The Centered Librarian

Another beautiful reading space (photo)

2012-01-27T11:17:00.000-05:00

Click to enlarge

Assembling a yurt (video)

2012-01-27T09:12:00.000-05:00

Putting up a yurt (also called a ger) is fast and easy, but its best done by an entire family. This yurt was moved by the family of Shagdarsuren Herelchuluun, on the east side of Lake Hovsgol, in northern Mongolia, not far from the Russian border.

Found at Boing Boing.

On fixing academic publishing

2012-01-27T08:54:00.001-05:00

Nancy Sims, of the University of Minnesota Libraries, responds to The Atlantic's criticisms of JSTOR, an academic database that can be difficult and expensive to access: "There are things JSTOR does that I do have issues with. I wish it was doing more to provide more open access to the public domain materials it holds, for example. The JSTOR independent researcher program has all kinds of problems. But JSTOR is, for the most part, a pretty good element of the existing landscape."

(Via Boing Boing.)

The Universe Bound: Astronomical by Mishka Henner

2012-01-27T08:24:00.002-05:00

We are all well aware that the reading of books can open up new worlds but who knew you could fit the entire universe in a set of 12 books.

Mishka Henner does just that with Astronomical; twelve hefty volumes representing a scale model of our solar system from the Sun to Pluto with the width of each page representing one million kilometers!

The Sun pops up in Volume 1 and Pluto closes out the set on the last page of Volume 12 and there is a plethora of darkness in between and just like that the entire universe is contained between the covers.

The Sun

Details:
The first 10 sets retail for £100 and each is printed-on-demand. Each volume is 5.5″ x 8.5″, perfect bound with white interior paper (50# weight), black and white interior ink, and white exterior paper (100# weight).

Here's a video preview:

ASTRONOMICAL - The Movie from Mishka Henner on Vimeo.

(Via Book Patrol.)

Yosemite in HD (video)

2012-01-26T10:16:00.002-05:00

Much better in full-screen mode.

Searching for Context: Modeling the Information-Seeking Process of College Students in the Digital Age

2012-01-26T09:47:00.001-05:00

What is it like to be a college student in the digital age? Alison Head — lead researcher for the national study, Project Information Literacy, Berkman Fellow, and Research Scientist in University of Washington’s Information School — presents a working typology of the undergraduate information-seeking process, including students’ reliance on and use of Web sources.

MP3

OGG audio format!

More info on this event here (includes video clip)

Harvard University. Berkman Center for Internet & Society Podcast

(Via Celia's.)

Fritz Goro's Photos: The Art of Science (photostream)

2012-01-26T09:28:00.000-05:00

Stephen Jay Gould once said that LIFE photographer Fritz Goro, who died in 1986, was "the most influential photographer that science journalism (and science in general) has ever known." LIFE.com has posted a gallery of his truly wonderful photos.

In the photo above Edwin Land, the president and co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation, demonstrates his company's "60-second film" in 1963. By allowing photographers to see (almost) immediately what they had shot, Polaroid revolutionized photography and foreshadowed the advent of digital photography and its emphasis on instant gratification.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read

2012-01-25T11:24:00.000-05:00

Thanks for this ongoing interest in my book suggestions. From some of your reflections, it looks like the intent of the list was not as clear as I thought. The one-line comment after each book is not a review but a statement about how the book’s content influenced the behavior of people who shaped the western world. So, for example, it does no good to say what the Bible “really” meant, if its actual influence on human behavior is something else. Again, thanks for your collective interest.

1.) The Bible (eBook) - “to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself.”

2.) The System of the World by Isaac Newton (eBook) – “to learn that the universe is a knowable place.”

3.) On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth.”

4.) Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (eBook – Audio Book) – “to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos.”

5.) The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine (eBook – Audio Book) – “to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world.”

6.) The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself.”

7.) The Art of War by Sun Tsu (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art.”

8.) The Prince by Machiavelli (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it.”

Click this link for more commentary and links to free copies

Another collection of beautiful libraries (photostream)

2012-01-18T11:11:00.000-05:00

Several more here.

Happy 130th Birthday, A. A. Milne: “Happiness” and the Origin of Winnie-the-Pooh

2012-01-18T10:31:00.001-05:00

On rainy days and the simplicity of happiness.

One hundred and thirty years ago today, Alex Alexander Milne (1882-1956) took his first breath. Best known for authoring the Winnie-the-Pooh book series, among the most beloved children’s books with timeless philosophy for grown-ups, A. A. Milne was also a prolific poet. In 1924, two years before the first Winnie-the-Pooh book, he penned When We Were Very Young — a collection of poetry for young children, illustrated by E. H. Shepard. In the 38th poem of the book, titled “Teddy Bear”, the famed Winnie-the-Pooh character makes his first appearance. Originally named “Mr. Edward Bear” by Christopher Robin Milne, Milne’s own son, Winnie-the-Pooh is depicted wearing a shirt that was later colored red for a recording produced by Stephen Slesinger, an image that eventually shaped the familiar Disney character.

The third poem in the book is a short gem titled “Happiness” — a wonderful meditation on how little it takes to find happiness. (And, clearly, a giant missed opportunity for Apple.)

(Via Brain Pickings.)

A Brief History of Computing Platforms (video)

2012-01-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Carved book landscapes by Guy Laramee

2012-01-17T14:04:00.000-05:00

Several nore here.

Amazing images of Saturn via Cassini

2012-01-17T10:23:00.000-05:00

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is now a nearly a year into its extended mission, called Cassini Equinox (after its initial 4-year mission ended in June, 2008). The spacecraft continues to operate in good health, returning amazing images of Saturn, its ring system and moons, and providing new information and science on a regular basis. The mission's name, "Equinox" comes from the upcoming Saturnian equinox in August, 2009, when its equator (and rings) will point directly toward the Sun. The Equinox mission runs through September of 2010, with the possibility of further extensions beyond that. Collected here are 24 more intriguing images from our ringed neighbor.

Found via TYWKIWDBI.

