Happy Friday!

From Julie: Exploring the history and possible future of the split-sleep schedule. I am pretty much doing this on a regular basis anyway, which makes fitting in with the modern world awfully difficult.

From Digg: How much longer is mosquito season where you live (in America)? We have two extra weeks where I live. Bah!

From Twitter: A British council office is experiencing an influx of squirrels, who are eating people’s lunches and setting off alarms. I suspect Cyber Squirrel is doing reconnaissance ops.

For weekend reading: A compilation of long, detailed articles about Prince! 

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

Guys, I do not get into politics much here, but really, check out the speeches from this week’s DNC. They are amazing and inspiring.

If you’d rather be incensed, however, here is madness: Bob, Gordon and Luis have been let go from Sesame Street! WTF?

What role would you play in a fairytale? Apparently, I would be…a fairy. Well. Okay then. (At least I’m not the “damsel in distress.”)

Animal live cams are great. Here’s a list of several, and here is a subjective ranking of a few!

It’s a rough world out there in this year of 2016. Here are a few bits of escapism.

First off, Pokemon Go players can walk shelter dogs in Indiana. It’s a win-win!

For Wonder Woman’s 75th anniversary, she’s getting some truly gorgeous postage stamps. 

If you’re in New York and need an impressive space for a few hours, consider Spacious, which rents out high-end restaurant space during the day.

I am sort of back, after a sinus headache and/or migraine yesterday. (Fun!) While I get organized, relive the wonder of the 12" remix, thanks to this amazing thread on Metafilter!

Happy Friday, everyone! Back to normal (whatever that is) next week. Have a spiffy weekend.

Today's pleasant news: There's going to be an Atlas Obscura book! 

Also, if you're looking for something to do, AnnoTate has new material for crowdsourcing efforts, like the letters of Felicia Browne.

It’s Unexpected Links from Others Day! Thanks, all.

From Julie: Planets you’ve never heard of! 

From Holly: A record store rendered in LEGO. Awesome.

From Zazoo: Disney is opening a Rizzo the Rat Pizzeria! (?)

If you'd like to follow along with the madness that is the Republican convention, Metafilter has a thread for you.

If you'd like something more escapist, test your literary knowledge via this quiz from New York City's Strand bookstore. (I got 39 out of 50, which probably means I wouldn't get hired.)

From Zazoo: A UFO? Call Mulder and Scully ASAP.

Stay safe, everyone. See you next week.

If you’re going to be in Cleveland for the Republican convention next week, or if you’re interested in hearing about the place out of morbid curiosity, Bill Lucey is here with interesting facts about the city! It’s going to be…interesting, that’s for sure.

Speaking of the U.S. election, FiveThirtyEight is live with their election predictions, updated daily.

In happier news, it’s National Ice Cream Month, and you can learn all sorts of fun facts about ice cream.

Well, on the bright side of things, Larry the Cat is keeping his job at 10 Downing Street.

Let’s turn our minds back to the past for a few minutes and contemplate the art of WWII bomber jackets, the wacky inventions like “mind expander chairs” of the 1960s, and the beautiful furniture that Bel y Bel creates from vintage cars and scooters. Deep breaths.

I’ve been playing Ingress for just over a year, so it’s been fascinating to watch people freak out over Pokemon Go. (I also know next to nothing about Pokemon creatures, so have been asking Bunny for details. He was excited to catch a Bellsprout. It looks like an animated bell pepper. Sort of.)

In other news of different realities, let’s all take a field trip to Mars!

I wonder if, in the future, the year 2016 will be regarded as some sort of watershed point in western (or American) society.

Stay safe, everyone. See you next week.

The news is, once again, discouraging and frustrating. Here are a few unrelated links.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Central Library celebrated its 90th birthday. It sounds as if it’s hosted quite the cast of characters in its nine decades.

You can browse Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s scrapbooks online now. Photos, articles, and more!

Julian Cope, the best punk pagan around, has organized the SydArthur Festival. Take a look. It’s mystical and wonderful (and free!).

More on Juno’s mission to Jupiter! 

Six months on, no one has discovered the identity of the man found dead (from strychnine poisoning - ?!?) on Saddleworth Moor. This BBC exploration has some really interesting ways of showing data - just keep scrolling and maps become animated, for instance.

In other morbid news, why not gaze upon some Victorian-era photographs of dead children? Or explore how tuberculosis has affected fashion? (Sorry. Sometimes the links follow a dark theme, despite my best intentions.)

And we’re back! In body, anyway, if not quite in spirit.

Hooray for Juno! It’s nice to have some good news for once.

From Julie: Amazing optical illusion painting. 

Also from Julie: Today is the last day to see Susanna Hesselberg’s vanishing library piece (the title of which hits me right at my core) at the Danish biennial Sculpture by the Sea festival. 

Where does England go from here? A short manifesto examines a possible silver lining.