Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP
Here's a preview of tomorrow's BPP.
Win Rosenfeld
4:27 PM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
Filed under: Links From the Show
3:04 PM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: Maternity Leave
Speed Racer makes the time fly by.
No baby yet. Frustration and concern began to set in, and then I remembered the words of Project Runway's great philosopher, Tim Gunn -- Make it work! Making maternity leave work:
1) Rub elbows with former presidents. Strolled within 3 feet of Bill Clinton in the west village on Monday. Got the hairy eyeball from Secret Service who spied my MSNBC jacket. 2) Tag along to screenings with friends. Speed Racer mid-afternoon in a cushy Time Warner screening room?! Nice. It may be the movie of the summer. Visually arresting human cartoon craziness. 3) Excuse to eat spicy Chinese food -- didn't work to bring on labor but I do love the stinky garlic broccoli at Empire Szechuan. 4) Download pop music and dance around the house nine-and-half-months pregnant. Sorry for the visual. Currently on the hit list: Duffy's "Mercy." 5) Start that fierce book you always dreamed about. Page one is pretty good, if I do say so myself.
The update: Baby Stewolff will join us by Friday, so the doctors tell me. Stay tuned.
Alison Stewart
1:13 PM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post
Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette, Video
People gotta know: there's a new rock, paper, scissors on the scene. Jacob is currently office champion.
Zena Barakat
10:16 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post
Filed under: Music
Country punk singer/songwriter Langhorne Slim will be stopping by our studio today for an interview and performance. After that we're taking Langhorne out to Bryant Park, where he's going to give an "impromptu" performance. (This blog post and one tweet on Twitter are the only promotion we're doing. So consider yourself part of a special secret club.)
We'll record the whole thing and make an awesome video, but if you're nearby and you want to come check it out, feel free. He'll be playing between 12:30 and 1 near the statue of Bryant.
Dan Pashman
10:04 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: Inside The BPP
A Twitter update from No. 10 Downing Street (thanks, @marilynm)
Listener Marc Naimark says he signed up for Twitter, and now he wants to know how to Twitter the BPP.
Here's the answer: In the space where Twitter asks what you're doing, write something that includes @bpp. Example: "Hey @bpp -- what's that weird noise on your show?" Your message will show up in our "replies" queue -- everyone has one.
New to Twitter and looking for friends? The fellow BPP folks listed here have volunteered.
Laura Conaway
9:17 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
A Chilean mayor plans to give Viagra away to men over the age of 60. Mayor Gonzalo Navarette Munoz, a physician, says he heard older patients complaining about their sex lives. "This is about giving our elderly population a better quality of life," he told reporters.
It's the Ramble.
Amy Winehouse working on 'Bond theme'/ Older Chileans given free Viagra/ Roger Waters' inflatable pig recovered in desert/ Albert Hoffman, LSD's 'dad' dies at a mind-blowing 102/ Absinthe's mind-altering mystery solved
8:40 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: News
Marvin Killgore holds one thin slice of the Fukang Meteorite up to the sun.
Today's a big day for Marvin Killgore. If all goes as planned, the plumber-turned-meteorite hunter will see the most prized piece in his personal meteorite collection auctioned off at Bonham's for nearly $3 million. Six months ago a similar auction failed to find a buyer for two pricey meteorites. But Marvin says his space rock is different. It's special. It's the Fukang Meteorite, named after the town in China near where the meteorite was found. Marvin and his wife Kitty joined us on the BPP today. There's a pic of the whole meteorite after the jump...
Continue reading "The Fukang Meteorite" »
8:34 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
When the economy heads for the basement, Americans follow -- so they can haul out stuff to sell on Craiglist and eBay. Folks at the online swap meets say they're seeing more ads with a plaintive tone. On poster sold her grandmother's tea kettle for $6.
It's the Most.
Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet/ Red Sox player's wife gives anti-tanning message/ Memorial for beloved surfer killed in car accident/ Charles Nelson Reilly, zooms to the top again/ Absinthe's mind-altering mystery solved
8:29 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: City Living
Noel Hidalgo's new office.
Last week, Noel Hidalgo got behind the wheel for his first day as a New York City cabbie. If that wasn't scary enough, our own Mike Pesca rode shotgun and played the results on the show today.
For more on Noel's adventures in yellow, check out his blog. Angry fares. New York City streets. Other cabbies. I can't imagine a scarier job. Can you?
Ian Chillag
7:39 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: Sports
Mike Pesca and I had a little debate yesterday about the merits of the NFL draft, and we decided to take it on to the blog. After you've read both sides, tell us what you think. I'll let Mr. Pesca go first...
MIKE PESCA SAYS: As I watched the NFL draft on Sunday I remembered the words of the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who once noted that life must be lived forward but can only be understood backward. Kierkegaard must have been referring to the tendency of quarterbacks who favor the seven-step drop to leave themselves open to a DB jumping the route on a hot read.
Actually that's not why I thought of Kierkegaard at all. The frail and melancholy Dane was in evidence in every yelp of the crowd, and bold pronouncement of the prognosticators. This is my problem with the NFL draft. It doesn't mean anything. From the time a player is drafted until the time he becomes a bona fide player, so much can change that it scarcely makes sense to use the draft as a source of confirmation or consternation. But consternate the pundits do.
Read the rest of Pesca's thoughts, and my response, after the jump...
Continue reading "Blog/Counterblog: The NFL Draft" »
5:04 PM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
4:36 PM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
Filed under: Luncheonette
From NPR, for your breaktime pleasure, a trip to China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, courtesy of videographer David Gilkey.
Gilkey's been blogging it up along with the rest of the NPR team in China.
12:35 PM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
As we reported in today's Ramble the father of an Army sergeant has documented the dirt, mold and general decrepitude of the army barracks at Fort Bragg. Well, just as LBJ knew he had lost Vietnam when he lost Cronkite, there are signs that a once stalwart supporter of the U.S. military is cracking.
Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey, an estimable document of the life of the U.S. service man, has never wavered in its support of military doctrine. Until now. In what can scarcely be seen as a coincidence, today's strip slyly comments on the deplorable conditions at Fort Bragg. In the first panel, or "set up," Corporal Yo informs Sarge that there is dirt on his door, desk and Jeep. In the second panel, or "pay off," Sarge wonders how this could be? Who could hate Sarge so much?
Now, we all know that Mort Walker is FAR too subtle to draw a tear running down Sarge's cheek, Indian chief in a junkyard style, but that is the implication. Like all Beetle Bailey strips, today's is hilarious, but the undercurrent of ennui and strain is hard to miss. Mort Walker's message is unmistakable -- that in a way, by allowing these conditions to persist, ALL OF US hate Sarge that much. And FYI: a tipster informs us that Boner's Ark will soon be beset by gulls, in a storyline that closely mimics the issue of Somali pirates. You may never look at Cupcake the same way again.
--Mike Pesca
12:20 PM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Filed under: Music, Video
Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots talks about the band's new album, Rising Down, and the pressure of being the last black band signed to a major record label.
10:22 AM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
On the show this morning, ?uestlove of the Roots talked about the hip-hop group's new record, Rising Down.
Back in 2007, the Roots bulldozed a Bob Dylan tribute concert with a cover of Dylan's "Masters of War." One critic, Rob Harvilla of the Village Voice, described the scene like this:
"And then, oh my God, 'Masters of War,' performed by the Roots, consisting in this iteration of Questlove on drums, Captain Kirk on guitar and vocals (no Black Thought this eve), some dude on tuba, and the entire Thursday-night Lincoln Center crowd on jaws-dropped-to-floor percussion."
Bonus: The complete performance, with (as far as I can tell) one profanity.
10:09 AM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
8:57 AM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: Election 2008, Sound Off
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright addresses the National Press Club on April 28.
Torpedo. That's the word I keep hearing to describe what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is or is not trying to do to Barack Obama's presidential bid. Yesterday, the Democratic senator's former pastor spoke at the National Press Club -- affirming his positions on the root causes of AIDS and 9-11 and decrying criticism of his sermons. "This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," Wright says. "It is an attack on the black church."
Obama told reporters that Wright doesn't speak for him or for the campaign. "Some of the comments that Rev. Wright has made offend me, and I understand why they offend the American people," the frontrunner said. Judging from opinion pages, that may not be enough. Obama and Wright's hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, headlined an editorial "Wright's Curious Mission," writing:
By the end of Wright's performance, you had to wonder if he was trying to torpedo Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. He surely didn't seem troubled by that possibility. "Nothing can get in the way if God wants Obama to be president," Wright said. Maybe not. But the pastor seemed interested in testing the theory.
Bonus reads: WaPo's Eugene Robinson: Where Wright goes wrong EbonyJet's Monroe Anderson
6:25 AM ET | 04-29-2008 | permalink | comments (42) | e-mail post
Here's a preview of tomorrow's broadcast.
3:28 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love, Stuff We Love
Chef Bernard Loiseau's "Cuisses de Grenouille."
On the show today we talked about the quintessential French dish, frogs' legs ("cuisses de grenouille" en français, which translates to frogs thighs). Our guest, writer Mort Rosenblum, mentioned his favorite recipe, created by 3-star chef Bernard Loiseau.
If you have some frogs' legs and goose fat handy, the recipe, courtesy of The Food Network is after the jump:
Continue reading "Bon Appetit: Frogs' Legs Recipe" »
Tricia McKinney
2:50 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: Sound Off
Apparently the economic stimulus money the government has promised is arriving early. About 800,000 recipients will get their money direct-deposited over each of the next three days.
Did you check your bank account? Did you get your money? What are you going to do with it
2:18 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: ROFL, Slideshow
The T-shirts of ROFLCon.
You couldn't swing a LOLCat at ROFLCon without hitting an awesome t-shirt. If you want to hear what ROFLCon was like, check out our segment from today's BPP.
2:08 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Day 8: I was reading an article in the Sunday New York Times about public radio trying to energize its listenership. As a working woman, soon to be working mother, one paragraph grabbed me, for all the wrong reasons.
"The [Bryant Park Project] had a tough start. One host, Luke Burbank, quit just before the first day, Oct. 1, although he didn't leave until mid-December. The remaining host, Alison Stewart, is on maternity leave. "
Do we still live in a time when maternity leave is seen as a negative, a problem, a hurdle -- something that creates a "tough" situation for co-workers? I've heard of women who hide their pregnancies or don't tell their bosses. When I read this piece, it struck me this paragraph fed into the idea that having a baby is a liability for women in the workplace. Didn't the governor of Alaska just give birth?
I have to admit I was initially kind of nervous to tell my bosses that Bill and I had been overachievers in the baby making department. We were shooting for post-election -- TMI, I know.
For the record NPR has been nothing short of AWESOME about the first BPP baby. My exec producer and BPPeeps are incredibly supportive and frankly, if I can reach around and pat myself on the back, more than once I did the show shortly after barfing in the bathroom 10 minutes before airtime.
So a tough start for us because of a pregnancy and maternity leave? Was that a sexist paragraph in the Times or a grim reality? Just curious what our BPP community thinks. Disagreeing is heartily welcomed.
1:40 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (30) | e-mail post
Chillag, you know not what you drink.
Chillag: What do they have to drink? Pashman: Well, they list flan as a beverage. And they have something called Morir Soñando. Chillag: Get me one. Pashman: What is it? Chillag: I don't know.
The Morir Soñando is on its way to the BPP along with too many Cuban sandwiches. Garrison said it translates to "to die dreaming." Any guesses what I'm about to drink? No Googling.
1:03 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Justice Antonin Scalia on NPR
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at Roger Williams University Law School in Bristol, R.I., on April 7.
In the first of a planned three-part interview with NPR's, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia talks about his more than a quarter century on the nation's top bench.
Totenberg reports that Scalia has carried the conservative banner and often been in the minority. "Though he has failed to persuade a majority of his colleagues on many high-profile cases, supporters and critics alike agree that he has changed the terms of the debate," she writes.
