Street Use: Camel Bookmobile

Street Use: Camel Bookmobile: Way to go Kenya!

Your Disposable Phone Number for the Web

COMMENTS: "Your Disposable Phone Number for the Web"
I'm sure someone will have a nefarious use for this, but it really does seem like a good idea for when you're selling/trading things on the internet and don't want to give out your real number to potentially shady people.

5 cool ways to use Yahoo! Pipes - franticindustries.

5 cool ways to use Yahoo! Pipes - franticindustries.: "I’ve had some time to play with Yahoo!’s new RSS mixing service, Pipes, and I’m impressed with the possibilities. Unfortunately, there’s still a hefty number of bugs, and some features are sorely lacking (experienced coders will probably be most annoyed by being forced at working in a visual environment and not being able to look at the actual code). Still, even in its current state Pipes is offering a myriad of interesting possibilities."

crazedlist.org : search craigslist like a madman

crazedlist.org : search craigslist like a madman

Novel Action, Inc.

Novel Action, Inc.: "Why pay for books when you can just exchange them and keep your exchanges? Select any books you want from our site and send us an equal number of your books in exchange. With low flat rate shipping, no transaction fees and a great selection, Novel Action is the best way to get used books! "

The Generator Blog: Catalog Card Generator.

Some fun library geekery.
The Generator Blog: Catalog Card Generator.

Delexa.org: Rank Domains by Topic

Delexa.org: Rank Domains by Topic: "Delexa.org is a web analytics tool combining the top 50,000 U.S. websites with their topic tags, using data from del.icio.us and Alexa. Use it to discover the most trafficked sites for any topic of interest, such as 'videos' or 'education'."

Foxit Software

Foxit Software: "Foxit Reader 2.0 is a free PDF document viewer and printer, with incredible small size (only 1.5 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and amazingly rich feature set."

Wikiseek - A better way to search Wikipedia

Wikiseek - A better way to search Wikipedia

Monk-e-Mail

hilarious...send a text-to-voice email, delivered by a monkey!
CareerBuilder Monk-e-Mail

Benettonplay! Toybox

Benettonplay! Toybox: "Benettonplay has been created by a young team of international designers and artists at Fabrica, the Benetton communication research centre in Italy.

Benettonplay is a free online games site exploring play as a form of expression and communication. "

Remixes: Creative uses of free government information | Free Government Information (FGI)

Remixes: Creative uses of free government information | Free Government Information (FGI): "Remixes: Creative uses of free government information

One of the many benefits of no-fee public access to basic government information is that individuals and groups can take gov't info from many sources and create something new. Call it a 'remix' of government information. Sometimes this 'remix' is made freely available, and other times fees are charged. As long as the underlying basic gov't info isn't trapped by false claims of vendor ownership, FGI doesn't have a problem with that.

This page will highlight some of the free 'remixes' of existing free government information done by individuals and other groups. If you know of a qualifying project, either use the 'talk to us' link below, or post a comment."

New Words - Merriam-Webster Online

Merriam-Webster Online: "A Sampling of new words and senses from the new 2006 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate� Dictionary, Eleventh Edition"

TaxProf Blog: Christmas Gifts for that Special Tax Person

I don't know how I missed this in December...

TaxProf Blog: Christmas Gifts for that Special Tax Person: "Nothing says I love you more than IRS chocolates:

* Bite Back at the IRS Bar"

Main Page - dKosopedia

Main Page - dKosopedia: "Welcome to the dKosopedia, a collaborative project of the DailyKos community to build a political encyclopedia. The dKosopedia is written from a left/progressive/liberal/Democratic point of view while also attempting to fairly acknowledge the other side's take. It was started in April of 2004, and currently consists of 7,358 articles."

BookMooch Overview

BookMooch Overview: "BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books.

BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want."

NowNow.com FAQ

NowNow.com FAQ: "1. What is NowNow?
NowNow is a service that mobile users can use to find answers to any question via mobile email. When you post a question to NowNow via email (ask@nownow.com), our NowNow workers will surf the web to find the answer for you. NowNow workers are users who are being paid to search the web on your behalf. NowNow bypasses the need for mobile users to go to the web to find answers to questions as NowNow will send you an email with up to 3 answers to each question you ask. We have not finalized our pricing for each question, however, we expect each question will cost less than $0.25. During this beta-test period all questions asked will be FREE. "

Book Burro - Question & Answers

Book Burro - Question & Answers: "Q What is Book Burro?