Friday Fun: The complete version of Baby Trashes Bar. (video)

2012-01-13T14:46:00.000-05:00

The Light of Day (video)

2012-01-13T14:19:00.001-05:00

It’s not hard to grow old but making peace with the challenges of aging is no easy task. Photographer Simon Biswas glimpses the conflict in a series of emotional video portraits that tell his subjects’ stories with honesty and dignity. His sitters regale us with fond memories of collecting Brooklyn Dodgers autographs and tragic losses like the death of a child. The Light of Day celebrates the experience of growing old and pays respect to those who have preceded us in making sense of life’s many unanswered questions.

Phone Stacking (cool idea)

2012-01-12T12:33:00.000-05:00

We have all been there. You are out in a restaurant or club with friends. The conversation is going well. And then a cell phone rings, is answered and the conversation is halted. Well, someone over at Tumblr has come up with a novel idea - "Phone Stacking".

The rules are simple and begin after ordering: Each person at the table is required to place their phone facedown, (for dramatic effect you can stack the cellphone pile in the center of the table) at the beginning of the meal. While eating, incoming email and text notifications will sound, and the first person who picks up his/her phone also picks up the entire bill. If no one gives into temptation, every participant is declared a winner and pays for his/her own meal.

There are variations and more info at the link.

Found at PSFK

On Gratitude: A most inspiring video

2012-01-12T09:19:00.000-05:00

"You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day — it’s the one day that is given to you, today. It’s given to you, it’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life, and the very last day, then you would have spent this day very well.”

10 fascinating facts about the human body (infographic)

2012-01-11T14:12:00.000-05:00

via

The Shins A Simple Song (music)

2012-01-11T10:12:00.000-05:00

I have missed them and thought some of you might enjoy....

Simple Song by The Shins

Organizing the Bookcase (video)

2012-01-11T10:05:00.002-05:00

The Joy of Books (video)

2012-01-10T13:16:00.002-05:00

Thanks Aimee

Every Hobbit book cover ever

2012-01-10T11:49:00.000-05:00

Literally hundreds more over at The Tolkien Library.

TateShots: An Interview with Maurice Sendak

2012-01-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

Very mild profanity.

Book Sale (photo)

2012-01-10T10:01:00.001-05:00

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

The Venn of Ron Paul

2012-01-09T13:06:00.000-05:00

Click to enlarge

Mother Jones attempts a taxonomy of libertarian thought in order to figure out where Ron Paul fits. Much more analysis at the link.

Found at Boing Boing

A United States Map: One man's work of love.

2012-01-06T10:52:00.006-05:00

Over 2 years, 7 days a week, David Imus invested 6,000 hours to hand craft "The Essential Geopgraphy of the United States of America". His work of craftsmanship based on 35 years of cartography experience won the prestigious "Best of Show" award at the 38th annual competition of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. Competing against maps from large organizations (National Geographic, CIA, US Census Bureau) Imus' masterful work of love easily outshone the others. If you don't think that there could be such a difference between maps, take a look at the comparison. The more you look the more you appreciate the quality and clarity of this creation.

Books: Get HBO programming 10 years before everyone else (photo)

2011-12-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

Antiquarian Books (photo)

2011-12-19T14:46:00.001-05:00

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

A 31 word short story by Arthur C. Clarke

2011-12-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

Transcripts:

Cover Letter

This is the only short story I've written in ten years or so.

I think you'll agree that they don't come much shorter.

(Signed, 'Arthur C Clarke')

21 Mar 84

(Appearing in Analog, ? 1984)

© Arthur C Clarke 1984

The Story

siseneG
by
Arthur C Clarke

And God said: DELETE lines One to Aleph. LOAD. RUN.
And the Universe ceased to exist.

Then he pondered for a few aeons, sighed, and added: ERASE.
It never had existed.

From Letters of Note.

Porttrait of a Bookshelf

2011-12-14T13:33:00.000-05:00

New York-based artist Jane Mount has created Ideal Bookshelves for all types of readers–literary scholars, arm-chair travelers, poetry lovers, biography buffs, and Hunger Games fans. And earlier this year, the Davidson grad inked a deal with Little Brown to turn her Ideal Bookshelf series into an Ideal Bookshelf book.

Several more examples and ordering instructions over at Garden and Gun MAgazine

The oldest piano shop in Paris (video)

2011-12-14T13:13:00.002-05:00

Dogs in cars (video) - very cute

2011-12-14T11:08:00.002-05:00

Rapper Ice Cube Professes His Love For Architecture and the Eames House [Video]

2011-12-13T16:15:00.001-05:00

From PFSK.

Much more on the Eames here.

Who needs a Christmas tree when you have books?

2011-12-13T15:58:00.001-05:00

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

Vatican's Library begins to digitize 80,000 of its manuscripts (video)

2011-12-12T11:15:00.000-05:00

How a Real Luxury Car Is Made (video)

2011-12-12T09:41:00.003-05:00

1961 letter from Groucho to T.S. Eliot

2011-12-12T08:41:00.000-05:00

Via Austin Kleon

The Books They Gave Me

2011-12-09T08:56:00.000-05:00

The Books They Gave Me is a delightful blog wherein one can post a short narrative about and image of a seminal book given by someone loved - or once loved. The stories are sometimes sad, often inspiring and every now and then downright funny.

MURKOFF.

He was my sweetheart all through high school. Not much of a reader, but a hopeless romantic, always leaving notes and presents in my locker. We had very different plans for life after high school; he was enlisting and I was going to college. He had your typical fantasy: a house with a white picket fence, and he would come home to dinner on the table and children there to greet him. I wanted to chain myself to trees in the rain-forests of Brazil. It was easy to put these things away when we were in high school; I mean, why worry about what’s happening in 4 years when we have now and we love each other?
The day before I was set to move into my dorm, he came to my house and gave me this book. I was speechless as I opened it, wondering what he meant by it. His chicken-scratch handwriting on the inside cover: “We’re going to get married and have babies. You are my one and only.”

I knew at that moment that we could not be together. What was real had been made into a fantasy by time and false hope.
When I looked up from the book, he was on one knee, with a ring (it was really just a piece of costume jewelry) in his hand.
He took the book with him when he stormed out my house. We haven’t spoken since.

Many more at the link.

Found via Coudal Partners

Polish Cold War Neon Signs

2011-12-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

‘Polish neon signage was renowned for its outstanding technical and artistic qualities. These signs originally were an attempt to increase consumerism in the time of economic standstill in Poland. Author Ilona Karwinska collects her own stunning photographs, archival images, original neon designs, and interviews with their designers to reveal the untold story of Polish Neon.’

