A few post-holiday links for you this Friday: if you're currently in possession of some giant empty cardboard boxes, Mr. McGroovy has some fantastic plans and tools to help create cardboard castles, among other things.

Also, remember silver dragees? Remember how they disappeared? Remember the rumors that they were beautiful but deadly? Well, I do, anyway, and others have tracked them down!

The rest of today's links are brought to you by the Graveworm and feature Neil Gaiman's Mouse Circus, a painting of Jesus that seems to open and close its eyes, and the slightly disturbing "America's Future Codemakers & Codebreakers" site for kids at the NSA.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve, everyone! We'll be back on Tuesday.

Here's what's been going on in the library world over the past week or so...

Remember Ms. Dewey, mentioned a few weeks ago? Turns out she has a salacious past. Don't all librarians? (As an aside, I have a text file for Folderol links, and links that aren't self-explanatory usually have a description by them so I don't forget what they're about. The description for this one was "Ms. Dewey is hot.")

A new weblog tracks library videos, or videos featuring libraries. Yay!

Forbes explored the future of the book, and got pretty detailed about it. (Physical, tangible, printed books are going to stick around for a while, evidently.)

Hey, public librarians: next time someone mutters "I pay your salary" or "overdue fines are ridiculous" or something similar, you can direct them to this handy calculator which figures out how much someone would pay for library services if they were out in the capitalist world instead of within the friendly confines of the library. (It works best if you're in Maine, but even if you're not, it's a good estimate.)

Planning 2007 vacations? Check out the upcoming year's cool museum exhibits and scheme accordingly!

Huzzah, we're back! There are some photos up on Flickr.

Today is a little different here at Folderol. Normally I never do memes or tags or whatever they're called these days, because...well, no one's ever tagged me, so it's been a moot point. But right before Christmas, I got tagged by two - two! - different people for two different things. So here we go.

First, from Brendan:

• Find the nearest book
• Name the book
• The author
• Turn to page 123
• Go to the fifth sentence on the page
• Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
• Tag three more folks.

Since the books next to me are pretty dull reference materials like directories and dictionaries, this was a little difficult. But today, the closest book to me is GURPS Steampunk by William H. Stoddard. So I give you this excerpt, regarding the 19th-century theory that there was a planet between the sun and Mercury named Vulcan:

The attraction of the other planets explains 527 seconds of the shift; the other 38 seconds are unaccounted for. Their true explanation will only be found in 1915, when Albert Einstein will use his general theory of relativity to calculate the sun's gravitational field and find that it exactly predicts the discrepancy. Le Verrier, relying on Newtonian mechanics, thinks the explanation is a planet or a group of smaller bodies orbiting closer to the sun than Mercury, as the planet Neptune accounts for Uranus's orbital irregularities.

(Most steampunky stuff is not so technical...but hey, rules are rules.)


From Darren: 5 things you don't know about me. (Some of you may know all of this already. It's hard to think of things no one would know!)

1. I had so many strep throat infections when I was little that I lost part of the hearing in my right ear. They took my tonsils and my adenoids out when I was seven, and hey, no more strep since then!

2. I grew up on 360 acres of a women's organization founded in the 1940s. For a long time I thought it was perfectly normal to have houses with names and have people from all over the world visit constantly.

3. I wanted to be a classical recordist like Michala Petri until I was 12 or so, and faced the harsh reality that I'd never be that good.

4. my dad worked on an art installation with Robert Wilson back in the '60s. This is where my parents met, actually.

5. I own a pair of jeans and a pair of camo pants; everything else is long skirts or dresses, every day. I just think they're more comfortable.


I am going to be a rebel and not pick any people to do the surveys/memes/tag extravaganza, but if you're around this week and feel like participating, go for it! We get back to normal tomorrow.

Wow, lots of links from others today. Thanks, everyone!

First off: the ten library stories that shaped 2006. Yes, the tasering incident is included.

From Holly: a great rant about Pachelbel and an Indian ad for Peugeot.

From the Graveworm: detecting pythons.

Both the Graveworm and Satori sent in this story about Komodo Dragons - here's Satori's report in full.

They have just discovered that Komodo Dragons can self fertilize! There have been two females in two different zoos that have never mated or mated over two years ago but produced fertile eggs.

I’ve never heard about this phenomenon in any reptiles even though I was taking 200/300 level Biology classes in college, including Genetics!

Maybe David Icke is on to something and The Virgin Mary was really a Lizard Person...

Also from Satori: the Iams Cat Stare-Off! Can you outlast the cat?

From Courtney: lots of cats! Also, the official site for the Bodies Exhibition.

And finally, NORAD is tracking Santa again this year (that's Santa this time, Danny, not Satan!), and they're getting increasingly high-tech about it on their website.

I'll be off tomorrow and back on Tuesday or Wednesday, most likely. Happy holidays, everyone!

Today is the Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-Thon, in honor of the tenth anniversary of his death. If you have some ruminations on Sagan, post them today!

On to the spooky stuff. Why haven't I heard of Seahenge before?

The H.P. Lovecraft Society wishes you a happy holiday, and warns you to look out for fishmen. Sherlock Holmes is apparently on the case, however. Perhaps he can explain Cryptomundo's top 10 mysterious animals of 2006; the last one is my favorite.

Despite the Christian holiday coming up, there are a few new books out arguing that Satan has gotten a bad rap through the centuries.

In one of the creepiest forecasts I've ever heard, scientists discuss the advent of implanting false memories. Aieeeeeeeeeee.

I'm taking off Friday, so tomorrow will be a combo post of library links and links from others!

Happy birthday to my mom, my grandmother-in-law, Amanda Lepore, and others! In honor of your birthday, we feature some truly silly stuff.

• Design your own action figure! I ended up with a rather distinguished-looking Victorian villain character that would have cost me $17 if I'd gone ahead and ordered it.
• The Gummi Bear Mob is watching you.
• Birth control for gray squirrels? The Brits are considering it...
• The fabulous RetroFuture offers Space Food Sticks for those of us who were fascinated by space ice cream back in the day. Okay, I'm still fascinated by it.
• How many people out there share your name? I put my name in and found that I'm the only one out there. Ha! (This is sort of a problem when it comes to maintaining some level of anonymity on Google or other search sites...)
• Along the same lines, what do people think of your name? (I love the last comment here on my name. No offense taken, you weirdo.)

If it's Monday, it must be Art Day...

