Giant spheres, Death Star pumpkins, etc.

Here are a few things online that have excited, engaged, and amused me, in recent weeks.

Tom and Brian Nealon's Menino Ribbon Cutting photoset on Flickr. The Nealon brothers are the proprietors of Pazzo Books in Roslindale; according to their blog, they're planning to rent a cardboard cutout of Menino, complete with real working scissors, for those Bostonians who'd like the mayor to help them celebrate life's simpler occasions.

The Fall 2007 issue of Cabinet magazine features a "Minor History of Giant Spheres," in which Joshua Foer points out a few notable man-made spheres, from a 1664 German planetarium to Rem Koolhaas's 2006 design for a spherical convention and exhibition center in the United Arab Emirates.

Jessamyn West, the Vermont-based radical librarian and technology consultant, is a folk hero of sorts. After viewing her Flickr photoset portraying dozens of town libraries in New England and elsewhere that she's visited, I understand why. If you've allowed yourself to become complacent about the fact that these libraries are one day going to be replaced by Web searches, Jessamyn's photos will remind you how special libraries are.