A Book Burro is a Web 2.0 extension for Firefox and Flock. When it senses your are looking at a page that contains a book, it will overlay a small panel which when opened lists prices at online bookstores such as Amazon, Buy, Half (and many more) and soon whether the book is available at your library."

Next little thing 2007 - An ATM for books - December 1, 2006

Next little thing 2007 - An ATM for books - December 1, 2006: "After several years in development, the Espresso - a $50,000 vending machine with a conceivably infinite library - is nearly consumer-ready and will debut in ten to 25 libraries and bookstores in 2007. The New York Public Library is scheduled to receive its machine in February."

About GoodSearch : GoodSearch : Search the Internet with GoodSearch and support your favorite charity or school.

About GoodSearch : GoodSearch : Search the Internet with GoodSearch and support your favorite charity or school.: "How does it work?

* On the GoodSearch homepage, choose from thousands of organizations or add your favorite cause to our list.
* Search the Internet just like you normally would — the site is powered by Yahoo!, so you'll get the same high-quality search results you're accustomed to.
* Fifty percent of the revenue generated from advertisers is shared with the charity, school or nonprofit organization of your choosing."

Enlighten Holiday Party Excuse Generator

Enlighten Holiday Party Excuse Generator

you know who you are...

Christmas e-Cards

Christmas e-Cards: "Christmas e-cards from the British Library

Simply choose the image you wish to send by clicking on it. It's easy and it's free."

how cool are they? and the BritLibs docdelivery rox my sox off.

Truespel Converter

Truespel Converter: This amuses me to no end...

Truespel is a simple phonetic notation for American English. Words are written as they sound and are consistent with the pronunciation guide in an American dictionary. It uses a minimal set of 40 phonograms or sound signs and a stress marking convention. Truespel is the first USA English phonetic spelling system that is pronunciation guide quality."

Pimp My Nutcracker - Happy Holidays from Creature | Made by Design Commission

Pimp My Nutcracker

For those long, gloomy December afternoons at work, when everyone but you has left on holiday....

geekyartistlibrarian / GovDocsComics

geekyartistlibrarian / GovDocsComics: "GovDocs Comics"

Printer Anywhere™ Print it anytime, anywhere! Free

Printer Anywhere™ Print it anytime, anywhere! FREE Download software!: "With PrinterAnywhere you can print documents and photos on other people's printers as easily as on the local one connected to your machine. No special technical knowledge is required from both - printer owner and user. It just works!"

LibraryThing UnSuggester | Don't read THIS

LibraryThing UnSuggester | Don't read THIS: "Unsuggester takes 'people who like this also like that' and turns it on its head. It analyzes the seven million books LibraryThing members have recorded as owned or read, and comes back with books least likely to share a library with the book you suggest. The unsuggestions come from LibraryThing data, not from Amazon. LibraryThing also produces great suggestions."

Kevin Kelly -- True Films

Kevin Kelly -- True Films: "I present here the best general interest true films I've found. I define true films as documentaries, educational films, instructional how-to's, and what the British call factuals - a non-fiction visual account. The very best of these non-fiction films are as entertaining as the best of Hollywood blockbusters. In contrast to the fiction that most movies are, true films offer authentic plot twists, real characters, and truth stranger than fiction. They aim to both entertain and to inform - a powerful combo. It is no puzzle that true films are enjoying an expanding audience and rising prestige. "

NNDB: Tracking the entire world

NNDB: Tracking the entire world

"NNDB is an intelligence aggregator that tracks the activities of people we have determined to be noteworthy, both living and dead. Superficially, it seems much like a "Who's Who" where a noted person's curriculum vitae is available (the usual information such as date of birth, a biography, and other essential facts.)"

J! Archive

J! Archive
"The internet's biggest Jeopardy! archive--63,568 clues and counting!"

You don't look like a librarian!

You don't look like a librarian!

ProgrammableWeb Mashup Detail: Top City Books

Top City Books: "Browse the biggest 150 cities around the world and see the most popular books about each city in 8 subjects. Great for browsing, traveling, general interest, etc." http://www.topcitybooks.com

SockRush

How it Works: "Socks are wonderful things but they do have a funny habit of going missing and there's NOTHING more annoying than that.

At last...it doesn't have to be that way...

SockRush is the world’s greatest sock subscription service."

Huh. Greatest, and perhaps only, subscription sock service...

PetPlus

boyfriend girlfriend package

"This package acts as a social supplement for those who wish to avoid human-to-human relationship temporarily but still have the need for love"

Great (and kinda strange) products that allow your dog-friend to participate in all your human activities, like dinner for two.

