» Wall Street Journal: Top Five Economic Charts of 2011. [ 12.31.11 ]
rebecca's pocket
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
» Wow, read the story of the identical twin boys, one of whom has known from early childhood that she was transgendered. It is hard to imagine what this family has faced, but how blessed Nicole and Jonas are to have parents who love them so much. (thanks, jjg!) [ 12.16.11 ]
» I was speculating to my husband recently on the reasons for the dire financial straits of the United States Postal Service. Well, the Internet, of course, but the alternative delivery services seem to be doing fine in the same environment. Why is it different to be UPS than the USPS?
And then it dawned on me: the Postal Service has a mandate to deliver mail to every person in the United States. That means a Post Office and a Postmaster and probably a Mail Carrier in every small town. Other delivery services can focus on profitable markets and let small-town customers make the drive to the nearest big town if they want to use their service.
Pure speculation, of course -- my specialty. So I was extremely gratified to read this analysis which draws the same conclusion (and points to an outline of some other significant factors).
Update: Here's an Economist article that makes many of the same points. [ 12.14.11 ]
» Yes, it's time to make Star Wars cookies using holiday cookie cutters. You can thank me later. [ 12.13.11 ]
» If Tolkien were Black. African-American authors N.K. Jemisin and Anthony Durham are reimagining the fantasy genre - and in the process, winning awards and selling lots of books. I'm putting them on my "to read" list. [ 11.11.11 ]
» Join me this weekend in Gdansk! I'll be keynoting at the Blog Forum Gdansk, October 15 and 16. I'd love to see you there. [ 10.10.11 ]
» A 7-year-old comic fan reviews the new DC reboot of her favorite hero, Starfire - and nails it. (via @medley) [ 09.30.11 ]
» The New Yorker: Poverty and Income in America: The four lost decades, John Cassidy
Median earnings for full-time, year-round male workers: 2010--$47,715; 1972--$47,550. That's not a typo. In thirty-eight years, the annual earnings of the typical male worker, adjusted to 2010 dollars, have risen by $165, or $3.17 a week. If you do the comparison with 1973 it is even worse.
[ 09.28.11 ]
» A journalist, filmmaker, and Australian game studio have teamed up to develop a first person shooter that uses a camera instead of a gun - requiring the player to film wartime events then create narratives to explain them to at-home viewers. Action + media literacy + political education = awesome.
It's...about navigating through a morally gray world and making decisions that have human impact. It's about finding the story you want to tell, as each of our environments is filled with different story elements you can film and combine in your own ways.
I hope it's also about dodging bullets and noticing traps and staying alive. Remember, Defiant, if you can't die, it's no fun. (thanks, jjg!) [ 09.26.11 ]
» A Texas juror was held in contempt of court after trying to friend the defendant on Facebook during the trial. [ 08.30.11 ]
» Honey Laundering! Seriously, though, be sure to buy your honey from local sources and read labels to make sure the packaged food you are buying doesn't contain honey, especially if you have small children. Honey imported from Asia may contain chloramphenicol (an animal antibiotic banned by the FDA in food) or lead. [ 08.18.11 ]
» Have you read Blackout and its continuation, All Clear, by Connie Willis? They won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and were nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel. And my goodness are they good, a historical page-turner. Perfect summer reading. Here are photos to accompany the books, two sets of pictures from London during the Blitz. Britain's finest hour indeed, and I didn't appreciate how much so until I read this novel. Even if you're not usually into genre fiction, I highly recommend them. (via kottke) [ 07.25.11 ]
» Why oh why did no one tell me the University of Nebraska, Lincoln has the only academic quilt-studies program in the world and - more importantly - the International Quilt Study Center & Museum? All in all, Ardis Butler James, its founder, has left an impressive legacy. / 1 Comments / [ 07.18.11 ]
» On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal published a scathing article on Young Adult fiction. There is definitely some truth to the article, but as someone who is just barely familiar with the genre, it's impossible for me to judge just how accurate or representative the writer's examples are.
Readers objected, of course, starting a thread on Twitter called #YASaves. But here's the most interesting part of the story: the Wall Street Journal posted a subset of those tweets to their Storify account, pointed to it from their Twitter account, and invited further comment to their Facebook page.
So what do you think about the stodgy, conservative old Wall Street Journal proving to be the savviest of new-media newspapers? / 2 Comments / [ 06.06.11 ]
» Is it food, is it art, or is it a weird new hybrid that dare not be named? You be the judge. (via @LATimesFood) [ 06.03.11 ]
» As you know, the last few years I've maintained an ongoing collection of Summer Reading Lists through the season. This year my schedule simply won't accommodate that expediture of time. Rejoice, however! The Reader's Advisor Online keeps a list of recommended reading throughout the year (scroll through the entry until you get to the section "Lists"). Check in every Monday to see the latest hotness in the literary world. To get you started, here's their Memorial Day entry. [ 06.01.11 ]
» Criminy. All Plastics Are Bad for Your Body, New Study Finds. At the very least, refuse to microwave your food in any plastic container, and when it comes time to restock your storage containers, invest in some nice, non-reactive, glass. [ 05.17.11 ]
» Such a lovely story about an organ donor, his family, and the people whose lives they saved. [ 05.16.11 ]
» Wow this is gorgeous. I especially love the interior view into the swimming pool. I suppose this - or a reasonable facsimile - will be how I'll know if I'm ever rich. [ 05.13.11 ]
» Of course you know that sex makes you happier, but did you know it may also "relieve stress, improve sleep and burn calories...reduce pain, ease depression, strengthen blood vessels, boost the immune system and lower the risk of prostate and breast cancer"? Interestingly (or predictably) the more sex that men have, the longer they live; the more that women enjoy sex, the longer they live. Either way, it's time to get busy. [ 05.03.11 ]
» Is Alzheimer's disease diabetes of the brain? One scientist thinks so, but surprisingly, the way to protect yourself is not to cut back on sugar, but to avoid nitrates.
