Miyazaki is filming Diana Wynne Jones's utterly marvelous novel Howl's Moving Castle! I don't know how I'll contain myself until it's released in the States.

Minimal details on the IMDB. [via Neil Gaiman's Journal]

Hurray! Michael Moore's controversial new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, will be shown at ALA! [thanks, LISNews!]

Googlebombing came up at a recent party, and I had a hard time explaining the technology, so here's a web page that not only covers the definition, but includes examples of current or recent Googlebombs.

What's a Googlebomb?
A Googlebomb is when a group of people link to a specific chosen page using a specific chosen link-text, in order to push this page up in the Google ranking. This can have political reasons and discredits a person, or is done for fun as part of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) challenge. [via ResearchBuzz]

PR Bop points out this recent survey of American voters which asked which Harry Potter-esque powers they would most like to have. Although transmogrification (transforming stuff into other stuff) and invisibility cloaks came out on top, very few survey victims wanted to be able to talk to snakes. Go figure.

Wow. Check out this amazing creation from an old InStyle photo shoot. Now if I could just find it in a color other than black ....

In other news, I'm lusting after Paper Source's invitation options. We may end up with something similar to this accordian book kit. Perhaps I will need to own a Xyron to accomplish this. I'm crying on the inside. Honest.

Harry Potter fans grow up and lose interest.

"I'm out of that mystical and magical phase," he said. "Now I'm more into chicks and cars and movies like 'Hellboy' and 'Eurotrip.'"

Eurotrip. Right.

Apparently adults aren't so fickle. [via LISNews]

Aaron at Walking Paper describes his view of the YL phenomenon (as I shamelessly steal his YL abbreviation, which I love):

YLs (my new term*) are bringing a relevant and much needed perspective
into the profession. Because they've spent their life immersed in modern
information technologies (or at least, videogames), I have faith that
YLs will do a fine job implementing technologies into libraries. Many
YLs I've met were attracted to the profession for the same or similar
reasons as me: it is a helping profession, it promotes learning, I don't
have to sell anything, I get to play with computers, and so forth. This
leads me to believe that YLs might also do a great job creating usable
public spaces.

Meanwhile, Library Journal offers a case study on what happens when not-so-young librarians think everything is fab in the library, and YLs do not agree. Isn't everyone having this problem at their library? Does anyone really see a solution to this, besides calling in Human Resources to play mommy?

Wouldn't it be great if all my reference desk exchanges involved Lord of the Rings? Very fine chat ref from Walking Paper.

It's true, you know. See June 11.

Bookslut redesigns. We all have a crush on Bookslut.

[via librarian.net]

Data geeks, unite! If you aren't checking the Census site for cool new publications and info, you should be.

Gapers' Block alerts us to sites where the good folk of Chicago complain about weird transit experiences. This is Grand accepts submissions, while The CTA Tattler is one person's view.

Gapers' Block visitors also shared some of their stories.

New articles are available on LISCareer.com. This is a great resource, particularly for librarians who don't have a convenient mentor in the next office. See the newest additions to this repository of wise advice. [via LISNews]

CrossGen is apparently dying a tragic death. Too bad, I was really enjoying Abadazad. [via LISNews]

A judge for the Orange Prize for fiction, "awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English," described her experience for the Guardian. It was pretty entertaining, especially the part where she described one of the other judge's reactions to a rather racy novel among the contenders:

"I can't read about all this sex! Don't they know I'm a librarian?"

[via Bookslut]

If you missed the Venus Transit, like I did, you can either wait till 2012 to view it again, or you can check out the amazing pictures available online from various observatories worldwide. (via Yahoo Picks)

An hilarious tribute to the challenges of learning to knit.

In past generations, mothers would teach their children to knit. It sounds like the last thing in the world that could completely crush a human's soul.

Ah, the soul-crushing qualities of knitting. And you thought the worst you could do was accidentally stab yourself with a needle.

Wrap yarn around one of the needles in some arcane pattern, then pull one needle so the yarn follows it and makes a neat little loop: obviously done by magic, and complicated magic at that.

Harry Potter can do magic, but only Ron's mom can knit! Of course, she uses magic to do it.

When you work on simple tasks, your brain disengages from your hands and you slip into a quiet, Zen-like state, like Prozac without the creepy side effects.

Knitting as drug-free therapy? Nice.

Librarians all over the web are blogging about Noah Wyle's starring role in The Librarian. I can't bear to comment on this. Really. Please don't ask me to. Mercifully, this won't be produced for some time.

Cash-strapped public libraries are taking advantage of the Amazon wish list feature to request books from their own patrons. There's something both sweet and sad about this.

A quick search of Amazon's wish list directory for "library" turned up an astonishing number of results. Here's one from my home state.

Now you can Knit Your Bit, just like thousands of patriotic volunteers did 60 years ago.

The Red Cross is offering replica knitting kits, based on the ones distributed during World War II. The press release includes a vintage "knit your bit" poster with a rather creepy yarn blob image.

Still, the kit tin is adorable.