Charities, Alan Moore Banned and Bedbugs: Week of Dec 2 - Dec 8

www.childsplaycharity.org

First, I want to tell you about two charities that do awesome things for children in hospitals.  The first is Child's Play Charity.  Set up by the creators of the webcomic Penny Arcade as a way for gamers to give back, Child's Play donates millions of video games, books, and other items to children's hospitals all over the world.

http://www.kateskart.org/ 

The second is Kate's Kart, a similar charity that focuses on donating books to children's hospital and promoting literacy.  Both of these charities are remarkable and I encourage you to support their efforts in providing hope, love and maybe a little distraction to those that need it the most: sick kids. 

Okay, sorry, but I had to get that out of the way.  Here's the quick news: 

Rumor has it that the University of Chicago is campaigning to become the Presidential Library of Barack Obama.  Time was we would build a new library to host the presidential what-nots, but I guess using any old thing will do.

The Library of Congress has released over 1,600 color photographs of World War II era American Society photographs.  Too bad none of them have anything to do with what the American Ninja Michael Dudikoff or the dhampir Bloodrayne were up to.

Birmingham, AL area has made the news twice.  The first time was when the Homewood Public Library started a series of events aimed at educating the public on a variety of topics including Medicare and ghosts while the Birmingham Public Library was focused on a program about fashion.  I do not know about you, but when I think about going to Alabama, the only things I can think about are how good I feel, how good I look, and what happens when I die.

Juliet Machie, former librarian at the Detroit Public Library, has sued the library commission for campaigning to stop her being promoted.  The most damaging campaigns came in the form of text messages that were aimed at her accent.  Now, sheeet, I don't know bout y'all, but that's fucked up.  They gotta see bout that.

The Cobb Public Library System in Georgia spent 13 days with slow Internet speeds.  A number of patrons lost thousands of fake dollars in fake Farmville crops as the browsers just would not refresh.

The graphic novel Neonomicon by Alan Moore was pulled from the shelves of the Greenville County Library System in South Carolina after a mother of the 14 year old reader challenged the book.  The book was in the adult section of the library and checked out on an adult card.  "Ahhh!  I made a mistake and now my child has questions and everybody has to pay for that injustice!"
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Over 500 historic photographs are now on display at the Washington State Library of the Nooksack Valley area.  I just wanted to write "Nooksack Valley."

Bubba Gump Partners With Destin Library.  All in the title.  Thanks, Florida.

Magazine giant Cosmopolitan and romance publisher Harlequin have teamed up to form an ebook partnership.  No mention if they are going to go after the Batman with separately themed traps or combine their powers to defeat him.

The Marathon County Public Library in Wisconsin unveiled an aquarium this week.  Cosmo and Harlequin have begun making plans to install sharks with laser beams as we speak.

Marisa Anton of New York pleaded guilty this week to pursuing sexual advances with a sixteen year old boy under her charge as a school librarian.  Damn those sex crazed librarians, know what I mean?

Bedbugs found in University of Washington's library books are being frozen off.  The bedbugs will be defrosted sometime in the year 2050 after they are needed to fight the super-criminal Wesley Snipes.

Library Employee Charged with Credit Card Theft

"A former Des Moines Library Foundation employee is accused of using the organization’s credit card to steal money.  Stephen Haider was arrested Monday and charged with first degree theft and unauthorized use of credit cards. Both are felony charges."

Why can't people understand?  If you are going to steal from a library, there are much easier ways to do it.  Like everybody everywhere does all the time.  Just check out a bunch of stuff and turn it around on eBay, like normal Americans.  Plus, if you have the inside ticket, stay away from the damn credit cards.  

I mean, think about the children.  Whatever that means.

LIBRARY THIEF: Former Employee Charged - WHOTV.com:

WHOTV.com

LIBRARY THIEF: Former Employee Charged WHOTV.com A former Des Moines Library Foundation employee is accused of using the organization's credit card to steal money. Stephen Haider was arrested Monday and charged with first degree theft and unauthorized use of credit cards. Both are felony charges.

Casey County Library Gone Batshit

After a storm damage last July, the Casey County Public Library had to shut down.  The library continued to be closed, however, because of a bat infestation that lead to a severe build up of guano.

"Guano." Aka "bat shit."  And I'm not talking about Lindsey Lohan, either.  Although wouldn't that be awesome?  After Frankenstorm, several libraries closed and I think it would be awesome if LiLo went rogue and was found hiding in one of the abandoned buildings encased in her own "guaLo."  Make for a great headline, anyway.

