Thursday, August 31, 2006

Hey, all library-related people: I'm going to Internet Librarian again this year! Last year we both went; this year it'll just be me. I may actually get brave this year and talk to people. I love Internet Librarian and Monterey, so I'm looking forward to this a lot.

Library smut, i.e. beautiful photographs of libraries, can be very very hot.

Since I won't be here tomorrow, here are links from others! Thanks, everyone!

From Holly: raves are making a resurgence. Can glowsticks be far behind?

From Joseph: Librivox. I tried to get my dad to participate in this, but didn't succeed. Yet, anyway!

From Courtney: a truly inspired college recruiting campaign from Canada.

From Brendan: the BabyName Voyager, now updated with 2005 information! Brendan notes that "If you want to get really nauseated, enter NEVAEH. Or ARMANI, for that matter." Hee.

From Bunny: the Palace of Wonders, an amazing bar in the DC area that may be showing Meet Cleaver Theatre on special nights! Tip the bartenders there - we know them and they are good people! I'm angling for a road trip there soon.

From Dr. Matt: a must-see video for Star Trek and/or Nine Inch Nails fans. Brilliant stuff.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! We'll be back on Tuesday, provided no spirits get hold of us.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Announcement! Folderol will not be published on Friday or Monday, because we, along with the rest of the Zagdog Aggregate, are headed back to the Ohio State Reformatory for another ghost hunt. Details of our first expedition, along with a movie, even, are available here and I also have a bunch of photos on my Flickr page. I'll be back on Tuesday and report on any ghostly experiences. Also, the ZagAgg's latest theoretical venture: a sealed house. It's very embryonic at the moment, but volunteers are welcome!

Some more scarifying things: digitally created monsters (with tutorials on how to do it, too!), glow-in-the-dark gravel (excellent for Halloween), and, courtesy of the Sparkle Queen (yay! the Sparkle Queen is back!), Armor of God pajamas. So, does the shield double as a pillow? I'm confused.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

It's been over two years since Edvard Munch's The Scream was stolen, and who better to offer a reward than...M&Ms? Two million dark chocolate M&Ms can be yours if you help track down the missing painting. Whatever works, I guess...

Speaking of consumerism, McDonald's is giving away toy Hummers. Yes! Encourage your children to destroy the planet! What's even better is that they're only given to boys; girls get ultra-feminine little dolls instead. Gah. You can make your own McDonald's sign to express your sentiments. (Many thanks to Brendan; his take on the issue, with accompanying sign, can be found on his site.)

Is Pac-Man the best videogame of all time? Even now? Discuss.

The Graveworm sent in two great articles: the top 10 ways to destroy the planet and the mysterious gyroball, which could revolutionize baseball if anyone figured out how to throw it properly.

And finally...photos of cars crashing into buildings, just for the hell of it.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Some art, some literature, and some fun.

First, the art: Leonardo da Vinci's Battle of Anghiari has been lost for centuries, but thanks to modern technology and a cryptic message on a wall, the masterpiece may be on the verge of re-discovery.

The U.S. Mint is looking for artists to participate in its "Artistic Infusion Program" which brings the public those specially designed coins and medals. (They're actually pretty progressive over at the U.S. Mint. Shame it doesn't spread to the rest of the administration.)

Stuck in Customs is the blog of an amazing photographer (his Flickr photostream is linked there as well) who specializes in HDR (high dynamic range) photography. Incredible stuff.

On to literature! The Paris Review has made the DNA of Literature interview database available to anyone who wants to browse it. To say there's a wealth of information there would be a vast understatement.

For fans of Dorothy Sayers (note to self: try, once again, to get my dad on the internet): the Lord Peter Wimsey Annotations site immerses you in all things Wimsey.

Goofy fun stuff: Thriller Live celebrates the music (not the persona) of Michael Jackson. And if you're the type who likes to create art from food, you may just love the idea of a do-it-yourself Barbie popsicle. (The Objects of Desire website has some other great ideas, too.)

