The Brautigan Library in Burlington, Vermont

Awesome! Gonna make my friend V-Ron take me there someday!

Unusual library may get new chapter

By Kevin O'Kelly, Globe Correspondent | September 27, 2004

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The 325 works in the Brautigan Library are diverse, to say the least, ranging from the short-story collection "Sterling Silver Cockroaches" to the economic treatise "Three Essays Advocating the Abolition of Money" to the poetry collection "A Shoebox to Hold the Unknown." But they all have one thing in common: They've never been published. From 1990 to 1996, the Brautigan Library accepted manuscripts from all over the world, as long as the authors paid binding costs. Housed in the Fletcher Free Library in downtown Burlington, the collection exists as a memorial to the work of counterculture author and '60s icon Richard Brautigan, whose novel "The Abortion" takes place largely in a library that collects only unpublished works. Brautigan's novels have devoted fans, and so does the library he inspired.

"It still amazes me how many people I'll find here," says Fletcher codirector Amber Collins. "People are fascinated by the idea that books shouldn't be regulated by the fact that you have to have a publisher."

Visitors peruse the collection, look at the Brautigan memorabilia, or just savor the offbeat nature of the place. In accordance with the library's bylaws, none of the chairs match. Instead of using the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal systems, the Brautigan's trustees opted to organize the collection according to the "Mayonnaise System," in homage to Brautigan's novel "Trout Fishing in America," which ends with the word "mayonnaise." The Mayonnaise System is quite simple: Books are organized in categories such as "Love," "the Future," "Adventure," and "All the Rest."

State Inmates Outlive People on Outside

WASHINGTON (AP) -- State prison inmates, particularly blacks, are living longer on average than people on the outside, the government said Sunday.

Inmates in state prisons are dying at an average yearly rate of 250 per 100,000, according to the latest figures reported to the Justice Department by state prison officials. By comparison, the overall population of people between age 15 and 64 is dying at a rate of 308 a year.

For black inmates, the rate was 57 percent lower than among the overall black population - 206 versus 484. But white and Hispanic prisoners both had death rates slightly above their counterparts in the overall population.

The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said 12,129 state prisoners died between 2001 through 2004...Read More...

Neologism Contest Winners

Thanks Jade!

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

The winners are:
1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
__________________________________________________________________

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

10 Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Literary Anarchy

WARNING: The views expressed in this blog are graphic in their portrayal of lawless composition. Reader discretion is advised.

I broke a rule today. I admit it. In fact, I’m proud of it. Given the same circumstances, I’d do it again.

I violated a point of view rule. Switched points of view in the middle of scene. Without a section break.

Does that make me a bad person?

It gets worse. When my editor attempted to correct it, I persuaded her to let it stand. I seduced her to the dark side. Not only am I a transgressor, but I’m tempting innocent editors to transgress with me in this vicious downward cycle of depravity.

Am I wicked?

That’s the danger of rule breaking, isn’t it? You get a taste for it. Violate a point of view today, and tomorrow…what? Deliberately misspelling words? Intentionally crafting run-on sentences?

Oh my, where will it end? We’re talking literary anarchy!

Blame John Milton. He resisted efforts to create order out of spelling chaos. Had he a dictionary, he would have burned it in protest. Milton opposed standardized spelling. He argued for the freedom to vary the spelling of a word for creative emphasis and impact.

Think of the chaos! If we didn’t have standardized spelling, what would happen to the National Spelling Bee?

Blame Dean Koontz. In an early book on writing bestselling fiction (now out of print; the publisher sites declining sales, but I suspect a rogue consortium of editors got to them), Koontz advocated writing sentences that were a page and a half long. He cited a time conundrum, when it takes longer to describe an action than it takes to enact it.

The accepted way to quicken narrative pace is to shorten sentences—a time-honored technique approved by editors. But sometimes short sentences make the narrative choppy. Koontz advocated using commas, semi-colons, and colons to create one long breathless sentence.

It works...Read More...

HOW TO STOP ISLAMIC TERRORISTS...

I don't necessarily agree with this guy on everything, but I do enjoy his website and vehement opinions and I'd bet money that we have more in common than either of us could possibly imagine. I think that's an important lesson we all need to learn, is that most of us would get along famously, despite our political differences. Anyway, I like extremes and this is definitely one of those. This is from Smokin' Barrel: A view from the eyes of a Christian husband, father, and gun nut


it worked once in our History...

Once in U.S. history an episode of Islamic terrorism was very quickly stopped. It happened in the Philippines about 1911, when Gen. John J. Pershing was in command of the garrison. There had been numerous Islamic terrorist attacks, so "Black Jack" told his boys to catch the perps and teach them a lesson.

