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The new library fad: borrow a person

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:44:30 GMT

clipped by: boozich
clipper's remarks: read all...interesting and quirky article...

A new library allows readers to borrow people for a 30-minute chat. Here's the experience of one man who offered himself as a human book

instead of books, readers can come to the library and borrow a person for a 30-minute chat.

The human “books” on offer vary

healthy cross-section of stereotypes

list included Police Officer, Vegan, Male Nanny and Lifelong Activist as well as Person with Mental Health Difficulties and Young Person Excluded from School. I was there as Gay Man.

First out were Social Worker (“naive”) and Immigrant (“wasting resources”) and then Muslim (“beard”) was borrowed for a quick chat, presumably about bombs and his attitude to women.

introduced to my first reader, a young Romanian woman

We launched into a frank conversation about how much seeing two men kissing in Leicester Square had unexpectedly upset her

Back in the shelving room, the conversation was alive with first impressions. “Have you been borrowed yet?”

Venice pigeons=piss off!

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:49:34 GMT

clipped by: boozich

Clip Source: www.theage.com.au

Venice's pigeon-feed sellers, who say they have been plying their trade for a century, protest against the ban

VENICE has finally run out of patience with tourists feeding pigeons in St Mark's Square.

The sale and distribution of grain to feed the birds is now banned, ending a tradition that attracted pigeons, and their droppings, to one of the most picturesque parts of the lagoon city.

Fines for ignoring the ban start at 50 euros ($A85), and the vendors who sold grain are now out of a job.

Nineteen traders, who say feed-sellers have been working in St Mark's Square for a century, protested with placards on their booths aimed at Mayor Massimo Cacciari, including: "Curse the day I voted for you", and "Cacciari, what kind of Venetian are you?"

The fight against the birds is part of a campaign to improve decorum and cleanliness in the UNESCO World Heritage Site

scientific robots roaming the seas

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:41:36 GMT

clipped by: boozich
clipper's remarks: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/argo/latest_data.html
for current positions

Clip Source: www.philly.com

More than 3,000 torpedo-like robots are roaming the world's seas, radioing in crucial weather data.

When Steve Riser sends his research progeny out into the world, he knows he'll probably never see them again.

But they call home regularly.

"Here's one that just came up today, off Hawaii," the University of Washington oceanographer says, scrolling through a list on his computer. A mouse click reveals another floating under the ice south of Australia

Clip Source: www.bodc.ac.uk

Clip Source: www.philly.com

Riser's babies are torpedo-shaped robots designed to measure ocean temperature, salinity and currents and beam the data back via satellite. Scattered around the globe

At about 5 feet tall and weighing less than 60 pounds

Each probe is programmed to sink to a depth of more than a mile, then drift in total darkness for nine days - deeper than submarines prowl. Every 10th day, the probes ascend, collecting temperature and salinity measurements as they go. At the surface, they transmit their data, then descend for another cycle