Bibliophiles will be dead chuffed to discover eBook Treasures a new way to view (and own) rare books. The UK-based organization has partnered with the British Library, the 
Royal Society, the John Rylands Library and the British Natural History Museum to publish digital facsimiles of some of the world’s rarest literary masterpieces for iPads and iPhones (with more mobile platforms to follow). The great works are available on the eBook Treasures website and from iTunes.
Small Demons is a new site “that believes powerful and interesting things happen when you connect all the details of books”. Still in beta, Small Demons is quietly gearing-up and inviting booklovers and bibliophiles to join and participate in their brilliant project. Small Demons members can participate by adding references, sharing photos, editing topics, verifying connections and by becoming a site curator.
Small Demons gathers meaningful details from books—songs,people, places, movies, etc.—to create a unique “Storyverse”. The site connects people, fictional and real, in every book. And, it discovers the places, fictional and genuine, that bring books to life. Small Demons discovers and connects the “things” in books—food, movies, songs, cars, etc.—that flesh out the world of books.
So, you can wait for your personal invitation to Small Demons, or for the launch of the official site, or you can connect on the beta site and request an invitation to participate.
For most New York City visitors, the horse drawn carriages of Central Park appear to be a quaint, nostalgic hold-over from an earlier time, or just another tourist trap to grab their dollars. But, what they really represent is plain and simple animal cruelty.
During the past two months, three sick or injured horses have collapsed on city streets, while one horse has died of untreated illness and neglect. Concerned New Yorkers and animal rights activists have been prodding the Bloomberg administration to end this blatant animal abuse. Now, a coalition of groups, including the ASPCA and NY-Class (New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and safe Streets), have come up with a brilliant alternative to the horse drawn carriages—vintage-look electric vehicles.
The suggested fleet of cars, which would seat six passengers and a driver, are reminiscent of late 19th century vehicles and can run entirely on lithium-ion batteries. The quaint looking cars would be convertibles for warm weather months.
A bill has been introduced to the New York City Council, but it has found little traction to date. You can help by visiting the NY-Class website and signing the petition today.
You won’t find this colorful and controversial new map on any New Jeresy travel literature any time soon. But you can count on lots of attention from Jerseyites and shore visitors. {full disclosure: I was born and raised in the great State of New Jersey}
Rutgers University graduate student , Joe Steinfeld created this very amusing, tongue-in-cheek map that’s certain to annoy just about everyone in the Garden State with its politically incorrect cartography.
The 22 year-old creator of the map, currently is employed by the State of NJ in Geographic Information Systems making maps of nature preserves and researching conservation resources.
“In a recent poll 75% of NJ residents were happy to be living in their state…the other 25% are still missing.”
David Letterman
The European Commission recently decided to ban the controversial “backscatter x-ray” machines (which emit directed ionized radiation) from all of the EU’s 27 member country airports “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety”. Meanwhile in the U.S., the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has already installed more than 250 backscatter x-ray machines across the USA. It has also installed 260 “millimeter wave” machines, which use radio waves instead of radiation.
As a flyer in the U.S., your only alternative to a machine scan is to request a physical pat down. In my own case, due to an implanted medical device, I have had to go through the physical pat-down routine for years, like it or not. I recently got into an arguement with a TSA screener at Newark Liberty Airport after he tried to coerce me into a scanner after I requested a pat-down and provided documentation of need. The result was an annoying wait while my belongings sat 30 feet away.
There are currently only three scanning options at U.S. airport:
Each scanner option has its own dangers, especially for travelers with particular medical issues. And, it’s often difficult, if not impossible to determine which type of scanner the TSA is trying to herd you through. There’s no easy solution, but travelers must stand-up for their own health and safety risking the inconvenience and discomfort.
This past September, artist/illustrator/blogger/writer/provocateur Molly Crabapple “locked” herself in a New York City hotel room, covered the walls entirely in huge sheets of paper and filled the paper with her artwork.