Operation Fragmentation is currently going on in Columbus; the challenge was for artists to combine an authentic military item and a designer military toy.

For virtual visiting, there's the new Surreal Art Collective.

And then there are those who think that artists should stay away from their art once they've created it. This strikes me as a really funny dilemma for some reason.

A gorgeous idea: a kaleidoscopic house. You could put dolls in it and have them trip out.

A new study says that night owls are more creative. Ha! Vindication at last!

It's time for the "best of 2006" album lists (are they still called albums?), but Blender has a different take: they look at the most disastrous albums of all time. (Maybe they were recorded during the daytime.)

[Addendum: Folderol is switching over to the new! exciting! version of Blogger, so there may be some issues to work through. Just a heads-up.]

Happy birthday Zazoo!

And now, some links from others...

From Holly: squirrel studies!

From Cassandra: study your palm to see how sexy you are. I am a "confident" 7, ooo ahhh.

From Bunny: this awesome video of an eight-year-old parodying Bill O'Reilly's rants has everyone all upset in conservativeland.

From Courtney: the world's tallest man helps save two dolphins. This sounds like a cartoon episode, doesn't it?

And finally, some retro fun: Career romances for young moderns.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.

Today we have some new shiny library things! Search Engine Land and Library Talk are both pretty self-explanatory, and they're both new arrivals, so go check them out.

BuzzFeed is also fairly new on the scene, and points the way to the other cool new places online.

I was going to say that Wordie, yet another new site, was like LibraryThing for words. Then I poked around the site a bit and found that the creators of Wordie and LibraryThing are friends. Well then! Perfect!

The daily book news & reviews blog at the Madison Public Library is not new, but it's new to me, and I think it's a brilliant idea.

And finally, I have seen a lot of obit weblogs since we killed off our own site's DeadLog, but I think the Blog of Death is my favorite so far.

Tomorrow: links from others! It's also Zazoo's birthday tomorrow, so say hi and come out to dance with us.

Five women are dead in Ipswich, and England's already referring to the killer as the new Jack the Ripper. Yikes.

'Tis the season to worship the sun and observe the solstice! Oh, and those newer religions want to celebrate something, too.

Also sun-related: the very cool NASA Sun-Earth Viewer.

This list of the ten most bizarre people on the planet is more akin to a list of "people who have had really strange things happen to them," but it's a fun read.

If you love bizarre creatures more than people, this list of Ray Harryhausen's cinematic creatures should fill you with joy. And if animatronics are your thing, you'll soon be able to see over 100 animatronic dinosaurs in Dubai's Restless Planet!

Wow, it's a long week already, isn't it? Ergo, today is all beepy boopy escapism.

Did you ever sympathize with the poor asteroids that were shattered to bits in the old Atari game? Asteroid's Revenge gives you a chance to get back at the mean spaceship!

The Asteroids spaceship is not listed among the ten best movie spaceships ever (probably because there was no movie involved). I don't remember a film called Explorers, though.

Kore Ja Nai Robo is a Mazinger-looking robot thingy that acts as a USB plugin. (I think they should make Dalek USB plugins that yell "exterminate!" every now and then, just to keep you on your toes.)

If you're near Amherst, Massachusetts this month, check out the exhibit called Science Fiction Art from the Golden Age, featuring the work of Hubert Rogers. Oooo, ahhhh.

If you prefer more analog fun, the 2006 Good Gift Games Guide is out!

Or you could put your name on toast. What? It's a viable option!

Today, we're featuring DIY art! Penguin is letting you design your own book cover, and Beck wants you to design his latest CD artwork. Let your imagination run wild!

Along the same lines, an enterprising TA asked students to draw a turkey for the last question on their exams. Some students are more artistic than others...

Today I learned about horror vacui, the fear of empty spaces that leads to filling up rooms with knick-knacks and coloring in every available space of paper. I can understand the paper part, at least.

If you remember the fiasco of "who do you look like" MyHeritage photos from last week, you will appreciate Banterist's examination of who most resembles the six wives of Henry VIII -- or, as MyHeritage reports, the six wives of Jake Gyllenhaal. Yeah, there are a few bugs in the system.

For people into LEGOs and rock bands: Brickshelf reproduces some famous lineups!

For people into skulls: I Want Your Skull is your own little bit of cyber-paradise.

It's Links from Others Day! Thanks, everyone.

From Satori: the Muppet NewsFlash, for all your Muppet news needs. Also from Satori: a recommendation of dark chocolate-covered Altoids. I can't really even begin to imagine what they taste like, but Satori says they taste a little like York Peppermint Patties.

From both Bunny and the Graveworm: scientists are using sound to levitate small animals. Awesome!

Also from the Graveworm: an ancient 72-gear analog computer has been discovered; there are videos and podcasts and all sorts of information on Rosslyn Chapel; and David Lynch has just spoken out against the "official explanation" of what happened on September 11th.

From Holly: My Hands Are Bananas. Berlin is really like this all the time, right? (This was actually made in Montana. Is Montana like this?)

From Zazoo: an environmentally friendly Hummer, a really great source for discographies, and news of a planned ABBA museum. Wow.

And finally, the big news this morning is that someone found a severed foot at a gas station...except now they're saying it's not a human foot. (I am betting on it being a movie prop or something. But anything is possible in this town.)

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone, and hold on to your feet! See you Monday.

Grrr. Okay, I finally caved and added word verification to the comments, because the spam is starting to arrive. (I'm going through and deleting it, but it's slow going.) Sorry for the added inconvenience!

Whoa, a tornado hit London? Is Mary Poppins in town?

More surprising news: Google Answers has gone the way of the dinosaur. I didn't expect that to happen; I thought they were doing a pretty brisk business.

The Cincinnati Public Library has a plan for the 21st century. Most public libraries will be looking at similar changes, I bet.

Along with the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian consistently has great online exhibits. They've had panoramic maps of hundreds of cities up for a while now; for something more seasonal, they've put up the holiday greeting cards of Bauahus-influenced artist Werner Drewes. (I wish they'd sell these as holiday cards, actually - I'd definitely buy them and send them out!)

The U.S. Mint is also doing very cool things these days. Next up: dollar coins with the faces of the first presidents. Maybe Americans will finally warm up to the concept of dollar coins.

A new site about old photos: Old Pictures tells the stories behind the pictures. What an awesome idea!

For librarians (and non-librarians) who are looking to digitize analog audio: behold the Plug & Play USB turntable!

Tomorrow: lots and lots of links from others. See you then.