Casey library set to reopen after 'bat-astrophe' - Central Kentucky News:

Casey library set to reopen after 'bat-astrophe' Central Kentucky News But the real reason behind the library's extended shutdown is a bit more fantastic and spookier — bats! More specifically, bat guano that had accumulated in the storm water was unleashed, causing potential contamination that has required a lot more ... and more »

MoMa Makes Video Games Art

MoMa, the Museum of Modern Art, has begun collecting video games.  Yeah, you heard me.  Fourteen video games were selected by the museum and officially dubbed "art."  If this does not make sure that my generation is taking over the world nothing does.  Let's look at the list:

Pac-Man (1980) - Considered the Van Gogh of the bunch.  No ears, get it?
Tetris (1984) - Obviously derivative of Picasso.
Another World (1991) - This is a game, I'm told.
Myst (1993) - Be cause matte paintings can be video games, too.
SimCity 2000 (1994) - Rodin, the thinking man's game.
vib-ribbon (1999) - I heard this existed.
The Sims (2000) - Because trapping people in a room and taking away the doors until they die is somebody's art.
EVE Online (2003) - The essence of Cheeto dust on a keyboard.
Katamari Damacy (2004) - Because Dali was bored that day.
Dwarf Fortress (2006) - Who the fuck knows why this is here?
flOw (2006) - aRt is intereSTing with ranDomness
Portal (2007) - I'ma go ahead and just give this a pass.
Passage (2008) - Sure, this was also a game that... I don't know this one.
Canabalt (2009) - Nope, not even gonna comment.  The name scares me and I don't know why.

So here's what we have: A bunch of cubists art with some surrealists sprinkled in.  Hope you enjoy.

MoMa acquires 14 video games for collection, confirms video games as art

Chicago Fires Library Custodians

A controversial $99 million janitorial contract has lead to fifty-four custodians charged with cleaning Chicago Public libraries getting their walking papers, effective Friday.

This is a city wide controversy, but think about the implications for a moment.  Sure, this effects some pretty large parts of Chicago life, like O'Hare airport, but to take away janitors from the library?  That's like taking away the Rosy the Robot from the Jetsons!  Sure, the show can limp along and George can take care of his own damn self for a hot minute, but sooner or later he's gonna wake up, find he can't get out of bed and start jumping off the platform into the dark abyss into whatever lays beneath those sky houses.

Yep, I just put suicide into the Jetson's universe.  Good luck not talking about that today.  That planet would make the Golden Gate Bridge look like a trampoline.

City lays off library custodians - Chicago Sun-Times:

CBS2 Chicago

City lays off library custodians Chicago Sun-Times City library custodians are laid off at the City of Chicago Department of Fleet and Facility Management on Friday, November 30, 2012. Secretary of Treasury Matt Brandon, who represents all public employees, confirms that over 50 workers will be laid ... Chicago Library Janitors Laid OffCBS2 Chicago all 3 news articles »

Library News in Short: Week of Nov 25 - Dec 1

Union Gap Library Closed - Seems if your city can't pay, the libraries won't play.

Skowhegan Library Finds Old Books -  Check your libraries attic and see what you find.

San Francisco Public to Design Library Cards - Most popular design?  The "Cock and Balls," a delightful rendition of a rooster playing tennis.

Maine ebook Firm Says No to Nonfiction - That's the one that's not true, right?  I always confuse those two.

Archway Books Announced - The lovely folks at Simon & Schuster tell public "Fine, publish your own crap."

Manheim Township Library Plays with Legos - "Read, Build, Play?"  More like... um... I wanted to win that.

Schoolcraft Community Librarian Surprised to be Nominated - She thought she had entered to win Ben Stein's money.

Bob Saget Has a Book Deal - 10 Ways to Bang the Olsen Twins

Poland Library Stinks - Had they only gone with Brand X, this wouldn't be a problem.

Gingerbread Invades Medway Public Library - If the tiny gingerbread people could only know the holocaust that awaits them.

Librarian's Can't Do Michael Jackson Says Youtube - Then what the hell are we supposed to do with our weekend?  Here's that video:

Haunted Library on the TeeVee

The paranormal experts on the SyFy Channel’s “Ghost Hunters” believe the Rundel Library in Rochester is haunted. On Wednesday night’s episode, “Due Date with Death,” the members of the The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) found that the library is probably haunted, although they were not able to figure out by which spirit or spirits.

There was this comedian, I forget who, who stated that if ghosts were real, they would not be proven as fact at midnight on a cable show.  That news would be broadcast probably broken in the middle of an episode of "Amercian Idol" by Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric screaming "Ghosts are fucking real and here's the proof!"

But here's the truth:  Ghosts are not real.  If they were, a lot more people without tin foil hats would believe in them.  Am I sure that the residents of the Rundel Library believe they have ghosts?  Sure.  Because just like the ghost hunters, they want to believe that.  They are like the second half of Myth Busters, the good part after the actual science is done where things get blowed up.  They want to make it true, so they do, but that don't make it so.

Library Expects More Visitors After "Ghost Hunters" Episode