Molly funded this clever project through a very successful Kickstarter campaign. The ever popular Molly was visited throughout the week by contributors and astream of New York writers, musicians, artists and performers (including one well-known porn star).
Tim Coates has been an writer and publisher in the U.K., but he is best known as the former head of the Waterstone’s bookselling chain and now he is moving into a new frontier as the founder of Bilbrary.com, a new Web site that will sell e-books from publishers the world over. Coates plans to start a public beta test in a few weeks with titles from both North American and U.K. publishers. At present, he expects 400,000 e-books to be available at launch from both academic and trade houses.
Coates is well aware of the hegemony that e-bookstore powerhouses Amazon and BN.com exert, but he believes the e-book market, particularly outside of America, is only in its infancy with opportunities for new services. He is also claims that Bilbary will be publisher, customer, and library friendly. Publishers can set their own prices and change them whenever they want. Publishers can also sell or rent e-books by chapter and lend them out for a limited period. Coates sees the lending option as a particularly attractive option for expensive reference titles that publishers could lend at a reduced rate. To facilitate lending through libraries, Bilbary will let publishers set a “borrowing” price less than the sale price and include a time limit (Bilbary will set a 20-day limit as a default). Publishers will receive 80% of sales with Bilbary taking 20%. E-books will be made available in as many formats as possible.
At launch the site will focus on English-language titles, but he plans to add foreign-language e-books from publishers worldwide. No public domain titles will be sold, self-published titles will be limited and no free books will appear on the site.
Bilbary will offer reviews from reliable sources, as well as recommendations from booksellers, librarians, and teachers. The site will also include opportunities for publishers to blog and to post promotional material. Readers will be able to suggest titles that they would like to read as e-books but can’t find on the site.
It sounds like a good idea, but freezing out self-published titles seem short sighted and discriminatory. I’m surprised that a dedicated public library campaigner like Tim Coates is focusing exclusively on big publishing houses, but time will tell.
Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone in America and the official Christmas season has begun. So, I can finally share this holiday gem with all you loyal readers.
It all began way back in 1993, when the dopefiend Beat writer William S. Burroughs wrote and narrated a truly bizarre 21 minute claymation Christmas film. And, as you would expect it’s not your stereotypical sappy Christmas film. No, this film – The Junky’s Christmas – is all about Danny the Carwiper, a junkie, who spends Christmas Day trying to cop some dope. Eventually he finds the Christmas spirit when he shares some morphine with a young man suffering from kidney stones, giving him the “immaculate fix.” Oh, and by the by, the wacky little film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola.
I’m a sucker for anything Venice-related (and who isn’t), so of course I fell hard for this gorgeous, little visual love letter to the Queen of the Adriatic. If this doesn’t have you rushing to check Kayak for airfares, then you have no romance in your heart.
Ok, not enough Venezia for you, then here’s another sweet peek at Venice and the island of Burano.
While attention has been focused on the recent flooding in and around Bangkok, an endangered UNESCO World Heritage site has been overlooked: the ancient Thai temples of Ayutthaya Historical Park, which have survived centuries of severe tropical weather, have been severely weakened by the floods that have recently devastated the country.
Ayutthaya was founded in the 14th century as one of the capitals of the old kingdom of Siam. In its glory days, Ayutthaya was home to over 400 temples fitted with stunning Buddha statues before it fell to Burmese invaders in the 18th century. Though the ruins were painstakingly restored, the severe weather this past summer sent an unprecedented deluge of water sweeping through much of central and northern Thailand, causing severe damage to the architecture and the earthen foundation on which it stands. Still waiting for water levels to recede before evaluating the full extent of the damage, park officials have estimated at least $20 million needed for repairs and fear that the monuments will sink or even collapse if left unaided.
This slow-motion cultural disaster is clearly evident in these surreal photographs of colossal Buddhas and sinking temples.
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