Today's trip around the world is mostly contained to Europe, for some reason.

Starting in New York, you can learn about Dreamland, a long-gone amusement park that was once part of Coney Island and featured, among other attractions, "Liliputia," the town of 300 midgets. Wow.

Going across the pond, you can look for elves in Iceland, browse the real-life locales of Storybook England, control the colored lights in a building during Stockholm's Colour By Numbers exhibition, and mourn (or celebrate) the closing of Erich von Daniken's Mystery Park in Switzerland.

Going farther east, Japan has awesome manhole covers! I like the squid ones especially.

And for those into symbolism, the "secret" Rosicrucian symbols are online now, so I suppose they're not that secret any longer.

If you like the idea but not the price of a Roomba, MAKE shows you how to construct one of your own. I think they should call it a Vroomba. Vrooom!

The rest of the links today sound like Surreal Theatre gone wild. A harpsichord made of LEGOs! A robot museum in Japan! An office in a garden! Columbus, Ohio as a potential spaceport! And yet, they're all for real. Go and explore.

Hey, remember last week's post about how Cleveland was going to wow the film world? Well, er, they've hit a bit of a snag...

So what kind of reader are you? Apparently I am a "Literate Good Citizen." Hm. I feel so...normal.

Anyway, as part of my literate good citizenship, I've read (and loved) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A recent interview with Robert Pirsig catches up with him and how he's been since the events leading to that book.

Los Angeles was the birthplace of noir, or so it claims (I think Berlin might have an argument to make there), and the myth lives on even today.

And lastly, librarians can be artists too! Another installment of Art by Librarians is at the Dayton Metro Library right now.

One last thing, suggested by the Graveworm...





I don't look like ANY of these people! But it's fun anyway. (Note the frazzled expression in my photo. See, I need a break for a few days.)

I'm leaving again! That's right, I just got back and now I'm going to be gone tomorrow and Friday. Life gets back to normal, sort of, on Monday.

For now, some cool links that range all over the week's daily themes:

• for Tuesday's toy theme: what are the ten worst (i.e. most unsafe) toys out this year? Man, back when I was young we had steel jarts and no helmets and...hey there! Get off my lawn!
• for today, the ultimate spooky librarian site: Death Reference.
• for tomorrow's library-themed day: temporary reading tattoos and a huge organized repository of found photos.
• for Friday, Dec. 1: the AIDS poster collection. Take some time on Friday to think.

Have a safe & spiffy weekend, everyone. Back on Monday!

And we're back! A belated RIP to Robert Altman, too.

Can you balance art with family life? This is a long-standing question, but here's another stab at finding an answer. If you want to steal art, on the other hand, you have a whole other set of questions going on in your brain.

Play with your food: make a Rubik cake! Or play with your photos and Warholize them! Or buy tiny souvenirs and set them in real-situation photos, like this photographer.

And finally, for those of you who (sometimes deservedly) laugh at Ohio, look out: the movie stars are coming to Cleveland to film.

Hey, it's almost that day! Soon I will be in Chicago, watching not the parades, not the football, but the dog show. Heh.

Speaking of, the San Francisco Macy's has adoptable kittens and puppies in their Christmas windows this year. Are they not adorable?

In case you decide to decorate the house this weekend, the Antique Christmas Lights Museum might offer some inspiration.

And if you're visiting others for the holiday and want to get away from said others for a little while, DropSpots is a new activity that's similar to geocaching and letterboxing, only with Google Maps as a guide. They started out a little while ago and have been adding spots pretty quickly, so there may be one in your area!

For the spooky among us: here's a whole raft of creepy-looking Bollywood horror posters, and here's a strange true story about the Winchester House in California. (Apparently they're making a movie out of this story, or so the rumor goes.)

Have a great holiday and/or weekend, everyone! Folderol will be back on Tuesday.

Since this will be a short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I'm throwing the theme days out the window and putting out a smorgasboard of items.

From Satori: London is, once again, the hip place to be. My favorite quote from the article: "Everyone wants to look more Day-Glo and loonified than the next person.”

From Zazoo: the Beatles are back, this time in mash-up format.

From Danny (hi, Danny, good to hear from you again!): the face of Jack the Ripper has been revealed. (I don't know if this helps any, though - it looks pretty generic to me.)

From all over the web: how familiar are you with some very familiar logos? Play Guess the Logo and find out! (I suck at this; I got 27.52%.)

Every year, the Penny Arcade rulers prove that geeks have huge hearts via the charity of Child's Play. Think about it, won't you?

And finally, speaking of nothing, why not consider a giant inflatable iceberg for your enjoyment next summer?

First, a moment of silence for the VHS, which died earlier this month. At least, that's what some people say. Vinyl is making a resurgence in the music market, so who knows what might happen in the future?

On to perkier news. Motorhead is sponsoring a kids' soccer team! How awesome is that?

Also, the winners of the "Encyclopedia Brown for District Attorney" contest have been announced. I always suspected that Count Olaf was a Republican...

Remember the Spirograph? Now it's available in pen form. Weird.

If you're casting about for new stuff to read, I agree with the NY Observer's recommendation of Philip Kerr. It's not happy fluffy material, but it's good and layered and damn interesting.

Today: links from others! Thanks, everyone.

From several library sites and also from Susan (Susan! What a blast from the past! Thanks so much for writing!): a student gets tasered in a library. Video of the incident is here (thank God for YouTube and technology - otherwise this might get dismissed as a wild rumor).

From the Graveworm: in keeping with Wednesday's post about Tesla, the BBC has an article about the promise of wireless power.

Also from the Graveworm, who is sort of obsessed with 1111: what it means when you see a series of ones all the time. (Fortunately, Mr. Graveworm doesn't put too much stock in this story.)

From Courtney: do men use cell phones like birds use their plumage? I have to say I've never noticed a man's cell phone in that way. I wonder if I'd be oblivious to pretty feathers if I were a bird.

From Bunny: which tarot card are you? Apparently I am the Moon. (Bunny was the Devil. Hee. Together, we are mega-spooky!)

And finally, a reminder from AdBusters: Buy Nothing Day is only a week away.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.

Okay, I know about LibraryThing (and have even started cataloging a few of our books - a very few, that is), but has anyone tried Shelfari yet? It looks very similar, but there must be some differences.

While we're asking around, has anyone tried MediaConvert? Evidently it lets you convert practically anything - audio, images, documents, you name it.

