liblog • Libraries of The Claremont Colleges

July 21, 2008 — Monday

Earth-Like Extrasolar Planet Discovered

Scientific American is reporting that astronomers have discovered what they believe to be the most Earth-like extrasolar planet. Why does this matter?

“The separation between the planet and its star is just right for having liquid water at its surface,” says astronomer and team spokesperson Stephane Udry of the Observatory of Geneva in Versoix, Switzerland. “That’s why we are a bit excited.”

Certainly the discovery of another planet outside our solar system that had a strong chance of having liquid water would be pretty amazing. For more, read the rest: “All Wet? Astronomers Claim Discovery of Earth-like Planet.”

— michael | 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | I found it online

July 17, 2008 — Thursday

Creating Online Presentations

Need to create an online presentation? ReadWriteWeb offers 4+ Ways to Quickly Create Excellent Presentations Online. They offers looks at Zoho Show 2.0, Google Docs, 280 Slides, and SlideRocket as well as as a couple others. So if you need to make a presentation and don’t have access to PowerPoint of Keynote, or if you just want to try something different, you might want to check these out.

via iLibrarian

— michael | 10:40 AM | Comments (0) |

July 16, 2008 — Wednesday

Sci-Fi Wednesday: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Out today is the first installment of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which can be viewed online: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Act One. Act Two will be out tomorrow and Act Three will be out on Saturday. You can also download (for $1.99) Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Act One via iTunes (will launch iTunes).

What is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog? The fan run .net site’s about page explains:

During the WGA strike Joss Whedon started writing a three part musical series for the internet. Each of the three episodes will be approximately ten minutes each.

And further:

“It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.” says Whedon.

The three episodes star Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day as Penny. If you’re a fan of science fiction, musicals, Joss Whedon, or all three, you might want to check it out.

— michael | 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | Random bits

I Search, You Search, We All Search Google

Chances are, if you do a search of the internet, you’re using Google. How do I know that? Because almost 70% of online searches in the US this past June. The actual number is 69.17%, which is up from 63.92% in June 2007, and unsurprisingly, both Yahoo and MSN search numbers are decreasing as a result of Google’s growth.

via Daring Fireball

— michael | 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | I found it online

July 14, 2008 — Monday

Floor-by-Floor Demolition

Normally when tall buildings are destroyed, there is a lot of explosion and a lot of dust, but Gizmodo reports on Kajima’s floor-by-floor slow demolition that does things a little differently

How do they do it? Gizmodo explains:

How do they do it? First they replace the support pillars at ground level with computer-controlled metal columns. Then, a crew carefully demolishes by hand the entire floor, leaving the structure resting on the mechanic pillars, which then go down slowly until the next floor is at ground level. They replace again the support pillars with the mechanic ones, destroy that floor, and repeat the operation until they get rid of all the floors. This makes it look as if the building is shrinking in front of you, or being swallowed by the street.

You can watch the process here:

One of the best parts of this process (called daruma-otoshi), aside from the eerie cool, is that in reduces the environmental impact of the demolition process. For more: Floor-by-Floor Demolition Blows Minds, Saves Environment.

— michael | 02:43 PM | Comments (0) | I found it online

World’s Oldest Blogger Passes Away

Good Magazine is reporting that “Olive Riley, the ‘world’s oldest blogger,’ passed away this weekend at age 108.”

Good Magazine explains:

In excerpts from the documentary on youtube, you can watch Olive endearingly thanking everyone for ”listening to her blog,“ and recounting how she was a grown-up mother of two the first time she ever saw an automobile...

