Random Thoughts

I'm not nearly as good a linkblogger as some folks. I prefer to spout off, which often gets me into trouble. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with linkblogging. Neilalien notes that there is a perception of linkblogging as a sort of sideblogging, not as "good" as regular content. However, I think a good linkblog entry now and again is essential for any good blog. After all, what's the point of hyperlinks if you don't use them? I always feel like I'm letting my audience down if I don't post a nice "Random Thoughts" post every day or two. So here's one, slightly overdue.

Via Thought Balloons, The Cornell Daily Sun examines books, films, and comics in the context of irate religious censors.

Will Pfeifer finds a really odd Aquaman comic card that makes no sense to me, either. It appears that Aquaman uses his telepathy to get rid of an imaginary monster. Huh?

Mike Sterling has had some good stuff lately, including reviews. Is it just me, or am I linking to him almost every day lately?

Near Mint Heroes has a contest for everyone to enjoy. "Write, draw, somehow create a zombie story." and win a comic.

Monitor Duty reports that forums for Shooting Star comics have been reopened.

Phoebe Gloeckner of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is working on building up a comic book collection for the library. She wants advice on good books to include. Via Bookslut.

The New York Times (annoying registration required) talks about comic books. In particular, Marvel 1602, The Complete Peanuts, Hard Time, and Men of Tomorrow (which appears to be a book about comics).

Panoramically Challenged wants to know if the personal beliefs of a writer or artist affect how you feel about their work. In other words, is it normal to be able to separate the work from the person or people producing it? Generally speaking, I can keep the work apart from the person behind it, but not always. I don't actually pay a lot of attention to what most comic book creators think outside of their books. Chris also mentions Comic Book Digest, which I ordered sight unseen based on the fact that it was only two dollars for an 80-page sampler.

There's an amazing ghost video that was found by the Museum of Hoaxes. Yeah, definitely photoshopped. I think.

Boing Boing reports on an effort to get people to vote. As is usual with these things, the idea is to vote, not to get you to vote for one side in particular.

Man, what to do when people won't return their overdue books? How about sending a book repo man after them? He looks like a nice enough guy. Unlikely to rearrange your face if you won't return the book.

Maurice Wilkins helped discover DNA. "The success of Crick and Watson in elucidating the DNA structure is universally known and acknowledged. But its complete dependence on the results obtained first by Professor Wilkins and then, critically, by the brilliant experimentalist Rosalind Franklin, is still commonly overlooked."

Jessica Crispin reports that the Education Department has destroyed pamphlets meant to help parents teach history to their children because Lynne Cheney didn't like the mention of the National Standards for History.

More on Nancy Pearl, the librarian action figure woman!

Washington States Archives are on-line. Unfortunately, they are very limited at the moment. A search for my last name only turned up one entry. Via /.

There's a couple of cloned cats (NY Times Reg required) in the Madison Square Garden annual cat show. Definitely copycats.

Who wants to live forever? Scientists have found a substance that at least makes you live longer... Via MetaFilter.

The Register talks about Transylvania, and gets a nice response from Dracula's Descendant. Um, ok.

And here's a picture for you. From the local library.