Happy Friday! And many thanks to those who entered the book giveaway contest, either on Steampunk Empire or Steampunk Librarian. So far our entries have suggested the temporary resurrection of Tesla, da Vinci, Jesus, Maury Chaykin, and zombies.
From Bunny: author Anne Rice gave up vampires for Christianity, and is now giving up Christianity because she says it's a hypocritical establishment. (She makes some good points.) No word yet on whether she'll return to writing about vampires.
From Cassandra, science division: Hydrotherapy works for animals, including cats! Also, scientists are studying a large crater in Egypt thought to be caused by a meteor a few thousand years ago.
Attention, librarians: the Library of America now has its own weblog with all sorts of interesting posts, including 1928 video footage shot by Zora Neale Huston. Also, the Zimmerman's research guide (long a trusted resource for legal librarians) now has its own weblog as well!
And finally, in slightly weird news: the Pope has written a children's book. (Regardless of your thoughts on this news, it's worth clicking the link to see the Pope in a baseball hat. Er?)
Look, doesn't this pique your interest? I'm giving away copies (yes, plural!) of Johannes Cabal The Detective over at the Steampunk Librarian and also over at the Steampunk Empire. Two recipients will be determined by chance, and one by creative effort. (Also, my review of the book is there as well.) The drawing will be on Friday the 13th, so you have time to craft an entry!
Today's art related links separate into two categories: high-minded, beautiful art versus irreverent fun.
First, the culture. The Louvre has an amazing exhibit on Arabian sculpture going on right now; the museum's site itself doesn't have much, sadly, but the NYT article has more details.
From Cassandra: Who do you write like? I put in some various writing of mine and the consensus was that I write like Cory Doctorow. Ha! Where's my cape? I already have the goggles.
From my mom: Mountain Man, a band of three women. Yes, you read that right. They're good!
From Danny: "Just got this from another librarian, the URL [for Bookshelf Porn] doesn't look it but it's completely SFW - unless spending too much time on a website is bad for work..."
How is the summer reading going? New York City's libraries have a program with recommendations for several age groups. It's been too hot here to do much except read; look for some reviews and fun announcements (and possibly even some giveaway contests?) in the near future!
Most people couldn't read the OSS Sabotage Manual of 1943 because it wasn't exactly out in mass paperback. But thanks to the internet, we can all now see it in PDF!
And while we're talking about secretive stuff, have you been reading the Washington Post's series about the U.S. intelligence industry? It's fascinating. And hey, there's even a shoutout to the researchers behind the project.
Tomorrow: Friday! And that means links from others!
There is a segment of the steampunk community which gets very concerned about definitions and descriptions and semantics. (You could probably apply that statement to nearly every interest group.) I saw "decopunk" mentioned somewhere and found that it has its own beginning of a Wikipedia entry, but then spun off from there into lovely crazy stuff like Raygun Gothic and Streamline Moderne. I considered rebranding myself as a DecoGothicModerneNanoPunk Librarian, but decided that would take too long to say and type.
At any rate, the whole idea started with the genius of Victorian Science Fiction, and fortunately some have kept true to the origins. The latest example is the Aethergraph, now available for perusal!
Google tells me I have not mentioned Archive Designs before, but that seems impossible. If it's a repeat link, though, it's definitely worth it. Imagine a place with this sort of design, plus some Kilhouettes on the wall, and zing! Perfect, whatever else you call it.
Storychord combines a song, a photograph, and a story, and then sees what happens. (It'd be interesting to compile a collection of reactions by readers.)
Did you know that J. Jonah Jameson is on Twitter? He is, and he is posting in all caps, and he is ANGRY. But also hilarious.
I doubt JJ would be a fan of slow reading. (Too slow!) But others think the interwebs have fried our brains and we need to go back to reading slowly and carefully and yada yada yada.
The Smithsonian is hosting an exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings, many of which are owned by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The exhibit's website explores this slightly strange association. (Did you know Rockwell had thoughts of becoming a film director? I didn't.)
Happy Friday, everyone! On to the links from others!
As seen on Brendan's site: Asia Society's Rivers of Ice compares the glaciers of the Himalayas today to those of Sir Edmund Hillary's day, and the difference is startling. The glaciers are melting, whether or not anyone wants to admit it.