Librarians of the Week: the Butt-Kicking Librarians (who study martial arts) and the Men of Texas Libraries (who have put together a calendar for 2007).

The libraries of Timbuktu are falling apart and need your help. I think we should have a program like the PeaceCorps, only for renovating/restoring/creating libraries.

And finally, for the book collectors among us: the Bookplate Junkie shows off some gems.

Tomorrow: links from others!

Hey, it's Geography Awareness Week! Are you geographically aware? If not, we'll try to help out a bit today, but only in terms of aerial travel. For instance, soon you'll be able to listen to your iPod on a plane without draining the batteries (woohoo! My Ipod died on my flight back from Monterey, and I was sad).

Also from the air: roof design - and advertising - is suddenly becoming much more important, thanks to Google Earth.

The ultimate air traveler, civilian-turned-space explorer Anousheh Ansari, has a Flickr account depicting her trip into space. (At least, I think this is her account; at any rate, the photos are neat.)

If you'd rather travel virtually, SynthTravels is for you. This is just plain weird. Cool and far-out, but weird.

And for those of you impatiently waiting for something spooky rather than geographical: how about Nikolai Tesla's possible involvement in the 1908 explosion/detonation/meterorite crash in Tunguska, Russia? (Thanks for the pointer, Mr. Graveworm!)

News from the past: a Roman shipwreck has just been discovered!

News from the recent past: The IgNoble ceremonies were last month, and I completely missed it. Sorry about that. Happily, you can read all about it.

In the future, we will all have vendomat restaurants, just like they thought we would in the '50s! And what's more, we will have reverse vending machines! And we will have pizza in cones! And we will have doors on cubicles! (Actually, the cubicle door is reasonably priced, considering the psychological benefits it would provide.)

Art tricks for the non-arty: mypictr takes a photo and turns it into a profile pic for Flickr, MySpace, Gmail, etc. This can be useful if you don't have photo editing software!

In Venice, they're finally designing a plan of floodgates to protect the city. They're lucky they haven't had some disaster yet, really.

This one's for Glenna: the role of female villains on the stage, and how they always had to get their comeuppance. (They also point out that villains, of course, are much more interesting.)

If you like the idea of fantasy leagues, but would rather watch movies than sports, perhaps Fantasy Moguls is for you!

And finally, some nice pretty escapist art: clothespin dolls and lovely scenery behind them.

Links from others today. Thanks, everyone!

From the Graveworm: A real-life Fox Mulder warns that aliens could attack us any second! Also from the Graveworm: a small-scale Foucault's Pendulum (check out the video) and a call to arms against Wal-Mart.

From Joseph: the International Lyrics Playground.

From Chuck: another dead person wins an election. We should just start voting zombies into office.

From Zazoo: Culture Club at war!

From several library blogs: Ms. Dewey, Microsoft's sort-of virtual sort-of librarian. I wouldn't exactly recommend her for serious research, but she can be pretty funny, depending on what you type in. It also gets entertaining if you ignore her for a while.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.

Hey, want to know how much the staff of various Congressional representatives make (or were making up until this week)? LegiStorm can tell you, although it's a twisted maze of lists (it's interesting to click on a name and see if they work for more than one politician, however).

In more DC-related research news, the Library of Congress is debuting a new search engine. It's in beta, of course, so be prepared for wacky wonkiness.

Stuff I learned from Internet Librarian, part 1 of a series: Nationmaster has all sorts of neat stats and graphs and whatnot for research geeks. (For instance, South America and the former Soviet Union are good places to get murdered; Saudi Arabia, not so much. Interesting, isn't it?)

Also from IL 2006: Zibb is an all-business search engine, which can be handy when you're trying to find information on a company with a rather non-corporate-sounding name.

Proof that there really is a weblog for everything out there: behold, the babes with books blog.

The MLS vs. no-MLS debate goes on all the time in libraries. I dutifully went back to school and got my MLS, but I think that experience counts just as much (probably more) than the degree. (I also think that an MLS program should have classes like "How to Fix Copiers" and "How to Prevent Back Injuries" and "How to Deal with Really Annoying People" and "Budgets 101," but that's a whole separate rant.)

And lastly, LisZen searches librarian weblogs, or the biblioblogosphere, if you prefer. Hee. (I want "biblioblogosphere" to be a spelling bee word one day.)

Tomorrow: links from others!

Regarding the elections: Woohoo!!! Ted Strickland was my representative when I lived in Athens. It's lovely to have him as a governor.

A belated post-Halloween link, courtesy of Google: scary stories to read out loud by candlelight.

Spooky find of the week: a weblog all about cemeteries and gravestone symbols. From there, I learned what the Hebrew inscriptions on Jewish tombstones say, and also that the Vulcan greeting gesture derives from a Jewish blessing. Wow, the stuff you learn!

For more current media-meets-religion news, The Revealer has some interesting material.

Just what are those mysterious lights on Brown Mountain, anyway? Some determined people want to find out, for once and for all.

I thought this article on turning one's iPod into a Ouija Board was funny...until I read the comments and saw how seriously people took it. Now I'm just confused. Maybe it'd just be better to use technology

Okay, Americans, go out and vote today. Ask.com has a good breakdown of information and resources by state (just pick your state in the drop-down box). Have fun with potentially wonky voting machines, and in case you're not sure why you should vote, well, here's a brilliantly done video to help on that. (Seriously, if this person is not a film editor, he/she should be.)

Meanwhile, the Muppets are educating kids about landmines, SeeJane is researching gender portrayals in film for kids, and the UK's Science Museum has an amazing exhibit on video games going on.

And for the really random, there's now a weblog chronicling Wikipedia entries on the verge of deletion. You can learn through serendipity!

Arty links begin...now!

Literature: a previously unpublished Sylvia Plath poem has been discovered, and Garrison Keillor has opened a bookstore in St. Paul. These two are unrelated. I think.

The art of the book jacket has a long and occasionally distinguished history. Someday I'd like them to invent a book jacket that doesn't rip easily when you jam the book into a bag.

Fairy tales and mythology in pop culture (there's a niche arty category for you): exploring the various incarnations of Red Riding Hood through the years.

Music: Forget J-pop, will Korea's K-pop conquer the western world? And when we dance to it, can we do it at a sustainable dance club like they have in Rotterdam?

Links from others today! Thanks, everyone.

From the Graveworm: glow-in-the-dark mushrooms.

From Satori: it's not just the cod, it's all the seafood that's in danger of disappearing. Eeek.

