Lee.org

Books? Feh!

The nation’s accountant and head of the Government Accountability Office, David Walker gave a speech at the National Press Club December 17th, 2007. It’s a very good speech. His news isn’t good. Here is the speech. Listen to the whole thing.

Here is the text of this speech.

I had found this speech via a Word for Word podcast. I see that David Walker and the GAO has a large archive of speeches. I’ll get to listening to them!

Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennet – I swear, I’ll never get through this book

The New How Things Work by David Macaulay – Fun bedtime reading

Farm Show Magazine – I love it!

Listening to lots of podcasts… The Sound of Young America from PRI is surprisingly good. It took a little bit to get past the knee-jerk reaction that it’s trying too hard to be the sound of young America.

Marnia asked me to sign up for GoodReads.com. A while back, Jen asked me to sign up for…. umm something like “Book Exchange”. I’m sure they are both wonderful sites. But such sites come and go. I like to keep my commentary in one place. Hence, this post starts the “What I’m Reading” Category in my blog. Check in on this Category every now and then. Offer up a comment. Point me to your own Reading List.

Find out what I’m reading at http://lee.org/blog/category/reading-watching-listening/

All manner of solar books including (and all from the San Francisco Public Library)

• Got Sun? Go Solar! by Rex A Ewing and Doug Pratt. Excellent book. Practical. Covers the generalities very well.
• The Easy Guide to Solar Electric by Adi Pieper. It’s quite entertaining. More entertaining than educational but that can be a good thing; it makes it an easy read.
• The Passive Solar House by James Kachadorian. I’ve only just gotten started on this.
• Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry by Travis Bradford – I dunno. My first impression is that it’s a little too… hand-wavy
• The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling by Daniel Chiras, PhD – good stuff. Now if I can only finish it.
• The Passive Solar House: Using Solar Design to Heat & Cool Your Home by James Kachadorian. I’ve barely cracked the cover yet. Looks good though.
• The Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home by Dan Ramsey. Very good. Now if I can only finish it. (on page 132)
• The Easy Guide to Solar Electric by Adi Pieper – Very good. Now if I can only finish it. (on p 95)
• The Easy Guide to Solar Electric: Part II – Installation Manual by Adi Pieper. Very good. Now if I can only finish it. (on p 35)

Freakonomics – Very Good. Audiobook. It’s just as “useful” as Blink and The Tipping Point but I don’t like hearing this author read quite as much as I like Malcolm reading.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Excellent. Audiobook.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell – Excellent. Audiobook.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – Excellent. Audiobook.

Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology by Valentino Braitenberg- A really good “autonomous robot” book. I haven’t had time to get into it too much lately. But I will eventually!

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman – (Audiobook) A very fun to read/listen to story!

I listen to podcasts on my way to and from work. I hardly listen to the radio at all any more. Here are the podcasts on my Juice podcast downloader.

I’ve placed a * next to the shows I love the most

• *[RSS] Dr Karl on triple j
• [RSS] Security Now!
• [RSS] NPR: Science Friday
• [RSS] IT Conversations
• [RSS] On The Media
• [RSS] PRI: Whad’Ya Know? – All the News that Isn’t
• [RSS] NPR: Sunday Puzzle
• [RSS] NPR: Health & Science
• [RSS] NPR: 7PM ET News Summary
• [RSS] NPR: Most E-Mailed Stories
• [RSS] NPR: Story of the Day
• [RSS] PRI: To the Best of Our Knowledge
• [RSS] APM: Future Tense
• *[RSS] Best Of Decoder Ring Theatre
• [RSS] Audio Dharma
• [RSS] WGBH Morning Stories
• [RSS] CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks Segmented Show
• [RSS] The Space Show
• [RSS] Diggnation (Mp3)
• *[RSS] Daily Breakfast – The #1 Catholic Podcast – yes, a “catholic podcast” is on my Favs list
• [RSS] The Wizards of Technology –
• [RSS] this WEEK in TECH – MP3 Edition
• [RSS] Distorted View: Daily Comedy Podcast
• [RSS] Reel Reviews Radio
• [RSS] Skepticality: The Official Podcast of Skeptic Maga
• *[RSS] Penn Radio Podcast – discontinued :-(
• [RSS] Mysterious Universe
• [RSS] KATG Backstage
• [RSS] Talking Robots – The Podcast on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
• *[RSS] Phedippidations – I’ve only caught a few shows so far but -wow- it’s inspiring!
• [RSS] PotterCast: The Harry Potter Podcast

I’m starting to listen to more shows on SQPN. Father Roderick really has something going there!