CNN.com - Where rejected greeting cards go to die - Mar 28, 2006

CNN.com - Where rejected greeting cards go to die - Mar 28, 2006

Book Sale! - Friends of the Houston Public Library

Friends of the Houston Public Library: "The 2006 Annual Bargain Book Sale"

YouTube - Real Life Simpsons Intro

YouTube - Real Life Simpsons Intro:

Boing Boing: Portable med-library in a crate for use in developing world

Boing Boing: Portable med-library in a crate for use in developing world: "s "
The Blue Trunk Library (BTL) is a collection of about one hundred and fifty books and practical manuals on medicine and public health, plus subscriptions to three medical and health journals. The mini-library is contained in a blue metal trunk for ease of transport and for storage purposes.

See also
What is the Blue Trunk Library Project?
Where There Is No Internet: Delivering Health Information via the Blue Trunk Libraries

Google puts National Archives video online | CNET News.com

Google puts National Archives video online | CNET News.com: "This is a World War II era newsreel, one of 100 historic videos retrieved from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and posted Friday on Google Video. The content represents the first fruits of a joint project aimed at putting as much of the National Archives' video content as possible online.

In this first batch are dozens of newsreels, films on the early 1930s park service, and National Air and Space Administration documentaries on space travel. A must-see includes Orson Welles reading from H.G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds,' before discussing the likelihood of extraterrestrial life 'beyond the petty surface of our own minute sphere.'"

I'm fixin' a hole, where the rain gets in...

Popular Mechanics - Popular Mechanics - Home Improvement Journal - Tools

"This Popular Mechanics magazine site presents dozens of articles from the magazine's archives on hand and power tools, including purchase and use of specific tools, product reviews, and tool tests. Tools discussed include: circular saws, table saws, routers, tape measures, clamps, chisels, wire strippers, and screwdrivers." http://www.refdesk.com/

Where America's Good Jobs Will Be - Forbes.com

Where America's Good Jobs Will Be - Forbes.com:

"The American job-generation machine rolls on. The country will create 19 million new payroll jobs in the decade to 2014, according to projections by the U.S. Department of Labor, more than one new job for every seven that now exist."

petswelcome.com

petswelcome.com: "the internet's largest pet/travel resource"

Toothpasteworld - World's Largest Toothpaste Collection

Toothpasteworld - World's Largest Toothpaste Collection

Toothpaste World
www.toothpasteworld.com

"Don't throw out that tube of toothpaste! It could one day be worth something--or at least be a part of the largest toothpaste collection in the world. Here you will find hundreds of brands--spanning the decades--from Germany's Donald Duck toothpaste to Guatemala's fruity flavored Care Bears. Read up on the history of toothpaste or browse old ads. Did you know that before toothpaste, people cleaned their teeth with ground eggshells and the burnt hooves of animals? Or that one of the earliest known toothpaste recipes called for drachmas of rock salt, dried iris flower and 20 grains of pepper? No wonder Mona Lisa isn't smiling."
http://www.forbes.com/bow

Welcome to TextPayMe

Welcome to TextPayMe
"Free service TextPayMe lets you send and receive money any time from your mobile phone."

(Name Here) Is a Liar and a Cheat - New York Times

(Name Here) Is a Liar and a Cheat - New York Times

"Framed in pink, the DontDateHimGirl.com site allows a woman to post the name and photograph of a man she says has wronged her, along with a short but often pungent synopsis of how precisely she was aggrieved. The suspicious or merely curious can hunt for a cheater by typing a name into the search engine. Women can also send e-mail messages through the site if they want to ask more pointed questions about a particular cad. In a slight nod to fairness, men who disagree with the characterization can write a rebuttal to be posted alongside their names."

Information - Podbop

Information - Podbop: "Old way: Looking up concerts in your town on an event site, googling 100 different bands, tracking down an MP3 for each band, and then deciding which show you want to go to.
The Podbop way: Type in a city, get MP3s, discover a band you like, and go see them."

Attack of the sea anemones

Zopa - The first lending and borrowing exchange

Zopa - The first lending and borrowing exchange:
This blows my mind.

"People who have spare money give it to a bank. Banks then do whatever they like with it. Some of it they lend to people who need to borrow. Some of it they give to their shareholders. Some of it they gamble on the price of tin, or the dollar going down, or whether there'll be floods in Asia. Banks make lots of money from all this, a fraction of which they give back to their customers.

Zopa though lets people who have spare money to lend it directly to people, like them, who want to borrow it. No bank in the middle, no huge overheads, no unethical investments."

