Wednesday Cha-Cha (1)

Today is a holiday and thus a day off from work/school (thanks to vets and their families everywhere!) I've seen a lot of people introducing new ideas and fresh things on blogs lately, and I have to say, those people have inspired me! Wednesday Cha-Cha is, quite simply, a roundup of things that I've found interesting, amusing, educational, entertaining, you name it. Maybe things will be book-related and maybe they won't, but you never know what's going to show up or where it will come from. This week's cha-cha is culled from things in my starred folder on Google Reader.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a huge fan of YouTube videos. Some are cute, some are funny, some are so horrifying you simply cannot look away. This is one of those "so horrifying you simply cannot look away" videos- it's a choir of ventriloquist dummies singing "Yesterday" by the Beatles and came to me via this post on Boing Boing. I tweeted it awhile ago, but now the rest of you can marvel at it too:

Creepy. Up next is an offering from one of my favorite comics, xkcd.com, with an excellent message:Some book-related things!
Recently, I read, loved, and raved about Leviathan by Scott Westerfield. Yesterday, Reddit.com featured a piece where Mr. Westerfield talks about the book and on writing an illustrated book. It's an excellent piece!

The folks over at Buy Books for the Holidays have a great profile of Reading is Fundamental as well as ways to help the cause and to donate. There are going to be more charities profiled in future weeks as well.

I'm in awe of this next video. It's not directly about books, but more about information and how we access and distribute information. It's done by The Economist and comes to me courtesy of the fine folks at Coffee for the Brain:

Holy guac people. Finally, just because it's good to end on a lighthearted note, via BoingBoing, here's a name you wouldn't want up in lights, courtesy of SeanBonner's Tumblog:Thank you and have a most excellent Veterans Day.

PS Where did the name Wednesday Cha-Cha come from? Wednesdays are a day when I find I could use something stimulating or energizing to watch or think about, and the cha-cha is a fun and energizing dance. Fun and energizing stuff for a Wednesday!