No geek
is an island

Yes, my chickadees, I know you’ve been champing at the bit for the latest Library of Congress/Dewey Decimal System subject mappings, so here, my gift to you, is a veritable smorgasbord. Tuck in. These numbers come from here, here, here, here and here.

• Rhyming number: Barbadian Canadians - 305.896972981071
• Most Victorian number: Baker Street Irregulars (Fictitious characters) - 823.914
• Hang on, it’s on the tip of my tongue…: Amnesiacs - 616.852320092
• New word for your vocabulary: Krumping - 793.3
• “A voice in my head told me to do it”: Mental illness in the Bible - 220.83622
• Monsters in the next series of Doctor Who: Active food packaging - 664.09
• Most boring number: Cavity wall insulation - 693.832
• Most boring number: Micro-drilling - 621.952
• Been there, done that: Low-income college students - 378.19826942
• Erm, the German Embassy: 21-23 Belgrave Square (London, England) - 725.17
• Most fun number: Alton Towers (England) - 791.06842514
• Most hairy number: Beards in literature - 808.803559
• Another new word for your vocabulary: Washint - 788.35
• Most pointless number: Electric engineers’ spouses - 621.3092
• Careful now: Christmas trees–Fires and fire prevention - 363.379
• Most Scottish number: Balamory (Scotland : Imaginary place) - 791.4572
• Most obscure illness number: Pseudoxanthoma elasticum - 616.5
• Really young professionals: Child psychoanalysts - 618.928917092
• Josiah Bartlet and David Palmer don’t qualify, sadly: Presidents in motion pictures - 791.43658
• Although they do do this (only one digit different): International relations on television - 791.45658
• Long tunnel: Mont Blanc Tunnel (France and Italy) - 624.1920944584
• Long number: Hurricane Katrina, 2005 - 551.5520916364090511

The mind boggles why “Electric engineers’ spouses” would be a useful subject term. Still, it only takes one book about them to require the classification…

Via Gerv, Maladies of the Information Age. It’s funny ‘cos it’s worryingly true - but I’m getting better now.

There’s more of that sort of thing in the Slowpoke archive.

I forgot to mention what I did last Friday: a trip to SPICe, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre - the Parliament’s library, although it has very little in the way of physical collections, focussing very modernly on electronic sources. It also provides research briefings for MSPs and their staff. It’s an interesting organisation: it can’t be that often that a new library is started completely from scratch, but this was their task for the formation of the Parliament in 1999.

As well as a trip to the SPICe office and the Donald Dewar Room, which contains books from his collection, we had a tour of the building. I’d been once before but had time on Friday to see a greater amount and learn more about the building. We also crossed paths with former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie who was showing a few people the chamber at the same time as we passed through.

My goodness, has it been over two months? You must be chomping at the bit for more Dewey Decimal updates. A bumper selection is only fair recompense. These numbers come from various sets of subject mappings.

• “Ample size” says the estate agent: Advertising–Dollhouses - 659.197455923
• For Peter Jackson: King Kong films - 791.4375
• For Dario Argento: Blood in motion pictures - 791.436561
• For Peter Jackson: Hobbits (Fictitious characters)/Baggins, Bilbo (Fictitious character) - 791.4375
• For sheer unrealism: Scientists in motion pictures - 791.4366
• For John Boorman: Banjo music (Bluegrass) - 787.881642
• For the sake of it: Accountants in motion pictures - 791.43656
• The Line of Beautyest number: Gay bathhouses - 306.77086642
• What you get reading this blog: Excited delirium syndrome - 616.8
• Making offensive crop circles: Agroterrorism - 363.3259632
• Good way to get singed: Fire twirling - 791.6
• They teach on the catwalk: Stochastic models - 003.76
• I think this is me: Generation Y - 305.2
• In the news: Roadside memorials - 363.125
• Most self-referential number: Dewey (Fictitious character: Disney) - 741.5973
• Most confused number: Internalized homophobia in lesbians - 306.7663
• Erm, sheds made of netting?: Net sheds - 639.2
• You should’ve seen the one that got away: Nymph fishing - 799.124
• Not Melvyn’s style but important physicsy stuff: Bragg gratings - 621.38275
• No, not the probe!: Human-alien encounters in literature - 808.8037
• For counting oysters: Oyster surveys - 333.9554111
• X-Men 3est number: Phoenix (Mythical bird) in art - 704.947
• Longish number: Rose Bowl Stadium (Pasadena, Calif.) - 796.33206879493
• Another longish number: Gay youths’ writings - 808.89928308664
• An even longer number: Liquid crystal display industry - 338.476213815422
• A very long number: London Terrorist Bombings, London,
  England, 2005 - 363.3259388409421209051
• A very, very long number: Fire Fighters’ Dispute, Great Britain, 2002-2004 - 331.89281363370941090511

Has it really been a month? More selected numbers, this time from the latest two sets of Dewey Decimal subject mappings.

• The eyes have it: Peacocks in art - 704.943286258
• Vicar of Dibleyest number: Clergy on television - 791.456827
• 100,00 BC: Prehistoric peoples on television - 791.45658
• “But she hates James Blunt already”: Musical perception in infants - 155.422215
• Don’t go there: Sin City (Imaginary place) - 741.5973
• We’re turning Chinese, I really think so: Sinicization - 303.48251
• The fraud that got away was this big: Phishing - 005.8
• Beam me up, Scotty: Quantum teleportation - 530.12
• Fairly long number: Sephardim in literature - 809.933529924046
• Very long number: Quetzalcoatl in literature - 808.80382997845202113

These large numbers are, however, dwarfed by this monstrosity from the Canadian subject mapping for works about a four-and-a-half month strike at the Versatile tractor plant in Winnipeg:

Buhler Versatile Inc. Strike, Winnipeg, Man., 2000-2001 - 331.892829225209712743090511

Wow. It’s certainly the longest I’ve ever seen. And they say size isn’t everything.

I see they’ve picked this one out at Dewey Towers too.

Looking for publications of the US government online? Then try the relaunched Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Searching on “United Kingdom”, I found a “Protocol amending tax convention with the Netherlands“. This is a

message from the President of the United States transmitting protocol amending the convention between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income (including exchange of notes with attached understanding)

The language of the message is a little archaic (although the UK Parliament is hardly a shining example of modern language):

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith for Senate advice and consent to ratification, the Protocol Amending the Convention Between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income, signed at Washington, DC., on March 8, 2004. Transmitted for the Senate’s information is an exchange of notes with an attached Understanding, which provides clarification with respect to the application of the Convention, as amended, in specific cases. Also transmitted for the information of the Senate is the report of the Department of State with respect to the Protocol.

[...]

I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to this Protocol, and that the Senate give its advice and consent to ratification.

GEORGE W. BUSH.