Tindalostalbot

Why do I hear the Peanuts music in my head?

 

I still fondly remember one of my first stuffed animals from almost half a century ago.  I had a plush Snoopy that I brought everywhere with me.  What is mostly recall is that I had a bad habit of carrying him by his ears and they kept tearing off, so my mother would have to sew them back on from time to time.  Not many memories from those early years stand out, but that's something that has always stayed with me.

The post “You look tired.” appeared first on Indexed.

This is a design-is-not-engineering parable:

It should've worked perfectly.

Mattel--fresh off the success of He-Man--decided to make some superhero toys with Marvel. 

You know Marvel, right? The company that currently dominates the entire entertainment market with a gloved fist?

So they gathered ten-year old boys together in a focus group. They said to them "Listen, ten-year-old-boys, what is it that you desire?"

The ten year old boys spoke:

1-Weapons

2-Vehicles and bases

3-The word "secret"

4-The word "war"

That's what tested well.

So they went to Marvel Comics and said "Listen, Marvel, you make the comics, we'll make the toys. Just make sure it has that stuff." Thus was born a comic book called Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, (over in the UK, a little earlier, the comic anthology 2000AD polled its readers about the themes they liked and they voted for "future war" and thus the comic Rogue Trooper was born). Marvel head Jim Shooter wrote a 12-issue battle royale in another dimension featuring all of the company's most popular heroes: the Avengers, the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, etc. Mattel made toys in the now-mandatory Star-Wars-like scale. Sales reps went to comic shops and toy stores and hyped them all up and down.

And...

...it didn't work. Well, the comic worked: the first issue sold 800,000 copies. Which is a lot. But the toys, they were not that popular. Again: they should've been. Marvel Comics at the literal height of their popularity with kids (they had recently turned down an offer to buy DC) plus toys, in the middle of The Original Toy Tie-In Decade. It didn't take.

First off you'll notice or remember--the toys sucked:

But it's important to remember what they sucked compared to--it was 1984--two of the most toyetic properties of the late 20th century had just arrived:

Marvel had vehicles! And weapons! And twenty years of good will! Plus a best-selling comic and yet the Marvel toy line wasn't a patch on these newcomers. Why?

A user recently asked how the DDC handles fiction vs. nonfiction. It’s common in the library world to think of this basic division between creative and informative works, and to see them physically separated in libraries.

So how does the DDC handle fiction? There isn’t a strict fiction/nonfiction divide, though there are a few areas where fictional works are most likely to go. The biggest of these is the 800s, the main class for literature. Other areas include folklore (398), graphic novels (741.5), movies (791.43), TV (791.45), and video games (794.8).

In some cases, the fiction/nonfiction split is more defined than others. For example, 791.43 is about movies as a whole—Hollywood business, making movies, distribution, etc.—while the films themselves go at 791.437. In the 800s, there’s specific notation for literature itself and works that analyze or criticize literature, though there’s a mix. If you went down a shelf, for example, you might see criticism of English literature, followed by French literature, followed by criticism of French literature.

Many public libraries especially will organize their contemporary fiction collections by author name, title, genre, etc., rather than a formal classification system like the DDC. There’s still a correct DDC number for any John Grisham novel, for example, but many libraries may choose not to use it. Others may place some fictional works in the Dewey schedules, such as Shakespeare’s plays, but not more current publications. A library using a system like this may well first ask whether a work is fiction or nonfiction before deciding how to classify it.

Finally, be aware that if you see the word “fiction” in the DDC, it usually has a more specific meaning. In Table 3, for example, fiction is listed as one of several literary forms:

In this case, fiction means forms such as novels and short stories. Other literary forms, such as drama and poetry, may tell fictional stories, but are not considered fiction for classification purposes.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Also there's a skull inside your face and it looks like it's laughing and sad all the time. Grody.

Today's News:

Blue & Gold, a proposed buddy superhero movie starring Blue Beetle and Booster Gold was one of the many potential DC movies that was mentioned once and then never again.  Marvel has buddy show Falcon and the Winter Soldier as well as a She-Hulk show with comedic elements coming up, so maybe the suits at Warner Brothers should reconsider the concept for an HBO Max ongoing series instead. Just as long as the heroes are presented as capable - Ted and Booster can still be funny while still being effective heroes.

