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CBS Execs Defend Couric's Lagging Ratings | Katie Couric left NBC's Today Show for $15 million a year and the chance to be the chief anchor of the CBS Evening News. But after six months on the job, Couric's newscast remains in third place, with an audience that is at times a bit smaller than it was a year ago. Instead, it's ABC's Charles Gibson — another former morning show host — who led a new network newscast to ratings wins in February. ABC edged NBC last month --- and CBS lagged nearly two million viewers behind each. But CBS executives say they're sticking by Couric. Network News President Sean McManus acknowledges there's room for improvement in how Couric presents the news, but says he sees progress. "It simply takes repetition," McManus said. "If you look at how comfortable she is doing it today as compared to six months, I think there's a dramatic shift in the level of comfort." Producers built new elements around Couric's warm style — a daily guest commentary and regular interviews conducted by Couric — but scaled them back when they didn't seem to work. The half-hour newscasts amount only to 19 or 20 minutes these days, once the commercials and promotional spots are stripped away — and those segments ate into the time allotted to more conventional reported pieces by correspondents, Five current and former CBS News staffers spoke to NPR on condition they not be named. They said there was growing anxiety about Couric's performance inside the network. Thursday, CBS announced it was forcing out Rome Hartman, executive producer of the Evening News, and replacing him with veteran television news executive Rick Kaplan. Outside the networks, criticism has grown, too. "I think it's been a mistaken investment," said the television news analyst Andrew Tyndall, who is a consultant to both CBS and NBC. "The core function of an organization like CBS news newsgathering and I think it's a diversion of funds to spend money on a celebrity anchor rather than on newsgathering." Tyndall says the CBS Evening News has taken on not only a softer tone — but a more trivial one. Tyndall says there are more features, and more of those features focus on feel-good subjects. He says NBC News under Brian Williams takes a harder approach to the news. Asked about Tyndall's assessment, McManus says he rejects it. Couric is not the only anchor who arrived from the morning news world. Charlie Gibson came to ABC's World News Tonight from Good Morning America last June. But he also had served for years as a political reporter and substitute anchor. His executive producer, Jon Banner, says Gibson has hit his stride — but thinks viewers are still figuring out who they're going to watch. "I think we all are going through a time when people are becoming accustomed to the various newscasts," Banner said. "If you go back three years ago, none of these people were anchoring their respective broadcasts." NBC News isn't used to finding itself in second place --- it hadn't happened in 11 eleven years – and doesn't like the feeling much. John Reiss, the executive producer of the NBC Nightly News was ousted last week. NBC executive Alex Wallace was named to take his place. Andrew Heyward used to hold McManus' job at CBS News, and was involved in the earliest efforts to hire Couric there. He says today's anchors can't hope to keep up with 24-hour news channels and instantly updated internet sites — or hope to be seen as the true voice of authority. "If you look at Walter Cronkite's sign-off, it was 'That's the way it is.' Dan Rather pulled that back somewhat, to: 'That's part of our world tonight,'" Heyward noted. "An anchor here today, if he or she were being totally candid, would say, 'That's a little bit of what we did our best to find out.'" Couric declined an interview with NPR. She was, however, interviewed on stage at the 92nd Street Y cultural center in New York City earlier this week. She told an audience she knew going in to the CBS anchor's seat that "the media landscape was changing," and "this was a genre that was probably not going to be as strong in the future as it once was." But she said it was worth trying to reinvigorate the evening newscast. News Chief Sean McManus says both he and CBS CEO Leslie Moonves are committed to Couric for the long haul. "The minute we hired Katie last June, we said it would take not months but years to move the needle. I think the media had an unrealistic set of expectations — none of which came from us," McManus said. "It came from the media saying well, you're paying $15 million a year, you're looking for immediate returns. Well, we weren't and we aren't." The network is also promoting Couric's ability to draw more women and relatively young viewers — both desirable demographics for advertisers. McManus says that's already translating to greater profits, even as the CBS broadcast remains in third place. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: When Katie Couric took over the anchor job once held by Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, she left a comfortable sea |
How What You Flush Is Helping Track The Coronavirus | With coronavirus testing still lagging behind targets, health officials are searching for other ways to assess the spread of the outbreak. One possibility? Looking at what we flush. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is often spread through sneezes and coughs, but it also leaves the human body through our waste. Scientists around the world are now testing sewage for the virus, using it as a collective sample to measure infection levels among thousands of people. While the field of wastewater epidemiology existed before the coronavirus pandemic began, it's rapidly expanding in the hope it can become a front-line public health tool. "Normally when I tell people I work with poo, they're not super-interested," Stephanie Loeb, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, told NPR in an interview over Skype. But she said: "There's really a lot of information in our waste." In the basement of a university building, Loeb pulls samples from freezers filled with vials of raw sewage, collected regularly from 25 wastewater treatment plants around California. Each is a snapshot of that community's health. "It's this perfect mix, you know," said Krista Wigginton, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Michigan who also is working on the Stanford project. "The entire community is putting samples in at the same time." She said by the time the virus reaches wastewater treatment plants, it's still possible to read its RNA. "These are virus particles that are mostly intact but that are no longer infective," Wigginton said. "That's what it looks like at this point." The idea is that measuring overall virus levels in sewage over time could indicate whether an outbreak is growing or shrinking, potentially showing that trend earlier than patient testing would. "That's a real-time measurement of what's happening in the community," Wigginton said. "Whereas some other tools we have, like the number of confirmed cases in clinics, sometimes those are delayed by quite a bit of time because people don't go get checked until maybe their illness has progressed by quite a bit." The approach is already used for other diseases such as polio. Health officials are working to eradicate polio around the globe, and in Israel, an outbreak was spotted early through the wastewater system. The Stanford team isn't the only group working on coronavirus detection in sewage. "We have a lot of nicknames," said Newsha Ghaeli, co-founder of the startup Biobot Analytics. "I think some of our customers joke around that we're the 'sewer girls.' " Biobot is testing sewage from about 150 communities across the United States. Originally, the company was using sewage to monitor the opioid crisis, but it quickly started offering coronavirus testing. "It really caught fire," Ghaeli said. "Within 10 days, we hit internal capacity." Ghaeli said that in some cities they've been able to detect the coronavirus in sewage the same week the first cases appeared. Other projects in France and the Netherlands have produced similar results. In a more challenging scientific feat, Biobot is also working to estimate the number of individuals who have the coronavirus in a community, based on the levels found in sewage. Calculating that depends on knowing how much virus individuals shed, and some people seem to shed for a longer time than others, complicating the math. Other things could also affect the virus levels, such as how long it takes for wastewater to reach a treatment plant and rainy weather, which causes runoff to flow into the sewage system in some communities, diluting the samples. "There's a lot of research that needs to be done before we can say this number in wastewater means this many cases in the community," Wigginton said. The advantage of testing sewage is that it may capture individuals who are less likely to go to a doctor's office. "Every person that is using the toilet has a voice," said Mariana Matus, Biobot's other co-founder. "And they can be taken into account for public health resources and prioritization of resources." While it's still early in the technology's development, some see it being helpful in detecting new waves of an outbreak. "I think it is potentially a new role that utilities can play," said Doug Yoder, deputy director of the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department in Florida, which serves 2.3 million people. "There has been, at the community level, not a whole lot of data about conditions communitywide." For six weeks now, Miami-Dade County has been sending Biobot sewage samples, which have shown the area's virus levels going up and down a bit. "We've seen in a couple [of] instances the virus counts increase by a factor of six," he said. "And then the week following, it went back down. This data may not yet be ready for prime time in terms of community decision-making, but it has potential and promise for being able to see trends." Health officials are eager for the information, he said, as one more way to gauge w |
Amid Lake Erie's Algal Bloom, Toledo's Water Woes Continue | For the second straight day, residents of Toledo, Ohio, are without tap water. The problem is caused by the discovery of a toxin in the water supply, likely the result of an algal bloom. |
Virginia Turning DNA Evidence on Unsolved Crimes | The federal government proposes spending more than $100 million for DNA analysis in criminal investigations. Meanwhile, Virginia takes the lead in using DNA to crack unsolved crimes. Virginia collects DNA samples the moment a suspect is arrested, and samples are cross-checked against DNA evidence in cold cases. NPR's Larry Abramson reports. |
Former U.S. Diplomat John Brady Kiesling | In February he made headlines when he publicly resigned in protest over the war in Iraq. At the time he was political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Athens. His postings included Morocco, Armenia, Israel and Greece. In 1994 Kiesling was one of a group of foreign service professionals presented with the Rivkin Award, given by the American Foreign Service Association for constructive dissent. Kiesling was also a member of the group of State Department officials that pushed for intervention in Bosnia. |
The Sea Captain's Wife | Listen in to our earlier conversation with MARTHA HODES, author of "The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century." Hodes is professor of history at New York University. |
Hezbollah Says A Top Commander Was Killed By 'Huge Blast' In Syria | The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says one of its top commanders was killed in a "huge blast" in Syria. The explosion that killed Mustafa Badreddine, 55, happened near the Damascus International Airport in Syria's capital, and the group says it is investigating "whether it was a result of an airstrike or a rocket attack," according to a statement on its official media outlet, al-Manar. It wasn't immediately clear who was responsible for the attack. As NPR's Alison Meuse tells our Newscast unit, "Hezbollah fights along with Iran to support the Assad regime in Syria." The militants are seen as an important force behind Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's continued grip on power during the ongoing war. Badreddine is believed to be responsible for the group's extensive military operations inside Syria since 2011, along with numerous other attacks. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, which has sanctioned Badreddine, his responsibilities included moving the group's fighters from Lebanon to Syria as well as leading a major group offensive. The Hezbollah statement announcing his death quotes him as recently saying, "I won't come back from Syria unless as a martyr or a carrier of the banner of victory." It's the highest-profile assassination from the ranks of the militant group since the 2008 slaying of top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was also killed in Damascus. Alison adds, "Israel fears Hezbollah's growing influence in Syria and has carried out a number of strikes against its weapons convoys and commanders over the course of the war." The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu declined to comment on whether Israel was involved, The New York Times reports, "as did the Israel Defense Forces and the country's Foreign Ministry." Haaretz reports that Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, "This is good for Israel. Israel isn't always responsible for this. We don't know if Israel is responsible for this." He continues: "Remember that those operating in Syria today have a lot of haters without Israel." Badreddine was also indicted for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, along with 3 other people. All are being tried in absentia. During the prosecutor's opening remarks at that trial, held at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon near the Hague, lawyer Graham Cameron said Badreddine "passes as an unrecognizable and virtually untraceable ghost throughout Lebanon, leaving no footprint as he passes." In the hearing transcripts, he details how Badreddine lives off the radar: "He has never been issued a passport. He has never been issued a driver's license. He is not the registered owner of any property in Lebanon. The authorities have no records of him entering or leaving Lebanon. No records are held by the Ministry of Finance which would reflect that he pays any taxes. There are no bank accounts in any of the banks or any of the financial institutions in the country in his name. There are no known photographs of him, at least none that would reveal how he looked during the material time. I expect the evidence to show that his alter ego, Sammi Issa, was assiduous in avoiding having his picture taken." Matthew Levitt at the Washington Institute tells The Associated Press, "I really do think it will affect their morale. This is not just their commander in Syria. This is one of the most elite and uniquely pedigreed Hezbollah personalities." A video posted on Twitter by BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville showed crowds of supporters filling a street during Badreddine's funeral in Beirut. |
Week In Sports: College Basketball Faces Coronavirus Crisis | A slew of college basketball players have tested positive for the coronavirus. Also, what may race-based concussion tests in the NFL mean for retired Black players? |
Senate Votes Wednesday On Bailout | Wall Street and the White House were shocked Monday when the House failed to pass the financial sector bailout plan. Stock markets regained some ground Tuesday. Now the financial sector is hoping the Senate can pass a rescue package this week. David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, tells Renee Montagne that the trick will be to get the 12 need votes to pass the measure in the House. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: And here's where we stand this morning on the financial crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped almost 500 points yesterday, making up a chunk of the ground lost on Monday when it fell nearly 800 points. The Senate takes up a revised bailout plan this evening. And to get some analysis, we turn now to David Wessel. He's the economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and a regular guest on our program. Good morning. Mr. DAVID WESSEL (Economics Editor, The Wall Street Journal): Good morning, Renee. MONTAGNE: David, are the changes to the proposal enough to clear, not just the Senate tonight, but also when it gets back there, the House? Mr. WESSEL: Well, that's really the $700 billion question now. We don't know. They only have to change about a dozen votes in the House to get it through, and there's clearly some clever politicking going on here. The move to increase the ceiling on deposit insurance to 250,000 from the current 100,000 is very politically popular with smaller banks, and there are a lot of smaller banks in every congressman's constituency. And they only need to get enough bankers to call enough congressmen to push the bill over the edge. ..TEXT: MONTAGNE: Well maybe here's the other, if there's another, $700 billion question. If it passes, in your opinion, is it enough to fix the economy? Mr. WESSEL: I think the conventional wisdom now is correct, that it's not a perfect plan, but the alternative, doing nothing, is worse. The problem has gotten so much bigger in the last couple of weeks that it may not be sufficient, but it is an important move in two respects. One is the banks don't have enough capital. The government, the taxpayers are going to have to put some money in. And this is the way to do that. And secondly, a lot of what's going on now is a widespread global loss of confidence in the financial system. And at some point, that becomes so corrosive that no amount of money or plumbing fixes can change things. So if this gets investors and ordinary people to think, OK, the leaders of the world economy, their government officials are on the case, they're fixing it, that could have a very salutary effect very soon. MONTAGNE: Now, top financial officials, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, they were predicting calamity if the bailout didn't pass. It had much of the leadership in Congress behind it, even though nobody loved it. So what exactly happened? I mean, a failure of leadership or just an overwhelming resentment on the part of voters out there? Mr. WESSEL: I think both things. I think there was a failure of leadership, that people didn't have much confidence that those people who had allowed this to get so bad were going to have the right solution. There were a lot political missteps. But I think your other point is a good one. For some time, we've seen a widening of the gap between economic winners and losers in the U.S., and particularly people on Wall Street. These financial engineers have done extremely well, and people have read about the amount of money they make. A lot of voters thought this was not a bailout for the economy; it was a bailout for Wall Street. They called their congressmen. Congressmen in close races this fall heard that call and voted against it. And I think that's a really significant political milestone. MONTAGNE: Well, how has the economic outlook changed in this last week without this rescue? Mr. WESSEL: The only question is how much worse has it gotten? As everybody has now become aware, the problems on Wall Street are spilling over to the rest of the economy. Unemployment is rising. Even big companies are having trouble borrowing money at reasonable rates. Banks are unwilling to lend to each other. And all that got worse. So economists who have been attempting to forecast the rapidly changing economy are now getting much gloomier. There's widespread consensus now that we're in recession or are about to go in one, and it won't be limited to the United States. And serious sober people, not the crazy extremists, are talking about an unemployment rate which could rise from today's 6.1 percent to seven percent even if this rescue gets done. This is going to take a long time to work its way through the economy. MONTAGNE: David, as always, thanks very much. Mr. WESSEL: You're welcome. MONTAGNE: David Wessel is economics editor of The Wall Street Journal. |
Obama Takes Youth Vote Pitch To Iowa | President Obama wrapped up a two-day tour of three major public universities on Wednesday. The final stop was at the University of Iowa, where students have a high rate of student loan debt. |
Ina Jaffe Reports From Los Angeles On Proposition 198, The Initiative | on tomorrow's California primary ballot, which would profoundly change future primaries in that state. It's known as the "Open Primary Initiative." |
NATO Rejects Call for More Troops in Afghanistan | NATO will not offer any extra troops for the organization's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, where military commanders on the ground have called for more support. Members of the military alliance met Wednesday in Brussels. The appeal for more troops was launched by NATO's top operational commander, U.S. Gen. James Jones, who has said that extra troops could help deliver a decisive blow to the Taliban in the region. But an emergency meeting of senior NATO officials convened in Brussels has broken up without a commitment of more troops for the campaign. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that Afghanistan "could come back to haunt us" if the West once again allowed it to fall back under the influence of the Taliban. In addition to the United States and Britain, other countries with troops in southern Afghanistan include Canada and the Netherlands, with smaller contingents from Romania, Denmark and others. Many NATO countries feel they're already doing enough, or are committed to other peacekeeping deployments. France and Italy recently committed to a leading role in the United Nations mission in Lebanon. Germany is playing a leading peacekeeping role in northern Afghanistan, and last week, Turkey's chief of staff ruled out sending combat troops to supplement 900 Turkish soldiers already helping with reconstruction in Kabul. NATO defense ministers are slated to meet at the end of September to finalize offers of more troops. In that case, any actual deployment would likely have to wait until October. MICHELE NORRIS, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And I'm Robert Siegel. A NATO meeting in Brussels has broken up without a commitment of more troops for the campaign in Afghanistan. NATO's top operational commander, U.S. General James Jones, asked for more soldiers last week to help fight the resurgent Taliban. NATO says more than 500 Taliban fighters were killed recently during 10 days of intense fighting. General Jones had said extra troops could help deliver a decisive blow. NPR's Rob Gifford reports. ROB GIFFORD: General James Jones said more troops were needed because Taliban forces had changed their tactics and were launching conventional attacks against NATO troops. Jones and other NATO leaders have argued that reinforcements could deliver a decisive blow to the Taliban before they take to the hills for winter. A NATO offensive against the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan code named Operation Medusa was launched on September 2nd, but NATO spokesman James Appathurai admitted today that NATO's international security assistance force, or ISAF, does need more support. Mr. JAMES APPATHURAI (Spokesman, NATO): NATO forces, particularly in the south, are not only working hard, but they are stretched. There is no denying that they are stretched and that more forces would allow all of the ISAF mission to achieve its objectives more quickly and at lower risk. GIFFORD: Appathurai insisted the troops were not essential for the success of Operation Medusa, which he said was going well. Yesterday Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that Afghanistan could come back to haunt us, as she put it, if the West once again allowed it to become a failed state. The NATO force in the south of Afghanistan is led by Great Britain, which has nearly 5,000 troops in the country. Today, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said all NATO countries should regard the mission in Afghanistan as their responsibility. Prime Minister TONY BLAIR (Great Britain): We should never forget that the reason why our troops are in Afghanistan, along with other NATO countries, is because out of Afghanistan came the terrorism of 9/11. The Taliban and al-Qaida training camps for terrorism were the reason we went there, and it is of fundamental importance to the security of this country, never mind the broader world, that we make sure that the job in Afghanistan is done property. GIFFORD: Other countries with thousands of troops in southern Afghanistan include Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. Romania and Denmark have smaller contingents. The problem is that many NATO countries feel they're doing enough or are committed to other U.N. troop deployments. The mission has also changed. It was originally intended as peaceful reconstruction, but more than 30 NATO troops in fierce fighting with the Taliban in recent weeks. Air Marshal Lord Timothy Garden of the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London says it's understandable that NATO members are reluctant to increase their commitment. Lord TIMOTHY GARDEN (Air Marshal, Great Britain's Royal Air Force): I don't think it's surprising given that it took a great deal of diplomatic negotiating to actually get the full structure that there is in the south. We also have to remember that when we complain about the Germans, for instance, that they have been there for five years. They do have the se |
GOP Strategist Explains McCain's Message | Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain now has an official opponent in the general election, Barack Obama, and he's wasted no time in painting Obama as an unabashed liberal while also distancing himself from the policies of an unpopular President Bush. Republican strategist Mike Murphy, who's worked for McCain in previous campaigns, talks with Robert Siegel about McCain's campaign strategy. |
