myo(to)pia

jakewyattriot: Test Number Three. Necropolis will launch at...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:40 -0400

Test Number Three.

Necropolis will launch at the end of August as an ongoing weekly webcomic. Stay tuned!

-Jake Wyatt

For lack of a better response, “duuuuuuuuuude!” Character design, colors, composition, and charisma?

Yeah, looking forward to this. Thanks in advance, Future Jake.

"Libraries aren’t in the real world, after all. They’re places apart, sanctuaries of pure thought."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:12:16 -0400

“Libraries aren’t in the real world, after all. They’re places apart, sanctuaries of pure thought.”

- Paul Auster (via picadorbookroom)

I wonder if Paul Auster has been to one recently, though.

Libraries have actually become, in the US at least, de facto homeless shelters and centers for the mentally ill, as well as a resource for those needing childcare as well as the unemployed seeking work. There’s now signs on some of them in New York barring people from bringing ‘large packages’ which basically means ‘homeless people cannot bring their life’s belongings in here’—but they allowed it for almost a decade as homelessness in New York reached epic proportions. There’s actually very few places in American life so of this world, more than a library. Most public libraries are where you can see what is really going on for most Americans in a way you won’t ever see on the news or in a television show, or even in most fiction or nonfiction. And it is to the credit of most librarians that they continue to operate, despite budget cuts, the outlandish depravity of austerians and privitization mongrels. So, let’s not treat libraries like delicate flowers or temples withdrawn from the concerns of the world. They’ve shown themselves to be much tougher than that. Let’s instead make them what they should be, a better thing than what they’ve had to become—and look to what has been laid at their feet as a map to what our country really needs from its government services.

(via alexanderchee)

natti-karlo: adriofthedead: burtmacklin: webissance: This...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:19:12 -0400

natti-karlo:

adriofthedead:

burtmacklin:

webissance:

This 2009 image captures the scene on a foggy night in Odessa, Ukraine, when a digital billboard crashed and displayed a floating error warning in the night sky.

#this sits right on that border between hilarious and terrifying

while the image is hilarious in itself, the idea is terrifying

like, imagine looking up into the sky and seeing this

Noooooooooooooooope

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

— William Gibson, opening line of Neuromancer

The Makings of Maker Spaces, Part 1: Space for Creation, Not Just Consumption - The Digital Shift

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:22:00 -0400

The Makings of Maker Spaces, Part 1: Space for Creation, Not Just Consumption - The Digital Shift:

thelifeguardlibrarian:

latefees:

Also this article: “Meet the Makers: Can a DIY Movement Revolutionize How We Learn?” from SLJ.

Tumblarians - do you have a makerspace in your library (or school library)? We’re tight on space, but I’d love to see/hear what other small libraries are doing / have done / are thinking of doing, because I think our students and faculty could benefit from one.

Humor me:

Why are Maker Spaces the responsibility of libraries?

Turning it a different way: Is there any part of a library that isn’t a maker space? Why should we willingly designate only parts of the library as “creative”?

Any theory of reading after Reader Response criticism recognizes the work that the reader does to make meaning out of what a text provides. Books, movies, comics, video games, clothing, make up… pretty much anything that is “consumed” is done so in an arguably active way, at least within certain boundaries. (Please refer to the entire corpus of Cultural Studies. More briefly, Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, or yr pick of any fandom here on Tumblr.)

Providing access to technologies that enable learning or creating in shiny new ways is a great thing for libraries to do. And getting more people in the door and excited about libraries as a “brand” is a great thing to do.

But we’re massively selling ourselves short if we don’t shift the rhetoric around “Maker Spaces” to include the knowledge production that library users already do. The “actively producing/passively consuming” dichotomy isn’t intellectually tenable at best, and at worst tends to nudge the remaining portions of the library into “valid for budget cuts” category.

The new technology in designated “Maker Spaces” certainly allows for awesome, discrete, teachable moments, whereas regular materials don’t rapidly instill the same sense of wonder or empowerment. For a host of reasons, it will be difficult to create forums that highlight the longer-form “making” that goes on through reading, video-game playing, etc. But what if we mutate them, encouraging book clubs or reading groups to create posters, websites, video game mods, or other “Maker” things that reveal and emphasize the “making” side of purportedly passive “consumption”?

