Another week, another attempt to contact U.S. representatives and ask them not to take away healthcare. And maybe help out Puerto Rico’s power grid. And a lot of other issues. Resistbot can help.

If you’re not in America, or you’re on hold, or you need something else to do, fear not. The Library of Congress now has a crowdsourcing project involving newspaper photos and illustrations!

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, this ten-minute timelapse video taken over a period of thirty days on a cargo ship is mesmerizing. The stars! The storms! The sunrises!

Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Rohingya…Earth is in a perilous state.

Also, in Cuba, there’s apparently some sort of sonic warfare going on, and everyone is confused.

On this date, Annie Besant died. She’s known for Theosophy, but did you know she organized the first labor strike by unskilled workers?

Ravenwood Castle is somewhat close to us, and features not only a castle but cottages and a pub for gaming! If we visit, I'll report.

Ahoy! We be back, 'n once again, 'tis International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Go 'n bother scallywags wit' yer pirate ways! We'll be back tomorrow wit' some more substance fer ye.

Happy Friday. Amidst the chaos, here are a cornucopia of links. Thanks, everyone!

From Zazoo: A bizarre-looking creature washed up on a Texas shore after Hurricane Harvey.

From Julie: Farewell, Cassini. 

Also from Julie: New mummies discovered in Luxor! I’m amazed there are still undiscovered tombs. 

What happens when London’s Science Museum gets into a Twitter battle with the Natural History Museum? Exhibits of the strange and unusual, and a proposed break for tea halfway through, of course. 

An update: While Salvador Dali’s mustache was untouched by time, the exhumation proved that the woman who claimed to be his daughter is not related. 

In more DNA testing news, a Viking warrior turned out to be female! 

And finally, here in the U.S., the list has come out for each state’s top five baby names in 2016. Apparently, a lot of Noahs and Avas are going to be running the country in a few decades.

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

We start off today with a paean to libraries, and everything that books mean to us, from last month’s Guardian.

Also, hooray for microfilm and microfiche! No, really. It’ll outlast us, provided we keep the machines going. (Additionally, via this article I found the Tedium newsletter, which looks like it’s going to be great reading. Look, the history of corduroy! It’s hip again!)

John Scalzi’s Whatever is 19 years old today. Folderol is about 17 1/2, which seems unreal. Thanks for reading this tiny voice shouting out into the void, everyone.

Happy random Wednesday!

- Squirrels organize their nuts in a very specific way. Well, of course. Squirrels are smart.

- Remember the crime scene dollhouses? They’re being fixed up for exhibit! 

- Cleaning old maps is a delicate operation. The New York Times looks at what it takes for NYC maps.

Hello! If you’ve got some free time to help with crowdsourcing, the Planetary Response Network will need volunteers to process hurricane satellite imagery. (I think they’re caught up for now, but there will be new data arriving very soon.)

The Victorians sang the body electric. Well, sort of. They were fascinated by electricity, at any rate. 

Also, Victorian women demonstrated both good archery form and good archery fashion. 

The tuxedo Etti-Cat was a (brief) mascot for the New York Transit Authority in the 1960s. The first ad in this article is my favorite.