When Will Election Races Be Called? Here's The AP's Process | As the 2020 election draws to a close, many Americans are worried that the night of Nov. 3 will bring few definitive answers. More than 80 million people have already cast a ballot — either by mail or in person — and this unprecedented surge in early voting has raised fears that it could be days or even weeks until winners are known. The journalists on The Associated Press decision desk know those concerns well. The AP has been verifying returns and calling races stretching back to the election of 1848. This year, the race between President Trump and Joe Biden is just one of 7,000 for which it will be calling a winner. "There's really no provision in the Constitution that says who should actually do all that counting, who should say who the winners are," says David Scott, a deputy managing editor overseeing election coverage at the AP. "But we've got a long history of playing this role in the democracy." NPR, like many news outlets, relies on The Associated Press to discern and report election results. To learn more about how the organization makes those determinations, we spoke with Scott about how it is getting ready for Election Day. How does the AP decide when to call a race? The decision to call a race revolves around one simple question: Does the trailing candidate have a viable path to victory? In some cases, the answer is a simple no. A state in which voter registration and early voting have been dominated by the same party for generations, for example, is likely to be called early in the night. It's the more competitive races where things become tricky. Those are the races that take longer to call, Scott says, as the decision desk sorts through a broad array of data points. "We're looking at when the vote was counted," he says. "We're looking at how the vote was cast. Were these Election Day votes? Were these advance votes? So we're looking at all of those various pieces of data to all come back to that central question: Can the candidates who are behind catch up? And when we've determined that they no longer have the ability to do so, they don't have a path to victory, that's when we can call the race." How unprecedented are this year's voting trends? The way that voters are casting their ballots this year isn't entirely new. Before the coronavirus pandemic, states such as Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington were already primarily vote-by-mail states. What's unique about 2020, says Scott, is the sheer scale of this year's shift to early voting and vote by mail. "This is going to be the first election in American history where more than half of voters are going to cast their ballot before polls open on Election Day," says Scott. "And that's such an amazing idea that that transition is taking place and it's taking place incredibly rapidly. ... We were always going to get there. But I didn't expect it at the start of this year that it would be this year. It might have been two election or three election cycles away." How is The Associated Press preparing for the surge in early voting? One of the decision desk's big areas of focus ahead of Election Day, says Scott, is looking back at this year's primaries, as well as past election cycles, to gauge how long it takes a state to count its early votes in the context of counting its entire vote. "Can we try to put an estimate together of when they'll be at 90% counted and when they'll be at 95% counted? ... That's guidance that we can use on a decision desk as we start to look and analyze when a race is ready to call." The AP will also have mountains of data on voter preferences from AP VoteCast, a massive set of preelection polls it is conducting as an alternative to traditional exit polls for the AP, NPR and other news outlets. Scott says the AP will talk to roughly 140,000 people in the days leading up to Election Day and all the way through to the moment that polls close. "And so what we're able to do is use that very large sample to paint a really accurate, a really deep picture of the electorate," he says. Will the presidential election be called by midnight on election night? The AP has not always called a winner the same day that polls close. So in short, it depends. "Since 1992, we've been able to call it on Election Day, and by that I mean midnight on the East Coast, four times. And three times, it took us more than Election Day. In 2004, it was the next day. In 2016, it was about 2:30 in the morning on Wednesday, East Coast time. And then in 2000, obviously, we never called the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore." The organization does not make projections or announce likely winners, says Scott. Rather, it will call a race only once a candidate's path to victory is indisputably clear. So if the race between Biden and Trump is close on Tuesday — as it's expected to be — Americans should brace for a potentially long wait. Should Americans worry if there are no definitive results on election night? A long wait on ele |
VIDEO: 'We Want To Live Like Everyone Else,' Say Orphans From Aleppo | Aleppo is under attack. Civilians trapped in the siege in Syria — including children from an orphanage — are turning to social media with a message to the world: End the violence. In the video, a group of about two dozen children in sweaters and knit caps stand in three rows, as if to sing a Christmas carol or recite a poem. Instead, they have a message for "those concerned with human rights and the rights of children." The video was recorded in Arabic, then translated to English and posted by Aleppo Today TV, an independent Syrian TV channel. "We are scared of the airstrikes ... Please get us out of Aleppo. We want to live like everyone else," says Yasmeen Qanouz, 10. Yasmeen says there are 47 children in the orphanage. They — along with an uncertain number of civilians — have been stuck in Aleppo amid what aid groups have described as horrific bloodshed, NPR reports. Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, says: "Clearly, in Aleppo today, children are among the most vulnerable victims of this conflict. It's heartbreaking to imagine dozens of children who have lost their parents, desperately wanting to find safety." |
Death Metal In The Operating Room? | Many surgeons listen to music in the operating room; surveys tell us as much, and so do surgeons. But the practice hasn't been subjected to rigorous study, until now. Dr. Claudius Conrad is a German-born surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital who also trained as a concert pianist and holds a Ph.D. in music philosophy. Conrad has performed scholarly research on the effect music in the operating room has on the work of surgeons. He spoke to NPR's Robert Siegel about his surprising results. Conrad uses different types of music, from Mozart piano sonatas to experimental dichaotic music, to study the effects of auditory stress on surgical performance — especially individual components of performance like speed or accuracy. In one study, Conrad played death metal through one channel and German folk music through another. (Don't worry — the surgeons being studied were not operating on real patients during the experiments; they used simulators.) "Research has shown that, indeed, (dichaotic music that contains vocal elements) seems to be more distracting under certain circumstances," Conrad says. "For us, it was an experimental tool to test, in a standardized fashion, auditory stress." The results of the study showed that doctors listening to dichaotic music did complete the surgical tasks they were assigned to do, but it took them more time than those listening to other types of music. "Those were very senior, expert surgeons," he says. But Conrad says he is also interested in doctors early in their careers — novice surgeons. Stress is a very real part of their work. "A young surgeon operates in the operating room and the floor calls in, or there's a conversation in the background," Conrad says. "There's noise introduced by machines we use in the operating room." But the young surgeons did not respond to auditory stress the same way. "Interestingly, with them, the influence of this dichaotic music varied a great deal," Conrad says, adding that his research has applications in medical training. Conrad's data will be published soon in Surgical Endoscopy. ROBERT SIEGEL, Host: Many surgeons listen to music in the operating room. Surveys tell us as much, and so do surgeons. That's just one intersection of music and healing and it's one that's received little, if any, rigorous study until now. Dr. Claudius Conrad is a German-born surgeon in Boston who is also trained as a concert pianist and has a Ph.D. in music philosophy. Dr. Conrad has done scholarly research on what effect music in the operating room has on the work of the surgeon. And he joins us today from Boston. Welcome to the program. CLAUDIUS CONRAD: Thank you very much. SIEGEL: One study that you did compares the effects of different kinds of music. We're going to be hearing about different kinds of music, so let's hear samples of both kinds. First, this is the recording of you playing the piano, actually. (SOUNDBITE OF PIANO) SIEGEL: What are we hearing? CONRAD: There's slow movement from Mozart's Piano Sonatas in D major (unintelligible) 526. SIEGEL: And now we are going to hear an example of something - it's a word that I was unfamiliar with, of music that you call dichotic. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SIEGEL: What are we listening to there? CONRAD: We're listening to experimental music. And one of our interests was to study the affects of auditory stress on surgical performance, and especially on individual components of performance. Is it speed or is it accuracy influenced by auditory stress? And the results were surprise. SIEGEL: So, in that particular piece of dichotic music, in one we're hearing two different things in two different channels, those of you listening in stereo can probably hear this. But in one channel we are hearing this... (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SIEGEL: Heavy metal music. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) CONRAD: That's right, death metal music to be more precise. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SIEGEL: And in the other channel we are hearing this... (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Unidentified Group: (Foreign language spoken) SIEGEL: Sounds like German folk music. CONRAD: It is indeed, and research has shown that indeed vocal music seems to be more distracting under certain circumstances than instrumental music. And for us it was an experimental tool to test, in a standardized fashion, auditory stress. SIEGEL: Yeah, the auditory stress - you say this is done with a simulator, you're not actually having patients operated on while playing that music... (SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER) SIEGEL: ...which I think violates the U.S. Army field manual for interrogation, the music you're playing. CONRAD: Yeah, that wouldn't (unintelligible). No, we had a very well- designed simulator that tested for minimal invasive surgery, laparoscopic surgery. And, of course, with those virtual reality simulators, time of completion of a task can be very accurately measured. SIEGEL: And the finding that people who had to listen to this dichotic music still completed the task successfully but it took the |
A Bipartisan Bill Helped Save Pets From Harvey, And Maybe Their Humans Too | Houston and Texas made Americans proud this week. Hurricane Harvey assaulted southeast Texas with vicious winds, rains and floods, but Texans struck back with unshrinking courage, spirit and selflessness. They risked their lives to save neighbors and strangers. A lot of the images of people being plucked from flooded roads and picked up from rooftops showed them holding dogs, cats and other pets in their arms. Pictures from shelters show people sharing cots and food with their pets. These images help reveal an important change in U.S. emergency policies. In 2005, a number of people in the path of Hurricane Katrina refused to be evacuated by emergency crews when they were told that they couldn't bring their pets. Some people then chose not to leave and risked riding out the storm. Sometimes, they didn't survive. We did a story at the time on Miss Emma Anita Wagner Seals of Pass Christian, Miss. She was an 81-year-old woman who decided to stay in her home to take care of her cats and dogs as Hurricane Katrina surged ashore. She chose to perish with her companions in life, rather than leave them to drown. Her story reminded a lot of our listeners that while pets are not human beings, but they are members of our human families. Emergency managers began to grasp that if they didn't make room for family dogs, cats, birds and turtles in rescue boats, buses, and shelters, they wouldn't be able to persuade a lot of people to leave their homes. So a bill was passed with bipartisan support — remember that? The 2006 Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act was sponsored by Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska in the Senate and Democrat Tom Lantos of California in the U.S. House of Representatives. It charges the Federal Emergency Management Agency with telling local emergency officials that they must include pets and service animals in their disaster evacuation plans. This week, we saw what an act of Congress can do. It may have saved not only the lives of cats and dogs, who were carried out in the arms of their owners and rescuers, but the lives of people who love those animals as members of their family and wouldn't have left them. We spoke with Chris Schindler of the Humane Society this week as he and volunteers worked in Dickinson, Texas. "This time there was a plan for animals, and it made a difference," he told us. "It's gratifying to see people united with their pets. And for some people in Texas," he reminded us, "their pets are all they have left." |
Post-Feast Weight Gain Isn't As Bad As You Think | If you're like many Americans, you're going to gain some weight over the holidays. But you may not gain as much as you think. "People tend to gain maybe three-quarters of a pound to a pound over the holiday period," says Roger Cone, chairman of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He says our brains keep a tight rein on our weight. "It's just like the thermostat in your house," Cone says. If your weight goes up past the set point on the thermostat, your brain tries to slow down your food intake and tells you to start burning calories so you'll lose weight. It's not a perfect system, and that's why we might put on an extra pound or so at the holiday. But taking off a sudden smallish increase in weight isn't all that difficult, especially when your brain is telling you it's the right thing to do. Long-Term Vs. Short-Term Weight Gains Cone says the problem with obesity in this country isn't caused by overeating at the holidays. "People have overeaten at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's Eve prior to the obesity epidemic," he says. The problem is the pound or so we put on each year. That kind of slow weight gain has the effect of turning up the thermostat in the brain. As a consequence, if you do then lose weight, "that sends an emergency signal to the brain," Cone says. "The brain thinks you're starving." So your brain fights to keep you at your new, higher weight. "A whole bunch of circuits get activated in the brain to increase your hunger, decrease your satiety, increase food-seeking behavior, even decrease your metabolic rate to get you back up to your previous fat level," Cone says. It's a behavior that's almost impossible to control. "It's like asking someone to quit breathing," he says. "You can ignore the hunger signals, but the metabolic changes are completely subconscious, and there's nothing you can do about them." Bottom line: Taking off weight gained over a period of years is tough, but the occasional holiday overindulgence just isn't that big of a deal. "You certainly don't gain appreciable weight after one or two meals," says Edward Saltzman, a scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. |
Building The Curious Faces Of 'Benjamin Button' | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a film based loosely on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, stars Brad Pitt as a person who is born old and ages backward. The movie has generated rave reviews and earned 13 Oscar nominations — more than any other film this year — including a nod for special effects and another for best actor. In the case of Benjamin Button, acting and special effects seem to be related: Pitt couldn't have done the film without the movie's breakthrough technology, and the effects wouldn't be the same without Pitt. To make Benjamin Button, special effects experts needed to put the head of an aged-looking Pitt on a child's body for the first third of the movie. The results look just like Pitt — only it isn't. "There's 325 shots — 52 minutes of the film — where there is no actual footage of Brad," says Steve Preeg, a character supervisor at Digital Domain, the studio that did all the special effects for the film. "He's not in any of the shots." What the audience is actually seeing in the first third of the movie is a computer-generated copy of Pitt's head, which the studio aged digitally. If it acts like Pitt on the screen, that's because Pitt was filmed performing all of the scenes from the first third of the movie — and the special effects gurus then mimicked his movements on the digital head. But even if it's not Pitt's actual head we're seeing, Digital Domain's executive producer of visual effects, Ed Ulbrich, says the performance is still his. Take the scene where the still-old Benjamin visits a faith healer in a church and gets out of his wheelchair and walks. Ulbrich says Pitt made choices as an actor that no animator would have thought of doing. "He ends up getting this kind of crazy kind of Popeye look on his face, and he's just thrilled," says Ulbrich. "I don't think that it's something that any of us would have thought of had Brad not done that." Crossing The 'Uncanny Valley' The challenge in creating Benjamin Button was to cross what Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori called the "uncanny valley" — the creepy nether-region that's home to robots and computer-generated characters who get really close to looking human, but don't go all the way. Digital Domain's Preeg says the uncanny valley explains why zombies wig people out: "Even though they are a lot closer to humans than a primitive robot, people react better to the primitive robot and would rather have that around than a zombie in the house." Hence, it's easier for Pixar to make a cuddly robot named Wall-E than it is for Digital Domain to make a believably human reproduction of Brad Pitt. Preeg says the studio knew they couldn't get anything wrong — not a dimple, not a wry smile, not a crease in the forehead — or they were in zombie land. "We had a hard time hiring people for this show, because everyone thought we were going to fail," says Preeg. "No one wanted to be associated with a project where we made Brad Pitt look creepy and a $150 million movie goes down the toilet because we made a zombie Brad." Making Hollywood Stars Obsolete? But now that Digital Domain has crossed to the other side of the uncanny valley, much more may be possible: "The genie is out of the bottle," says University of Southern California Graphics Lab associate director Paul Debevec. Debevec helped develop some of the technology that made Benjamin Button possible and, he says, he already knows of projects in the works that will move the technology forward. "It's just a matter of a couple more film projects coming through that really refine the technologies," he says. The movements of animated characters are already derived from those of non-actors; Betsy Paterson, an animation supervisor with Rhythm and Hues whose film credits include Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, says animators often use themselves as models. "When you walk into a room of animators, you will notice that they all have mirrors right next to their computers," says Paterson. "So that as they're working, they kind of make faces and kind of try to figure out what is that essential thing that really gives ... the feeling of the mood or attitude that [they] are trying to convey." Given the long history of demanding, egotistical movie stars, there's no reason to think that Hollywood won't take advantage of the new technology to cut the big names out of the picture. There's even been a movie about it. It's called Simone, and it stars Al Pacino as a director whose film is destroyed when a demanding actress walks off the set. In response, Pacino's character uses technology to forge a star from the ideas in his own imagination, announcing in one scene: "I have re-created the infinite nuances of a human being, a human soul." Well, not so fast: It may be harder than you think to re-create the sultry beauty of a Greta Garbo, the brooding presence of a Marlon Brando or even the winning smile of a Brad Pitt. UCLA acting professor Judith Moreland says real actors have an ineff |
Shooting At Little Rock Nightclub Injures 28 | Updated at 4:20 p.m. ET A shooting in a Little Rock, Ark., nightclub has left at least 28 people injured, according to local police, who said they did not believe it was a terrorist-related attack. Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner told KTHV that the shooting, which occurred around 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the Power Ultra Lounge, appears to have been the result of a "dispute [that] broke out between people inside." Three people were injured in the ensuing aftermath, police told The Associated Press, and 25 people in total were shot. Police say that one person who was hospitalized and initially listed in critical condition has been upgraded to stable. Other victims were injured trying to escape the club, police said. Michael Hibblen, news director at member station KUAR in Little Rock, reports from the scene that the club, located on the second floor of a building, has several broken windows following the attack. "Apparently when the shooting occurred, people started jumping out windows to escape, landing on awnings below," Hibblen says. "So, it would seem that at least some of the injuries were related to the broken glass and the falls." The Associated Press reports that the shooting occurred as a packed house had gathered for Memphis, Tenn., performer Finese 2Tymes "about a half-minute into a break in the raucous concert." Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said his "heart is broken" over the shooting, writing on his Facebook page "We are committed to doing everything possible to bring safety to our city." At a news conference later, a visibly shaken Stodola reiterated the remark, adding that "we must do more to keep guns out of the hands of certain people." He said that the incident "turned violent because of the presence of rivalries and weapons." Stodola also decried a poster promoting the concert that featured a high-powered weapon. Police Chief Buckner said the victims ranged in age from 16 to 35 years of age. He said all of the victims are African American. Two are in critical condition, but the others have non-life-threatening injuries. He tied the shooting to "a continuation of disputes" that had resulted in several drive-by shootings in the city in recent weeks. "We certainly think that there's a possibility of a connection with the recent shootings," he said. Buckner said there were off-duty police officers "working the parking lot of the club," but that they had left at about 2 a.m., a half-hour before the shooting took place. However, Buckner said that those officers had intercepted at least one individual who tried to get into the club with a firearm. He said that the armed club-goer had apparently latter gotten in through another entrance. KUAR also reports that "the club's Facebook page promoted the musical performance of Finese 2Tymes last night. It's unclear whether the shooting was provoked by the band, and fans of Finese 2Tymes are defending the group on its Facebook page." The AP says that the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspended the club's license hours after the shooting, noting that the Power Ultra Club "has previously had its license suspended 11 times for failing to pay taxes and has been cited seven times for 14 various violations including unknowingly furnishing alcohol to minors and allowing alcohol to leave the premises since 2012, ABC Director of Enforcement Boyce Hamlet said." Mayor Stodola later added: "We will be shutting this venue down. Absolutely." This is a breaking news story. As often happens in situations like these, some information reported earlier may turn out to be inaccurate. We'll move quickly to correct the record, and we'll only point to the best information we have at the time. |
China's Wandering Elephants Are On The Move Again. Are They Headed Home? | BEIJING (AP) — China's famed wandering elephants are on the move again, heading southwest while a male who broke from the herd is still keeping his distance. The group left a wildlife reserve in the southwest of Yunnan province more than a year ago and has trekked 500 kilometers (300 miles) north to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming. As of Saturday, they were spotted in Shijie township in the city of Yuxi, more than 8 kilometers (5 miles) southwest of the Kunming suburb they had arrived at last week, according to state media reports. The lone male was 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, still on the outskirts of Kunming. The direction of their travel could be a good sign, since authorities are hoping to lead them back to their original home in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture southwest of Kunming. Authorities have been attempting to keep a distance between them and local residents, while blocking roads into villages and seeking to lure them away with food drops. Despite that, the herd of 15 have raided farms, strolled down urban streets and foraged for snacks in villages and even a retirement home. All of the animals are reported to be healthy and no person has been injured in encounters with them. Officials have issued strict orders not to gawk at them or seek to drive them off using firecrackers or other means. China's roughly 300 wild elephants enjoyed the highest level of protected status, on a par with the country's unofficial mascot, the panda bear. Officials are taking extra steps to protect the elephants — and local residents However, extra precautions are being taken amid steady rainfall in the area and crowds of onlookers expected around the Dragon Boat festival on Monday. Additional emergency workers, vehicles and drones have been deployed to monitor the elephants' movements and protect local residents, the reports said. Some 2.5 tons of food were laid out for the animals on Friday. It remains unclear why the elephants embarked on their trek, although Evan Sun, wildlife campaign manager with World Animal Protection, said possible reasons could include lack of food supply, a rise in the elephant population and, most importantly, loss of habitat. "The increase of human-elephant conflicts reflects the urgency for a more strategic policy and plan to protect these endangered wild animals and their natural habitats," Sun wrote in an email. "This also poses a great opportunity to educate the public about the challenges that wild animals face for survival and the need for better protection from a government, industry and society level," Sun wrote. "These animals belong in the wild. We need to keep a safe distance from them, which is good for us and the wild animals." |