Years ago, a few scientists suggested that nitrosamines might cause diabetes. The concept was not pursued until now. We performed experiments in the laboratory and showed that very low, limited exposures to nitrosamines (the type found in food) cause Alzheimer's-type brain degeneration, dementia, diabetes, fatty liver disease and obesity. Adding high fat to the diet made the disease-causing effects of nitrosamines much worse.
(via @ebertchicago) [ 05.02.11 ]
» I can hardly believe it, but today Rebecca's Pocket is 12 years old. I don't have as much time to update now as I did then, but it is still a pleasure. Whether you've been visiting here since my first post, or discovered the Pocket just last week, I appreciate your attention - and I hope we can meet together here 12 years from now. [ 04.27.11 ]
» It seems that book publisher Random House is jumping on the multi-platform bandwagon with a partnership with a video game company to create multiple properties around the same story.
The Holy Grail here would be for Random House to produce a book that sells well, with us ultimately investing $35 million in a triple-A console game backed by a $12 million marketing campaign that draws a commitment from Hollywood for a movie or television event.
Well, I guess so. If you spent half that much marketing a single book might it not also draw some Hollywood attention? (via tra) [ 04.18.11 ]
» The Wall Street Journal reports that luxury hotels are scrapping the bathtub in favor of increasingly elaborate showers. This matches my experience - and makes me sad. Showers are great for washing up in the morning, but after a long day of travel, work, or sightseeing I crave a long, hot bath. And, as noted at the end of the article, many of these showers are pretty, but turn out to be very badly designed. [ 04.15.11 ]
» Top 10 Dying US Industries. (Read the original report. [pdf])
This is an ongoing game my husband and I play: industries that are dying and product categories that turn out, like the telegraph, to be transitional (for example, the small, stand-alone consumer video camera). I thought of another last week when our new Yellow Pages was delivered. How are phone directories still in business at all? [ 04.14.11 ]
» LA TImes: National Grilled Cheese Day: 12 recipes from the Test Kitchen. Click through the description of the sandwich for the recipe. Also, "test kitchen"? At a newspaper in this business environment? [ 04.13.11 ]
» I am a 91-year-old bodybuilder. Wow. And he's looking good.
At 85 I had a crisis. I looked at myself in the mirror, and saw an old man. I was overweight, my posture was terrible and there was skin hanging off me. I looked like a wreck.
(via rc3) [ 04.07.11 ]
» What do you get when you mix Harold Perrineau from "Lost", Victor Garber from "Alias", Cherry Jones from "24", and Margaret Cho...in an 3-month long Role Playing/Alternate Reality Game...that human rights organization Breakthrough created for Facebook? That's not a convoluted in-joke, it's America 2049 and it just started on Monday.
If all you want to know is "Why a game, and why Facebook?" you'll have to ask the organization's founder, Mallika Dutt:
Human rights have to begin at home, and we really feel the best way to reach people at home is through the power of pop culture, which is what distinguishes us from other social groups. [...]
There's a lot of literature out there right now about how gaming has the potential to be a transformative experience. We've always been looking at what's trending, what's changing, and where young people are, and try to connect to them that way. Right now the answers are games and Facebook.
[ 04.06.11 ]
» If you're as anxious as I am to dine at Next Restaurant - the perfect convergence of my great loves: fine food, food history, and theatre - you will enjoy this tour through their first menu's (Paris 1906) hors d'oeuvres selection. [ 04.05.11 ]
» Read this:
In October 2006 a 32-year-old milk truck driver barricaded himself in an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and shot 10 young girls execution style before putting his nine-millimeter pistol to his head and pulling the trigger.
The crime shocked America, but what came next was perhaps more stunning. Within days grieving parents reached out to the widow of the killer, offering forgiveness and financial assistance.
A new University of British Columbia study suggests that just by reading about such an extreme act of human goodness, you are now primed to be better to others - at least temporarily. [ 04.04.11 ]
» The Enduring Power of Virtue, Kentaro Toyama.
Concern for virtue simmers within the public sphere, and it bubbles over on occasion. [...] Despite these occasional mentions, public discourse about virtue is muted. To abuse a recent parlour game, below is a graph of the rate of occurrence of the words "virtue" and "technology" in Google's Ngram Viewer, which plots frequency of words occurring in books over time. We see a rapid rise of technology in the last forty years against a two-century slide in virtue. [...] Somewhat similar results are had with "virtue" against "institutions," "policies," and "systems."
But is virtue still relevant today? For many people, talk of virtue brings to mind chastity belts and shining armor. I prefer definitions, however, that distance themselves from the moralizing.
(via @alanatcra) / 1 Comments / [ 04.01.11 ]
» Twitter reminds me of this 2006 post, which I linked at the time: On Morality, written by an ethicist in an attempt to provide a primer on moral thinking for those liberals who might be squeamish about making moral judgements.
There is a straightforward moral case to be made not just against the current crop of Republican politicians, but also, I think, for liberal values. But as long as we cede moral language to conservatives, we will not be able to make this case effectively. Nor will we be able to speak to the legitimate fears of people who (correctly) think that morality is extremely important, who are worried that it's under seige, and who (mistakenly) suppose that only conservatives are willing to speak up for them, or that defending morality involves an obsession with preventing gay marriage, or something like that. [...]
We all perform actions. And whether or not we reflect on the kinds of actions we think we should perform ... we will end up performing some actions and not others, living in accordance with certain principles, and developing a particular character. It will be true of one person that she ruthlessly pursues her own interests; of another that she drifts along, allowing her actions to be determined by the preferences of those around her; of another that she tries to preserve her image of herself as 'virtuous' only as long as it is not too inconvenient to do so; and of another that she tries to respond to others with generosity and honesty and respect, even when this is difficult. [...]
This being the case, it makes sense to try to figure out which principles we think should try to live by and which sorts of persons we think we should try to be.[ 03.31.11 ]
» George Orwell: In Defence of English Cooking.