State of the Union - Free Searchable Version

State of the Union - Free Searchable Version:

Search and analyze the the full-text of all State of the Union Addresses from 1790-2005. The State of the Union Address is an annual event in which the President of the United States reports on the status of the country. The address is also used to outline the President's legislative proposals for the upcoming year. The text is extremely useful in a searchable eBook."

OKCupid! The Are You a Librarian Test

OKCupid! The Are You a Librarian Test: "So do you like to say you're secretly a librarian? Or is that just what you are? Now is the time to testify. Actually, to test your knowledge of library science and library history. It's a brief quiz, but not an easy one. It's meant to separate the real librarians from the wannabees."

Wholphin DVD

Wholphin DVD
Some more beautiful funniness from the kids at McSweeneys...

"Wholphin is a new quarterly DVD magazine lovingly encoded with unique and ponderable films designed to make you feel the way we felt when we learned that dolphins and whales sometimes, you know, do it."

BBC NEWS | UK | Librarians 'suffer most stress'

BBC NEWS | UK | Librarians 'suffer most stress': "

BBC NEWS
Librarians 'suffer most stress'
Fighting fires may sound taxing, chasing criminals demanding, but a new study says that working in library is the most stressful job of all.

Librarians are the most unhappy with their workplace, often finding their job repetitive and unchallenging, according to psychologist Saqib Saddiq.

He will tell the British Psychological Society that one in three workers suffer from poor psychological health.

The study surveyed nearly 300 people drawn from five occupations.

They were firefighters, police officers, train operators, teachers and librarians and were intended to cover the spectrum, with the librarians first-thought to be the least stressful occupation.

Unchallenging, repetitive

The research, being presented at a society conference in Glasgow, looked at nine "stressors", such as how much control workers thought they had over their working day, their workload and how much they earned.

It also looked at absenteeism, job satisfaction and whether work stress spilled over into their private life.


HAVE YOUR SAY
I'm a librarian in a middle school and I love it! I'm hardly stressed at all, nothing like the teachers are
Sarah Allen, Wedmore , UK

Librarians complained about their physical environment, saying they were sick of being stuck between book shelves all day, as well as claiming their skills were not used and how little control they felt they had over the career.

They were also more likely than other professions to be absent from work.

Mr Saddiq urged all employers to tackle the problem of stress.

"Although these findings seem strange at first, they actual show how insidious stress can be, and how it can have an unhealthy impact in any organisation," he said.

"Firefighters and police are trained to deal with the stresses that their jobs undoubtedly entail; librarians and school teachers are less likely to have these support systems in place.

"In addition, stress impacts different personalities in different ways, and different personalities may be drawn to different roles."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4605476.stm

Published: 2006/01/12 12:34:38 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Is this the laundry?

"People flock in, nevertheless, in search of answers to those questions only librarians are considered to be able to answer, such as "Is this the laundry?" "How do you spell surreptitious?" and, on a regular basis, 'Do you have a book I remember reading once? It had a red cover and it turned out they were twins.'"
-- Terry Pratchett

The Best Jobs to Have in 2006 - All Business - Yahoo! Finance

The Best Jobs to Have in 2006 - Yahoo! Finance

Best job? Librarian!

DONTREAD.org | brought to you by Audible.com

DONTREAD.org | brought to you by Audible.com
Fun spin on ALA's "Read" campaign...Includes coupons!

Reading goes underground in Sweden

Leave it to the Swedes...

Ananova - Reading goes underground in Sweden:
"Stockholm is to introduce library book dispensers on the city's underground rail system to encourage commuters to read."

Androgenous librarian

The firm library makes it into the notes of the Anonymous Lawyer:
"There's someone new working in the firm's library..."

Personal Appeal - Wikimedia Foundation

NPR does it, and so too does Wikipedia...

Personal Appeal - Wikimedia Foundation:
"A Personal Appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
We are soon entering our 6th year online, and I want to take a moment to ask you for your help in continuing our mission. Wikipedia is facing new challenges and encountering new opportunities, and both are going to require major funds.

Wikipedia is based on a very radical idea, the realization of the dreams most of us have always had for what the Internet can and should become. Thousands of people, all over the world, from all cultures, working together in harmony to freely share clear, factual, unbiased information… a simple and pure desire to make the world a better place.

This is a radical strike at the heart of an increasingly shallow, proprietary and anti-intellectual culture. It is a radical strike at the assumption that the Internet has to be a place of hostile debate and flame wars. It is an appeal to the best within all of us."