'A Gay Girl' Who Was Not What She Seemed | Imagine discovering a blog written by an attractive, vivacious woman who lives in a city torn by civil war. Imagine corresponding with that woman, falling in love with her, and receiving erotic messages and nude photos from her. Then imagine hearing that this online lover has been kidnapped, probably by her repressive country's secret police. "Imagine" is, in fact, the key word when discussing A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile. Because Amina Arraf — out lesbian, enemy of the Assad regime, a Syrian-American whose English skills reflected a childhood spent partly in the U.S. — never existed. The blog, begun in 2011, operated for just 112 days. As Catfish viewers and chat-room burn victims know, ascertaining a virtual correspondent's true identity is a tricky matter. The case of Amina was further complicated by her claim to live in a Arab-world dictatorship where electronic communication was circumscribed, and both political and sexual nonconformity were hazardous. For most Westerners, sympathizing with her was only natural. Sandra Bagaria, a Frenchwoman living in Montreal, went further. She corresponded with Amina regularly — daily when possible — and flirted with her often. There are even hints of jealousy in the online text messages Bagaria sent to her phantom girlfriend and that scroll across the screen in Canadian director Sophie Deraspe's documentary. Bagaria may have had the most intimate relationship with Amina, but the fictional Syrian also seduced Western journalists. Her blog was taken as factual by many mainstream outlets, notably The Guardian. It was only when Amina was supposedly arrested, and her international supporters turned to the U.S. State Department for help, that the blogger's existence vaporized. Even those who followed Amina's rise and fall in the ultimately chastened media will find Gay Girl a nifty piece of detective work. It's also an intriguing journey along the strands of the web made possible by the Internet: The trail leads to a Syrian anti-Assad organizer in Lebanon, a liberal Israeli activist in Tel Aviv, a purple-haired lesbian blogger in San Francisco and the offices of the Electronic Intifada in Chicago and NPR in Washington, where Andy Carvin, then the organization's media strategist, was an Amina doubter. (NPR's reporting when the ruse was discovered is here, but it will, of course, spoil some of the reveals of the documentary.) It's probably best not to reveal much else about the story, which carries Deraspe and Bagaria far from Damascus. Ultimately, Bagaria confronts the person who created Amina, in a sequence that disappoints. Emotionally, it must have been important for the woman who thought she was Amina's girlfriend to question the person who invented the sexy Syrian. Journalistically, however, the movie would be stronger if the interrogation had been conducted by someone more confrontational and less emotionally involved. The author of the Amina fraud should squirm a little more. Deraspe hired Turkish actress Nilay Olcay to play the role of an Amina-like woman on a streets of Damascus-like city. She mostly moves ethereally to Sam Shalabi's Arabic-trance score, but is also shown in a few sultry nude vignettes. These are likely meant to visualize Amina's appeal to Bagaria. But they can also be seen as, awkwardly, continuing the sexual fantasies of the blog's creator. Even the makers of A Gay Girl in Damascus, it seems, can't quite let go of Amina's vivid, if imaginary, erotic allure. |
Taiwanese Investment In China | NPR's Mary Kay Magistad reports on the ambivalent relationship between Taiwanese businessmen and China. China is the world's biggest market but also an undependable one, subject to the whims of the country's politics. |
Researchers Fear A 2nd Wave Of COVID-19 In China | Coronavirus cases are still showing up in China — new cases are being introduced by infected people traveling to the country. Chinese officials have not ended all lockdowns and restrictions. |
Ortega Ready to Return as Nicaragua's Leader | Nicaraguans go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president. Left-wing Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega holds a strong lead in polls. Corruption scandals and a failure to attack deep poverty have undermined 16 years of U.S.-backed conservative governments in Managua. |
Robert Plant's 'Bones Of Saints' Lights A Fire In The Sky | Robert Plant has no wasted no time in his 60s, releasing Raising Sand, Band Of Joy and lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar all in the span of a decade. Carry Fire will be out next month, and has already proven to be a fruitful mix of blues-licked rock 'n' roll and rhythms churned from all over the world, heard in "The May Queen." If that first single was the folkloric album opener, then "Bones Of Saints" is the "fire in the sky," to quote Plant's lyrics. His band, The Sensational Space Shifters, has really locked into Plant's resolute howl, understanding that his sense of time and space is quite elastic, but a thunderbolt when the song demands it. Carry Fire comes out Oct. 13 via Nonesuch/Warner Bros. Records. |
How Great a Threat Were the Lackawanna Six? | Five years after the arrest of six young men from Lackawanna, N.Y., questions remain about whether the so-called "homegrown terrorists" are as dangerous as authorities initially suggested. The Jihad Next Door, a book by NPR's Dina Temple-Raston, explores the subject. Temple-Raston discusses the case against the Lackawanna Six with Steve Inskeep. Prologue: Mukhtar's Big Wedding, September 2002 Life changed for Mukhtar al-Bakri and five of his friends on an otherwise beautiful crisp September day. He could remember the precise moment when he stepped into the gloom: It started with his hotel room door crashing open. September 9, 2002, was supposed to be the most important day of twenty-one-year-old Mukhtar al-Bakri's short life. His wedding to the teenage daughter of a family friend in Bahrain had been an elaborate affair, something beyond what the al-Bakri family could really afford. His arrival at the wedding hall was greeted by the beating of drums and a cacophony of traditional instruments. The sisters of his bride playfully welcomed each guest with a gentle tap, a sort of blessing, from a stick wrapped in flowers. Attendants donned flowing white gowns and long Arabian headscarves. The bride wore a modest white veil. Waiters lurched under the weight of plates piled high with food. There were dutiful prayers to Allah. It was everything Mukhtar al-Bakri had envisioned. The proceedings were dignified yet oddly fun. It marked a fresh start for him: a new, better phase of his life. Mukhtar's friends had been surprised, even perplexed, at how seriously he was taking his newfound responsibility. The wedding kindled extraordinary emotions and hopes within him. Frankly, it wasn't like Mukhtar; he was generally carefree and hardly one to suddenly reorder his life. That might explain why they were alarmed when Mukhtar called one of them before the wedding to say goodbye. "You won't be hearing from me again," Mukhtar said over the crackling of a long-distance connection. Why he sounded so fatalistic just before what should have been a joyous occasion is unclear. Maybe, like many people his age, he was being overly dramatic, as one phase of his life closed and another began. He said later he just meant it as a joke, that he was going to drop out of sight for a while and try his hand at being a dutiful husband instead of a hard partying twenty-something. To his friends, the message sounded ominous. When they started calling each other recounting Mukhtar's message, an entirely different audience was also listening. To the ears of the FBI investigators tracking the call, the talk of a big wedding indicated not a blow-out party in Bahrain but something else entirely. What they thought they heard, all too clearly, was the signature farewell of a suicide bomber — the dialogue of a young man about to meet his maker. As the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks drew closer, America was on high alert. It appeared her enemies — Islamic fundamentalists bent on destruction — were gearing up for something. Mukhtar's phone call fit neatly into a perceived pattern of events. The FBI had worked up a list of potential targets in the days leading up to the anniversary. Attacks on military bases in the Middle East were at the top of the list, and Mukhtar's phone call seemed like a break, a clue amid an ocean of information pouring into the American intelligence community. The military went on Delta Alert — its highest state of readiness — shortly after the intercept. The young man from Lackawanna who was determined to reorder his life had no idea what his talk about a "big wedding" had set in motion. * * * Mukhtar al-Bakri was settled under the sheets for the first time with his teenage bride just before police burst into his hotel room. He had no idea that only hours earlier his name was on the lips of officials at the highest levels of the U.S. government. The FBI and CIA had been briefing President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney regularly about al-Bakri and his friends. Bush and Cheney then gave the order that would make Mukhtar's big day memorable for all the wrong reasons. Bahrani police officers swarmed around al-Bakri's wedding bed with their guns drawn, sights trained in his direction. They hustled him from his hotel bed, and snapped on handcuffs. He recalled the sound of his teenage bride in tears as the police bundled him down the corridor, lamenting that he never had the chance to consummate his marriage. He knew that there must be some mistake. It never occurred to him that the Bahrain commandos who arrested him had burst into the room expecting to find guns and explosives, perhaps even a suicide vest instead of a terrified young man. A short time later, and nearly halfway around the world, other arrests followed al-Bakri's. Unmarked sedans and police cars came to quick stops in front of houses and malls and delis. One by one, police and FBI agents rounded up al-Bakri's friends and pushed them into the |
The Marketplace Report: U.S. Growth Slowdown | NPR's Alex Chadwick speaks with <EM>Marketplace</EM> correspondent Tess Vigeland about the slowdown in the rate of U.S. economic growth in the final quarter of last year. |
Kerry Promises Lower Medicare Costs | In Wisconsin, Democrat Sen. John Kerry promises retirees that he would do more than President Bush to protect them from escalating Medicare costs. In a report leaked to USA Today, the federal government now estimates that seniors will spend more than one-third of their Social Security checks on Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket expenses in 2006. Kerry and congressional Democrats charge that the administration deliberately tried to withhold the information. The Bush campaign retorted that Kerry has voted repeatedly to raise taxes on seniors. NPR's Scott Horsley reports. |
'Morning Edition' Returns: Tubby Cities | Detroit bumps Houston on the <EM>Men's Fitness</EM> annual list of cities with the most fat people. |
With High Waters Looming, North Dakota Governor Orders Pipeline Protesters Out Of Camp | North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (@DougBurgum), a Republican, has ordered people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline to leave the camp where they’ve been living for months. The governor says the camp presents an environmental risk and is in danger because of warming temperatures and the threat of spring flooding. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with the governor. |
University Of Illinois Ends 'War Chant' At Sporting Events | When Illinois opens its college football season Saturday the marching band will no longer play what’s called the “war chant.” It’s a drum-based piece of music that critics said was demeaning to Native Americans. The move follows the university’s decision a few years ago to retire a traditional figure called Chief Illiniwek, who would dress in a buckskin costume and perform at football and basketball games. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson takes a closer look at the change with WILL’s Brian Moline (@BMolineWILL). |
Where Is Last Week's Podcast, You Ask? | It's here. The debate over race and Joe Wilson and the Baucus health care proposal and the latest with the vacant Massachusetts Senate seat ... it's here. Some fans wrote in, fearing we didn't record our weekly episode of our "Its All Politics" podcast last Thursday. We most certainly did. There was just some problem with the coding. But here it is. Credits (as it were) --Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken RudinProducer: Katia DunnEditor: Cathy Shaw Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes. Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here. Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at [email protected]. Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin. Wanna solve the most current ScuttleButton puzzle? You have until tomorrow, when the answer (and the winner) is announced. |
'Karen Memory' Builds Up A Good Head Of Steam | Steampunk, like any other kind of science fiction, can get top-heavy. Elizabeth Bear may or may not have had this in mind when writing Karen Memory, her new standalone steampunk novel, but she addresses it anyway. While a certain percentage of the genre dwells too much on anachronistic technology and tropes, sometimes at the cost of a winning story, Karen Memory — set in an imaginary city of the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s — deploys its steam-driven marvels sparingly and with pinpoint precision. At first, it's barely a steampunk novel at all. The book's titular hero is a young prostitute who lives in a peaceful, prosperous brothel run by the coarse yet kind Madame Damnable, and the technical wonders she encounters are restricted to a small scale: An electrocuting glove wielded by a devious pimp and rival of Damnable's, or a steam-powered, surgical "knife machine" installed in the brothel itself. Instead, Bear relies on a more solid foundation to capture the reader — the strong, sympathetic, charismatic voice of Karen, the narrator. Karen's an orphan, but hard luck hasn't robbed her of spark. Her narrative is sharp, sly, and full of heart, and her rougher edges as the daughter of a frontier horseman haven't been filed down. Life at Madame Damnable's isn't a cakewalk, but she bears it with grace and an empowered sense of her place in society that dovetails nicely with the stirrings of first-wave feminism across the country. Still, Bear keeps the story's scale local and small — at least at first. The details of Karen's domestic life and romantic passions are painted vividly and evocatively, and it's a treat to simply spend time with her and her sisters-in-trade. But when Peter Bantle, Damnable's bullying rival, runs for mayor, the balance of power in town is thrown into doubt — and the tiny elements of steampunk that have been accumulating in the background begin to take a central role, up to and including a mind-control device and breathtaking airships. By story's end a plot of geopolitical proportions has been unearthed, one that Karen and her fellow prostitutes find themselves embroiled in — even as the focus remains squarely on Karen's growing sense of her own identity, and a destiny that's far more ambitious than her lot in life will allow. The plot isn't complicated, nor does it need to be. Bear is paying homage to the dime novels of the era, forerunners of pulp fiction packed with larger-than-life heroes, scheming villains, and gritty action. But she's subtly subverting this tradition, just as much as she's giving steampunk a gentle, loving twist. An African-American marshal and a transgender prostitute are just two members of the book's diverse cast, and it's clear that Bear is making a point about the way history, like literary subgenres, can steamroll over anyone who falls outside the norm. She makes that point engagingly and effortlessly. Karen Memory breezes by at a leisurely pace, a bracing yet charming adventure yarn that never feels forced, despite the brassy confidence of its delivery. Jason Heller is a senior writer at The A.V. Club and author of the novel Taft 2012. |
Lose Yourself In The Wild Forests Of 'Those Who Wish Me Dead' | Jace Wilson is a 13-year-old boy who plans to do what many boneheaded 13-year-olds do: something dumb on a dare, to once and for all dispense with the idea that he might be a coward. But while psyching himself up to go through with the dare, he witnesses a murder — and before we know it, we're off. Michael Koryta's new novel, Those Who Wish Me Dead, sucks you in from the first page and doesn't let you go. It's clear that Jace must disappear until the murderers are found. So, how do you make a teenager disappear for a while? His parents come up with an ingenious solution: a bodyguard (rather than untrustworthy law enforcement) takes him to a wilderness survival program in the forests of Montana, designed for troubled teens. If you're looking for formulaic thrills and spills, then this is not your book. But if you want an elegantly written, taut thriller with an amazing sense of place, then look no further. As with his previous books, Koryta achieves that sense of place because he takes his research seriously. "I made several backpacking trips into the same Montana and Wyoming mountains featured in the book and attended a wilderness survival school," he told me in an email conversation. "I know I couldn't have written the same book without having a tangible sense of that world. The more immersion I have, the more potential it brings to the book." A genre snob might call Those Who Wish Me Dead a "literary thriller." I think that's just a snobbish way of saying it's a well-written book — which it is, but it's also a cracking page-turner and a truly immersive experience. In addition to Jace, there is Ethan, a committed instructor who wills the boys in his charge to feel their environment and develop the instinct to survive it. And Hannah, a lonely firefighter, battling her own demons as she tries to help Jace outwit his pursuers. The dense and intimidating Montana forests provide a breathtaking backdrop for the action — and it's fire season, which ratchets up the tension. As desolate and remote as the wilderness seems, the terror of the chase is never far away, and the villains here are so evil they'll make you quake. The story will take you down paths you didn't see coming, you'll be shocked as truths are revealed — and of course you'll feel the heat of fast-approaching fires and the sense of doom in the face of nature's wrath. Koryta's writing has a cinematic feel, and in fact the movie rights for this book have already been acquired by 20th Century Fox. Several of his other novels are also in development for the screen. I actually met Koryta in person before I ever encountered his novels. We were at a book festival dinner a couple of years ago, and I was taken by the polite, unassuming manner of this gentleman, who graciously indulged the foodies at the table as we over-ordered to the nth degree at a hot Miami restaurant. I remember thinking, "I don't know anything about his writing. I must look him up." What I found was a thriller writer who can both write and thrill. To say that Koryta is prolific is an understatement. Did I mention that this is his 10th book in about as many years? And he doesn't tend to revisit the same well; most recently he's written The Ridge, a supernatural thriller about a big cat sanctuary, and a Friday Night Lights-meets-murder mystery in The Prophet. "My clock is finite," Koryta says, "which means that the number of stories I can tell is finite." He adds that he always knew he wanted to write, and so he got on with it: "I wasn't willing to say, 'one of these days I want to write a novel.' I started writing novels." His work — as both a journalist and a private eye — has helped him create worlds that are authentic and raw. Koryta, I might add, is only 31 years old. I mention this not to be ageist — but to delight in the fact that he's got a lot of time to keep on telling us stories. That, dear readers, is great news for us. |
How A Detroit Flop Became South Africa's Superstar | Searching for Sugar Man tells the story of the search for musician Sixto Rodriguez. The Detroit-based folk singer released a couple of albums in the early seventies, but those records flopped in the United States. Unbeknownst to Rodriquez, his albums made their way to South Africa and electrified liberal young Afrikaners who came to consider him a superstar. "He was like the voice of freedom in a time in South Africa where ... people didn't have freedom. It was this censored, horrible apartheid regime," director Malik Bendjelloul tells NPR's Neal Conan. "He actually ... without even knowing what he was aiming, changed a society." Bendjelloul explains how his music made its way to South Africa and the search for Rodriguez decades later. NEAL CONAN, HOST: Every year, in the run up to the Oscars, we talk with the people behind the films nominated for best documentary feature, and we begin this year with "Searching for Sugar Man" which tells the story of Sixto Rodriguez, a folk rocker from Detroit who released a couple of albums back in the early '70s (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "ESTABLISHMENT BLUES") CONAN: Rodriguez's records flopped here in the United States but unbeknownst to him, his albums made their way to South Africa and electrified liberal young Afrikaners who came to consider Rodriguez as a superstar and a man of mystery. STEVEN SEDERMAN: The thing was, we didn't know who this guy was. All our other rock stars, we have all the information we needed. But this guy? There was nothing. Then we found out that he had committed suicide. He set himself alight on stage and burned to death in front of the audience. It was the most incredible thing. It wasn't just a suicide, it was probably the most grotesque suicide in rock history. CONAN: What started as a search for the truth about Rodriguez's death, ended unexpectedly. The man was alive and well, and working construction jobs in Detroit. Joining us now from NPR West is the director, producer and editor of the film, Malik Bendjelloul. And congratulations on the nomination. Nice of you to be with us today. MALIK BENDJELLOUL: Thank you, sir. Thank you. Nice to be here. CONAN: And I have to say, the rumor about his death reminds us of the time long before Google when all anybody knew what was - was what was on the album cover and what was on the record label. BENDJELLOUL: That's right. That's right. I mean, it couldn't happen now, what happened to Rodriguez. It's going to be once in a lifetime thing, I guess. CONAN: And the story - your story begins with his celebrity in South Africa and why that - well, we've just heard a little bit of - (unintelligible) Bob Dylan, why he became such a revered figure among liberal, white Afrikaners. BENDJELLOUL: Yeah. I mean, he was like the voice of freedom in a time in South Africa where freedom was - people didn't have freedom. It was this censored, horrible apartheid regime. This was literally a Nazi country all the way up to the mid-'90s, which is a disgrace for this world. And this, you know, white college kids, liberals who thought that their country was most crazy place in the world, but they didn't have anyone inspiring them to say that you can do something yourselves. And Rodriguez was the first one who is singing songs and all have... CONAN: All of the Afrikaner rockers who came after, said this was the guy who inspired us. BENDJELLOUL: That's right. That's right. He actually - removed control without even knowing what he was aiming, changed a society. CONAN: It's remarkable. Your interviewee said every home in Johannesburg or Cape Town would have three records. They would have "Abbey Road" by The Beatles, they would have "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel, and they would have "Cold Fact" by Rodriguez. BENDJELLOUL: Yeah. And I didn't believe this because this was fans who told me these stories. I went out in the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town and asked random people, have you ever heard about this guy Rodriguez, and they were like, what do you mean? You haven't heard of his album "Cold Fact?" You're asking me about - this is like asking me if I know The Beatles. Of course, I know, Rodriguez. That is who he is in South Africa, today still. CONAN: And all of this, completely unbeknownst to him. He was hit quite a music business and was working construction all those years. BENDJELLOUL: Yes. Yes. That happened. His albums failed completely in America. He made another attempt, same result. He understood, I don't have any talent. I need to find something else to do with my life. And he started to work in construction, like really hard, manual labor. He was living in a house he bought for $50 in 1970. And that was his situation for 25 years. CONAN: And not - you said he realized - well, clearly, he did have talent. It just, you know, like a lot of people, for one reason or another, his albums didn't take off. BENDJELLOUL: That's right. I mean, the producers who made his albums, they were, at the same tim |
Record-Breaking Heat Wave Hits The Southwest | Meteorologist Iris Hermosillo describes the extreme heat residents of Phoenix are experiencing. |
