Steampunk Gypsy

Pho is my go-to soup when I'm not feeling well. Especially with lots of jalapenos. Mmmm.... Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors A previously unpublished chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory    Who am I: can children's books make you question your identity?  That's a good thing. Net & Tech New program - "Truthy" - joins NSA and IRS in watching you   Is it time to quit Facebook?   Fastest Internet in US? It's Chattanooga, TN, Thanks to Local and Fed $$$ (Ps. Big Cable Very Angry)   Science Libertarian ideology is the natural enemy of science   Fresh eruption: 60 m high lava fountains   How Does the Brain Learn Best? Smart Studying Strategies   Eruption continues at full force   Ferguson Fallout from questionable police actions in Ferguson continues   At least 5 Ferguson officers apart from Brown shooter have been named in lawsuits   Ferguson Man Forms an Inspiring Team with Cop Watchers ...

Happy birthday, Mary Shelley! She combined great storytelling with social critique and created one of the first masterpieces of science fiction. Of course, most of us have read  Frankenstein . We've also seen his monster (often usurping the doctor's name) lurch across the screen in various incarnations. Most recently, I enjoyed Nick Dear's stage adaptation of the novel, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller and directed by Danny Boyle. You can learn more about her life . Also, Science 2.0 has a good article  about her. "Mary Shelley" by Reginald Easton Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors A Floating Library Is Coming To The Hudson River   5 Ways to Reach Every Reader   Colorado Gun Lobby Threatens To Sue Library Over Weapons Ban 25 examples of street art and murals about books, libraries and reading    Let’s Not Start Blaming Books for Dangerous Behaviors   Aldi takes Roald Dahl book off Australian shelves over the wor...

Be a part of the great Internet Slowdown! Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors D.C. adds a social worker to library system to work with homeless patrons   6 Addictive Webcomics To Binge-Read   Oldest Public Library in the Nation in Danger of Closing   Respected medical journal turns to dark side   Ohio Superintendent: Controversial Books Aren’t for Summer Reading   Teacher who defended Little Brother against principal will keep her job!   English Teacher Under Investigation For Writing a Fiction Featuring School Shootings   Ferguson & Related Michael Brown's Mom Laid Flowers Where He Was Shot—and Police Crushed Them St. Paul police violently arrest a black man for sitting on bench, waiting for his children   The Poorest Corner Of Town   Stephen Colbert skewers Fox News coverage of Ferguson  Related: The Daily Show: Race/Off and the Ferguson Protest Challenge   What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Pr...

I forgot to post this yesterday... Well, here, I added a few links, and now you can have it late for yesterday/early for today. I'm off to study some math. For fun. Or...something. Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors The British Library Meets Burning Man   Restore full funding to Dallas public libraries   Senator Says Male Colleague Told Her ‘You’re Even Pretty When You’re Fat’  Kirsten Gillibrand's book,  Off the Sidelines , comes out September 9. I think it'll be a book every woman in the U.S. will want to read. Net & Tech How to Get Girls Into Engineering? Let Them Build Toys   Who Owns Your iTunes Library After Death?   Science Iceland volcano: New quakes raise concern over large eruption   Damage from global warming will soon be irreversible, says leaked UN report  Related: Obama Pursuing Climate Accord in Lieu of Treaty   Ferguson and Related Incidents Police presence drawing down in Ferguson, Missouri ...

This would be what kills me... So, today at work, we had a cookie cake for the staff with August birthdays. Awww... I grabbed a piece and set it aside, because I had a meeting to run to, and didn't want to just wolf it down. Much, much later - it's hard to find time to stop - I grabbed my piece of cake and ate it while simultaneously working on something or other on the computer. I took a couple bites and realized two things at pretty much the same time: 1) something was sticking to the inside of my lips and cheeks and 2) something was stinging my hands. Oh, hello, ants swarming my piece of cookie cake... "Oh, sorry - were you going to eat that?" So, yeah, it's been one of those  days. Links!  Libraries, Books, & Authors The Guardian view on the loss of public libraries   How Streaming Media Could Threaten the Mission of Libraries   How to Participate in Banned Books Week   Writers and Musicians Say FCC Must Deny Comcast-Time Warner Ca...

