Steampunk Gypsy

Today is  International Cat Day ! How awesome is that? Why doesn't Google have a Doodle for today? I just don't know, sometimes. But Simon's Cat has the perfect message, anyway: Ranga has settled on a pretty consistent routine. He will spend a lot of the day wandering in and out of the house, meowing incessantly at any closed door. If you open said door, he may or may not come in - he just likes the doors open. At some point after night-fall, he'll decide he's had enough of the outside world and follow me around the house. He doesn't want to be petted or anything - he just wants to be in whatever room I'm in, hoping I'll hand out treats. I'll give him some treats. Sometimes, though, he's too lazy to follow me around, so he'll flop in the middle of the floor and meow until I enter the room he's in, at which point he'll just look at me. Does he want to go outside? No. Does he want to be petted? Most definitely not. He jus...

Massive Advocacy Surge Forestalls Cybersecurity Showdown   Congratulations, everybody! It's not over yet, of course, but it's delayed for a bit. Links! Libraries, Books, Writers, & Suchlike One Year Later: An Interview with Ferguson (Mo.) Library Director Scott Bonner   Weddings and Other Special Events at YOUR Local Library   Harlequin Audiobooks Available to Libraries   Emerging Arab Comic Artists Face Censorship   Memoir focuses on late librarian’s work on censorship in occupied Japan   Reading for pleasure 'boosts social relations'   LDS Church announces publication of the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon   Religious post:  The Curious Faith Of Puddleglum The Marshwiggle  "For Puddleglum, faith in Aslan isn’t an intellectual exercise. It’s a way of being in and for the world." I always loved Puddleglum.  TPP New TPP Leaks Reveal US 'Pandering to Big Drug Companies,' Threatening Innova...

Links! Libraries, Books, Writers, & Suchlike Central City Free Library opens, 101 Donations fundraiser set in New Orleans   Connecting Libraries and Social Justice   Toronto library to roll out book-lending machine at Union Station   E-lending won’t put a big dent in book sales   Talking About Censorship: A Primer   Adding The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel to Your Library or Classroom Collection   August 6, 1996:  George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones debuts   This is your child's brain on reading  Yet another study shows that reading to your child as soon as he or she is born has serious positive effects on brain development across multiple areas. Net, Tech, Health, & Science Adult dies of plague in Colorado  That makes two people this year in Colorado.  Teens, Technology and Friendships   What we're learning about the teenage brain   Education After Katrina, Tulane's Architecture School Became...

Today is the  101st anniversary of the very first electric traffic light ! The Google Doodle  is pretty cool: Learn more -  When was the first traffic light installed? Today in 1914.  Vox's article contains lots of neat visuals, including a video,  A Trip Down Market Street, 1906 - With Sound!  I can't imagine this working well at 50 mph... Links! Libraries, Books, Writers, & Suchlike Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name   Net, Tech, Health, & Science Star Trek's original Uhura is going on a NASA mission  Not into space - but still pretty dang cool! How Google Renewed Its Fight Against Patent Trolls  Um.  Google collects patents while lobbying against them   Obstructions Vanish From Images Treated With New Software From MIT, Google   Netflix blazes a trail of equality with unlimited maternity and paternity leave  Related:  Microsoft increases paid leave...

Links! Libraries, Books, Writers, & Suchlike New Privacy Guidelines Encourage Libraries and Vendors to Work Together to Protect Reader Privacy   Obama Taps Thelma Golden to Join Board of Presidential Library Mission impossible: German libraries try to return Nazi-looted books    August 4, 1792:  Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet, is born  My favorite? "Ozymandias." August 4, 1944: Anne Frank captured   Net, Tech, Science, & Health Man with ‘Ebola-like’ symptoms under observation at UAB Hospital  Related:  Ala. Public Health Officer: Unlikely patient with possible Ebola symptoms poses risk to public   Turn your Smartphone into a 3D Hologram | 4K Education Why 'Grit' Will Never Be the Key to Overcoming Poverty and Racism   Authority Issues Federal Lawsuit Filed After Video Shows Child Shackled   "The lawsuit said the children, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, were so small that the S...

Links! Libraries, Books, Authors, & Suchlike A quiet culture war in research libraries – and what it means for librarians, researchers and publishers  I'm not sure I agree entirely with the author, but it is thought-provoking. How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health   Judy Blume comes to the rescue of man who gave away his wife's beloved book   Franklin integrated ‘Peanuts’ 47 years ago today. Here’s how a teacher changed comics history.   76 Years Later, Lost F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Sees The Light Of Day  So many lost writings popping up everywhere! Fingers crossed for a lost Flannery O'Connor next... China’s Most Censored Author Published His Riskiest Book Yet 10 Grammar Mistakes People Love To Correct (That Aren't Actually Wrong)   Closing the College Readiness Gap  I actually like the idea of First-Year  orientation/basic research skills classes, especially at community colleges, where information literacy i...

I am in love with the Corpus ("Chronophage") Clock ! Isn't that gorgeous? Links! Libraries, Books, Writers, & Suchlike Pitt library songbook key to lawsuit over ‘Happy Birthday’ rights  Hurrah for Special Collections!  A British Owl Got a Library Card Because He's Great at Being an Owl   Scribes Abroad: The Influence of Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’   July 30, 1818:  Emily Bronte’s birthday   After parent outcry, West Ashley High pulls novel from summer reading list   I Learned More about Slavery from Fiction than Public Education  And this right here is why it's important to get kids to read books about tough subjects!  How to... write a literature review   CISA/CISPA CISA: the dirty deal between Google and the NSA that no one is talking about  "One of the things that civil liberties activists like to lament about is that the general public seems to care more about Google and Facebook using their ...