Highest Paying Jobs In The U.S. | The highest paying jobs in the U.S., and some of the most e-mailed, viewed and commented on stories on the Web. On our blog, links to these stories. ALISON STEWART, host: I am reminded of something. Nirvana equals good. IAN CHILLAG: Yeah. MATT MARTINEZ: Mm. STEWART: Wouldn't you agree? CHILLAG: It doesn't change. STEWART: You know what else equals good? CHILLAG: It does not lose its power. STEWART: Letting you choose the news. Let the people's voice be heard on these airwaves and digital thingies that happen that let us be online. CHILLAG: A technical term. STEWART: Thank you. This is The Most. (Soundbite of music) STEWART: All right, we're looking at the most-emailed, most-read, most-everything stories from the interwebs. Is Mark in there? You have got - no, no. He's got mood lighting. MARK GARRISON: No, well, I mood light because I don't - yeah... STEWART: I can barely see you in that news booth. GARRISON: But things are so strange in there! (Soundbite of laughter) GARRISON: I have my own place here. Don't breath on me. STEWART: Now, are you waving me off of doing you first, or did I say it wrong? GARRISON: No, no, I'm waving you in. STEWART: Are you waving me off having you do your Most first? (Soundbite of laughter) GARRISON: No, ma'am. I have things, I have written them down. They exist. STEWART: All right, go for it. GARRISON: I've got a most-emailed at Seattle Times. This is about about swinging seniors. They are the fastest group of online-dating users, fastest growing group of cohabiters, actually, too, because there are a lot of demographic cultural factors. You know, if you get longer life expectancy, there's more time to date. Specifically men are living longer because of better treatment for drugs - treatment of drugs for cancers that affect men. Obviously, Viagra means they can be of greater service to women they know longer. (Soundbite of laughter) GARRISON: And what's interesting is that they would rather basically shack up... STEWART: Greater service! GARRISON: Than get remarry, and so - because remarriage rates are flat because, you know, basically, remarrying, kind of complicated, pension, healthcare, inheritance, all that stuff like that. So, I think this is all great for senior happiness and for the world of engaging online, something that's important to us. Just, if you're listening and you have a senior that you love and you're encouraging them to get out there, just warn them to tread carefully if they wind up in Craigslist's Casual Encounters... (Soundbite of laughter) GARRISON: Because that might be taking the engagement a little too far, is what i'm worried about that. STEWART: Greater service? GARRISON: Yeah. CHILLAG: Service? STEWART: Viagra helps you fix door hinges? (Soundbite of laughter) CHILLAG: Yeah, that's what he meant. LAURA SILVER: Door hinges? STEWART: That's where the fun starts. (Soundbite of laughter) SILVER: It's a most (unintelligible)... CHILLAG: That's the image I'm keeping in my head. STEWART: Exactly. GARRISON: Oh, boy. MARTINEZ: Exactly. STEWART: Mine is a Yahoo! buzz. It's a breakout, and I thought it might be interesting to people in this room. It is the highest paying jobs in the United States, as we all move forward. (Soundbite of laughter) GARRISON: Do tell, Alison Stewart. (Soundbite of laughter) STEWART: It's interesting, because they took out all the - they say this is from the U.S. Department of Labor's official list. Now, out of the top 20, about, I believe, 10 of them were medical jobs. There was a pediatrician, a family doctor. So, they kind of put them all in one group so - to make room for the others. But you could be a computer information-systems manager, the IT guys? MARTINEZ: Yeah? STEWART: They get it on, 100,000 dollars a year. CHILLAG: Wow. STEWART: Very surprised... GARRISON: That's nice. STEWART: Air-traffic controller, a little high stress, as you can imagine. They say you need nine years of training time to get to six figures, but it's possible. They've got on here, lawyer, if you want to do that. Airline pilot, another high-stress job, but you can pull down 135,000 dollars a year on average. CHILLAG: Oh, that's nice. STEWART: An engineering manager, and a natural sciences manager... GARRISON: Slow down, slow down. I'm writing these down! You're going too fast! (Soundbite of laughter) STEWART: Marketing manager. You know what I noticed on here? Five of these people are managers. CHILLAG: Yeah. STEWART: "Manager," the magic word, apparently. CHILLAG: And actually, I also noticed a lot of those require skills... (Soundbite of laughter) CHILLAG: Which I don't have. If there's anything in there, sitting and talking about stuff, because how's that pay? Pretty good? MARTINEZ: Yeah. STEWART: I don't have any skill and I got paid for it for a little while there. (Soundbite of laughter) CHILLAG: For a little while... MARTINEZ: Yeah. STEWART: Laura Silver. SILVER: OK, well |
Review: Bob Dylan's 'Love and Theft' | Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews <em>Love and Theft</em> (Columbia) the new release by Bob Dylan. |
Going 'Green' For Halloween? | Many little trick or treaters are preparing for Halloween, and some parents are teaching their kids how to help the planet in the process. Regular parenting contributor Jolene Ivey is joined by Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson, co-authors of <em>Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family</em>, to discuss how to go "green" this Halloween. |
Monopoly Fans Dump Iron Token For New Cat Piece | The board game Monopoly will no longer include the iron token. After a month of voting, fans have chosen a cat as its replacement. Players will start seeing the new feline visitor on their Monopoly boards by fall of this year. |
Remembering Alice Rivlin, Who Played Key Role In U.S.'s Economic Policy | Alice Rivlin, who played a key role in developing the nation’s economic policy, died of cancer on Tuesday at the age 88. She was former President Bill Clinton’s budget director — the first woman to serve in that role. NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben (@titonka) reports on Rivlin’s groundbreaking career. This article was originally published on WBUR.org. |
Field Notes from 91.7 WVXU | For kids who can't get enough science, Thane Maynard's Field Notes introduces listeners to Crystal Clear after-school programs. |
Jon Batiste Can't Keep His Fingers Off The Piano | Considering how busy Jon Batiste has been – what with being the bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, composing the award-winning soundtrack to the Disney/Pixar film Soul and releasing his own record – you might be astonished at just how chilled out he is in conversation. We recorded this interview over video chat, and he was seated at the piano in the studio where he's been taping The Late Show. At one point, Batiste absent-mindedly starts playing piano while he's answering a question, but you'll also hear him play very intentionally, including two live cuts recorded just for World Cafe. Stream the session in the audio player or enjoy an extended video performance, recorded live for WXPN's Free at Noon Concert. |
Anthony Weiner's Survival Will Take More Than An Apology | Rep. Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman who on Monday admitted that he lied when he denied sending lewd photos to and "sexting" with six women over the last three years, says he's not resigning. Maybe he can survive. But events are largely out of his hands now as they have been ever since the scandal broke over the Memorial Day weekend. Here are some reasons why he could get past this and some reasons why he might not. Let's start with the reasons he could hang on. First, though deeply wounded, Weiner has long ties with voters in his district, now serving in his seventh term. Read More It's a solidly Democratic district which includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn. Weiner won his 2012 re-election with 61 percent of the vote during a wave election in which Republicans won large. So he could have significant erosion in his support and theoretically still win an election. Also, we're talking New York here. New Yorkers are probably still less easily shocked than people in many other parts of the nation. So he's got that going for him. Second, while it's more typical for lawmakers to resign or be forced out after a sex scandal erupts, there are instances when lawmakers have survived scandals. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts had a scandal that was indisputably worse than Weiner's, at least based on what we know so far about the New York congressman's actions. Studds had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old congressional page that became public in 1983, an arguably less-tolerant time than now. But Studds toughed it out and survived, only leaving Congress in 1996 when he retired. Weiner apparently intends, at least as of now to endure the humiliation and try to lose himself in his job. Third, it's possible Weiner could get enough House Democrats to rally around him to survive. His fellow Democrats could decide that he has been contrite enough and has done the party enough service over the years, going after Republicans with hammer and tongs, that he deserves a second chance. Granted, that may be the trickiest part of his immediate hopes to survive since his fellow Democrats aren't exactly in the happiest mood right now, in the House minority as they are and hoping to work their way back into the majority. Which leads us directly to the first reason why he may not survive. House Democrats sense that the Republican majority may be vulnerable because of their controversial proposal to overhaul Medicare. Weiner could distract from Democratic efforts to keep Republicans on the defensive. For Weiner, the first hint of how quickly his hopes to remain in Congress may come apart, came from Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi who asked for a House Ethics Committee investigation. She is sending him a message. He is not bigger that the House Democratic Conference. Her statement: "I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents. "I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred." Weiner and his fellow Democrats will have to deal with non-stop video of his interviews in which he lied about not sending the photos and texts. Again, not good for Democrats trying to win the messaging war with Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans aren't going to sit still and allow Weiner to try and rehabilitate himself. As MSNBC's Chris Matthews said after Weiner's Monday afternoon news conference, Democrats are going to be on the "Weiner ticket" if he remains in the House. Republicans will make sure of that. Republicans will likely note how quickly the married Chris Lee, a New York Republican, quit his House seat after a photo of a shirtless Lee that he sent to a woman showed up on the Gawker web site. Secondly, there are more pictures of Weiner. Andrew Breitbart, the conservative web publisher, has said he possesses a downright sordid photo of Weiner that he hasn't released because he doesn't want to hurt Weiner's family. The congressman admits such a photo or photos could exist. Any such photo or photos in digital form won't long stay off the web. Once it winds up there for global consumption, it would likely be impossible for Weiner to remain in office. Third, it would be extraordinary if Weiner doesn't get a primary challenger. There's still a lot of time between now and the 2012 primary election. But New York has a lot of ambitious local politicians who can imagine themselves as a member of the state's congressional delegation. So, again, it would be surprising if Weiner didn't have to contend with a significant challenge. And that could end his career even if he's able to soldier on over the next year. |
What Does WHO's Heightened Swine Flu Alert Mean? | The World Health Organization is telling people to brace for the next flu pandemic. In a late-night news conference Wednesday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan raised the pandemic alert level to its second-highest level, Phase 5. The WHO says that's a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to get ready is short. As Chan spoke, Mexican government officials imposed a virtual shutdown of the country's economy for five days, beginning Friday, to stem the spread of the newly discovered flu, which evolved from a swine virus. President Felipe Calderon said nonessential work will stop in government offices and businesses, and he urged citizens to stay home. The official number of confirmed cases in Mexico was 99, with eight deaths. In the United States, there were 114 confirmed cases of swine flu as of Thursday afternoon, including Georgia's first case. There has been one death, involving a toddler from Mexico City who died at a Houston hospital Monday night. Other countries have reported 37 cases but no fatalities. Immediate Action Needed At the WHO, Chan told governments around the world that it's time to act. "All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans," she said. That means, among other things, they should be on high alert for cases of flu and severe pneumonia. The WHO also will begin to mobilize its stockpile of anti-flu drugs, which contains 5 million doses. Chan has appealed to the World Bank for emergency funds to blunt the impact of the swine flu. European Union health ministers have agreed to work "without delay" with drug companies to develop a pilot vaccine to fight swine flu. The ministers, who held emergency talks Thursday, also set up a special expert committee that will meet regularly to coordinate national measures, including travel advisories and communication campaigns to the public. The threatened pandemic was the first item of business at President Obama's prime-time news conference Wednesday night. He struck a measured tone. "The most important thing right now that health officials have indicated is that we treat this the same way we would treat other flu outbreaks, just understanding that because this is a new strain, we don't yet know how it will respond," the president said. "So we take some additional precautions — essentially take out additional insurance." Obama put aside the possibility of trying to seal the nation's border with Mexico. "It would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out," he said, "because we already have cases here in the United States." But Obama did prepare Americans for a fair amount of disruption in the days and weeks ahead, as new cases of swine flu emerge. "Our public health officials have recommended that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of this flu strongly consider temporarily closing," he said. "And if more schools are forced to close, we've recommended that both parents and businesses think about contingency plans if their children do have to stay home." Scientists Warn Of Potential Changes In Virus Confirmed and suspected cases of swine flu have shut down schools around the country — including the entire school district in Fort Worth, Texas. So far, at least 13 states have reported confirmed cases, and others are investigating illnesses that might be swine flu. Chan said the biggest question now is how severe the pandemic will be. Some scientists familiar with the evolving U.S. outbreak characterize swine flu in this country as a "moderately transmissable" virus similar in severity to ordinary seasonal flu. But Dr. Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Minnesota warns that the virus may not remain relatively tame. "You could very quickly see changes in this virus," Osterholm says. "Once the pig virus acquired the ability to transmit from person to person, all the other genetic roulette opportunities are there." The greatest fear is that it will mutate into a far more dangerous virus. It also could acquire a gene that makes it resistant to anti-viral drugs, something that recently happened in a close cousin that causes ordinary flu. Osterholm says the most important impact of the WHO's heightened alert involves "what we will do about a vaccine." Bruce Gellin, deputy assistant secretary of health and human services, says the plan is to try to get the first doses of a tailored new swine flu vaccine onto delivery trucks in September. Over the following few months, the aim would be to get enough for all 304 million Americans. Otherwise, U.S. health officials say the new WHO alert level does not materially change what they were already doing. "We're already trying to stay one step ahead of the virus," says Dr. Dan Jernigan, deputy director of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. On Thursday, the CDC planned to ship out 500 hastily prepared test kits to state health departments, the first of ma |
'Wanderlust': A Zany Blast From The Communal Past | In sophisticated comedy, what's funny is the tension between proper manners and the nasty or sexy subtext. Whereas in low comedy, there are no manners, and the nasty or sexy subtext is right there on the surface. And then there's Wanderlust, in which the subtext is blasted through megaphones — the characters say so insanely much you want to scream. The satire is as broad as a battleship and equally bombarding. But it takes guts to do a comedy this big without gross-out slapstick, and the writers and the actors are all in. Amid the zanies, Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston have more or less the straight roles, but they're so innocent they're borderline crazy. They play George and Linda — he's in finance, she's an aspiring documentary filmmaker — who sink their money into an itty-bitty Manhattan apartment and go bust. As they're en route to Atlanta to move in with George's crassly materialistic older brother and his suffering wife, their GPS sends them to the Elysium Bed and Breakfast — a hippie-dippy farming collective out of a time capsule. We're talking long-haired women in tie-dyed skirts, atop white horses beside tepees. They smoke a lot of dope and rap — not hip-hop rapping but, "Let's form a truth circle and, you know, rap" rapping. You say it sounds like a bunch of stereotypes — and 40-year-old stereotypes? The defense concedes the point. It's not fresh terrain. But this tribe of hippies is also a tribe of marvelously inventive comic actors doing a fair amount of inspired improvisation and grooving on the mindset. Alan Alda plays the commune's last remaining founder, who rolls around in a wheelchair fulminating against capitalism and, in one drawn-out scene with Rudd and Aniston, explaining Elysium's policy in favor of free love. Holding jokes a beat too long — two beats, three — that's a big technique of director David Wain, who co-wrote Wanderlust with Ken Marino, and it works because you get to watch Rudd writhe. Rudd is not the subtlest straight man in movies, but he might be the best. His deadpan is never dead — the body is twitching too madly, working to project easygoingness while his insides clench. And if Aniston remains a sitcom actress who overworks her mushy smile, that mushiness works beautifully for the impressionable, overeager Linda. George and Linda flee back to Elysium after a nightmarish stay with George's brother, whereupon they learn how the place really works. Malin Ackerman plays the willowy blond Eva, who unceremoniously offers herself to George, who's still smarting after someone drives his car into the lake. More eager than Eva is Seth, the hairy hippie he-man played by Justin Theroux, who is mentally undressing Linda from the moment he lays eyes on her. Theroux was barnstorming as a psychotic wizard in last year's maligned Your Highness, and he's just as inventive as Seth, homing in on the character's self-righteous cool and making beautiful music with the other actors, among them Kerri Kenney-Silver as a trippy nonstop talker and rubber-faced Kathryn Hahn as a woman whose feelers are way oversensitive to bad vibes. Wanderlust has a bum last 10 minutes, a lame coda and inadvisable outtakes over the closing credits. The misses are, frankly, big — but not nearly so big that they bust your groove. The movie renews your faith in communal comedy. DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: In the new comedy "Wanderlust," an unemployed Manhattan couple - played by Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston - stumble onto a hippie farming commune where they meet characters straight out of the '60s, played by Justin Theroux and Alan Alda. One of the movie's co-producers is Judd Apatow. Film critic David Edelstein has this review. DAVID EDELSTEIN, BYLINE: In sophisticated comedy, what's funny is the tension between proper manners and the nasty or sexy subtext. Whereas in low comedy, there are no manners, and the nasty or sexy subtext is right there on the surface. And then there's "Wanderlust," in which the subtext is blasted through megaphones - the characters say so insanely much you want to scream. The satire is as broad as a battleship and equally bombarding. But it takes guts to do a comedy this big without gross-out slapstick, and the writers and the actors are all in. Amid the zanies, Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston have more or less the straight roles, but they're so innocent they're borderline crazy. They play George and Linda - he's in finance and she's an aspiring documentary filmmaker - who sink their money into an itty-bitty Manhattan apartment and go bust. As they're en route to Atlanta to move in with George's crassly materialistic older brother and his suffering wife, their GPS sends them to the Elysium Bed and Breakfast - a hippie-dippy farming collective out of a time capsule. It's not fresh terrain, but this tribe of hippies is also a tribe of marvelously inventive comic actors doing a fair amount of inspired improvisation and grooving on the mindset. Alan Alda plays the commune's last remaining foun |
Snow Forecast for Mountain Passes Christmas Weekend | If you're driving across Washington's Interstate 90 Snoqualmie Pass to visit friends and family this weekend, make note of this warning from the Washington State Department of Transportation: DOT officials say Saturday morning is NOT the best time to drive to grandma's house. |
Huckabee Gains Ground in Iowa | Recent polls show former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in a statistical dead heat with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Iowa. Huckabee's surge of support comes despite a significant fundraising disadvantage. Can Huckabee's dark-horse campaign translate success in Iowa into other primary gains? |
Electrical Pain Killers | NPR Patricia Neighmond reports on a matchbook size electrical device which can be implanted under the skin of people who suffer from extreme pain. Electrical stimulation from the device can help block the transmission of pain from the nervous system to the brain. It offers relief to people who have reflex sympathetic dystrophy, the syndrome known as RSD. |
Afghan Government To Back Kabul Bank | Top executives at Afghanistan's largest private bank resigned this week amid allegations of gross mismanagement. That left the government scrambling to calm fears and prevent a run on the bank. |
Cyclone Fani Slams Indian Coast, Forcing Millions To Evacuate | India's eastern coast has been pounded by Cyclone Fani, an "extremely severe" storm that has torn the roofs off houses and forced millions of people to evacuate. It has also reportedly killed at least two people. The cyclone's effects were felt more than 500 miles away, on Mt. Everest. "Mountaineers were climbing to lower camps after conditions at higher elevations worsened," as NPR's Sushmita Pathak reports from Mumbai. Fani made landfall at about 8 a.m. local time Friday in the state of Odisha near Puri, a city that's a popular tourist destination on the Bay of Bengal. As it neared land, the India Meteorological Department reported the cyclone had wind speeds of about 130 miles per hour and gusts of up to 139 miles per hour. "More than a million people have been moved to shelters in the eastern Indian state of Odisha alone," Pathak says. Video from near the area where the storm made landfall shows trees blasted with torrential rain and heavy wind, amid very low visibility. The storm weakened to a "very severe" cyclone by late morning, and it's expected to continue to lose power as it tracks northeast. Fani is expected to reach Gangetic West Bengal as a "severe" cyclone by tomorrow morning. "It's likely to enter Bangladesh by tomorrow evening," said KJ Ramesh, director general of the IMD, according to the Hindustan Times. By the time the storm reaches Bangladesh, the IMD, says it's expected to be simply a cyclone, with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. As it approached, some 2.1 million people were ordered to evacuate in Bangladesh, according to Reuters. Cyclone season in the North Indian basin typically runs from April to December, with activity peaking in May and November, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Fani is the most severe storm to hit India in five years, Reuters reports. While the extent of the destruction is not yet clear, the IMB had predicted the "total destruction of thatched houses" in coastal Odisha areas. "It was a massive cyclone, like many others our house is flooded. Boundary walls of houses around us have collapsed, trees have been uprooted. It is a panic situation," Anuradha Mohanty, who lives about 40 miles inland from the center of the storm, told Reuters. India's National Disaster Management Authority is warning people not to enter damaged buildings after the storm, and to watch out for downed electric wires and broken glass. Authorities have set nearly 4,000 shelters in Odisha, according to The Associated Press. Fishermen have been advised not to go out into the Bay of Bengal near Odisha and the West Bengal coasts until Saturday. The storm disrupted a number of scheduled trains and delayed flights from Kolkata in West Bengal. Fani arrived as India is in the middle of a massive, multi-stage election — though the people of Odisha have already cast their votes. |
