Friday, July 31, 2015

Happy Friday! Thanks to everyone who reads and sends in links. Special shout out to regular contributor Julie, who is temporarily away having “bits and bobs” removed in hospital. Hope you’re doing well!

From Cassandra: SETI and Stephen Hawking are stepping up the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence. Look out, aliens!

Also from Cassandra: a great article from the Atlantic about the recent discoveries at Jamestown, which discusses the possibility of an underground Catholic group among the Protestants at the settlement.

From Zazoo: Have you heard of Whittier, Alaska? It’s sort of like a sci-fi setting. Or a post-apocalyptic setting. Or a horror setting!

Also from Zazoo: “The fascinating history of the song Mahna Mahna.

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

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Library school graduates know that you run across mentions of Vannevar Bush in the oddest places. Today it’s an article on information overload which also invokes T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Marshall McLuhan, and more.

Which Book offers a different way of finding something to read. I tried a few sliders and was amused to find that it recommended a book of poetry by Wislawa Szymborska that I already own. It must be doing something right!

Libraries usually match up with cats, but in one particular case, an owl has received a library card.

In September, an e-forum will take place on “Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of Access to Information on our Societies.” It’s part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals initiative, and looks really interesting.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

If the fifty U.S. states were people in a bar, how would they act? I have to admit, most of these are dead on. Ohio, in particular, is frighteningly on point.

In California, meanwhile, you can buy odd lots in Los Angeles and do whatever you like with them! Here’s the full list. I would suggest purchasing the 26 square-foot lot and putting up this Tillinghast Field Warning Sign.

Atlas Obscura has been knocking it out of the park lately. Here’s a great article about the history of modern tarot cards.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Hello! We’re getting caught up, so today is a short entry.

Starting off your day with a rave may sound wacky, but then again…

Hopes and Fears has a great ongoing “what do you do” series; the one about working for carnies is especially good.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Happy Monday to you. It's an unexpected day away from Folderol; back tomorrow, probably!

Friday, July 24, 2015

Happy Friday, everyone!

From Zazoo: The pitch for the new Muppets show is really great, and gets back to the heart of Muppetdom. Hooray!

From Cassandra: A theory about conspiracy theorists contends that they’re theorizing the wrong way. Theoretically.

The Zooniverse has a new crowdsourcing project, Season Spotter, in which you report on the plants and your climate to track the changes throughout the year. If you like this, there’s a historic weather project as well.

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

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Fun fact of the day: Science mag OMNI was almost called NOVA. Then PBS got mad, and voila, OMNI.

Another fun fact: Dune is celebrating its fiftieth birthday. The Guardian looks back on the author and the sci-fi classic.

Finding out what a dramaturg does is awfully hard. I wish I’d known about it in college!

A WWII aircraft graveyard of sorts has been discovered underwater. Here are some gorgeous images.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

There are definitely times when I wonder if people react like this to links I send them. (That’s why I started a weblog a million years ago!)

'Tis the season for road trips across America. Here’s a great map tracing some of the best literary cross-country journeys.

Meanwhile, in Vermont, there are roads that don’t exist, but are still on the books. BLDG BLOG talks about them, and the same author wrote about them in the New Yorker. If you like travel and history, this is a must.

Meanwhile, in Stockholm’s airport, you can experience the weather in various locales without even getting on a plane!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Have you heard of Hart Island? It’s part of New York City, and has been a potter’s field for thousands of dead bodies. It’s also almost been an amusement park, and may be a park in the future. It’s a strange place.

You’ve probably heard of Rikers Island, which is nearby and has its own story and atmosphere.

While we’re on somewhat dark topics, have you heard of death cafes? They’re places for people to talk about death, and funeral practices, and what one’s experiences are.

On to brighter things…have you heard of featherbowling? I hadn’t, until I read this article, which is long and fascinating and covers everything from Belgian history to art theft.

King George: obnoxious monarch, or brilliant party planner? Probably both, as it turns out.

Monday, July 20, 2015

It’s Monday again, oy. Let’s start on a good note, by looking at this gallery of fantastic Comic-Con cosplayers!