- Polish Cold War Neon

Many more over at The Retronaut

From Frida Kahlo to Freud, Finger Puppets of Cultural Icons

2011-12-08T09:15:00.002-05:00

The Philosophers Guild has debuted a delightful series of finger puppets depicting iconic individuals from mono-browed Frida Khalo to an anxious-looking Sigmund Freud. Perfect stocking stuffers.

Andy Warhol

Vincent Van Gogh

Siegfried Freud

The Buddha

Charlie Chaplin

Mahatma Gandhi

Che Guevara

Sherlock Holmes

Shakespeare

Albert Einstein

Frida Kahlo

(Via Brain Pickings.)

Future Fossils: A reminder of our own technosphere's doomed frailty.

2011-12-08T08:33:00.000-05:00

From Boing Boing.

The Bughouse Future Fossils series are a set of highly detailed, weathered concrete castings of near-contemporary technology, from DJ turntables to film cameras to Atari joysticks. They're a nice memento mori -- a weighty-but-whimsical reminder of our own technosphere's doomed frailty.

Several more at the link.

Now You Can Sleep Inside a Giant Book

2011-12-07T13:23:00.001-05:00

FieldCandy has designed its Fully Booked tent to look like an open book. Lots of other interesting and clever designs there, too.

Via Gizmodo.

Edmund Wilson Regrets....

2011-12-07T13:09:00.000-05:00

Literary critic Edmund Wilson found himself forever responding to mail, to the point where he wasn't able to focus on his work. His eventual solution was to send the following — a list of things it was impossible for him to do — to all who contacted him with a request he couldn't fulfil.

Unluckily for Wilson, news of his unique rejection list quickly circulated, and he was soon inundated with requests for the rejection itself.

From Lists of Note.

Flipboard launches on iPhone, iPod Touch, introduces 'Cover Stories' feature

2011-12-07T08:39:00.002-05:00

Flipboard has now arrived on a slightly smaller board. Previously available as an iPad-only affair, the popular magazine and social media app has now launched on both the iPhone and iPod Touch, bringing graphics-laden aggregation to a wider swath of the iOS community. This new universal version features much of the same functionality you'll find on its iPad predecessor, along with a new Cover Stories interface, which collects and displays all your recent photo uploads, shared articles and status updates from select social networks. If you're intrigued, you can download it for free at the source link, below.

(Via Engadget.)

Instantly Redecorating a Living Room with Video Mapping

2011-12-06T10:23:00.000-05:00

In this video by Dutch lighting design team Mr. Beam, a living room appears to undergo a series of instantaneous decor redesigns. The incredibly clever effect was created by using two video projectors to map different sets of decor on an all-white living room set. Mr. Beam is made up of artists Mo Assem and Ruben van Esterik.

From Laughing Squid via The Awesomer.

Kadinchey: A remix of sights and sounds recorded around Bhutan.

2011-12-06T10:18:00.000-05:00

Delightful! "Kadinchey" in Bhutanese means "Thank You"! Enjoy!

Four million children in the UK do not own a book

2011-12-06T10:03:00.000-05:00

The BBC is reporting that almost four million children in the UK do not own a book, according to research done by the National Literacy Trust.

The proportion of children without books is increasing, the charity said. It is now one in three, compared with one in 10 in 2005.

Children with their own books were more likely to be above-average readers and do better at school, the study of 18,000 children suggested.

Poorer children and boys were less likely to have books, it added.

The survey was carried out in September with school-aged children from 111 schools across the UK. It suggested that a third (33.2%) did not have books of their own. That translates to 3.8m children UK-wide. Better off children and young people were more likely to say they had books of their own, compared with those who received free school meals.

'Missing opportunities'

Trust director Jonathan Douglas said the steep rise in the number of children without their own books was of particular concern. He said: "We know there is a direct correlation between book ownership and children's reading abilities.

Children's illustrators donated card designs to the literacy appeal
"With one in 6 in the UK struggling with literacy it is very worrying that many children could be missing out on opportunities to develop these essential skills."

The trust said that children who owned books were more likely than others to read every day, and that book ownership had a clear link with reading ability.

Of the children and young people with books of their own, more than half read above the level expected for their age, with fewer than one in 10 reading below the level.

By contrast, among those without books of their own, nearly a fifth were failing to meet the expected reading level, with only a third reading above that level.

The trust launched the survey to coincide with an appeal for public donations towards books and reading support for disadvantaged children.

A number of children's book illustrators have designed cards to support the trust's Christmas Gift of Reading campaign.

The survey also revealed links between reading ability and receiving books as presents.

About a fifth of children said they had never been to a book shop or a library.

But the survey also showed that reading any type of material, for example magazines, outside class at least once a month was also associated with greater reading attainment.

The Kindle Fire is definitely NOT ready for prime time.

2011-12-06T08:54:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted here my initial assessment of the newly released Kindle Fire. I was underwhelmed and sent the unit back after about a week. Since then I have read many other reviews of the device. While most were not quite as damning as mine, I have been eagerly awaiting Jakob Nielsen's review. Dr. Nielsen holds a Ph.D. in human-computer interaction from the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen. He is a User Advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group which he co-founded with Dr. Donald A. Norman (former VP of research at Apple Computer). Before starting NNG in 1998 he was a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer. He is widely considered "The King of Usability".

And, he didn't like it either, saying:

It is heavy and awkward to hold
Everything is much too small on the screen, leading to frequent tap errors and accidental activation.
The lack of button controls is just wrong.

The magazine reading experience could be good but actually is miserable.

Screen updates are too slow.

And, generally, the Kindle Fire suffers from plain old bad UI design in many areas

You can read the entire review here.

'84 Charing Cross Road' revisited

2011-12-05T10:13:00.000-05:00

84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.

Hanff, in search of obscure classics and British literature titles she had been unable to find in New York City, noticed an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature and first contacted the shop in 1949, and it fell to Doel to fulfill her requests. In time, a long-distance friendship evolved, not only between the two, but between Hanff and other staff members as well, with an exchange of Christmas packages, birthday gifts, and food parcels to compensate for post-World War II food shortages in England. Their letters included discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the coronation of Elizabeth II.