She argues that Scalia and fellow conservative Clarence Thomas do not actually march in lockstep -- despite what liberal observers might say. For one thing, Scalia is far more reluctant to undo an old law.
"I'm an originalist and a textualist, not a nut," he tells her.
And no, he's not a likely running mate for John McCain.
Check it out: Justice Scalia, the Great Dissenter, Opens Up
1:01 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: Luncheonette, Music
Prince headlined Coachella over the weekend, and played a cover of Radiohead's "Creep" that was by all accounts legendary. It didn't take long for the performance to make it to YouTube:
11:52 AM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
If you're U.C. Berkeley student on your way to jail in Egypt, it helps to have a Twitter account. Collared while covering an anti-government protest, James Karl Buck managed to bang out "arrested" on his cell phone. That word alerted his friends and the school, who got him a lawyer -- and his freedom.
West Virginia governor's daughter didn't earn MBA/ Student Twitters his way out of Egyptian jail/ Revealing photo threatens a major Disney franchise/ James Bond production halted amid fears of a curse
9:04 AM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Swiss jumps using Leonardo da Vinci-designed parachute/ Study suggests math teachers scrap balls and slices/ Man admits 24-year abuse of daughter in cellar/ Two men in New York to apply for marriage license
9:02 AM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
In a way, it makes sense that the person who first envisioned the helicopter would also dream up the parachute.
It's Leonardo da Vinci kind of Most.
8:55 AM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: Election 2008
NPR wants you. Specifically, we want you to tell the world what moves you as a voter. Our new Get My Vote project invites you to express yourself in video, audio or text. Some people think of it as a way to tell politicians what they have to do win you over it. We like to think of it as "Understand My Vote" -- as in, get it?
Like russpears, the guy in the video up there. He wants funding for a free online education system. And seriously, I'm way far from wanting that myself, or at least from marking it as a priority. But disagreeing is half the fun. Check out Get My Vote -- then take a couple of minutes to post your own entry. We'll be blogging the best of your stuff in the weeks to come.
7:17 AM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Filed under: ROFL
Anonymous fans at the "Internet Cult Leaders" panel.
Don't know if it could be called a protest, but anonymous--the group most famous for their protests of Scientology--has definitely caused a disruption at the ROFL Con "Internet Cult Leaders" panel. They've made some noise at the back of the room, and seemed to be heading for the stage before ROFL Con staffers stopped them.
The next question from the crowd was "What does anonymous think they can accomplish by protesting here?" The panelists deflected the question, but if you were going to protest ROFL Con this would be the place to do it: the internet is crazy for these people. Moot from "4Chan," Randall Munroe of the web comic "xkcd," and Ryan North from "Dinosaur Comics" are here. If ROFL Con were real life, this would be Elvis sitting next to Double Elvis sitting next to the wheel.
4:39 PM ET | 04-26-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Kevin Driscoll leads Crank Dat: ROFL Con edition.
I wish I had a way to embed Kevin Driscoll himself into this blog page but I don't know the html so good. He's wrapping up a fascinating talk about the cult of Soulja Boy, and now everyone in the crowd is lining up to make a Soulja Boy Crank Dat ROFL Con video.
2:24 PM ET | 04-26-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
You can't stop it.
The day ROFL Con began, I talked to the internet and the internet said rickrolling was over. Yet here we are. This got a huge cheer when the crowd finally pulled it off.
(If the image above doesn't make sense, just read my last post)
1:33 PM ET | 04-26-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
A little geeked out over this
You don't raise your hand at ROFL Con. You submit a question to roflcon.backchan.nl. Other users vote on the questions, and the highest rated ones get asked. It's rad. Whether people are paying more attention to panel or the backchannel page is another matter. What would happen if we tried this on the BPP?
More on the backchannel here.
11:18 AM ET | 04-26-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Also available in cat sizes.
Back online at ROFL Con.
Most of the people here didn't set out to be famous. A few minutes ago I spoke with Ian Spector, who started Chuck Norris Facts. He's a 19-year-old pre-med student at Brown, and the origin of his meme? It was Saturday night and he didn't know where his friends were and didn't have anything else to do.
Now, I'm sitting in the day two keynote. Alice Marwick from NYU is on stage talking about fame, more specifically our desire for its trappings:
We think that fame means things will be perfect forever.
That's a key difference between traditional fame and internet fame. Most internet celebrities know that their meme will have painfully short lifespan. For some, it means cashing in while they can. For Ian Spector, it means defining himself as "pre-med," not as "that Chuck Norris guy."
10:13 AM ET | 04-26-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Rolling on the floor sobbing.
The LOLCATS: I CAN HAZ CASE STUDY? Panel at ROFL Con was pretty amazing. More on the really smart talk about really dumb stuff later. For now, had to put this up after Ben "Cheez" Huh, the CEO of I Can Has Cheezburger said his favorite LOLs are Emo LOLs.
6:49 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
NYROFL
My girlfriend Nora, having endured days of me talking about LOLCats, poses this question as I sit in the LOLCATS: I CAN HAZ CASE STUDY? panel at ROFL Con: what if LOLCats met the New Yorker Magazine caption contest?
3:30 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Kid has a baseball team already, thanks to Bill Wolff's co-workers.
What happens when a woman who has been cranking for a year on the BPP takes off for maternity leave?
Well . . .
Day 1: April 21 Woke up at 3:30 am. 3:30 AM!! I pitch some ideas to the BPP, to which Pashman responds, "Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" Yup. Instead, I decide to organize and clean every closet. And in an effort to get to my mecca, the Container store, I almost broke a personal rule...and left the house in sweat pants!! I'd made a pact with myself that no matter how tired/wide/harassed, I would get dressed every day.
Day 2: April 22 Made a bold decision to attend a "salon-like" soiree on the Upper East Side -- complete with a guy who restores castles in Scotland, a yoga instructor and travel writer. I had to figure out the how to spend the least amount of time in the subway in case I went into labor. Figured 2/3 train to 72nd and then bus across only meant 20 minutes underground. All went well, except NO ONE gave up his/her seat to a nine-months-pregnant lady. Gotta love NY!
Day 3: April 23 Big doctor's appointment -- will I be spirited off to the hospital? Nope. No big news. Rats. I keep seeing ads for Tina Fey's Baby Mama -- can't decide if it will make me laugh or cry to see it at this point.
Day 4: April 24 My due date. Come and gone. At least I accomplished something today and finished Lush Life from Richard Price. So great -- I hope y'all check out our interview with him again.
Day 5: April 25 I keep seeing reports saying a mother's breakfast might affect the gender of a child. I ate the same thing every day for almost nine months. So what does a whole-grain English muffin with omega-3 peanut butter mean?
3:09 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post
Filed under: What I Made for Dinner
Don't mean to horn in on Trish's beat, but dinner last night at casa Goldbrenner/Ganz was such a weird convergence of culinary randomness that I felt a need to share.
Lots of music on the BPP means I've been at work pretty late over the last few weeks, and my girlfriend is running up on finals in her last year of law school, which presents its own demands on a person's time. So. Leftovers.
Also, Passover. Which, in the plus column, means we've had lots of prepared food in the fridge, and in the minus, means we have lots of prepared food in the fridge that's slowly going bad.
After the jump, see what I cobbled together, and where it came from.
Continue reading "The Passover Quesadilla, 04.24.08" »
Jacob Ganz
3:07 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
A story about Canadian TV pirates?! Here's a preview of Monday's BPP.
2:29 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
All yours for just $27.99
Car ownership is a rare thing among BPP staffers and New Yorkers in general. The subway is a great way to get around -- except, of course, when fares go up, the train is filthy, or the employees all go on strike.
To one company, those complaints are the least of your worries. They think of your cozy subway car as a magnet for terrorists, fire, poison gas and shattered glass. The solution? Housebag, of course!
Not really. It's Subivor, and it's actually a real product. (Turn down your speakers before you click through. The ad on the page includes ominous music, sirens and screams at high volume.) So what do you need to survive any subway peril? Apparently just a survival mask, flashlight, whistle, something called a pry bar and, naturally, a moist towelette. And for just $27.99, you can get all of that and more in a little bag available in your choice of fun reflective colors: pink, orange, green or yellow. I'm not making any of this up.
I won't be stocking up on Subivors, but I would gladly drop 30 bucks, or more, for something that would stop people who hog seats and/or find my subway car the perfect place to test all the ringtones, loudly, on their mobile phones.
Mark Garrison
2:01 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Right now, Kyle Macdonald, Joe Mathlete, Ian Spector, Andy Ochiltree, Andrew Baron, and Alex Tew are on stage, talking about making money from the internet. It just opened up to questions. I'm paraphrasing here, but the conversation quickly became about more than money.
From a woman in the audience: I can't help but notice you're all young white males. What do you think about that?
From the panel: A lot of other cultures have better things to do.
From Tron Guy in the crowd: I'm a geek and proud of it damnit. Everyone in this room is. The question of this internet fame skewing toward white males, it's about the fact that geeks are mostly white males. As more women become geeks, we'll see it even out as time goes on.
From the panel: Also, you have to have a stupid idea and jump on it. Women aren't stupid like men are.
From a woman in the crowd: It's not about stupidity. Men are allowed to be funny. Women aren't allowed to be funny like men are in our society.
From a man in the crowd: I love Tina Fey!
What do you think? Is internet fame--or even internet culture itself--more open to men than to women? Is Tron Guy right? Is it changing?
1:34 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
At expense of all others, Putin Picks a church/ After losing job over dog, ex-mayor loses dog/ Miley Cyrus bra photo may tarnish clean image/ Frito-Lay hikes prices, puts less food in packages/ Penguin's wetsuit puts him back in the swim of things/
12:46 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
David Weinberger, so smart he's pixelated.
The ROFL Con opening keynote is now going on. David Weinberger, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, is at the mic deconstructing what fame on the internet means, and why we take things on the internet and make them famous.
Part of what he's saying is that we feel like we know people on the internet, and we trust bloggers precisely because they do not seem expert. If what they're saying isn't polished, how could it be spin? In his words, "we pre-emptively forgive bloggers," and "perfection is the enemy of credibility." To paraphrase, internet consumers believe if it was made by a human being it should smell like a human being.
He goes on: "fame, in the broadcast world, is binary. You're famous, or you're not." In internet fame, it's a continuum. There are people here who are wildly famous in this room, but wouldn't be recognized right outside. I have to say, everyone seems to treasure that fact. There's a sense in this room that these aren't distant celebrities, they're family.
12:39 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette
Sorry, Mama, but I maybe gotta do this one.
A few fed-up, fearless and probably foolhardy bike riders in Los Angeles decided to take the easy way home: the interstate.
(Their site's here. Thanks to Streetsblog for blogging this first.)
11:55 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
We had a small-world moment on the show today. We interviewed film director Josh Seftel, whose new movie War Inc. debuts this weeknd at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. A few years ago Josh made a movie called Breaking the Mold: the Kee Malesky Story.
I came across this little fact as I was doing my homework on him before the interview. If you're an NPR fan, you might hear something famliar in that title. Kee Malesky is the name of a longtime reference librarian at NPR. Turns out Seftel approached Kee and asked her if he could use her name in his fictional coming-of-age story about a young girl with a thing for cataloging. After looking over the script to make sure it was free of any kind of errors that might disturb those who've devoted their lives to facts, history and context, Kee agreed to lend her name to the project.
Kee is usually based in Washington, D.C., but she coincidentally was in New York this week spending some time with us. So we held an impromptu reunion between filmmaker Seftel and his muse Malesky at the end of the show. Good times.
Bonus: The trailer for Breaking the Mold: the Kee Malesky Story
11:52 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Alexis Ohanian shows off his OLPC.
At a baseball game, you get your baseball signed. At ROFL Con, you get autographs on your XO Laptop. Alexis Ohanian of Reddit is collecting the signatures of iCelebs, and he's already got Tron Guy, Denny Blaze, Leeroy Jenkins, and plenty others. Once he gets the entire internet, he's going to put it up ebay to raise money for One Laptop Per Child. Noting this week's OLPC news, Ohanian adds, "I'm doing this with the caveat that I'd really like them not to go with Microsoft."
