Fred Kaplan has the latest of many articles about the Defense Department's decision to halt the production of the F-22 Raptor fighter plane.

What is the F-22? It's pretty iconic, to say the least.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has argued that the F-22 isn't very useful in the so-called "War on Terror," in which there isn't much air-to-air combat. In The Atlantic, Mark Bowden talks to some pilots who dispute that.

What do you think about the changing face of the Air Force?

In the host's chair today will be NPR White House correspondent and Obama campaign trail traveler Don Gonyea!!! And here's what's happening on our last show in February:

Today, we'll continue our Talk of the World series, in which we ask our listeners in the U.S. to put down the phone and listen to people around the world talk about issues that touch us all. This time, we're going to talk about how the issue of race affects people across the globe. The presidential campaign and the election of President Barack Obama meant more and more discussions about race in the United States. But what do conversations about race sound like in other parts of the world? And how is diversity viewed there? For our entire first hour, we'll hear from listeners and experts stationed in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

In our second hour, we're back on this side of the world, to have a discussion about the Obama presidency, one month in. Already Americans have strong opinions of how his administration is doing. We'll recap all that has happened since the president's inauguration, and we want to hear from you. Tell us one thing that Obama has done that either impressed you or disappointed you.

After that, we'll find out who is the TOP chef on the Bravo reality show Top Chef. The finale aired last night, and Carla Hall was one of the top three finalists--and arguably a stand out this season. She'll be with us at the end of the hour to talk about her experience on the reality show, give some advice on how we can get the most out of our food, and reveal whether she was crowned "Top Chef." **SPOILER ALERT**

Neal Conan will be back on Monday. Enjoy the show!

As if college students needed another reason to skip class...

New psychological research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person.

Get the full story in order at New Scientist.

Last night, I watched President Obama's speech on MSNBC. Flipping through the channels, I noticed that every network -- on broadcast and cable -- had the same feed. That said, MSNBC introduced something I saw on CNN during the campaign: a graphic at the bottom of the screen that looks like an EKG reading. Two continuous lines, going up and down. As I learned later, the network had convened a group of 40 voters. During the speech, they used a device to indicate their approval or disapproval of what the president said. In real time.

I'm not sure what I learned from watching those lines last night, but it got me thinking about how graphics can change our understanding and impressions of a speech. This morning, for instance, The New York Times had a cool graphic (that I can't locate anymore, unfortunately), which compared the rhetoric in President Obama's speech to other addresses by Presidents Reagan, Carter, and Roosevelt. Sort of like what we tried to do in our first hour today, but with a more numbers-centric slant.

Along those lines, I found a cool site, thanks to James Fallows, a correspondent for The Atlantic. He posted a link to Speech Wars. You can type in a word, say "war," and see how many times it appeared in each president's state of the union addresses. Graphically. It's cool. Give it a try. And if you can find that graphic from The New York Times, send us the link!

Tonight's the night: The Top Chef finale. If your office or lunch bunch resembles mine at all, it's been the buzz for nearly a week now. It's down to three contestants (forgive me, but I just can't say "cheftestants") -- (over)confident Stefan, seafood-man Hosea, and Carla Hall. Carla looked like a bit of an underdog in the beginning of the season, but ever since Jacques Pepin proclaimed her peas "scrumptious," she seems like the one to beat. Win or lose, she's on our show tomorrow, so get ready to pepper her with all your Top Chef questions!

We talked a lot about race throughout the U.S. presidential election. Now, we're expanding the conversation to include our global listeners. In tomorrow's first hour, we become Talk of the World and we're asking Americans to put the phone down to let our international callers tell us about how they talk about race in their countries.

We'll hear from NPR's senior European correspondent, Sylvia Poggioli; French historian and author Pap Ndiaye and British political activist, Karen Chouhan. In January, Poggioli reported a three-part series on the discussions prompted in Germany, Italy and France by President Obama's election. Ndiaye is author of The Black Condition; he says that many whites in France feel their national identity is threatened by talk of race. Across the English Channel, Chouhan says the discourse on race in Britain leads to stigmatization and that the government policies of assimilation don't value diversity. Both Ndiaye and Chouhan have been involved with working to promote racial dialog in their respective countries.

If you are part of our international audience, tell us how you talk about race where you live.

Wired has what may be an early obit for anonymous phone calls. Read on...