It is commonly said, even by the English themselves, that English cooking is the worst in the world. It is supposed to be not merely incompetent, but also imitative, and I even read quite recently, in a book by a French writer, the remark: 'The best English cooking is, of course, simply French cooking.'
Now that is simply not true.
/ 2 Comments / [ 03.30.11 ]
» The Abuse of Private Manning. It's real, it's true, and it's shameful. (via w.o/l) [ 03.16.11 ]
» Oh wow these are beautiful. Black history/sociology charts hand-drawn in 1900 by W.E.B. Du Bois's students. [ 03.09.11 ]
» For years I've puzzled at finding coconut oil in my health food store - isn't it the very worst for your health of all the oils? But as it turns out, it's only partially hydrogenated coconut oil that should be considered poison. New research shows that saturated fat may not be as bad for you as was previously thought. And delicious coconut oil - at least in small amounts - is good food. / 1 Comments / [ 03.04.11 ]
» I understand the desire for a bright line in the matter of free speech, but I have to say, I think I agree with Justice Alito's dissent in the Westboro case. Particularly since, as the Justice notes, picketing the funeral was "central to respondents' well-practiced strategy for attracting public attention". Brutalizing innocent victims in order to promote your own cause is surely something more like advertising than self-expression.
For what it's worth, I agree with his dissent in the crush video case, too. / 1 Comments / [ 03.02.11 ]
» The last US veteran of World War I has died at age 110. After returning home from the Great War, he was captured in 1941 while traveling overseas on business - and survived 3 years as a civilian POW in the Philippines. Frank Buckles, rest in peace. [ 02.28.11 ]
» This is why I love Rafe. His writing is always so smart and sensible, and usually cuts through the prevailing ideology on both the right and the left. If he's not already, he should be in your daily rotation. [ 02.25.11 ]
» Quilts are unparalleled for their supreme practicality combined with skilled and intricate artwork. One day I'll learn to make them myself, and when I do, this quilt of the New York City Subway map - or one like it - will be on top of my list. (via jmff) [ 02.17.11 ]
» Michigan man extinguishes house fire with snow blower. [ 02.09.11 ]
» When Mark Ketterson contacted the U.S. Naval Academy to arrange a memorial service for his partner, the memorial coordinator asked his relationship to the deceased. Ketterson said that John Fliszar was his husband.
"They were always polite, but there was this moment of hesitation," Ketterson recalled. "They said they're going to need something in writing from a blood relative. They asked, 'Are you listed on the death certificate? Do you have a marriage license?'"
He was and they did, the couple having been married in Des Moines when gay marriage became legal in Iowa two years ago.
Ketterson sent a copy of the marriage license. That changed everything.
"I was respected," he said. "From that moment on, I was next of kin. They were amazing."
I can't even imagine what that meant to him. (via LdlO) / 2 Comments / [ 01.31.11 ]
» I'm deep in preparation for the holidays, and I might as well make it official: I'll be on hiatus for the remainder of 2010 and into the beginning of 2011. Happy holidays to everyone, whichever ones you may celebrate. I'll see you in the New Year! / 1 Comments / [ 12.14.10 ]
» Americans and Chinese people see the world differently because they actually see the world differently.
"Americans are looking at the focal object more quickly and spend more time looking at it," he said. "The Chinese have more saccades [jerky eye movements]. They move their eyes more, especially back and forth between the object and the [background] field."
The finding suggests that East Asians literally spend more time putting objects into context than Americans do. The differences are not just reflected in how individuals recall and report their memories but in how they physically see an image in the first place.
/ 1 Comments / [ 12.07.10 ]
» Bruce Schneier: Close the Washington Monument.
Securing the Washington Monument from terrorism has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult job. The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there's no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options, but I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears. [...]
Terrorism isn't a crime against people or property. It's a crime against our minds, using the death of innocents and destruction of property to make us fearful. Terrorists use the media to magnify their actions and further spread fear. And when we react out of fear, when we change our policy to make our country less open, the terrorists succeed -- even if their attacks fail. But when we refuse to be terrorized, when we're indomitable in the face of terror, the terrorists fail -- even if their attacks succeed.
[ 12.02.10 ]
This week, the court will hear what could be its most important case in years, and I'll bet you have never even heard of it. The case is AT&T Mobility Services vs. Concepcion. If the case is decided the way many observers predict, it could end class-action litigation in America as we know it.
(via @dahlialithwick) [ 11.08.10 ]
» The 10 weirdest physics facts, from relativity to quantum physics. (via @ebertchicago) [ 10.26.10 ]
» When you are a loving husband whose wife develops gestational diabetes and is put on bedrest, what do you do? Create the most adorable breakfasts ever. (via acoj) [ 10.19.10 ]
» Ari Ne'ema, the first openly autistic Presidential appointee, wants the world to stop trying to cure autism, and to start improving the quality of life of people who are different. I'd never thought much about it, but Mr. Ne'ema is smart and persuasive - and he's convinced me that neurodiversity is important.
Most of us have had deeply personal experiences of social isolation, bullying and abuse, lack of support, discrimination, and plenty of other problems. But it's much more productive for us to focus on how we can improve people's lives than to keep presenting people as pitiable burdens.
No more pity. It doesn't help anybody.
[ 10.12.10 ]
» Modernist food photography from IKEA's new cookbook, available for free in Sweden only. (Any Swedish readers willing to pick up a copy for me?) I'll wager you've never seen the like. (via jmff) [ 10.08.10 ]
» "Her name is Toni Stone. She grew up in St. Paul and once played for a team called the Twin Cities Colored Giants, which played on what played on what was called Barnstorming Circuit of the Midwest. She was the first woman to play professional baseball for the Negro Leagues, she played against some of the best players in the game, and she even hit a single off of Satchel Paige." When you've finished the interview, the book is called Curveball. [ 10.08.10 ]
» Top 10 Horror Novels: From Jim Thompson to Daphne du Maurier, stories that live up to their genre and genuinely do give readers sleepless nights. [ 10.06.10 ]
» How to Finish a Game. You can apply this thinking to the (non-game) project you're working on right now. My favorite concept: "Finishing is a skill you can get better at". (via w.o/l) [ 10.05.10 ]
» What will future generations condemn us for?