Friday, August 25, 2006

Today: links from others! Oh, wait. We have no links from others. What are you people doing out there, having lives and such?

Therefore, it's "clean out the list of links" day. And we start with a personality test! According to my DNA Profile Test, I'm a "considerate experiencer." This is actually a pretty cool test, using sliders and ratios to determine how strongly you feel about particular things. It seems pretty accurate; those who know me, feel free to agree or disagree as you see fit.

At work, of course, I am a good corporate zombie. Archie McPhee provides some great office accessories.

For the activists: Marietta, Ohio is fighting the horrible air quality caused by Eramet's processing plants. Help them breathe better!

For the artsy: robot doll art. If your employer has a thing about seeing naked dolls on computer screens, you may want to avoid this at work.

For the culture jammers: the Bubble Project is alive and well and publishing books! See what the populace has to say on a daily basis!

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Pluto's not a planet any longer? Bah!

List of the week: the nation's drunkest cities. Columbus is #3, Cleveland is #7, and Cincinnati is #16. I'm so proud of my state. (There are only 35 cities on the list, to give you an idea of proportion here.)

Wikpedia article of the week: The Atlantic Monthly takes a look.

Helpful law librarian link of the week: you can check to see if something's on Lexis without having to sign up, thanks to this handy list of sources.

Sci-fi link of the day: an ancient Peruvian headdress has been found in a lawyer's office. I can't decide if this reminds me more of Puma Man (as seen on MST3K) or an episode of the '60s Spider-Man cartoon.

Funky, marginally-related librarian link of the day: Dirty Librarian Chains! Woo!

Tomorrow: links from others, as per usual. Wanna see your name in lights (or in HTML)? Send something my way!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Right, then. Catching up from Tuesday, we have:

And moving on to Wednesday...

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Running behind, thanks to breaking technology. I'll try to have something up today, but if not, there will be a double dose tomorrow!

Monday, August 21, 2006

A quick bit of arty stuff for you...

Music: Holly sent me the link to OK Go's newest video, which is pretty damn amazing. All in one take, too!

Literature: So has anyone tried BookMooch yet? I've seen it linked several places recently, but I haven't seen any actual feedback...

Photography: Joe Nishizawa takes amazing photos of Tokyo's subterranean world.

Turning spam into art: Spam Obituaries is my new favorite site!

Turning ordinary objects into art: Cutlery sculptures can be beautiful and practical!

And lastly, here's something that has nothing to do with art but just struck me funny: a line from this BBC article about a Pakistan-England cricket match that ended in chaos when the Pakistan side was accused of tampering with the ball:

The Pakistani side refused to come out of their dressing room after tea in protest at the umpires' ruling.

I love the fact that they take tea breaks.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Links from others! Thanks, everyone!

From the Graveworm: the sketch a psychic drew after the Jon-Benet Ramsey death looks quite a bit like the guy they just nabbed. (However, I tend to agree with Mr. Graveworm that it's likely this guy, on the verge of getting arrested for something similar, decided that U.S. prisons might be nicer than those in Thailand and made up a good story.)

Also via the Graveworm: the NSA is doing nasty illegal stuff, and the Bush administration should really, by rights, go down in flames for it.

From Bunny: Mike Nelson Goes to Work. I'm so glad the MST3K people are still doing stuff. Also, Mike and Kevin Murphy are still riffing on movies through RiffTrax; I think I'm going to buy the episodes and pretend MST3K's still on the air for as long as I can.

From Glenna: the International AIDS Conference ends today, but there's a wealth of information on their website.

Also from Glenna: the perils of writing chick lit. (I don't really get chick lit, myself. Then again, I'm not terribly chicklike.)

From Holly: KittenWar! Check out the losingest kittens. The Hairless Rexes and the Abyssinians are getting a raw deal. It's hard to compete with fuzziness.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

When the Onion calls Jim Belushi's book uncatalogable by the Dewey Decimal System, OCLC steps in to work things out. Hee. See, librarians do have senses of humor!

News librarians are finally getting some publicity. I miss being a news researcher.

