Reads

Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
Read Birds of North America: A guide to field Identification by Chandler S. Robbins, Bertel Bruun , Herbert S. Zim, Arthur Singer (Illustrator) (Golden Field Guides from St. Martin's Press)

Spot the silhouette of a Northern Goshawk in flight. Identify the raucous call of the Red-winged Blackbird. Discover the secret of picking out a Chipping Sparrow from its look-alike cousins. It's simple with this classic field guide, a treasured favorite among amateur bird lovers and exacting professionals. Recognized as the authority on bird identification, this invaluable resource provides:

-All of North America in one volume
-Over 800 species and 600 range maps
-Arthur Singer's famous illustrations featuring male, female, and juvenile plumage
-Sonograms that picture sound for easy song recognition
-Migration routes, feeding habits, and characteristic flight patterns
-American ornithologists' classifications
-Convenient check boxes to record birds you have identified
-Color tabs for quick references

Read introductory pages 1-17.

This seems to have most North American birds with good layouts, information, sonograms, and ranges. Could be a solid contender and is a nice size.

Read Peterson First Guides Birds by Roger Tory Peterson (Houghton Mifflin Company)
Peterson First Guides are the first books the beginning naturalist needs. Condensed versions of the famous Peterson Field Guides, the First Guides focus on the animals, plants, and other natural things you are most likely to see. They make it fun to get into the field and easy to progress to the full-fledged Peterson Guides.
Read pages 1-17 of opening.

A very slim, but nice pocket-sized guide. Probably the least comprehensive on my list. Has some basic names, info, and few pictures than others. Opening was pretty good on laying out structure for what to look out for.

This is definitely not the guide for me.

Read How to add Indieweb to WordPress by Stef (][ Stefano Maffulli)
What happened to the material you posted on Google+ or Yahoo Groups? Sure, there usually is a way to export your stuff before such services shut down but data migration is always painful. I’ve always preferred to post things on my blog and share links to Twitter ad other sites for a wider dissemin...
A nice little overview. Prompted me to make some updates to the IndieWeb wiki to help keep making things easier/better for going through this process.

Congratulations Stefano!

Read A(n) historical take on the evolving use of a/an (The Christian Science Monitor)
English speakers disagree – sometimes vehemently – about how to use “historic” and “historical” with the indefinite articles a/an.
Went down the rabbit hole a bit on this topic this afternoon. Also spent several minutes reading the couple of pages that Fowler’s has on the topic. 
 
Mostly looking at the idea of whether it should be a Hispanic or an Hispanic.
Read Standing up for developers: youtube-dl is back (The GitHub Blog)
Today we reinstated youtube-dl, a popular project on GitHub, after we received additional information about the project that enabled us to reverse a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown. 
Good to seem them taking a positive stance on this.
Read - Want to Read: Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society by Ronald J. Deibert (House of Anansi Press)

In the 2020 CBC Massey Lectures, bestselling author and renowned technology and security expert Ronald J. Deibert exposes the disturbing influence and impact of the internet on politics, the economy, the environment, and humanity.

Digital technologies have given rise to a new machine-based civilization that is increasingly linked to a growing number of social and political maladies. Accountability is weak and insecurity is endemic, creating disturbing opportunities for exploitation. 

Drawing from the cutting-edge research of the Citizen Lab, the world-renowned digital security research group which he founded and directs, Ronald J. Deibert exposes the impacts of this communications ecosystem on civil society. He tracks a mostly unregulated surveillance industry, innovations in technologies of remote control, superpower policing practices, dark PR firms, and highly profitable hack-for-hire services feeding off rivers of poorly secured personal data. Deibert also unearths how dependence on social media and its expanding universe of consumer electronics creates immense pressure on the natural environment. In order to combat authoritarian practices, environmental degradation, and rampant electronic consumerism, he urges restraints on tech platforms and governments to reclaim the internet for civil society.

hat tip:

Read Trend Watch: Trump: 'Every Rally is Boffo' - 10/19/2020 (Merriam-Webster)

Dictionary lookups of 'boffo' are trending on Merriam-Webster.com.

As an expert on the word boffo, I can guarantee that nothing about Trump or anything related to him could be described as such. Biden and democracy on the other hand: boffo and socko.
Read thread by @gathara (threadreaderapp.com)
#BREAKING Polls are set to open in 48 hours across the US as the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump attempts to consolidate its hold over the troubled, oil-rich, nuclear-armed, north American nation. Analysts are sceptical the election will end months of political violence.
This is an awesome and socially enlightening thread. 
Read Weighted blankets might ease insomnia and anxiety. Here’s what to know before buying one. (Washington Post)
If 2017 was the year of the Instant Pot, 2018 was the year to gift or get a weighted blanket — a duvetlike bed cover weighing from five to 25 pounds. Never heard of one? Neither had I, until I got this assignment. But they are a hot commodity. For example, the Gravity Blanket, which began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017, reports $16.5 million in sales for 2018.