A new service set for launch Tuesday allows cellphone users to unmask the Caller ID on blocked incoming calls, obtaining the phone number, and in some cases the name and address, of the no-longer-anonymous caller.

There are obviously compelling reasons to hide your phone number (stalkers, anyone?). Give it a year, and the same company will probably be selling a hack-proof caller ID blocker.

In this week's political junkie, NPR's Ken Rudin will talk about President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent tour of Asia, and the nominee for Commerce Secretary in the Obama administration. (Hopefully, the third time's a charm.) We'll also speak to Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) about the anticipated Senate approval of a voting rights bill that would give Washington, D.C. a full seat in the House of Representatives. At the end of the hour, we'll talk a little more about last night's presidential address with Chuck Raasch, national political correspondent for the Gannett News Service. When the country is in an economic slump, the president and his speechwriters are faced with the dilemma of how to explain the economic situation to the American people. Do you use a negative tone to describe it? Or is it better to use upbeat language to hide the bad news? Raasch calls it "language in a time of crisis," and he'll talk about how effective President Obama's rhetoric has been so far.

The buzz that has surrounded the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire has turned a brighter spotlight on the Indian film industry, often referred to as "Bollywood." In our second hour, Aseem Chhabra, a columnist for The Mumbai Mirror and a freelance entertainment writer, talks about the Bollywood film industry's growing popularity, and we'll find out the top must-see Bollywood films that you should add to your movie list. Then, we'll explain a recent proposal that asks Congress to re-think the way the Supreme Court works, including a call for a limit on the amount of time justices spend on the bench. Duke University professor Paul Carrington will talk about organizing the proposal and why he also thinks justices shouldn't be able to pick which cases they hear.

Here's a quick peek at today:

Last week, a Muslim woman living in upstate New York was beheaded by her husband. The facts behind the case suggest the violent act follows a history of domestic abuse. That is a topic few talk about. And the problem is not limited to any one community. In our frist hour, we want to hear from you and from our guests about how to talk about domestic violence. Then, Ron Elving, NPR's senior Washington editor, will look ahead to President Obama's first address to Congress scheduled for this evening. The economy is expected to dominate the speech, but the President also says he will lay-out a broader agenda of what he hopes to accomplish in the next year. So you be his speechwriter. What do you think he should talk about tonight? At the end of the hour, we'll go to Mardi Gras. In New Orleans, the Zulu Krewe will take to the streets along with many other clubs for a final lavish parade. We'll celebrate the Zulu Krewe's 100th birthday.

In our second hour today, we'll talk to author David Grann, about his new book, The Lost City of Z, our human passion to explore, and hear the story of one explorer's obsession with finding a magical city deep inside the Amazon rain forest. Then, Larry Wilmore, who you probably know as the "Senior Black Correspondent" on The Daily Show, will talk about his new book, a series of politically incorrect vignettes about black people, called I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts. Then, your letters - including your thoughts about the controversial New York Post cartoon published last week and your six word Valentine's Day memoirs.

Times are tough, and lots of people are just trying to hang on to jobs, if they're lucky enough to have one. One big no-no at the office: TMI. CareerBuilder put together a list of 13 things to keep to yourself at the office (and no, 25 random things didn't make the list). My personal favorite might be #11:

The Rubik's Cube that is your personal life: When Marci Diehl worked as a recruiter, she encountered a job seeker who came in to register with the staffing agency -- and she still remembers her over a decade later. The woman came in and explained that her boyfriend was waiting outside with her child because she didn't have a car and that speed was of the essence. Also, her son was not the boyfriend's child. "Somehow in this tale about the boyfriend, she told us that the boyfriend was not a happy camper, because her 6 year old slept with them every night -- and they'd only been going together for a few weeks," Diehl remembers. Naturally, the agency had a difficult time placing her because she was a risky employee who didn't know when to keep her thoughts to herself.

It's been done before -- heck, we've done it before -- but this recession ain't going anywhere, so I'm revisiting it. What are your little bright spots in days peppered with bills rolling in, portfolios plummeting, and the word "no" constantly falling from your lips? USA Today did a nice article on the small treats that get people by, and two things struck me. One, chocolate sales are up. It sounds so cliche, but that truffle or square really makes the difference for some people. I particularly liked this part, it gave me a nice warm feeling:

Think small, like Casey Elliott. She's here picking up a tin of gourmet hot chocolate mix for her kids, a small but welcome treat at a time when her husband is out of work. "We're trying to do simple things, like going for family walks and playing games," she says.