Congress Set To Pass Problems On To States | States are going to wind up in worse financial shape as a result of the new desire for budget-cutting in Washington. In the wake of the worst recession since the 1930s, states are facing severe budget gaps, and they currently depend on the federal government to provide a larger share of their funds than they have for decades. That share is now bound to shrink, with funds from the 2009 stimulus package starting to run out. "The states got themselves into their problem by profligate spending. They need to take care of that and not rely on the federal government to bail them out," Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) told The Associated Press recently. As Congress looks to cut the deficit, states will be hit even harder. And not just states, but the programs they help run for the federal government -- everything from social services and education to transportation, health and energy conservation. The House Republican campaign platform, A Pledge to America, vows to roll back most domestic spending programs to pre-stimulus levels, excepting programs for seniors and the military, "saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone." Not A Catastrophic Blow "If we took our share of that $100 billion [in cuts], states would be hurt," says Raymond Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association. Scheppach says that magnitude of cuts would not be "catastrophic." Still, it would be yet another blow to state budgets that are already in such bad shape that newly elected governors and legislators are faced with the task of rethinking the entire menu of services their states can afford to provide. "This Great Recession was a game changer," Scheppach says. "We're on a different path for state revenues over the long run." States Rely Heavily On Washington ... The federal government has been a generous funder of state programs. States now receive about a third of their total revenues from Washington, although that number will slip as stimulus funds dry up. The stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, provided states with roughly $135 billion to spend largely as they saw fit -- which, in most cases, was to plug their own budget shortfalls. ARRA additionally included more than 100 different grant programs to help states and localities fund federal priorities -- a broad mix that includes clean water, airport improvements and vocational training. "Basically, the stimulus funding allowed states to delay a lot of budget cuts," says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, a bond rating agency. But the stimulus dollars have just about run out. Congress extended some help for Medicaid and education last year, but provided far fewer dollars than President Obama had requested. Now it's clear that the till will run empty. ARRA is anathema to the new Republican majority in the House, and Speaker John Boehner is on record calling the package "wasteful spending." ... And Washington Relies On States Using the states to carry out the stimulus mission is in keeping with normal practice. Washington normally depends on the states to carry out most of its domestic agenda. The federal Department of Transportation doesn't hire contractors to build roads. Instead, it sends money to state highway departments to perform that function. Similarly, the federal health care law enacted last year relies heavily on states to implement and administer much of the planned expansion of coverage. "When we talk about cuts, we're really talking about big cuts in big programs -- Title 1 [which provides aid to schools with low-income populations], special ed, Pell grants," says Marcia Howard, who tracks federal grants for governors and legislators as head of Federal Funds Information for States. "These cuts, to the extent they come, they're going to flow all the way through," she says. "States won't be able to make up for cuts in federal spending." States Face A New Paradigm Hit hard by the recession and declining revenues, states have already collectively filled budget shortfalls totaling $230 billion over the past three years. They now face an additional gap of at least $175 billion over the next two years. "States right now are at the bottom of a deep hole," says Jon Shure, deputy director of the state fiscal project at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group. "Federal budget cuts now would be handing states a shovel, rather than a ladder out of that hole." In addition to their current spending problems, states face even greater shortfalls in years to come in areas such as pensions and retirement health coverage for their own employees. Things look so grim that Washington and Wall Street analysts have war-gamed the prospect of states defaulting on their debt, although state officials insist that scenario will not play out in real life. But no one expects a federal bailout to occur if it does. "If we bail out one state, then all of the debt of all of the states ... |
Senate Races Burst With Negative Ads | If you want attack ads by independent groups, Senate races are where it's at right now. In the presidential race, it seems that independent groups left the back-and-forth bashing to the candidates themselves over the last week. But some Senate races are humming with negative ads. Colorado's hot open-seat between former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R) and current Rep. Mark Udall (D) has attracted five ads from different groups this week. Conservatives have the edge with three anti-Udall ads (538 spots on the air) versus two anti-Schaffer ads (241 spots on the air), according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. The New Mexico Senate race is also getting attention, with one ad against Rep. Steve Pearce (R) and another attacking Democrat Tom Udall (D). (The Udalls, by the way, are cousins.) Two business-backed groups -- Employee Freedom Action Committee and Coalition for a Democratic Workplace -- are hitting a slew of Senate races with what they hope will be a wedge issue to hurt Democrats: secret ballots in union elections. On the other side, the Service Employees International Union is running ads against vulnerable Republican incumbents John Sununu (NH) and Gordon Smith (OR). All in all, independent groups spent about $1.9 million on Senate races in the last week, according to CMAG. And no one is pulling punches. |
In Your Ear: Lou Gossett, Jr. | As Hollywood prepares to roll out the red carpet for this weekend's 83rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, veteran actor and Oscar-winning star, Lou Gossett, Jr., shares some of the tunes that inspire him. |
The Smiths: Coping in Katrina's Wake | The Smiths, a New Orleans family displaced by Hurricane Katrina, continue to struggle to rebuild their lives. Six months after the storm, the two sons of Selwyn and Chaquita Smith are adapting well to their new home in Texas. But their daughter still finds it hard to cope. |
Mekaal Hasan: Making Music On The Fault Line | The partition of India in 1947 may have led to the creation of two countries, but India and Pakistan share a centuries-old music tradition. Today, both share a fondness for the slick pop epitomized by Bollywood soundtracks. But the music scene in Pakistan is also home to some independent bands. One whose acclaim has spread beyond the country's borders is The Mekaal Hasan Band. Mekaal Hasan was born and raised in Lahore — city of kings, home to painters and poets, and today, the hub of Pakistan's fashion and music industry. But Hasan says that Lahore, circa the early 1990s, was not the ideal place for a budding rock star. "You couldn't even find a guitar pick," Hasan says. "You had to ask someone from abroad to get you a guitar pick. You had to ask people to get you guitar cables, guitar strings. That's how bad it was." Today, Hasan leads Pakistan's most respected rock group. But this is Pakistan, after all — the fault line of the war on terror. "We've had no shows," he says. "No concerts, 'cause people are too scared to put up open-air events because of the security situation, bomb threats." That means that Hasan has had plenty of down time to put the finishing touches on his band's second album. He also has time to work with other musicians, producing and recording their CDs in his home studio and mentoring younger players. In fact, Hasan has become something of a bridge between Pakistan's new generation of musicians and Lahore's older classical players. His own band features electric guitar and bass, drums, traditional wood flute and a classical South Asian vocalist. Not A Traditional Story Hasan's mother is Christian; his father, Muslim. Their house was full of jazz records when he was growing up. "The influence of the liberal arts is really heavy in my family, so they really encouraged me to get into music," Hasan says. After some on-again, off-again attempts at piano, he taught himself to play guitar when he was 15, listening to bands such as Led Zeppelin. There wasn't much opportunity to advance his craft in Lahore. So Hasan, like many of his peers, decided to leave Pakistan. He applied to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and got in. "That jump was just insane," Hasan says. "It's like going to another planet and watching people play unbelievable stuff. I had never seen anyone play that way before. I would just listen to music all the time. That's all I did. I never felt more at home than when I was in Boston, 'cause I was surrounded by so much great music and so many great musicians. I think all creative people need an environment to flourish in." But Hasan was on a student visa, and his parents bribed him to come home early by offering to build him a studio. In 1995, he returned to Lahore. "For a while, a good two to three years, I was massively depressed and really angry, as well," Hasan says. "I was like, 'Why am I here? What am I doing here?' Then you had to reconcile yourself to the fact that, 'Well, hey, man, you've always lived here.' I resolved to make the best of it, and in some ways, this turned out to be a good exercise in just practicing the concepts that I'd learned in music school." Finding Local Musicians "Classical musicians," Hasan says, "are unbelievable improvisers. That's a common thing that jazz and [South Asian] classical has: They're both improvising art forms. But the language varies within each particular art form. It just depends on how much they're willing to stretch." The lead singer of The Mekaal Hasan Band, Javed Bashir, and flutist Papu are part of the older community of classically trained musicians living in Lahore. Many of them have been relegated to playing backup for the country's glossy pop stars. Hasan reversed that arrangement and brought those musicians to the forefront. Still, even he admits that even he didn't always understand traditional music. "To be quite honest, I don't even know what the lyrics mean most of the time," Hasan says. "I'm just going by the sound of the melody. So I'm looking to find the perfect setting for it to flourish in so you can really hear the sweetness of the melody." The Mekaal Hasan Band's melodies clicked, and the band swept onto the Pakistani music scene in 2004 with its debut album — a record that integrated old and new music with Islamic poetry. Mark Levine, a professor of music at the University of California-Irvine who's spent the past few years profiling rock musicians across the Muslim world, says that many of those musicians cite Hasan as an inspiration. "They have nothing but respect, and they look up to him and that band as sort of the highest plateau that you could reach in rock music in terms of creativity and talent," Levine says. "The challenge that he faces is the same challenge that great musicians who aren't really compromising face in any culture. It's his very ability to defy categorization that makes him so good and so special." More Than A Musical Challenge This should have been a defining year for The |
Canadian-Born Cruz Faces Potential Hurdle To Presidential Aspirations | NPR's Robert Siegel interviews Sarah H. Duggin, a professor of law at Catholic University, about how the U.S. Constitution's "natural born" citizenship requirement for someone to become president would apply to Sen. Ted Cruz. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Sarah Duggin is a professor of law at the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law, and we have asked her to tell us what the U.S. Constitution says about natural-born citizenship and whether that affects Ted Cruz's presidential aspirations. Senator Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father. He maintained a dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship until 2013. Professor Duggin, welcome to the program. SARAH DUGGIN: Thank you very much. SIEGEL: Is this is an open-and-shut case? Is Ted Cruz obviously eligible to run for president under the Constitution? DUGGIN: No, I don't think it's an open-and-shut case. I think the better argument is that Senator Cruz is eligible to run for president and to serve as president of the United States. But absent a Supreme Court ruling or a constitutional amendment, it is not open-and-shut. SIEGEL: It's not? I mean, is he not a natural-born American citizen? DUGGIN: Senator Cruz was naturalized at birth, but the reality is that we don't know precisely what the framers of the Constitution meant when they put into Article II that no person except a natural-born citizen shall be eligible to the office of president. SIEGEL: They were obviously thinking ahead because all of them had been born into British colonies. So what did they - what do we think they had in mind? DUGGIN: We don't know exactly what that is. When the framers put that provision in the Constitution, they did not debate it. It simply appeared following a letter from John Jay to George Washington. And Jay was concerned about the idea that foreigners might come into the government particularly, we believe, because there was concern that the son of a foreign nobility might end up using power, money, influence to grab the United States presidency and install a European nobleman as president. SIEGEL: He'd become president of the United States and Duke of North America or some such thing. DUGGIN: Absolutely. SIEGEL: This was a concern, we think, at the time. DUGGIN: We do. SIEGEL: There is a line of succession. Should the president and the vice president, let's say, both die, the next person in line is the speaker of the house. And there's nothing requiring the speaker to be a natural-born citizen. DUGGIN: That's absolutely right. And after the speaker of the house, then we go to the president pro tem of the Senate and then to the cabinet, with the secretary of state first in line under the current succession statute. And we've certainly had secretaries of state. Two come instantly to mind - Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, who were naturalized Americans but were not natural-born Americans, quite clearly. SIEGEL: Do you think that all of this stuff about President Obama not having been born in the - the claim that he really wasn't born in Honolulu where his birth certificate has been produced - and it's been pretty well demonstrated. Do you think that that has given more life to this whole argument about what a natural-born citizen is? DUGGIN: Yes, I definitely do. I think, though, that it existed before because there were some lawsuits. They were short-lived lawsuits filed against Senator Goldwater because he was born in Arizona while it was still a territory. SIEGEL: It wasn't a state yet, yeah. DUGGIN: Yes, it wasn't a state yet. SIEGEL: Some people said John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone I guess, or near the Panama Canal Zone - that should've disqualified him. DUGGIN: Absolutely. And that's when the biggest brouhaha arose with respect to the meaning of the natural-born citizenship. SIEGEL: Has this been litigated? And has the Supreme Court made clear what that means? DUGGIN: The Supreme Court has never made any sort of ruling on this subject. There have been some lower court cases, but those were dismissed on grounds that that the people bringing them were not necessarily the proper parties. They were dismissed on standing grounds. SIEGEL: You mean to have standing you have to be somebody who would be disqualified from the presidency because they've been naturalized? DUGGIN: (Laughter) No. You could be someone, for example, I believe, who's running against a candidate who is arguably not a natural-born citizen. But you probably can't simply be a voter with a general grievance. And that's what the earlier cases involved. SIEGEL: Professor Duggin, thank you very much for talking with us today. DUGGIN: Thank you. It's been my pleasure. SIEGEL: That's Sarah Duggin of the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. |
Central Americans React To Trump's Zero Tolerance Border Policy | Central American leaders have been mostly quiet about the immigration policy of separating families on the U.S.-Mexico border. Central American citizens have been vocal in their opposition. |
If It Takes a Village, Who Will Buy It? | The hot, dusty fields and mud lanes of a village in central India are all for sale, says the village's headman, who welcomes anyone with the money to buy the community known as Dodli. Announced by a simple sign -- "Village for Sale" -- the offer is an admitted attempt to bring attention to the town's plight. But villagers say their problems are serious: rising costs, falling prices, bad harvests, inadequate water and high-interest debt from loan sharks. Experts say Dodli, one of a number of Indian villages threatening to sell, is proof of the gap between Gandhi's rural utopian dream and the realities of India's liberalizing, fast-growing economy, in which the gulf between rich and poor is yawning ever wider. |
Swagger On Display At 'Empire' Season Finale Parties | Last night was Empire's season finale, and at one of D.C.'s biggest Empire watch parties, a sharply dressed crowd of hundreds is huddled around every flat-screen in The Stone Fish Grill Lounge downtown. "Here we go! Here we go! Here we go, come on everyone! Round of applause!" shouts one of the hosts for the night. "It's Empire time!" Empire is about the messy family politics behind a hip-hop label. The owner's son is a rapper, and in one of the finale's key scenes, he trashes his father in verse. Dad knocks him out. It's exactly the kind of drama D.C. native Brian Fagan loves. "Every week you're on the edge of your seat waiting for what's happening next," he says. "You only get that in a few shows these days." In a primetime soap opera filled with glamorous apartments and designer bling, Oscar-nominated actor, Taraji P. Henson, is the show's breakout star. Her character Cookie's insults and animal prints have kept the fans' tweets and obsession flowing. "God, please do not withhold your blessings, even from the hoes that hire skanks to spy on me," she says in one episode. At the D.C. watch party, there's a Cookie makeover station and impersonation contest. Tee Lewis, a D.C. native, came out tonight because she wanted to see the final episode with a crowd. "It's a hype night," she says. "It's a finale night." Whenever the commercials end and the dialogue is back, nobody in this audience wants to miss a beat. At one point, this reporter was shushed for talking over one of Cookie's trademark insults. Critics have raved about how Empire shatters assumptions about who watches so-called black TV shows. Its white and Latino audiences have grown week after week. It's also not a heavy-handed show about race, civil rights, or politics. It's meant to be fun. Lee Daniels, one of Hollywood's leading black filmmakers, helped create Empire. And Tee Lewis says she just hopes he can build on that success. "It probably shocked him ... so now he's got to get back to the drawing board and get ready for another season cause we hungry," she says. "We want more." Fox has already renewed Empire and the second season is expected to air later this year. Here's how some more fans around the country celebrated the season finale: |
Phnom Penh's Feat: Getting Clean Tap Water Flowing | The sound of running water — clean running water — is not one you have always been able to hear in the ramshackle lean-tos that pass for homes on the edge of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Providing clean water is one of the biggest challenges for governments in the developing world. Clean water charities say thousands of people die every day of preventable diseases as a result of not having clean drinking water, and 90 percent of those who die are younger than 5. But in recent years, Phnom Penh has been leading the way: The city has managed to provide clean running water to almost the entire urban population. Cleaner, Cheaper Water The lean-to homes on the city's edge are small and dark. Inside one, a few boards separate the single bedroom from the main living space. The corrugated iron roof leaks light onto the dirty floor. But here, 60-year-old Khive Thol is drinking water from the tap. She says she used to have to boil water from containers. She bought the water from a truck that came around every week, she says. She doesn't know where the water came from — probably from the river, she adds. Khive Thol used to pay $1 a day for dirty, dangerous water. Now she pays about $4 a month for a faucet in her own home — and so do all of her neighbors. The successes here are largely due to the work of one man and one organization: 61-year-old Ek Sonn Chan and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority he heads. "In 1994, we had to sit down with international funds agencies for five days to seek $10 million assistance from them because performance [was] so bad," Chan says. "Now we can stay here and people come to knock [on] your door and ask you, 'Do you need money?' It's completely different." Chan says that in 1993 — after four years of rule by the Khmer Rouge and 10 years of occupation by the Vietnamese — only 25 percent of the city had running water, and most of those who had it didn't pay for it. The old pipes leaked, or the water was siphoned off and stolen. Now, 92 percent of households in Phnom Penh have clean running water — a phenomenal feat in such a poor country. Chan says almost everyone pays on time. If Phnom Penh can do it, he says, it's possible anywhere. "I believe 100 percent that solving water problems [for] everyone in this world is 100 percent possible," Chan says. "It's not the problem of scarcity of water resources; it's not the lack of financing, but because of [the] lack of good governance." Impressive Success Chan has been able to bring good governance to the water authority that is not present in much of the rest of Cambodia. In the 1990s, he accompanied teams of workers as they went around the city trying to convince ordinary Cambodians that installing a water meter and paying for water meant they would save money and be healthier. At one point, a Cambodian general who objected to the scheme held a gun to Chan's head, refusing to pay. But with the help of politicians who supported his scheme, Chan won over all levels of the city. World water experts have nothing but good to say about him and the PPWSA. Per-Arne Malmqvist, a water expert at the Stockholm International Water Institute in Sweden, says they have succeeded in doing something that even cities in the Western world have not succeeded in. "What they have done is impressive in itself, and the circumstances [are] even more impressive," Malmqvist says. "It's not only about technicalities — constructing pipelines and water works — it's also the management of the system, fighting corruption and having people to pay for the water which, of course, is very important." More Work To Be Done But Phnom Penh is just 1.7 million people in a country of more than 14 million. In rural Cambodia, like one small village near the town of Battambang, they have radios, they often have cellphones, but they frequently still don't have running water. Sok Hoen, 48, makes $2 a day selling firewood. He lives in what can only be described as a hovel. Mosquitoes buzz, dogs doze on the dirt floor, and outside are three large jars filled with filthy brown water. "That's the water we drink," he says. "We have to. We put tablets in it to try to purify it, but still we get sick," he says. Multiply his plight by millions for all the rural households across Cambodia, and across the world. Chan says he has written on a piece of paper above his bed that he will not rest until all of Cambodia has clean running water. He has made an impressive start, but there is still a long, long way left to go. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: In the developing world, clean drinking water can be the exception rather than the rule. Aid groups say thousands of people die every day, most of them small children, from preventable diseases linked to dirty water. In recent years, the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, has managed to provide clean running water to almost everyone there. NPR's Rob Gifford has the story of how they did it. (Soundbite of running water) ROB GIFFORD: The sound of runnin |
'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs In Iraq | Brian Castner commanded two Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in Iraq, where his team disabled roadside IEDs and investigated the aftermath of roadside car bombings. He returned home a completely different man, which he details in his memoir, The Long Walk. |
Battle of the Sexes and What's Making Us Happy | The new film, starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs, the players facing off in one of the most famous tennis matches in history. Plus, what's making us happy this week. Guest: Writer Katie Presley. |
4 American Journalists Are Released After Arrest In Bahrain | Two days after they were arrested at a demonstration marking the fifth anniversary of an Arab Spring-inspired uprising in Bahrain, four Americans have now been released. They are accused of illegal assembly and intent to commit a crime. Bahraini officials say the four entered the country illegally — evidently by identifying themselves as tourists instead of journalists — and then took part "in an unlawful gathering." One of the Americans who was detained is Anna Therese Day, according to CNN, which says Day has done freelance work for the network and other news outlets. Providing new details, Bahrain's Police Media Center says the arrests began when police detained a masked man who was near "rioting and vandalism" in an area where security forces were also being attacked. That led police to question the three other Americans, who were nearby — and police determined that they had been "carrying out media activities without receiving the permit from the competent authorities," as Gulf News reports. A prosecutor in Bahrain issued a statement Tuesday saying the four "were released on Tuesday afternoon," The Associated Press reports, adding, "It wasn't immediately clear if they could leave the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia." We'll remind you that despite posing a serious threat, Bahrain's uprising did not overthrow the country's monarchy. As NPR's Kelly McEvers reported in 2012, "pro-government thugs attacked protesters, and protesters fought back. Just one month into the uprising, Bahrain's ruling family authorized some 1,500 troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to enter the country." |