11:43 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: News, Sound Off
A woman reacts after the Sean Bell verdict.
A New York judge today found three undercover detectives not guilty in the police shooting of Sean Bell. The unarmed man died in a hail of 50 bullets a few hours before he was to be married.
On the show today, Delores Jones-Brown of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice cited a nationwide trend of police either not being indicted or being acquitted when they kill civilians in the line of duty. Police are generally firing fewer bullets -- those aimed at Bell and his friends accounted for nearly 10 percent of the NYPD's total that year -- but Jones-Brown says that doesn't matter to the loved ones left behind.
"When you're the family members of the victims, you could care less what's going on in other parts of the state or in other parts of the country," she says. "And on an individual basis, a case such as this one where you've got at least one officer shooting 31 times, his shooting alone exceeds the average of the department by almost 10 times."
11:28 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (58) | e-mail post
ROFL Con has ample Light Cycle parking.
Greetings from ROFL Con, where the big names are filing in. Tron Guy had to instruct the many photographers taking his picture not to use flash, because it washes out his suit's awesomeness.
The Mozilla Firefox is shuffling around handing out apples. Some promotion about Firefox being 100% organic software. As far as I can tell it's just a human in a furry fox costume. I am not going to care about him unless he takes off his mask and it turns out to be Tay Zonday inside.
Near-disastrous celebrity encounter so far: Denny Blaze's dad dropped my iPhone. This reminds me of my grandfather's big brush with fame: he once slammed Senator Jay Rockefeller's hand in a car door. The iPhone is fine. And J-Rock is still in office.
I hung with Denny and his dad for a little while. Denny says he's been making music since the famous Average Homeboy video. I told him I wouldn't want to look back at anything I did twenty years ago. He says, "I have no regrets."
11:09 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
In case you missed it, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman got a pie in the face while he was speaking at Brown on Earth Day. An environmental group called Greenwash Guerillas has taken credit, calling Friedman's idea of green "as fake and toxic to human and planetary health as the cool-whip covering his face."
Friedman got a little messy but wasn't hurt. Here's how it went down:
The LA Times has a great video index of some classic political pie-ings past and present. Check it out.
Is there someone from your life past or present whose face you'd like to introduce to a pie? If so, please explain.
9:02 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
What the World Looks Like Through Beer Googles
ROFL Con: it's the entire internet in one place, in its human forms. Those human forms do what other humans do: they drink beer. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid made it easy last night. He opened up a tab at a pub in Cambridge, and the internet was thirsty.
"You can see if you walk in that room right now, there's a lot of drunk memes," Beale said. He had a beer in one hand and was twittering with his iPhone in the other. "There are probably some brand new memes that are being hatched tonight. And we will see in six to eight weeks."
As for those future memes, they may be meta-memes, which is a word I just made up. River Laker flew up from Virginia to make youtube videos at ROFL Con of ROFL Con. He says he's "currently researching Web 5.2." Look out for that.
I'm off to grab some noms, which is a word I didn't make up. I'll be going to a few sessions today, but I'm most excited about "LOLCATS: I Can Haz Case Study?" It'll examine the roots of cat macros, and how we might look back on them thirty years from now. The human form of this will be there, if the people swarming him last night ever let him leave the bar.
8:24 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
In Brazil, rescue workers are scaling back their search for a Catholic priest who harnessed hundreds of helium balloons and went for a flight. The clergyman intended to raise money with the stunt. He blew off course and now missing.
Hopes fade in search for balloon priest/ Grab your couch: Cruise is returning to 'Oprah'/ Reporter: Fallon to take over for Conan O'Brien/ Gay teens finally kiss again on 'As the World Turns'
8:06 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
In Russia, the government is cracking down on proselytizing by Protestants and harassing congregations that gather for worship. Meanwhile, the government has allied itself with the Russian Orthodox Church.
8:01 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Milo Pesca, son of BPP host Mike Pesca, stopped by today in honor of Take Your Child To Work Day. He promptly took over production duties and called for increased coverage of Elmo, lollipops, and the Alternative Minimum Tax.
6:03 PM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Mike Pesca is a fork puppeteer. Never heard of one? There's a reason.
3:43 PM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Filed under: Book Club, Luncheonette
One of the famously great things about reading is that it opens up worlds you might never otherwise see. In the case of this month's BPP Book Club selection, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, it's the world of horse shows. Western horse shows, to be specific.
In one crucial scene, the main character participates in a reining competition -- in which a rider puts a horse through a series of maneuvers including a sliding stop. The key is to be in total communication with the horse.
The scene was so gripping that I wanted to see what reining looks like in real life. Almost immediately I found this remarkable example of a rider named Stacy Westfall, who does something called freestyle reining -- no saddle, no bridle, no reins. The video went viral on YouTube a couple of months ago, earning Westfall an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show. It takes a minute or so to really get going, but if you've ever been on the back of a horse -- and maybe if you haven't -- you'll be amazed that what she does is even possible.
Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.
Sarah Goodyear
11:55 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
Non-nutritious Product Receptacle
It's usually about this time of the day that I start hankering for a snack, something salty or sweet to fill up the space between meals.
Back in New York, this would have led to a trip to Pret or Le Mirage for a granola bar or a piece of fruit, but here in D.C. it means a trip to the vending machine on the third floor. One of the first things I noticed when I got to NPR headquarters two weeks ago was how unhealthy the food in the vending machines is.
Of course, I know vending-machine food by nature is not nutritious, but this one really goes to the extreme: loads of candy and cakes and even Sno Balls. When is the last time anyone really enjoyed a Sno Ball? What does this say about our office? Are we all a bunch of sweet tooths or are we so busy chasing down stories we'll eat just about anything we have to time to cram in?
Caitlin Kenney
10:00 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Swim water OK'd after girls fainted in pool/ Ban on solo encores at the Met? Ban, what ban?/ Monkeys paddle to freedom in Florida/ 'Raven' star Orlando Brown re-emerges after going missing/ Sammy the seal leaves Long Island/ Throwback baseball leagues catch on
9:45 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post
The N stands for Nternet
Our own Caitlin Kenney was recently awarded a Knight Fellowship, which has her at NPR HQ for several weeks. It's a great honor, so we've done our best to belittle it. Pashman calls it "Internet Camp." I went down to D.C. yesterday, and dropped in on iCamp, where I'm happy to report everyone was using actual computers.
9:17 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
We're going to town today on Trouble Funk, the 100 percent greatest ever go-go band. Go-go combines funk and hip-hop, and maybe some magical stuff that's not easily transcribed in Roman letters.
Thanks to music professor Kip Lornell of George Washington University for the assisted listen.
8:20 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Smoosh is a band of three sisters, all born after Bill Clinton was first elected president, Michael Jordan was in his prime, and Nirvana released its ground-breaking album Nevermind.
Asya, 16, plays the keyboards, sings lead, writes the lyrics. Chloe, 14, plays the drums and also sings. They arrange the songs together. Maia, 11, just joined the band last summer as the bass player. They've opened for Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie, and Sleater-Kinney.
Yes, they're young, but focus on that and you'll miss the point. They're really good.
Smoosh came to the BPP offices to play two new, unrecorded songs, "Great Skies" and "Dark Shine."
Enjoy.
8:12 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post
Filed under: Music, Sound Off
Yesterday I asked singer-songwriter Kate Nash a really brilliant question, which went something like: Uhhh, you're English . . . and you sound it, what's up with that?
Because isn't it the case that a lot of Brit bands, when they sing, sound American? The reverse is a rarity, American singers who sound British, Billy Joe of Green Day being the most prominent example. Musical genius Jacob Ganz and I began brainstorming the category of Acts that Sound the Most British. After the jump our top nominees, and a request for yours:
Continue reading "Nominees, Please: British Bands That Sound British" »
Mike Pesca
7:55 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post
From today's Ramble:
In Israel, a soldier was sentenced to 19 days in jail for uploading a picture of himself on his military base.
In Florida, Denzel Washington turned out for Wesley Snipes' sentencing on three convictions for failing to file income taxes. Washington called Snipes "a mighty oak" and the judge noted the "basic soundness and goodness of his heart." Snipes faces up to three years in jail and a fines of $5 million or more.
In the aisles at Sam's Clubs, shoppers will face rations on Basmati, jasmine and long grain white rice. Wal-Mart, which owns the chain of warehouse stores, says it imposed the limit of four bags per customer because of recent "supply and demand trends."
7:28 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Four members of a synchronized swimming team in Seattle nearly drowned Monday. Three of the girls passed out in the water, and so did a team mother who leaned over the edge. Was something wrong with the water itself? Or was the synchronized swimming itself to blame?
It's a mysterious Most.
7:05 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Here's the rundown for tomorrow's BPP.
3:44 PM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
April 3, 2008: Waiting for a wheat allotment in Kabul.
On the show today, we told you we'd post an interview with the head of an Afghan national TV network that has refused to abide by a new government ban against airing Indian soap operas.
Saad Mohseni, the head of Tolo TV, says international allies have sat by as religious fundamentalism again takes hold. "They have allowed the re-Talibanization of Afghanistan to happen right under their noses," he says.
Rachel Martin
12:20 PM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
For your lunchtime browsing pleasure:
Nick Paumgarten writes this week in the New Yorker about elevators, leading with a guy who was stuck in one for 41 hours. Nicholas White's misadventure dates back to October 1999, but it's one for the ages.
12:13 PM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
The English-Irish singer-songwriter stopped by the BPP studios to discuss her latest album, Made of Bricks, and to play a few of her favorite songs. Here's "Skeleton Song," off that record.
11:52 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Massachusetts town tapped for nation's best water/ Skipping breakfast may mean your baby is a girl/ Olympic skater was slipped date-rape drug/ Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic heats capital/ Some libraries shun Google in book battle
10:31 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
It weighs about one pound.
This weekend marks the annual Interstate Mullet Toss, in which contestants compete to throw a mullet from Alabama as far as they can into Florida. Want to know what a mullet is, all y'all who didn't grow up where I did?
A mullet is one of the more popular and plentiful fish indigenous to this area. It is the only fish with a gizzard and is said to possess mystical properties.
10:15 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: Media, Personal/Private
I always thought the secret to Internet success was food.
Then Yahoo picked up a story we did Tuesday with Adam Sternbergh of New York magazine, author of "You Walk Wrong." Ours was called "Feet Hurt? Stop Wearing Shoes."
The Yahoo link sent us to the top of NPR's Most E-Mailed list (still love ya, Pashman). Our colleagues at NPR headquarters noticed that yesterday's list had a theme. Which I take to heart. And sole.
Continue reading "Feet -- and Not Just Ours -- Are Big on NPR" »
8:27 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
I checked the major Democratic rivals Twitter feeds this morning for signs of life after yesterday's primary in Pennsylvania.
From Hillary Clinton's Twitter account, about 10 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday: "Thank you Pennsylvania!!"
And from Barack Obama's Twitter account, about noon on Tuesday: "Traveling through PA today & asking folks to vote for change! If you are in PA & need polling location info visit http://pa.barackobama.com."
7:46 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
From Reuters: "Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft."
7:43 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
First Lady Laura Bush took a turn in the host's chair on the Today show Tuesday. Think Ms. Bush would consider delivering our Ramble?
First Lady co-hosts 'Today' show/ The most overrated careers/ Wisconsin leads nation in drunk driving/ Boston TV exec charged after alleged tirade
7:26 AM ET | 04-23-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Here are Matt and Tricia with a preview of tomorrow's BPP.
4:44 PM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
As seen on El Perrito Vive
If you believe the online uproar, Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas starved a dog to death as part of a gallery exhibit. The story has Vargas pulling a stray from the street and tying it to a wall. Just out of its reach, the title You Are What You Read is spelled out in dog food.