Kentucky librarians are now there for you 24 hours a day. I wonder what the 3 a.m. questions are like.

Speaking of strange questions, the AOL search fallout has resulted in a Slate article categorizing searchers. I think I'm the Omnivore.

Google's newest innovation: music trends. I always thought I was an alternative music girl, but evidently I like a lot of indie music according to Google. Maybe I'm a latent hipster and don't know it.

For the graphic novel aficianados: check out the Comic Books Archive!

The National Priorities Project shows you how government money could alternatively be spent. If the war in Iraq wasn't going on, for instance, Ohio would have enough money to hire 176,333 music and arts teachers.

The Bamiyan Buddhas may be rebuilt! Huzzah!

Tomorrow: links from others.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

If it's Wednesday, that means it's time to zip around the world and see what's happening. But first, in honor of the Star Trek fans who commented on yesterday's link to Princess Leia, I give you...TrekJews. "Bimah Me Up, Scotty!" is an actual article title. Ha!

Heading east, we find the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York City, which looks a little like a futuristic Leonardo Da Vinci gallery if the website's anything to go by. The International Street Theatre Festival is going on in France, and if you need help getting there an amazingly comprehensive listing of European railway networks may be useful.

It's only a month until the Homeless World Cup takes place in South Africa. Yes, really! Delegates are showing up from around the planet!

Over in Australia, the national Film Commission launched several UFOs and documented the reaction. UFOlogists are not too thrilled about this.

And finally, back here in the Cincinnati area, the Cardboard Boat Regatta is set to take place this weekend. Awards are given for the longest-lasting boat as well as the most spectacular sinking. Never a dull moment in this town!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Graveworm informs me of the upcoming arrival of the Princess-Leia-in-a-bikini model kit. It's a little frightening to realize how many men of my generation were influenced by this costume...

Additionally, to those of us who grew up in the '70s and '80s, HandHelden brings you a wealth of information on handheld video games of that era, when a quarterback was represented by a tiny red dot and Speak 'N Spell was the height of technology. (I never saw the Omni before, but wow, that would have been awesome!)

Is Pluto a planet? That burning issue (along with several others) is being discussed this week.

The newest idea of how to treat depression involves...ketamine. I suppose being in a k-hole might be preferable to the pit of despair every so often, but it doesn't seem like a terribly healthy solution.

New adds to my RSS feed: the Laundryroom Swapmeet (we would have done something like this back in college, if we'd all been on the web) and BookSteve's Library, which is chock-full of great stuff (and is also located just across the river from us, apparently!).

Monday, August 14, 2006

Today seems to be all about visual arts.

Photography: Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir has risen to fame via Flickr, which is fantastic, as are her photos. (Paging Holly: she's Icelandic!)

Puppetry: Lunatique Fantastique creates stories and characters from found objects, while Famous Puppet Death Scenes portrays...well, I guess it's pretty self-explanatory.

Animation: China bans foreign-made cartoons! This is a job for...er...

Film: Paging Satori: now you can get David Lynch ringtones. I didn't see any backwards speech from Twin Peaks, but I didn't look too hard, either...

Friday, August 11, 2006

Today: links from others! Thanks, everyone.

From Dr. Matt's alter ego, Suuuperrr Sloooow Mannn, comes this great look at lessons learned from '80s cartoons. And they're all true!

From the Graveworm: the alchemy of flight. Evidently it led to some broken bones.

From Glenna: a great treatise on "monstrous little women" in horror films.

From Courtney (hi Courtney, we owe you email!): the homeless are suing Massachusetts libraries for their new policies requiring permanent addresses. The homeless advocates have a good point.

Mentos is so pleased with all the Diet Coke & Mentos geyser experiments out there that they're sponsoring a contest of their own. The people who run Mentos must be rather cool.

Comboling is a strange, minimalist, surprisingly addicting game. Have at it.

Have a safe weekend, everyone. See you Monday!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

In case you're stuck in an airport terminal for hours on end, with no liquid in sight, here are some informational-type link thingys to take your mind off the current situation. (Transatlantic flights with no carry-on possessions sound hellish.)