Two, people are spending more time at home -- Netflix, for instance, is doing well in spite of the times, even because of the times. I don't know if it's because of the recession or because of general new-home-ownership, but I find myself more inclined to feather my nest than shop for clothes these days. What about you?

It's been six months since we talked about it here, so where do you find a little bit of happiness these days? And beyond that, what I'm really wondering about is this: When these articles about returning to simpler pleasures pop up, I usually roll my eyes -- can it really last? When the economy rights itself, will Hummers reign supreme again, or will we really take to heart lessons from the downturn?

Ice Cube on BET in 2002, with what appears to be a box of Do-si-dos. Scott Gries/Getty Images

Oh noes! A roundup on The Week suggests Girl Scout cookie sales are in a slump. Of course, ye olde rotten economy is taking the blame on this. Nationally, about 70% of the sale comes from preorders, and they're down a bit. I have an idea. Cookie mom's the lady who distributes all the pre-sold boxes to the Scouts, then stores the surplus cases while they get sold at fundraisers or in front of your grocery store or whatever. At least once, my mom was cookie mom... And I bought a TON of extra boxes out of her basement. So maybe the Girl Scouts should reach out to my mom.

*This Just In: The Twitterverse is torn -- what's your favorite Girl Scout cookie? Right now, Samoas and Thin Mints seem to be neck-and-neck. It's up to you to break the tie!

Depressing news from Philadelphia this morning: the group of investors that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

On Slate, Jack Shafer responds to Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, who has suggested that a system of "micropayments" could save newspapers. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a periodical would charge a very, very, very small amount of money for each article someone reads online.) In "How to Save Your Newspaper," published in Time, Isaacson points to "one of history's ironies":

...hypertext -- an embedded Web link that refers you to another page or site -- had been invented by Ted Nelson in the early 1960s with the goal of enabling micropayments for content. He wanted to make sure that the people who created good stuff got rewarded for it. In his vision, all links on a page would facilitate the accrual of small, automatic payments for whatever content was accessed. Instead, the Web got caught up in the ethos that information wants to be free.

Isaacson didn't convince Shafer. After he examined successful paid sites, Shafer found three things they all seem to have in common:

1) They are so amazing as to be irreplaceable. 2) They are beautifully designed and executed and extremely easy to use. 3) They are stupendously authoritative.

Although we probably won't tackle this subject on our air any time soon (we've discussed it before), tell us what you think. What could save newspapers?

For the next few days, you Science Friday fans will be hearing a familiar voice. Joe Palca will be filling in for Lynn Neary... who was filling in for Neal Conan. Ah, it's complicated. Let me just fill you in on what's happening today.

The Obama Administration plans to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba due in part to concerns about the treatment of prisoners there. In our first hour, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post, and Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, will explore how detainees are treated at Guantanamo, and what may happen to them once they leave the prison. We're working on our opinion page segment as I type this, so stayed tuned.

Juicycampus.com, a popular college gossip/rumor mill website, closed up shop. So what is the future of the internet when it comes to privacy vs. free speech? In our second hour, we'll discuss whether or not there should be complete, total, unencumbered free speech on the Internet... or if there should be some restrictions? At the end of the hour, we'll talk with author Vikas Swarup about his surprising reaction to the movie Slumdog Millionaire snagging the Oscar for Best Picture in last night's Academy Awards ceremony. The movie is based on Swarup's book "Q&A."

JetBlue understands your rainy days. Scott Olson/Getty Images

 

JetBlue just kicked off a recession refund program. Lose your job, get your money back. BusinessWeek has the story:

Customers who book flights between Feb. 1 and June 1 and lose their jobs on or after Feb. 17 may be eligible for the JetBlue Promise Program. JetBlue fares are generally nonrefundable.

Any other companies doing similar refunds?

Love him or hate him, Christopher Hitchens is one of the most-interesting, most-prolific journalists working today. He writes reviews for The Atlantic. He writes a column for Vanity Fair. And he sits on more editorial boards than I can count.

One week, a few months back, I felt like I couldn't go through a newspaper or magazine without spotting his byline. During the election, he was on Hardball every other night. (In full disclosure, we've had him on TOTN a few times.)

Earlier today, I saw this article on The Guardian's website. On a trip to Beirut, Hitchens "found himself at the wrong end of a bruising encounter that has left him walking with a limp and nursing cuts and bruises."