New York University professor Randy Martin agreed to wrestle with the question of shock art for today's show. A logical extension of that is the question of whether the starving dog story is real.
FWIW, the rumor sleuthing site Snopes files this one under "undetermined."
2:38 PM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (24) | e-mail post
"Everyone who wears shoes walks wrong."
Awhile back, we had a guy on the show who has sworn off shoes forever. ""For me it was just more natural and comfortable," says Chris Roat, who runs a website devoted to barefoot hiking.
Today, we followed up with a New York magazine piece that suggests our shoes are forcing fundamental changes in the way the human body works. "Shoes hurt your feet," writes Adam Sternbergh. "They change how you walk. Your poor, tender, abused, ignored, maligned, misunderstood feet . . . are getting trounced in a war that's been raging for roughly a thousand years: the battle of shoes versus feet."
Need a little mercy for your sole?
11:44 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (156) | e-mail post
Still here: A Northern Dusky salamander in Manhattan
For 60 years, naturalists believed the Northern Dusky salamander had disappeared from Manhattan. The amphibian species is common in the Eastern United States, but people just assumed it couldn't hack it here. The last known citing was by Carl Gans, who wrote about it for a 1945 article in the journal Copeia.
A couple of years ago, a New York City Parks Department ecologist who had seen the Gans article decided to go look for herself. Ellen Pehek says she and a colleague spent a day in August picking their way down a rocky bluff before finding a muddy spot in the woods. They turned over a rock and found a mother Northern Dusky and her hatchlings.
This spring, an old friend took my family on a hunt for Northern Duskies. Erik Baard is launching a website, Nature Calendar, for city dwellers who love nature. I may not be as committed as Erik to time outdoors, but I did fall in love with the humble Northern Dusky. Ecologists call it the pit bull of salamanders for its stout body and strong jaws. I like to think of it as the little salamander that could.
10:18 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
In a lecture at George Washington University on Monday, Stephen Hawking said the universe is so big that there like is life of some type somewhere.
It's the Most likely case.
Woman says Victoria's Secret stole her bra/ Hawking says primitive alien life may exist/ Laser pointers banned after attacks/ Magician David Blaine aims at record for holding his breath
10:18 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
PETA's offering $1 million for the first viable scheme for producing meat in the lab. Call it the medium-rare Ramble.
Activists call for test-tube meat/ Blind patients get bionic eyes/ Candidates take turn on World Wrestling Entertainment
10:17 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
8:57 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
A Northern Dusky, the pit bull of salamanders
Going to talk a bit in the show about hunting for the Northern Dusky salamander, an amphibian that survived in secret for 60 years in Manhattan. Slideshow's on the way.
7:36 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: Sports, Video
In anticipation of this weekend's NFL draft, BPP's Mike Pesca quizzed Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan. Ryan is considered by many to be the top quarterback in the bunch this year.
5:03 PM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
4:24 PM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Filed under: Inside The BPP, News, Sports
Ian Chillag: Marathoner, BPP Staffer, Awesome.
BPP Producer Ian Chillag finished the Boston Marathon in about 3 hours and 50 minutes -- all the while Tweeting and taking pictures. Ian ran with his friend Amby Burfoot who, 40 years ago, won Boston. I caught up with him as he was boarding a train back to New York. (For the record, Robert Cheruiyot won the marathon in 2 hours, 7 minutes and 46 seconds. It's his fourth win and second in a row. Dire Tune of Ethiopia won the women's race in 2 hours, 25 minutes and 25 seconds.)
Ian will have a full report on tomorrow's show, in the meantime here's a post-race lowdown:
Matt Martinez
4:16 PM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
Amby Burfoot thrills the crowd.
"Greetings, bpp, from the top of heartbreak! That was TOUGH."
That's Ian Chillag, folks, Tweeting from the top of Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon. Chillag says Amby Burfoot, 1968 champion, served as Sherpa. They've got about five miles to go.
Meanwhile, Associated Press reports: Robert Cheruiyot won his fourth Boston Marathon on Monday, and Dire Tune outkicked Alevtina Biktimirova by 2 seconds in the closest finish in the history of the women's race.
1:08 PM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Cop battles python to save pet store owner/ Popping the (prom) question/ Eli Manning marries college sweetheart/ Who in the world is Panfilo de Narvaez?/ James Bond's car lands in lake
11:20 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Imagine wearing this for 26.2 miles.
Judging by the Flickr sends, Ian Chillag has reached mile six of the Boston Marathon. He's running along with 1968 champ Amby Burfoot. In a Twitter post at 11:18 a.m., Chillag writes:
"Entering Natick. First cowbell heard. Race has begun."
They're aiming for a comfortable pace of just under four hours. Chillag posted a warning sign, from just past mile five: "That slowing down thing? Not happening. We may pay for this..."
11:16 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Have you heard about the saga of Snickers the Sea Dog? The plucky cocker spaniel has been rescued after his own (mariner's) Ramble.
Oldest known person turns 115/ Experts says crystal skulls are flake/ Space Station astronauts land off-target, but safely/ Snickers the dog is saved
8:57 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
NPR's Esteemed Mike Pesca.
Our dear host Alison Stewart has left us for maternity leave, so you may be wondering, "Who's steering this ship in her absence?"
Glad you asked. Mike Pesca and Rachel Martin will be at the helm for the next few months, and Mark Garrison will be your able newscaster.
We're going to be hearing from Alison every once and a while, too -- on the blog and on the air. She will not Twitter the birth. Don't even ask.
8:33 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (25) | e-mail post
At the start in Hopkinton, Mass.
Our own Ian Chillag is milling around the chilly starting point for today's Boston Marathon. In a couple of hours Chillag will light out for Boston with the great Amby Burfoot, helping to pace the 1968 winner all the way home. Ian aims to post an update on Twitter every mile or so, and he promises to send pictures. A few minutes ago, we asked him to send a photo. You're looking at it.
Ian, babe, we love you. Run on.
8:19 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Filed under: Stuff We Love
Back awhile, when I lived in Maine, I used to stop by a small dairy farm for fresh milk. You went into the barn by yourself, whatever the hour, and filled your jug from a central tank. It was your responsibility to hose down the works when you finished. The farmer trusted you to put your money in the can on the shelf.
One winter's night, I slid open the barn door and found the cows inside all listening to John Coltrane on the local NPR affiliate. With a nod to the Jazz Cows video I never made or sent to MTV, here's @MarilynM's Gospel Squirrel.
8:05 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
In Eugene, Ore., a police sergeant saved a pet store owner and the python that was trying to make a meal of her. Instead of slicing the snake's head off, Ryan Nelson pried open its mouth. "He was the bravest guy ever," Teresa Rossiter told the Oregonian newspaper.
No wonder the story made today's Most.
7:31 AM ET | 04-21-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: Inside The BPP, Video
Today is Alison's last day before maternity leave. We wish her and her husband Bill Wolff all the best.
4:29 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (19) | e-mail post
3:49 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: Video
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in New York this morning. Later this afternoon, he'll visit St.Joseph's Church in Manhattan. The church was founded by German Catholics, and the Pope himself is from Germany. St. Joseph's is around the corner from the hallowed halls of Schaller and Weber, which specializes in German wursts. BPP Producer Dan Pashman and I found that the famed meat store has something special planned for the pontiff's visit...
3:10 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: Personal/Private
On Monday morning at 10:00 AM, the gun will fire on the 112th Boston Marathon. I'll be there running with friend and friend of the BPP Amby Burfoot, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his Boston win in 1968.
Marathons are 26.2 Miles. My longest run in five months is 12 miles. It's going to be ugly. I'm going to try and Twitter my misery every mile, so keep an eye on our Twitter feed on the right hand side of this page.
1:30 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
"We are anonymous, but we want to be close to God."
Pope Benedict XVI is in New York City today, and so are some of his detractors. A few people from Universal Life, the Inner Religion set up a booth on West 42nd Street, across from BPP World Headquarters.
Among their offerings was a petition declaring that the Catholic Church should no longer call itself Christian. (I haven't put a call in to the Catholic Church yet, but probably we can guess folks there will disagree.)
Neither of the evangelists pictured here would identify themselves. They explained that their faith is Christian, vegetarian, and based on the idea that we're all temples of God, so we don't need a church. Read the rest for yourself on the Universal Life website.
No name, please: "We're here for the animals and nature."
12:57 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
On this morning's show, Dallas Morning News religion columnist Rod Dreher kindly considered all sides of that raid on the West Texas polygamous compound.
Dreher says he worries about the rights of religious minorities, but he adds, "You can't have people raping girls and calling it marriage." He also worries about the 416 kids separated from their mothers. "People can put themselves in the situation of these families," he says.
Anyone feeling that?
12:27 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (28) | e-mail post
8:45 AM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
The Decemberists' frontman Colin Meloy is on a solo tour. He's released several solo EPs, but he recently came out with his first full solo album, Colin Meloy Sings Live!. He dropped by the BPP studios to talk to Alison and play Wonder from the record. He wrote it shortly after he found out his girlfriend was pregnant.
8:40 AM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Filed under: Book Club
Not Seth from Kansas.
When BPP listener and book club member Seth Bate went to his local bookstore to buy our latest selection, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, he got a strange reaction from the woman who helped him. She said she had enjoyed the book herself, but was surprised that a man would want to read it. Give a listen to him telling the story, above.
We thought Seth's encounter with the bookseller raised some interesting questions and wanted to throw it open to you. Is there such a thing as a "woman's book?" And if you think there is, do you also think there's such a thing as a "man's book?" What defines those categories? And are you willing to cross gender lines?
Bonus: Women Read More Than Men Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.
8:20 AM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (40) | e-mail post
Peas.
The difference between Me and Awesome: Me sees the way cranberry sauce takes on the shape of the can it came in and eats the cranberry sauce. Awesome sees the way cranberry sauce takes on the shape of the can it came in and makes it into art. Photographer Zach Kowalczyk is Awesome. Check out his Flickr photoset of food that takes the shape of its container.
Got in touch with Zach. He's working on his BFA in photography at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He says, "I took this series of photographs as a look at what food has become in our society of convenience and instant gratification."
7:42 AM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: The Best Song In The World Today
Kerry Crawford and Matthew Trisler
Matthew Trisler and Kerry Crawford run Radio Sweethearts, a website (and Twitter account) that grew out of their suspicion that one NPR host has a crush on another one. Specifically, they think On the Media's Bob Garfield is sweet on Brooke Gladstone.
Meanwhile, Trisler picked Big Star's "The Ballad of El Goodo" as the Best Song in the World Today. He tells about it for the show today.
After the jump, Matthew Trisler's explains (plus: a cool pic).
Continue reading "Radio Sweetheart Loves Big Star's "El Goodo"" »
7:17 AM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Here's a preview of tomorrow's Bryant Park Project:
3:15 PM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
We've been enjoying a great stretch of weather here in NYC. Today they opened the grass in Bryant Park for the first time this year.
A couple more cool shots are after the jump...
Continue reading "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" »
3:05 PM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Bering Straits crab fishermen Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand appear on the Discovery Channel's The Deadliest Catch and have just released a book about their adventures called Time Bandits. They dropped by the BPP to discuss a profession considered by many to be the most deadly in the world.
12:59 PM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Filed under: Slideshow
Click to watch
Today, we talked to two crab fishermen featured on Discovery Channel's hit show, Deadliest Catch. The Hillstrand brothers wrote a book about their danger-dodging lives on the high seas, but another D.C. vet we talked to uses his camera to document his experiences on the crabbing circuit.
Corey Arnold -- a bona fide crab fisherman featured in season two -- is also a bona fide photographer. His current project, Fish-Work, is part photographic documentary, part conceptual art -- capturing what he calls his "love/ hate relationship with fishing, manual labor, and the people that inhabit the fish towns of Northern Norway and Alaska."
His work has been featured in museums, magazines and galleries in San Francisco, Santa Monica and Norway, and is currently shown by a high-end New York gallery, Sara Tecchia Roma New York.