The Telegraph has a charming article recalling the correspondence that is well worth a read.

Text messaging turns 19: Who knew? (infographic)

2011-12-02T15:23:00.000-05:00

From Tatango.

Libraries: Where It All Went Wrong

2011-12-02T10:46:00.001-05:00

Nathan Torkington has published the text of his address the National and State Librarians of Australasia on the eve of their strategic planning meeting in Auckland at the start of November this year. It is his contention that libraries aren’t the great sources of knowledge and information on the web that they were in the pre-Internet days. This should pique your interest:

Libraries are like Microsoft.

At one point you had a critical role: you were one of the few places to conduct research. When academics and the public needed to do research into the documentary record, they’d come to you. As you now know, that monopoly has been broken.

The Internet, led by Google, is the start and end of most people’s research. It’s good enough to meet their needs, which is great news for the casual researcher but bad news for you.

Now they don’t think of you at all.

Oh yes, I know all the reasons why the web and Google are no replacement for a healthy research library. I know the critical importance of documentary heritage. But it’s not me you’re talking to at budget time. It’s the public, through the politicians.

They love public libraries, in our country at least. Every time a council tries to institute borrowing fees or close libraries, they get shot down. But someone tries, at least once a year. And England is a cautionary tale that even public libraries aren’t safe.

You need to be useful as well as important. Being useful helps you to be important. You need a story they can understand about why you’re funded.

Oh, I know, you have thought about digital a lot. You’ve got digitisation projects. You’re aggregating metadata. You’re offering AnyQuestions-type services where people can email a librarian.

But these are bolt-ons. You’ve added digital after the fact. You probably have special digital groups, probably (hopefully) made up of younger people than the usual library employee.

Congratulations, you just reproduced Microsoft’s strategy: let’s build a few digital bolt-ons for our existing products. Then let’s have some advance R&D guys working on the future while the rest of us get on with it. But think about that for a second. What are the rest of us working on, if those young kids are working on the future? Ah, it must be the past.

So what you’ve effectively done is double-down on the past.

You can read the entire essay online here, or download the PDF here.

Text reproduced under Creative Commons by Share Alike.

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant

2011-12-02T09:07:00.001-05:00

Modern life is an ever-accelerating barrage of people, buildings, vehicles, creatures, and things. How much can a curious mind take in? And what can it do with all the data? Gregory L. Blackstock, a retired Seattle pot washer, draws order out of all the chaos with a pencil, a black marker, and some crayons.
Blackstock is autistic and an artistic savant. He creates visual lists of everything from wasps to hats to emergency vehicles to noisemakers. In the spirit of the Outsider art of Henry Darger and Howard Finster, Blackstock makes art that is stirring in its profusion and detail and inspiring in its simple beauty. He has never received formal artistic training, yet his renderings clearly and beguilingly show subtle differences and similaritiesenabling the viewer to see, for example, the distinctive features of a dolly varden, a Pacific Coast steelhead cutthroat, and fourteen other types of trout.

Each collection is lovingly captioned in Blackstock's unique hand with texts that reflect facts from his research as well as his passions and preferences. Blackstock's Collections contains over 100 extraordinary examples of his splendidly original taxonomy, offering a unique look inside the mind of a man making sense of life through art. His collected drawings include:

Monsters of the Deep
Major Forestry Pests
The Great Cabbage Family
The Spatulas
The World War II U.S. Bombers
The Buoys
King Sized Jails
Monsters of the Past
Classical Clowns
Great Italian Roosters
Our State Lighthouses, and
The Irish Joys

Click images to enlarge

Hogwarts library date due card

2011-12-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

Even after consulting several librarians here we could not think of an "official" name for these wonderful little cards that resided in pockets in the front of books in the days before computers, so we called it the "check-out card". Turns out it is actually called a "date due card". Thanks Brodart.

Linda Ronstadt Announces Memoir 'Heart Like A Wheel'

2011-12-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

Linda Ronstadt was one of the most popular musical artists of her generation, and she's going to tell it all in a new memoir for Simon & Schuster.

The publisher announced today that it had acquired her autobiography, titled "Heart Like a Wheel," named after her Grammy-winning album.

Ronstadt sold tens of millions of records starting in the 1970s with pop hits like "You're No Good" and "When Will I Be Loved." But she also segued into country, pop standards, among other genres.

Fascinating short documentary of Steve Jobs' NeXT years

2011-12-01T10:44:00.001-05:00

Fascinating insight into Job's management style and entrepreneurial insight. I have never seen Jobs in "action" and this is very cool.

Found at Boing Boing.

BMW Book Lets Fans Read While Driving

2011-11-30T15:31:00.000-05:00

BMW Group is celebrating its 40 years of global cultural engagement efforts with the launch of a limited-edition branded book called “Culture.” The book, a joint project between the automaker and graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, consists of photos that present the history of BMW’s corporate cultural and sponsorship efforts. The back of the book also doubles as a small remote-control car motor that lets readers “drive” the book.

BMW will only be producing and distributing 1,488 copies of Culture, with every copy numbered, emphasizing its rarity and exclusivity.

Via psfk.

Inside the libraries of famous writers (photo set)

2011-11-30T13:21:00.000-05:00

Click images to enlarge

Eudora Welty’s library in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo by Susana Raab.

Rudyard Kipling’s study in Naulakha.

Keith Richards is now the author of a much-acclaimed memoir, which makes him a legitimate writer in our book.

17 more at Flavorwire.

On the 111 anniversary of the death of Oscar Wilde a video commentary

2011-11-30T11:21:00.000-05:00

111 years ago today Oscar Wilde died and the world lost one of its greatest writers. This fascinating 1997 documentary from Omnibus traces Wilde’s life, loves, and legacy, from his intellectual upbringing to his imprisonment for being openly gay. The film features cameos from Stephen Fry, who played Wilde in the film of the same title, Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, and prolific British playwright Tom Stoppard, who explore what made Wilde the 20th century’s first true pop celebrity.

Found at Brain Pickings

Happy Birthday Mark Twain

2011-11-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

Click to enlarge
From Google.

