Curiosity

Ever wondered how many seconds you have been on earth? The Age Calculator will tell you.

American Pests

On BookVideos, author James E. McWilliams describes his book, The World of insects. [This world]

"is one we only dimly understand. Yet from Mrs. Ellis's Housekeeping Made Easy, the nineteenth-century guide to using arsenic, cobalt, and quicksilver to kill household infiltrators, to the sophisticated tools of the Orkin Man".

You can browse this site and listen to the story behind the book. Try searching by author; there aren't that many books on the site and you might be apt to find an author you are interested in before you find a title or category.

Books That Matter

Peruse these important books to have on your reading list. Other news from the MatterworkNetwork: News and Ideas For a Sustainable World,is FuelFrog from RiverWired: Good Green Fun.

Kristen Hall-Geisler writes:
Send FuelFrog the miles you traveled on your last tank of gas, the price you paid, and the number of gallons of your next fill-up, and it will track your mileage. Once you've signed up for the service, it can keep tabs on your miles per gallon and how much you spend on gas. FuelFrog works best with Twitter, especially if you can tweet, as they say, from your phone right at the gas station. You punch in the numbers in order -- miles, then price, then gallons -- and send Twitter the text message.

"Easy eco-living tips are delivered in a short, sassy email each weekday"

from IdealBite

Jill Bolte Taylor: My Stroke of Insight

Fascinating talk about our brains.

"Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery."

Visit TED.COM - Ideas worth spreading.

MassSpeak

Julia Spitz writes for Community Newspapers. If you are a transplant to Massachusetts, (as I was in the early 1970s), you'll get a real kick our of Julia's hilarious column, Earning My Degree In MassSpeak.

Take the Tests

You'll probably enjoy at least one of these personality tests from the BBC.

Nature's Poetry

The Cloud Appreciation Society slide show. Beautiful find. Thanks, Gerry.

WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned
and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

We think that they are Nature’s poetry,
and the most egalitarian of her displays, since
everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.
Life would be dull if we had to look up at
cloudless monotony day after day.

We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the
atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of
a person’s countenance.

Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked.
They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul.
Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save
on psychoanalysis bills.

And so we say to all who’ll listen:
Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your head in the clouds!

The Art of Traveling Light

I heard about this one on NPR today: OneBag

There's no question: overpacking tops the list of biggest travel mistakes. Thus this Web site, offering exhaustive (some might say exhausting!) detail on the art and science of travelling light, going pretty much anywhere, for an indefinite length of time, with nothing more than a single (carryon-sized) bag.

Rock the Vote

Rock the Vote uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election. And we give young people the tools to identify, learn about, and take action on the issues that affect their lives, and leverage their power in the political process.

Massachusetts Libraries

You can find me here for the next few days at the MLA Conference in Falmouth, MA.

Gaming@Your Library

Read about the Dover Town Library in Wicked Local - Dover Sherborn.

Nutty on Tips

Go to TipNut for 20 Things You Can Use Twice Before Tossing.

Pollen-hate

Go to Pollen.com to get your local pollen four-day forecast and to sign up for pollen alerts by email.