CreativeGuy � Blog Archive � Free online file storage/sending

CreativeGuy � Blog Archive � Free online file storage/sending
A list of 50 services that provide free file transfer or storage.

The Onion: Plan To Straighten Out Entire Life During Weeklong Vacation Yields Mixed Results | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Plan To Straighten Out Entire Life During Weeklong Vacation Yields Mixed Results | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

Pitchfork: Top 50 Albums of 2005

Pitchfork: Top 50 Albums of 2005

Stirex Ergonomic Hand Tools - Self-opening Scissors

"Swedish Stirex makes a clever pair of scissors. No loops to wiggle your thumb and forefinger into, just grip and cut. Unlike other self opening scissors, this one has no dirt collecting spiral spring, which makes it ideal in the kitchen."

Sperling's Best Places"- "The ultimate resource for relocation, recreation, retirement"

Sperling's Best Places



"The ultimate resource for relocation, recreation, retirement"

Includes health rankings (ie, Worst Cities for Respiratory Infections), a "compare cities" function, and city profiles, including neighborhoods, schools, cost of living and crime rates.

LookLater.com - Online bookmark archive

LookLater:

"Instant searchable bookmarks in your own FREE and PRIVATE on-line archive
* Bookmark links, pages or images
* Automatically save context with each bookmark
* Search in titles or context or browse by date or site
* Tag bookmarks and import your existing tags
* No software to install, just a bookmarklet
* Integrates with del.icio.us, Google, eBay and more"

Voice over Email: WaxMail

Voice over Email: WaxMail"

"Love email but hate typing? Free WaxMail lets you talk instead of type. Your voice messages are attached to Outlook emails as MP3s ready to send to any email address. Recipients do not need WaxMail in order to hear your message."

MeetWithApproval.com

MeetWithApproval.com
A great idea for meetings, parties, friends, reunions, weekends, corporate events:

Arrange a meeting or event. Work out which day is good for everyone & keep track of who is coming.
'Meet With Approval' could not be simpler. Fill out the form which creates a meeting page. Your friends or colleagues are notified of the event. They visit the meeting page and help decide a good date. When you are all happy, 'Meet With Approval' confirms the arrangement and you all meet up.

Best of all it's FREE!"

Rallypoint - Online Collaboration

Rallypoint - Online Collaboration:

"Rallypoint is a powerful online collaboration service that can be used to create, organize and share your company's knowledge. It enables you to build web-based documents and pages to share with your team members or other teams. Some of the things you can do with Rallypoint include...

• Create and share online pages with team members, across the hall or across the globe.
• Tag your pages with labels to cleanly organize them in multiple locations.
• Define user and group access to your pages including editors, viewers and subscribers.
• Speed page creation with private and public templates.
• Create collections of your favorite pages around any subject matter.
• Quickly find pages with a powerful built-in search engine.
• Subscribe to page updates to stay informed about topics that interest you.
• Find similar pages and information you and your team never knew existed.
• Embed images, flash and media directly into your pages.
• Attach documents such as Word and Excel to your pages to secure access to those documents."

grocerylists.org | The Grocery List Collection

Includes a best of 2005 list, as well as guides to coupons, promotions and other money-saving tips.

>grocerylists.org

Editor & Publisher - Newspaper Industry Information - News Media Analysis - Newspaper Business News

"Editor & Publisher is the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North American newspaper industry, including business, newsroom, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/index.jsp

Superpatron

Superpatron: "Superpatron is a weblog for library patrons who love their libraries, who take advantage of everything they have to offer, and are always on the lookout for great ideas that libraries around the world are doing."

Lists: 2005 - The best-of the best-ofs

It's a meta list - a list of lists of the best of 2005 best-ofs. Check it out...

Howstuffworks "How Christmas Works"

Howstuffworks "How Christmas Works": "How Christmas Works"

Forbes.com Best of the Web

Forbes Best of the Web: Reference

http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/category.jhtml?id=73



The billions of pages on the Internet contain almost anything you would wish to know; unfortunately, search engines can only go so far. Our favorites in this category give some order to the chaos, many with helpful search techniques, answers to common research questions and more. The best sites, which make finding that perfect word or fact a breeze, will renew your faith in the power of cyberspace

Bolivia current local time

Bolivia current local time

"Look up current time from database containing any country or major city in the world. Displays the time, the GMT offset, a globe image, and a section map. Features a world time calculator and a freeware utility to synchronize your PC with an atomic clock."

