I still collect articles related to amblyopia for L., whose alignment remains near-perfect over a year after eye muscle surgery. Earlier this week, I read one that mentioned a correlation between stereoblindness and both far above-average reading habits and artistic output. Sounds just a wee bit familiar.

Link: "An eye for an eye", Giovanni Garcia

For a fleeting moment I knew what key my tinnitus[1] is in and bolted out into the living room to grab one of the electronic keyboards and a set of headphones to confirm it. Unfortunately Vogon was asleep and Laurel was watching TV, and its horizontal scan rate noise throws my perception. I am ready to unplug that irritation box. Vogon assures me ( Read more... )

I have an ear infection and am slightly incoherent as a result ( Read more... )

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read.

( Read more... )

We let the worm composter go for awhile without regular attention, so we're restarting three trays this weekend. Laurel enjoys helping with the worms, so I'm only helping minimally this round. (My knees are thankful for that.) Some of the finished compost will be going to repot the ficus plants and restart the potted grass for the cat. The ( Read more... )

I want to make snarky comments about plagiarism, but this is so bizarre it stands on its own: romance "author" Cassie Edwards uses passages of an environmental magazine article as dialog in novel and is outed by the ladies of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

Links:
- Cassie Edwards Investigatory Extravaganza at SBTB
- "Move Over, 'Meerkat Manor'" ( Read more... )

Barbara Ehrenreich in The Nation ("Bonfire of the Disney Princesses"):
"Disney likes to think of the Princesses as role models, but what a sorry bunch of wusses they are. Typically, they spend much of their time in captivity or a coma, waking up only when a Prince comes along and kisses them. The most striking exception is Mulan, who dresses as a ( Read more... )

Found via NPR: "A study finds that in 2002, only 52 percent of America's young adults read a book voluntarily." (This is referring to the latest NEA reading study.)

I really doubt they're all reading The Road to Reality in time with Vogon, who probably will take a year to finish it because it's dense. (No bets on how long it would take me, lacking ( Read more... )

One thing I don't like: book fair items are sold at cover price unless otherwise marked down, so the value of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is $35 from the percentage of sales we are allowed to pull in product for the school. Our local elementary school has 500 students and one copy of that title in their library ( Read more... )

Fifty years ago this month, a San Francisco municipal court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's poem "HOWL" was not obscene.

Last week a public radio station chose not to broadcast a 1959 reading of the poem due to fear of an FCC fine.

You can listen to an online broadcast of the poem at HOWL Against Censorship.