Hitchens had been drinking on Beirut's main boulevard, Hamra Street, on Saturday afternoon with two other western journalists after attending a rally to commemorate the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. They spotted a poster for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a far-right group whose logo bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nazi swastika, and Hitchens decided to act.

He got up, walked over to the poster, took out a marker, and began to deface it.

Hitchens' political statement was witnessed by a group of SSNP activists, who have a strong presence in Beirut. "With amazing speed, in broad daylight on this fashionable street, these guys appeared from nowhere, grabbed me by the collar and said: 'You're coming with us'. I said: 'No I'm not'. They kept on coming. About six or seven at first with more on the way," he said.

He was beaten and bloodied, chased through downtown Beirut. It's a wild story, to say the least. And because it happened to Hitchens, I can only assume he'll write about the experience somewhere soon.

I love Twitter, I think that's clear. But this use has got me feeling a little... Squirmy. Surgeons at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI Tweeted the removal of a cancerous tumor from a man's kidney. Says Dr. Craig Rogers, the lead surgeon:

The impetus for his Twittering was to let people know that a tumor can be removed without taking the entire kidney. "We're trying to use this as a way to get the word out," Rogers said.

Here are some of the updates from the hospital's stream:

We are placing bulldog clamps on the renal blood vessels right now

the tumor is being cut out using scissors so as to obtain a precise cancer free margin

the tumor has been completely excised, 20 minutes left to repair the kidney

suturing with the robot is much more facile than with laparoscopic instruments due to the range of motion of the intruments

this complex, large partial nephrectomy has been completed with robotic assistance by Dr. Craig Rogers and Henry Ford Hospital

Ok. It is fascinating. And yes, it's important for folks to know options exist in cases like this, and the surgery was successful, so that's good. But. Having just spent nearly 12 hours in a surgical waiting room for a similar situation (with a similarly positive result, thank goodness), I can see both good and bad here. Of course, we're always desperate for updates on our loved-ones' progress, but is there such a thing as too much information in this case? And what if the Tweeting just suddenly... stops? My brain would go wild thinking of explanations for the silence. Do you want your surgeons Tweeting your surgery?

At our meeting yesterday morning, we talked a bit about a new airport security device: the full-body scanner. A number of us winced at the thought:

Can they see us naked?

Well, no. They can't really. But they come pretty darn close!

Jeffrey Goldberg, of The Atlantic, who has written a lot about the problems with airport security today, reminds us that we can decline to use the new devices, in favor of pat-downs. Which, he goes on to say, have pretty inconsistent results.

If you love food, love to cook, and/or love to eat, and you still have a lot of work to get done today, you might want to stop reading this post. The Times online has a list, "50 of the World's Best Food Blogs," and after a glance, I cannot wait to dig in! Here's a little bite of Lynne Robinson...

On Orangette: "I cooked for almost 12 hours straight after discovering this blog."

On Matt Bites: "When blog photos are taken by a professional photographer, it really shows -- see his recent molasses-glazed acorn squash, for example."

...and on my personal favorite, Smitten Kitchen: "A combination of writing/photographer skills add up to culinary excellence in this well-established blog, covering recipes cooked in author Deb Perelman's tiny New York kitchen."

OK, now I'm hungry, and I'm thinking that the Indian-food-from-a-box I was planning for tonight just ain't gonna cut it.

Richard Florida sees another great transformation at the end of the recession, and an opportunity for some cities to reinvent themselves, while others fade into history. He'll be on the show talking about his article, "How the Crash Will Reshape America" today, and he volunteered to write a little extra credit for us:

I hate the word depression for the obvious reason it sounds... well... depressing. I think of it as a great and necessary reset -- after the excesses of the past decade or two -- a reset not just of our economy but of where and how we live. "This economic crisis doesn't represent a cycle," GE's Jeff Immelt told his board of directors in fall of 2008. "It represents a reset. It's an emotional, raw social, economic reset. People who understand that will prosper. Those who don't will be left behind."

When I was a very young boy, my father who always prefaced his economic advice by saying he was a "child of the depression" - born in 1921, he dropped out of junior high-school in 1934 to take up work in an eyeglass factory - would remind me that the Great Depression was the time the American economy was remade from the ground up.

