Squeaker? Another storm rolled through the Phoenix metropolitan area last weekend. I probably should say "roared" because the high winds hit first, leaving thousands of people without power, then the rains pounded us. We came within a gnat's whisker of having the pool filled with mud again, but thankfully it stopped with leaving the front and back yards looking like a couple of the Great Lakes. Whew!
I am getting rather good at walking around the property and filling up big black trash bags, but all this standing water has encouraged one of my least favorite insects, so wherever I go to pick up debris and pull weeds, I'm surrounded by clouds of mosquitoes. As long as they stay out of my ears, I'll survive!
Let me hang up my trash bag and round up this week's links!
Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits
- James Patterson is extending his indie bookshop largesse to Ireland and the UK.
- One of my favorite authors, Betty Webb, used Facebook to solve a family mystery.
- Why readers, scientifically, are the best people to fall in love with.
- If your life was a children's book, which one would it be?
- Saving Paris's oldest bookstore.
- This is what it was like to be the book censor for all of New England in 1930.
- Shades of Harry Potter: New York scientists have unveiled an invisibility cloak.
- Who knew? A scorpion that's a friend to booklovers.
- Stephen King believes books are going to be around for a long, long time.
- A 13-year-old has invented a completely new approach to cleaning up oil spills.
- Colorado's rightwing Jefferson County school board is trying to ban the teaching of "social strife" in the United States, and the students have something to say about that.
- Disposable plastic water bottles have been banned at the Grand Canyon and water stations have been built for visitors. Some of the four-legged residents have taken a shine to those water stations, too.
- Gale, a division of Cengage Learning, has launched the "My Library Story" community project in which story submissions will earn donations to a library advertising fund. My Library Story's website.
Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones
- A 2,000-year-old battery has puzzled archaeologists for decades.
- Hmmm... "Polo Day" just doesn't have the same ring to it as Columbus Day.
- Archaeologists believe they've found the dungeons believed to have have held Dracula.
- An ancient human genome from southern Africa is shedding light on our origins.
- A cat-sized chinchilla, long thought to be extinct, has been found alive near Peru's Machu Picchu ruins.
- NASA has discovered that the Earth's fourth-largest lake is almost completely dry.
- A brain imprint has been found inside a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy skull.
- If I found something like this, I think I'd sleep in my car and guard it for three days, too!
- A scientist is slowly and carefully unlocking the secrets in a da Vinci painting.
I ♥ Lists & Quizzes
- 10 must-read ghost stories.
- Here's a slideshow of movies you need to see twice.
- Banned Books Week may be over, but here are 22 mind-boggling facts about banned books in America.
- 10 of the best historical novels.
- An English penpal and I used to challenge ourselves on this via snail mail (and before Google): Can you guess the famous book from the first line?
- 8 authors who published blockbuster books while they were still students.
- Literary moments of The Golden Girls.
Book Candy
- Here are a few "shelfies" taken for the London Book Fair.
- What to know about adding a library ladder.
- Books in the hands of Shannon Moore. Shannon's miniatures page.
That's all for now. Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure. Have a great weekend!
Cathy - So good to hear that you were spared the worst flood damage. Near miss, that's for sure! Thanks too, as always, for those links. I love the fact that young people are actively trying to think of solutions to some of our big problems, like oil spills. And that story of the ancient human genome? Enticing!!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I love it that kids are coming up with practical solutions to very real and possibly deadly problems!
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