I worry that the emphasis on “Maker Spaces” will result in a push toward recognizing, rewarding, and investing in things that “make” on a Twitter/TED timescale when libraries would be equally well-suited to emphasize how their extant resources enable “making” in much longer, less easily discerned durations.

tl;dr What can we create to emphasize that all library resources enable “making” on different timescales, not just the designated and easily-perceived ones?

missinginthestacks: thisbigcity: Is it graffiti or is it...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:20:02 -0400

missinginthestacks:

thisbigcity:

Is it graffiti or is it street art? This handy tool can help you work it out!

For a bit more of an in-depth analysis, check out our latest post.

Because I love a good flow chart.

frakintosh: Metadata…

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:36:44 -0400

frakintosh:

Metadata…

"To all those who don’t think the rape joke was a problem, or rape jokes are a problem. I get it,..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:47:38 -0400

“

To all those who don’t think the rape joke was a problem, or rape jokes are a problem.

I get it, you’re a decent guy. I can even believe it. You’ve never raped anybody. You would NEVER rape anybody. You’re upset that all these feminists are trying to accuse you of doing something or connect you to doing something that, as far as you’re concerned, you’ve never done and would never condone.

And they’ve told you about triggers, and PTSD, and how one in six women is a survivor, and you get it. You do. But you can’t let every time someone gets all upset get in the way of you having a good time, right?

So fine. If all those arguments aren’t going anything for you, let me tell you this. And I tell you this because I genuinely believe you mean it when you say you don’t want to hurt anybody, and you don’t see the harm, and that it’s important to you to do your best to be a decent and good person. And I genuinely believe you when you say you would never associate with a rapist and you think rape really is a very bad thing.

Because this is why I refuse to take rape jokes sitting down-

6% of college age men, slightly over 1 in 20, will admit to raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word “rape” isn’t used in the description of the act.

6% of Penny Arcade’s target demographic will admit to actually being rapists when asked.

A lot of people accuse feminists of thinking that all men are rapists. That’s not true. But do you know who think all men are rapists?

Rapists do.

They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again.

Virtually all rapists genuinely believe that all men rape, and other men just keep it hushed up better. And more, these people who really are rapists are constantly reaffirmed in their belief about the rest of mankind being rapists like them by things like rape jokes, that dismiss and normalize the idea of rape.

If one in twenty guys is a real and true rapist, and you have any amount of social activity with other guys like yourself, really cool guy, then it is almost a statistical certainty that one time hanging out with friends and their friends, playing Halo with a bunch of guys online, in a WoW guild, or elsewhere, you were talking to a rapist. Not your fault. You can’t tell a rapist apart any better than anyone else can. It’s not like they announce themselves.

But, here’s the thing. It’s very likely that in some of these interactions with these guys, at some point or another someone told a rape joke. You, decent guy that you are, understood that they didn’t mean it, and it was just a joke. And so you laughed.

And, decent guy who would never condone rape, who would step in and stop rape if he saw it, who understands that rape is awful and wrong and bad, when you laughed?

That rapist who was in the group with you, that rapist thought that you were on his side. That rapist knew that you were a rapist like him. And he felt validated, and he felt he was among his comrades.

You. The rapist’s comrade.

And if that doesn’t make you feel sick to your stomach, if that doesn’t make you want to throw up, if that doesn’t disturb you or bother you or make you feel like maybe you should at least consider not participating in that kind of humor anymore…

Well, maybe you aren’t as opposed to rapists as you claim.

”

- Time-Machine (via a comment at shakesville.com)

todaysdocument: “Hundreds of service men prowling downtown Los...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:13:35 -0400

todaysdocument:

“Hundreds of service men prowling downtown Los Angeles mostly on foot — disorderly — apparently on prowl for Mexicans”

riversidearchives:

The reports of continued chaos continued to come in to the Commanders throughout the Eleventh Naval District. Reports of groups of “servicemen prowling downtown Los Angeles,” in groups of “10 to 150 men…carrying hammock clues, belts, knives and tire irons,” were disturbing to the Navy commanders. The riots were disruptive to the war effort and made maintaining good relations with Angelinos difficult as well.

Though in many press reports, the “zoot suiters” were seen as the instigators of the violence, the Navy’s records show a clear concern with the behavior of Naval personnel towards the Mexican community in Los Angeles.

Explore the 70th Anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots through the records of the U.S. Navy. This report to the Commandant of the Eleventh Naval District is from records at the National Archives at Riverside (RG 181).

janehu: Can we take a moment and appreciate Michel Foucault’s...

Sun, 26 May 2013 17:17:00 -0400

janehu:

Can we take a moment and appreciate Michel Foucault’s hair? (As pointed out by Lindsey, “it never occurred to me that foucault once, you know, had hair. but he did. my world. rocked.”)

jstor: When ordering whiteboards, remember: ” = inches ’ =...