Also from Satori: according to the Onion, the Spirit explorer is really sick of Mars.

From Bunny: possibly the best current political ad running (and I think I would say that regardless of which party it supported). Also from Bunny: a quarantine room will be in effect on Election Day. Sounds futuristic. And not in a good way.

From Holly: a clown conference in Mexico!

From Zazoo: exotic travel is on the rise.

And lastly, why not consider a children's book about how tattoos are nothing to fear? (Hey, Mr. Graveworm, I thought of you!)

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

The best thing about the Electoral Vote map right now is that lovely dark blue "strong Democrat" they've currently painted Ohio. Keep fighting the good fight, everyone!

Wessex Archaeology is not at all stuck in olden times - they have a blog, they have a Flickr account (with some really great photos of recent digs), and they even have a podcast. Wow.

I had already planned to link to Jimmy Atkinson's page on Research Beyond Google (seen originally on Library Stuff)...and then Jimmy emailed me himself to point it out. It's definitely worth perusing, even if you don't research for a living!

Swiped from Geistweg: inspired by Hemingway's famous six-word "story," Wired challenged other authors to try the same. I like Neal Stephenson's, personally...

And lastly, to keep the spookiness alive: the Men of Mortuaries 2007 calendar! Mrow!

Today's the Day of the Dead in Mexico, so the spookiness continues!

From Holly: there's a tour which takes you to abandoned Paris Metro stations. Oooooo. Meanwhile, for those in the U.S., Holmesfest is afoot in New Jersey!

If you think you've seen something odd, you can check it against this list of the top 50 cryptids. However, if you're a skeptic (and into some hard science), you can peruse a physics-heavy refutation of ghosts, vampires and zombies.

And even in small towns, there are fascinating people with intriguing artifacts!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Above are some of our jack o'lanterns (there are more on the Flickr site). If you don't have any yet, you can carve up some virtual pumpkins and pretend!

Tonight's episode of the Conan O'Brien show will be in skelevision, with everyone shown as skeletons. Yep. Our Emergo of Meet Cleaver Theatre is furious that he isn't involved!

Speaking of MCT, we have a new (very short) episode up. It's not for the squeamish, but you can sympathize as a lab rat's fantasies of hot guinea pigs are dashed to bits with a gory trailer.

Why not sponsor a vampire bat for Halloween? They need love, too!

The Vampyreverse probably needs some love as well. Although they may just need blood.

And finally, if you're trick-or-treating tonight, check out the streets you're on and see if they qualify as true Freak Streets. Every state has them! Have fun, everyone!

And here I am, back in time for Halloween. I will natter on about the conference at some point soon, but right now I'll get back to links.

• There's now another possible solution to the mystery of what happened to Agatha Christie during her eleven-day disappearance: a fugue state. (Bunny thinks he had one of these happen to him once, although it was for considerably less time.)
• Artist Michael Fleming is creating virtual monster cards for the Halloween season.
• The sounds of the season, meanwhile, can be heard at ScarStuff.
• The space invaders have taken over Amsterdam! Beware of the Amsterinvaders!
• Apparently TV show theme songs are dying out. I can't really say this is a bad thing, even though my brain still has several theme songs from the '70s and '80s playing on brain radio occasionally.
• Speaking of nothing, did you know David Byrne has an online journal?
• And finally, for the photography lovers, check out these images from 1930s German culture magazines. Great stuff.

Right now I'm watching a keynote address given by an esteemed librarian who is also known as Galataea, Level 60 Troll Priestess in World of Warcraft. This is the coolest conference ever!

The photos are going up pretty quickly on Flickr (others are putting them up too - the tag is il2006 if you'd like to see other points of view); text posts and links - lots and lots of links - are to follow soon!

The photos are starting to go up!

Hello from Monterey! Those of you following along can check out the Information Today's blog for some photos and info; I'm going to be uploading some photos to my Flickr account during the day as well. (It's only 10 am here. I'm early!)

Some fun information about the conference so far: 1250 attendees from 48 states and nine countries. What's the correct term for a large group of librarians? A shelf? A collection?

More as the day goes on...

Today: links from others! Thanks, everyone!

From Holly: Old School Sesame Street and Electric Company DVDs are coming out next week!

From both Holly and Bunny: an exhibit of gay animals in Oslo. Nice scarves there, penguins!

From Bunny: an invisibility cloak is on the way. Oooo.

Also from Bunny: wanna see what happens when you throw a live grenade into a washing machine? Sure you do!

From Glenna: a grisly story about body parts and funeral directors. Never trust a mortician. (I'm kidding, mortician readers; I know you're out there.)

From Zazoo: how WOXY was saved. Long live the future of rock and roll!

Okay. As I've said several times, I'm off to Monterey for Internet Librarian next week, and updates will happen but will be sporadic and probably pretty heavy on library stuff. But there may be pictures too! Have a spiffy weekend, and see you sometime next week.

First, a public service announcement: the stingrays are mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more, so look out.

Next week Folderol will go all erratic, all-library and on California time, since I'll be at Internet Librarian (and look, it has its own wiki!) Sunday-Thursday. I have a laptop and might actually use it to blog!

For Roald Dahl lovers: there's talk of a remake of The Witches. This could be good. Potentially. Maybe. I hope.

More childhood fun: Encyclopedia Brown for District Attorney!

And finally, not library-related but good clean spooky fun: combine LEGOs with LEDs to make spooooooky figurines. Awesome.

Tomorrow: links from others!

So I'm just going along this morning, working away, drinking some pumpkin spice coffee to get into the spirit of the season...and then bam! The cod are disappearing! They're remaking Sisters, which completely freaked me out as an urchin! Workers are being encouraged to transmogrify into robotic zombies! (That last link found via the Librarian in Black, by the way.) I'll be hiding under the bed for the rest of the day.

Spooky history link of the day: in the 19th century, a man made a God Machine, and then it was (possibly) destroyed by a mob. Or not. It's hard to tell.

I am not exactly a big Martha Stewart fan, but I have to admit she comes up with some good Halloween decorating ideas. So here is my one link of the year to the true dark side.

Tis the season for spooky candy! Via the CandyBlog, I found gummy brains, some organic Halloween candy, and a Fair Trade goodie bag.

If you prefer the candy of yesteryear, you can go on a virtual nostalgia trip. I think I remember that vampire bubble gum machine display.