Paris is planning a new skyscraper, which looks like a pyramid. I am all for more pyramids on this planet. The site for the building is in French, but the visuals speak for themselves.

Do you have one of the missing Faberge eggs? It’s possible!

LitHub provides a list of ten great writers nobody reads. The list alone makes for pretty interesting reading.

Friday, July 17, 2015

It is Friday, hooray!

From Holly: Chipmunks with light sabers. It’s all you expect and more!

From Cassandra: Pluto is bigger than we thought. Go Pluto!

Also from Cassandra: the APA apologizes via Twitter for aiding CIA torture activities. The apology goes about as well as you would expect.

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

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Today, Google celebrates Ida B. Wells, who was amazing. (Check out Kate Beaton’s comics about her, too!)

The Freedmen’s Bureau Project is a cooperative effort to help African Americans discover their roots. You can volunteer to help index historical records.

Also, the Southwestern Christian Advocate has made a portion of their “Lost Friends” advertisements available online. These are (often heartbreaking) notices from 1879-1880, placed by people looking for relatives and friends who had been separated during the era of slavery.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The new image of Pluto may overshadow the astronomy photos of the year listed last week, but these images are still awe-worthy.

Just when people are getting used to GPS, here come the mapcodes to complicate (or simplify?) matters.

Candles with evocative scents are nothing new, but what if they evoked a fictional character? It’s possible!

F.W. Murnau’s skull has gone missing. This is the man who brought us Nosferatu, so shady shenanigans are suspected.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Today is the Pluto fly-by! We’ll find out tonight if New Horizons survived. For now, at least, we have an amazing photo.

Also today: The All-Star Game. This is what it looks like on my way in to work. Not as amazing as Pluto, but still pretty neat.


Monday, July 13, 2015

Happy Monday! My city is packed with media trucks and tourists. It’s a little weird. Let’s go to the links.

Which (British) music festival are you? I got Glastonbury, which is fine with me.

I’ve not been to Glastonbury, but I have been to the Fulton Center subway station in Manhattan, which was named Building of the Year!

If you like literature and drinking, Bender Bound is for you, mixing lovely book covers with glass flasks.

Vinyl records are cool again, but they’re still really heavy, as one thrift store discovered when its floor collapsed. Oops.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Happy Friday!

From Cassandra: Aurorasaurus tracks aurora around the world, and it’s been a great year for them. Wired has an article with details.

Also from Cassandra: The Human Terrain System has come to an end. It sounds like an environmental project, but it was actually an Army-based concept which was just…odd.

From Twitter: Check out the new LEGO Ninjago set! There’s a shadow theatre! With lights!

Questionable Content is a great webcomic that you should be reading. But even if you aren’t, this entry is one to print out and put up somewhere, especially for those of us who have been called weird throughout the years. You go, Emily.

Have a spiffy and safe weekend, everyone. See you next week, when my city will be engulfed in All-Star game madness.

Thursday, July 09, 2015

So while we were gone, I was at our annual family picnic, now in its 72nd year (we like the tradition). Bloom is a new innovation which aims to improve communications among the generations. I like the idea, but am not sure everyone wants the rest of their family to know exactly what they’re doing!

NPR has an Investigations Research Librarian, which sounds like my dream job. She’s doing incredible work, as this report shows.

A Chrome extension promises to eliminate all mentions of the 2016 U.S. election. I am not usually for sticking one’s head in the sand, but I can see how this could be helpful until the primaries actually start, perhaps.

Melbourne gave trees email addresses, so people could identify damages. People started writing messages to the trees. The trees started writing back. It’s like a Tolkien story in the 21st century. The website for the project is fascinating, too.

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Argh. I'm still not caught up on everything, the NYSE just stopped trading, and the Dissolve shut down today as well. Let's all go to bed and pretend today didn't happen. Back tomorrow, I hope!

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

We are back! While we get caught up, please enjoy the games Google has in today's Doodle. (My first attempt at movie-making didn't go very well.)