Friday, March 30, 2018

Happy Friday!

Sunday is not only Easter, not only April Fool’s Day, but also “Whan That Aprille Day,” a day to “celebrate al the langages that have come bifor, and alle their joyes and sorrowes and richesse.”

Via Matt: The art of Burning Man comes to the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery! 

 And here is the Rodent Recap of the Elite Trait contest last night. The Final Roar is Monday and the championship battle is Wednesday!


 


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

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Well, today was supposed to be Opening Day, but nature is not cooperating. Spring, therefore, is not officially here yet.

 However, the Sweet Sixteen of March Mammal Madness is here! The Elite Trait battles are tonight!

 

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Skellig Michael, aka the island in The Last Jedi, is stark and beautiful and fairly inaccessible. (Also, it has lots of puffins.)

Archaeologists have discovered remnants of Chicago’s White City while preparing for the Obama Presidential Center! 

The Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom is at the center of a huge fraud scandal. I think he would be pleased.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

More March Mammal Madness below! It all ends next week.

If you’re looking for something else, and if you were around in the 1980s and remember stories about the bizarre Bhagwan in Oregon, Netflix now has a documentary about the cult. (If you weren’t around in the 1980s, take a look anyway. This was a seriously weird episode in history.)


Monday, March 26, 2018

Happy Monday! It’s another busy week for us at Spooky Librarians HQ; things will return to semi-normal after next week.

Language: The Lewis and Clark expedition added hundreds of words to the English language. 

Art: Science has discovered some fascinating secrets behind Picasso’s artwork. Also related (and referenced in the article): did you know the Louvre has its own particle accelerator for art? 

Poetry and more: The Bohemian group at Carmel, California was creative and freethinking, and then they got obsessed with death and it all fell apart, more or less. (Poets!)

Friday, March 23, 2018

Happy Friday! Here's another recap of mammalian madness. Have a spiffy and safe weekend, everyone. Back next week with a more normal schedule!


 

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Hi there. With illness, snowstorms, and March Mammal Madness, this week is kind of a wash. But here's the latest recap, and there will be another one tomorrow, and then hopefully we can reset to normal next week!


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

OK, we missed Monday due to a stomach bug of some sort, and are now catching up. In the meantime, here's another Rodent Recap!


 

Friday, March 16, 2018

Happy Friday!

It was another long night of March Mammal Madness, but it was very fun. Even the Washington Post is taking notice. 

 Have a spiffy weekend and St. Patrick's Day, everyone! See you next week.



Thursday, March 15, 2018

Hello! We are currently enveloped in March Mammal Madness (see below), but if you’re not into mammals for some reason, the CJR has a good, important story on the importance of a newspaper’s archives, especially in this transitory era of analog to digital.



 

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Here’s a goldmine of old infographics, which are my catnip. (Please do not follow the “25 Ways in Which We Use Asbestos” advice.)

 How to combat fake news? Make a game of it! In Get Bad News, you try to create fake articles, and in doing so, you will hopefully recognize the signs of “fake news” in the wild, as it were.

 March Mammal Madness is upon us once again! Behold!

 

Monday, March 12, 2018

It’s Monday, and it’s going to be a really busy week here, so entries may be short. Onward!

Igor Lipchanskiy puts himself just out of sight of many album covers, and shows you the “real” story.

The Library of Congress has rediscovered some rare old photos, including one of Harriet Tubman! 

If you haven’t seen Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, I recommend it highly. Here’s a story about how it was made. 

Miskatonic University has a NYC branch that specializes in horror studies! Who knew?

Friday, March 09, 2018

We have made it to Friday!

From Satori: Behold, Mac Sabbath. It’s…a thing, definitely. (Fortunately, Black Sabbath likes them.) 

Sheerly Genius is working on tights that are made from bulletproof fibers. Where was this in the ‘80s? (Then again, a lot of tights ended up strategically ripped, so perhaps it’s just as well.)

My new favorite Instagram account is that of a cat named Dog who helps sell fish. Yes, really. Apparently, Dog does not mind wearing costumes, which makes for some amazing photos. 

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

Thursday, March 08, 2018

It’s International Women’s Day! The Guardian is posting live updates from around the world. Meanwhile, Mattel has produced an “Inspiring Women” line of Barbies, which sounds goofy at first, but the dolls are actually pretty great. Small steps and all that.

If you like history and crowdsourcing projects, check out the American Archive of Public Broadcasting - WGBH FIX IT Transcript-a-thon! It’s correcting transcripts, gamified.

Too many books at home? Here are some design ideas for reading nooks and book storage.

Bill Lucey takes a look at the connections between St. Patrick’s Day and Opening Day. Soon!

And finally, on a personal note: Tonight, we get to see Neil Gaiman in person, courtesy of our local public library. Woot!

Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Wow, today is busy. Only two links today, and one is a page of animated gifs from the CDC on driving safety, presented solely for the novelty value of a page of animated gifs.

The other is related to driving as well: Goodyear is working on a new tire incorporating living moss, which aims to reduce CO2 and produce oxygen. How cool is that?

Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Special Link from Others edition, thanks to Julie, who sent this wonderful story of snow people grieving “for their fallen comrade” during the recent storms. 

Changeist has…changed! Their website has been revamped, go check it out.

Also changing things up a bit: Velcro City Tourist Board, looking at futurism and whatnot. (Futurism is especially tricky these days, unsurprisingly.)

Monday, March 05, 2018

It’s Monday morning and there are new words and phrases in the dictionary! 

If you’d rather read older material, you can immerse yourself in Jane Austen via special themed weekends in Vermont. 

And for even older scribblings, you can learn the art of palaeography (deciphering old handwriting) online!

Friday, March 02, 2018

And we’re into Friday!

From Zazoo: Hurrah, Ladyton is back! And it looks like IAMX is back, too. 

Via Matt Staggs: Some amazing photographs of Los Angeles when it was all wetlands and watersheds. 

Botnik, which creates all sorts of things using predictive text and algorithms, now presents the lifestyle site Goob! I like the dogs headline the best.

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

Thursday, March 01, 2018

It’s March 1st, and that means the bracket for 2018 March Mammal Madness has dropped! (We are…very invested in this contest, as you may have guessed.)

If you’re looking for something more history-based, check out the amazing suffrage diary of Kate Parry Frye, and check out the Woman and Her Sphere website, too!