[A] look at the past suggests three signs that a particular practice is destined for future condemnation.
First, people have already heard the arguments against the practice. The case against slavery didn't emerge in a blinding moment of moral clarity, for instance; it had been around for centuries.
Second, defenders of the custom tend not to offer moral counterarguments but instead invoke tradition, human nature or necessity. (As in, "We've always had slaves, and how could we grow cotton without them?")
And third, supporters engage in what one might call strategic ignorance, avoiding truths that might force them to face the evils in which they're complicit. Those who ate the sugar or wore the cotton that the slaves grew simply didn't think about what made those goods possible. That's why abolitionists sought to direct attention toward the conditions of the Middle Passage, through detailed illustrations of slave ships and horrifying stories of the suffering below decks.
With these signs in mind, here are four contenders for future moral condemnation.
I immediately thought of Professor Appiah's second nomination. What did he miss? (via rc3) [ 10.04.10 ]
» Dick Lochte, President of The Private Eye Writers of America: The Top 20 Private Eye Novels, the Top 20 Private Eye Movies, and the Top 20 TV Private Eyes. [ 09.29.10 ]
» Which science fiction book first published within in the last 10 years will be considered a classic? Nominations from SF authors and readers. [ 09.22.10 ]
» Why are books the size they are? Because of the sheep. [ 09.17.10 ]
» It is an honor merely to be nominated (twice!). Go vote for your 3 favorites! Update: Hey! I won! [ 09.16.10 ]
» The trouble with Google Books is a surprisingly interesting article about the importance of metadata - and the ways in which Google's culture of innovation has potentially destroyed the value of the Last Library.
Google Books was conceived of in two ways. The first is as a new library -- I call it the "last library" -- an aggregate of all the libraries in the world. The second is as a big database, a storehouse of information that you could search the way you search Google. The idea behind that is that books are just stored information. If I want to know who wrote Roosevelt's inaugural speech, I can do a search and look it up.
But those two ideas are at odds with each other, which is something that Google didn't realize. The beauty of Google is that you don't need metadata, after all. You just barrel into the text and pull out what you want. So metadata -- information about the source text -- was not something they focused on.
» Jonathan Franzen: 4 Books You Must Read. [ 09.15.10 ]
» If, like me, once you start canning, you just keep canning, please bookmark this page: 50 Ways to Use Preserves, Jams, Jellies, Marmalades & Fruit Butters. (via JMFF) [ 09.14.10 ]
» Transmedia hits the mainstream! Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment have committed to a filmed version of Stephen King's Dark Tower series - 3 films and 2 television seasons to "connect the dots", with one television season's storylines to be "informed by a prequel comic book series that King was heavily involved in plotting".
"With this story, if you dedicated to one medium or another, there's the horrible risk of cheating material. The scope and scale call for a big screen budget. But if you committed only to films, you'd deny the audience the intimacy and nuance of some of these characters and a lot of cool twists and turns that make for jaw-dropping, compelling television. We've put some real time and deep thought into this." Ron Howard, director and producer of the series.
Transmedia has now officially moved from being "the future" to being "the present": In April the Producers Guild of America officially recognized the title of "Transmedia Producer". Here's a guide to creating a transmedia project of your own. [ 09.13.10 ]
» 10 Reading Revolutions Before E-Books is a smart and subtle survey of the history of reading, and ways in which technological advances resonate beyond the book itself to realign individuals' thinking process and the culture itself.
In Elizabeth Eisenstein's account in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, print changed readers' expectations of texts, especially their universality and fidelity, since everyone everywhere was (in theory) reading an exact copy of an identical text. This assumption proved particularly instrumental in the subsequent Scientific Revolution. Benedict Anderson thought print helped readers of a common language in a highly fragmented Europe think of themselves as an "imagined community," crucial to forming the modern nation-state. Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong thought print helped further reorient language from sound to vision, paving the way for our screen-fixated present. This is a reorientation that, as Ong argued extensively, begins with writing itself.
[ 09.10.10 ]
» Minas Tirith - made from matchsticks. Truly phenomenal. There's a certain kind of mind that loves working at this level of detail. They create letter art, lettering illustrations, knitted cities, paper art, and miniatures of all kinds. Reading them, one suspects a similar sort of mind in the most passionate typographers. (thanks, jjg!) [ 09.09.10 ]
» Librarians at the College of Eastern Nevada have replaced the Dewey Decimal System with Netflix categories in order to allow students to more readily find the books they need. They've provided a handy cheat sheet for faculty who are accustomed to researching the old fashioned way. I was pretty neutral about this until I got to the part about classifying Wuthering Heights as "Romantic Comedy". Seriously, people, have you ever read any of the Brontes? [ 09.08.10 ]
» Behind the growing empire of quirky neighborhood grocery stores known as Trader Joes. I've always wondered where they sourced their products - from everywhere, it turns out, name brands included. Turns out there's much more to know about them than just that. (via w.o/l) [ 09.07.10 ]
» This week: Otherworld literature, books for adventurous girls, and what to read for the rest of the year.
