Category: Miscellaneous & Odd-ball

Dell has announced a recall of certain Dell-branded laptop batteries with cells manufactured by Sony. Dell will offer free replacements for these batteries. Under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could pose a risk of fire. From April 2004 through July 2006, the recalled batteries were sold with or sold …

Here’s a fun one from LibrarianInBlack: The Vinyl Record Generator. Create a record with any text you choose for the artist, song title, and producer. You even get to choose between a 78 and a 45 – for those that still know the difference. You could have some fun with this. I’m filing it away …

A survey commissioned by the women’s cable TV network, Oxygen, found the technology gender gap has virtually closed with the majority of women snapping up new technology and using it easily. Three of four women surveyed said that they would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace. Yeah, I’d agree with that. Source: …

From LibrarianInBlack: The Comic Strip Generator lets you choose from hundreds of different comic templates and create little strips panel by panel.

I took a walk over to the UW–Madison Botany Garden this afternoon and captured this photo of the pond. I believe that the beautiful bloom is an American lotus. [thanks to MB for the correction] The Botany Garden just just a short walk up the hill from the Law School. Thanks to our Documents Assistant, …

From Today’s Onion*: Wikipedia, the online, reader-edited encyclopedia, honored the 750th anniversary of American independence on July 25 with a special featured section on its main page Tuesday. *Don’t you believe it. The Onion is fake – but darn funny. Thanks to Bill Ebbott for the tip.

Kyle MacDonald has done it: traded a paper clip up to a house. Read more at Reuters Oddly Enough.

I’m off to St. Louis for the American Association of Law Libraries Annual meeting so posting on WisBlawg will probably be light next week. However, I may be posting about the meeting on AALL Gateway, the conference blog.

One of those magical pursuits of childhood, my kids have a fascination with catching fireflies. Last weekend, equipped with butterfly net and bug house, we journeyed to Lake Kegonsa State Park for what turned out to be a very soggy camping trip. But just a twilight Saturday night, there was a break in the rain …

Nichole, a Madison librarian who volunteers with the Jail Library Group has compiled a fascinating Flikr collection of “things I find abandoned in books or stuffed on the book cart at the [Dane County] jail where I volunteer” This is a really insightful collection. There are snippets of letters, poems, drawings, etc. Worth a look. …