RIP, Frederick Kilgour, also known as the founder of OCLC. In related news, WorldCat has been revitalized and made more web-friendly!

The recent leaking of searcher information from AOL is causing all sorts of havoc and questions about privacy and security. AOL pulled the information pretty quickly, but a lot of other websites got access to it and have posted it. Don't Delete has a "random user" option that lets you surf around and see what people searched for, which can be really entertaining. I looked at one that had some relatively R-rated searches and then suddenly listed "grandma needs a pet." Heh.

In more local goof news, one of our libraries is giving out lead-filled toys. Oops!

I once worked at the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives as a graduate assistant, and I can vouch for the fact that there are some seriously weird government publication titles out there. Now there's a Flickr pool of strange titles. (I will dig out my old brochures on how to tell if your bread is safe and post them to the group, hopefully.)

Can't get to a museum right now? How about the Museum of Online Museums? Hours of fun!

Tomorrow: links from others. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Travel/spooky link day. We start with travel. Zoom around a Google Maps image of a city with a tiny biplane! Use the arrow keys to move, and use the spacebar to shoot things you don't like! (It won't do any good, but it's the thought that counts.)

Not to be outdone with the Kentucky-to-Alabama yard sale that happened last weekend, Ohio and Indiana are getting in on the act with a 400-mile sale this weekend.

You hear a lot about coal mines, but not so much about iron mines. Now you can explore the strange underground world without going to the northeast.

Hey, the possibly first-ever game of border volleyball was played recently between the U.S. and Mexico! (Mexico won, by the way.)

National Geographic has a neat little interactive site regarding extraterrestial places and things. Which leads nicely into the spooky links. The After Death Communication Research Foundation is interested in dreams people have about those who have died, plus any other experiences they might have had. And in unrelated news, taxidermy is back, back, back!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Hey, it's been fifteen years since the web went public. Time flies, eh? Whenever people speculate about what life will be like twenty years from now, I think of how, in 1986, I would never have imagined the internet could exist, much less have such an impact on society. Twenty years from now, I might have it implanted in my brain! Woohoo! (Sorry, I'm a transhumanist.)

They're being sneakily quiet about it, but Washington has dropped that whole ridiculous "freedom fries" thing and have gone back to good old French fries and French toast. Vive les frites!

Sometimes I find links and save them with a short description so I can remember why the heck I saved them in the first place. This one was summed up as "a rave in your hands," and it's true. Literally! Buy two and become a techno conductor!

A new Muppet is going to show up on Sesame Street next week, and she's being touted as "the super girly-girl Muppet." I'm not kidding, either. Her name is Abby Cadabby, she's all into faeries and pink and dresses and magic, and, well, I don't know. I never felt that the Muppets were too male-dominated, which is apparently the concern here, but then again I was sort of a tomboy when I was little. I was never into Barbies or ballerinas, either. Your mileage may vary.

And finally, if you find yourself getting too riled up about Abby or French fries or whatnot, here's an example of just how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things. (Ever see that short film about magnifying the universe by the power of 10? It's kind of like that.)

Monday, August 07, 2006

A random smattering of arty links today...

Film: Have you seen the Four Word Film Review? You can vote for your favorites on current films. Some are merely okay, others are truly inspired.

Historical writings: modern scientists have found a way to uncover the hidden writing in the texts of Archimedes. How cool is that?

Theatre: Hey, how come no one seemed to care that much about George Bernard Shaw's 150th birthday last week? At least the Shaw Festival honored the day.

Architecture: Panopticons is a UK group dedicated to creating "21st century landmarks" across the country. We need a US branch.

Animation: Anyone near Los Angeles should check out the summer-long exhibit "It's Alive!" which shows some of the great animatronic figures of film, including characters from Gremlins, The Dark Crystal, Beetlejuice and more. (For those of us who won't be near L.A. anytime soon, there's a slideshow of some of the creatures.)