Forced to dig their own graves, the terrorists were all tied to posts, execution style. The U.S. soldiers then brought in pigs and slaughtered them, rubbing their bullets in the blood and fat. Thus, the terrorists were terrorized; they saw that they would be contaminated with hogs' blood. This would mean that they could not enter Heaven, even if they died as terrorist martyrs.

All but one was shot, their bodies dumped into the grave, and the hog guts dumped atop the bodies. The lone survivor was allowed to escape back to the terrorist camp and tell his brethren what happened to the others. This brought a stop to terrorism in the Philippines for the next 50 years.

Pointing a gun into the face of Islamic terrorists won't make them flinch.
They welcome the chance to die for Allah. Like Gen. Pershing, we must show them that they won't get to Muslim heaven (which they believe has an endless supply of virgins) but instead will die with the hated pigs of the devil.

Toxic Nation on Parliament Hill: A Report on the Pollution in Four Canadian Politicians (2007)

This is an awesome idea! Why don't we do this here to a bunch of corporate polluting CEOs and cigarette company execs?

"For the latest round of Toxic Nation body burden testing, four federal politicians volunteered to be tested for over 100 different chemicals. Toxic Nation on Parliament Hill reveals that our politicians are polluted, just like the rest of us.

The participating politicians included Rona Ambrose, Minister of the Environment; Tony Clement, Minister of Health; Jack Layton, Leader of the NDP; and, John Godfrey, Liberal Environment Critic. The group was tested for a slew of toxic chemicals, including pesticides, heavy metals and chemicals used to make flame retardants and stain repellents."

Link via:CTV.ca

..."The group Environmental Defence released results Wednesday of laboratory testing done on Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, NDP Leader Jack Layton, Health Minister Tony Clement and Liberal environment critic John Godfrey.

The study found that Ambrose had fewer flame-retardants in her blood than Layton, but had a higher level of arsenic than the New Democrat leader.

Clement's blood, meanwhile, contains polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, despite the fact they have been banned for years. But Clement's blood was lower in neurotoxic mercury than Godfrey's.

The results are part of the report Toxic Nation on Parliament Hill: A Report on Pollution in Four Canadian Politicians, which is intended to serve as a wake-up call for leaders about the state of pollution in Canada.

Godfrey, the report found, had the highest number of pollutants in his blood, at 55. Clement and Layton followed with 54 toxic contaminants each and Ambrose had the cleanest blood with 49 contaminants.

Of the 103 pollutants tested for, 61 were detected in the four politicians.

Combined, their blood contained a chilling mix of nasty substances, including 54 carcinogens, 37 hormone disruptors, 16 respiratory toxins, 54 reproductive or developmental toxins and 33 neurotoxins..."

Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace

This article's got some interesting info in it. Courtesy of The Skeptic Tank

Predict the gender of an author

This is interesting. We did this with fairly good success in A Silver Sky: Poetry and Place in the Pacific Northwest, but we didn't turn it into a computer algorithm... damn. Click here for a list of libraries that have a copy of the awesome anthology of Northwest Poetry we compiled and edited, the largest ever!

"Inspired by an article and a test in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author. Read more at BookBlog, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

Simply type or paste your text in the box below. Choose a genre and click submit for the results."

Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. ... And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa, Canada.

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work...Read More...

Bookyards - Library to the World

Welcome to BookYards.com!

Our goal is to be "The Library To The World", in which books, education materials, information, and content will be provided freely to anyone who has an internet connection.

Bookyards has a total of 11,123 books, 38,292 web links, 4,108 news & blogs links, 378 videos and access to hundreds of online libraries (500,000 eBooks) for your reading pleasure.

We hope you enjoy it!

What Should I Read Next?

"Enter a book you like and the site will analyse our database of real readers'
favourite books (over 20,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read next."

This works pretty well! I entered Valis by Philip K. Dick and this is the list of recommendations it proffered:

"These are our suggestions based on readers' recommendations.

The Divine Invasion - Philip K. Dick See Amazon UK | US
The Crystal World - J.G. Ballard See Amazon UK | US
The Worm Ouroboros - E.R. Eddison See Amazon UK | US
Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra - John F. Szwed See Amazon UK | US
The Soft Machine; Nova Express; The Wild Boys: Three Novels - Burroughs William S. See Amazon UK | US
This Is the Way the World Ends - James Morrow See Amazon UK | US
Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski See Amazon UK | US
Silence: Lectures and Writings - John Cage See Amazon UK | US
Numbers - John Rechy See Amazon UK | US
The Brotherhood of the Grape - John Fante See Amazon UK | US

More results

To get more accurate suggestions, add more books you've loved to your list - to do this you'll need to register. You'll also be building our database and improving everyone's suggestions."

Cool!

Beware the Inter-State Narcotic Association!

Amazon Recommendations Understand Area Woman Better Than Husband

funny!