Neil Gaiman offers advice to young writers (short video)

2011-11-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

Neil Richard Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. Gaiman's writing has won numerous awards, including Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker, as well as the 2009 Newbery Medal and 2010 Carnegie Medal in Literature. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work. In this brief video he offers advice to young writers (which is, bascially, WRITE!)

Via Libraryland.

Triton Color E Ink may revolutionize eReaders (video)

2011-11-30T10:35:00.000-05:00

The Florida Disabled Outdoors Association: Please follow on Twitter

2011-11-30T09:53:00.000-05:00

I am fortunate to be associated with the Florida Disabled Outdoors Association. They have just launched their Twitter account and they need followers. I suspect there will be less than two or three posts per day, but a larger following would help them immensely with funding requests.

Please follow at: FDOA7 It would mean a lot to me personally if you would give them a hand and pass it on! Thanks to you all!

Since it’s inception in 1990, the FDOA has promoted accessible recreation to persons with disabilities as well as the general public through special events, newsletters and community education.

The FDOA has been instrumental in many successful projects and programs with agencies that include:

U.S. Fish and wildlife Service – accessibility training for wildlife refuge managers from fifteen states.
Saint Marks Wildlife Refuge – designed and implemented mobility impaired hunting program and FDOA volunteers host the event every year; consulted for design of courtesy boat dock facility.
Florida Department of Environment Protection – consulted and assisted in the creation of ADA compliance and self-evaluation program.
Department of Environmental Protection /Parks and Recreation – assisted in on-site evaluation of all District II State Parks. Served on strategic planning committee; member state park group- users advisory board; ADA committee member for Friends of State Parks.
Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission – assisted in evaluation and consultation of accessible state boat ramps, assisted in design of accessible fishing facilities; also directly responsible for development and expansion of mobility impaired hunt program.
Florida Water Management Districts and Eglin Air Force Base – initiated and assisted in development of mobility impaired hunt programs.
Hands Helping Anglers – as a committee member, expanded fishing derby for disabled anglers, now over fifty per year.
City of Tallahassee Parks and Recreation – assisted in self-evaluation of city parks and facilities.
City of Tallahassee Citizens ADA Advisory and Compliance Board- contributed to ADA transition plan

Kerouac's 'lost' debut novel is published 70 years after its conception at sea

2011-11-29T16:07:00.000-05:00

The American beat generation author Jack Kerouac is said to have spent just eight days on active service in the US merchant marines on board the SS Dorchester in 1942; but his short stay furnished him with notes for his first novel and, after nearly 70 years, it has now been published for the first time.

The 158-page The Sea is my Brother, a tale of two young men serving on a voyage from Boston to Greenland, has been known about for some time, but is being described by Penguin, its publisher, as "a unique insight into the young Kerouac and the formation of his genius".

The author himself apparently noted: "It's a crock [of s@#t] as literature."

Complete narrative and review at The Guardian.

Bergcloud's "Little Printer"

2011-11-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper.

Connected to the Web, Little Printer has wide range of sources, called “publications” available to check on your behalf.Subscribe to your favorites and choose when you’d like them delivered. Little Printer gathers everything it needs to prepare a neat little personalised package, printed as soon as you press the button. You can get deliveries multiple times a day, but once or twice works best–like your very own morning or evening newspaper.

So retro, in a good way, that I really want one!

Pre-orders for Little Printer will open in 2012, when it launches as a ‘beta’ product.

British Library puts 19th century newspapers online

2011-11-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

The British Library has published online more than 4 million pages of newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries Tuesday in what head of newspapers Ed King calls "a digital Aladdin's Cave" for researchers. The online archive is a partnership between the library and digital publishing firm Brightsolid, which has been scanning 8,000 pages a day from the library's vast periodical archive for the past year and plans to digitize 40 million pages over the next decade.

The library hopes the searchable online trove will be a major resource for academics and researchers. The vast majority of the British Library's 750 million pages of newspapers - the largest collection in the world - are currently available only on microfilm or bound in bulky volumes at a newspaper archive in north London, where the yellowing journals cover 20 miles (32 kilometers) of shelves.

"We've got 200 years of newspapers locked away," King said. "We're trying to open it up to a wider audience."

There will be a cost to download articles online, though they can be accessed for free at the library's London reading rooms.

More at the blog.

Book art by Alexander Korzer-Robinson

2011-11-29T10:32:00.001-05:00

From: dotsonme

(Via Libraryland.)

Buttons for Librarians (and patrons!)

2011-11-29T10:20:00.000-05:00

Many more for sale here (no affiliation)

How "pop-up" books are made

2011-11-29T10:07:00.001-05:00

Prepared for the Smithsonian's Paper Engineering Project: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Our cerebrum is a library (short film)

2011-11-29T10:01:00.002-05:00

Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum and Library (narrative and photos)

2011-11-29T09:57:00.000-05:00

Ryotaro Shiba started writing historical novels after World War II and won the prestigious Naoki Prize for his 1959 novel, "Fukuro no Shiro" ("The Castle of an Owl").

His best-selling books include "Ryoma ga Yuku" ("Ryoma Is Going"), about the life of Ryoma Sakamoto, a major figure in Japan's transformation from feudal military rule in the 1860's.

For the last quarter-century, Mr. Shiba's articles on his travels around Japan were printed weekly in the magazine Shukan Asahi in a series that reached 1,146 installments. He received the Government's Order of Cultural Merit in 1993.

The Museum in his honor consists of two parts, his former house and a museum newly built after his death. You can walk around the garden and see the author's study from outside. The author lived here until his death, 12th. Feb. 1996.

Inside one sees the huge bookshelf(11 meters high) housing his more than 20,000 books.

The building was designed by Ando Tadao.