The Graveworm points out an article that tracks how quickly the signs of human civilization would disappear if we all vanished tomorrow. The planet would do quite well, apparently. There are projects, like LongNow, which are attempting to preserve a bit more information in case of future visitors.

Or you could just wear a scientific scarf or tie. Carpe diem!

October art links mean that it's time for spiderweb construction photos and monster brains.

The Tate Museum currently has a slide as an installation! I'm loving this recent London obsession with slides.

Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag were companions for fifteen years, and Annie is now publishing a book of photographs.

Not really art-related, but fascinating in this election season: the Congressional Family Business Project is a bipartisan attempt to discover whose family members are accetping whose money. Interesting stuff.

It's (Spooky) Links from Others Day again. Thanks, everyone!

From Joseph: how to be properly evil, and (unrelated, unless you hate anagrams) the Internet Anagram Server.

From Courtney: the one, the only Fangoria!

From Glenna: a live production of Night of the Living Dead in California and a top ten list of immortals.

From Dr. Soooper Sloow Mann: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs invade Project Runway, and the birds and bees you learn about might be gay.

From Bunny: they're thinking of tracking airline passengers with RFID. Lovely.

From the Graveworm: the Battle of the Album Covers (genius).

Have a spiffy weekend and wonderfully spooky Friday the 13th, everyone! See you Monday.

Hi there. Internet Librarian is coming up and I've been way behind in current library events (due to work, ironically enough). I've been missing out on some great stuff going on in library weblogs, like the Digital Librarian meeting Mr. T and Target's new naughty librarian Halloween costume (!) and this ad for a fake 1987 library workout tape, which is hilarious to anyone who either has worked in a library or lived through the '80s. See, library weblogs are awesome.

Also, Al Gore is going to speak at the SLA conference in Denver next year. I'm scheming a way to go.

It's another day of linking to Dark But Shining, this time for a collection of great Halloween books for kids.

And finally, many librarians quoted in this article are going to be at Internet Librarian. Come to Monterey and meet them! And say hi to the shy spooky librarian in the corner!

Due to exciting network difficulties, Wednesday's post is going up this morning; later on Thursday's post will go live. Got it? Oh, good.

Lisa Snellings is having a Halloween sale on poppets! I love Poppet Grim.

Friday the 13th is coming! There are spooky things a-happening to mark the occasion, but in Copenhagen they're taking the high road and having a night of culture instead.

Consider the stargate (not the movie or TV series, but the actual portal to other dimensions). Is there one in Peru? Is there one in Arizona? Since stargates are not exactly portable, you could always buy an inflatable church instead and tote it around for worshipping purposes or performance art!

Dark But Shining has an excellent post which points out the similarities between today's alleged alien abductions and yesteryear's alleged faerie abductions. Spooky, fascinating psychological stuff.

Today's theme: crazy animals! Elephants are attacking humans to the point that there's an actual "Human Elephant Conflict" (HEC) category among researchers. (Thanks, Glenna!) The bones of a giant camel have been discovered in Syria (thanks, Mr. Graveworm). And then there are those freaky record store cats...

If you want to harass your fellow man (or woman), consider the Pikashoe. Zap! Pika pika! Or, if you're feeling friendlier, you could try playing Cruel To Be Kind, the game of benevolent assassination. Kill them with kindness!

I am back! Also, the Rookwood pottery in town is back! And Nightmare Before Christmas is coming out in digital 3-D on the 20th. Wow.

The Dr. Seuss School of Unorthodox Taxidermy would be right at home in the Haunted Mansion, or perhaps in the ultimate Halloween party, no?

Ptolemy makes creatures from hubcaps, and they're amazing. He also makes creatures from discarded shopping carts!

And Paris is planning a gigantic arts complex. It's a good art day.

Tonight I am off to Chicago to see Holly for a long weekend, so today is a combo day.

First off, the library links. I've been remiss in linking to the Library of Congress exhibits, which are always amazing. The Bound for Glory site shows America from 1939-1943 - in color!

Library Stuff has a great idea: the Library 2.0 drinking game at the Internet Librarian conference. I am going to be blogging (live!) from there in a few weeks. I will try not to post anything while drunk.

Here's a timeline in a state of constant flux, for the historians.

A site dedicated to the idea of an old-fashioned Halloween has sprung up, and it's quite lovely and Victorian-looking.

And now, the links from others! From the Graveworm, a fun little addicitive game in which you draw a hill and watch a doomed sled rider wipe out on your creation (read the instructions; I didn't and was confused at first). Also from the Graveworm: "Meanwhile, on Hoth, the rebels are fighting back."

From several sites: the Airport Security Game. It's hard.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday!

Today I am inundated with weird research requests. Without further ado, here are some freaky links; more may be coming once everything calms down a bit.

• Cows have regional accents. So do dogs!
• A story on Rennes-le-Chateau led to Pierre Plantard's page on Wikipedia, which makes excellent reading for anyone who read Holy Blood, Holy Grail and also has several offshoots into similarly bizarre people and places, like the Beale Ciphers in Virginia.
• And then there's Mount Weather, the probable "undisclosed location" that houses the higher-ups in times of great terror and is an actual place. Talk about freaky.

Last week the robot planes and taxis were on their way. This week we talk about real robots!

You may remember the Dark M&Ms "find the Scream painting" contest from a month or so ago. Since the painting was discovered almost immediately after the campaign began, the M&M site has a new contest: see how many scary movie titles you can identify in this painting.

With Celestia, you can pretend you're in space and zoom about the galaxy. Fun stuff. If you're feeling more earthbound, you can save up solar energy in a jam jar and use it at night to light your way (I think these would be awesome).

The new James Bond movie had a haunted plane on the set, according to crew members. Er, okay...

Happy October! Today we start the spooky links, plus some non-spooky bits as well for those of you not so attracted to the darkness. The first contributions: Headless Historicals , featuring a bevy of beautiful (albeit decapitated) dolls, and the Hippopotamouse Gallery, a spooky smorgasbord of Victorian surrealism. Ooooh, ahhhhh.

You can't keep a good station down; WOXY has once again risen from its deathbed! You go, 97X!

It turns out that art for the blind can get sort of annoying to its target audience; there's only so much tactile sensation one can take. This is an interesting piece on what art means to the sightless.

Was Shakespeare hungover while writing his plays? Well, sure, I bet he was, at least part of the time.

Amid the news that habeus corpus is now dead (along with, one suspects, a large part of American democracy), please consider the statistical chance of death by terrorism. (An aside: accidental poisonings happen this often? WTF?)

