Don’s Blog

Back in November I wrote about “Peer to Peer Financing.”  As predicted, it’s now coming to Canada–and it’s a homegrown version.

CommunityLend.com has a website now–but it looks like it will be fall before they will be operational.  Not much info at the website–but the National Post has a story on the company.

It’s that time of the year again…more details about the Rotary Club of London’s “Elegant Rummage Sale” can be found at:

http://www.rotarylondon.org/rotaryrummage.html

Right now we are looking for donations, but don’t forgot the sale itself (May 12-13 at the Western Fairgrounds.)

For the longest time, I have found that it is easier for me to fall asleep if I am listening to a spoken-word program on the radio.  Music would keep me awake–but spoken-word programming worked well whether it was an afternoon nap or at late at night.  However, finding good spoken-word programs on the radio is sometimes a challenge (unless you’re willing to listen to AM talk radio.)  As a result, I started downloading audio files on the computer and then playing them back through a FM transmitter–I could then ensure good quality programs at anytime of the day.  Now that podcasting has taken off in the past year, this is even easier to.

I’ve listed some of my preferred programming below–as for downloading podcasts, you can do this manually or use software to automate the task (either Doppler or iTunes should do the trick and some RSS Readers can handle podcasts as well.)

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

- lots of programs here, I listen to “Quirks and Quarks”, “Best of Ideas”, “Dispatches” and “Best of The Current” the most often

NPR (National Public Radio)

- lots of programs here, I really like “Here on Earth”, “Think”, and “Foreign Dispatch”

RNW (Radio Netherlands)

- all the programs are good (and are in English)

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

- despite being the “BBC WorldService” they’re not strong on the podcast front yet but “Documentary” is pretty good

TEDTalks (Technology, Entertainment, Design)

- some really good podcasts here (videocasts as well), Bjorn Lomborg on Jan 2, 2007 should be mandatory listening

Pop!Tech

- similar to TEDTalks, more really good podcasts

IT Conversations

- more “nerd” oriented than the others–but “TechNation” is suitable for non-nerd listeners

EconTalk

- only recommended if you have a strong interest in economics