Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Interesting Podcasts

Part of having a desk job (at least for me) is keeping my brain occupied with music and podcasts. I thought you might be interested in some of these, so I've rounded up some of the better podcasts from my RSS aggregator to share with you all:

AstronomyCast - A weekly show, which generally follows the format of Fraser Cane lobbing questions that are answered by Dr. Pamela Gay. They cover a wide range of topics - okay, one topic, but a wide range of subtopics.

Science Talk - This one is done by Scientific American magazine and is more radio-showy than you'd expect from a web-only show. They have news segments, interviews, and even a mellifluous host.

The Film Programme - A radio show from BBC 4, some of the best movie-related opinions and interviews out there.

Planet Money - A podcast by some of the guys who produced the economy episodes of This American Life (I'll just take it as a given that I don't need to link the TAL podcast here.) They actually produce and post multiple episodes per week, amazingly.

White Coat, Black Art - A show by a doctor, about doctoring and doctoring related subjects. This one is a CBC radio show that quit recently, but their old episodes are still interesting.

Spark - Another CBC radio show that panders to gadget obsessed Web 2.0 buzzword spouting geeks. I like it. I've refrained from posting the far, far nerdier podcasts I subscribe to, but I think this one hits a lot of general interest topics.

From Our Own Correspondent - Another BBC podcast, this one focusing on their foreign correspondents.

Brain Science - A show about neuroscience hosted by Dr. Ginger Campbell.

Books And Ideas - Dr. Campbell's other show, for things that don't fit in to the Brain Science show. Also really interesting.

My History Can Beat Up Your Politics - An interesting show that talks about American history, with topics set by current events.

Do any of you guys listen to any podcasts? If so, go ahead and post them, I'm always looking for more stuff to shove into my ears.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

great science class blog

These kids were on npr. I was checking out their blog, and it is great!
Extreme Biology
Seems like a fantastic class (the blog is created by "Miss Baker's" 9th graders and AP biology students). There are lots of good ideas for projects and research on it.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Vivaldi

I know everyone alive has probably heard this before, but I love it! Vivaldi is so beautiful.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUpsUsJStLQ&feature=related



Callie is the one who put the Four Seasons on her ipod(most of my music comes from Callie, or various other brothers and sisters. On the rare occasion I discover something myself I get extremely self-satisfied and have to show it to everyone-see link below- :P), but I stole it and now I can't stop listening to Vivaldi.



Here's a song I found on a random blog, it's really fun!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoaTl7IcFs8

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Comic Book Geekery: Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet


I'm really loving this book. It's about a photographer living in Paris who is struggling with a creative drought. It's all very well written, but what I truly love about it is the art style. It reminds me of Bill Watterson with Calvin & Hobbes or Hergé with Tintin in the way it juxtaposes detailed and beautifully colored backgrounds with very stylized, cartoony characters. The way the French countryside is drawn is amazing:



Click for biggerized pictures