8878 - taxes and memes and comics, oh my!

Google may digitize Michigan State University's Comics and Pulp Library. (via beaucoup kevin )

With more than 150,000 items, the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection is a major scholarly resource for the study of popular culture from the 19th century to the present. The initial emphasis was on American popular culture, but materials from other countries are now collected as well. While not the largest of its kind in the nation, MSU's popular culture collection is one of the most usable because of its early adoption of coherent planning that focuses efforts on a limited number of areas. Prominent in those plans are comic art; popular fiction including dime novels, story magazines, pulps, juvenile series books, detective fiction, mystery fiction, science fiction, western fiction and women's/romance fiction; popular information materials including almanacs and etiquette manuals; and print materials relating to the popular performing arts. Collection parameters evolve to follow trends in popular fiction, recently expanding to include gay and lesbian pulp fiction. Noteworthy elements of the collection include a nearly complete set of Deadwood Dick dime novels and substantial numbers of Tom Swift and Horatio Alger books. In addition, the Comic Art Collection is a research collection of more than 200,000 pieces serving national and international scholars. The strengths of the comic art collection are U.S. comic books, European comic books, U.S. newspaper strips and works on the history and criticism of comics. Less extensive collections are maintained for African, Asian and Latin American comics; fotonovelas; animation; cartooning; Big Little Books; and comics tie-ins. Materials held include the Yellow Kid beginning in 1895 and the Famous Funnies No. l comic book from 1934. The emphasis is on graphic storytelling in the newspaper comics or newsstand comic book tradition to present a complete picture of what American comics' readership has seen, especially since the middle of the 20th century.

---

Why don’t poor people save more money? Because they’re better off not to! At least according to a new study from the National Center for Policy Analysis. The LA Times reports :

Low-income households face “astronomical” penalties for saving, according to the report by the National Center for Policy Analysis. For example, each $1 saved by a single mother earning $15,000 a year could cost her $2.60 in higher taxes and lost government benefits.

---

I escaped from Starbase Scottobear!

I killed Ambassador Jennylee, Ldy the Dalek, Christin the space pirate, Applelard the awful green thing, Uberbastard the medibot, Inkygypsy the tribble, Suigeneris 56 the awful green thing, Za Pick the psychic agent, Za Distro the tribble, Za Links the cargobot, Hulk Smashy the cargobot and Ambassador Kevin Church.
I salvaged an Evandorkinian artefact, an Acoolsecretaryian artefact, the Log of the USS Creepcake, an FUZZYBUMBLEBEE-160 phaser, an ILLUMINATION-30 plasma rifle, a HERBS-8800 supercomputer, Myid8myego's commbadge, an MNEWSOM-70 phaser, an FALLENTOAD-60 phaser, an Edbookian deathblade, a Chandraian raygun, a Sedefendendo screwdriver, an Intrepidite screwdriver, a PARKS-9200 supercomputer, Kat78731's commbadge, the Log of the USS Za Moon, the Log of the USS Fivefootmayhem, a fantasygoatlithium crystal, the Log of the USS Sebab and 331 galacticredits.

Score: 1071

Explore Starbase Scottobear and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own space adventure...

---

I'm kind of digging this interactive paper concept.