Morrigan Aensland by HanoOide

As found at:

https://www.deviantart.com/hanooide/art/Morrigan-Aensland-803351980

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Algorithms to Live By had a good argument that got me to do this a lot less. Basically, saying you don't know is forcing the other person to use my brainpower, so what appears kind is actually foisting work on others.

Today's News:

Holidays and Events of Note for February 2, 2021

*   Imbolc (observed) however, I’m told it’s really Feb. 3 at 10:20 am CST this year.)

*   Candlemas (Catholic)

*   St. Brigid’s Day

*   Là Fhèill Brìghde (Scotland)

*   Gwyl Ffraed (Wales)

*   Groundhog’s Day (US)

*   World Wetlands Day

*   Hedgehog Day Move over groundhog!

*   Dia De La Candelaria (Mexico)

*   Take Your Child to the Library Day (anyone know some that are open?)

*   California Kiwifruit Day

*   Ladies’ Day

*   Purification Day

*   Crepe Day

*   Cordova Ice Worm Day (Prince William Sound) Festival to celebrate the big ice worm, which is actually an ice centipede. I guess people in Cordova are hard up for entertainment.

*   Tater Tot Day (U.S.) Not that Prince William Sound is the only place hard up for a holiday.

*   World Ukulele Day (International) Yeah.

Texts From Superheroes

Facebook | Twitter | Patreon | Instagram

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
If anyone's having deja vu, this was run in Nautilus magazine a while back. I'm linking to the amazon page where you can buy.

Today's News:

 

Please consider supporting the DORK TOWER PATREON  – DORK TOWER is updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: you can help bring more DORK TOWER to the world! Enlist in the Army of Dorkness today!

Fire and Blood by Katherine-Olenic

As found at:

https://katherine-olenic.deviantart.com/art/Fire-and-Blood-732844012

_{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

The post A perfectly fine circle. appeared first on Indexed.

Back in 2015, Nepal adopted a new constitution. Among other things, it divided the country into seven provinces. The provinces were initially unnamed, and the provincial legislatures were tasked with selecting permanent names for themselves.

A few years later, librarians from Nepal contacted the Dewey editorial team at an IFLA conference to request provision for the provinces in Table 2. At the time, there was just a single notation for the country at T2—5496.

Initially, we thought to wait until all seven provinces had names, but after further correspondence with librarians in Nepal, we drew up a development providing official names where available and numbers for the rest. Five of the seven provinces now have names. The Editorial Policy Committee approved the update, so you’ll now see the following for Nepal in WebDewey:

As you’ll see, we’ve also provided numbers for the named provinces, for consistency’s sake. Once the remaining two provinces receive names, we’ll provide them and remove the numbers from the captions, though we plan to keep index terms like “Province No. 1 (Nepal)” in the WebDewey Relative Index.

Note that while T2—5496 is still the notation for comprehensive works on the Himalayas, Mount Everest has been continued to T2—54961.

I’d like to thank the volunteers who helped with this development, including the librarians and education ministry officials from Nepal who thoroughly reviewed the proposal and suggested improvements.

_{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Miu Iruma by Fullmoonrose7

As found at:

https://fullmoonrose7.deviantart.com/art/Miu-Iruma-732196556

psychedeloscopeart:

Here are the next ten cards in my original hand-painted Tarot deck. Some of them are still for sale here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Spectrowhirl

Aensland… by Creativeragnus

As found at:

https://www.deviantart.com/creativeragnus/art/Aensland-797162158

MORRIGAN AENSLAND (PORTRAIT) juju salimeni by killbiro

As found at:

http://www.hentai-foundry.com/pictures/user/killbiro/699655/MORRIGAN-AESLAND-PORTRAIT-juju-salimeni

 

DORK TOWER is updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Support the DORK TOWER PATREON, and help Dork Tower reach its next goal – four comics a week!

wildragon:

A ferberus

(The last drawing of the year)

FERBERUS!