Home and Shopping

Since London will be the focus for the Summer Olympics, we thought we'd explore the British Museum Shop's offerings and, yes, there's no end of the intriguing and unusual.   more »

Julia Sneden writes: I have never stopped loving fireflies. On evenings after a rain, or when the grass has been freshly cut, we can count on a large number of winking lights, and the woods in the hollow behind our house are often like a fairyland of tiny stars moving lazily about among the trees. I've gotten over being afraid when I hear the first rumbles of thunder, although I still don't enjoy it when there are strikes so near that you can hear the fizz-snap simultaneously with the bang. more »

Editor's Note: We built a new home that has Internet, cable and satellite connections facilitating present and future smart systems. IBM is enabling citizens' smartphones with apps alert cities to the existence of potholes, graffiti, and water issues by taking photos and sending them to city management, where they can be dealt with. Sensors that give readouts about human activity are being embedded in shoes, medicine such as asthma inhalers, and medical exploratory surgery devices. more »

The NEH Summer Booklist offers suggestions of 238 books recommended for young readers. The list includes newer works such as Coraline, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and The Book Thief. “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” ― C.S. Lewis Aardema, Verna and Leo & Diane Dillon Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A W… more »