Archive for November, 2009

Audio Books

Perhaps you are already aware of this … LibriVox is an online digital library of free, public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers. In October 2009, it had a catalog of 2,700 unabridged books and shorter works available to download. About 90 percent of the collection is in English, although LibriVox recordings are available in 26 […]

Synesthetic Geometry

One of these shapes is named “Bouba” and one is named “Kiki.” Do you know which is which?

Reading Lists

I came across two lists—the top 100 novels of the 20th century, first as selected by the editors of Modern Library ( a division of Random House) and then as selected by an online poll of readers. I have read ten of the novels on the editors’ list and 13 on the readers’ list. Amazingly, there are […]

Pay for Popsicle Stick Writers

Pay for Popsicle Stick Writers My children asked me how much money is earned by the people who write jokes for popsicle sticks. Here is some info I collected off the internets in 2004: Comedy writing for night club entertainers: Gags only, $5-25 each. Routines, $100-1,000 per minute. Some new comics may try to get […]

One Square Inch of Twilight

One Square Inch of Twilight My daughter is reading (and re-reading) the Twilight novels and I am reading One Square Inch of Silence, a book by Emmy Award-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. Coincidence? You decide. Forks, Washington, the setting for the Twilight novels, is only 31 miles from “One Square Inch of Silence,” the quietest place in […]

Legalize “Rolling Stops” for Bicyclists

The Idaho Stop Law is a traffic provision that basically allows bicycles to proceed at a slow speed through stop signs if the coast is clear. As cycling for transportation becomes more organized and popular, many cycling advocates across the country are hoping for similar changes to the traffic code in their state. The basic […]

Running Shoes

These were the shoes I “had to have” when I was in sixth grade. from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asics ASICS Ltd. began as Onitsuka Co., Ltd., on September 1, 1949. Its founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Onitsuka became particularly renowned for the Mexico 66 design, in which […]