In slightly related news, these people are looking for "a Chief Librarian to manage the Detainee Library, under the direction of the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." Yes, really. Adapatability is cited as a need, along with ambition. Wow. (Thanks, Courtney!)

From the Graveworm, three links:

1) Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said the firm was in negotiations over a reality TV show. In the show, contestants would compete to win a place on a space flight, the Press Association reported. Mr Whitehorn said: "The indications are that we can create a show that would give people the chance to go into space. It would be a cross between Dr Who, Star Trek and the Krypton Factor."

2) "The squirrels will be back," South Bay wildlife rehabilitator Norma Campbell said. "For every one you take out, two more will come in. It could be a never-ending project that isn't going to accomplish anything. "

3) a rant from a public librarian, and IT'S ALL TRUE. Ask any librarian about this and they will sigh and nod.

From Holly: a hamster gets too enthusiastic about exercising and learns that centrifugal force only goes so far.

From Bunny: Russian rocket boots! Commander Cody, eat your heart out! (Their claims of jumping 13ft with each step seem a bit exaggerated, however.)

From Glenna: a nuclear weapon effects calculator. Considering the way the world's going, this might be useful information!

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Oy, today has been...a day.

More Banned Books Week (or Challenged Book Week) links: the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has a page up, and Jessamyn takes a look at the informational resources out there on the subject.

Resizr is a great photo tool. Guess what it does!

The Smithsonian has a good article on Hatshepsut, one of my favorite historical people. It turns out that the destruction of most monuments dedicated to her may not have been out of rage or jealousy after all.

It's amazing how much variety there is in stamps. There's a huge amount dedicated solely to detective fiction. Who knew?

Tomorrow: links from others, hooray!

I'm thinking of specializing in spooky links for the month of October - spooky art day, spooky library day, spooky tech day, etc. Any feedback?

On to slightly spooky things! DI55 was the British real-life X-Files, apparently, doing their best to cover (up?) all things UFO. Interesting stuff.

Meanwhile, here in Ohio, the Devil's Oven is a coal mine that's been on fire for over 120 years. We're thinking of taking a road trip out there to see what it's like.

The Netherlands Military Tattoo is coming this weekend! It's Dutch! It's militaristic! It's not an inked tattoo!

Decrepit objects can be pretty, as this Flickr group dedicated to the art of demolition shows.

Take a guided tour of Balzac's Paris online. Isn't the internet grand?

And lastly, consider the zombie dove. Its time has come.

Finally, the future is coming! Driverless taxis are coming to Europe! Pilotless planes are in our near future! Woohoo!

Meanwhile, it's Banned Books Week, and some people are still stuck in the Middle Ages when it comes to letting people read what they want. Tim, over at Geistweg, has some good entries on the subject. Go out and read something scandalous this week, people. ("Scandalous" is meant rather saracastically.)

X-Entertainment has already started their Halloween countdown. Aw yeah. I love this time of year. (An aside: does X-Entertainment not have RSS feeds? And if so, why not?)

Red Bull has the coolest headquarters office ever. Slides! We need slides in our own office!

Meanwhile, over here in the states, a whole community based on a Hobbit shire is underway in Bend, Oregon. Man, I gotta get out to the Pacific Northwest soon.

Another reason Wikipedia is awesome: they have lists of the weirdest things, like this detailed compilation of Muppets eating Muppets. Wow, this happens a LOT. They need to issue a PSA on this on Sesame Street!

It's art and literature day!

Art: The Flickrblog is always a great resource for finding interesting photos; this small collection of spiritualism photos is amazing.

Art meets literature, sort of: the evolution of the speech balloon. Wow.

Literature: making poetry accessible to engineers. You build poems! Think of that way, they say!

Also, Margaret Atwood's invention Unotchit (mentioned previously) isn't doing as well as she'd hoped. They're tinkering about with it in an effort to get this "remote autographing" concept up and moving.

Random: After playing enough videogames, do you think about clicking on "real" objects? Or rolling them up, a la Katamari Damacy? (Long ago, in the era of text-based MOOs and MUDs, I remember a friend who had been online for several hours and tried to type "open door" when someone knocked on her dorm room door.)

Today: links from others and important sites to visit!

First off: John Scalzi is giving away an advance reader copy of one of his books to anyone who can convince him they deserve it. The entries so far are brilliant, and it's not too late to add your own! I also discovered the Robot Defense League via this thread. They want the book pretty badly.

From the Graveworm: the ice in the Arctic is cracking. Eeeeek. However, Richard Branson just dedicated billions to eradicating global warming, which is slighty reassuring.

From Glenna: women ponder the amazing concept of "me time." Sheesh.

From Cassandra: a look at recent research regarding medical marijuana.

From various blogs: as a result of the recent harassment of a traveler with an Arabic t-shirt, shirts that say "I am not a terrorist" in Arabic have been created. Go and wear them!

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Here's a random question: does anyone have any laptop recommendations? I'm going to try to bring a laptop to Internet Librarian this year, which means I have to actually obtain one. I don't need anything terribly fancy, just something for internet usage and maybe some writing. I know that Dells tend to catch on fire these days, but that's about it.

On to library matters...my alma mater has been in the news for some not-so-positive happenings lately having to do with plagiarism and identity theft (oops), but at least their library still rocks. You can download an mp3 tour of the library for your iPod, and be guided by either a student or a librarian. How cool is this?

To the moon, libraries! This would work well until a runaway comet breaks up the moon and causes disaster (see Thundarr the Barbarian for details).

The Vatican has opened up its previously secret archives of pre-World War II materials, which may help (or hurt) their case about their attitude toward Nazi Germany back in the day.

It's time to put away the beach reads and settle down with some good substantial fall reading. The San Francisco Chronicle has an especially detailed list.

Have you been keeping up with the Carnival of the Infosciences? I haven't, and I need to, because it has some great stuff.

For trivia addicts, Blufr tests your knowledge and gullibility when it comes to obscure facts. Its servers were pretty overloaded when I was trying it out, but it's worth a look.

And finally, for those of you who aren't librarians but have patiently waded through the library links, here's a moment of bamboo-inspired philosophy. Have I mentioned how much fun Laundryroom Swapmeet is?

Tomorrow: links from others!

Wow, is it already time for the Icarus Cup again? Time flies. As opposed to some of these contestants, most likely.

Tomorrow is International Peace Day. The world definitely needs it this year.

Whether or not you patronize the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you have to appreciate this LEGO rendering of the church headquarters.