The Great Depression unleashed a massive wave of technological innovation and with the New Deal saw the creation of a social safety net. It also paved the way for mass suburbanization of the 1950 which spurred demand for the automobiles, appliances and consumer goods streaming off the assembly lines. Decades earlier, the Long Depression of the 1870s transformed America from a largely rural country dotted with trading centers and mill towns to a country of giant industrial cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago which concentrated production, generated a great wave of innovation and created a whole new geography of and growth.

We are going through a similar reset today. The way we've been living - our economic landscape of suburbanization, sprawling Sunbelt growth and a run-away housing bubble sowed the seeds of the current crisis. It's not just a reset of our economy and technology. It's a reset of where and how we live.

Here's a quick peek at the show today:

In this week's Political Junkie, NPR's Ken Rudin will talk about the newly signed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the ongoing fight for the Senate seat in Minnesota between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman. And speaking of Senate seats, Bruce Dold, editorial page editor for the Chicago Tribune, will join Ken to talk about this morning's Tribune editorial calling for Illinois Senator Roland Burris to resign. At the end of the hour, we'll talk mortgages with Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, and learn about the specifics of President Obama's newly devised foreclosure plan and how it will affect homeowners and your taxpayer dollars.

In the current economic climate, some cities in the United States are rising while others are dying in surprising ways. Author Richard Florida will join us in our second hour to explain the geography of the recession. Florida's article "How the Crash Will Reshape America", appears in the March issue of The Atlantic. How is the city changing where you live? Then at the end of the hour, Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and correspondent for Slate magazine, will talk about whether or not to file criminal charges when teens use cell phones to forward naked photos of themselves. Lithwick's article is entitled, "Textual Misconduct."

It was just a matter of time before someone developed an app for the iPhone to cheat at cards. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"The program calculates the true count and does it significantly more accurately," according to a Gaming Control Board memorandum sent to casino operators last week warning of the electronic device.

Interestingly, it's not illegal to count cards in Nevada. BUT...

... using a device to aid in the counting of cards is considered a felony under Nevada laws governing cheating, control board member Randy Sayre said. Gamblers using the iPhone card-counting program can be detained by casino operators and arrested by state gaming agents.

You pay a toll on many roads. Every cup of coffee costs a few bucks. Are you ready to pay for every time you flush the toilet at home? Two Australians are:

CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country. "It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers, recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbing to reduce their charges,''Professor Young said.

Leave your quarter on the toilet tank, please.

Bernie "Made Off With My Money" Madoff TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

When I was a kid, my dad had a hula girl on the dashboard of our minivan, and a Gumby doll in the cup holder. This post, on The Guardian's Deadline USA blog, caught my eye:

A Phoenix, Arizona toy company is adding to its line of celebrity dolls (which already includes Barack Obama and Brangelina). There's now a devil-suited, pitchfork-wielding Bernard Madoff, sold with a hammer so you can bash him over the head (still, innocent until proven guilty).

The price is a bit steep - but then again, so was investing with Bernie. The $100 (??70) gag gift is sure to show up under the Christmas trees of the few, the proud, the smug, the rich New Yorkers whose portfolios suffered a less than 20% loss this year.

Would you put one in your car?

From my colleague, Kareem Estefan:

The question "what are you doing right now?" rings through the minds of Facebook users all day, compelling many of us to observe our every action. But what happens when the responses to that omnipresent question are falsified, fictionalized, and converted into flippant poetry? Bill Kennedy and Darren Wershler have some answers over at statusupdate.ca, a website they've designed that compiles status updates and replaces their friends' names with those of poets and novelists, dead and alive.

Scrolling down the page, which changes its content each time you click the "refresh" button, you might be surprised to learn that the Chinese poet Cao Zhi, who wrote verse in the 3rd century, is sharing "a late Valentine's gift of free music at http://scruffytheyak.blogspot.com/." Or that the Modernist poet Marianne Moore, who died nearly thirty years ago, is "now Twittering at least thrice a day!" I've been most tickled to see that the 12th century poet Marie de France is looking for a place to live by March 1st, and, allegedly, "James Joyce's flip-flops are angry with her."

If it doesn't sound like poetry to you, try following the links (you can click on any writer's name and read all their status updates to date). Compile the language you enjoy, re-arrange the updates, and/or tell us what you're doing right now. Post your remixes as a comment below.

Alternately, if you long to return to the days when the typewriter was the tool all writers used, you can listen to an NPR interview with Darren Wershler-Henry here, shortly after the release of his excellent book The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of the Typewriter.

