Happy Friday! Don't forget to make your nomination for the SFA Award of Excellence by August 19th.

From the Country

Missoula, MT: Librarians at University of Montana's Mansfield Library recently found Cold War rations and ate them. 

Washington, D.C.: A handwritten letter by Charles Darwin that was stolen from the Smithsonian more than three decades ago has been returned by the FBI. 

From the World

Japan: The last company to make VHS players will be discontinuing production in August. Start stocking up now!

Antarctica: Scientists are currently drilling ice cores to be preserved in Antarctica as part of the Protecting Ice Memory project. "The purpose is to build the world's first library of ice archives extracted from glaciers wh ich are threatened by global warming."

From the Blogosphere

This great video on how a Gutenberg printing press works is making the rounds.

Jane Austen's sheet music has been digitized by the University of Southampton's Hartley Library, and is now available to view on the Internet Archive.