Artist Marco Brambilla's F1-Inspired Short Gets Behind Ferrari's Wheel

2011-11-29T09:31:00.002-05:00

Video artist Marco Brambilla shares his densely hypnotic and kaleidoscopic 3D film RPM, commissioned by Ferrari in celebration of their latest auto masterpiece, the 458 Spider, and premiering at Art Basel Miami tonight. Assembling footage shot on location over several months at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix in Monza with imagery from the Scuderia Ferrari archives and the artist’s own recordings, RPM is a visceral, cubist representation of a Formula One driver’s state of mind during a race. “I wanted to make a portrait of speed,” says Brambilla, a life-long F1 fan. “Something as subjective as can be, that explores the connection of man and machine and tests the limits of human endurance.” Featuring Möbius strip racetracks, wind-gritted teeth and a howling soundtrack of throttling engines, RPM accelerates in complexity with every turn of the circuit. “[The film is] always accelerating,” says the artist, “just building, no payoff, no win.” The New York-based Brambilla, who created the digital tableau vivant for Kanye West’s “Power” and the 3D videos Evolution and Civilization, wanted to push the limits of his own aesthetic vocabulary with this project. “This one is a little bit different in that we used 3D as an editing tool,” he says. “As the piece speeds up, the multi-planing—the foreground, mid-ground and background objects—all cycle through each other to create an acceleration in 3D space.”

Formula One Stats

An F1 driver loses on average 5 kilograms in weight during a Grand Prix race and burns approximately 600 calories.

Drivers' heart rates reach peaks of 190 beats per minute during a Grand Prix.

A typical F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, in a package weighing less than 550 kg—less than half the weight of a Mini.

When an F1 driver hits the brakes, he experiences deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a brick wall at 300kmph.

An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph and back in 0 to 4 seconds. During the 2004 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, the record top speed for an F1 car was set at over 360 kph.

Top F1 pit crews can refuel and change tires in around 3 seconds.

An F1 car generates enough downforce that it could drive inverted at top speed. In a street course race, this is enough suction to lift manhole covers, which have to be welded down before each race.

Scuderia Ferrari, founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1932, is the oldest and most successful F1 team in history with a record of 15 drivers’ championships and 16 constructors’ championships.

20 Classic Novels' First Covers

2011-11-28T13:16:00.000-05:00

18 more at The Atlantic.

The Beauty of One Second (video)

2011-11-28T10:55:00.000-05:00

Found at This is Colossal.

How the Curiosity Rover will land on Mars (astounding video)

2011-11-28T10:35:00.000-05:00

Found via a link on TYWKIWDBI

A book case - literally (Photo)

2011-11-28T10:04:00.002-05:00

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

Vintage weight gain ads.

2011-11-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

Click images to enlarge.

Via Retronaut.

"Who owns the fish?" - a brain teaser from Einstein

2011-11-23T08:53:00.001-05:00

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is so difficult that Einstein said 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. This should give you something to do over a long Thanksgiving weekend.

The solution is here, though it is nearly as complicated as the puzzler!

There are five houses in a row and each house is a different color. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a fish.
The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks; pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.
If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

Anne McCaffrey: 1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011

2011-11-23T08:38:00.001-05:00

Anne McCaffrey, legendary SF and fantasy author best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, has passed away. Random House has confirmed that McCaffrey died of a stroke at her home in Ireland on Monday, November 21. The initial word arrived through author Alan Baxter reporting on behalf of Trent Zelazny.

McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction, the first woman to win a Nebula Award, and the first author to hit the New York Times bestseller list with an SF title (The White Dragon).

Macy's launches mobile parade app for iOS and Android

2011-11-22T15:24:00.000-05:00

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade has launched its first official mobile app powered by MyCityWay. The app, available now for iOS and Android, gives spectators access to a route map, a list of participants, the line of the march (apparently only available on the day of the parade), and practical travel and tourism information.

Downloads at the link.

via psfk

Where are you sitting for Thanksgiving Dinner (Flowchart)

2011-11-22T14:34:00.000-05:00

Click image to enlarge
Via College Humor

Literary Turducken

2011-11-22T14:27:00.000-05:00

Today Doubleday launched a Thanksgiving Twitter tradition, asking readers to combine three classic book titles in a crazy new book. Follow the Literary Turducken for some funny ideas.

For example:

The Sun Also Rises As I Lay Dying On The Road

How Green Was My Valley of the Doll's House

Kindle Fire review - I sent it back

2011-11-22T11:03:00.004-05:00

On the day that Amazon began accepting pre-orders for the Kindle Fire, I placed mine. For several weeks I excitedly awaited its delivery sure that it would fill the gap between my iPhone 4 and my Macbook Air. I couldn't really justify an iPad, but at $199 the Fire as a media server seemed exactly what I needed. (I should also point out that I have a 3rd generation Kindle which I love.)

When it arrived I was initially pleased. Its size was nice - about the same size as my Kindle – and it was very well made feeling very solid in my hand. Firing it up I was offered a Cover Flow-like interface that was preloaded with every Kindle book I had ever purchased. There was a "favorites" shelf below that held four of my favorite apps, books, magazines - whatever. More on that later.

I poked around its features and was initially impressed with the quality of the display, the variety of offerings and its seemingly simple interface. I made a Facebook post exclaiming its merits – going so far as to call it a "keeper". I even ordered a case for it. Then the romance waned.

Over the next weekend I put the Fire through its paces downloading every possible form of media, surfing the web on its "Silk" browser, downloading a few apps – some free and some paid. I set up my email accounts including my Exchange account at my office. The bugs began to crawl out.

On the home screen there is a Cover Flow-like interface for my books and recently used apps and media. I noticed that it was almost impossible to access my desired item among the "covers" on first try. The interface is so sensitive that I repeatedly went past my selection - coming and going - before I could at last get the item to stop where I could "click" on it. Frustrating.

The "favorites" shelf below the scrollables only held four items. It looks as if it should be scrollable to hold more than four, but it was not – you only get four. And, if you send a new favorite to the shelf you bump one already there off the shelf (of course), but I could never figure out how to keep the three I wanted and bump the fourth I wanted to replace. It seemed random and pointless. I also noticed that if you wanted to delete a book, app, magazine - whatever - from the home screen the icon for the item remained displaying a "download now" arrow. I deleted it. Why would I want to reload it now? So I ended up with several "ghost" icons taking up space on my home screen. That is just dumb. Give me an archive (like on my regular Kindle) but get the icons out of my way!

Navigation - I began to notice that many of the virtual buttons, like the back button and home button, would often be unresponsive and would require multiple clicks to work correctly. There was no "throbber" image that would indicate that a function was running so I had no choice but to repeatedly press the button until it cooperated. Also frustrating. Oddly, on some screens the buttons were so super sensitive that just brushing one accidentally would open an unwanted item. Go figure. The keyboard works at least as well as that of an iPhone.

