Good morning. Are you a replicant? Are you sure? According to this test, there’s a 21% chance I may be one. I'm just saying.

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the opening of the Eiffel Tower to the public. Most people hated the idea at first. Funny how things change, eh?

Hello! Happy Monday.

I have discovered Sporcle. Sporcle is a huge quiz site and, as a result, a huge timesuck. You have been warned.

And now, on to art.

We see Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” everywhere today. How did a woodcut from the 1830s get so popular? 

Picasso’s granddaughter is handling his paintings in her own unorthodox way, which is pretty awesome.

David Zinn makes wonderful chalk art, and there’s going to be a book soon!

And finally, the science behind dyeing Easter eggs, and how to get various colors.

Happy Friday! Many thanks to everyone who shared links.

From Jeff: Is it a drone, or is it an Imperial Destroyer? Both!

From Cassandra: The convoluted contortions of the English language, and the strange bedfellows in the effort to reduce prison terms for drug crimes.

From the people at How We Get to Next: Painting your roof white can help cope with climate change.

From Zazoo: Meet the pika! It’s very endangered and looks like an anime character.

Speaking of strange characters, you may have seen this black and white photo of the Teletubbies that's making the rounds. When I saw it, I thought it looked like a Sigur Ros video, or maybe Joy Division. Turns out others have seen the Joy Division similarities, and have created this fantastic spookiness!



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

My father and my aunt had a running argument about Richard III. My dad was of the opinion that Richard got a raw deal from history and wasn’t nearly the villain Shakespeare and others made him out to be. It was big news for us when Richard’s remains were discovered. Today, Richard III was reburied in a ceremony at St Martin’s Cathedral in Leicester. I think my dad would approve.

Bookniture is furniture which looks like a book. Impress your friends!

 I kept seeing references to “meerkatting” events and thought it was just a weird way of saying people were watching them. No! Meerkatting is a livestream from one’s phone, and anyone can watch, either through an app or by visiting Meerkatstreams. The more you know!

Daniel Rotzstain is drawing all of Toronto’s libraries. He’s almost finished! Look and see!

Update: Happy Tolkien Reading Day!

Today is Manatee Appreciation Day! Go find a manatee to appreciate.

This fantastic map of American monsters includes my hometown creature, which I have never seen despite looking for it every time I drive along the river.

Speaking of rivers, here are some women who designed and built some of the world’s most famous bridges.

Moving away from the water, here’s a gallery of gorgeously spooky forests.

Thanks to HMTL5, you can create secret messages and images with “draggable” graphics!

And finally, here’s the full story of Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” album cover, taken from a pulsar signal.

I saw “The Time Police Investigated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” and thought it might be a story about time-traveling law enforcement, but no. Just the regular police, investigating an author (and possibly fabricating evidence against him) . Bah. Still interesting, though!

In related news, a series about Doyle and Harry Houdini has been greenlighted.

Visit Mr. Fogg’s in London, the spiritual home of Verne protagonist Phileas Fogg. Warning: music plays when you arrive at the website. This can be seen as a positive or a negative.

Happy Monday! And happy World Meteorological Day. In related news, I live in one of the most unpredictable weather cities. Yay us!

Google is hosting a site dedicated to street art. The LA Times has more information. 

From streets to City: American museums are joining forces to protect a huge land art piece in Nevada. (When future civilizations find this, they will be so, so confused.)

There’s a movement afoot to canonize G.K. Chesterton! If you don’t know Chesterton, his Wikipedia entry is a pretty good start.

It’s Friday! And spring is here! And there was an eclipse, even though most people didn’t get to see anything! And March Madness is happening! Wow. There’s a lot going on today.

Along with being disappointed by the eclipse, the British held a corgi race to predict the sex and name of the royal baby to be. This is just an excuse to show a short video of cute corgis.

Via Margaret Atwood: There may have been a major breakthrough in treating Alzheimer’s. 

From Cassandra: This spider dress is totally casual and won’t turn any heads. Really. Um. Also, robots are teaching handwriting. 

From Zazoo: The Brooklyn Navy Yard has a colorful history and a vibrant present!

From Bunny: Cozies for tortoises. This is a thing, apparently. The tortoises don’t seem to mind, so it’s all good.

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

I just discovered the Warburg Institute, thanks to this New Yorker article, and it might be my new favorite library.

Technology is inching us ever closer to rescuing the Herculaneum scrolls. 

The future of libraries is often discussed, but I like this article particularly for its illustrations.

Huzzah for improbable libraries! Macleans has a list for you.

Greetings! The Spooky Librarians endorse the Pulp Librarian and his excellent work. Follow him on Twitter for neverending cool stuff.

Alan Moore is back to Lovecraftian adventures in Providence, and has a lot to say about it. 

There are some truly morbid “tourist attractions” out there, and Ambroise Tezenas has written a book about them. Check out his photography website, too.

 If you’re not into spookiness today, consider becoming a citizen archivist by helping the National Archives transcribe their materials! I would be so into this if I had enough spare time right now.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I really like Google’s Doodle today, and also their link to Irish places. Lovely stuff.

Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics) has a limited-edition shirt relevant to my interests – “too late for tall ships, too soon for star ships.” Yep, that’s me, pretty much.

 Baseball is returning soon, hooray! Here’s the legendary Uni Watch on restoring old baseball magazine covers. 

A 1906 book imagined the Manhattan of 2015 as a medieval wasteland of sorts. This article is fascinating, not least because it mentions a Jack London book I’d never heard of which concerns a destroyed 2013 San Francisco. To the libraries!

Happy Monday!

Has the grave of Cervantes been discovered? Maybe! (No windmills nearby, however.)

If you like Brutalist architecture, Manchester is the place to be. 

Here’s a proposal for a new Oscar category: Best Dramatic Research. Hooray for dramaturgy!

If you like Erector sets, you’re in luck: Meccano designs furniture based on that very concept.

Happy Friday the 13th…again!

From Holly: It must be spring; our hometown Dairy Whip opened for business. 

Also from Holly: Star Wars. Cruises. Two things I wouldn’t have imagined going together, but it’s happening. 

From Chris G: livestreaming kittens, straight outta Brooklyn! 

From Julie: How to break the internet, for real (no Z-list celebrities involved).

Also from Julie: They’ve found 2.8 million-year-old teeth! 

From Twitter: Bauman Rare Books has a fascinating weblog. 

From Bunny: “Cobra Commander claims Key to the City of Springfield, Illinois.” It’s only a matter of time now…

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

Updated with breaking news: Goodbye, Sir Terry Pratchett, and thank you for everything.

(Man, 2015 has been tough.)

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NASA has a Flickr account, and is asking for photos of today’s MMS launch. If you’re there, contribute to the pool! 

 Remember when Google and Yahoo! looked like the most basic of websites? 

There are plans afoot for Brooklyn libraries which look really interesting.

Retraction Watch keeps an eye out for studies which aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Masking tape with a book spine design? It’s on Etsy. I wonder if there’s a wallpaper border like this.

Today, we bring you more on crows! The BBC asked its readers if they had interesting crow stories, and wow, do they ever. 

Atlas Obscura featured the Haserot Angel from Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery. I’ve been there in person, and the angel is breathtaking.

You know what London needs? It needs a death pyramid, that’s what. Someone should get on that!

Today is busy, so the post is short but still interesting. "Dead drops" are USBs out in the wild, containing anything and everything, usually cemented into place. There's a map of dead drops worldwide, and there's one near me, and I am so curious about what it contains!

Happy arty Monday!

Escher and LEGO. Prepare to be amazed.

Puppet talk! 

Dramaturges schedule edit-a-thons for Wikipedia, for the good of all. 

I really want to see the Cooper Hewitt museum next time I’m in New York; it sounds futuristic and fantastic. 

In East Germany, art was difficult to make, but underground artists did it anyway, with “antique” methods.

It’s Friday, huzzah.

It looks like the winter is finally ending – Bockfest is here!

In more good news, Pop Culture Junk Mail is back! 

From Zazoo: They’ve found the City of the Monkey God! 

From Julie: The Doomsday seed vault got its first consignment. 

Also from Julie: The shortlist for the Diagram Prize is out, and there are some seriously weird book titles out there.

From Cassandra: Resistance, not punishment, for students.

From Holly: Stories about the Tower of London ravens! I think my favorite bit is that a raven was named Grog. There’s also a video. I think I want to be a Raven Master in my next life.

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

It’s World Book Day, at least in the UK, and the photos of kids dressed as their favorite literary characters are adorable and hilarious.

I am impressed by the guys who built the secret tunnel in Toronto, and even more impressed now that they’ve explained it wasn’t really a tunnel, just a hideaway place.

At UNC, they’re creating a digital sound archive of the civil rights movement, with broadcasts from radio stations of the time. This is a brilliant idea.

As promised: Zombies USA! You can control the simulation and watch the chaos spread.

In Germany, meanwhile, the Wasteland Warriors are ready for whatever happens. (They have a website, too, but it is in limbo at the moment, apparently.)

Literature walks are all the rage. Here’s one example of a London ramble.

And finally, something fun: Canadians are “Spocking” their currency in honor of Leonard Nimoy! It’s not illegal (yet), so I look forward to seeing more examples.

Today is a grab bag of links. For instance, behold this boombox mug. Perfect for Generation X!

There’s a company which specializes in providing customers with a James Bond-like experience. If you’ve ever wanted to be a super-spy, and you have unlimited amounts of money, here’s your chance. This seems a bit like the premise for a horror movie. I’m probably just biased, however, because I think the Sacred Introvert Retreat Tour looks lovely, and that is the polar opposite of the Special Ops Agency getaway.

Hooray for silent films, and the intertitles which always seem a little spooky, but in a good way!

Tomorrow, there will be zombies. Really. Stay tuned.

Even the White House is sad we lost Spock.

Something more cheerful for this Monday: photos taken in a Crayola factory. Nice.

I’ve linked to Sydney’s forensic archives before, but Justine Larbalestier’s Big Idea post reminded me to go look again, and they seem to have added more details to the already fascinating mug shots of the 1920s.