Adults:
NPR: Ricks' Picks: Best Books About War In Iraq
NPR: Three Books For The Self-Help Skeptic
Guardian UK: Otherworld literature: From total believers to complete sceptics, the author of Mirage Men selects books that are 'informative, entertaining, puzzling or all three at once'
Guardian UK: Ten of the best religious zealots in literature
Children and Young Adults:
PBS: Series Books Featuring Adventurous Girls
PBS: Booklights: Thirty Summer Books, Tot to Tween
And for the Rest of the Year:
NY Magazine: The Twenty Our most anticipated fiction and nonfiction of fall
Guardian UK: David Grossman and the new publishing season: In this week's podcast we take a look at the new publishing season and open the betting on who this year's Christmas bestsellers will be
Thus endeth Summer Reading 2010. [ 09.06.10 ]
» I've always felt that language shapes our very perception of the world. In any language, what is named or not named, how things are framed, or what information is embedded (gender or tense - or, in Turkish, whether you witnessed an event yourself) - these things do more than color a narrative. They are the means by which humans construct reality. Language forms understanding. It dictates how we perceive the world, and how we convey our experience to others. One of the advantages of learning a new language is that it gives you a set of new eyes. A new language creates new brain spaces and connections, literally forcing you to step to the side and consider experience from a new perspective.
Or so it always seemed to me. Now psychologists are proving my thesis - and the effect language has on perception, memory, and cognition is startling even to these experts.
Update: This weekend the New York Times Magazine has a long article on the same subject.
Some 50 years ago, the renowned linguist Roman Jakobson pointed out a crucial fact about differences between languages in a pithy maxim: "Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey." This maxim offers us the key to unlocking the real force of the mother tongue: if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about.[ 09.03.10 ]
» Take a walk through the world of fan-produced movie posters and fake peripheral properties. These are gorgeous works, ranging from Fake Criterion DVD Covers (scroll down for Star Wars), Aliens vs Pooh and The Poohing (a Winnie the Pooh/The Shining mashup), and this gorgeous Star Wars travel poster art - and those are just my top 3. [ 09.02.10 ]
» 12 Fish Every Eater Should Avoid: the most unhealthy, environmentally, and socioeconomically unsustainable seafood choices in the world. It's from the Smart Seafood Guide, which also lists your best and worst choices nationally and regionally (since where you are will define sustainability in certain cases). [ 09.02.10 ]
» What's wrong with American espresso? Well, pretty much everything, really. A well made espresso is a balance of 5 elements - and most Americans just don't have the experience to judge. "Here in the U.S. the coffee they use is good, but the way they prepare it is bad. Fifty percent of the result of a good espresso is in the hands of the barista. And if consumers can't recognize that, we lose." - Giorgio Milos, the master barista at illy [ 09.01.10 ]
» Thanks to a digital database and special printers, a few independent bookstores have begun printing out-of-print books on demand for their customers. I predicted this way back in the mid-90s, but in my vision the entire Library of Congress would be available, and buyers would be able to customize the size, typography, and illustrations of their book. [ 08.31.10 ]
» This week: The top 100 thrillers, Fantasy and Science writing award winners, spy novels by real spies, and 6 books to read after you finish Mockingjay.
Adults:
CSM: Five books to read after checking the egg recall list: Here are five books that help to place the egg recall in context
NPR: Top 100 Killer Thrillers: Your picks for the most pulse-quickening, suspenseful novels ever written
NPR: Tina Brown's Must-Reads: Stories Of Survival
NPR: Three Books For Surviving Graduate School
Guardian: The Books That Made Me: Penelope Lively
Guardian: Ten of the best railway journeys
Seattle Times: Spy novels by real spies
Shelftalk: Solidarity Forever! Celebrating Seattle's Workers and Labor History
Food & Think: A Summer Reading List for Food Lovers
Locus: 2009 World Fantasy Awards Nominees
The Royal Society: Prize for Science Books 2010 shortlist
Guardian: Guardian first book award longlist ranges around the world
Children and Young Adults:
6 Flashlight Worthy Children's Books to Read After You Finish Mockingjay
[ 08.30.10 ]
» Mike Shatzkin reflects, and very sensibly, I think, on the future of the printed book for immersive reading. I prefer paper for immersive reading - in fact, I've never read a book using an electronic device - but I can't argue with his central premise, which is this: "Print books aren't getting better. Ebooks are." Judge for yourself. [ 08.26.10 ]
» Wouldn't you like to live here?
Jacob rolled on his scooter alongside Andrew. He climbed on to a chair to watch other kids play a board game. He grabbed a cup of water and drank it. He walked over to a woman and got a hug. He hopped on his scooter again. This went on for a couple of hours.
"Is anyone watching Jacob?" I asked Hetty Fox, matriarch of the Lyman Place play street.
"Uh," she scanned around for a moment. "No, not right now. But his cousin Andrew is right there, and everyone else here knows him, too. Besides, he has lots of aunts and uncles and cousins who live right here on the street, as well as his grandmother and grandfather. In fact, his great-grandmother lives here, too."
How old would you guess Jacob is from hearing about this situation? [...] Jacob is two - just barely two.
This isn't a scenario from a small town. This happened in the South Bronx, on a "Play Street" run by Hetty Fox. What a remarkable institution, and what a remarkable woman. I really wish we had these in San Francisco. [ 08.25.10 ]
» Have you ever dreamed of having a farm where you raise sheep and goats and sell roving and yarn? If so, Susie is looking for an apprentice. Experience is not necessary - a good pair of gloves, a solid work ethic and a 6-month commitment is all you need. [ 08.24.10 ]
» CSM: The 10 Best-paid authors in the world. JK Rowling is not even in the top 5. [ 08.24.10 ]
» This week: Nonfiction for the summer's end, astronomy-themed books, a thriller roundup, and the most wicked uncles in literature. Plus: Business book of the year longlist and the Thurber Awards.
Adults:
CSM: Beyond flooding and fundamentalism: best books about Pakistan
Which books best deliver Pakistan behind the headlines?
CSM: 5 great books about obscure presidents: The lives of our worst presidents make surprisingly good reading.
