Small Findings

By Jim Kang

A roundup of small bits of information that I've collected, processed, and put away each week. Findings topics are often mundane (like pizza dough) or weird (like shark attacks in 1916).... more

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FAQs about Small Findings:

How many episodes does Small Findings have?

The podcast currently has 41 episodes available.

Small Findings episodes:

July 19, 2021Episode 20: Watercity
The findings this week:
Watertown's true name and the forms of municipal government in Massachusetts
Article LXXXIX of the Articles of Amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, about town and city forms of government

City or Town of Watertown – Charter Review Committee Weighs in on That & Other Proposed Changes

How speakers make vibrations

Poirot and his similarities to Sherlock Holmes

Correction: Even more people can hear delay on the vibraphone!
Episode 18, about delay on vibraphone and voices

Correction: Nassim Nicholas Taleb is not a student
Wikipedia

Episode 19, with the finding about Bitcoin's unsuitability as a currency

RealPlayer still exists
real dot com

Atari
Wikipedia on Atari SA

WordPerfect
wordperfect.com

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
24min
July 05, 2021Episode 19: Weird Animal Sounds
The findings this week:
Catbirds
Wikipedia

Episode image from PxHere

Posting to Bandcamp
Bandcamp artist guide

The Sound of the Far Future on Bandcamp

Correction: Some people can hear delay on the vibraphone!
Episode 18, about delay on vibraphone and voices

Grasshopper group sounds

Bitcoin's unsuitability as a currency
Bitcoin, Currencies, and Fragility

Bretton Woods

Cryptocurrenices use a lot of energy

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
21min
June 28, 2021Episode 18: Bells and Delay
The findings this week:
The Westminster Quarters
Wikipedia on the Westminster Quarters

Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum

Mars, Bringer of War

The perception of stereo delay effects on voice and instruments

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
24min
June 17, 2021Episode 16: Incorrect Attributions
The findings this week:
What decibels actually are
Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition, and Performance

Open Broadcaster System on the 0 dB digital audio convention

Arneson and Gygax from Playing at the World
Playing at the World by Jon Peterson

Jon Peterson's blog

Hobby Games: The 100 Best

Trusting cats' confidence
Image of a leopard sleeping in a tree by Michael Schamis via Wikimedia Commons

Production notes
Automatically removing terrible mouth sounds

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
34min
June 17, 2021Episode 17: Sandwich Spread
The findings this week:
Similarities between recording a computer playing music and recording a human playing music
More from Beverly Cleary's autobiography My Own Two Feet
My Own Two Feet (autobiography)

Smudge pots

Telegram service level in the 1930s

Engineer stereotypes in the '30s

A sandwich spread recipe (the deluxe kind, with bologna)

Boarding houses

Library schools and attitude grading in the '30s

Beverly Cleary's first book deal

Bands' messages and politicians
NOFX lost their beer deal

Rage Against the Machine's response to Paul Ryan being a fan

NPR on Napalm Death and the president of Indonesia

Harmony Corruption, a great Napalm Death album reported to have been huge in Indonesia

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
30min
May 31, 2021Episode 15: Light criminology
The findings this week:
Defeating bike locks
Your U-Lock Is Basically Worthless

A Kryptonite lock being cut with a bolt cutter

Someone car jacking open a Kryptonite lock

Kryptonite Anti-Theft Protection Offer matrix

Defeating laser printer DRM
Consumer Reports on inkjet ink's per gallon cost

How to move an HP laser printer cartridge chip

Sherlock Holmes and six-year-olds
Wikipedia

All Men Are Brothers

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
28min
May 24, 2021Episode 14: Recumbent Findings
The findings this week:
Beverly Cleary in the 1930s
My Own Two Feet (autobiography)

Sun Ra in Alabama and Chicago
Space Is The Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra by John F. Szwed

How to evaluate air purifiers with Fred
Clean air delivery rate

Footnote 1 from Fred: "Regarding air filtration in commercial spaces, what I said was generally true for offices, commercial spaces, chemical labs, and medical spaces. Generally there's focus on air quality through outside air intake. However, there is a particular sector that focuses heavily on recirculated air filtration, and that's cleanrooms."

Footnote 2 from Fred: "The CADR to square foot ratio of 2/3 corresponds to 5 air changes per hour. That is to say, an air purifier in the recommended space for its CADR will filter all the air in the space five times per hour, or once every 12 minutes. The "bad" air purifier I mentioned has enough CADR to do 2 air changes per hour in its marketed space of 1100 square feet. It does say "cleans the room in 30 minutes" on its product web page but I wouldn't expect a lay person to know that that is below the AHAM's recommended air cleaning rate. If someone smoked a cigarette in a room and it took an air purifier 30 minutes to make the smell go away I would call that poor performance."

Fredrick Douglass on discussing slavery
History of Ideas episode

My Bondage and My Freedom on gutenberg

Adam Buxton discusses making jingles with found music
Adam Buxton Tape Notes episode

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
33min
January 25, 2021Episode 13: Who Is the Robot Now?
The findings this week:
Getting paid for art, submitting the work of bots to calls for art
Allison Tanenhaus, glitch artist

Codaworx (art broker)

RAL Companies and Affiliates LLC's Fairmont Ave condo

Hills bot

Code to make Hills bot create a specific set of hills

Slop Cube (the bot whose work was turned down)

My other bots

How to repeat random decisions

SVG

How NOT to replace Roomba tires

The name Seph
The post on josephg.com

Filamentation
Wikipedia on Filamentation

CRLF and minified JavaScript

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
24min
December 31, 2020Episode 12: Pasta, Snuff, and Cats
The findings this week:
Text findings
Miscellaneous Findings IV (web odd and ends)

Miscellaneous Findings V (the doings of servers)

How to make your own pasta and what it's like
The Play-Doh Fun Factory (which I misrembered; it looks nothing like a pasta machine!)

A picture of a real pasta machine

Snuff
The Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

My post on the first book in the series that the Arrow of God is in

Wikipedia on Snuff

Bonus Cat and Dr. Wily are actually right
Dr. Borns-Weil on All Things Considered

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
22min
November 19, 2020Episode 11: 100,000 Hot Dogs
The findings this week:
A book podcast I'm doing with some friends
Rehydrate

Autocorrelation
Companion blog post that uses numbers in the explanation

Why You Hear What You Hear

LLCs and legal insurance
Does Forming an LLC or Corporation Fully Protect You From Liability?

Massachusetts law about homestead

Expedition with Alex 2: Crossing the bridge over Route 2

Email me any findings you want to share (or questions) at [email protected]!
...more
25min

FAQs about Small Findings:

How many episodes does Small Findings have?

The podcast currently has 41 episodes available.