Magazines - I downloaded a magazine - Car and Driver for which I also have a print subscription - to see how it compared to the physical copy. It was exactly like the print magazine page for page only much, much smaller. So small that it was impossible for me to read without enlarging the page to the point that I could only see a small portion of a paragraph and none of the images on the page. There is a "read" mode that is text only, but frankly that defeats half the purpose of a magazine. Enjoying the images along with the copy is what makes the magazine experience so enjoyable. That is almost impossible on the Fire. The table of contents was not "clickable" so I had to manually scroll through 59 pages to get to the first article I wanted to read. Also dumb - it is as if they just scanned the images and put them up (which is probably what they did do). A PDF would have been more useful. At least it has navigation!

Movies - the display is excellent and the quality of the movie image was superb (depending on its original quality I imagine). I loaded Elizabeth from my free Amazon Prime collection and was blown away by the quality of playback. Unfortunately, from the very limited selection of free Amazon Prime movie offerings, I could find nothing else I cared to watch. Most of the free movies are years old and of genres that do not appeal to me - teen comedies for example. Another disappointment. (There is a Netflix app that I did not try as I have no Netflix account - maybe that could fill the gap).

Apps - I will admit that I am an Apple user and the Apple app store is extensive and well managed (meaning you have to get past Apple's sometimes Byzantine approval process before an app is accepted). Most of the apps in the Apple store are uniform, useable and tested. Not so with the Kindle Fire (Android) store. I found many of the apps poorly designed and in some cases downright infantile. Not to say there aren't gems, but I found both the selection and quality lagging. I admit that may be an Apple bias, but I felt it nonetheless.

Books - The Amazon book store can not be beat. Almost everything ever published is at your finger tips. As mentioned, I have a "regular" Kindle which I love. The reading experience on the Fire is identical to that on the iPad and Nook. Meaning it is OK, but no where near the quality of the regular Kindle's ePaper experience. It will get you by in a pinch, but long reading sessions on a back-lit screen (just like your laptop or desktop) are tiring and less than enjoyable. Had I kept the Fire, I would also have kept my Kindle 3.

Browser - It works and works reasonably well. Not as quick as my laptop, but not too bad. Flash does work.

Battery life - OK, I only used it a little less than a week, but in my limited experience there is no way the battery will last the predicted 7 hours under anything other than minimal usage. I did nothing out of the ordinary and found that after a couple of hours the on-board battery life indicator (in the settings module) would indicate a remaining battery strength of only a couple of hours - less than 40 percent. Perhaps it would have lasted longer, but that is what the display indicated, so back to the charger. I charged it three times over the course of the weekend. Under moderate use viewing a few magazines, playing a game or two and maybe a movie I would estimate more like four hours.

Conclusions - The Kindle Fire is very well constructed. It feels solid and substantial in my hand and is the perfect size to hold. Its display rivals the iPad and iPhone in quality - may even be better. At $199 it seems to be a great value for someone looking for a media device. The deal breaker for me was the clunky navigation, the limited movie offerings,the less than ideal magazine experience and the disappointing app store. Your mileage may vary.

The worst passwords of 2011 (list)

2011-11-22T09:15:00.000-05:00

SplashData, a company that makes password management tools, has released a roundup of 2011's "25 worst passwords," gleaned from password-dumps posted by "hackers" (presumably, sources like the Lulzsec Sony password files). The actual study and its methodology can not be located (are these passwords "worst" because they're the most common, or because they contain the least entropy? Is the sample set representative?) but the list is still informative.

1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Via Boing Boing.

A very clever reading lamp (photo)

2011-11-22T08:53:00.001-05:00

From Ideas to Steal.

Library hammock (photo)

2011-11-22T08:47:00.001-05:00

Found at 1001 Books to Read Before You Die.

My Week with Marilyn

2011-11-22T08:40:00.001-05:00

From ruby lipstick application to shimmering backstage solitude, Michelle Williams’s transformation into the world’s most iconic sex symbol during the filming of My Week With Marilyn is intimately documented in this personal project by Brigitte Lacombe. “Michelle was as close as you can get to becoming Marilyn; aware of my presence, but really in Marilyn 's world,” says the noted photographer, who has worked on the movies of Martin Scorsese, Spike Jonze and Quentin Tarantino. Lacombe flew to London at Williams’s invitation, for a dressing room portraiture session with the Oscar nominee just after the wrapping of the Simon Curtis-directed drama. The plot follows the bombshell’s troubled relationship with co-star and director Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) while filming The Prince and the Showgirl on her honeymoon with playwright Arthur Miller. It hinges on Monroe’s unexpected kinship with Olivier’s third assistant, Oxford graduate Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), whose memoir forms the basis of the story. “I was there for the very last scene on the very last night of filming, in this tiny pub just outside of London,” says Lacombe. “It was very intense and taut, [the crew was] almost delirious with fatigue—it was a smokey, crowded and elated atmosphere.”

Via Nowness.

The Hollow Men (T.S. Eliot) read by Marlon Brando (video)

2011-11-21T10:56:00.000-05:00

Via Libraryland

Afghanistan: A must see short that is simply beautiful (video)

2011-11-18T13:18:00.001-05:00

Best viewed in Hi Def and full-screen.

Via TYWKIWDBI

Just one reason why Apple is so profitable

2011-11-18T10:04:00.002-05:00

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Images from MinimallyMinimal

If extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring our TV broadcasts this is what they are watching. (infographic)

2011-11-18T09:47:00.000-05:00

Click image to enlarge

Booking Bands (combine your favorite book and band into a title)

2011-11-17T09:55:00.000-05:00

Coudal Partners, one of my "go to" sources for bloggables has come up with a great idea. The idea is to mash up the name of a book with the name of a band. Here are a few examples and more at the above link.

The Things They Might Be Giants Carried*
The Who Moved My Cheese*
The Old Man and The Sea and Cake*
Charlie Daniels and the Chocolate Factory*
Catch 182*
Horton Hears a Hoobastank*
Of Mice and Men at Work*
Bare Naked Lunch Ladies*
The Agony and the XTC*

7 bar jokes involving grammar and punctuation

2011-11-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

Click image to enlarge slightly
Found at co-stanza.

if u cud recomend me a book. wot wud u recomend?