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:46:53 -0400

jstor:

When ordering whiteboards, remember:

” = inches

’ = feet

Might I suggest a large whiteboard structure?

Happy Birthday, Sun Ra

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:13:22 -0400

believermag:

(John Cage meets Sun Ra, 1986)

buongiorno: mlarson: Yesssss! new facebook profile...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:29:12 -0400

buongiorno:

mlarson:

Yesssss!

new facebook profile picture.

Relevant to many of my interests.

laura-in-libraryland: From a fellow Laura with a similarly...

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:36:37 -0400

laura-in-libraryland:

From a fellow Laura with a similarly named blog- Laura in the Library

Book packing tips?

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:19:00 -0400

Hey bookish folks: any suggestions on how to pack books for a move?

I’ll be driving a moving truck with them later this month, not mailing boxes media rate. Most are academic paperbacks, so I’m not worried about scuffing them, just about breaking the spine or warping them horrifically.

Is it best to lay them down flat, like geological layers? Or is it better to have the bottom-most layer be all spines, like a bookshelf laying supine?

Thanks!

"[T]he importance of libraries in general is a very good story that is being very badly told."

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:10:00 -0400

““[T]he importance of libraries in general is a very good story that is being very badly told.””

- Michael Rosenblum (down the comment thread)

So in a way this whole ordeal sort of begs the all important question: how do we effectively demonstrate the library’s value to demographics that do not necessarily need the library, i.e. rich white dudes? This case is even more complicated, as he seems to be a wealthy white man with a truly skewed view of poverty and access. I’m not sure we care whether or not this person ever steps foot in a library (I certainly do not), but I don’t think it serves us to alienate those folks with cash and a national audience.

(via thelifeguardlibrarian)

I’d counter with: badly told to whom? The outcry to Rosenblum’s article indicates that plenty of people are aware of the importance of libraries. It’s simply that these are not the people who can get their spurious, badly-researched articles published by the Huffington Post.

So, how do we get these folks on our side? How do we show them that the the library serves the information needs of its entire community, including the people who are “rich enough to live on W. 53rd Street”?

I’ve noticed that Rosenblum’s original point was, “Hey, I’ve got Google; what do I need a library for?” It sounds like we need to meet people like Rosenblum where they are— at Google, on the Web, via people’s web browsers. Maybe find a way to embed our collections and services into search engines, work with them instead of alongside them.

Consider: Wouldn’t it be neat to Google the title of a book, or an author, and see something like “These titles available at [your local library]”? Or, upon hitting a paywall that your library subscribes to, seeing something like “This content is available for free to [your local library] patrons; please enter your username and library card number.”

(via text-block)

It’s a small thing, but I always link to WorldCat when discussing a book. Perhaps I’d choose affiliate links if I had to pay the costs of hosting a blog on the order of BoingBoing, but for the rest of us, I think this is a good way to facilitate library use.

[An aside: for me, the most staggering example of Rosenblum’s “thought” is when he writes, “If people come to the library to use the Internet, why not have the library come to them over the same medium? Just thinking out loud.”

After being given statistics showing that many people come to the library because they don’t have internet access at home, he still suggests bringing a library to them online as a “solution.” He seems fundamentally unable to conceive/concede the fact that he’s not representative of the entire population, and that his ability to not use the library isn’t shared by all.

It’s not a branding problem, it’s a humility problem.]

Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment — MSNBC

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:04:01 -0400

Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment — MSNBC:

afrofuturistaffair:

Great news.

New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:50:07 -0400

New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart:

stfuconservatives:

A new app allows you to scan a product in the supermarket aisle and learn who exactly is behind that box of cereal. More impressively, you can join user-created campaigns to boycott groups of companies who may have lobbied against a cause you believe in.

I couldn’t scream SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY fast enough at this. And it’s free! Due to all the traffic, the app is down right now - the developer says he’s getting more than 10 new users every second. Download it! Vote with your wallet!

I love it when people help make this thing into an information phone!

askingfortroublekawaii: How to make a quick zine and finish...

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:12:15 -0400

askingfortroublekawaii:

How to make a quick zine and finish the Zine Challenge!

View Post

One-shot zines are great!

The best handout I’ve ever made was one of these, on Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library for a class on postmodernism in literature.

Photo

Sun, 12 May 2013 11:46:12 -0400

Photo

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:38:05 -0400