Bad Vibes - University of Salford

"Fingernails scraping down a blackboard... the scream of a baby... your neighbour’s dog barking: what is the worst sound in the world? This is what a new website from Salford University is trying to find out. The aim of the website is to increase awareness of sound psychology, by examining what makes a sound unpleasant to hear. Your votes on the site will also give us an insight into what is the worst sound in the world, and maybe why it is the worst sound. The format of the website is similar to other voting websites (like amihotor not), so click the link, audition some sounds, and let us know how horrible they are; you might even what to download one of our horrible ringtones."

http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/news/news3.htm

FoodieView - The Recipe Search Engine

FoodieView - The Recipe Search Engine: "Why search for recipes one site at a time when you can search them all here? We scour the web to find the best recipes on the web's most popular recipe sites."

Texas Happy Hours

Queen of Clubs: "Check out the newest web site called www.TexasHappyHours.com and find out information and pricing for over 130 bars all over Houston. If you are looking for the happy hours for a specific day of the week in a certain area of town, just go to www.TexasHappyHours.com and click on the day of the week. Then, either browse all the listings for that day, or click on an area of town to narrow down the listings. Don't see your favorite bar? That's easy to fix, send www.TexasHappyHours.com information and it will be posted within a few days. www.TexasHappyHours.com makes every effort to ensure that the hours are the most current. Each listing has pertinent happy hour information as well as the last time the facts were updated. Texas Happy Hours periodically emails establishments to verify that their information is the most current, and forums are soon to come. Be sure to check it out the next time you meet your friends for happy hour. 6� Lounge is mentioned on the site, so I love it, already!"

Carmel Mobile Library Services in Kenya

What a terrific idea! Shipping books via camel makes my wobbly-wheeled bookcart seem high-tech, but if the shoe fits...



Carmel Mobile Services: "KENYA NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE (KNLS)

CAMEL MOBILE LIBRARY SERVICE IN KENYA



INTRODUCTION



The Camel Library Service is a library outreach program for people who are unable to use the static libraries in marginal areas in the country. The Kenya National Library Service launched it on October 14th 1996, and it is operational in Garissa town in North Eastern Province of the country. Following its successful implementation, the program was replicated in Wajir town on April 13th 1999. The Camel Library Service is meant to serve the Pastoralists in these areas which are geographically isolated because they experience difficulties in using directly the available library facilities at the static library branches."

The 5th Annual Year in Ideas - New York Times

The 5th Annual Year in Ideas - New York Times: "This issue marks the fifth anniversary of what is becoming a venerable tradition at the magazine: The Year in Ideas. As always, we seek to gain some perspective on what has transpired since January by compiling a digest of the most noteworthy ideas of the past 12 months. Like the biographer Lytton Strachey surveying the Victorian Age, we row out over the great ocean of accomplishment and lower into it a little bucket, which brings up to the light characteristic specimens from the various depths of the intellectual sea - ideas from politics and science, medicine and law, popcorn studies and camel racing. Once we have thrown back all the innovations that don't meet our exacting standards, we find ourselves with the following alphabetical catch: 78 notions, big and small, grand and petty, serious and silly, ingenious and. . . well, whatever you call it when you tattoo an advertisement on your forehead for money."

Discover Music - Pandora

Discover Music - Pandora:

Boing Boing: Q-Unit: Queen and 50-Cent mashup

"Q-Unit is a delightful mashup album combining 50-Cent and Queen -- with tracks like "This is How We Bite the Dust," 'Bohemian Wanksta' and 'We Will Rock You in Da Club.'"

http://members.home.nl/visionx/

The Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping

Just a little something to put you in the holiday spirit...



The Stop Shopping Monitor � From The Rev: "The Christmas Sermon

Children — What is 'Giving' at 'Christmas?' What is it doing to us? This is the season where the supermodels march on us in earnest. The celebrities do their soft-shoe right off the label, they seem to push past the screen and plant a kiss on our bundled faces like bad weather made of pouring-down sex videos. There is a feeling in the air that the right wing apocalypse scheduled by Tony Blair and George Bush will not interrupt the monument of Christmas. First things first. That global warming, that Lake of Fire – it will happen as god wills it. But first we must pummel one another with plastic conveniences, schmazzle dazzle… oh my GOD. Christmas! What can you do? Try to gain copyright control on your own mind? My wayward flock, stay calm.



Corporate Christmas is the Total Falsehood that holds within it a great opportunity. Brave the neurotic elves and smiling Wal Mart hostesses, look for a moment into that blinding darkness. Here is THE ECONOMY THAT WARS ON THE IDEA OF GIVING."

