What's new

I attended an online tutorial of NoveList Plus last week. I'm very excited about their new nonfiction coverage - 36,000 adult titles reviewed, and 24,000 aimed at curriculum support for kids. I'm mostly a nonfiction reader myself, and I'm looking forward to gleaning the system for books I've overlooked.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has received grant money to digitize their quartos archive.

I found an interesting-looking radio program at NPR called the Infinite Mind. Haven't had a chance to sit down and listen to it yet, though.

I was reminded the other day of my membership to Movielens, a really cool site for getting recommendations for films you might like based on your input. What I love about it is that it recommends lots of foreign films and films of all ages, leading to all kinds of new discoveries.

There's been some news that Popline had categorized the keyword "abortion" as a stop word, meaning that it would bring up no results when searched. But this article says it will be restored soon.

Did you participate in Earth Hour '08? I did. Sign up here to be notified of next year's event. There's some info here that gives statistics for participation this year in Australia, but I have yet to see any report of exactly how much energy was saved worldwide on March 29th. I suppose it's probably impossible to really figure it out.

Here's an article on an entirely different kind of library - clothing libraries.

According to this news item, the human brain did not evolve to read.

I was amazed to find out that 29% of all Vista crashes involved Nvidia drivers. This is most disappointing, considering that I went out of my way to get a laptop with an Nvidia graphics card in it.

You can now have your fill of Southpark online - legally. South Park Studios has put all the episodes online for easy viewing.

Being a bonafide candy freak, I was uber excited to find out that Good 'n Fruity was back on the market. I finally found some at my local dollar store. Unfortunately, they have changed the recipe. The candy no longer has that chewy licorice-like center in it and the flavors have changed. They're still pretty yummy, but not what I'd hoped for.

Here's another news story about a recorded sound from the past. Fascinating!

If ever you needed a reason to justify your coffee habit, here's a good one for you.