Author & Producer
Co-creator of the World of the Weasel series of books for kids 4-10 and founder of Spitball Studio, developing and producing stories for kids large and small.


My Interests
I love to engage both my left and right brain. If creative and analytical work were polarized like handedness, I’d count myself among the ambidextrous. I believe they are not mutually exclusive, however, but meant to reinforce each other.
SalvoLavis.com is a digital reflection of my personal interests.
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Latest Posts
- Beautiful Blackboards of MathematiciansThere’s something wonderful about chalk on a blackboard.
- Not a real math problemThe New York Times on mathematicians talking about their hatred for the the 8 ÷ 2(2+2) = ? “problem.”
- Film Review: Who Will Write Our History?My review of an exceptional documentary film that tells the story of resistance through documentation of daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto.
- The kilogram is getting a makeoverThe way we define a kilogram (and pounds too) is basically a high-tech refinement of a medieval technology. That’s about to change as the most influential bar in Paris is shutting down.
- The Permanent, Unmistakable Mark Human Beings Have Left on Planet EarthHave we entered a new geologic era, the Anthropocene? Or put differently: hundreds of thousands of years from now, when future geologists sift the earth for clues about our present day, what lasting evidence of our existence will they find?
- Announcing World of the WeaselI’m excited to announce the launch of World of the Weasel, a series of picture books for kids and the adults who read to them!
- What would our planets look like if you flew by?Artist Michael Benson has made some pretty fun and stunning images of celestial bodies in our solar system rendered in a manner that supposedly mimics the way our human eyes would perceive them if we were to fly by.
- A Stradivarius RecoveredA beautiful story on NPR from legal correspondent Nina Totenberg about her late father’s stolen Stradivarius violin.
- PBS LearningMediaPBS LearningMedia is a very cool website partnership between PBS and WGBH Boston. They’re taking free PBS media content and adding a great discovery and filtering layer on the web that allows educators (or anyone, for that matter) to find compelling assets to compliment or supplement academic learning.