Credit Card Company Ticks

Have a credit card? Worried about getting into trouble by getting in to too much debt? If so, you might want to check out the 10 Credit Card Company Tricks To Beware list provided by the Consumerist that gives some of the basic ways credit card companies sink you deeper into debt.

via Lifehacker

— michael | 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | Something to think about

July 11, 2008 — Friday

Map of Federal Lands by State

The amount of land owned by the government in each state can be seen in this map offered up by Strange Maps which shows the federally owned land as a percentage of the states total land area. As Strange Maps explains:

The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) - nearly 30% of its total territory. These federal lands are used as military bases or testing grounds, nature parks and reserves and Indian reservations, or are leased to the private sector for commercial exploitation (e.g. forestry, mining, agriculture). They are managed by different administrations, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Department of Defense, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Bureau of Reclamation or the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The top ten state that have the highest proportion of federal government ownership are as follows:

1. Nevada 84.5%
2. Alaska 69.1%
3. Utah 57.4%
4. Oregon 53.1%
5. Idaho 50.2%
6. Arizona 48.1%
7. California 45.3%
8. Wyoming 42.3%
9. New Mexico 41.8%
10. Colorado 36.6%

For more, you can read the rest: Federal Lands in the US

— michael | 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | I found it online

July 09, 2008 — Wednesday

Digitize Me - US Census Bureau

Coming next February, all analog television broadcasts will cease as the TV networks move to digital only broadcasting. The US Census Bureau has the details in a Special Edition of Facts for Features: Conversion from Analog to Digital-TV - Feb. 17, 2009. The Bureau starts by explaining:

On Feb. 17, 2009, all full-power TV stations will cease to broadcast analog programming. This transition to digital television will enable more efficient use of the nation’s airwaves, providing new advanced wireless services and increased public safety services. To mark this historic transition, the Census Bureau has assembled a sampling of statistics from its publications about television and the television industry.

Some of the facts include:

— 110 million - # of households with a television set in 2006
— 76 million - # households with a television set in 1980

— 2.6 - avg # of television sets per home in 2005
— 1.7 - avg # of television sets per home in 1980

— 1,704 - projected avg # of hours an individual (12 and older) will spend watching television in 2008

— March 31, 2009 - last day consumers can apply for up to two $40 digital-TV converter box coupons

— over 1,600 - # of television stations in the US already broadcasting digital programs

For more, go read the rest: Facts for Features: Conversion from Analog to Digital-TV - Feb. 17, 2009.

— michael | 04:07 PM | Comments (0) | I found it online

July 07, 2008 — Monday

Climate Change: Solar Power coming to the Prius

Picture of the Prius It looks like the next generation of the Toyota Prius will come with solar panels integrated into the roof that can supply part of the power needed to power air-conditioning.

via Green Tech Blog

— michael | 03:26 PM | Comments (2) | Something to think about

July 04, 2008 — Friday

July 4^th - US Census Bureau

Today is the Fourth of July, and is the 232^nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States. The US Census Bureau is there with the latest in their Facts for Features - Fourth of July.

Some of the facts include:

— 2.5 million - # of people living in the newly independent nation In July 1776 (estimated)

— 304 million - nation’s population on this July Fourth

— About 4 in 10 - odds that your side dish of baked beans originated from North Dakota, which produced 42 percent of the nation’s dry, edible beans in 2007

— $4.7 million - dollar value of U.S. imports of American flags in 2007

For more, go read the rest: Facts for Features - Fourth of July

— michael | 03:16 PM | I found it online

July 02, 2008 — Wednesday

Wordle

If you ever wanted to create a word cloud, then you’ll want to check out Wordle, which takes text and creates a word cloud. As described at the site:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Here’s a word cloud of the last few entries here at liblog:

Wordle word cloud of liblog

Create your own word cloud at Wordle.

— michael | 03:47 PM | Random bits

June 30, 2008 — Monday

Ten Free Software Programs

TechNewsWorld reports on 10 Great Software Programs You Can Get Gratis. Peter Grad explains a little about each program. The one that jumped out as especially potentially useful was PDFCreator. For more, go read the list: 10 Great Software Programs You Can Get Gratis.

via iLibrarian

— michael | 01:31 PM | I found it online

June 26, 2008 — Thursday

The Right Book

It’s the 150^th anniversary issue of The Bookseller, the oldest publishing trade magazine in the world. The editors asked Cory Doctorow to write a short story about the next 150 years. The result is The Right Book and is available in the print version as well as online.