Angela Ellis
12:58 PM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
The Art of the Title Sequence gives you high-quality versions of the credits for movies and TV shows. Yep, Se7en is in there. And Six Feet Under. And Vertigo. And holy cow, Innerspace!
Seriously, I might not be able to come to work tomorrow.
11:27 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Today is national "Poem in Your Pocket" day. The idea is you are supposed to memorize or carry around your favorite poem to share with anybody who will listen. Please post yours here! I know mine by heart, although I will admit the punctuation escapes me, as it was written by ee cummings. Here's the official phrasing:
in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddyandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer old baloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's spring and the goat-footed
balloonMan whistles far and wee
10:03 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (23) | e-mail post
Not just more, it's the Most.
The one true kilogram/France appalled by song in English/ Fancy loos for China's Shaolin Temple/ The one true kilogram/ Lake suddenly vanishes in Chile/ Elderly women convicted in murder case/ The book of crazy Alaska placenames
9:29 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
Filed under: City Living, Video
Back in December, we followed the case of a tiny silver-haired bat that had taken up residence in the crevice of a Washington, D.C., building. We fell in love with the bat and took pictures and video before, one day, it disappeared.
It turns out Bat Mitzvah got dehydrated and was taken to a bat hospital, where she was to spend the winter recovering before heading for the wild again. Now Leslie Sturges of Bat World NOVA sends an update:
"I put her in the flight cage tonight for a couple hours to get her wings back. She's definitely capable of flight, but it's tiring for her. . . . We just didn't get any warm snaps that lasted long enough for her to go this winter, and spring has refused to stick around long enough to put her out in the flight cage overnight. This weekend looks good, so maybe she can get some flight exercise and can go next week. Keep your fingers crossed for warm nights!"
8:47 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
On today's show security expert Bruce Schneier came on to talk about his "Third Annual Movie-Plot Threat Contest." For this year's edition, he's asked people to come up with a product that capitalizes on fear. Some of the submissions are really funny. We were especially fond of one dreamed up by someone posting under the name chabuhi, so we adapted it into a radio ad:
8:35 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
BPPsucks. (Does not.)
We picked up a hater yesterday, in the form of twitter.com/bppsucks. The hater hates us out of Salt Lake City, where the Bryant Park Project airs in the morning on KCPW. The Twitter account's bio reads, "God, I hate the Bryant Park Project." See what I mean?
Stunned, perhaps reeling and certainly stung, I reached out. Would BPPsucks talk to us? "Oh my, I'm much too shy for that," the person replied. "It's much easier to hurl snarky remarks from the shelter of a provocative user name."
Is it just me or does BPPsucks have a sense of humor?
8:32 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post
Seen at the Washington, D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival
It's finally spring -- and that means flowers. And they, in turn, often mean big events, like Washington D.C.'s Cherry Blossom Festival. I was walking around there a week or two ago, when I saw all these people hunched over in one area, snapping pictures like crazy.
It wasn't an animal, or art. It was some recently bloomed flowers. Talk about "Glad to see ya, springtime!"
I had to wonder what my mom, or especially my grandmother, would have thought if she looked out her window and saw a dozen people trampling the yard to get a picture of her flower bed.
Have to say, I'm glad people like nature -- flowers and fresh air are great. But I wish it weren't necessary to crowd around it like it's something from outer space.
Bill Chappell
8:29 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Mitt Romney rolled out the one liners at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner last night. Romney joked, "I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair." There's more where that came from.
Mitt Romney, funny guy/ Hot jobs for night owls/ Tejano music star Emilio Navaira upgraded to fair condition/ Most of use just one computer password
8:22 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Since I'm the one writing this post, I get to pick a favorite Most. Today, I vote for the story about the one true kilogram -- because really, how can they know?
France appalled by song in English/ Fancy loos for China's Shaolin Temple/ The one true kilogram/ Lake suddenly vanishes in Chile/ Elderly women convicted in murder case/ The book of crazy Alaska placenames
7:50 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
3:02 PM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
From today's Los Angeles Times, Penalty for Crossing an Al Qaeda Boss? A Nasty Memo:
"I was very upset by what you did," Atef wrote. "I obtained 75,000 rupees for you and your family's trip to Egypt. I learned that you did not submit the voucher to the accountant, and that you made reservations for 40,000 rupees and kept the remainder claiming you have a right to do so. . . . Also with respect to the air-conditioning unit, . . . furniture used by brothers in Al Qaeda is not considered private property. . . . I would like to remind you and myself of the punishment for any violation."
12:44 PM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Muxtape is one of the Web's cooler corners. The simple site, born last month, lets users post a single mixtape of 12 songs. Your tape -- ever evolving, if you wish -- exists as a simple link that you can send around. For an example, see founder Justin Oullette's.
Ouellette came on our show last week to talk about his creation. Muxtape is growing fast enough that he's having to build server capacity sooner than he expected. It's also drawing attention from copyright lawyers, some of whom say what he's doing could pass muster and some of whom say he's heading for a Napster-style shutdown.
12:38 PM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
On his New York tour stop, Jason Mraz came to the BPP studios to chat for a bit and play some tunes. Here's his performance of a track from his first album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come:
9:51 AM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
It's the BPP's Most.
"Sex in the City" star talks about breast cancer / Motley Crue announces CrueFest / Latest Harry Potter drama / Bill Cosby to release rap album in May/ Chemical in plastic may stunt growth
9:49 AM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
In honor of Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in the U.S. (and his birthday today), the BPP presents the Great Papal Trivia Challenge. Of course, you could look up most of these answers online, but that's no fun. So no Googling allowed! Answers are after the jump...
1. What is Pope Benedict XVI's birth name? 2. What number pope is he? 3. He was drafted into the German Army in 1943 but never learned to shoot. Why not? 4. What does Pope Benedict's brother do? 5. What percentage of Americans are Catholic: 14 percent, 24 percent, or 34 percent? 6. What does the pope's fisherman's ring symbolize? 7. What happens to the fisherman's ring when the pope dies? 8. What brand of car is the popemobile? 9. According to PopeBenedictXVIFanClub.com, what kind of music does the Pope like? 10. Which of the following contests actually took place and was officially sanctioned by the Catholic church: Design a Skateboard for the Pope, Decorate the Pope's Blackberry, or Name the Pope's Fish?
Continue reading "Pope Benedict Trivia Challenge Thinking Funtime XVI" »
8:51 AM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Click to watch.
Melanie Coles spent hours poring over "Where's Waldo?" books as a child, looking for the stripe-shirted hero. Now a 22-year-old artist, she figured these days people spend hours pouring over Google Earth images looking for things, so why not give them a Waldo to find? She made a giant Waldo, put him somewhere in Vancouver, and now she's waiting for Google Earth satellites to pick him up.
8:43 AM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post
Unfurling the rim of a paper coffee cup in Canada can win caffeine-crazed Canadians a prize. But many say it's becoming harder to win in the "roll up the rim" contest sponsored by coffee chain Tim Horton's.
It's the BPP's Ramble.
A future bride, bejeweled / French bill takes chic out of being too thin / Car is towed with sleeping Dallas boy inside/ Canadians frustrated by Tim Horton's coffee cup contest
Laura Silver
6:48 AM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
A controversial chemical found in plastic may hinder child development, according to a report released yesterday by the National Institutes of Health.
6:36 AM ET | 04-16-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
The Rundown for Wednesday is here:
Elsa Butler
4:15 PM ET | 04-15-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Los Angeles County supervisors are considering new regulations for taco trucks, those hallowed (or hated) purveyors of East L.A. street food. They "just make the community look like there's no order," said one aide.
It's the BPP's most.
The taco truck tussle/ Subway groper could get life in prison/ Testosterone may affect market crises/ Amnesty International says China may have world's most executions/ U.S. embassy ready to open in Baghdad
11:21 AM ET | 04-15-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
You: Ian, isn't this your second Super Mario Brothers post in five days? Me: Doesn't matter. It's awesome. You: You're right. That was awesome.
8:51 AM ET | 04-15-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Listen to the entire Rogue Wave interview and performance
The last year or so has been pretty up-and-down for Rogue Wave. Guitarist Gram LeBron's father passed away. Drummer Pat Spurgeon spent much of the time between gigs on dialysis, before a kidney transplant finally came through and saved his life. Former bassist Evan Farrell was killed in an accidental fire. Frontman Zach Rogue's grandfather passed away, and weeks later his first child was born.
Meanwhile Rogue Wave earned critical acclaim for their latest album, Asleep At Heaven's Gate, and this summer they'll open for Jack Johnson and Death Cab for Cutie. Zach Rogue and Pat Spurgeon came by our studio yesterday to talk about the yin and the yang of the band's lives and music, and to play us some songs. Here they are performing "Lake Michigan."
8:30 AM ET | 04-15-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
The Rundown for Tuesday is here:
4:29 PM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Filed under: Links From the Show, Video
Daniel Kopulos is a lifelong naturalist who has gotten sick of the way pet shops do business. His new store, Uptown Birds in Manhattan sells exotic birds only to the people who can withstand his exhaustive review process. Because these birds can live for 60 and sometimes 80 years, they aren't the right fit for the casual hobbyist. Birds make for complex pets, and in the right situation can make for very rewarding companions -- but picking your breed and matching it to your lifestyle is crucial. He subjects potential buyers to weeks of interviews, which can get very personal -- and in some cases he will even make house calls to make sure the human is a suitable match. Although these birds can fetch him up to $10,000 a pop, Daniel rejects people all the time. He looks at bird/human relationships as a delicate and rare thing, and wishes more pet shops would take this kind of care in matching their animals to prospective owners.
1:36 PM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
In addition to today's assisted listen series, we need your assistance to identify all the LP covers mimicked in Erykah Badu's video for the track "Honey." I'm taking the easy one, De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising.
9:23 AM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post
For Scientists, a Beer Test Shows Results as a Litmus Test / Zoning Board Rules for Pearl Street Strippers / Russia Tests Monkeys for Mars Trip / Objects on Your Plate May Be Smaller Than They Appear
9:19 AM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Want to avoid a scar? Consider natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery. The procedure, which involves removing organs through a patient's mouth, has been successfully performed in America, France and India.
Now, Professor Lord Darzi, chair of surgery at Imperial College in London, is experimenting with robotically controlled instruments that descend into the stomachs of patients.
Lonely Planet made up? / Or not? / Fake Divorces in Spain / 101 Year Old marathoner a fraud? / LetsRun.com message board thread
8:36 AM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Maybe that wasn't a nude woman reflected in Vice President Dick Cheney's shades, but bloggers thought otherwise...
8:21 AM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
What is Vice President Cheney smiling about?
7:50 AM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Let's catch up: Democrat Barack Obama went to a fundraiser last week in San Francisco and gave a speech in which he talked about working-class voters like the ones in Pennsylvania and Indiana. Obama said they've have fallen through the cracks in the American economy, and they're not happy about it.
"It's not surprising then they get bitter," he said. "They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
The other presidential hopefuls, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, called Obama elitist and out of touch with ordinary Americans. Obama replied that he'd merely said what "everybody knows is true," but that he does wish he'd put it a little better. Personally, I'm most struck by his saying that people no longer believe leaders in Washington will fix economic problems, so they vote on social issues.
You?
Full listen: Full audio on the Huffington Post
7:33 AM ET | 04-13-2008 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post
Summer Ash, our own astrophysicist to the (radio) stars, sends this amazing clip of art made from plastic bags by Joshua Allen Harris. Reusable Bags is on the beat.
8:50 AM ET | 04-12-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Leah Metz has at it on Oahu's North Shore this year.
When we asked for help with a list of White Stuff People Like, Leah Metz of Hawaii sent this picture of herself. Kinda like heaven, no?
