Catching Up, Last Week's Book News: I Was Busy

So sue me, I missed out on a lot of news this week.  So here's the weekend wrapup, all the stuff I forgot to get to involving books and book related news!  Enjoy!

President Obama went on a vacation and bought some books.  Some made up bullshit controversy came up when he seemed to read a lot of male authors.  Holy shit, that bastard.  Let's forget that he seems to be promoting some literacy and not out on the ranch pretending to be the Marlboro Man and focus on a trival details like "taste," "preference" and "give the guy a break he's the president not the messiah." reuters

NASA has plans to publish a science fiction series.  Yup.  Guess that whole "space flight" thing was something they did as a day job while they came up with a kickass space marine idea. mnn

SF Gateway, one of the largest libraries of science fiction, is offering out of print scifi books as ebooks coming soon.  Guess what website NASA is waiting on? planetpdf

U.S. Venture donates school supplies and over 1,800 books to school children.  I don't have a joke here.  Sometimes big business marketing is not so bad.  prnewswire

New juvenile book "Maggie Goes on a Diet" shamed for being dangerous and against body type issues.  "Debbie Goes on a Run and Eats Healthy" deamed un-American.  "Frank Goes Outside" Book Burning to be held on Tuesday. desderetnews

New Jersey school district pulled a book about lesbians for "inappropriate language."  Cast of Jersey Shore responds, "That's a fuckin' disgrace.  I like lesbians and hope their language get a fair shake, ya know?" foxnews

"To Train Up a Child," a "Christian" book about raising your child through the "spare the rod, spoil the child method" and already associated with at least one child death, is being censored throughout the world.  I will not stand for book censorship, so let's just kill all the motherfuckers who beat or tell others to beat their children.  stuff.co.nz

The school board in Missouri that banned Slaughterhouse Five is pretending to take a look at the merits of the books because the nation is pissed off at them.  It is also no coincidence that Kevin Bacon was seen in the area encouraging children to dance.  chron.com

All Aboard! The Desert Bus is Rolling Out!

Well, tis the season for charity, so everyone hop aboard the Desert Bus For Hope and raise some money for children's hospitals.

This is gonna be a loooonnnggg drive.

For those of you not in the know, Desert Bus is one of the worst video games of all time.  Created by the magic/comedy duo Penn & Teller for their SNES video game, you get to drive a bus from Las Vegas to Tuscon.  In real time.  At a top speed of 45 mph.  With nothing exciting at all going on what-so-ever.  See that screen shot up there?  The bug happens about 4 hrs in.  Well, 8 hrs of staring at that later and you get exactly 1 point, then the bus turns around and you get to do it all over again.  So what?, you say, just tie down the controller and walk away.  Nope, the bus always moves slightly to the right, making you pay attention.

Well, here comes the charity part.  For the last several years, the comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun has put on marathon sessions of Desert Bus, collecting donations for Child's Play Charity.  They drive in shifts and only call it quits when no more donations have come in.  

I say, let us kill these fools this year!  Donate all you can and help some sick kids.  Go on.  Do it.

Desert Bus For Hope

Child's Play Charity

Child's Play: My Favorite Charity

I am not going to say this is the best charity in the entire world.  What I am going to say is that Child's Play, created by the webcomic geniuses Penny Arcade, is a worthwhile use of your attention and money.  Listed as a chance for gamers to give back, the charity raises money and materials for children's hospitals around the world.  It is okay if you think video games are spawned from the devil's groin, everyone can donate.  Hell, if you do not trust the hellions over at Penny Arcade with your money, that is fine.  In conjunction with hospitals around the world, Penny Arcade has set up wish lists over at Amazon.com.  That way you can donate directly to the hospital if that is your bag.

As librarians, we give a lot, if not all, of our time helping.  If you feel that is enough charity, I will back you everyday of the week.  And if you already donate your money or time somewhere, bless you as you are better than I will ever be.  But if you feel like making a few kids happy, throw out some money for a book, DVD or video game to a kid's hospital.

Also, know that Child's Play is a nonprofit organization.  I have not received any money, nor will I receive any money for this posting from Child's Play charity.  I support this charity of my own free will and have not been taken over by said organization as a ploy to integrate myself into the library community.  As if galactic space monkey fruit fuckers were that smart.