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North Coast News

The summer break is almost over, and I got two big projects started – the path in front of my house has been partially rebuilt and upgraded as the first project of the Astoria Path Wanderers Association (APWA) and I finally found a place that would take the #1 plastic food containers that had been accumulating in my garage for years. Work on these projects is on-going, with goals to provide maintenance and upgrades to the walking paths that connect streets in our hilly town, and to upgrade the solid waste system here to get a much higher amount of recycling of traditionally hard to recycle items.

The North Coast Puzzle Club (NCPC or NikPik) meets every Monday evening from 6:30-8(ish) pm at various pubs, restaurants and other venues in Astoria, and we have been adding members slowly over the summer.

In addition to Bedtime Stories this summer, I was also to sub three times for folk music shows at KMUN, our local community radio station. Check out the playlists for these shows here, here and here. It was really fun to get back to music programming on the radio, which I used to do a lot of before my substitute teaching days. 

Latest Finds

This section will highlight the latest books, articles and websites that I've come across. I'm considering also having an archive, so don't fret if you haven't been to the site lately...

Nationhood Lab – This center at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island works on "the big questions that have always bedeviled American nationhood: Who are we as a nation? Where did our nation come from? For what reasons do our states and regional cultures remain together as a nation?" Lots of interesting history and analysis. I got this site from a post on the Medium site, of which I am a member and look at just about every day. I encourage folks to check out Medium and maybe even look at some of my posts there (search for Astoria Bob).

Daydoku – Daydoku is a captivating daily puzzle that combines calendar-based challenges with the strategic placement of polyominoes. The game features a calendar grid (comprising days, months, and weekdays) along with 10 distinct polyominoes (3 tetrominoes and 7 pentominoes). Each day, players must skillfully arrange all the polyominoes within the calendar grid in such a way that only the squares corresponding to the current day remain visible. Engage your problem-solving abilities and spatial reasoning skills as you discover multiple solutions to this intriguing and ever-changing daily calendar puzzle. Perfect for my puzzle class and NikPik!!

The Kid Should See This – Smart videos for curious minds of all ages – Great videos! I came across it for their video on figuring out the day of the week for any date.

Play Scrabble Online – I love Scrabble, and for a long time, it was not available on the web. Well, it is now, and I just beat the computer (on easy setting), scoring 311 points!!

Future Materials Bank – The Future Materials Bank is an archive of materials that supports and promotes the transition towards ecologically conscious art and design practices. It is part of Future Materials, an initiative of the Nature Research department at the Jan van Eyck Academie.

Abakcus – Science and math curated websites, articles and more!

Compound Interest – Great site of chemistry infographics, articles and fun. Started using it when I taught chemistry at Clatsop Community College.

PHYS.ORG – Most science news websites don't have a lot of chemistry news, and of course that's my favorite kind of science! But this one does, and the articles it gleans from the web are mostly accessible but not childish, which is how I like it. Good site!

Titanic Lifeboat Academy – My friends Christopher and Caren have been running this site and accompanying homestead and educational programs for almost 20 years. They spend a good part of each day looking for great articles and resources on the subjects that really matter to everyone – geopolitical economic forces, environmental catastrophe, techno-socio milieu, self-reliance, emergency preparation and The Big Picture. If you're looking for some stuff outside the mainstream, these articles are well-vetted. And take a look at the rest of the site, it's really interesting! (I rediscovered the site because my friend Steve Berk is starting to write for them.)