4:37 PM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
The Rundown for Monday is here:
2:40 PM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
On the show today, you may have caught the debut performance of the Bryant Park Project Players. It all started when we found some pages leaked on the internet supposedly from the upcoming Oliver Stone biopic about President George W. Bush. We don't know if the script is real, but we really hope it isn't. I think it's fair to say that we're pretty horrible actors, so it's good that we pre-taped it. But we wanted to share this outtake with you: It's Rachel playing one of Bush's fraternity brothers at Yale. It took a while to get the line right, but we think it may be the next "I drink your milkshake."
1:18 PM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.
We'd love to start compiling a contact list for those of you who want to get updates about the book club -- new selections, blog entries, all that good stuff.
So drop us a line, and we'll sign you up.
Not sure what this whole book club thing is all about? Check out Alison Stewart's recent interview of Hisham Matar, the author of In the Country of Men, our inaugural selection.
And check out our latest pick, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals. You've got until Friday, May 2 to finish it; that's when the BPP Book Club meets online.
11:00 AM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Names that match forge a bond on the Internet/ Michael Johns bounced off "Idol"
10:08 AM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
The victims were all eight years old. From left, James Moore, Steven Branch and Christopher Byers.
Ever since I first heard the news that three boys had been found mutilated and murdered behind a truck stop in West Memphis, Ark., the case has parked itself in my brain. It doesn't take up a ton of personal real estate, but I never really forget it, either.
Three local young men were convicted for the 1993 killing of James Moore, Steven Branch and Christopher Byers. Two of them, Jessie Miskelley and James Baldwin, are serving life sentences. A third, Damien Echols, got the death penalty. The case was profiled in a series of documentaries that began with Paradise Lost. Fifteen years later, the so-called West Memphis 3 are still filing appeals, backed by celebrities like Eddie Vedder and local groups like Arkansas Take Action. On our show today, reporter Marc Perrusquia of the Memphis Commercial Appeal caught us up on the latest.
Part of what keeps their case rolling is claims by defense attorneys that new forensic evidence clears the men. And part of it is that prosecutors originally singled out Echols, in particular, as a weird Goth kid with pretentions to Satanic ritual and a penchant for unsettling tattoos.
I have no idea whether the West Memphis 3 should have been found guilty or should be released right this minute. I just know that someone did something to those kids.
9:07 AM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post
Nancy Magee's husband, Thomas, died in May 2005, just one month after he received a liver transplant. Doctors reviewing the case discovered he'd gotten a contaminated organ from the donor. Mr. Magee, as well as two other patients who received organs from the same donor, died from LCMV, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.
After a detailed investigation, Mrs. Magee says she has traced the LCMV virus that killed her husband back to a hamster the donor purchased from Petsmart. She's now suing Petsmart Inc.
Widow sues Petsmart over husband's death/ Names that match forge a bond on the Internet/ Michael Johns bounced off "Idol"
Will Hoffman
6:49 AM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Eli Estrada, a 40-year-old from Highland Park, Calif, was walking to work when he noticed something suspicious in the street. Lying on the asphalt was a bag and inside that bag were stacks of $20 bills totaling $140,000. Estrada's first thought: "I'm rich."
It didn't take long before Estrada's feelings of luck and joy turned into guilt. "That's just your first reaction," Estrada said, "but it's not yours and you feel nervous and you feel like you did something wrong, even though you didn't."
Though Estrada had debt of his own, he decided to turn the money into authorities.
Man finds $140,000 in cash/ Crayola's 64-count box of crayons celebrates 50th birthday/ Postal officials charge $13,500 steak dinner on government credit cards/ Pinkberry settles yogurt suit
6:29 AM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: Music, Stuff We Love, Video
(Editor: We'll just go ahead and admit to loving Robyn Hitchcock.)
5:43 PM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
The Rundown for Friday is here:
2:09 PM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Charlton Heston as Moses
In a recent survey, the Bible ranked as America's favorite book. On our show today, Slate's Bible blogger David Plotz ran down his favorite parts of the Hebrew scriptures.
I grew up Southern Baptist and memorized reams of Bible verses for Sword Drill competitions (wish you were there). My vote for biblical favorite goes to Ecclesiastes, with the 22nd Psalm -- not the 23rd -- the latter part of Isiah and the second part of John 13:1 lined up directly after, in some order. Why Ecclesiastes? Because whatever saying Shakespeare didn't invent, you'll find here. Because it's so radical they tack on a warning at the end. And because it contains lines like:
"Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the years draw near when you will say, 'I have no delight in them'; before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain."
2:04 PM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
On today's show, we featured websites that take their inspiration from StuffWhitePeopleLike -- a three-month-old venture that's either the next big thing or the last big thing (already). Among our visitors was Scott Lamb of WhiteStuffPeopleLike. Lamb's site started on April 7, and it lists only three items so far: mayonnaise, cocaine and snow.
We think the Bryant Park Project's crowd can help round that out a little. (Leah illustrates her suggestion with a picture.)
Bonus reads: Why I Don't Like StuffWhitePeopleLike The Blog You're Going to Start Reading All the Time
12:00 PM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (28) | e-mail post
Gator blood could fight infections/ Two dead inside doomsday cult cave/ Randy Pausch's Alice Project/ Scientists take drugs to boost brain power
11:09 AM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
I was just trying to find the Inside Edition sound effect and instead found this. What I like about it: 1)Bill O'Reilly 2)Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985 3)Everything
10:10 AM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Has Stuff White People Like jumped the shark? It was the site everybody was e-mailing to everybody else a few weeks ago, but now some people are kinda tired of it. Maybe it's the book deal.
Whatever the case, the new Internet hotness of the moment is SWPL spinoffs, like White Stuff People Like and Stuff Nobody Likes. Both were created in the last week, and who knows how long they'll last. On today's show, we talked to people behind the satires, Scott Lamb and Alia Rose Connor, respectively.
Tell us what you think, and tell us if you think the original is really over.
6:47 AM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Radivoje Lajic, a man from Bosnia has had five meteorites strike his home. For Lajic, this coincidence is too much to dismiss. He believes he is under attack.
"I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense," Lajic said.
Experts at Belgrade University are currently investigating local magnetic fields to figure out why Lajic's property attracts extraterrestrial objects.
Bosnian man fears alien attack/ Gordon Brown appears on "American Idol"/ Candidates bumped from "American Idol"/ Berlusconi: Left has uglier women
6:44 AM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Researchers in Louisiana say they've found proteins in alligator blood that could lead to new drugs to fight infections in people.
6:34 AM ET | 04-10-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
The Rundown for Thursday is here:
2:35 PM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
BPP friend Andy Carvin (@acarvin) says that if you read only one article about the war in Iraq, it should be Esquire's "The Things That Carried Him." Chris Jones writes:
First, the soldiers folded the flag twice lengthwise, with a slight offset at the top to ensure that the red and white would disappear within the blue. "Their hands were shaking," [Sergeant Kenneth Dawson] would remember later. "I could see that they were feeling it." "
12:37 PM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Because everyone wants to see their name in BIG letters, even if it's near Pashman's cockroach picture, I'm going to go ahead and blog our "Tweet Cloud." The script scans all our posts on Twitter and reports back on what's big.
And as you can see, what's big is me (but only because I have to sign every darned thing).
11:48 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Listen to Rachel's interview with Marcus Watts
Masaai warriors training in Tanzania.
Six Maasai Warriors have left their home in Tanzania for the first time in their lives. On Sunday, they'll be running the London Marathon to raise money to get clean water for their village. In anticipation of their trip, the conservation charity Greenforce wrote up a pamphlet to help the Maasai prepare to meet the strange residents of London.
Even though some may look like they have a frown on their face, they are very friendly people--many of them just work in offices in jobs they don't enjoy and so they do not smile as much as they should do!!
Although English people share a lot, they do not do so to the same extent that the Maasai do. If you see something that someone else has (like a bracelet) and you like it, then the person will find it very unusual if you were to take it and wear it!
I'll admit it. I initially wanted to cover the Maasai marathoners just because I thought the pamphlet was hilarious. But after hearing Rachel talk with Marcus Watts of Greenforce about the Maasai trip to England, I'll be rooting for them too.
You can find out more about what they're trying to do here.
9:35 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post
It looked a lot like this.
We changed the clocks. The crocuses bloomed. Baseball season started. But somehow it didn't feel like spring . . . . Until yesterday. My wife and I had our first water bug of the season saunter through the kitchen last night. Ah, Mother Nature, how you bless us with your many creations.
For those who don't know, water bugs are big insects related to roaches. But bigger. At least the ones in Brooklyn are. They're about two inches long and one inch wide. I know some of you will call me soft for being disturbed by these harmless scamps. Others will call me inhumane for wanting to eradicate them from my life. You're entitled to your opinions. But you probably don't live in a bug-infested dystopia.
The exterminator comes once a month, to no avail. We lay out roach motels, and the bugs order room service. We put down boric acid, and they take it like a B-12 shot in the thorax.
So fair blog readers, I ask you: Got any good ideas? Does anyone have any tips for getting rid of water bugs and roaches that don't involve large quantities of chemicals?
9:12 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (17) | e-mail post
8:58 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Officers in Seattle gave David "Squirrelman" Csaky 10 days to abandon his elaborate treehouse. Squirrelman said he didn't have anywhere else to live. On Monday morning, the Seattle Department of Transportation posted a 48-hour eviction notice, but Squirrelman refused to come down.
"I'm tired," Csaky said. "I just want to be left alone. I'm not hurting anyone."
Man evicted from "amazing" treehouse/ Storm Troopers in court! Nosy clerk looks at celebrities' medical files/ High School Musical 4 already in works
8:44 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Germany is responsible for many of the inventions we use every day. They invented bottled aspirin, the airship, the printing press, the diesel engine and, now, the automated restaurant. The dining area looks similar to a roller coaster, with metal tracks criss-crossing in and out of the tables. Customers use touch-screens to order food and wait for their meals to slide in on metal tracks.
To see a video of Germany's automated "robot" restaurant, check out the BPP's Most.
Germany's "robot" restaurant/ South Philadelphia steak shop threatens city lawsuit/ Italy makes it hard for jailbirds to stay in jail/ A Ukrainian pop star's would-be revolution/ U.S. water pipelines are breaking
8:22 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Making a run at the way we listen to music.
On March 25, a New York City photographer guy posted this on his blog:
"I'm proud to introduce Muxtape, a new way to share, discover and listen to hand-picked music online."
Within days, people in our Twitter-verse began sending us links to Muxtape.com, and I can see why. The site lets you create a 12-song playlist that you can display on the site or send out as a simple link -- as in justin.muxtape.com.
I've got a message into Justin Ouellette, the brain behind Muxtape. Meanwhile, here's a bit more from his site:
"My goal is nothing short of changing the way we consume, distribute, and discover music."
7:17 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
3:29 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Aryn Kyle
Thanks to BPP listener Dave Wiley, we bring you an audio interview with Aryn Kyle, the author of our current BPP Book Club selection, The God of Animals. Kyle talked to Colorado Public Radio station KCFR's show Colorado Matters about the process of turning a short story into a novel and dealing with the critical and popular acclaim for her debut. She says the book's success "still seems so surreal."
Kyle's official website is here. And we dug up a little blurb Kyle wrote before her book came out for an online publication called Conversely. In it, she talks about her inability to climb a rope in gym class (I could never do that either) and describes her post-MFA life in Missoula, Mont.:
I'm hoping that if I just hang around long enough, I will realize what it is that I'm supposed to do with my life. In the meantime, I'm working on a novel, begging money from my (incredibly generous) parents, and calculating the number of decades it is going to take me to repay my student loans.
Seems like she got at least some of that figured out.
12:30 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Starbucks launching "everyday" coffee/ Scientists aim to stop ringing ears/ Were the Mets 'Rickrolled'?/ British grocery chain hits America
12:18 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
A new study shows that the aftermath of a regional nuclear war would affect not just the countries engaged in battle, but the entire world. Nuclear warfare would put a massive hole in the ozone layer, endangering all forms of life.