NPR: Back To Reality: Nonfiction For The Summer's End
Guardian UK: Star attractions: From Copernicus's struggles to tales of mad space exploration projects and the enduring mystery of black holes, the author of The Big Questions picks the best reads about 'this most noble of sciences'
Guardian UK: Crime fiction roundup
Guardian UK: Ten of the best wicked uncles in literature
Guardian UK: Summer Fiction Special: five established writers, plus the winner of our short-story competition and five runners up
Guardian UK: John O'Connell's thriller roundup
Guardian UK: Audiobook review roundup
Tufts University Faculty and Staff: Recommended Reading
Tufts University Faculty and Staff: Books for the Dog Days
Shelftalk: Nightstand Reads: Debut novelist Laurie Frankel shares her summer reading
Pittsylvania County Library Blog: Beach Reads
Reader's Advisor: Under the Radar: Music Makes the Difference
Urbanite: Summer Reading
jen michalski: A Shower of Summer Books
2010 Shamus Award nominations
2010 Business Book of the Year Longlist
2010 Thurber Prize Finalists
Children and Young Adults:
Shelftalk: Come on, try this at home! Fun science titles for kids
[ 08.23.10 ]
» I'm late to this, but of course you know about the disaster in Pakistan. Beyond the obvious humanitarian reasons, perhaps you're also hip to the security implications for the US. Here's how you can help. Remember, even small donations add up. [ 08.20.10 ]
» This is what it was to be a web designer in 2001:
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/ 1 Comments / [ 08.20.10 ]
» The most interesting part of this review of The Shallows (a book in which the author posits that the Internet is rewiring people's brains to be less contemplative and more superficial) is this quote from Professor Andrew Burn of the University of London's Institute of Education:
Equating the internet with distraction and shallowness, he tells me, is a fundamental mistake, possibly bound up with Carr's age (he is 50). "He's restricting what he says to the type of activities that the middle-aged blogosphere-addict typically engages in," says Professor Burn. "Is there anything in his book about online role-playing games?"
Not much, I tell him, and he's off. "Carr's argument privileges activities of the skimming and browsing kind. But if you look at research on kids doing online gaming, or exploring virtual worlds such as Second Life, the argument there is about immersion and engagement - and it's even about excessive forms of immersion and engagement that get labelled as addiction. The point is, to play successfully in an online role-playing game, you have to pay an incredible amount of attention to what your team-mates are doing, to the mechanics of the game. You can set up a thesis for The Depths, just as much as The Shallows."
As you know, I'm of a mind that the Internet really is re-wiring our brains to make us more distracted - and I still think Carr has it wrong. Professor Burn is absolutely right that the Internet provides a variety of experiences, and that new and repeated experiences of every kind change the brain's configuration. [ 08.20.10 ]
» NPR: Video Games: The 21st Century's Fine Art Frontier? Yes. [ 08.19.10 ]
» Chick Lit? Women's Literature? Why Not Just ... Literature? Why not indeed?
[I]f Tom Wolfe had written "The Recessionistas," he would have noted the brands of shoes, the Birkin bags and the personal trainers. And he would have been praised for his attention to detail. [...] But my concern is larger, for the issue is insidious: the way Chick Lit has been used to denigrate a wide swath of novels about contemporary life that happen to be written by women.
[...] No serious woman writer want[s] to be painted with the Women's Lit label, and issues contemporary and domestic, if not presented with violence, are apparently (to academics, to critics and to the general culture -- male and female, alike) seen to have less value.
Feminism failed, really. Originally the movement was about equality for men and women. This was often framed as the freedom for women to enter the workplace as equals and for men to commit themselves to the domestic sphere if that was their calling in life. Of course the subtext to that is the reinstatement of the domestic sphere to a place of respect (the rise of factories having transformed the home from an important and necessary production facility - food, cloth, medicine, and the like - to the Victorian ideal of a haven from the working world).
Instead, women entered the workplace and the tasks necessary to survival - cooking, cleaning, and childcare - were purchased (and usually at low cost), or done as an afterthought to their "real work". Instead of shifting male attitudes about the importance of the work women have traditionally done, women's attitudes realigned to the prevailing male notion that the amount one is paid is the strongest indicator of one's worth.
Anyway, those attitudes extend to literature, apparently. [ 08.19.10 ]
» In Why there's more to cookbooks than recipes, Rachel Cooke touches on some of the things I love about food and cooking: social history, the promise of perfection, and even the writing. But for me, there's something more. When I cook from a vintage cookbook or try a recipe from a cuisine that is not my own, I feel I have a chance to enter into that other time or culture.
What people eat can't tell you everything about a time or a place - but it can tell you an awful lot. What foods were available in that place? Which foods were scare and which were abundant? How do those people think about food in general? What are the common flavor profiles? How does a (generic) dish go together? What constitutes a meal? Under what circumstances did people eat with others, and what kinds of meals are served then? What influenced changes in food over time (immigration, technology, work patterns)?
An exemplar of this is Olive Trees and Honey by Gil Marks, a collection of recipes from Jewish communities around the world. The Jews are particularly interesting in this regard since they were expelled from so many European countries over time. What this means is that they brought their food traditions to friendly countries, incorporated foods and cooking techniques from those new places into their traditional cuisine (simultaneously introducing foods and techniques to the natives of the area). When it became dangerous to stay, the Jews moved to another region - where they introduced their traditional cuisine, which now included influences and recipes from their last "host" country's cuisine, to the natives of the new region. And they did this over and over again.
So far I've cooked only a couple of recipes from this cookbook, but I've read every word. It is a beautiful and fascinating collection that's worth buying even if you choose to read it instead of cook from it.
For a snapshot of different cultures' food without the recipes, I recommend What the World Eats by Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel. This beautiful book consists of photographs of 25 families in 21 countries around the world, each photographed surrounded by food they will eat in a typical week. The differences are startling and enlightening and absolutely fascinating. [ 08.17.10 ]
» Longtime readers know what a fan I am of Makiko Itoh and her sites Just Hungry and Just Bento. Those of you who share my enthusiasm for Japanese food will be excited to learn that Maki has written a cookbook called Just Bento, (due in the US by January, but hopefully sooner). I'm pre-ordering my copy today.