The lead graph:

The thing that Arthur liked best about owning his own shop was that he could stock whatever he pleased, and if you didn’t like it, you could just shop somewhere else. So there in the window were four ancient Cluedo sets rescued from a car-boot sale in Sussex; a pair of trousers sewn from a salvaged WWII bivouac tent; a small card advertising the availability of artisanal truffles hand made by an autistically gifted chocolatier in Islington; a brick of Pu’er tea that had been made in Guyana by a Chinese family who’d emigrated a full century previous; and, just as of now, six small, handsomely made books.

For more, read:
The Right Book Pages 1 & 2
The Right Book Page 3

(Note that once there, you can select these pages and save them as a PDF.)

via BoingBoing

— michael | 09:46 AM | Reading rants & raves

June 25, 2008 — Wednesday

What are You Watching?

Online video has been around for awhile, but just how many videos are being watched online? To answer the question, comScore measured the amount of videos watched online in April of 2008. The results are pretty amazing. Over 11 billion (yes billion) video were watched online during April alone with over 4 billion from YouTube:

For more: 11 Billion Videos Viewed Online in the U.S. in April 2008

via iLibrarian

— michael | 02:36 PM | I found it online

June 23, 2008 — Monday

Garkov

We’ve already seen Garfield minus Garfield, and now we have Garkov. What is Garkov? It’s a project of Josh Millard that combines Garfield strips with Markov chains to create occasionally coherent dialogue.

To see a sample of the results:

You can head over to Garkov and hit refresh to see more examples. Be sure to check out the Garkov Hall of Fame. There’s also a list of other Garfield projects.

— michael | 10:31 AM | Random bits

June 12, 2008 — Thursday

Online Resources for Academic Work

EduChoices has created a list of the 50 of the Most Dependable Web Resources for University Students. This list includes everything from:

1. Library of Congress - The nation’s oldest federal cultural institution is also the largest library in the world. Some of the resources you will find here include historical documents, manuscripts, artwork, maps, photos, letters and film.

50. Student Loan Calculator - CollegeBoard’s Student Loan Calculator is a wonderful tool for students who need to get a handle on student loan repayments. The calculator is easy to use and has separate sections for various types of loans.

and a great number of other things in between. Check out the whole list and you might find some useful resources: 50 of the Most Dependable Web Resources for University Students.

They also link to their article on 20 Websites (Also) Specifically Designed for College Students which covers areas like general advice, lifehacks, straight-out blogs, and just for fun.

— michael | 12:38 PM | I found it online

Climate Change: Plug-In Hybrids

Toyota is getting ready to start selling plug-in hybrids by 2010. Toyota’s plan is to switch to lithium ion batteries (versus the nickel metal hydride batteries in use now). Additionally, Toyota is continuing work on hydrogen fuel cells.

Read more: Toyota to make plug-in hybrid by 2010 or the Toyota press release: Toyota Strengthens Initiatives for Low Carbon Society

— michael | 11:07 AM | Comments (1) | Something to think about

Climate Change: Algae Diesel

The development of using algae for fuel is continuing to move forward with Green Tech Blog reporting that Solazyme’s algae diesel ready to hit the road. Green Tech explains:

The fuel is chemically the same as petroleum-derived diesel, Solazyme said, so it can be distributed using the existing infrastructure. But it burns cleaner than petroleum-derived diesel, with fewer particulates and sulfur levels.
A 100 percent blend of Solazyme’s diesel has been road-tested in a 2005 Jeep Liberty with a diesel engine, the company said in a statement.

The great news here is that this can be distributed via the existing diesel network with existing vehicles. This greatly increases the likelihood of this actually being put into use once it gets ramped up to the commercial level, and this has to be good news with the price of diesel hovering above $5.

For more read the rest: Solazyme’s algae diesel ready to hit the road or visit Solazyme Produces First Algal-Based Renewable Diesel to Pass American Society for Testing and Materials D-975 Specifications

— michael | 09:47 AM | Something to think about