The word baleen come from the Early Modern English word for “fur.” Baleen is proof that whales are Darwin’s monsters.

• Catch our publisher Dennis Johnson on Democracy Now today talking about Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post. (Democracy Now)
• Author of one book full of empty promises (The Secret) soon to publish another book (Hero) full of empty promises. Testament to the semi-magical properties still attributed to buying, and perhaps reading, books? (Publishers Weekly)
• Chinese social network Douban is running a translation competition: aspiring translators are invited to translate excerpts from two short stories by David Mitchell, “The Massive Rat” and “The Gardener.” The lucky winner or winners will get a contract to finish the translation, runners-up an Ian McEwan novel, and all entrants the joy of translating some David Mitchell. (The Malay Mail)
• Having decided that tarnishing the legacies of mediocre television shows isn’t enough, Amazon Kindle Worlds has secured the rights to Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. More like Felix Boneiker, GET IT? (The New York Daily News)
• Of the 56 “rare or one-of-a-kind” books stolen from Sweden’s National Library, two have been returned. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Defying all expectation, an article titled “How Gay was Gore Vidal” turns out to be rather gossipy and not as nuanced as it might wish to be. (The Daily Beast)
• Amazon, Sony and Kobo are teaming up to throw readers with disabilities under the bus. I don’t know how that works, maybe Sony grabs the arms, Kobo the feet, and Amazon just stands there laughing cruelly? Anyhow, the manufacturers are lobbying to exempt ereaders from a recent Accessibility Act, arguing that the devices are not used for “advanced communication.” (GigaOm)
• Rolling Stone has a version of the folk song “Pretty Saro,” recorded by Bob Dylan while he was making the infamous Self Portrait (“What is this shit?” – Greil Marcus). It didn’t make the final cut, despite being about twenty five times better than anything that did. The accompanying video is, alas, a bit on the nose. (Rolling Stone)
• Last night, in a truly unusual turn of events, every single person on twitter was both pitifully self-congratulatory and desperate in their need for the approval of every other person on twitter. (#confessyourunpopularopinion)

A song for Thursday: “Ginger” by Twin Sister