Happy Bastille Day, everyone! Let us be French and mock others. It's fun! (I say this with love, honest.)
This weekend brings DaVinci Days in Oregon (oh, I am envious) and Snail Racing Championships in the UK (I am...not envious? But curious). Go and celebrate!
I was pressed for time today, so I asked the other half of the Spooky Librarians duo for some help. Without further ado, here are Bunny's recommended links:
Knightmare, possibly the best game show ever! (It was a British show from the late '80s to early '90s - we just discovered it yesterday.) Watch the episodes online - here's the first part of Episode 1.
How is it that I never heard of Jára Cimrman until this week? He seems like a classic steampunk protagonist!
Other findings that have fallen through the cracks and only recently been rediscovered include this rather cryptic-sounding steampunk exhibition at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne's Discovery Museum and the online game Echo Bazaar, which uses Twitter as a registration and then leads you through a sort of "choose your own adventure" experience through the "Fallen London" of 1889. More details are available; I haven't begun my own game yet, but will soon!
While we're on the subject of animals, it's interesting to find out that squirrel vision includes natural sun glare protection. (I will have to speak to the squirrels in our yard; apparently they're supposed to have very good vision overall. Ours practically need a guide dog to help them find peanuts.)
Moscow has a new subway station named after Dostoevsky, and many say it's completely depressing. After seeing some photos, I don't think it's depressing so much as monochromatic. (And, as many people have pointed out, what do you expect from a Dostoevskaya station? Rainbows and flowers?)
And finally, if you have ever wished you had a baseball shirt of your favorite authors, your wish has been granted. Poe, Vonnegut, Thoreau, and even characters like Don Quixote and Hester Prynne have their own jerseys now!
Related, from Bunny: a warning to cleanup workers in the Gulf right now, with scary statistics about the crew from the Exxon Valdez disaster. (That being said, the article has comments by people saying, "Hey, I was there, and I'm not dead yet," so perhaps more investigation is needed.)
Going back to the disaster in the Gulf Coast, there's an auction going on right now by Web-Comics to help, with all proceeds going to the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund. I like Kate Beacon's Aquaman drawing in particular.
Let's start with all the depressing library stuff first, so we can end with the more cheerful links.
A Nation Without School Librarians and Losing Libraries are both websites using Google Maps to depict the problems libraries are facing in the United States. (Both sites were found via rosefirerising, who always posts really interesting material.) Good for presentations, editorials, and debates.
What lies under the New York Harbor? All kinds of things, as it turns out! (Related: Underwater New York is an art project currently going on in Brooklyn; I saw it when I was there and highly recommend it.)
Collecta is a new (to me) site for tracking real-time news in various social networking circles; you can customize the search to include or exclude specific applications. Neat!
And finally, something nice for librarians, since we tend to like lists: The Librarian's Book of Lists is coming out, and there's a top ten list of the more interesting features!
(Apologies for the wacky blank posts which are appearing occasionally; there's a browser war going on that's causing weirdness. Hopefully it's temporary.)
It is a zillion degrees pretty much everywhere right now, including here. But festivals go on regardless! The Vermonters will have their hot air balloon festival and the bog snorkelling triathlon will go on in Great Britain, as will the annual 3 Foot People Festival. (I thought at first this was for "little people," but it turns out to be for kids 5 years and younger.) In Australia, where it should not be as hot right now (theoretically, anyway), it's time for the Camel Cup! (Fun fact: Australia has a wild camel population. That must be interesting.)
If you'd rather hide in the air conditioning, Fortean Times has some great feature articles, including one on The Southwark Mysteries. I love the idea mentioned at the end of the article.
Stay cool, everyone. (I get to go swimming tonight and am giddy about it.)
And we're back! Photos of nature and family have been uploaded, and now it's back to the daily updates. Today: steampunky stuff!
First there were steampunked Star Wars costumes; now there are steampunked Star Wars portraits! Greg Peltz is doing beautiful work. I especially like Chewbacca's monocle.
A new LiveJournal community, budget_steam, has been created to help creators who don't have gobs of filthy lucre lying about. There are pointers and discussions and pictures, plus more!
The Steampunk Tribune mentioned Scott Bradlee some time ago, but I have only just now seen and heard his work. Go and be entertained!
