WHCD 2010

President Obama, rising comedic star, at the 2010 White House Correspondent's Dinner

Donate Electronics

Mashable has a great listing for donating old electronics instead of cluttering your cellar with them or sneaking them into a dumpster.

Weeding Books

A common dilemma. Weeding books into compost. Read a good account in PhillyBurbs.

Icelandic Interruptions

These sites are handy if you want to avoid Volcanic Stress.  The NY Times tracked airport status during the April event but the last post was on April 22.  Perhaps they will use the same link the next time Eyjafjallajökull erupts.

The Met Office in the UK has a great page, Volcanic Ash Advisory from London, with updated projections.  Refresh this link once you get to the page for the latest updates. This was very helpful during the eruption in April when flights were canceled because it was apparent that Ireland and most of Europe were affected.

If you are traveling to Ireland, like I was (more aptly, wasn't) The Irish Aviation Authority had updates all along the way.  News that their air space was closed was online BEFORE my Delta flight was canceled.

We found that the airlines website was the last place to go ... and the last place to call.  Check the Aviation Authority in the country you are traveling to ... perhaps you'll get some information like I did to prepare you for the shock of the canceled flight.



Flights resume!

UVM's Maple Syryp Research

You have to love a website devoted to maple syrup research! And take the quiz to see how much you know.

Voices Together, Virtually

Saving Time

Read everything you wanted to know about daylight savings time ... and more at Daylight Savings Time from WebExhibits.com.

Just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too have we discovered a simple way to get more from our sun.

Or read the books inspired by the subject: Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time by David Prerau and Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time by Michael Downing.

Read my column Saving Time With Ben in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin, October 7, 2009.

The Grace of Gander, Newfoundland

Looks like Vimeo had to take down the videos. Sorry about that.

Tom Brokaw did a special on Gander, Newfoundland's generosity and grace on September 11, 2001. It aired during the Olympics. Now the videos of that piece can't be found on the web.

It was a truly inspiring piece and one I hope you find and watch.

Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds | Video on TED.com

Over 50 Pad-like Devices

Who said you need to buy an iPad? Look at the other 50.

Easy Bake

Imagine that. Easy Bake Ovens are still around.
Evolution, recipes and obituary. Thanks to Consumerist for the links.

Safety Mode

How 1 Piece of Paper Can Save Millions

Download a pdf of this great flyer from Catalog Choice. Post it everywhere where one piece of paper can save millions.

It's time for me to once again go through the catalogs invading my mailbox.

Future of Print

Read ten comments or interviews on the future of print.

Embrace Life

Simply beautiful PSA advocating wearing seatbelts.

Readability

An amazing web tool. Cuts the clutter and renders a fine print copy of any article on a web page. Simply personalize your reading format and then

"drag the Readability badge to your browser's bookmark toolbar. When visiting a Web page worth reading, simply click the link to enable Readability."

I'm not often amazed at some of the add-ons out there but this one did it for me. Go to Readability for the bookmarklet.

SOTU 2010

Watch here.

5 Minutes

OnePlusYou gives us How Many Countries Can You Name in Five Minutes. Try it. The spellings might trip you up but if you can type one per second, you've got it.

More on eReaders.

Curious

Interesting site. Curious Pages.

85 Reasons

Jonathan at ZenCollegeLife.com has posted the 85 Reasons to Be Thankful for Librarians. My favorites, silly but often true, are 35: Who else is going to show you how to use that microfiche machine?; 59: Public bathrooms in libraries are usually cleaner than most places and 78:There’s less risk of getting carpal tunnel syndrome from reading books.

Reasons We Don't Read Those Books

The Abe Books blog has this posting: Remaining Unread: The Top Ten Reasons We Don't Get To Certain Books. You'll relate to all the reasons.

"Some co-workers and I were recently at the lunch table talking about (you guessed it) books. The subject turned specifically to lamentations over the books sitting on our shelves unread, collecting dust, while we grow quietly old.

This is a phenomenon I know all too well. So what happens? Why do some books languish unopened in my collection, while fresh young faces shoot to the top of my stack, given precious priority placement at my bedside? I think there are numerous reasons some books take us ages - or forever - to read. Here are my top 10." Beth Carswell

I especially liked links to the 25 We Just Couldn't Read. Makes me feel a bit less guilty myself.