The extraordinary story of Rupert the rhino | the Daily Mail: As pets go, Rupert the rhino fulfilled everything expected of him. Faithful, friendly and a fearsome ‘guard dog’, like so many beloved household creatures he simply became one of the family. ——– ahhh, a nice animal interest story… of course, the animal dies in […]

Remembering Joe Hill: I first heard of Joe Hill listening to Utah Phillips’ music. November 19th marks the anniversary of his execution. Joe Hill was an I.W.W. Activist and fought for worker’s rights. Back in his day workers were literally risking their lives fighting for rights we take for granted today. For the 8 hour […]

the cool hunter – GOING TO SCHOOL IN DENMARK: We thought we’d covered the best in our Kool Kids Spaces, but out come the Danes with a school that makes us (almost) want to go back to elementary school. In Lego-bright contrast to the gloomy fate H.C. Andersen prescribed to his original Little Mermaid (that […]

CLIR Report: This report summarizes a review of 12 e-journal archiving programs from the perspective of concerns expressed by directors of academic libraries in North America. It uses a methodology comparable to the art of surveying land by “metes and bounds” in the era before precise measures and calibrated instruments were available. It argues that […]

What’s an Encyclopedia?: John Pederson asks: You do understand that Wikipedia is less about building an encyclopedia and more about “collecting the sum of all human knowledge and making it available for free to everybody on earth”, right? Um… aren’t those pretty much the same thing? ——- yes… and no… an encyclopedia generally is about […]

OpinionJournal – Taste: This fall, the nation’s art museum directors have been in a state of near panic over a surprise change in the tax laws that, they say, has curtailed their ability to build their collections. Until the Pension Protection Act of Aug. 17, museums could entice donors with a fractional gift. A collector […]

2blowhards.com: 1000 Words — Gold Medal Books: What if you could trace the French New Wave, Sam Peckinpah, cyberpunk, “Pulp Fiction,” “Mulholland Drive,” and “Sin City” back to one business gamble taken by a third-tier publisher in 1949? In fact, you can, and without being guilty of too much overstatement. A little, sure, but not […]