Neal sez, "This is a White House petition to reform U.S. copyright law in regard to libraries. Due to DRM and other publisher restrictions, libraries have lost their first sale right for ebooks and other digital media. The current ability of libraries to purchase digital content to loan to patrons is largely at the whim and discretion of the various publishers. Some only allow libraries to purchase restricted copies that 'expire' after so many checkouts, others refuse to sell digital content to libraries at all. Libraries have long been equalizers. The rich and poor could both have access to the same information. The current digital landscape threatens this vital component of our education system and by extension our democracy. Read more in my column for American libraries."
White House petition: fix copyright for 21st century libraries
Slack is back: "J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius" trailer drops
A SubGenius documentary? Yes, please, and Praise "Bob"! MovieWeb: What started out as an inside joke amongst two self-proclaimed weirdos in Ft. Worth, Texas became something much more than they bargained for. Reverend Ivan Stang (Douglass St. Clair Smith) and Dr. Philo Drummond (Steve Wilcox) had no idea what would happen when they decided to turn their… READ THE REST
Celebrity Storytime: Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal to host online event benefiting Children's Fairyland
Children's Fairyland is the circa 1950 storybook theme park in Oakland, California where… Walt Disney took inspiration from to build Disneyland; Frank Oz got his start as a puppeteer; It's also where Blindspotting creators Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal will host an online event called Celebrity Storytime this Saturday, September 26 at 6:30 p.m. Rafael,… READ THE REST
Postcards for Democracy: Mark Mothersbaugh and Beatie Wolfe challenge you to make mail art
Visionaries Mark Mothersbaugh and Beatie Wolfe have a request: Please send hand-decorated postcards STAT. Their mail-art challenge, Postcards for Democracy, is described as "a demonstration to support the 225 yr old U.S. Postal Service & the right to VOTE." It's easy to play: Just make & mail your original postcard creations (you can also recycle… READ THE REST
Make healthy yogurts, kefirs, protein shakes, and more with this Probiotic Maker
It may surprise you to learn that the bacteria in your body outnumber the native cells by as much as 10-to-1. That means you could have any many as 300 trillion bacteria living inside you at any given moment. While the thought of living cells that aren't your own flooded throughout your body is likely… READ THE REST
ZipDrive turns any computer into a cloud drive accessible from anywhere for $20
Cloud storage has opened up all kinds of new file storage and sharing possibilities for small companies and on-the-go individuals. Of course, it does require some coordination issues to be worked out beforehand. Like…did you remember to move those files from your personal PC to the cloud? And then there's the apocalyptic cloud storage fear… READ THE REST
The Switchmate 2.0 is a smart light switch that installs in seconds with no wiring
We all think living in a smart home would be really cool. And many of us have enlisted smart home assistants, smart bulbs, and smart appliances to help bring that dream of a voice-controlled home of the future into reality. Unfortunately, most of us aren't living in a home constructed after 2015, and our house,… READ THE REST