Saturday Sharing (My Finds Are Yours)

Can another week have gone by already?

This column has received a wonderful response since I began it several weeks ago. It's even inspired a few sister bloggers, and maybe a few brothers, too, to go exploring. It's fun to put together, and sometimes surprises me with the gems I've uncovered as I pick up and follow a thread from here to there. It makes for a richly patterned quilt of connections. Ready to get out from under the covers?

✭ Augmented-reality mapping technology lets you broadcast your telepresence. A demonstration of the Microsoft technology is here. I think it's amazing.

✭ "I love you: the wall" is witness. (With thanks to Louise for sharing.)

✭ Cajal's Butterflies of the Soul, by Javier DeFelipe (2010, Oxford University Press), is one of the most beautiful and fascinating books published this year. The book (reviewed here) is named for Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852 - 1934), known as the "father of modern neuroscience" and winner of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Its drawings are inspired by 19th Century and early 20th Century scientific illustrations of the wonders discovered on experimental slides viewed under a microscope.

Cajal, who wanted to be an artist, wrote that "only artists are attracted to science". Is it any wonder, given the beauty of the 282 unique images in this book?

You don't have to be an artist to be inspired by this book. The images delight and astonish, and the text offers insights into what reviewer K.A. Jellinger called a "vision of science as an artistic and esthetic enterprise."

A detailed description of the book is here.

For a related item on an art exhibit, "Curious: the Craft of Microscopy", go here and here.

✭ If you're not still celebrating Valentine's Day, maybe you need a little help getting in the mood. Try reading this lyrical and sumptuous poem, "The Common Lover's Song" by Flavien Ranaivo of Madagascar, posted at Words Without Borders by Geoff Wisner. (Pssst. You don't have to report back.)

✭ Everyone is always going on so about time. Here's an arts and social media blog by Devon Smith that might inspire you to consider how you might spend 24 Usable Hours.

✭ You won't be able to get a word in edgewise but phone in here anyway to listen to a podcast with Frances Justine Post, the 2008 recipient of "Discovery"/The Boston Review Poetry Prize, and to read a short Q&A. Phone-in poetry podcasting is brilliant!