Somehow I either missed EPBOT or found it long ago and forgot to bookmark. In any case, check out their holiday party theme! 

It’s NaNoWriMo, and Janelle Shane’s AI is here to help suggest some brilliant opening lines for your novel. Some are actually pretty great and would make good writing prompts.

Via EPBOT: Look at these amazing cosplayers and their Scooby-Doo villain costumes! My favorite is included!

My dad used to carve as a hobby, so I’m not sure if my fascination with this chip carver extraordinaire has to do with nostalgia or with its appeal to my detail-oriented nature, or maybe both. I’m not sure I have the steadiness needed for chip carving. In any case, check out Tatiana Baldina’s work! 

CERN is a place of particle physics mystery, but also home to everyday actions like balloons and pets and bikes and whatnot. 

The Met has a new exhibit beginning next week that should appeal to anyone of a steampunky bent: it’s all about the innovations of the Renaissance-era European courts. (And that’s before next year’s Met Gala, all about time!)

Happy Monday!

TV weirdness: OK, I had no idea whatsoever that there was a fifth roommate in The Young Ones, in plain sight, for real!

Film 1: Here are some obscure folk horror films for the Wicker Man fans out there (hi).

Film 2: What are bad movies, exactly?

Historic writing: A look at Roman blueprints, labels, and informational signage!

Happy Friday! Today’s links (except one) are brought to you by Cassandra. Thanks so much for the links!

- Consciousness is hard to define and hard to explain, and maybe it’s always there but maybe it develops and…well, it’s difficult, okay?

- “Hysteria” accounted for many issues women encountered in the past, and women writers explored the system that purported to treat such a thing. 

- The story of Jerold Haas is sad and fascinating, and I’m wondering if we knew any of the same people, as we went to the same university and were about the same age.

 - Vashti Bunyan made an album in 1970 and then gave up, but the music kept going and brought her back for more, thirty years later. 

And for the Twitter users, this thread of real-time reactions to reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula is absolutely, hilariously brilliant.

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone! See you next week.

Librarian Twitter is some of the best Twitter around, and here’s one example! 

The Internet Archive is adding and customizing its digital audio offerings. You can also check out UNESCO’s digital archives, or, if you like German techno, you can listen to over 200 GB of mixes, courtesy of DJ Mag.

And finally, if you like crowdsourcing projects and the night sky, consider helping out at Lost At Night, which studies light pollution.

I don’t know what it is about Belgian surrealist and symbolist painters, but I absolutely love them. William Degouve de Nuncques will always be my favorite, but I just discovered Paul Delvaux, and wow. 

Meanwhile, there’s amazing modern craftsmanship going on in the world of cosplay, as Talon’s work demonstrates. 

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has revisited and refreshed their Good Omens offerings! 

Venice is underwater again. The photos are a curious mix of tragedy and blasé people getting on with their lives...which is how it works, I suppose.

Hello! We have some random bits today.

Flashbak has an amazing story about Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space. Come for the suspenseful story of how dangerous the mission was, and stay for Leonov’s art of what he saw in space.

Meanwhile, you can make your own orrery, and Make shows you how! 

Biodegradable sequins mean you can be fabulous and environmentally aware. Just think of the mermaid costume possibilities.