Hey, you guys remember my latest Redditgifts post? Well, my Secret Santa sent me another comic book,  Sweet Tooth ! Despite the candy-coated name, this looks like a very dark read: A decade ago the Affliction raged like a forest fire, killing billions, and the only children born since are a new breed of human/animal hybrid. Gus is one of these endangered children, a boy with a sweet soul, a sweeter tooth - and the features of a deer. But kids like Gus have a price on their heads. When vicious hunters descend on his isolated forest home, a mysterious and violent man called Jepperd rescues Gus. The hulking drifter promises to lead Gus to "The Preserve," a fabled safe-haven for hybrid children. As the two cross this dangerous new American frontier, will Jepperd corrupt "Sweet Tooth," as the killer has nicknamed him, or will it be Gus's heart that changes Jepperd? I think I'm going to like it - but I don't think I'll let the kids read it ...

I did not have a particularly good day today. I think I'll go to bed early, and try again tomorrow. Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors Preservation problems:  How Long Do CDs Last? It Depends, But Definitely Not Forever  So far, nothing beats carved stone or baked clay tablets for longevity, really.  Zombie Novels. (You Know, For Kids!) by Clair McLafferty   Gritty memoir from the author of 'Little House on the Prairie' to hit shelves this fall  "In November, Wilder's long-unpublished autobiography that she later adapted into the successful children's books will be published. This time, however, the story won't be completely child-friendly."  I like science. I sometimes think science-fiction is too heavy on the "fiction" side, and could use a bit more "science." Here's a list of books for me (and those of you who agree with me, and also for hooking kids on science through awesome storytelling):  A Selection Of Nove...

I very much enjoy philosophy parties, and MB is a great babysitter. That is all. Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors Cleveland, TX pastor wants "demonic" books pulled from the shelves of the public library   Readers absorb less on Kindles than on paper, study finds   Poet Known As The 'Lioness Of Iran' Dies At 87   The land of 10,000 lakes now has a floating library   Happy birthday,  Edgar Lee Masters ! He wrote  Spoon River Anthology , a wonderful collection of fictional epitaphs that explores small town American life. You can go get and read the print version, or  explore the poems online .  God at Nuremberg: How an American pastor came to comfort Nazis   Net & Tech Does the White House’s cybersecurity czar need to be a coder? He says no.  I don't suppose the Surgeon General needs to know anything about medicine, either. The Information Counter-Revolution  "The information age has entered a new era — one...

If you aren't familiar with Redditgifts , you should get on that. It's a lot of fun to play Secret Santa with strangers from around the country (or, if you can afford it, around the world)! I like it, anyway. The gift exchange I'm currently participating in is a graphic novels exchange. I haven't shipped off the stuff for my match - I'm waiting for a couple more items to come in, so I can package them all up and ship them off, but that's okay, I've got until September 5. But! I got my present today. And it is cool! It's actually the first volume of a comic book collection, and I think DH will go nuts when I start buying the rest. (Sorry! I promise to only buy, like, one volume a month?) The comic is called  Chew : Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on ...

"Hey, Ranga, what if I started a web comic series of our adventures? Wouldn't that be neat?" "Er...not really. It would just be you sitting on the couch, trying to balance the laptop and a kitten on your lap, eating tortilla chips and getting guacamole everywhere." "Oh. True. I suppose that wouldn't be very exciting." "Also, you can't draw. I mean, you can barely draw a recognizable cartoon elephant." He's a very perspicacious kitten. Sorry, guys. No web comic from me. Ah, well.... Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors Hint of Scandal Embroils Queens Library’s Leaders   New Florida University Unveils Bookless Library   The first World War, in color   What the 'death of the library' means for the future of books  "The popular myth about the Library at Alexandria is that it was sacked and burned, but in fact, the truth of it is more complicated. It was in fact subjected to multiple raids and burnings a...

Hi, all! Sorry I went quiet - I've had a migraine the past couple days. I know you're all concerned with the Internet - so here are some ideas on how to save it . They're pretty good ideas, folks. Now I'm going back to bed, and I hope I wake up without wanting to take my head off and kick it somewhere far away... Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors Here’s Why We Need to Protect Public Libraries   The Harvard Classics: Download All 51 Volumes as Free eBooks   Waukesha mom seeks to have two novels banned from schools   Net & Tech Dems push FCC on local Internet projects   Ferguson Ferguson Library Becomes Refuge for Adults and Children Amid Strife   A Cops take on Ferguson   Missouri GOP Furious Over 'Disgusting' Voter Registration Booths In Ferguson   Police to Al Jazeera journalist near Ferguson: 'I'll bust your head'   Egypt Urges 'Restraint' Over Michael Brown Protests in Ferguson  Well, that's awkward......