"It would have a big increase in human ailments such as cataracts and cancer," said study leader Michael Mills of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Potential aftermath of nuclear war/ 'The Simpsons' yanked from Venezuelan TV / 'Project Runway' catwalks from Bravo to Lifetime Network/ Pavarotti's finale was lip-synched/ Obese kids banned from riding donkeys
8:49 AM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
In hopes to reinvigorate their business, Starbucks will introduce a new, everyday brew called Pike Place Roast.
"It is the best coffee that we have created, maybe, in our history," CEO Howard Schultz said on a call with reporters on Monday.
Starbucks will be giving out free cups of the new coffee at stores nationwide, starting at noon Eastern.
8:27 AM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Al Wittnebert, CFO of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club, says a code of honor governs people who seek signatures and pictures from the famous. Today, we asked to consider the incident in the clip above. It shows a man asking -- perhaps insisting -- that Sen. Barack Obama pose for a picture.
7:42 AM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Improv Everywhere strikes again, this time at a Little League baseball game in Hermosa Beach, Calif. Gotta hand it to them for keeping the prank on the good side of good-natured. I think this one could have been close.
(Thanks to Twitter pal Mergecross)
Bonus: Improv Everywhere's "No Pants" subway ride.
6:55 AM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Where are the Tam Tams?
They're hexagonal-shaped crackers that have a lot more flavor than matzoh (chalk it up to the additional sugar and oil) and they've been on -- or near -- my family's Passover table for as long as I can remember. And stocked in my parents' pantry throughout the year.
Matzah is a must on Passover, but there's no religious obligation to eat a Tam Tam. Representatives from the company that makes them, Manischewitz, didn't get back to me on the origin of the name, but I suspect it may have something to do with the Hebrew/Yiddish word "ta'am," meaning "taste" and by extension, "tasty."
This year, Tam Tams are short supply, and as part of research for our segment on the crisis, I did some calling around. One store deep in Brooklyn said they had the whole-wheat version in stock (I've tried those in the past and decided they weren't worth the trip). Then a guy at an Upper West Side kosher grocery said he had several flavors, so I ran up there to buy out his stock.
It was too good to be true. Kosher-for-Passover crackers? Yes. But not Tam Tam brand. Not the familiar, yellowish hexagons. I went to a nearby D'Agostino's grocery store. There was a whole endcap of Passover-compliant goods. Minus the Tams Tams.
The typical saying at the end of the Passover meal is "Next year in Jerusalem."
Now, there's something else to look forward to in the year to come.
8:35 PM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
We have a couple of guest stars filling in for Tricia and Matt in Tuesday's Rundown:
4:46 PM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
This was once a thriving middle-class neighborhood of Detroit.
On today's show, a listener named Joe Grassi told about using the BPP podcast to get through his shifts on a Chrysler assembly line near Detroit. He works on a line where they make doors, at a pace of 180 doors an hour.
Grassi says he has been laid off three times since entering the industry in 2000, never for longer than a few months. He has remained the low one on the seniority totem pole -- because no one else has gotten hired. These days, you don't need a weatherman to tell you life is hard for people in and around Detroit.
If you want to get sense of life there, Grassi told me, check out this high school kid's op-ed from April 6 Detroit Free Press. In "Kilpatrick Makes It Harder to Defend Detroid," Darnell Gardner Jr. says he believes the city's embattled mayor has an ethical and moral obliglation to listen to him. And you can bet he's got plenty to say. Gardner writes:
In the past 10 years, I have seen every aspect of Detroit decay. My neighborhood, East English Village, once a diverse, safe and clean gem of the city, has crumbled before my eyes. I have forgotten what it feels like to be at peace. Whether it is gunshots, loud and profane music, or dime bags left on my sidewalk, something reminds me every day of how low this city has fallen.
. . .
I have even heard teachers say that they could not grade some papers because they were unreadable. In fact, one of my peers asked me to proofread one of his essays, and I nearly began to sob halfway through it.
2:38 PM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
In today's "Ramble," we mentioned that Thandie Newton had been tapped to play Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone's new movie W. Still to be cast are adviser Karl Rove, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney--any thoughts?
11:17 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (23) | e-mail post
"Men Create More Housework for Women."
Guys make chores/ Men duped more by Internet fraud/ Google Trends: Chiari malformation/ As Las Vegas housing slumps, immigrants are losing jobs and heading home/ Aztec math shows trouble with taxes
And straight from the Most E-mailed list at NPR, "Eric Cartman: America's Favorite Little $@#&*%."
10:24 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
You can take the boy out of the city...
Win Rosenfeld and I are working on a video story about raw milk. Yesterday we went up to Freedom Hill Farm in Otisville, N.Y., one place where raw (unpasteurized) milk is legally available.
Check out some more production stills after the jump...
Continue reading "BPP on Location: Win Rosenfeld Out of His Element" »
8:27 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
At our house, we've been following a military blogger from Missouri from a while. He signed up for duty after 9-11, and now he can't get out. He writes that his situation might as well be an ad for Stop-Loss, the new movie about troops whose combat tours are being repeatedly extended. The Man from Missouri writes about his time in the Army Reserve:
Not saying it isn't an institution I am proud to have served with, or full of people I am proud to have served with BUT... I feel like I have done my part, that this NCO has given enough time and service to his nation. Remember, I never wanted to make a 20+ year career out of the military, I wanted to serve my nation, fight the g*****n Islamic Terrorist movement that had killed my friends and attacked my country, and then get out and live a normal life again.
8:21 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: Media
From the New York Times, "In the Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop:"
Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.
8:18 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
From the Department of Painfully Obvious Headlines:
7:13 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Those of you feeling lost and lonely on this Monday morning can take comfort in news that scientists have found us a twin solar system.
Thandie Newton to play Condoleezza Rice/ Woman accused of stabbing husband over hot dogs/ Our twin solar system/ Suspect in robbery fills out job application before crime
7:03 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
About this video:
"What if you followed your dream and it led you to the middle of nowhere? 'Everyone But You' is a documentary about an independent musician who built a small home-studio in the desert of southern Colorado. It premieres in April 2008 at the Oxford International Film Festival."
(With thanks to Twitter pal @marilynm.)
6:23 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Long awhile back, Blues Traveler turned up in our studio to showcase cuts from their new record Cover Yourself -- on which John Popper and the gang re-interpret 11 of their hits from over the years. We took another spin through the session on today's show.
Here's "Carolina Blues." After the jump, it's "Reach Me."
6:14 AM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Filed under: News, Personal/Private
I once had a chance to meet Charlton Heston, who died this weekend at age 84.
Mr. Heston was a guest on "The View," where I worked back in 2000 - 2001, and I was seriously excited to meet him because he starred in some of my favorite films: "The Greatest Show on Earth," "The Omega Man," "Airport 75," and of course "Planet of the Apes." So I wanted to get his autograph for my husband, who loved his movies even more.
Part of our enjoyment of Charlton Heston's movies was his over-the-top acting style. We simultaneously made fun of his performances while still enjoying the rides he took us on. I want to emphasize the latter part of that -- we thoroughly enjoyed his movies. I don't know how or when he chose to go for movies like Omega Man or Soylent Green, but he had amazing taste for films that transcend their B-movie status. Or maybe he made them transcendent. I leave it to real critics to explain him. I just enjoyed the hell out of him.
Back to the autograph. I didn't normally have anything to do with celebrity interviews, but I made sure to be up on the dressing-room floor before show time, and I hung around waiting for him to have a free moment. While I was hanging around, somebody asked me to escort him to the restroom. I walked ahead of him and tried to be nonchalant. I remember thinking, "I'm taking Charlton Heston to the men's room! I'm taking Charlton Heston to the men's room!"
He had a lot of trouble getting around, which surprised me. He shuffled slowly and I realized for the first time just how old he was. I was very polite, calling him "sir" and "Mr. Heston," which would be my normal instinct anyway, but triply so for the guy who played Moses and Judah Ben-Hur.
I waited until after the show to ask him for an autograph. He was on the show to promote the DVD of one of his movies -- it might have been Planet of the Apes. I proffered a piece of paper and asked him to sign it. He said I should buy one of the DVDs and have him sign that. I explained that I would love to buy the DVD but I didn't have a DVD player. He said I should buy a DVD player and his DVD. I thought, "Wow, that's a hard sell. No wonder this guy has been so successful." But I prevailed. He signed the piece of paper. Here it is:
1:11 PM ET | 04- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Ian's like a pesky little brother who keeps poking you in the arm until you give him attention. Not usually -- just in today's Rundown:
5:00 PM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Happy April 4th! It's Senegalese Independence Day.
The country's first president was Leopold Sedar Senghor, a poet. I read his work in French class, years ago and it got me interested in visiting his West African country.
Last year I landed at the airport named for him at Senegal's capital city of Dakar. That was just the beginning of three months of my Senegalese immersion -- gathering around shared platters of fish and rice on the floor, spending afternoons drinking the requisite three cups of progressively sweetened, home-brewed tea called atayaa, learning the traditional rounds of greetings in Wolof, which translate roughly to: How are you? How is your family? How is your house? How is your work?
I never quite learned to dance as well as Coumba Gawlo Seck, but I was able to understand many of the words of her song, "Dieuredjeff," but that's because it's basically a thank you to her fans and a lot of the lyrics are their names.
Have a listen and a look and let us know what you think and what you're thankful for.
12:13 PM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Aryn Kyle'sThe God of Animals
Our book club selection for the month of April is Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, a coming-of-age story set in the American West. Alice Winston is a 12-year-old girl growing up on a ranch in Desert Valley, Colorado. Book Club leader Sarah Goodyear says the book had her from the first paragraph:
Six months before Polly Cain drowned in the canal, my sister, Nona, ran off and married a cowboy. My father said there was a time when he would have been able to stop her, and I wasn't sure if he meant a time in our lives when she would have listened to him, or a time in history when the Desert Valley Sheriff's Posse would have been allowed to chase after her with torches and drag her back to our house by her yellow hair. My father had been a member of the sheriff's posse since before I was born, and he said that the group was pretty much the same as the Masons, except without the virgin sacrifices. They paid dues, rode their horses in parades, and directed traffic at the rodeo where my sister met her cowboy. Only once in a great while were they called upon for a task of real importance, like clearing a fallen tree from a hunting trail, or pulling a dead girl out of the canal.
It's out in paperback and also available as an audiobook and for your Kindle, if you've got one. Grab a copy and read along with us.
The next book club meeting happens Friday, May 2. Get to reading!
12:00 PM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post
When the San Francisco band the Dodos came into the studio earlier in the week, they left us with more good stuff than we could squeeze into the segment that aired on the show this morning. You can find video of their performance below, and we'll definitely play more of the band's studio session some time in the future, but here's a little nugget that slipped out of the radio piece.
The cover of the band's new album, Visiter, looks, as BPP senior producer Matt Martinez put it, like somebody's "four-year-old brother drew it." Matt's not far off. Alison asked the Dodos (guitarist and singer Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber) where the art came from.
Bonus: The Dodos play the BPP.
11:57 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Sen. Hillary Clinton will appear on ELLEN this Monday to discuss gay rights.
Check out our discussion from earlier this week about Democrats courting the gay vote.
11:57 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
The Dodos, a San Francisco-based band, stopped by the BPP studios in New York to play a couple tracks off their latest album, Visiter. Calling it "pop" music shortchanges its complexity, and calling it "moody" undersells its energy. So let's call it "clattering strummy noise-folk pop, with drive." Watch:
9:51 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (13) | e-mail post
I decided to make dinner last night, keeping in mind that Bill and I are going to a fancy-pants restaurant this evening. It's part of a tradition. We were married on the 4th of the month, so every 4th, we hit an Italian place -- sometimes a low-key red-sauce joint and sometimes a high-end white-tablecloth spot, in memory of our two-week of honeymoon on which we ate our way across Italy.
So I went for an American staple: Meatloaf.
I "re-imagined" a recipe I found in the Silver Palate cookbook called Street Market Meatloaf. It's taken from some famous Venice, Calif., eatery. I re-imagined it because I wanted to use what I had in the house!