#NPRreads: Take A Leisurely Trip Through These Four Stories This Weekend | #NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and in The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. Each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories. From Kristen Hartmann, Project Manager, Education: I have liked Maria Popova's clever curation of knowledge worth considering on brainpickings.org for a while; I don't always manage to read the weekly newsletter, but when I do, I end up with a new angle on familiar topics. Last week, I found myself reading about leisure, something I struggle with (paradoxically): as an admitted Type-A person, if I can't optimize, measure, or manage an activity, I find it hard to engage with – and trying to optimize leisure often leaves me doing more much work in the pursuit of "relaxation." What kept me reading this week was Popova's article on the thoughts of Josef Pieper, a German philosopher, whose 1948 book Leisure, the Basis of Culture traced three key aspects of work: activity, effort, and social contribution – and how they help us learn the difference between leisure and taking a short break from work. I'm still learning how to "be at leisure" as opposed to "vacationing," but now my Type-A self has a new and more relaxed goal to shoot for. From News Assistant Gabe Rosenberg: Back in the old days, if you wanted a toasted bagel, you would have to roast it over a fireplace or a stove. Of course, back then you'd probably also have to make the bagel from scratch, too, but that's neither here nor there. As detailed in this excellent history of the modern toaster, from the breakfast site Extra Crispy, the journey to make the perfect piece of toasted bread was a long one. The first automatic pop-up toaster, which could brown both sides at the same time but had a timer so it wouldn't burn, wasn't introduced until 1925 by the Waters Genter Company. The article, which includes some great morsels of information from the Toaster Museum Foundation (which is a thing that apparently exists), also counts down some of the previous decades' fleeting toaster trends, like hippie print colors, coffee-machines-and-toaster combinations, and the specialized bagel toaster. "There's a real emotional appeal to the toasters, you know? More than some other practical appliances in the kitchen," says Jeanine Head Miller of the Henry Ford Museum. After all, what other kitchen conveniences got their own animated movie? From Tanya Ballard Brown, an NPR.org editor: Like many people, I wanted to know why the Uber driver in Kalamazoo, Mich., who was charged with shooting and killing six people in February, did it. Why would someone just suddenly decide to murder six people? Why?! You toss ideas around in your head – a mental break maybe? — trying to make sense of what is often inexplicable. In his GQ piece, writer Chris Heath tick-tocks Dalton's day, tracks down people who worked with him, lived near him, and did business with him trying to form a picture of who this man was, looking for clues that may have foreshadowed what happened that Saturday. He also scoured police reports, pulling together the explanation that Dalton offered reluctantly during interrogation: his phone told him to do it via the Uber app. Which, for me, raises more questions than it answers. Ultimately, we may never know why Dalton may have done it. I am guessing knowing doesn't make anything better for the people who lost loved ones that day. From James Doubek, Production Assistant, Digital News: Three years ago, I went to La Moneda in Santiago, Chile. It's the site where on Sept. 11, 1973, tanks and the air force attacked the sitting president, Salvador Allende, a democratically-elected Marxist. The coup was successful, and Gen. Augusto Pinochet ruled the country in a totalitarian dictatorship until democracy was restored in 1990. In neighboring Argentina, the country experienced its own military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. As many as 30,000 political opponents were killed or "disappeared." What happened in both of these countries involves one man here in the U.S.: Henry Kissinger. Human rights activists have for decades accused Kissinger, the former secretary of state and national security adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations, of complicity and even support of the campaign of terror against leftists in Latin America in the 1970s. Recently-released documents give more credence to these allegations. The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson writes that the "latest revelations compound a portrait of Kissinger as the ruthless cheerleader, if not the active co-conspirator, of Latin American military regimes engaged in war crimes." The article is a reminder of some U.S. foreign-policy history, and why still today the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Kissinger remains so controversial. From Elissa Nadworny, NPR Ed Producer & Editor: Understanding where people live — and why they choose to live there — is integral to how |
Season 2 Of 'UnREAL' Premieres Monday On Lifetime | <em>UnREAL</em> is a fictional behind-the-scenes drama of a reality dating show. NPR's Rachel Martin talks to co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro. |
Drought Causes Ripple Effect Along Mighty Mississippi River | The persistent drought is raising questions about how the Mississippi River is managed — both upstream and down. While cargo traffic upriver has gotten lots of attention, the drought is creating a different set of problems downriver at the mouth of the Mississippi, where saltwater has encroached. An old-fashioned staff river gauge behind the New Orleans district office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows the Mississippi is running just shy of 6 feet above sea level at the river bend. "Just about back to normal at this point, but it's only done that really since Christmas," says Mike Stack, chief of emergency management for the corps. He's been dealing with near historic lows on the river here since August. The biggest problem is saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico coming up the mouth of the Mississippi and threatening industrial and municipal water intakes more than 60 miles inland. During normal flows on the Mississippi, freshwater is pushing down and out of the mouth of the river. But with low flows during drought, the Gulf of Mexico starts to push saltwater up the Mississippi River. "Saltwater is denser than freshwater and so it travels on the bottom," says Stack. "It travels in what we call a wedge." To stop the encroaching wedge, the corps built a $5.8 million sill on the bottom of the river. It's like a deep underwater levee designed to hold the saltwater at bay. The sill has held since September, and the wedge is now receding. But it wasn't enough to prevent the saltwater from reaching the drinking water intakes for Plaquemines Parish, the parish south of New Orleans that stretches all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi. "We've been through five hurricanes and an oil spill, had a couple of chemical spills, and right before this salt water intrusion, I said, 'What's next?' " says parish President Billy Nungesser. The parish had to barge in fresh water from upriver and buy drinking water from neighboring Orleans Parish. Nungesser is worried about next time. "The real challenge will be if we see a worse situation than we saw last year where that wedge reaches New Orleans because you couldn't barge in enough water to satisfy the needs of the city of New Orleans," he says. 'Things Won't Be The Same' The river is deep and wide here with at least a 45-foot-deep channel. Combine that with the proximity to the Gulf and you have an ideal shipping gateway. At the busy Port of New Orleans, stevedores use cranes to load crates of chicken onto the Skulptor Tomskiy, a hulking white ship bound for Eastern Europe. Ships come in from the Gulf bringing everything from rubber and steel to coffee and twine. Barges come down river carrying grain, fertilizer and other goods. "It's a huge convergence point, says Gary LaGrange, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans. He says the five ports on the lower Mississippi River from Baton Rouge south to the Gulf of Mexico constitute the largest port system in the world. "Bigger than Rotterdam, Singapore, Shanghai or any of those," he says. LaGrange says the drought hasn't hurt the Port of New Orleans yet. But upriver, where the channel gets shallow north of Baton Rouge, barge loads are lighter. "Anything that's got to transit between [Cairo, Ill.] and St. Louis, we're concerned. But so far so good," says LaGrange. But the drought does raise more complicated questions for Louisiana's deteriorating coast. The delta depends on high water to bring sediment that helps rebuild coastline. Sediment that is choked off in a drought. Mark Davis, who heads the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy, says with persistent drought and sea level rise, the future of Louisiana's fragile coast is at best uncertain. "Things won't be the same. We will have to be real clear on what kind of river we need delivered here. We have no idea at this point how big a river we're going to need 20 years from now to maintain the viability of this lower end," says Davis. Davis says talk of diverting water from the Mississippi system to help arid Western states has officials up and down the river talking about the need for a comprehensive water resources plan for the mighty river. "It's the sort of thing that the Great Lakes did when they did their compact not so long ago when they essentially declared we're not sure what we need water for but we're pretty sure we're not a mine," he says. America's Wetland Foundation Director Val Marmillion says the sheer size and scope of issues confronting the river make consensus hard to come by. "The Mississippi basin is an orphan. It has a lot of users and a lot of interests who have found the Mississippi very beneficial to their various interests but no one is taking care of the whole," he says. Whether its drought now or flood next year, Marmillion says it's time to treat managing the Mississippi as a legacy issue. |
Georgia Governor Still Undecided | It's been a very tense week in Georgia around the still undecided governor race. There was a protest at the state capitol, lots of litigation, campaign bickering and no end in sight. |
How To Create A Song: Lake Street Dive Style | The band Lake Street Dive struggled in its early days to use its jazz education without scaring off audiences. For inspiration, they turned to another band, known for transforming the sound of pop.Lake Street Dive is two men and two women, all in the neighborhood of 30, who met at the New England Conservatory of Music. As a group they use jazz instrumentation, more or less — trumpet, stand-up bass, guitar, some drums — but they play pop and soul, and draw a big following doing it. In fact, a video of them performing on a Boston street corner has been viewed more than 2 million times. "If you put background vocals on anything, people are excited about it," drummer Mike Calabrese says, referring to the lush vocal arrangements that dominate the band's latest album, Bad Self Portraits. "There's something about humans singing in harmony that is just inherently joyful." The members of Lake Street Dive spoke with NPR's Steve Inskeep throughout Monday's episode of Morning Edition, touching on their early shows (in which the other bands were sometimes the only audience members) and how they found their pop sound after an experiment with free jazz. Hear more of their stories at the audio links. |
$11 Billion And Counting: Trump's Border Wall Would Be The World's Most Costly | The pricetag for President Trump's border wall has topped $11 billion — or nearly $20 million a mile — to become the most expensive wall of its kind anywhere in the world. In a status report last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is overseeing wall construction, reported that $11 billion has been identified since Trump took office to construct 576 miles of a new "border wall system." And the Trump administration is on the hunt for funding to build even more. The Department of Homeland Security has asked the Defense Department to come up with money for 270 additional miles of border wall that DHS says is needed to block drug smuggling routes on federal land. The Pentagon is studying the request, which did not come with a dollar figure. If the Trump administration completes all of the wall projects it has set in motion, three-quarters of the U.S. southern border would be walled off from Mexico. The government inherited about 650 miles of border structures erected under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "You're going to have a wall like no other. It's going to be a powerful, terrific wall," President Trump said at a rally in Milwaukee last week. "A very big and very powerful border wall is going up at a record speed, and we are fully financed now, isn't that nice?" To get an idea why the government is spending so much on Trump's border wall, look no further than the construction sites down in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. On one side of a caliche road, you can see the pedestrian fence that was erected more than a decade ago. At 18 feet, it looks downright puny. On the other side of the road are massive steel bollards topped with an "anti-climbing plate" that rise 30 feet above the cotton fields, surrounded by men in hardhats and heavy equipment. Bush's fence averaged $4 million a mile; Trump's wall costs five times that—$20 million a mile. The overall cost of $11 billion is approaching the price of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Christian Alvarez points out there's a lot more to Trump's barrier. "The border wall system will include a 150-foot enforcement zone, lighting, cameras, other technology, and most importantly an all-weather access road making it easier to respond to (undocumented immigrant) traffic," Alvarez said. "So it's not just gonna be the barrier itself." There's more steel — an expensive commodity — in a 30-foot structure. Also, there are powerful floodlights, and every mile will have conduit for electric power and fiber optics that connect the surveillance cameras. Electronic gates that allow passage through the wall cost up to $1 million a piece. And there's a graded, graveled enforcement zone as wide as a six-lane highway. Trump's border wall is now the tallest and most expensive in the world, said Reece Jones, a geographer at the University of Hawaii who studies border walls. "The cost of almost $20 million per mile cost is four times as much as the most expensive other walls being built," Jones said. Border walls are much in vogue in the post-Cold War era, he said, and there are now at least 60 around the world. Israel's wall on the West Bank ranks as the second most expensive — at a paltry $1 million to $5 million a mile. Congress appropriated funds to build the wall in the Rio Grande Valley, but the government now says it needs more. CBP is dipping into $600 million of the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, which holds money seized in criminal investigations. Some of the extra money will be used to build the wall higher and 10 miles longer. There have also been "increased project costs due to unforeseen site conditions" — to wit, serious seepage problems where the levee wall crosses a canal that empties into the Rio Grande. These extra costs came to light in a recent deposition made by Loren Flossman, CBP's wall chief. He also said the agency needs more money to cover the ballooning expense of acquiring the strips of private property under the wall. Taking private land through eminent domain involves multiple agencies, including the Department of Justice, and can lead to lawsuits. The process "significantly increases the hurdles that the government has to face," said Scott Nicol, a longtime wall opponent with the Sierra Club in the Rio Grande Valley. "Where you have private property and the government has to go through the courts to get that property, it takes a lot longer and it drives the cost up because you have to pay for that land," Nicol said. "You have to send DOJ lawyers in to get that land." By mid-January, the government had constructed 101 miles of border wall. A hundred miles of this is replacement or secondary wall; only one mile has been built where no barriers previously existed. Contrary to President Trump's claims, the wall is not "going up at a record speed." In fact, construction has fallen months behind schedule because of the complexities of acquiring private land in the South Texas. |
State AG to Take Control of Duke Lacrosse Case | The state attorney general's office has agreed to take over the prosecution of the much-discussed case involving Duke lacrosse players and an exotic dancer. District Attorney Michael Nifong, who faces ethics charges, asked to withdraw. |
Colorado's Pot Law Fires Up This Week | Retail sales of recreational marijuana are now legal in Colorado. Host Michel Martin looks at the highs, and possible lows of the new law with Dana Coffield of <em>The Denver Post</em>, and <em>The Sacramento Bee</em>'s Peter Hecht, author of <em>Weed Land</em>. |
Your Letters: Eugene Levy And American Dreams | Host Scott Simon reads from listeners' letters about the American dream series and last week's interview with Eugene Levey. |
Most Teens Aren't Active Enough, And It's Not Always Their Fault | Sure, you think, my kid's on a football team. That takes care of his exercise needs, right? Probably not. "There are these bursts of activity," says Jim Sallis, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego. "But if you think about it, one hour of playing football out on the field means that the vast majority of that time is spent standing around waiting for the next play." And that's a problem, federal health officials say, because children need at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. "We know that physical activity in childhood strengthens your bones, increases your muscle mass," says Tala Fakhouri, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It also has effects on psychological well-being in kids and teens. It increases their capacity for learning, their self-esteem and it may also help them deal with stress." The findings are worrisome in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic, Sallis says. There's increased evidence that children who are overweight are more likely to be obese as adults. But just one in four young teenagers between ages 12 and 15 actually get that one hour of exercise every day, Fakhouri says. She analyzed federal health data gathered from 800 teenagers in 2012. While kids may be active in childhood, it's typical to see a decline as they move into their teen years. "We know, for example, that sedentary behaviors like watching TV are the single biggest contributor to physical inactivity in adolescence," Fakhouri says. But it's not that teenagers no longer enjoy sports. In the study, teenage boys said their favorite physical activities outside of gym class were basketball, running, football, bicycling and walking. Girls favored running, walking, basketball, dancing and bicycling. Most studies of physical activity find boys more active than girls, and this one was no different. It found that 27 percent of boys and 22.5 percent of girls got the recommended one hour of exercise daily. That includes gym class, organized activities and play. It's not necessarily teenagers' fault that they're not more active, researchers say. Parents worry about safety when their kids go outside. They worry about bullying from other kids and crime in urban neighborhoods. Sallis adds that a surprising number of parents are concerned about traffic. "They don't want their kids to go out because traffic is so bad. There's no safe place to cross the street," he says. But organized classes or teams aren't the only option. Families can make small changes in their schedule to build in more exercise, Fakhouri says. "You can take a long walk after dinner. You can take your dog on long walk. Play basketball, dance together." And with many schools reducing or cutting out PE, Sallis says parents may have to put pressure on the schools, too. "Look at what's happening in PE," Sallis says. "If they're not going out at all or very much, complain about that. If you see PE class and it's not very active, inform the principal that that's not acceptable." Bottom line: Physically active kids become physically active adults. And that's another critical reason, Sallis says, to help your kids get out and get moving. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Today in Your Health, we look at teens who physically wear themselves down and also, teens who are not active enough. A recent national survey finds the majority of young teenagers do not get the exercise they need, as NPR's Patti Neighmond reports. PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE: Federal health officials recommend children take part in at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. Epidemiologist Tala Fakhouri, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says that's because the benefits of exercise for kids are well-known. TALA FAKHOURI: We know that physical activity in childhood strengthens your bones, increases your muscle mass. But it also has effects on psychologic well-being of kids and teens. So we know it increases their capacity for learning, increases their self-esteem. It actually may help them deal with stress. NEIGHMOND: But Fakhouri says only 1 in 4 teens between 12 and 15 actually get that one hour of exercise every day. She looked at federal health data gathered from 800 kids who answered questionnaires in 2012. She says that while kids may be active in childhood, typically there's a decline as they move into their teenage years. FAKHOURI: We do know, for example, that sedentary behaviors - like watching TV - is the single most contributor to physical inactivity in adolescence. NEIGHMOND: And even when kids are active, they're often not active enough. Take the example of football, the third most popular activity for boys. Jim Sallis is a professor of Family Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. JIM SALLIS: There's these bursts of activity. But if you think of an hour of playing football out on the field, the vast majority of that time is spen |
'Passion Parties' in the Conservative Southern U.S. | How does a Tupperware-style "adult toy" party play in the deeply conservative and religious South? Melanie Peeples visits a so-called "passion party" in rural northern Alabama, where blushing belles say they just want a way to keep their husbands happy -- and home. |
Trump's Weekend: The G-7 And Singapore | President Trump's time abroad is demonstrating an approach to the world that is a stark departure from normal U.S. diplomacy. |
'Steve Jobs' Is Not A Standard Biopic | Another movie about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is in theaters. It is inspired by the best-selling biography that came out in 2011. The new biopic is simply called <em>Steve Jobs.</em> |
Monday February 18, 2008 | Eye on The Night Sky for February 18, 2008 from VPR and the Fairbanks Museum. |
Across 'Nebraska,' On A Journey That Goes Beyond The Trip | Critic David Edelstein calls the film, in which an elderly man sets out to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize, a "superb balancing act" from director Alexander Payne. |
Mom Sets Troublemaker Down The Right Path | Berryl Anderson, 49, was the family troublemaker when she was growing up. She admits it. "I was always pretty smart academically, but my mouth would get me in a lot of trouble," she told her mom, Virginia, at StoryCorps in Atlanta. "And I found myself in the principal's office a lot, as you know, because you'd have to come to collect me and to take me home." In fact, Berryl was such a troublemaker, her mother knew to come to her before her three siblings -- Stanley, Lisa and Tyrell -- when some devilment was afoot. "You were always the leader," 70-year-old Virginia said. "And when they got in trouble, I knew to call you first, because I knew the works of your hands." One day in elementary school, Berryl said, she was bringing her "A-game doing a little bit of stand-up comedy in front of the classroom." "And Ms. Clayton just had this look of frustration on her face. She had her hands on her hips, and she wanted me to sit down. She had asked me politely a couple times, but I was on a roll," she said. "I mean, I had the class right where I wanted them, in the palm of my hand, and they're laughing. Then all of a sudden: dead silence. They all look to the right. I was in front of the class so I had to look to my left, and there you were. I was just caught in the act." Virginia had made an impromptu visit because of the many notes her teacher had sent home about Berryl's behavior. But Berryl said she was always encouraged by the fact that on the ride home from school her mother "always let me know that I was better than that. And that just being smart wasn't good enough, that I had to be a good person, and I had to be respectful of other people." Today, Berryl is the chief magistrate judge in the state court in DeKalb County, Ga. "I saw in you, what you didn't see in yourself," Virginia said. "And I knew what you were capable of, and I knew what you could do. I just had to make sure you took the right path, and I’m glad you made it." |
The Real People Who Inspired The Film 'Spare Parts' | In 2004, a team of high school students from Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix, Arizona, defeated college teams, including MIT, in an underwater robotic competition. “This is the attention we kind of expected at the time, but it’s 10 years after the fact.”– Fredi Lajvardi All four students had entered the country illegally; three out of the four were undocumented immigrants. Their victory went largely unheralded until a 2005 Wired magazine article, which now has been made into the movie “Spare Parts.” We spoke with all four of the students, plus their team coach Fredi Lajvardi, back in 2005. Today we catch up with Lajvardi, who is still teaching at the high school, and with Cristian Arcega, who was called the genius of the four students. He’s now 26 and working at Home Depot.
