The NYPL cancelled all fines on children and youth cards!

[conuly]

(And if you're older than 17 but still in high school, you have a small window to drop in and get them to cancel your fines as well.)

Like many such ventures, this was jointly done by the NYPL and the Brooklyn and Queens libraries too.

Over the past few months we'd carefully returned nearly all the books we had out (this time, it was NOT my fault for losing them!) but those fines, omg.

*********************

Found: A Schoolgirl’s Autograph Book From the 1930s

Why insects can develop from unfertilized egg cells

25 Unusual Flavors of Familiar Candies

Forgotten Romantic Rituals of Halloween’s Past

When Halloween Was All Tricks and No Treats

Opera in the living room: an old tradition sees restoration in Italy

“Coming Out” as Face Blind

School honoring Confederate general has a new name: Justice

Victorian Culinary Trading Cards Are a Feast for the Eyes

Advanced artificial limbs mapped in the brain

Shelter Sorts Dogs Into Hogwarts Houses, Leading to More Adoptions

Air Crash: A whimsical brother of the nearby Fallen Angel statue takes the falling part quite literally.

Child labor plunges: Millions more children get a childhood

The “Unlikely Historians” Who Documented America in Protest

The physics of mosquito takeoffs shows why you don’t feel a thing

Why This Cardiologist Is Betting That His Lab-Grown Meat Startup Can Solve the Global Food Crisis

The doctor of the future

Tropical forest reserves slow down global warming

What's The Meaning Of The World Bank's New Poverty Lines?

JFK Files: Thousands released but Trump holds back others

Good History Takes Time, So Be Patient With the New JFK Documents

The Invisible Black Man on a Prospect Park Statue

Majority Of White Americans Say They Believe Whites Face Discrimination

Secret Life of a Crime Scene Cleaner

Chinatown’s Ghost Scam

On Staten Island, Haunting Memories of Those Killed by Hurricane Sandy

5 years after Superstorm Sandy, the lessons haven't sunk in (Another link on the same story)

Climate change might be worse than thought after scientists find major mistake in water temperature readings

The Real John Kelly

This Land Is No Longer Your Land

Hundreds Face Conspiracy Charges For Actions Of A Few During Inauguration Day Protests

Why opioids are such an American problem

For an Endangered Animal, a Fire or Hurricane Can Mean the End

North Korean official: Take hydrogen bomb threat 'literally'

Comments

[wpadmirer]

White Americans are just batshit crazy.

I like the fallen angel statue!

[conuly]

White Americans are just batshit crazy.

I'm hoping they managed to poll the only people in the entire nation who feel this way.

I like the fallen angel statue!

And the backstory!

[wpadmirer]

Oh, I'm sure they targeted a certain demographic, but seriously, I work with a bunch of bigoted white people, and I can tell you they are just fucking batshit crazy.

Yeah, the back story is cool.

[chanter1944]

Oooooh, they *did* rename that Virginian school! :D I knew Justice Marshall was a candidate, name-wise, but I thought the deletion of J.E.B. from the original name, and the retention of the surname, was likely to win out. Guess not!

[conuly]

Not entirely sure I'd've gone with "Justice" myself, but I can see why they decided against Thurgood Marshall.

[chanter1944]

I read that at one point one proposed name was Justice Thurgood Marshall High, shortened to Justice. I like this variation, though. It's apt on at least two fronts. I can also see why they decided against Thurgood Marshall, for purely logistical reasons.

[siderea]

The doctor of the future

nnNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

[conuly]

So tell us what you really think.

[siderea]

I can't. That article is a fractal of stupidity. To itemize everything that's wrong in it is to walk an infinite perimeter. The heat death of the universe would happen before I could finish.

[alatefeline]

Well said.

[archersangel]

i wish we could get those unique/unsual flavors of kit kats here in the US.