Fabric fun: Crafster is always great, especially when they bring you brilliant ideas like this zombie and ninja created from felt. Brains! Nice, knitted brains!

Friday, August 04, 2006

Today: links from others! Thanks, everyone.

From Satori: Stephen Colbert causes chaos on Wikipedia - and gets his account revoked!

Also from Satori: hours of fun can be had with the church sign generator.

From Holly: Australia is using Barry Manilow to control its juvenile delinquents, Brazil is operating a penguin rescue mission, and the Field Museum in Chicago is having some nifty programs this fall with the help of National Geographic.

From Courtney: the Irregular WebComic imagines a political wiki gone awry. (This is a cool comic, if you haven't seen it before. They use Legos a lot!)

From Zazoo, a local story: hey, Cincinnatians, you know how they've torn up the area around UC and knocked down all the businesses on Calhoun over the last few years for that fancy new condo project? Well, uh, it might not happen. Great beautification plan, there, fellows!

From the Graveworm: check out The Amazing Screw-On Head, a new show which references both Lovecraft and steampunk in its description. Ooooh. Ahhhh.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Here's a nice cheerful link to start off the day: Congress is trying to get public libraries to ban access to chat rooms and "social networking sites" like MySpace and...Amazon. And a bunch of other sites. This should work out just great.

Along the same lines, WorkFriendly makes a webpage look, well, work-friendly. I wonder if it works for social networking sites.

Fortunately, some people appreciate the fighting librarians...

I could have sworn I'd mentioned From Old Books before, but I don't see it listed anywhere. If it's a repeat, it's a deserving one.

Objection! lets you write out your spurious accusation/spirited defense/inscrutable comment and have an anime character wave his arms about wildly. Here's the one Bunny sent me. I never knew he felt that way about Margaret Atwood.

Some random final links: we just found out that the world's longest yard sale, aka the 127 Yard Sale, started today and goes through Sunday. Isn't it early this year? Usually we're more prepared for it!

Also, if you remember the story of the hippo who bonded with the giant tortoise after losing its family, you'll love the weblog that their zoo publishes. Another hippo has been introduced into the group so that the young hippo can learn some hippo behaviors. It turns out that there's a bushbuck in the group, too. Someone really needs to start a book series about this crowd's adventures.

Tomorrow: links from others!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

A week or so ago, I was talking about Death Race 2000...and behold, they're now remaking it as Death Race 3000. This should be...interesting.

Slate has an interactive "buddy list" graphic that explains who's who in the Middle East and whether or not they get along. (I like the "it's complicated" icon.) Click on each square and get a pop-up explanation of the situation.

A young Pittsburgh boy is apparently the reincarnation of a WWII soldier. My dad always says that he thinks he was shot down in the Battle of Britain in a former life, so stuff like this intrigues me.

Speaking of Britain, there's a lot going on there right now. Yet another theory on the identity of Jack the Ripper has been publicized (this one fingers an immigrant as the villain); the Street Wars are going on in the alleyways of London; and this Saturday there's going to be, um, er, a masturbate-a-thon. All day. I'm just telling you here.

The hunt for the Holy Grail goes on, Da Vinci Code be damned, and there's now a tour you can take which incorporates the book's locations along with the original Holy Blood, Holy Grail spots, like Rennes-le-Chateau. (Admittedly, I'd love to see Rennes-le-Chateau. The place is bizarre.)

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Courtesy of Satori: get your handwriting analyzed! The results for both of us were rather surprisingly accurate.

The good people at Sesame Street are trying to help kids with parents in the military. In their depiction, Elmo's dad goes off to war. Let's hope his unit has some good camouflage outfits; Muppet fur can really stand out.

It's the end of an era: a new version of Monopoly skips all that pesky paper money and charges your ATM! No word yet on whether players can engage in identity theft.

Random planets zoom up to you in the Map of the Universe. Reloading brings up a different planet. It's all very surreal, like hitting the Infinite Improbability Drive.

And finally, for the introverts: sick of MySpace and Friendster and Vox and LiveJournal and FaceBook and all that sort of thing? Isolatr is for you!