Donate to Cristian Arcega’s college fund on Crowdismo
Interview Highlights On what happened after they won in 2004: Cristian Arcega: “When we got back we didn’t really receive any kind of attention for almost a year. NPR was really one of the first places where we actually got our story out. … It’s definitely partly that [the community] didn’t really comprehend the extent of our victory and what it meant. And it’s also, in our community, positive stories don’t really get highlighted — it’s usually the negative aspects of our community that reach the most attention.” Fredi Lajvardi: “Right when it first happened, we thought wow, this is going to be a life-changing thing and we don’t know exactly what it’s going to turn into. And then shortly afterwards, everything was the same and nothing changed. And over the years as the story kept coming back through one media form or another, and now finally the movie, this is the attention we kind of expected at the time, but it’s 10 years after the fact. Cristian Arcega on his dream to be the first in his family to go to college: “After I graduated from high school, I actually had the presidential scholarship, which covered all of my in-state tuition. That was revoked through Prop 300 in 2006 I believe. … I’ve been struggling to go back to school ever since. At the moment, through all this publicity, I’ve been doing a crowdfunding campaign at collegedream.help and hopefully I can go back to school in the fall.” Fredi Lajvardi on his thriving robotics program: “What those four boys did was open up the doors for all the kids that followed behind, and it made it impossible for any other student to have any other excuses, because these kids had so much against them. So any kid that comes in and says ‘we can’t do that,’ I just point to the kids that did it before and say, ‘really?'”
[Youtube] Guests
Fredi Lajvardi, instructor at Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix. He tweets @falconmaster.
Cristian Arcega, one of the Carl Hayden Community High School students who inspired the film “Spare Parts.” He tweets @Cristian_Arcega. |
As Pope Lands, Hillary Clinton Says She Opposes Keystone XL Pipeline | Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has come out against the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. It's something she has spent months avoiding taking a position on — and her announcement coincided with the mass media event of Pope Francis' landing at Andrews Air Force Base. "I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone XL pipeline as what I believe it is: a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change, and, unfortunately from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward and deal with other issues," Clinton said at a campaign event in Iowa. "Therefore, I oppose it. I oppose it because I don't think it's in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change." Clinton had previously said she wanted to stay out of the Keystone debate and give the Obama administration a chance to decide the fate of the controversial oil pipeline, but today she said the process has taken too long. Clinton was interrupted by an extended period of applause. It's an issue environmental activists have pushed the Democratic field and President Obama on. Clinton promised a comprehensive energy plan soon. Two of her opponents in the Democratic primary — Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders — have long opposed the Keystone XL pipeline and have been critical of Clinton's long delay in weighing in. Sanders took no time at all responding on Twitter and in a statement: "As a senator who has vigorously opposed the Keystone pipeline from the beginning, I am glad that Secretary Clinton finally has made a decision and I welcome her opposition to the pipeline. Clearly it would be absurd to encourage the extraction and transportation of some of the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet." O'Malley took a different tone, criticizing Clinton for lacking "leadership" and following public opinion: "On issue after issue — marriage equality, drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, children fleeing violence in Central America, the Syrian refugee crisis, and now the Keystone Pipeline, Secretary Clinton has followed — not forged — public opinion. Leadership is about stating where you stand on critical issues, regardless of how they poll or focus group. "The American people want a President who will lead — not just someone who will tell them what they want to hear. On many of these issues, I staked out positions and got things done — even when they were politically unpopular. That's what's at stake in this election: the difference between conviction and convenience, and the gulf between actions and words." |
Snot Otter Emerges Victorious In Vote For Pennsylvania's Official Amphibian | Pennsylvania's soon-to-be official amphibian has more than its fair share of nicknames: snot otter, mud devil, Allegheny alligator, devil dog, lasagna lizard. In short, it's not exactly a looker. But the Eastern hellbender salamander was the overwhelming choice of lawmakers for amphibian representation in the state. On Tuesday, the state's House of Representatives voted 191-6 on a bill that would name the aquatic creature its state amphibian. The Senate passed the bill in February. The hellbender is a nocturnal salamander that can grow more than 2 feet long. The mud-colored creature, covered in a layer of mucus, breathes primarily through loose flaps of thick, wrinkled skin that look a little bit like lasagna noodles. The hellbender is also a canary for environmental degradation. The giant salamander's sensitivity to pollution and changing conditions makes it an indicator species for healthy bodies of water, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The animal relies on cool, moving water to breathe and prefers rocky, swiftly flowing rivers and streams in the Appalachian region, with a range that stretches from northern Georgia to southern New York. And according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which led the campaign to recognize the hellbender for more than two years, the creature's numbers have dropped substantially as its habitats have degraded. The group says the degradation has been caused by a lack of trees along waterways in Pennsylvania, which "allows waters to warm, polluted runoff to enter rivers and streams, and silt to build up in streambeds." The creatures saw a rapid population decrease between 1998 and 2009, as Greg Lipps, the amphibian and reptile conservation coordinator at The Ohio State University, told NPR in 2017. Hellbenders have been listed as endangered in several states, including Illinois, Indiana and Maryland. The salamander is listed as "near threatened" with a decreasing population by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, though that assessment hasn't been updated since 2004. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notes that dams and illegal pet trade may also contribute to the species' decline. Garth Everett, a Republican state representative who helped push the bill through Pennsylvania's House, said hellbenders have been on the decline. "Not many people have actually seen hellbenders," Everett said after the vote, The Associated Press reports. "They live only in very clean streams, and they live under rocks." Emma Stone, president of the CBF's Student Leadership Council, said Tuesday's bill moves the state toward cleaner water. "The passing of this bill is sure to allow hellbenders to breathe easier in the near future and give them a better chance of survival," she's quoted as saying in CBF's statement. "Not to mention a better chance for a clean water legacy in Pennsylvania." |
Couple's Challenges, Joys of First Year as Pastors | A sea of black-robed seminarians is crammed into a basement chapel at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It's early May --- graduation day for Wesley Theological Seminary. The graduates are giddy and godly, more women than men. Some are just out of college, but most are launching their second careers. They fiddle with their caps, anxious to begin their journey. Chris and Katie Bishop are among the youthful minority. They are members of a generation that came of age at the turn of the century with an inclination toward altruistic work. Over the next year, NPR will follow the Bishops and several other young religious leaders, from a spectrum of faiths, as they begin ministering to an increasingly diverse population of Americans. The Bishops met on the first day of seminary, when Chris threw a Frisbee that broke the nose of Katie's roommate. The mishap yielded a marriage rather than a lawsuit. Katie is 23, a small brunette. Chris, 25, is a strapping guy with a stubbly red beard. They are expecting their first child in a few months. As they prepared to walk down the majestic aisle of the National Cathedral, Chris said he was "chomping at the bit" to leave seminary behind and begin full-time ministry. Katie said simply, "I'm ready." She paused. "We'll find out." Hearing the Call Ministry has a mysterious job qualification: a "call" to serve God, adopt a life of low pay and help others — without expecting anything in return. Katie remembers when she received her call. She was in fifth grade, and the minister at her Presbyterian church asked her to preach on Youth Sunday. "On the way to church that morning, I was all ready to preach and I was very excited," she recalls. "My mother turned to me at a stoplight... and said, 'Katie, are you nervous?' And I said, 'No Mom, this is what God is calling me to do.' "I know we sat through two or three turns of the light," she adds, "because we both realized that was not something that I had said, but it was something that the Holy Spirit was saying through me." For Chris, it was more gradual. He had little epiphanies while on mission trips or playing sports with his youth group. He says God even spoke to him while he was working as a kayaking instructor. The message: "I have more in store for you than just going down a river," Chris says. "You're going to share your faith...even when you're teaching people how to kayak." Chris recalls his spiritual mentor, John, testing his resolve: "He said, 'Chris, if I can convince you to do anything else with your life, that's what I'm going to do.'" Now, Chris says, there's nothing else he'd rather do than spend Friday nights at a bake sale or hanging out with his church youth group — or organizing a yard sale in 95-degree heat. Long Hours, Low Pay A month after graduation, Chris is at Middletown United Methodist Church, in rural Maryland. He and about a dozen high school students are sorting through donations for the next day's fundraiser: toys, CD players, karate pads and mountains of clothing. The high school students give Chris the highest compliment – he's "a regular guy, not as uptight as other ministers," says one. Chris knows these children. He grew up in the relatively wealthy, 1,200 member church. He was recruited by the pastor to be second in command, preaching and working with the youth. Katie has been assigned to two small churches nearby. Ministers work notoriously long hours, evenings and weekends, for small sums. The Bishops will each make $33,000 a year, plus a housing allowance. "I know we could make a lot more money doing other things," Katie observes. "I just don't think we'd be happy." She acknowledges it will be tough to raise their children on two pastors' salaries. But she believes "we'll get to show our children something that's worth more...than a big house of our own." Chris agrees. Having never had a first career, he and Katie don't know what it's like to have a big paycheck. And the Bishops are part of a lucky minority: They have no debt – a problem that has driven some newly minted pastors out of the ministry, or discouraged talented young people from choosing ministry at all. Katie and Chris are fortunate in another way. Unlike many other denominations, the United Methodist Church places two-clergy couples in the same vicinity. Katie is serving at two rural churches tucked away on "the mountain," as the locals call it. As the assistant pastor, she preaches at one church one week, then switches with the senior pastor the next. Winning Over One's Elders For Katie, who grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., moving to a place where people actually make hay, and where milk is delivered to your doorstep in bottles, has been a bit of a culture shock. Driving to church one Sunday morning in late June, Katie points out a flock of turkeys. "I almost ran over those turkeys last week," she reports. "What are turkeys doing on the road, anyway?" At the red brick church, next to |
Syria Rejects Arab League's Plan | Saying it was a "blatant interference in its internal affairs," Syria rejected an Arab League plan that the organization hoped would bring an end to the violence. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the official state news agency, the government condemed the plan and accused the Arab League of arming terrorist groups, which they say are responsible for killing civilians and attacking state facilities. "We listened to instigatory (sic) statements which reflect their owners' connection with the schemes targeting the security of our people through demanding the foreign interference in Syria's affairs," a Syrian government official said according to SANA. Yesterday, the Arab League proposed a plan similar to the one brokered in Yemen. President Bashar Assad would hand power to his deputy and the vice president would then form a coalition government with the opposition. CNN reports that in news conference today, the Arab League defended its mission in Syria, saying that while it hasn't stopped the killing, it has curbed it. CNN reports: "Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby said the Syrian government has not complied with some parts of its agreement with the league aimed at ending the violence. But Arab League monitors have seen some aspects of the situation improve, he said. "'The presence of the Arab monitors provided security to opposition parties, which held an increase in number of peaceful protests ... in the areas where the monitors were present,' el-Araby said." CNN adds that today, five people were killed in the city of Homs. |
A Brief History Of Food Emoji: Why You Won't Find Hummus On Your Phone | It started with a cup of coffee, or more precisely, a hot beverage. Seven years later came fries, the now infamous eggplant and friends. Sandwich lovers waited for their time to come, while begrudgingly sending another drumstick, wishing it were barbecue. Food and drinks account for just 82 of around 2,000 emojis approved by the Unicode Consortium, the official body that regulates what emojis are added and their appearance, ensuring they work on different devices. On Twitter, millions of pizza slices have been sent, but there is still no sausage, no chips and a dearth of vegetables if you decide to live on an emoji-only diet. How hard is it to create a more culturally diverse menu of emoji? Harder than you think, argue design experts and those familiar with Unicode's systems. "I tried designing a hummus emoji and that did not go well," says Jennifer 8. Lee, a former New York Times journalist and co-founder of literary studio Plympton, whose campaign for a dumpling emoji now sees her sitting on a Unicode sub-committee. "It has to be visually distinctive as a food: Falafel would just be little brown balls. A lot of Indian foods like chaat or dosa are also hard — it has to be something that is iconic enough to make it through the process," Lee says. Gedeon Maheux is the co-founder of The Iconfactory, which is behind many of Twitter and Facebook Messenger's versions of standard emojis. He says food icons are some of his favorite to draw, especially the "V" of the martini glass or the umbrella in the tropical drink. To design an emoji, you need the absolute minimum number of characteristics required to effectively communicate what that thing is, explains Maheux. There's no text to help people understand whether that's a chestnut or an acorn, and space, color gradients and shading are all restricted, so making food look representative and appetizing is tricky. Emoji originated from Japan and this is perhaps the biggest influence on the foodstuffs available: There's ramen, sushi, numerous rice dishes and special Japanese desserts. Rendering unfamiliar dishes for an audience outside of Japan is just as tricky as finding ways to represent new delicacies. "All of those Asian-oriented emoji required extra design rounds to make sure they were drawn correctly within the culture, because you don't want to create something that the original emoji wasn't supposed to convey," says Maheux. Emoji's Japanese history and their design style has had a huge impact on what we see on our screens, but the governance and systems of how new emoji are proposed and created have helped maintain a certain status quo, too. In recent years, challenges to this bureaucracy by individuals like Lee or the Catalan campaign for an emoji representing the porrón, a traditional flask used for communal wine drinking, are helping diversify the foods that end up on our mobile plates. "Every culture, including Japan, has their version of the dumpling, so I was completely baffled as to how there could be no dumpling emoji. The system in place was clearly broken," explains Lee, who signed up as a $75-level Unicode Consortium member to find out more about the process, get on a mailing list and work out how to get dumplings in front of the powers that be. The Unicode system has been rather opaque and lacking in both cultural and occupational diversity, says Lee: "You need designers, you need linguists, you need a broader set of people who have a wider background." Diversity within Unicode is improving, and Lee is now working on Emojination, a more inclusive emoji-proposal process, to help open up emojis and make them more representative. The next release of emojis from Unicode, expected in mid-2017, will add the dumpling, plus the takeout box, the pretzel and more food and drinks. According to a recent report from Emogi, a messaging platform based around emoji, gifs and stickers, 75 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in having more emoji choices. "People want stronger emoji options across categories including food — not just a coffee emoji, but specific drinks, not just food emoji, but specific restaurants or dishes," says Alexis Berger, Emogi's chief strategy officer. Household names are getting in on the act: Taco Bell successfully campaigned for — you guessed it — a taco emoji, which was released in 2015. Could food and drink brands be the next big influence on emoji? Perhaps, but Lee's most recent experience suggests that working within Unicode's existing processes and ensuring that those who sit on the committees, the people who oversee the selection of new emojis, are more diverse in the first place is likely to have a much larger impact. "I thought lettuce and leafy greens were important to pass, because we're down on vegetables," she says. (Clearly, it's our phones' fault that we can't stick to a good diet.) "There was pushback, because there was already salad," says Lee. "Chinese people don't eat salad, not all Asian people eat raw salad, but |
Americans Love Spices. So Why Don't We Grow Them? | Nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves are probably ramping up in importance in your spice cabinet right about now — the classic flavors of the winter season. But while you might be shopping for local ingredients for your favorite recipes for eggnog or maple-glazed ham, the odds are that the spices you're using were imported from the other side of the world. Lior Lev Sercarz thinks spices should be local, too. As owner of La Boite, a spice store in Manhattan that creates blends for chefs and home cooks, Lev Sercarz travels far and wide in search of the best spices. "Spices tell the story of the world," he says. "There's a reason why good spices are good — they are the flavors of the regions that they come from and they also support that economy." Nowhere is the demand for spices more evident than in the United States, which leads the world in both consumption and imports. A U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed that Americans have dramatically embraced spices over the past 50 years: Per capita spice consumption in 1966 was 1.2 pounds annually, while that figure more than tripled by 2015 to 3.7 pounds. Clearly, Americans think spice is nice, but how robust are our taste buds? Vanilla beans, pepper — black, white and chili — sesame seed, cinnamon, mustard and oregano are the most common spice imports in the U.S., and there has been an uptick in cumin, paprika and turmeric in recent years. Lev Sercarz sees a public that is gaining appreciation for an expanded menu of global foods, from Indian to Korean to Ethiopian, but it comes at a cost. "We don't really grow spices in the United States," says Lev Sercarz. "Not because we can't, but because big agriculture is more focused on things like corn and soybeans. So we import from other countries and we pay a price for that." One example is sesame seeds: Despite the fact that we do actually grow some sesame seeds in the U.S., they are primarily grown for export, so we remain one of the world's top importers of sesame seeds. Think about that the next time you breakfast on a sesame seed bagel. Cheryl Deem, executive director of the American Spice Trade Association, has some doubts about the possibility of growing more kinds of spices in the U.S. "Most spices are grown outside of the U.S. because they require tropical or subtropical climates in which to grow, which for the most part cannot be found in the U.S. It's really a practical matter." She points out that dried chili peppers are grown in the Southwest and dehydrated onion and garlic are grown in California and Oregon, although recent California droughts have affected garlic production, giving Chinese garlic growers an edge. Lev Sercarz disagrees somewhat, noting that coriander, mustard, ginger, galangal and paprika are all crops that should be able to grow and thrive in the U.S. And a group of researchers in Vermont certainly thinks that there's at least one spice crop that American farmers might want to consider growing: saffron. Margaret Skinner, an entomologist and research professor at the North American Center for Saffron Research and Development at the University of Vermont, believes that crop diversification is essential to the survival of small family farms. So she and her colleagues have been active in developing ways for farmers to grow saffron. "This is a very high-value crop that is harvested in the late fall, when much of the field work is done for many farmers, especially those growing vegetables," Skinner says. "Spice production is a natural extension from traditional vegetable production and is likely the most logical way it will be increased." After attending a University of Vermont Extension meeting last winter, Patti Padua, who owns Cobble Creek Nursery in Monkton, Vt., with her husband, John, was enthusiastic about giving saffron growing a try. "We purchased 2,500 corms [bulbs] from Holland and planted them in beds in late August of this year. Our first harvest was this October," she says. That harvest was a bit of a disappointment, with a yield of about 150 stigma (the part of a plant where pollen germinates), but Padua is undaunted. "There was a learning curve on drying, and I think we finally got it right by using a food dehydrator, where we can dry at a low temperature. Harvesting went well and the processing is a pleasant and doable task." She thinks the income potential is worth the trial and error, especially because there isn't a big investment up front and the dried saffron is easy to store. While Padua says that she has quite a few retired women friends who are interested in helping to process the next saffron crop, which could be in the range of 2,500 flowers whose stigmas have to be hand-plucked, ASTA's Deem stresses that labor costs are probably a major factor in why spice farming has never taken off in the U.S. "It is assumed that Vermont-grown saffron would be more expensive, perhaps significantly so, because of labor costs. The issue for the industry then is whether the quality an |
From A Cd That Features | From a CD that features music by instruments that are the ancestors of the bassoon, which commentator Miles Hoffman will be discussing later this hour, the Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band performs "Hardi Francoys" (ahr-dee frah(n)-SWAH) by 16th-century French composer Guillaume Costeley (gee-ohm kah-steh-LAY). (Newport Classic NPD |
