, non-married adults that are living together as sex offenders."
From the Graveworm: yet another weird UFO-like sighting.
Some interactive fun today: create your own personal M&M. I tried to make an M&M that looked like me, but ended with a really weird-looking creature that I hope does not resemble me. Also, the Graveworm, Bunny and I had some fun the other day with this test which purports to give you an idea of how inclined you might be toward autism - the average score is about 16, while most people diagnosed with autism score at least 32. Bunny and the Graveworm got very low scores; I got a 21. Hmph.
And lastly, if you've been procrasting on that genealogy project, Geni may be what you've been waiting for! It's brand new (and therefore a little buggy), but looks promising.
Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.
Jinnet @
: comments: 3
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| Thursday, January 18, 2007 |
Bunches of library links today...
I was trying to find a suitably geeky cataloging quip that I could use as a comment on Darren's latest entry, and instead I found the Dewey Blog, which is just all kinds of cool. They catalog their entries, see! Isn't that fun? Hello? Hello? (Well, it IS cool, dammit, and it's also a good blog.)
I live in the seventh most literate city in the country, according to the new rankings, and I'm as surprised as you are. (Our public library system is pretty impressive, however, so I guess that helps.) In other surprising news, librarianship is among the new hot careers according to U.S. News, but they seem sort of clueless since the description of the job ends with "...and the work environment, needless to say, is placid." Placid? Ha. Hee. HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, good luck with that, aspiring librarian wannabes.
I've been trying out AskX lately as a search engine, and it's been really useful so far, especially when dealing with vague reference queries. I have not been trying out Cranky, a search engine designed for those over 50, but I have to wonder what they were thinking when they named it. Hey kids! Get off my virtual lawn! Bah!
The MARS section of ALA (I like that. Librarians from MARS!) has the best free reference sites of 2006 listed for the perusing.
Screenhead has a really interesting post and subsequent discussion on the hardest novels to film, and who should direct them in case they actually get made. (Also, if anyone gets it in their head to film the children's book Goodnight, Moon, are you aware of the bizarre cannibalistic subtext?)
Links from others tomorrow! Yours can be included too, if you send them in!
Jinnet @
: comments: 1
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| Wednesday, January 17, 2007 |
Happy January 17th. Apparently it's a pretty auspicious day.
Anyone want to buy a tiny island nation? Sealand is for sale! I hear that Pirate Bay is interested.
From the Graveworm: the giant owls are coming, and a UFO bookseller could use some help. (The two issues are not related, as far as I can tell.)
The Washington Post has a really interesting article on the people who believe that their minds are being controlled by outside forces. The comments are also worth a read.
And lastly, has anyone heard about LovecracKed! the movie? It sounds promising!
Jinnet @
: comments: 2
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| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 |
Hi there. Today may be cold and snowing and grey, but it's also my birthday! I'd endorse the texting of drinks, except that they don't seem to have this technology in the U.S. yet, more's the pity. I guess we'll have to do with just links, then.
If you've ever watched an ad and thought "I could do better," try out the Ad Generator!
From the excellent Brass Goggles, I direct you to Eccentric Genius, who makes incredible steampunky objects. In a similar vein, the rulers of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories are coming up with some great ideas, like a robotic Dalek pumpkin.
And lastly, since January is all about list-making, check out 5ives for some wonderful lists.
Jinnet @
: comments: 2
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| Friday, January 12, 2007 |
Links from others! Thanks, guys.
From Danny: Robert Anton Wilson has died. Apparently no one else has noticed yet, judging from the newswires. Go and do something discordian this weekend in his honor!
From Bunny: a stop motion animator program! Also, check out Meet Cleaver Theatre over at Couch Potato Theatre - we are slowly taking over the interwebs. Muhahahaha.
Hungarian hip hop cops, caught on camera phone, are totally hilarious. A recent news article reports that they will not be punished for broadcasting their silly behavior.
Folderol will be off on Monday, and will return on Tuesday! Next week is Slow Down Week, so take some deep breaths and relax. (Next week is also my birthday, so do something fun, okay?)
Jinnet @
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| Thursday, January 11, 2007 |
I am happy to report that the ALA is getting some decent "READ" posters lately. I'm particularly enamored with the Batgirl one, but Emily the Strange is also good.
Rochelle from Tinfoil & Raccoon discusses the problem of us librarians being too polite. Where is the Librarian Fight Club when we need it? (There's an addendum which links to a current argument. I don't join in on these sorts of things because I start having flashbacks to various staff meetings I've attended.)
Meanwhile, Swedish librarians are evidently pretty hot. (And look at the Stadsbiblioteket. Isn't it amazing? Rowr. )
Su Blackwell makes gorgeous sculptures from books. Consider this during your next weeding session of outdated materials.