For the spooky readers: Rhino Records just put out a new Goth Box, with 3 CDs and one DVD. (A question: Is Flesh for Lulu really considered a goth band? That's news to me...)

There's been a few online mentions lately of the mysterious city of Baalbek, which has amazing Roman architecture despite being located in Lebanon. Interesting stuff.

Ahoy, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day! Go out and plunder t' your heart's content! You can even make your own warnin' sign, so as t' inform t' general populace o' your piratical intents.

More weirdness for ye: ye can make a Burger King hand puppet dance t' any o' several genres. This be somethin' I'd have created, I have t' admit.

You've seen t' OK Go treadmill video (posted here a few weeks ago); now see it in LEGO format! I can't even imagine how long it must have taken t' set this up.

And lastly...in t' darkness, under cover, lurks t' Fight Science Club. T' first rule o' Fight Science Club is...well, actually, you're encouraged t' talk about fight science. Until t' ninjas arrive, anyway. And then t' ninjas fight t' pirates! Arrrrrrrrr!

Today I bring you tiny little bits of art for your enjoyment!

Painting: Edvard Munch's recently-recovered paintings will be back on display for a short while, before they go away for some touchups (apparently they're slightly damaged from the exciting adventures they had during their kidnapping).

Dancing: I remember reading a book at a very young age which described how ballerina's feet became black and bloodied from all that en pointe dancing. That pretty much shut down any burgeoning balletic dreams I ever had. And if I'd been able to read this article, which goes into even more detail, I may not have even gone into show choir. Agh.

Literature: Were the Iliad and Odyssey actually written by a woman? Cool!

Photography: If you've ever wondered where that phrase about "watching the birdie" came from, here's the answer. (I'm still not sure why people say cheese, though.)

Modern art/culture jamming: Banksy has crossed the ocean and wreaked some havoc at Disneyland recently.

Local art: Cincinnati is trying to find its arts identity. I expect many other cities have the same problem. Except they probably didn't go through that whole Mapplethorpe thing like we did.

Today: links from others. Thanks, everyone!

From Bunny: GWAR visits Joan Rivers...and they get along just fine! Joan seems to have a decent sense of humor, thank god.

From the Graveworm: giant catfish will take over the planet. I can vouch for the fact that there are some frighteningly huge catfish lurking in the ponds at Spring Grove Cemetery.

From Courtney: why not get involved with the Animal United Nations?

Baby toupees are for people with too much time on their hands...or for demented aunts/uncles. Muhahaha.

First the monkeys were taking soccer flags, now the squirrels are taking U.S. flags from cemeteries. There's a revolution brewing in the animal world, I tell you (see above article on catfish).

Street Use is a newish site examining how people make use of technology in unexpected ways and places. It's definitely worth a look.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Today, a little something for everyone who works in or occasionally visits a library.

For librarians tired of being chained to the reference desk: join the Librarian Fit Club!

For librarians gearing up for Banned Books Week: Google is now in on the act with a Banned Books page.

For people lost at the Seattle Public Library, there's a "wayfinder" person you can consult. (I have to visit this library soon. It sounds cooler each time I read about it.)

For crafty sorts: the Antique Pattern Library. (I'm always looking for weird mosaic/stained glass pattern ideas.)

For wordsmith geeks: the Eggcorns Database. My favorite so far is the ten-year track position. Hee!

For people in Ohio who want to get out and enjoy nature this weekend: a map of the state's covered bridges. We have a lot.

Tomorrow: links from others!

Okay, then, I am back among the land of the living. Sort of. Don't ask me any difficult questions.

First off, though, belated congrats to Rob! And happy what-would-have-been 90th birthday to Roald Dahl (thanks, Glenna).

On to spooky stuff. Are creepy, haunted-y feelings caused by low frequencies instead of ghostly spirits? Have Russians discovered Can an elaborate setup of dominos satisfyingly squish a tomato every time? (Okay, that last one isn't scary, just fun in a demented sort of way.)

It's the season for fall festivals, but there's also ArtCarFest this weekend, in case you're into such things. Go check it out and report back!

Gah. I hate being sick. Folderol will be a little erratic until I get over the Bug from Hell.

Today: lots of links from others. Thanks, everyone!

From the Graveworm: major, sci-fi storylike steps are being taken to warn the people of the future about the nuclear waste sites of today. Hopefully this will be easier to understand than hieroglyphics, which are mentioned in the story.

From Zazoo: an interesting look on the 9/11 Pentagon attack, bringing up the whole "where was the plane debris, anyway?" question again.

Also from Zazoo: 97x, the future of rock and roll, is about to go under again. Any zillionaire philanthropists out there who feel like rescuing a landmark radio station?

From Glenna: what Pre-Raphaelite personality trait are you? Both she and I got "thoughtful." Hm.

Also from Glenna: more intersex fish have been discovered. Can intersex mammals be far behind? (Okay, yes, they probably are, but still.)

From Bill: BYU finds a use for seven tons of old law books - as mulch. I wonder if the Cincinnati Park Department would like some outdated books for their landscaping needs.

From Courtney: women sick of being harassed on the street can now post photos of offenders. (I love that the site is called HollaBackNYC.)

From Holly, the best excuse of the week: when there are no goats on the road, you're bound to speed. I especially like the caption for the photo of the goat.

Also from Holly: Sock Dreams have all sorts of great hosiery offerings! And they're affordable!

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

The big news on the library lists this week is about Google (as it often is); this time, they're reviewing the full-text, copyright-free downloadable books made available and the just-announced historical news archives search. The archives are very seldom free, which might discourage people, but it's actually a good way to look for, say, genealogical articles - and then use your library's databases to get the article in its entirety! The book bits look okay, too, although I am not terribly enthused about reading an entire book online. (You can download them in PDF and print them out, though.)

More fun with words: Omniglot tells you all you'd ever want to know about languages, while the idea of Europanto mashes a bunch of languages together (check out the discussion on Metafilter for some excellent examples of Europanto in action!). When I lived in France, I ended up speaking a sort of mangled Franglais for most of the time (and when I got back to the states, too); I think I'd do excellently well with Europanto as a true language.

Sometimes the headline says it all: Education Department Mined Hundreds of Students' Records as Part of FBI Antiterrorist Operation. Grrreat. In less Orwellian news, or perhaps more Orwellian, depending on your view of alternative history, the Mythopoeic Award winners were announced recently.

Tomorrow: links from others!