In the meantime, head over to the Just Bento website for Back to School week. Maki will have at least one giveaway every day this week of bento boxes and more. [ 08.16.10 ]
» This week: romance award winners, classic works of gay literature, 50 best cookbooks, historical true crime, and books that change childrens' lives.
Adults:
NPR: Three Books To Take You On That Long, Strange Trip
NPR: Literary Destinations: Five Books To Help You Escape
Christian Science Monitor: Top 5 historical true-crime books of the last decade
Christian Science Monitor: Five books that deliver life - with the boring parts edited out
Los Angeles Times: 20 classic works of gay literature
Guardian UK: Observer Food Monthly (very Anglo-centric) 50 best cookbooks: With Bold Knife and Fork (11-50) and the Top 10
USA Today: 'The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise' captivates booksellers "It's a front-runner for my most beloved book of the fall. The only difficulty I had was deciding which character I loved the best." Karen Corvello, a buyer at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn
Newsweek: What You Need to Read Now
Slate: An alternate pre-college reading list
Kansas Center for the Book: Kansas Notable Books: 15 outstanding titles by Kansas authors or about Kansas.
Shelftalk: About Time: History of the Mind
Shelftalk: About Time: Ages of Empire
Reader's Advisor: Under the Radar: New Science Fiction You May Have Missed
Flashlight Worthy: Beach Reads (15 themed lists, including steampunk, culinary memoirs, and alternate history)
Flavorwire: Literature's 10 Best-Dressed Characters
2010 RITA and Golden Heart Award Winners
Children and Young Adults:
Susan Orleans' Twitter Feed: Books that change kids worlds
[ 08.16.10 ]
» If you've ever wanted to live the life depicted on an album cover, and wish there was a convenient way to purchase the necessary accessories, look no further: My Album Cover Lifestyle has the gear you need at reasonable prices. If you've ever seen an Ikea catalog, you don't need to know the albums themselves - these are brilliant. (via br) [ 08.12.10 ]
» What Harry hath wrought: Adults who read Young Adult literature.
According to surveys by the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, 47 percent of 18- to 24-year-old women and 24 percent of same-aged men say most of the books they buy are classified as young adult. The percentage of female Y.A. fans between the ages of 25 and 44 has nearly doubled in the past four years. Today, nearly one in five 35- to 44-year-olds say they most frequently buy Y.A. books. For themselves.
I still do: sometimes favorites from my childhood, and sometimes new things. My reasons are the same as many of the enthusiasts quoted in the article: freshness, engaging characters, and really good plotting. "A lot of contemporary adult literature is characterized by a real distrust of plot. I think young adult fiction is one of the few areas of literature right now where storytelling really thrives." Lev Grossman, book critic for Time.
You can read about the hoopla surrounding the publication of Mockingjay if you're interested in the mainstreaming of YA. [ 08.11.10 ]
» You've already read about the benefits of going barefoot for adults. Now some experts say that those benefits are even more important for children - who should go barefoot as much as possible while they are growing up.
Tracy Byrne, a podiatrist specialising in podopaediatrics, believes that wearing shoes at too young an age can hamper a child's walking and cerebral development. "Toddlers keep their heads up more when they are walking barefoot," she says. "The feedback they get from the ground means there is less need to look down, which is what puts them off balance and causes them to fall down." Walking barefoot, she continues, develops the muscles and ligaments of the foot, increases the strength of the foot's arch, improves proprioception (our awareness of where we are in relation to the space around us) and contributes to good posture.
[ 08.10.10 ]
» Lots of lists this week, from Nancy Pearl's Under the Radar picks, to the best graphic design books, to the best summer food books, to Neil Gaiman's recommendations for children.
Adults:
NPR: Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks 'Under The Radar' Reads
NPR: Audience Picks: Top 100 'Killer Thrillers'
Guardian UK: Patrick Cramsie's top 10 graphic design books
Guardian UK: My favourite books on sport
Guardian UK: Ten of the best motorbikes in literature
Guardian UK: Science fiction roundup
Smithsonian: A Summer Reading List for Food Lovers
Nature: Vacation reading
Health Beat: Page-Turners: Summer Reading
Shelftalk: Monday, August 9, 1945: Part 2
Shelftalk: About Time: Hidden History
The Kitchn: Best Summer Food Books
Halifax Public Libraries The Reader: CBC Information Morning - Summer Books (part two)
Halifax Public Libraries The Reader: Fiction to try if you like....
Halifax Public Libraries The Reader: Books Into Film - Summer/Fall 2010
The Librarian Next Door: August's To-Read List
Hacker News: Summer Reading Recommendations
CyberMage: Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction (help bring the list to 100)
RA for All: More Offbeat Summer Reading Ideas
How Stuff Works: 21 Best-Selling Books of All Time
2010 Dylan Thomas Longlist for any published writer in the English language under the age of thirty
The Crime Writers' Association's International Dagger Awards winner and shortlists (poke around)
Amazon: Editor's Top Ten
Amazon: Best Fiction of 2010... So Far
Amazon: Best Nonfiction of 2010... So Far
Children and Young Adults:
Guardian UK: Picture books for young children: there's a buzz about the place
Guardian UK: Summer books for older children: runners and riders
Guardian UK: Summer reading for teenagers: darkness, danger and charity shops
Barnes and Noble: Neil Gaiman recommends 3 children's books
Shelftalk: New twists on old tales
Halifax Public Libraries The Reader: Orphans : Family Reading - Family Reading: Ages 8+ (Children's books that adults will love too!)
