THE LEFT LANE
Fan of first ladies

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Or that Jacqueline Kennedy was a roving photographer-reporter and an accomplished equestrienne?

These are among first lady factoids in "Fandex First Ladies" (Workman Publishing, $9.95), a guide that features nearly 50 cards topped with die-cut images of each first lady's portrait (from Martha Washington to Laura Bush), packed with facts and anecdotes, and bolted in one corner so that the cards fan out for easy reference. "Fandex First Ladies" may be ordered at Barnes & Noble, Bestsellers Books & Music at Bishop Square, or Waldenbooks. Visit www.workman.com.

Too-easy listening?

Whether you're downloading Jimi Hendrix or Go Jimmy Go, the ethical questions of music piracy cut across generational lines.

What do you think about file-sharing of music? Is it wrong? Is it stealing? Is it payback for the cost of high CDs? We've heard it all.

There's still time to chime in. Let us know your views via e-mail at islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035.

Born to the babble

One study published online last week suggests that babies younger than 5 days old prefer speech sounds; a second study indicates that newborns can probably pick out their mother's voice in a noisy room. Both studies appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using brain imaging, a team of scientists from Japan, France and Italy found that areas in the left half of babies' brains responded more to normal speech than to speech played backward.

In the other study, scientists from Hungary, Finland, Sweden, California and New York took brain recordings and found that babies could segregate two streams of sound played at the same time.