I'm not writing much, because Monday nights are DnD nights. Sorry, I'm geeking out tonight. Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors Read J.K. Rowling's new Harry Potter story about a singing sorceress   Aug 18, 1958: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published  (in the U.S.)  Start a New Chapter With These Scholarships for Bookworms   Book Rating Categories That Should Exist (Because Star Ratings Can Be Useless)  I would add another category - the "Personally, I Hated It But [Insert Name Here] Would Like It" category.  Science Two Independent Studies Find Epigenetic Changes In Brains Of Alzheimer's Patients   Student Develops Inexpensive Solar Lens To Purify Polluted Water   Rare "Blond" Penguin Spotted in Antarctica   Net & Tech Google Opens Classroom's Doors   Twitter’s latest experiment turns favorites into retweets (and it’s annoying lots of people)  I don't like it. Ferguson National Guard sent to Fergus...

Something weird happened! My hair and Swicky's hair fell off! Aren't we cute? Coconut did his hair too. In other news, I posted a review of Tiger Lily . TL;DR: It's a great book, go read it. Links! Libraries, Books, & Others July 2014 is the most profitable month ever in comic book history, and comics are only getting bigger   $3.5 million to keep libraries open seven days a week   Artist saves old books by cutting them to pieces   Celebrate Reading Freedom with a Banned Book   Net & Tech FCC extends net neutrality comment period to Sept. 15   Free Speech, Filters, Algorithms & Net Neutrality: How Big Company Nudging Can Influence Your World View   Why are Telegraph stories about the ‘right to be forgotten’ disappearing from the Internet? Software Company Loses Trademark Case Against Batman Over Fictional Software  Hahaouch... Free Wi-Fi comes to six parks around Los Angeles A Famous Art Museum Is Offeri...

Links! Libraries, Books, & Authors 15 Pieces of Furniture Made Out of Books   Net & Tech Comcast conveniently forgets “no fees” promise until confronted by recording  [sarcasm] Yes, by all means, let's give these guys more  control of the Internet. [/sarcasm]  Science Ebola Epidemic Most Likely Much Larger Than Reported, W.H.O. Says   Other Doctor Who's Jenna-Louise Coleman quits role as Time Lord's assistant and will leave at Christmas  I think I should be the next companion.  Gov. Rick Perry of Texas Is Indicted on Charge of Abuse of Power   It's three times cheaper to give housing to the homeless than to keep them on the streets   Ferguson The demonization of a dead, unarmed teenager is well underway ...   Jay Nixon Declares State Of Emergency, Curfew In Ferguson  Gosh, I wonder why the situation suddenly got bad again ...   Ferguson and our stubborn racial divide   The New Ra...

It seems Ferguson's Chief of Police really just wants to stir up trouble. After things have calmed down - in large part because Highway Patrol was called in and took over -  Chief Jackson, who mangled the situation so badly that the St. Louis suburb looked like a military war zone, released two key pieces of information: the name of the officer who shot Mike Brown and the deceased's status as a suspect in a convenience store robbery. Up until now, the Chief has refused to release the name of the cop who killed Mike Brown because he was concerned about Darren Wilson's safety. So what's changed now? Why is he less concerned for the safety of one of his men? The day after he loses control of the situation officially (although I'd say he lost control, if not power, almost immediately after the shooting happened), he suddenly feels the officer is in no danger, and that information can be given out? Or he has an attack of conscience, and believes it's the right th...

  If you're not sure of what's going on in Ferguson, Missouri, you're not the only one. The eye witness and police reports don't mesh, but there are some points that are agreed on. Two kids, one of them being Mike Brown, an 18 year old who would soon have started college, were walking down the street when an unidentified police officer told them to move onto the sidewalk. They replied that they were almost to their destination, and the police officer started to exit his vehicle. The witness (the second kid in the situation) says the car door bumped into Mike and then swung closed, the cop says he was pushed back into the car - whatever happened, the situation became physical and perhaps Mike and the officer tussled, with the cop allegedly sustaining a hit to the face - nothing too bad, some swelling, some bruising. Mike started running (apparently when the officer pulled his gun and/or began shooting), and the officer shot him. Then Mike stopped, put his hands up, a...