Kimbooktu points out weird and wonderful gadgets for book people. Lovely.
A newly discovered weblog: the Pragmatic Librarian!
And finally, why not create your own catalog card before everyone forgets what one is? (Thanks, Danny!)
Jinnet @
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| Wednesday, January 10, 2007 |
Hey, our friend Andy is on YouTube with his great LEGO Chainsaw Massacre film! Go and see his stuff, it's lots of fun (and short - LEGO films are very labor-intensive).
Another fun person, found via his article on the history of Ouija boards, is Mitch Horowitz, who gets to read about all sorts of spooky stuff for a living.
If you're spooky yourself and want to decorate around the house, you could always put up a T-Rex head on the wall. Alternatively, you could create some Deep Ones in a bottle, which should confuse and frighten any visitors.
Bran Castle, aka Castle Dracula, is up for sale. If you're interested in moving to Romania, you can find out how they voted recently via Electoral Geography, a fantastic site for people interested in geography and culture. (Librarians might find this really useful, too!)
Jinnet @
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| Tuesday, January 09, 2007 |
...and the silliness pretty much just continues straight on from there. To wit: Terrorist finger puppets! You could make a small gallows for the Saddam puppet now, I suppose. And maybe a tiny impeachment trial scene for Bush. I also thought it'd be funny if the Bush puppet had a tiny Blair finger puppet on its hand, but maybe that's just me.
And lastly, something a bit more serious: Yahoo has launched You Witness News, where you send in photos of newsworthy events as you witness them, thus the name.
Jinnet @
: comments: 1
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| Monday, January 08, 2007 |
Some art, some music, and some banished words...
Art:
Music: And for the banished words, Lake Superior State University provides the 2007 list. I have to admit that I've used "awesome" far too many times in the recent past.
Jinnet @
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| Friday, January 05, 2007 |
Links from others! Thanks, everyone!
From DawnoWar: the art of Sticking Leeches on Myself, literally and/or metaphorically!
From Cassandra: we're all gonna die! Hopefully this particular doomsayer will be right in the middle of the catastrophe. (Robertson, I mean, not Cassandra.)
From Bunny: The Center for Puppetry Arts (oooo) and Hometown Favorites (ahhh).
From the Graveworm: another UFO sighting, this one in South Africa. Spooooky.
Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.
Jinnet @
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| Thursday, January 04, 2007 |
Happy birthday Bunny! (Here is the official song of the day.) See, this age isn't so bad, is it? (If you want to send him some greetings, check out our Meet Cleaver Theatre page on MySpace!)
Also born on this date: Isaac Newton, Michael Stipe and Louis Braille (today is World Braille Day!). Wow. The planets must be aligned right on January 4th. (Hey, the World Almanac has a blog. How cool is that?)
Today we have some library videos: Cascada cavorts around a library which still has card catalogs (!). Other than that anomaly, though, this is pretty much what a normal day at work is like for me. See all those Federal Reporters in the background? Yep.
However, the OPAC replaced most card catalogs, and most OPACs suck pretty badly, when you get right down to it like the Laughing Librarian does here. (Thanks, Courtney!)
Speaking of OPACs -- if you have to deal with library technology, you might have wondered about all the mergers throughout the years. If you have, this timeline is awesome. (If you haven't, well, never mind, then.)
And lastly, for the librarian with a dark side (hi Bunny), consider this multi-volume set of villains and notorious individuals throughout history, just published!
Jinnet @
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| Wednesday, January 03, 2007 |
Keep watching the skies! Holly sent me this report of a UFO in Chicago, and then the Graveworm added another account. Meanwhile, France's space agency is going to release all its UFO-related material online in the next month.
For those of you more interested in this planet than in others, did you know there are intricately foldable maps online for the printing? It's true!
For people more interested in other people than astronomy or geology, you can watch the history of religion develop in 90 seconds. There are lots of other similarly interesting things on the site as well.
And lastly, for those who prefer the fantastic to the tangible, take a look at the sketchbooks for Pan's Labyrinth. Wow.
Jinnet @
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| Tuesday, January 02, 2007 |
'Tis the season for predictions. What will 2007 hold? Will there ever be flying cars? (Probably not this year. Darn.) Wired has several tech prognostications for the perusing. (Thanks to the Graveworm for sending this!)
The Improbable Research people are wonderful. Where else would you learn if it matters whether Bedouins wear white or black robes? And who else would direct you to articles about robotic Frisbees of death?
In a similar vein, someone is studying the happiest and saddest songs out there. (Some of you may want to replace "happiest" with "most annoying" once you see the nominees.)
And for some good time-wasting fun, you can create your own tin can label.
Jinnet @
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