2011-11-17T09:30:00.001-05:00

(Via Libraryland.)

Life Magazine picks its own 20 worst covers (photo set)

2011-11-16T10:59:00.000-05:00

The other 19 are here.

L.A. Times technology reporter Nathan Olivarez-Giles unboxes the Kindle Fire (video)

2011-11-16T10:49:00.002-05:00

Rethink Books Closes $2M Series A To Fund eBook Discovery Apps

2011-11-16T10:36:00.001-05:00

Rethink Books has just shared announced that it has closed a $2 million Series A round led by Ambassador Technologies. The Dallas-based Rethink Books will use the funding for product development of apps including FirstChapters, its eBook discovery and purchase platform, and to cultivate relationships with publishing partners.

TechCrunch first covered Rethink Books last year when it showed them an unreleased tablet eReader app that let users add notes, view notes of friends, and share excerpts. Similar features have since been integrated into the popular eReader apps and devices, prompting Rethink Books to move in the direction of discovery.

Its recently released FirstChapters, which lets users scan a physical book or browse popular book lists from the New York Times, Oprah, and more. Users can then read the first few chapters of a selected book, and if they like it, purchase a digital copy through Apple, Amazon, and other online retailers.

With the eReader devices such as the Kindle Fire proliferating, the potential user base for Rethink Books’ products is rapidly expanding. The opportunity to earn a share of the purchases that will fill these devices seems to have attracted Ambassador Technologies.

Rethink Books’ CEO Jason Illian says “along with the applications that make digital reading more accessible and social, we’ll be focusing on the Christian and evangelical book market.” This sector isn’t typically a focus for Silicon Valley companies, and the company’s Dallas location could give it an advantage in signing partnerships with Christian and evangelical publishers.

(Via TechCrunch.)

Inspired business cards (large photo set)

2011-11-16T10:18:00.000-05:00

Dozens more at Designer Depot

High Speed Liquid and Bubble Photographs by Heinz Maier (just when you thought you had seen everything)

2011-11-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Dozens more at his Filckr stream.

The Moses Bridge (photos)

2011-11-16T09:49:00.000-05:00

The Moses Bridge, as its name suggests, is pedestrian bridge that creates the illusion of walking through water — in this case, the West-Brabant waterline near Fort de Roovere in the Netherlands.

Designed by RO & AD Architects, the bridge was built using Accoya wood, a type of modified wood that offers the enhanced durability necessary to sustain a sunken bridge.

More info and photo gallery at inhabitat

The Centered Librarian

Another beautiful reading space (photo)

Assembling a yurt (video)

On fixing academic publishing

The Universe Bound: Astronomical by Mishka Henner

Yosemite in HD (video)

Searching for Context: Modeling the Information-Seeking Process of College Students in the Digital Age

Fritz Goro's Photos: The Art of Science (photostream)

Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read

Another collection of beautiful libraries (photostream)

Happy 130th Birthday, A. A. Milne: “Happiness” and the Origin of Winnie-the-Pooh

A Brief History of Computing Platforms (video)

Carved book landscapes by Guy Laramee

Amazing images of Saturn via Cassini

Top 100 Library Stories of 2011

Friday Fun: The complete version of Baby Trashes Bar. (video)

The Light of Day (video)

Phone Stacking (cool idea)

On Gratitude: A most inspiring video

10 fascinating facts about the human body (infographic)

The Shins A Simple Song (music)

Organizing the Bookcase (video)

The Joy of Books (video)

Every Hobbit book cover ever

TateShots: An Interview with Maurice Sendak

Book Sale (photo)

The Venn of Ron Paul

A United States Map: One man's work of love.

Books: Get HBO programming 10 years before everyone else (photo)

Antiquarian Books (photo)

A 31 word short story by Arthur C. Clarke

Porttrait of a Bookshelf

The oldest piano shop in Paris (video)

Dogs in cars (video) - very cute

Rapper Ice Cube Professes His Love For Architecture and the Eames House [Video]

Who needs a Christmas tree when you have books?

Vatican's Library begins to digitize 80,000 of its manuscripts (video)

How a Real Luxury Car Is Made (video)

1961 letter from Groucho to T.S. Eliot

The Books They Gave Me

Polish Cold War Neon Signs

From Frida Kahlo to Freud, Finger Puppets of Cultural Icons

Future Fossils: A reminder of our own technosphere's doomed frailty.

Now You Can Sleep Inside a Giant Book

Edmund Wilson Regrets....

Flipboard launches on iPhone, iPod Touch, introduces 'Cover Stories' feature

Instantly Redecorating a Living Room with Video Mapping

Kadinchey: A remix of sights and sounds recorded around Bhutan.

Four million children in the UK do not own a book

The Kindle Fire is definitely NOT ready for prime time.

'84 Charing Cross Road' revisited

Text messaging turns 19: Who knew? (infographic)

Libraries: Where It All Went Wrong

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant

Hogwarts library date due card

Linda Ronstadt Announces Memoir 'Heart Like A Wheel'

Fascinating short documentary of Steve Jobs' NeXT years

BMW Book Lets Fans Read While Driving

Inside the libraries of famous writers (photo set)

On the 111 anniversary of the death of Oscar Wilde a video commentary

Happy Birthday Mark Twain

Neil Gaiman offers advice to young writers (short video)

Triton Color E Ink may revolutionize eReaders (video)

The Florida Disabled Outdoors Association: Please follow on Twitter

Kerouac's 'lost' debut novel is published 70 years after its conception at sea

Bergcloud's "Little Printer"

British Library puts 19th century newspapers online

Book art by Alexander Korzer-Robinson

Buttons for Librarians (and patrons!)

How "pop-up" books are made

Our cerebrum is a library (short film)

Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum and Library (narrative and photos)

Artist Marco Brambilla's F1-Inspired Short Gets Behind Ferrari's Wheel

20 Classic Novels' First Covers

The Beauty of One Second (video)

How the Curiosity Rover will land on Mars (astounding video)

A book case - literally (Photo)

Vintage weight gain ads.

"Who owns the fish?" - a brain teaser from Einstein

Anne McCaffrey: 1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011