Llibrary/housing project - Rondo Community Outreach Library

wow. a facility like this would be such an asset to inner-city library systems, like the HPL. very creative and innovative



http://www.stpaul.lib.mn.us/rondo/

October 6, 2004

Innovative Library-Housing Project Breaks Ground



SAINT PAUL, MN - In mid-September, Saint Paul Public Library celebrated groundbreaking for the new Rondo Community Outreach Library / University and Dale Apartments. The project is one of the few combined library-housing projects in the nation. A 32,000 square-foot library will share a building with a 98-unit mixed income housing complex.



The library and developers believe this is one of a few such combined projects in the nation. To the library's knowledge, it is the second in the Midwest, after the Waconia Public Library which opened a combined library, housing and municipal offices complex this summer in Carver County.



At the groundbreaking, Saint Paul Public Library Director Gina La Force lauded the partnership between the Library system and private sector developer, Legacy Management, as a perfect fit. "We hope that people find themselves at home in the library. In this case the library building will actually be home for many people... a place for open homes and open minds."



Archie Givens Jr., President and CEO of Legacy Management told the groundbreaking crowd that the partnership was a natural one from his perspective.



"When we were first approached to talk about a library by the Mayor and his staff and Gina, it was no discussion required. I love libraries and know the power and importance of the word and importance of reading and literacy. It was really a dream opportunity for us at Legacy," Givens said.



Givens is also President of the Givens Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching cultural understanding through programs that advance and celebrate African American literature and writers.



Mark Campbell, a director of Multifamily Housing for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called the project a national model.



"These days it is almost impossible to construct affordable housing according to the old model, so we all had to adapt and become more creative. This partnership will show others how it can be done - a model to create affordable housing and to create educational opportunities for our citizens."



When it opens in the fall of 2005, Rondo Community Outreach Library will replace the aging and often-crowded Lexington Outreach Branch.



The new library will be named after the Rondo Community, an historically multicultural neighborhood which was decimated by the construction of an interstate highway through its heart. The neighborhood continues to be one of the most diverse areas of Saint Paul, with large African American, African and Hmong populations.



University Avenue and Dale Street, the intersection on which the library will be constructed, once had local notoriety as the base of several adult-oriented businesses which many viewed as a blight on the neighborhood. Both grassroots community members and the Mayor of Saint Paul hailed the library and housing development as a cornerstone for a bright new era at University and Dale.



"This is a project which will stand the test of time," Mayor Randy Kelly said. "We will be bringing our children and grandchildren by here and saying we had a small part in making this a reality."



Quoting from the bible, community activist and Model Cities CEO Beverly Hawkins said, "If the vision tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come. Before this thing is finally done, this whole intersection is going to make you proud."

Heavy Metal Parking Lot DVD

Looking for a Christmas gift for the metalhead who has everything? Buy it now!



"Videotaped in a concert arena parking lot before a Judas Priest show in '86, HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT is truly the most magnificent portrait of dirt-rockin', headbanging, booze guzzling, dope smokin', trailer trash America has ever seen. It's truly an ingenious masterpiece, made complete with the vast display of bare feet, muscle shirts, bare-chested guys, bleach blonde frizzy perms, Mullets From Hell, BIG hair, bad teeth, scar tissue, and by far, the largest collection of late '70s Camaros ever seen in one location. Kudos to both John Heyn and Jeff Krulik for putting together this quintessential '80s magnum opus."

MediaTransparency.org

About this website



Provides a searchable database of grants of money given to media groups by conservative organizations. This database picks up where previous inquiries had left off, and actually connects the money to the media.



"The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), which has kindly allowed [the site] to re-use some of their data, reported in 1997 on the grant making activities of 12 foundations over the period 1992 through 1994. That report, titled 'Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations,' laid out a fine groundwork for understanding this movement, yet fell short in providing a comprehensive, interactive, open-to-all database that maps out the actual grants, for all to see. People for The American Way accurately described the engine of this movement in the title of another report on the phenomenon called "Buying a Movement."

jake -- jointly administered knowledge environments

jake -- about

"jake is a reference source which makes finding, managing, and linking online journals and journal articles easier for students, researchers, and librarians. jake does this by managing metadata about online resources with a database union list, title authority control, and linking tools, as well as making it easy to customize for a specific library's holdings.

Put simply: jake makes it easy to create software which uses information about journals and online journal products.

