Oh how I wish my young geeky self had access to books like these back in the day...

[all links take you to wikipedia]

*King Dork (Frank Portman)

*An Abundance of Katherines (John Green)

*Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (Rachel Cohn & David Levithan)

These days I have a full time day job, run my own business and have a family with two little kids. Which is a long way of saying my only time to read fiction is on my bus ride to and from work. YA chapters are short and fit easily into my 20 minute reading window.

When it comes to 70s pop I love it all indiscriminately.

Yes, I had a happy childhood. So sue me.

In the spirit of good fun, I offer up Alan O'Day's Undercover Angel mashed with Charlie's Angels clips.

Oh, for the simpler days when being in the A/V Club involved dropping a needle or playing a cassette and turning the filmstrip ahead after each BOOP. These days being in the A/V Club means I'm up to my eyeballs in digital preservation nightmares.

I, too, miss the BOOP.

((BOOP!))

Brilliant and forehead slappingly simple. I love this idea.

P.S. You can freeze brown sugar? Go know.

1. If you want archivists who follow a professional code of ethics, hire a real archival services firm -- not a video production company.

2. Information is power.

I vote for pH, for two reasons:

(1) In library school, I was told that George Eastman (Mr. Kodak) tested the pH of all potential employees' hands by having them leave a handprint on a sheet of metal and waiting to see what happenend. He would only hire people whose hands did not react strongly to the metal.

(2) A presenter at an archives conference once confessed to having hands so "toxic" that he had to wear *two* sets of gloves when handling photographs. He also said he stopped wearing a watch because they were literally destroyed by his skin.

My huzz and I visited Splendid China not long after it opened, and it was already starting to crumble. Definitely my favorite spooky cool mostly empty propaganda theme park. Woo hoo! I should dig out my photos from that trip and scan the best ones...

I worked for the federal gov't several years before 9/11 and everybody had to sign a loyalty oath. Was it the CIA? Nope. FBI? Nuh uh. The Library of Congress. I thought it was insane, but nobody but me even blinked.

More articles by Al McCoy:

Cruel Science: The Long Shadow of CIA Torture Research (Counterpunch)

The Hidden History of CIA Torture: America's Road to Abu Ghraib (Truthout)

You don't have to lie down flat on your back for a newborn to fall asleep on your chest. A snugli or sling makes it a little easier for the adult to move around, but newborns sleep very deeply.

Squee! Joy! Mazel tov! Welcome, Poesy!

-Sally J, The Practical Archivist

P.S. Moon (#200), my mom swears that *ALL* newborns look like Winston Churchill...and I'm inclined to agree with her. :)

The Weans is the book I've been searching for! I've already requested a copy from the library. Joy!

Big, big thanks to Teresa and PBR.

-Sally J.
The Practical Archivist

Amazing, spookycool photos.

#6, your comment reminded me of a book I've been trying to find for decades. We read it in sixth grade science, and I think it was called The We'uns ...anyone out there know what I'm talking about?

It was set in the far future and interpreted the archaeology of the everyday stuff we left behind. Mind blowing, to say the least. Unfortunately, the only details I can remember are that "we'uns" came from American coins ("us" instead of U.S.) and they thought toilets were thrones.

Uh, #2? Interesting theory, but as the librarian who scanned the original print back in 1994 I can tell ya it ain't so. You're welcome to examine the print yourself @Memorial Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Madison. It's a striking photo.

Oh, man...I can't wait to share this with my kids!

Another fabulous steampunky kids book is the Caldecott award winner _Flotsam_ by David Wiesner. No text, just gorgeous illustration. I reviewed it here.

Does anyone really consider a tag more accurate than the original caption provided by LC? Er, you shouldn't.

Here's where crowdsourcing can be helpful in this instance...particularly for anyone looking for free stock images. Library cataloging and description is really dry. Really dry. No attempt to describe anything you can't see, no colorful prose. Just the facts.

What Flickr taggers can provide is the more nebulous descriptions like "angry" or "carefree" or "spookycool."

P.S. The Wisconsin Historical Society also has a Flickr account -- including a set of Charles Van Schaick photos that were used in the uber creepy book by Michael Lesy (originally printed in 1973) called Wisconsin Death Trip.

I was already raising a glass to the geek who inserted "catastrophically" into the code, in thanks for reminding me of the little bomb I'd see on my old Mac SE. (sniffle) Then I read Tom's #6 comment: "The use of 'catastrophically' suggests a developer who was required to install some junk DRM despite all kinds of sensible objections that management refused to listen to." Now I'm raising two glasses.