How I play them:

1. download my shows with Juice
2. move 650 mb of .mp3 audio into a folder
3. burn that folder
4. play it on my .mp3 capable car stereo

Phoey! I just found Penn Radio a few months ago on podcast. I went looking for it today and it’s gone :-( . He stopped broadcasting the show in March but my podcasting just caught up to it.

I was really starting to get into it. I simply loved the latest “Pull of the Weasel Friday” episode.

Phoey!

Decoder Ring Theatre has a couple audio podcast series that I have just fallen in love with.

The Red Panda and Jack Black Justice!!

I gave them a $10 donation on their website…. and it only cost me $9.01 US. Oh, those wacky Canadians!

I’ve been listening to audio podcasts the last week or so on my way to work and around town. I’ve been very impressed. It’s an idea who’s time has totally come.

I have iPodder software and I’ve subscribed to… yow a whole lotta shows. A partial list of some of my favorites include Accidental Hash, Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, Audio Dharma, Catholic Insider, Decoder Ring Theater, Gillmor Gang, several NPR shows… I count almost 50 shows I’m subscribed to.

Cool.

How I do it: iPodder –> CD-RW –> my new car stereo which can read mp3 discs. I swap CDs (holds 10-20 hrs) every couple days.

This was originally a “page” on my blog that I updated from time to time. But I like using the chronological format of a blog better now. Be sure to check out the Reading, Watching, Listening category of this blog!

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I’ve always been a slow reader. Sometimes, when I see people that read those big, heavy tombs like all those James Mitchner books, I get jealous. But then, I savor each word. In a good book, I have to stop every now and then because, although my eyes are strong and fast enough to read on, my mind has to digest what I’ve read. Reading quickly loses it’s advantage if you miss substance and depth.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver – 6-20-02 – I spent time with the people of Zebulon County on every long car trip for the last three months. I borrowed this wonderful 15 hour audiobook from Shara. I just finished it and I miss the characters so. Not that the story is unfinished but like a good friend and neighbor that has moved to another town, I feel their absense. I cherished the time I had with these characters. Thank you Ms. Kingsolver for writing this story and then telling it to me.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin – 6-1-02 – Last summer, Shara lent me an audiobook of another Earthsea book. I was enthralled by the frank and precise language the Ms. Le Guin used and I wasn’t disappointed by this story. She applies such a down-to-earth style to high-fantasy that sits very well with me. I’ll be reading more of her!

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Edward Hutchings et all – summer 01. He’s my kind of guy. And it’s written so personally. It shows through that most of the book is actually dictation of a happy man telling great personal adventure stories to a friend.

Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson – 1994 or so. Cyberpunk at it’s best. I first saw it sitting on the kitchen table on Shepard St. What I usually do is dare people to read the first 20 pages and then put it down. Go ahead, I dare you.

Zodiac by Neil Stephenson – 2000. Yea, Neil’s pretty cool with the tech. Maybe Tom Clancy will have some competition in the movie theaters some day. The Big U by Neil is also a fun romp.

Comics

• Swamp Thing – I got the graphic novel (the first S.T. graphic novel) many years ago… in ’90? It convinced me that this format could be powerfully compelling.
• Transmetropolitan – in late 2001, TJIC lent me a the graphic novel issues 1 thru 24. I ate it up! I think the most important message the author tried to get across is that, in order to appreciate something, and to be able to articulate your thoughts, you’ve got to hate it. That’s an interesting idea..
• Sandman – I picked this up at the comic store around issue 40. The best ones were the first 30 or so (excepting #50, a super-snazzy double-issue) so I bought them all in novel format. Wow.