Friday, April 11, 2014

The Go Go Go Weekly Link Round-Up



Things are still blooming like crazy around here. Adult birds are being driven to the brink of insanity by their nests filled with hungry young. The temperature's gone up, and the evaporative cooler has even been on a time or two. Denis and I have been rounding up estimates for getting the house painted, and we're also looking into restructuring some of our finances so we can get out and travel more. (As Denis says, "You have to show me Yellowstone.") And in the midst of all this, there's been the usual laundry, cooking, cleaning-- and two back-to-back trips to The Poisoned Pen to see Nevada Barr and Anne Perry. Good week, eh? Now that I'm done with my travelogue, I'd better dust off these links and get 'em posted!


Bookish News & Other Interesting Tidbits
  • The founder of the Waterstones bookstore chain in the UK believes the eBook revolution will soon go into decline. Oookay. I can buy that, but only because I think there will be a new "best gizmo" to use.
  • I've always been fascinated by miniatures, and I've just found some stop action animation that shows an entire kitchen being fitted inside a water bottle.
  • I'm not sure how long this is running, but Soho has a contest in which you can enter to win the entire Junior Bender series written by Timothy Hallinan-- including an advance reading copy of the newest, Herbie's Game. I love this series!
  • I was lucky. I grew up in a village library with my mother, the village librarian. She taught me how to dig around for the sorts of books I like to read, and I've found small presses to be excellent resources for some very tasty reading. Sandra Parshall, an author I've featured here on the blog, recently asked a very good question: Why don't small press books find more readers? Although I don't have a good answer, I'd sure like to change the status quo!
  • Why teaching poetry is so important (and it is).
  • I enjoyed this article about the fantasy coffins of Ghana. If I weren't going to live forever, I might look into getting one. *wink*
  • Bookish recently conducted a Lit Madness Championship, and the final was all about strong female characters.
  • The CIA tried to use Doctor Zhivago to weaken the USSR.
  • Books and compassion, from birth.
  • The absolutely true diary of real-time book censorship.
  • Margaret Thatcher began Britain's obsession with property. Rowan Moore believes it's time to end it. Fascinating look into the British property market.
  • I loved listening to this tour of accents across the British Isles performed in a single, unedited take. Wow.
  • Stephen King on how he wrote Carrie.

My Indiana Jones Segment...
  • Learn about the woman who lives in the 1930s.
  • Walking wasn't always such a pedestrian art.
  • Many people don't realize that men got together centuries ago to pick and choose what went in the Bible. Scientists have taken a look at the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," and they don't think it's a forgery. Of course, their point of view isn't the only one.
  • A 100-year-old message in a bottle has been plucked from the Baltic Sea.
  • Take a look at the history of the London red phone box.
  • A pharaonic seal has been found in an ancient coffin in Israel.
  • Ever wondered what it was like to be the first person to try out a bullet-proof vest?
  • A weird magnetic anomaly has revealed an ancient tectonic crash.
  • Students in a US university are looking for a suspected Nazi who aided a Jewish family.
  • A baby volcanic island has eaten its older neighbor. I could be a smart aleck and say that it evidently didn't like the diet of plastic bottles and other floating trash that it had been fed....
  • Here's a wonderful time-lapse video of Yosemite that I think you'll enjoy.
  • ... or would you rather explore the secret rooms of St. Paul's Cathedral in London?

I  ♥  Lists

What a Pain...

Whew! Another big week for links, eh? I hope I found one or two that piqued your interest. Don't forget to stop by next week when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure. Have a great weekend!

    6 comments:

    1. Cathy - I'd like to travel more, too. Oh, and of course, thanks for the links. I must try to win that Hallinen series...once I change all of my passwords *sigh.*

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    2. Hmm. I wonder about that list of phrases that Shakespeare "created". They may be recorded in his works, but I'll bet some of them were more common use items, or twists he made on common use items. One of them was very likely from the Bible.

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      Replies
      1. I had the same thoughts as I was reading through the list, Pepper.

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    3. I enjoyed the links about King's inspirations for Carrie and also the Yosemite video. Awesome!

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