Full recipe follows:
Continue reading "Meatloaf: What I Made for Dinner, April 3, 2008" »
9:45 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
BPP Twitter pal @robpatrob send this link to a Twitter account called Downing Street.
It's billed as the "official Twitter channel for the Prime Minister's Office based at 10 Downing Street." One post says the British P.M.'s digital communications team is behind the feed, which started on March 26. Sample tweets:
"Gordon Brown says the delay in publishing the Zimbabwe election results is inexcusable. Democratic rights must be restored in Zimbabwe"
"the PM is away at the NATO Summit in Bucharest but Downing Street staff are busy busy busy"
"Civil servants aren't used to typing at speed!"
I've requested an interview. We'll see.
Bonus: The way less personable White House Twitter account started on Sept. 6, 2007.
9:00 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Sara Barnes (left) and Amanda Omeljaniuk pledge allegiance.
When you take the New York City subway at 5:30 in the morning, you see a lot of blue-collar types -- nurses, people carrying hardhats, foot messengers clocking in early.
But today in New York, you might have seen Sara Barnes and Amanda Omeljaniuk on their way to the New Kids on the Block reunion. And you'd have noticed them.
Maybe NKOTB's biggest fans in the world, the pair of 19-year-olds stayed up all night working on their look. They nailed it. Sara and Amanda bravely got off the train with a stranger carrying a press pass and told us their story.
Alternate headline for this item: In the Country of Old Men on the Block
8:28 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
In Fort Irwin, Calif., scientists started moving the desert tortoise, the Mojave Desert's flagship species. This effort to make room for tank training at the Army's Fort Irwin has left many conservationists up in arms.
Fort Irwin wnats to expand its 643,000-acre training site an extra 131,000 acres into tortoise territory to accommodate faster tanks and longer-range weapons used to train roughly 4,000 troops.
Mojave tortoises moved for Army training/ Nazi orgy scandal rocks Formula One/ 81 percent of Americans think U.S. on wrong track/ Air America host suspended for Clinton remarks/ Internet busts car thief
6:34 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Psychiatrist Jerald Block of Portland, Ore., argues that Internet addiction should be included in the next version of DSM, the U.S. handbook of recognized psychiatric conditions.
South Korea has conducted some compelling research on Internet addiction showing that the average high schooler spends over 20 hours a week gaming. In response, the government has trained 1,000 counselors to help the 200,000 children affected by this problem.
Internet addiction/ New Kids on the Block to reunite/ Pregnant transman defends his right to have baby on Oprah/ Ciao, Air Italia?
6:24 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
4:47 PM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Over the wires from Zimbabwe:
HARARE, April 3 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police have arrested a New York Times correspondent who was covering the country's election, the newspaper said on Thursday. "Barry Bearak, a Times correspondent based in Johannesburg, was taken into custody today by police in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he was covering the elections. We do not know where he is being held, or what, if any, charges have been made against him," the newspaper's executive editor, Bill Keller, said in a statement.
"Barry Bearak, a Times correspondent based in Johannesburg, was taken into custody today by police in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he was covering the elections. We do not know where he is being held, or what, if any, charges have been made against him," the newspaper's executive editor, Bill Keller, said in a statement.
4:34 PM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ted Turner:
"We'll be eight degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."
File under: Existential suffocation
2:57 PM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Filed under: Slideshow, Sports
About a year ago, Jordan McKible got what a certain set of people would call a bright idea. McKible decided to follow his beloved Boston Red Sox on Twitter.
He opened a Twitter account called Redsoxcast and started calling balls and strikes. By the end of the first game, he had picked up a dozen followers. Today Redsoxcast follows every game, with a crowd that tops 400 and includes one of my personal favorites, Bryan Person.
In honor of our own 800th Twitter follower, here's the story of a Red Sox fan in Twitter nation.
Bonus: Detroit Tigers Twittercast
12:24 PM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Unless you're living under a rock or preoccupied with more important news, you know that New Kids on the Block is getting back together and performing tomorrow morning on The Today Show. And in another sign that we're all getting old, the reunion will mark the 20th anniversary of the band's breakout album, Hangin' Tough. Yes, 20 years.
So we've got one question: What song will they open with?
While you think about that, enjoy this fist-pumping walk down memory lane...
8:46 AM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post
But why?
1) Is April 3rd "Tweed Day" in honor of the distinguished woolen fabric, or in observance of the birthday of infamous New York politician William "Boss" Tweed?
2) Why do deer freeze in the headlights?
A shiny dime to anyone in BPP Nation that can give me a definitive answer, or at least a convincing theory.
8:23 AM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post
Listen to Rachel's interview with Sanal Edamaruku
A little over a month ago, a local politician in India claimed her political opponents were trying to harm her using Tantra. You've probably heard of tantric love, but Tantra is a lot more than that. BeliefNet defines it as, quote, "an ancient, esoteric Indian spiritual tradition, common to both Hinduism and Buddhism." But it's also been linked with nefarious acts of so-called black magic.
So after that politician's accusations, a major national television network there, India TV, had a discussion about "Tantric Power Versus Science." They invited a well known tantric named Pandit Surinder Sharma and the president of Rationalist International, Sanal Edamaruku.
At one point the tantric claimed he could use his powers to kill people, to which Sanal basically responded, "OK, prove it. Kill me right here and now." The tantric took up the challenge and began chanting. What followed was something few Indians had ever seen. The event became such a big deal that India TV broke through the next show and splashed a Breaking News banner on the screen. Then they continued the showdown that evening, on another Breaking News special.
In the end Sanal survived, but the tantric's reputation took a major hit. And people in India are still talking about it. We interviewed Sanal on the show today. (Click the listen link at the top of this page to hear the interview. And read Sanal's full story if you want all the details.) Highlights of the encounter have been posted on YouTube:
BONUS: How A Pitch Becomes A Segment. This segment actually began as a bizarre story pitch I made in the daily BPP staff pitch meeting. Initially nobody knew what to do with it, so we essentially recreated a pitch meeting on the air, where I repeated the pitch. Today's interview with Sanal is the result of that on-air meeting. So what do you think? Did the process work?
See more YouTube clips of India TV's Great Tantra Challenge, including the so-called spell for ultimate destruction, after the jump...
Continue reading "India TV's Great Tantra Challenge" »
7:44 AM ET | 04- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Tricia and Matt with a preview of tomorrow's BPP:
3:44 PM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
You guys want to talk about the election?
Mark Segal, editor of the Philadelphia Gay News, says Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are each asking for his newspaper's endorsement. Here's what he wants:
"We want to hear what's going on with their positions on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We just don't want hear a very simple, 'Yeah, I want to get rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' We would like to hear a plan."
Add in a position on the federal bill to end discrimination in employment and some kind of something on civil marriage (word: an awfully big issue at my house), and you've got Segal's take.
11:51 AM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
The first single off Madonna's new album is a duet with Justin Timberlake. Ugh. Now we must withstand the forthcoming onslaught of critics and fans who will once again marvel, as they have each time in the last 15 years when Madonna has released something, at her "incredible ability to reinvent herself."
Madonna was once the ultimate trendsetter. She was a revolutionary who changed music, changed culture, and changed sexuality. But she did all those things 20 years ago. Now she's become a parody of herself. (How will she defile a crucifix on this tour? By making it listen to her new album?)
The truth is, Madonna went from setting trends to following them a long time ago. "Reinvention" in this context is just a euphemism for "copying whatever is popular this week."
For Madonna in the year 2008, reinvention means attending the Britney School of Atonal Digitally-Modified Vocals. On her single with JT, the original queen of pop seduction sounds about as alluring as a Cuisinart. She's ripping off the people who are ripping off her from 20 years ago. As with Britney's new album, the truly impressive aspect of the music is the production. It's a great groove. But all Madonna brings is gravitas.
True reinvention requires risk. You know what I'd like to see? Madonna with an acoustic guitar and no beats whatsoever. How about a duet with Neil Diamond? Or maybe a career in parlor magic? Anything but this. Please.
9:17 AM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Rachel did a great interview on the show today about treasure hunters. We like talking about treasure around here, because we like talking like pirates and we like saying the word booty in a non-threatening context. That's how we roll: non-threateningly.
Anyway, I just pulled one of her questions and remixed it into a 15-second dance mix.
Beat by friends of the BPP Simian Mobile Disco.
9:03 AM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
BPP production supervisor Brian McCabe just got back from his honeymoon. (Congratulations, Brian and Amanda!) Brian's a pretty accomplished photographer, which came in handy when he visited Maho Beach on the island of St. Maarten. It turns out there's an airport near the beach. Really near the beach.
More great pics after the jump...
Continue reading "BPP Postcard: Maho Beach, St. Maarten" »
8:58 AM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
I don't know whether you'd like to be under the sea in octopus' garden, but scientists report the eight-legged mollusks are having a whale of a time down there.
Sex! Murder! Tentacles! Octopi have it all/ Sean Levert dead at 39/ Third graders plot to hurt teacher/ Leader types buy a lot of sneakers/ Oprah to dedicate show to her late dog
8:47 AM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
A couple of kids found a tattered old parachute in their Washington State backyard recently. The FBI thought it might be the one used by mystery hijacker D.B. Cooper, who bailed out of a plane with $200,000 in twenties back in 1971. But his parachute was nylon, and the one found by the kids is silk.
Parachute wasn't D.B. Cooper's/ Deformed beaks mean slow starvation for Pacific Northwest birds/ School deletes students' grades/ Marmosets in the slammer
8:42 AM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
I got ambitious. Why? Because this blog commitment weighs on me. I feel I have to deliver real meals for you voracious readers. And as I am a lousy cook with no ability to plan ahead I can only be spurred to achievement by one thing: fear of failure.
The fear took pizza form again. I vowed to do better after my previous pizza fiasco. And this time? No premade crust.
OK, it was partially premade. It was frozen dough. But I defrosted it, oiled it and tried to roll it out. That was my first sticking point. How the heck do you roll pizza dough? I was trying to remember the "I Love Lucy" pizza episode. I ended up with a lumpy dough with several holes in it, but I just did kind of a patchwork thing. Shoutout to my husband for helping--he jumped in when I was ready to give up and between the two of us we made the crust work.
The recipe after the jump:
Continue reading "What I Made for Dinner, 3/31" »
4:05 PM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post
Tuesday's Rundown is here:
3:53 PM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
Don't be evil too often.
2:39 PM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
All right, so it's time to talk. If you've read our inaugural BPP Book Club selection, Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men, here's your chance to let us know what you think. We'll be looking for your comments, questions, complaints and suggestions all day long, and we're planning to use your input when we talk to the author later this week.
Haven't finished the book yet? Don't let that stop you. This is not a test.
8:36 AM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (39) | e-mail post
Words to fear from CBS 13 in Sacramento:
"Hackers call your voicemail, and if you have an easy password like '1 2 3 4,' they access your phone system and change your voicemail to say something like 'operator, I will accept the charges.' "
John Cusack stalker arrested/ Found: oldest gold object in the Americas/ Saudi prince dreams of a mile-high tower/ A new Stonehenge dig/ Landline hacking
7:45 AM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | e-mail post
Did you guys grow up in day care? Turns out some workplaces will now let you grow up in your mom or dad's office, at least until you can crawl to the water cooler yourself.
Bataan memorial march draws record crowd/ Hope for the Tasmanian devil/ Silicon Valley meetings go "topless"/ Experts now recommend hands-only CPR/ Day care's new frontier: Your baby at your desk
7:35 AM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Today's the day for being had -- April 1, April Fool's, whatever you want to call it.
Me, I can't recall being completely pranked, except by a vintage NPR report about a trustafarian named Lirpa Loof. Would I have fallen for the one about the Swiss spaghetti crop?
I wonder, too, if April Fool's has become the mostly another province of mass media. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned folk prank? Got one? Been the object of one? Do tell, will ya?
6:21 AM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
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