• Jane Davis’ Knitting: The Complete Guide
I can’t offer a full-on review of this book. Thus far, I’ve only flipped through it in passing while visiting a local book store. But one section caught my eye and was enough to convince me that I’ll need to pick this volume up at some point: a whole section on using embroidery on top of knitting to create smocking and other effects. I haven’t seen anything like this elsewhere—and I’m pretty compulsive about staying on top of stitch dictionaries and related publications.
• Some Great Podcasts
BBC’s Best of Natural History Radio
This year’s podcasts feature On the Move, a series about migrations—including everything from moths to African grazing animals and the lions that follow them. Who knew that some moths migrate from England to Spain? Who knew what fascinating audio could be made from that fact?
CBC’s Beethoven Nine in 9
(You’ll have to scroll down just a little to find this.) This series, which was originally broadcast in March 2008, incluldes performances of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies and lectures on each symphony that discuss both Beethoven’s development as a composer and his life story. I’ve found it a real delight to move back and forth between the lectures and the concerts, applyiing the new things I’ve learned to make my listening experience richer.
CBC’s How to Think about Science
(This one will require a bit of scrolling down as well.) This is a fascinating, if somewhat mixed, series that includes substantive, challenging conversations with scientists, science historians, and philosophers. I’ve listened to my favorites from this series repeatedly—there’s enough content there to make them worth revisiting.
PBS’s Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason
Like the previous series, this is one that bears repeat listening. Each and every interviewee has thought deeply about questions of both faith and logic, coming to a wide variety of conclusions. Moyers’ interviews are respectful, yet probing, and always engaging.
The New York Academy of Sciences’ Science and the City
These are recordings of talks given under the auspices of the NYAS and range widely in topic (Dava Sobel reading from Galileo’s correspondance accompanied by period vocalists to a presentation on mummy DNA). My personal favorite is the Novenber 24, 2006, broadcast, “Carl Sagan’s Search for God.” These pieces go into a good deal of depth and generally run about one hour each.
• Hopkin Green Frog
This series dates back to 2004 and may already be familier to some of you—but if you’ve never seen it, click now and check it out! (You”ll need to click on each page to bring the subsequent page up.) Based on a lost-frog flier that originally appeared in Seattle (the first image that you see at the site) a whole series of increasingly complex frog-search images was created. These are delightful for their humor and, in a somewhat unusual way, their empathy.