When I asked my dad what he did when he was stationed in Germany after WWII, he answered "What armies always do. Continue to fight the last war, even though it's over." In his case, he was planning out evacuation routes for European war refugees. But not WWII refugees, since they had had been evacuated years earlier.

Actually ::adjusts library nerd glasses:: what sets apart Wikipedia is that every entry is a summary. That's the whole point of encyclopedias, doncha know. NYT articles and blog entries aren't really designed to do that.

Plus it's not (just) about authority and trust...

Searchers don't want certainty, they just want to reduce their uncertainty. I learned that in Library School. In 1994.

If I had one of these babies I'd use my stress vibes to fire up the kettle, then calm back down with a cuppa.

The leather might look pretty, but it's a terrible idea to store your magnetic tape near it. But then again, who cares? Your $130 reel of tape is only gonna last 10-30 years, even under ideal conditions. For a retrofantastic musical listening experience, my money's (still) on vinyl.

I gave VectorMagic a test spin, with mixed results. It did a great job on a decent size image, but it made my simpsonized avatar look wonky (as you can see in my blog post).

I checked it out because a photo newsletter touted it as a "de-pixelation" solution. Turns out this free web app is sweet, but it's not a miracle worker.

Thomas Edison hates cats.

For more examples of Stalin's attempt to erase purged party members from history, there's a spooky cool book called The Commissar Vanishes. There's also a wiki entry about it.

The harder it gets to spot a fake, the more concerned I become as an archivist, a historian and citizen. Digital forensics is great, but what if all you have is a print?

For over fifteen years I've worked jobs that brought delightful anachronisms into my life. But I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like this treasure:

"Wooden cigarette box from China, with dancing cigarettes, lighter, blinking and alternating colored lightbulbs, music box and alternating lit image on front."

P.S. I gotta start saving for one of those neat-o sunburst clocks.

The gears are wicked cool, but I'm with jimh (#2) and would prefer something with mahogany, a bit of polished brass, and a Victrola horn. Mmmmm. Dreamy.

When I had to restore my ipod to the original settings last week I renamed it Portable Victrola. It made me absurdly happy, and I'm still smiling about it.

Viking Kitties have been a fave video in our house for years. My kids can't get enough of it and I'm pretty sure they think The Immigrant Song is actually called Viking Kitties. (Suh-weet!)

My husband came up with a solution that worked for us when we lived in apartment with a bat problem.

1. Open door to outside and prop open the screen door.
2. Hold a large sheet up high, stretched out between the two of us.
3. Use sheet as a radar wall and "herd" the bat toward the open door.

Scariest part? Peeking over the sheet to see if the bat was gone, only to have it dive toward me.

"Shields up! Shields UP!!"

Anachrofantastic = my new favorite word.

Suhweet.

I like electro-anachronism as a term for the gadgets, but I think steampunk does a better job describing the cultural aspects (costume, language, literature).

But I've been surprised at how quickly some steampunkers are to dismiss something as "not steampunk." 'Tis a pity we can't find a more encompassing term.

Personally, I like all kinds of beautiful anachronisms, from modern cyanotypes to rotary-dial modems. Steampunk is just one flavor.

Anachronism:
1. Something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred.
2. An artifact that belongs to another time.
3. A person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age.

Definition from WordNet® 2.1, © 2005 Princeton University, via dictionary.com.

Wow.
Wow.
Wow!

This may be the greatest use for obsolete cassettes ever. And I'm geeky enough to keep my eye out for stuff like that. BoingBoing Gadgets, you are my new internet best friend!

Here's a link to my lament over the death of the cassette tape from earlier this year (right before the Bay Area Maker Faire): The cassette is dead...long live the cassette!

I agree with Guyzero (#5) - this is nothing new, but rather returning to a way of life we almost lost.

Earlier this week I saw a sign along the highway for a new housing development bragging "No Sidewalks!" in big red type. Who on earth considers that a benefit?

I live in a 100+ year old house in a medium sized midwestern city. All the houses in my neighborhood have either front porches or stoops. Everyone also has small back yards, but guess what? Our kids play with other kids at the park instead of alone in a backyard play structure. I wouldn't have it any other way.

It appears the watermark is gone, but according to a comment on Cognitive Daily they Photoshopped it out instead of paying up. Cognitive Daily discussion at the following URL (tiny-ized so it won't get cut off): http://tinyurl.com/3anv47

P.S. Astroturf is a brilliant way to describe pseudo-grassroots organizations.