BTW kit kats are popular in japan because the name is similar to "kitto katsu," a phrase meaning "you will surely win" in japanese. the brand is strongly correlated to good luck charms, particularly among students ahead of exams.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kats_in_Japan#Marketing

[conuly]

We can get some of them in Chinatown here in NYC, so I bet there's an import market elsewhere.

[alatefeline]

Thank you for article on faceblindness. Daily issue for me!!! I have explained repeatedly to people, but it doesn't stick with most acquaintances... it just doesn't make sense to people that changing hair, garments, and setting is enough for me to have completely no idea who someone is.

Also, thanks for long-ago tip on mixing own solution to de-louse hair.

School job, sigh.

[conuly]

Interestingly, I find a lot of people grasp that I have trouble recognizing people (possibly because I start off explaining that I sometimes have had trouble recognizing my own mother or sister) but they can't understand exactly how difficult the topographical agnosia is. I don't get why not, but they don't understand it until they see me get lost where they think I shouldn't, and I definitely tell them all about the time I got lost in front of my house!

[alatefeline]

That sounds familar too thoguh possibly more diffculty than I have.

I *can* recognize places, but not fast, and I don't have an intrinsic sense of what I'm headed towards/away, or of left/right; I have to logic those out. So driving and trying to find someplace for me involves SO MANY CIRCLES. Even if I know I'm nearby, I have to (1) identify possible candidates for the target destination (2) narrow it down to one (3) ID a parking spot (4) actually go there. I routinely drive past the correct turn on my way home from work or the grocery if the lighting is a bit dim or there is fog or the traffic is heavy or I'm distracted; it just doesn't *look* familiar with even a small change or obscuration unless I'm looking *for* the landmarks and sometimes not even then. I have so much practice compensating by figuring out how to loop back, but if I'm ill or seriously stressed it becomes a nightmare of missing the turn to get back to where I missed the turn. I also plan all possible trips to unfamiliar places to use right-angle turns on surface streets rather than getting on/off highways or taking diagonal or curving roads.

While walking (or biking) I can generally think faster than I move and I actually have good orienteering and trip-narrative skills, so I don't hesitate to walk home from anywhere in daytime because I have confidence, not in *knowing* my way, but in *finding* it. But I remember getting terribly lost as a kid three blocks from my house.

Also, I can't do *listening* to directions for more than 1-2 steps; if I want to parse what to do in what order, I have to have it written down.

So, there's that. *gives you an imaginary cookie because you cope with the hard thing*

[archangelbeth]

Very belated (stress, power outage, streeessss) -- do any of the just-in-time navigation apps on smartphones work? Siri, on my iPhone, seems pretty good about "In X miles, turn right... Turn right onto X street" commands, so it's basically one step at a time with the occasional foreshadowing/reassurance that you haven't missed the turn.

But, of course, inputs differ. I tend to make my kid check that we're still on target if I haven't heard from Siri in a while, because I am a paranoid creature and if I have a co-pilot then they can check. >_>

(I need step-by-step instructions, not drawn maps alone, to get anywhere, and I forget street names extremely easily, so all my instructions are things like, "Turn right at Store Name, go past Other Store, and then opposite Restaurant X..." *sheepish*)

[sallymn]

Thanks for the links! I sometimes get a giggle out of youtube videos of people in other countries trying some of our lollies....

[conuly]

Me too! Both of Americans trying foreign treats, and non-Americans trying American treats, I mean.

[sallymn]

I have tried American chocolate, and have to say I didn't care for it at all... but still look squint-eyed at foreigners who don't fall under the Tim Tam spell (fair and reasonable? moi? not even slightly)

On the other hand, I may love musk-flavoured lifesavers and candy teeth, but don't expect anyone who hasn't grown up with them to....

[archangelbeth]

Hooray for the library going that route! (Ours hasn't yet, but every now and then when I have money, I hand $10 or $20 to the librarian at the desk and say, "Here, pay off the library fines of someone deserving." (I figure the librarians know who's likely to be actually careless with books and who had bad luck.))