This week, we've prepared a collection of stories that originally aired in the fall of 2009. But never fear, we are working on a brand new Spark for next week.

On this week's episode: CAPTCHAs, America's Funniest Videos and data visualization. To listen, download the MP3 (runs 54:00).

• Luis von Ahn fights spam and digitizes books with CAPTCHAs and reCAPTCHA
  • GWAP: Games With a Purpose
• Jon Lee plays matchmaker for mismatched shoes with unevenfeet.com
• Your Job Before the Internet: Todd Thicke and Michele Nasraway, co-executive producers of America's Funniest Videos
• Marla Thirsk is still on dial-up, and wishes she had broadband
• Hannah Classen wonders why we don't have robotic butlers
  • Rehman Merali, PhD student in Autonomous Space Robotics
• Fernanda Viegas visualizes data with Many Eyes
• Lawrence Lessig explains the perils of openness in government (full interview)
This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects:
• "Butta Fly's Jazz Handz" by KCentric
• "Wadidyusay?" by Zap Mama
• "Rest (For A While) (Demo)" by The Orchestral Movement of 1932
• "acclimate" by General Fuzz
• "theOtherSide" by airtone
• Clips from Leave It to Roll-Oh (1940)
• "Toboggan" and "Sunday Morning" by Podington Bear
You can receive Spark automatically by subscribing to any of our totally free podcast feeds: For more information (and instructions) visit cbc.ca/podcasting
• Free weekly podcast (Subscribe in iTunes)
• Free weekly podcast + additional blog-only content (Subscribe in iTunes)
• Free weekly podcast (low bandwidth version)