It turns out that our reaction to invasive species may have more to do with our fear of the ‘alien’ than environmentalism. Recently I got to listen to an interview, from CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, with ecologist Ken Thompson. Thompson’s book ‘Where Do Camels Belong: Why Invasive Species Aren’t All Bad‘ lays out the case…
WTF Evolution?: My favorite Tumblr is a book now
Truth be told, I don’t spend a whole lot of time on Tumblr but there are a few masterpieces that are worth keeping an eye on. One of my favorites is Mara Grunbaum’s “WTF Evolution?” which takes a regular look at some of evolution’s strangest and most perplexing creations. Now, in plenty of time for…
Goodnight Darth Vader: the latest children’s title from Jeffrey Brown
I learned this year that watching Star Wars on Father’s Day is becoming a thing, because of the whole Vader being Luke & Lea’s father thing. (It appears that decades later people are still in shock about that one.) Personally, as a father, I don’t get it. Darth Vader was responsible for untold thousands of…
The original Rolling Stone version of ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ is free online
Hunter S. Thompson was an American original and a man in the right place at the right time. At a time when nothing in U.S. politics and very little in the United States was making any sense, Thompson sidestepped the traditional journalists role. He didn’t try to ‘make sense’ of things, he simply chronicled what…
How Harry Potter should have ended.
J.K. Rowling said recently that Harry Potter should have married Hermoione Granger at the end of the story. She was wrong. By ending things the way she did, Harry married Ginny and the boy who had no family suddenly had a large one. Ron, who had always come in second to Harry got the girl.…
The Hemmingway app will make your writing “bold and clear”
Ernest Hemingway was known as a writer who didn’t mince words. The new Hemingway (web and desktop) app was designed to help you find your inner Ernest. So, it’s something of a cross between a spelling and grammar check app and a style guide, if Hemingway wrote it. That, at least, is the idea. According…
Movies R Fun: Book adapts R-rated movies for kids
I’m a big fan of the whole ‘adult books for kids‘ theme so this collection from Josh Cooley is a must have. Cooley is an artist and story supervisor at Pixar and the creator of Movies R Fun, which presents classic scenes from R rated films in a sort of ‘Little Golden Books’ style. The collection is scheduled to be released…
British Library Posts 1 Million Historic, Public Domain Scans to Flickr
The British Library, one of the worlds great repositories of historic information, has scanned a million images from books published from the 17th-19th centuries. The public domain images have all been uploaded to a Flickr account for the public to use, remix and repurpose. According to the Library: The images were plucked from the pages…
Noam Chomsky on Technology
Joe Hanson at the It’s Ok to Be Smart Tumblr posted a Noam Chomsky quote from Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am?. It is a collection of questions asked by children and answered by some of the smartest people alive. In Chomsky’s case the question was about technology. Specifically, Chomsky was asked whether technology was…
New Documentary Explores ‘the Phantom Tollbooth’
A new documentary from Brooklyn Based Hannah Jayanti explores the classic children’s story “the Phantom Tollbooth“. “The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations” playfully explores the creation, creators, lasting impact and enduring relevance of one of the most universally beloved children’s books of our time. Through interviews, animation and archival materials, the documentary traces the friendship between…