The project started in April 1999 (see freshmeat version history) at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University. From the beginning, jake has been a free software project developed using open source methods. This means that in addition to using a free software license (the GPL), we've opened up the process of managing the data in jake to our whole community. Our goal is to distribute the difficult task of keeping this data up to date very broadly, enabling all interested in helping to help make the data better and more complete. "

Opensecrets.org--Money in politics data

"The Web Site of the Center for Responsible Politics" - invaluable information about campaign finance and money in politics

100 Notable Books of the Year - New York Times

100 Notable Books of the Year - New York Times: "100 Notable Books of the Year"

The Baby Name Wizard: NameVoyager

"NameVoyager



Explore the sea of names, letter by letter...watch trends rise and fall, and dive in deeper to see your favorite name's place in the historical tides.



The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager is an interactive portrait of America's name choices. Start with a "sea" of nearly 5000 names. Type a letter, and you'll zoom in to focus on how that initial has been used over the past century. Then type a few more letters, or a name. Each stripe is a timeline of one name, its width reflecting the name's changing popularity. If a name intrigues you, click on its stripe for a closer look."

Monkeywrench Books - A Collective Radical Bookstore

http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

"MonkeyWrench Books is an all-volunteer, nonprofit, collectively owned and operated radical bookstore in North Austin. We provide an extensive collection of radical and hard to find literature and media, and a space for community events.In order to offer a real alternative to the homogeneity of corporate bookstores, MWB stocks books, periodicals, pamphlets and zines from alternative publishers such as AK Press, Autonomedia, Black Rose Books, Common Courage, Seven Stories, International Publishers, Kerr, Monthly Review, South End Press,and Verso."

Golden Age Cartoons - About Us

Golden Age Cartoons - About Us: "Golden Age Cartoons (or 'GAC') is a website devoted to the classic cartoons and characters from the Golden Age of Hollywood. On GAC you will find some of most informative sites about many of these great cartoons, along with an excellent discussion forum and news updates."

WhatTheFont : MyFonts

WhatTheFont : MyFonts

"Web service WhatTheFont analyzes uploaded images and returns the font style matching the font used in the image."

PubSub Community Lists: The Librarian List

PubSub Community Lists: The Librarian List: "About the List

Librarians have been part of the online environment for decades. It didn't take long for them to get excited about blogs. This list shows the most influential librarian blogs, based on LinkRank."

Wired News: Riya Eases Pain of Pile of Pix

Wired News: Riya Eases Pain of Pile of Pix:



It blows my mind, but apparently this software allows you to identify each face or figure within a picture and tag the photo using that info. Wow!

http://riya.com/corp/learn-more.jsp

Package Alert Service

"Have you ever ordered something cool online and just couldn't wait to get it? Do you agonize over when it will be in your clammy little hands and obsessively check delivery tracking websites?



Of course I certainly wouldn't do such a thing, but just in case someone else has this "problem" I created an email alerting system for package deliveries. A number of people are offering RSS feeds for tracking packages, but that's still the wrong model. Don't make me check when my package arrives, push it to me.">Package Alert Service: "Have you ever ordered something cool online and just couldn't wait to get it? Do you agonize over when it will be in your clammy little hands and obsessively check delivery tracking websites?



Of course I certainly wouldn't do such a thing, but just in case someone else has this 'problem' I created an email alerting system for package deliveries. A number of people are offering RSS feeds for tracking packages, but that's still the wrong model. Don't make me check when my package arrives, push it to me."

EFF:Support Bloggers' Rights!

Support Bloggers' Rights!

The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation defends your digital rights every day and needs your help to continue.

In a recent email, father of "life hacks" and EFF employee Danny O'Brien wrote:
"My day job at the Electronic Frontier Foundation involves helping them fight the broadcast flag and discover sinister laser printer dots and defend bloggers' rights and wave the pointy stick at Sony over exploit-ridden DRM."

Publisher of the Legal Guide for Bloggers, the EFF works to protect your right to blog anonymously, make fair use of intellectual property, and protect your server from government seizure.

Google Base service goes live | CNET News.com

Google Base service goes live | CNET News.com: "Google's mysterious Google Base service went live late on Tuesday, allowing people to post any kind of information they want for free and to provide labels to describe it so others can easily find it."

Y.P.R.: The Most Excellent () and Lamentable () Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Told Entirely in Emoticons

Y.P.R.: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Told Entirely in Emoticons: What would Shakespeare think?

Librarians Against Bush

Librarians Against Bush: "'Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Whenever things

get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.' Thomas Jefferson"

Real-Time Flight Tracking

Real-Time Flight Tracking: Real-Time Flight Tracking
"Want to check on the status of a flight that's currently in the air? The major search engines and other specialized services offer real-time flight tracking services that show you the status of major airline flights."

This could be very useful during the holidays, with all that family travelling about...