Your Daily Thread: Green Reads For Kids of All Ages
ThinkExist.com's Top Ten Summer Books
Amazon: Best Books of 2010... So Far for Kids and Teens
[ 08.09.10 ]
» I know the rest of the country has been subjected to heat wave after heat wave, but I'm jealous. And I wonder why anyone with air conditioning complains about the heat anymore. Author and agricultural scientist Stan Cox has lived without air conditioning for several years and he doesn't complain - he says he enjoys the thermal variety. "In response to record-breaking summers, we're relying more on air-conditioning, which produces greenhouse emissions that make the summers hotter. It's a cycle that makes you wonder: How long can it go on?" - Stan Cox / 1 Comments / [ 08.06.10 ]
» A bus that spans 2 lanes, enabling cars to drive underneath? As this video depicts it, it's actually a pretty awesome idea - notwithstanding the real-life velocity and trajectory of most Chinese drivers. [ 08.05.10 ]
» Harold McGee on enhancing the flavors of wine and coffee by diluting with water. [ 08.04.10 ]
» A study based on 20 years of research [pdf] suggests that children who have 500 or more books in the home average 3.2 years more schooling than children in homes without books. The effect was strongest in families with the lowest levels of parental education. / 1 Comments / [ 08.03.10 ]
» This week's summer reading installment features the 10 best dragons in literature, classics for kids, fresh voices in Science Fiction, and the Booker Longlist.
Adults:
NPR: One Nightstand, Six Affairs: Novels Of Illicit Love
North Country Public Radio: Readers & Writers 2010 Summer Reading List
Seattle Times: Fresh voices in science fiction: Karen Lord, Eleanor Arnason and Amelia Beamer In the field of science fiction, small independent presses are willing to take chances
Guardian: Bike blog summer reading list
Guardian: John Mullan on 10 of the best fire-breathing, treasure-guarding - or tattoed - dragons in literature
Guardian: Steven Poole on science, pseudo-science and perception
Guardian: Catherine Taylor's choice of first novels
The Nation: Nation Readers' Summer Books
Pop Matters: When Trends Survive: 5 Trends That Have Made the Leap to Subgenre Status
Paste: Eight Literary Works That Deserve a Graphic-Novel Treatment
Shelftalk: About Time: The Big Picture
Shelftalk: Monday, August 6, 1945: Part 1
Reader's Advisor: Under the Radar: National Golf Month (F and NF)
Reader's Advisor: Under the Radar: New Environmental NF You May Have Missed
Suite 101: Top 10 Summer Romances of 2010
Man Booker 2010 Longlist
Carnegie Library: Summer Reading Suggestions
Daily Beast: 6 Great Summer Beach Reads
Children and Young Adults:
National Endowment for the Humanities: Summertime Favorites: classic literature for young people from kindergarten through high school
Carnegie Library: Summer Reading for Kids Infants through 5th Grade
Carnegie Library: Teen Summer Reading
PBS: Booklights: Thursday THIRTY: Summer Books, Tot to Tween
Guardian: Summer reading for children
Shelftalk: Children's Classics from the 1970s
Christianbook.com: Summer Reading List for Grades K-12, and Historical Fiction for all ages
[ 08.02.10 ]
» This week's summer reading installment features medical graphic novels, the best nameless protagonists, and a thrillers roundup.
Adults:
NPR: Fun In The Sun: Laugh-Out-Loud Summer Books
NPR: A London Cabbie's Summer Reading Picks
Guardian: Cian O'Luanaigh: My favourite medical graphic novels (and a blogpost introducing the genre)
Guardian: Greg Baxter's top 10 memento mori - fearless autobiographical writers
Guardian: Which books are on your summer holiday reading list?
Guardian: Ten of the best nameless protagonists in literature
Guardian: Thrillers roundup
More Magazine: The Top 100 Books Every Woman Should Read Part I: The Classics
More Magazine: Summer Books You'll Remember
More Magazine: 7 Summer Cookbooks
More Magazine: 11 Top Celeb Cookbooks: Editors' Picks
More Magazine: Into the Wild
More Magazine: 23 Scandal-Filled Summer Reads
Shelftalk: About Time: Dark Days and Deeds
Reader's Advisor: Under the Radar: New Fantasy Books You May Have Missed
2009 Shirley Jackson Awards Winner (announced July 11th 2010)
Daily Beast: James P. Othmer: 6 Great Novels on Work
Children and Young Adults:
Shelftalk: Princess Books for Little Girls
[ 07.26.10 ]
» It seems that humans do a simple moral calculation whenever faced with a choice: "Have I done something good recently?" Those who have (or who have just thought about it) tend to give themselves more leeway in other areas.
University of Toronto behavioral marketing professor Nina Mazar showed in a recent study that people who bought green products were more likely to cheat and steal than those who bought conventional products. One of Mazar's experiments invited participants to shop either at online stores that carry mainly green products or mainly conventional products. Then they played a game that allowed them to cheat to make more money. The shoppers from the green store were more dishonest than those at the conventional store, which brought them higher earnings in the game.
From a practical standpoint, this behavior offsets any gains the "good" behavior might otherwise have engendered. I'd like to see some research on the subset of people who bought from the green store and didn't cheat. How do they see the world differently than everyone else? / 3 Comments / [ 07.23.10 ]
» Long-time readers know how impatient I am with the idea that creativity belongs to a small subset of people. Recent research supports what I've known all along - that creativity is the birthright of every human being. More importantly, it uncovers the formula for teaching creativity to children (and to you, adult reader) even in schools tied to standardized testing.
So what does this mean for America's standards-obsessed schools? The key is in how kids work through the vast catalog of information. Consider the National Inventors Hall of Fame School, a new public middle school in Akron, Ohio. Mindful of Ohio's curriculum requirements, the school's teachers came up with a project for the fifth graders: figure out how to reduce the noise in the library. Its windows faced a public space and, even when closed, let through too much noise. The students had four weeks to design proposals. [...]
Along the way, kids demonstrated the very definition of creativity: alternating between divergent and convergent thinking, they arrived at original and useful ideas. And they'd unwittingly mastered Ohio's required fifth-grade curriculum--from understanding sound waves to per-unit cost calculations to the art of persuasive writing. "You never see our kids saying, 'I'll never use this so I don't need to learn it,'" says school administrator Maryann Wolowiec. "Instead, kids ask, 'Do we have to leave school now?'"
[ 07.22.10 ]
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