This, That, Or The Other | In honor of Hamilton, an American hip-hop musical, this episode's categories are: the real names of famous rappers; delegates to the first 1774 Continental Congress; OR 1980s fictional teen villains. Can you tell the difference? Heard on Leslie Odom Jr.: Aaron Burr, Sir OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: Our next two contestants will play one of our favorite games. Let's meet Bronson Taylor. Bronson, you describe yourself as an actor with a degree in bartending. BRONSON TAYLOR: Yeah. EISENBERG: Your opponent is Chris Stover, who is a writer for a national morning news show. CHRIS STOVER: It's true. EISENBERG: Bronson, would you rather spend two hours in a congressional meeting or two hours at a bad teen movie? TAYLOR: Bad teen movie. EISENBERG: Yeah? TAYLOR: It's not even a thought. Yeah. EISENBERG: Do you have a favorite bad teen movie? TAYLOR: Oh, I mean, "American Pie" is classic. EISENBERG: All Right. That's good. TAYLOR: Yeah. EISENBERG: Yeah, I like it. Chris, would you rather spend two hours at a bad teen movie or a congressional meeting? STOVER: I love Congress. EISENBERG: Great. STOVER: But I would say teen movie. EISENBERG: Yeah. STOVER: Teen movie. EISENBERG: All Right, this is why nothing can get done in this country. STOVER: Exactly. EISENBERG: You realize that. (LAUGHTER) EISENBERG: So this is a game called This, That or the Other. It's a very simple premise. We're going to give you a name, and you have to tell us which of three categories it belongs to. Jonathan Coulton, what are our categories? JONATHAN COULTON: Well, in honor of "Hamilton," a musical, that combines rap and American history, today's categories are the real names of famous rappers, delegates to the first Continental Congress in 1774. (LAUGHTER) COULTON: Or because we have to have a third category, fictional preppy villains from 1980s teen movies. (APPLAUSE) COULTON: So just buzz in when you know the answer. If you get it wrong, your opponent can steal. And the winner will earn a ticket to our final round. You ready? TAYLOR: Yeah. STOVER: Yeah. COULTON: OK. Here we go. Peyton Randolph. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Chris. STOVER: Delegate. COULTON: Yeah, that was very fast. (LAUGHTER) COULTON: Did you know that? EISENBERG: Yeah. STOVER: It sounded vaguely familiar. COULTON: It sounded delegatey. STOVER: You know, yeah, yeah. EISENBERG: Sounded vaguely familiar. That's pretty good. STOVER: You know, I studied the signatures. EISENBERG: The signatures. Got it. COULTON: Did a quick cram before you came on the show. What if they ask me about the delegates of Continental Congress? (LAUGHTER) COULTON: Stan Gable. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Chris. STOVER: Rapper. COULTON: No. I'm sorry. That's incorrect. Bronson, do you want to hazard a guess? TAYLOR: Villain. COULTON: You are correct. TAYLOR: Yeah. COULTON: It is an '80s villain. (APPLAUSE) COULTON: Now, do you know who it is or you just guessed? TAYLOR: I just guessed. COULTON: Yeah, OK. TAYLOR: Yeah. COULTON: Thanks for being honest. TAYLOR: Yeah. COULTON: Stan Gable was the leader of the Greek Council in "Revenge Of The Nerds." TAYLOR: Oh. COULTON: Ben Haggerty. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Chris. STOVER: Delegate. COULTON: No, I'm sorry. It's not a delegate. It sounds like a delegate, but it's not. Bronson, do you know who it is? TAYLOR: Rapper? COULTON: It is a rapper. Do you know which one? TAYLOR: No. (LAUGHTER) COULTON: Macklemore. It's Macklemore. TAYLOR: Oh, really? EISENBERG: Yeah. TAYLOR: Oh. COULTON: That's right. TAYLOR: Well, whatever. COULTON: Yeah, learn something new every day. TAYLOR: Cool. COULTON: Carlton Ridenhour. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Bronson. TAYLOR: Rapper. COULTON: Yes, it is a rapper. I'm going to ask you. Do you know who it is? TAYLOR: I do not. COULTON: Oh, come on. (LAUGHTER) COULTON: How are you doing this? It's Chuck D. TAYLOR: Oh, OK. COULTON: Edmund Pendleton. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Chris, you seem like you know it. STOVER: That has to be a delegate. COULTON: It is a delegate. STOVER: OK. Yeah. (APPLAUSE) COULTON: That's funny. Edmund Pendleton that does sound pretty much like... STOVER: Yeah. COULTON: ...You can see that in a signature. Aubrey Graham. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Chris. STOVER: I think that's a rapper. COULTON: It is. (APPLAUSE) COULTON: Do you know which one it is? STOVER: If I had multiple choice I could pick. (LAUGHTER) COULTON: I don't have multiple choice on this piece of paper. EISENBERG: You don't. STOVER: I don't want to guess. COULTON: You know him by his middle name, which is Drake. STOVER: Oh. COULTON: Mick McAllister. (SOUNDBITE) COULTON: Bronson. TAYLOR: Villain? COULTON: Yes, absolutely. Now, do you know which? TAYLOR: Absolutely not, no. COULTON: No. TAYLOR: No. COULTON: No idea. (LAUGHTER) COULTON: It's Michael J. Fox's rival in "Teen Wolf." TAYLOR: Oh. COULTON: Joseph Galloway. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) COULTON: Chris. STOVER: Delegate. COULTON: Yeah, delegate. (APPLAUSE) COULTON: You have an ear for the names of de |
'Bed Intruder Song' Tops YouTube's Most-Watched List In 2010 | Bed Intruder Song is this year's No. 1 on YouTube's most-watched list of videos. Since the top 2 versions of that much-mashed clip have been watched about 61 million times, it's no surprise to see it on top. For those not familiar with the video, it all started with this news report from Alabama about an attempted rape and 24-year-old Antoine Dodson's emotional reaction to what happened to his sister. "Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife ..."; Read More: "Obviously, we have a rapist in Lincoln Park," he said. "He's climbing in your windows. He's snatching your people up, trying to rape 'em. So you all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband, 'cause they're rapin' everybody out here." The rhythms of Dodson's speech were perfect for setting to setting to music. As for the rest of the most-watched videos (and the list does not include "commercial" music videos), they're all collected here. And see how many you recognize from this YouTube medley: NPR's Andy Carvin, over at the All Tech Considered blog, wrote way back in August about how Bed Intruder was "a perfect storm of race, music, comedy and celebrity." And On the Media, a little later, looked at how Bed Intruder wasn't just viral, it became a "meme." |
Welcome to the Weekends | Liane Hansen left me a "post-it" note that says, "Welcome to our world, two words - HAVE FUN." As a longtime listener of "Weekend Edition," it is a little surreal to be hosting the show. The weekend team has been so welcoming and aside from a few minor bumps (I couldn't find the audio booth), I'm ready to go for this Sunday and next Saturday. On Sunday, we will speak with a true-life hero, Medal of Honor winner Retired Colonel Jack Jacobs about his new book. We will check in with a small business owner trying to slog it out during this tough economy. And we will answer a question that came to me while I was sitting on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport--who will fill the Senate seat or seats left open when the presidency is decided? Read More >> For next Saturday, I'm working on a story about Harlem gentrification, an interview with author and finance expert John Bogle about when is enough money enough -- and a chat with an artist who custom writes love songs. Okay, for those of you who at this point are thinking....who is this person? Or wow, the name sounds familiar. I was most recently the host of NPR's online morning show, "Bryant Park Project" and I've been moonlighting as a panelist on "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me." I also spent the past five years at NBC News/MSNBC as a correspondent, anchor and host of my own show, "The Most." I started my news career 16 years ago, producing MTV's first election coverage. Wish me luck this Sunday! |
Letters: Foster Care, Accordions and Headaches | Michele Norris and Robert Siegel read from listeners' letters and emails, including responses to our story about two boys who came through the Washington, D.C., foster care system and and our report on "International Accordion Awareness Month. |
Excerpt: 'The Bridge' | In January, 2007, a month before Obama formally declared his candidacy for President, the polls indicated that Hillary Clinton had a firm hold on the African-American vote. At that time, not all African- Americans knew who Obama was; among those who did, many were either wary of another symbolic black candidacy, another Shirley Chisholm or Jesse Jackson, or loyal to the Clintons. African-Americans know that their votes are especially crucial in the nominating process. "The Negro potential for political power is now substantial," Dr. King wrote in 1963, in Why We Can't Wait. "In South Carolina, for example, the 10,000-vote margin that gave President Kennedy his victory in 1960 was the Negro vote. . . . Consider the political power that would be generated if the million Americans who marched in 1963 also put their energy directly into the electoral process." King's prediction, which preceded passage of the Voting Rights Act and the registration of many hundreds of thousands more black voters, became an axiom of Democratic Party politics. No one knew this calculus better than Bill Clinton. A white Southerner, Clinton had read black writers and had black friends — a sharp difference from nearly all of his predecessors. The syndicated black radio host Tom Joyner recalled how Clinton awarded Rosa Parks the Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1996, and, at the ceremony, Jessye Norman led the audience in "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the James Weldon Johnson hymn commonly known as the Negro national anthem. "Every living black dignitary was in the audience that great day and everyone stood and sang the first verse loudly and proudly," Joyner recalled. "As we got to the second verse, the singing got faint. Most of us left it up to Miss Norman, who had the words in front of her. The only person in the room who sang every word of every verse by heart was Bill Clinton. By the third verse, he and Jessye Norman were doing a duet." Writing in The New Yorker in 1998, in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the sanctimony parade that followed, Toni Morrison remarked that Bill Clinton, "white skin notwithstanding," had been the "first black president," a Southerner born poor, a "saxophone- playing, McDonald's- and-junk food-loving boy," the first national leader to have a real affinity for and ease with African- American friends, churches, and communities. In January, according to a Washington Post/ABC poll, Hillary Clinton was ahead among African- Americans three to one. Obama had failed so far to win support from civil-rights leaders. There was a constant stream of negative talk in public forums and on the Internet, trash talk about his patriotism, his left-wing associations, how he'd been schooled and indoctrinated at an Indonesian madrassa. Some civil-rights leaders of the older generation, like Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who were worried about being surpassed by a new generation, betrayed their anxieties by trying to instruct Barack Obama on the question of genuine blackness. "Just because you are our color doesn't make you our kind," Sharpton said. Obama and his closest aides recalled that he had been in a similar position at the start of the Illinois Senate race in 2004, with many urban blacks more comfortable, at first, with machine politicians and many whites more comfortable with just about anyone but a black man with a foreign sounding name that rhymed with the first name of the most notorious terrorist in the world. "We'd been in the same place before," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, recalled. "But one of the most important things you face in a Presidential campaign is the fact that there is almost a year between the announcement and the first real contest, in the Iowa caucuses, and so you have a whole series of surrogate contests in the interim." Selma was the first of those surrogate contests. One week before the event, the Clinton campaign learned that Obama was speaking at Brown Chapel. They hurriedly made arrangements for Hillary Clinton to speak three blocks down the street, at First Baptist Church. Artur Davis, an African- American congressman from Alabama and a friend of Obama's, said that Hillary Clinton knew she had to come to Selma: "There was no better place than this stage to make a statement about her seriousness in contesting the black vote." The former President would come, too, and be inducted into the National Voting Rights Museum's "hall of fame." Bill Clinton was wise enough to know that in Selma Hillary could emerge from the day's news cycle with, at best, an undramatic, gaffe-less draw. He had been counseled to keep his remarks to a minimum in Selma lest he draw attention from his wife. When he and Hillary spoke side by side at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, in February, 2006, he had been masterly, heartfelt, as good, many felt, as any of the best black preachers in the pulpit that day. By comparison, Hillary, speaking just after him, was stiff, awkward, routin |
Move Over, Dora: 'Nina's World' Brings Another Bilingual Girl To TV | Cable channel Sprout celebrates its 10th anniversary with the launch of its first fully owned, original animated show, "Nina's World." Starring Rita Moreno and Mandy Patinkin, it's about a 6-year-old Latina girl and the multicultural neighborhood she grows up in. |
The Resilience of London -- and Londoners | Host Scott Simon shares some thoughts on London and Londoners. |
Can Jazz Be Saved? (Is That A Useful Question?) | I'm supposed to be thinking about Newport -- or sleeping so I can later be thinking about Newport -- but I had to get this out of my system. I woke up yesterday in Newport, R.I. to find this Terry Teachout Wall Street Journal opinion piece forwarded to my inbox. The headline: "Can Jazz Be Saved?" Which -- yikes! -- even considering the prospect of watching live jazz all day, was not the greatest way to start Saturday. Here's the catch: Nobody's listening. No, it's not quite that bad -- but it's no longer possible for head-in-the-sand types to pretend that the great American art form is economically healthy or that its future looks anything other than bleak. The subject of the op-ed is one dear to my heart, which has only been beating for some 24-odd years. (Yes, I played that card; not like you couldn't have Googled it anyway.) I'm very much of this critical demographic whose participation in jazz could "save" it, should you choose to accept the logic of the article. And I'm fairly sensitive to the suggestion that jazz's future doesn't look "anything other than bleak," and that it's implied to be the fault of my generation for not embracing jazz. Believe me, the reality of the NEA survey that Teachout writes about is not lost on me. Read More >> I mean, you try being a modern twenty-something and getting your non-jazz-nerd friends to go see shows with you. I myself noted the grim empirical data -- and they are grim -- on this blog when the reports surfaced. NPR's Elizabeth Blair filed briefly about it too. The thing about that, though -- and this is the actual lede of Blair's piece -- is that the NEA's reports show that all participation in high-cultural activity is down. Once the economy recovers and young people have, you know, job prospects, maybe they'll go see some shows again. I try to monitor the state of affairs in jazz, and I know there are at very least still a lot of young people making improvised music. It's not unreasonable to suppose that youthful interest may not be far behind. Which brings me to the point of all this: there's a sizable gap between the NEA data, which you can find here, and what Teachout is inferring. And furthermore, for someone who claims to support jazz, his inferences aren't particularly useful. Take this statement: What does this tell us? I suspect it means, among other things, that the average American now sees jazz as a form of high art. Nor should this come as a surprise to anyone, since most of the jazz musicians I know feel pretty much the same way. They regard themselves as artists, not entertainers, masters of a musical language that is comparable in seriousness to classical music -- and just as off-putting to pop-loving listeners who have no more use for Wynton Marsalis than they do for Felix Mendelssohn. Wait, what? Really? First of all, the heart of the problem isn't that people see jazz as high art: it's that people see it as boring or unapproachable art. We would do well to treat this problem, and not the imagined, increasingly meaningless distinction of low vs. high. As with race in this country, it isn't being black that makes you less likely to go to college; it's being from the poorest neighborhood in a city with failing schools, which happens to be a majority-black community. Let's diagnose the issues correctly. But furthermore: has Teachout recently talked to or seen in concert any jazz musician under the age of 35? I'm fairly certain that jazz musicians, and especially young jazz musicians, don't exist in hermetic bubbles. They listen to the popular music of their peers and their generation, and often themselves make it for fun and/or for a living. And so they don't think jazz is anything intrinsically different than good rock, or hip-hop, or whatever it is. If there's one thing I can say about young jazz musicians, it's that their first favorite records were probably not jazz albums. Their musical outlooks probably reflect that. Double furthermore: if young jazz musicians think this way, then young music listeners -- you know, we who could put representative samples from the entirety of Western (or even non-Western) popular music on our iTunes libraries, and often do -- are even more genre-agnostic. And really: what's the point of Teachout saying all this, and not offering any directions forward? Does Teachout think the jazz world needs yet another good scare to start moving faster? Or does he actually see no models for developing audiences, no encouraging young artists or scenes who are bridging this so-called high-art divide by making just-plain-fun music? Not even in Vijay Iyer, or Christian McBride, or the Vandermark 5, or Joshua Redman, or Miguel Zenon, or Hiromi, or Mos Def (whose band is led by Robert Glasper), all of whom I saw at the Newport Jazz Festival, a supposed bastion of conservatism in jazz, on Saturday alone? I have great respect for Teachout as a thinker, and ultimately, I do agree with his assertion that jazz faces a dire cri |
Secrets Mar The Gloss Of 'Youth' For These Heroines | It's a funny thing to read a book and realize two things simultaneously. One: some people you know, whose taste you trust, will really love it. Two: some people you know, whose opinions you value, will want to toss it across the room. For me, the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is a great example. He's one of the biggest authors in the world, a global bestseller. Millions of people love that guy, myself included. But I also know many people, readers and writers, who think he's a total sham. Well, for those in the former camp, if you like Murakami's cool prose, that Raymond Chandler-esque aloofness in the face of strange events, have I got the book for you. The Isle of Youth is Laura van den Berg's second collection of short stories. It's a small book, but it feels much bigger. I could have kept reading for days. In a way, each one is a detective story, sometimes literally and sometimes not. The main character is always a youngish woman, trying to figure out what the hell happened to her life. One time, she's in Antarctica, investigating her brother's death. Next she's a gumshoe in Florida, spying on a cheating husband. There's one story where she's part of a teenage bank-robbing gang; another where she follows acrobats around Paris. In each story, the narrator has the same vulnerable self-reliance — her private-eye detachment from events. The heat stays on simmer, even when the plot turns extreme. "I breathed in deeply," the narrator says in one story, "but when I exhaled, no air seemed to come out, like something inside me had eaten it." There are one or two duds in here. When you can tell van den Berg spent more effort writing than storytelling, they become a little brittle. But after the first story, when the book gets rolling, she's completely on her game. My favorite was the last piece, which also happens to be the title story. It's about a pair of identical twins, one wild, one dull, who barely talk to each other. We find out the wild sister once tried to steal the plain one's husband. But now she needs her twin to swap lives for a couple days, in order to fool a drug lord. And the ensuing events are full of delicacy and surprise. Plenty of authors write with this sort of detachment. It can be divisive, sometimes too cool to love. I'm thinking of Joan Didion, Mary Robison, and, again, Murakami. But for those of us who do love them, Laura van den Berg is a new name to add to the list. |
Inky The Octopus's Great Escape | Inky is out. Inky, an octopus who is about the size of a basketball and of undetermined age, has lammed it out of his tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand and is at large somewhere in Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand's north island. Near as experts can figure from his splotchy tracks, Mr. Inky — somehow, he deserves that honorific — squeezed through a slight gap at the top of his tank, flopped to the floor, then slithered about 8 feet overland to slide down a drainpipe more than 160 feet long and, finally, to plop into the bay. He left behind his tankmate, Blotchy, who so far has told authorities nothing. Blotchy is an octopus, but no stool pigeon. The escape apparently happened several months ago, but was only certified in the past few days. Rob Yarrall, the aquarium's manager, told Radio New Zealand that employees had searched the aquarium's pipes, but found no trace of Inky. "He managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went," Yarrall said. "Didn't even leave us a message." What was Inky supposed to say? "Thanks for all the cuttlefish. But I gotta be me. Inky." Marine biologists who know their octopuses were not surprised. Alix Harvey, an aquarist at Britain's Marine Biological Association, told the New York Times, "Octopuses are fantastic escape artists." They have also been known to open jars — I think I've seen a YouTube video of that — and use coconut shells to build shelters on the ocean floor; something which, by the way, I couldn't begin to do. "They have a complex brain," says Harvey of octopuses, "excellent eyesight, and research suggests they have an ability to learn and form mental maps." We should be careful not to project human traits onto octopuses. But it's hard not to note that Inky chose to bolt from surroundings in which he was safe, secure, and hand fed, for the dangers of an open sea that teems sharks, seals and whales that might eat him. Inky chose liberty over security. And when you hear that Inky and octopuses have the brains to plot Steve McQueenish escapes, build coconut shell edifices, and form mental maps, for me, at least, it gets a little harder to think of them being grilled and served for dinner. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Inky is out. Inky, an octopus who's about the size of a basketball and of undetermined age, has lammed it out of his tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand and is at large somewhere in Hawke's Bay on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. Near as experts can figure from his splotchy tracks, Mr. Inky - somehow he deserves that honorific - squeezed through a slight gap at the top of his tank, flopped to the floor, then slithered about eight feet overland to slide down a drain pipe more than 160 feet long and finally to plop into the bay. He left behind his tank-mate, Blotchy, who so far has told authorities nothing. Blotchy is an octopus, but no stool pigeon. The escape apparently happened several months ago but was only certified in the past few days. Rob Yarrall, the aquarium's manager, told Radio New Zealand that employees had searched the aquarium's pipes but found no trace of Inky. He managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean and off he went, Mr. Yarrall said, didn't even leave us a message. What was Inky supposed to say? Thanks for all the cuttlefish, but I got to be me, Inky? Marine biologists who know their octopuses were not surprised. Alix Harvey, an aquarist at Britain's Marine Biological Association, told The New York Times, octopuses are fantastic escape artists. They've also been known to open jars - I've seen a YouTube video of that - and use coconut shells to build shelters on the ocean floor, something which, by the way, I couldn't begin to do. They have a complex brain, says Alix Harvey of octopuses, excellent eyesight and research suggests they have an ability to learn and form mental maps. We should be careful not to project human traits onto octopuses. But it's hard not to note that Inky chose to bolt from surroundings in which he was safe, secure and handfed to the dangers of an open sea that teems with sharks, seals and whales that might eat him. Inky chose liberty over security. And when you hear that Inky and octopuses have the brains to plot Steve McQueen-ish escapes, build coconut shell edifices and form mental maps, for me at least, it gets a little harder to think of them being grilled and served for dinner. (SOUNDBITE OF JOHN BARRY SONG, "009 GETS THE KNIFE AND GORBINDA ATTACKS") SIMON: John Barry's music from the film "Octopussy." Such fun to be able to say that on the air. You're listening to NPR News. |
Senate Control May Hinge on Missouri Outcome | Michele Norris gets an update on the Senate Race in Missouri from NPR's Frank Langfitt. The race between Republican Senator Jim Talent and Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill has been one of the most closely watched contests this year. It could determine who controls the Senate. |
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