Here's what's coming up on the show today:

In this rocky economy, layoffs, foreclosures, and dwindling savings accounts have affected many households, and families are looking to each other for survival. But where do you draw the line with in-laws, siblings, parents and adult children whose wallets are empty? In our first hour, Amy Dickinson, also known as "Ask Amy," a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, will talk about where responsibility ends with your relatives on a recession. Then, this just in about Facebook: the social networking site has changed its terms of service. Facebook can now retain your user content Information (and pictures) even if you terminate your account. But before you just say "NO" to Facebook, listen to the end of our first hour. Farhad Manjoo, a technology columnist at Slate.com, will tell us the benefits of joining Facebook. His article for Slate is entitled, You Have No Friends: Everyone else is on Facebook. Why aren't you?

Most people have a fixed idea of the afterlife. But when author David Eagleman thinks about the afterlife, the possibilities are endless. Eagleman talks about his new book, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, a collection of 40 different scenarios that describe the hereafter. In our second hour, tell us what you believe. Do you have a fixed view of the afterlife? Or does this idea of multiple afterlives appeal to you? At the end of the hour, we'll talk about how the
policy banning media coverage of military funerals could change under President Obama.

One Flickr user's weekly vitamins. Karen D.

Just checking in, BOTNers -- did you make any New Year's resolutions? We're about 7 weeks into 2009, and one of mine may have just bitten the dust. I thought I'd get all virtuous and start taking a multivitamin regularly again. I haven't exactly succeeded, and it seems it may have been a misguided resolution anyway. From the New York Times:

In the past few years, several high-quality studies have failed to show that extra vitamins, at least in pill form, help prevent chronic disease or prolong life.

Nice. So while there are real questions here about why we like to ignore compelling studies on this front, and great info in the article about the confusing conclusions drawn from some of the studies, all I'm thinking about is that mega-jar of horsepills I just bought and how long it will languish in my medicine cabinet.

Happy President's Day. Lynn Neary is our guest host on the show for the next two weeks. And here's a very quick peek at our show today:

The NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) turns 100, and some have questioned its relevancy in moden times. In our first hour, we'll look at the NAACP's history and the direction the organization is now headed. Then at the end of the hour, we'll ask you to celebrate President's Day with your vote for your favorite president.

In our second hour, we'll continue our series, "Your life in a recession" with a look at your leisure time in a recession. Which book, movie, or TV show is helping you get through these tough economic times? Then, an historian will take a fresh take on Martha Washington. Turns out she may have been the Carrie Bradshaw fashionista of her day!

Novelist -- and reluctant lecturer -- Zadie Smith. KATJA LENZ/AFP/Getty Images

 

Thanks to Hendrik Hertzberg, of The New Yorker magazine, I found this essay, by novelist Zadie Smith, published in The New York Review of Books. It's drawn from a lecture she gave at The New York Public Library, called "Speaking in Tongues," which she says is more like "an orchestra of many voices."

It's wide-ranging and wonderful and too-difficult for me to describe. Read it or listen to it, and tell me what you think.

Here's a quick peek at today:

In our first hour, we'll talk with two reporters about the drug wars happening in Mexico. The death toll is rising and the violence has spilled over into the United States. Is the U.S. planning to get involved in the conflict? Then, we'll talk to NPR's Steve Inskeep, who has just returned from a reporting trip to Iran. We'll ask him what it was like reporting from the region on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

You may think there's just one president in this town, but there's another one we're going to introduce you to. Vivian Schiller became President and CEO of National Pubic Radio in January, at a time when NPR is facing one of its biggest economic challenges. We will introduce you to her in our second hour and ask what she's learned in her first six weeks on the job. Then, we'll talk to Chicago Tribune columnist (and now Talk of the Nation regular) Dawn Turner Trice about the relevance of Black History Month. Is Black History Month still needed? Tell us what you think.

Xeni Jardin calls it "probably the best internet video in the history of all time this week." Who am I to argue? Here you have it, "kittens inspired by kittens."

"I want beef jerky!" "I'm her mom! No she's not!" "We are eating pepper, and chips!" Thanks, once again, to my friend for the heads up.

It's Wednesday and time... for another trivia question! Okay, that... and political news. Congress and the White House are moving closer to a final deal on the stimulus package. Ken Rudin will talk about that could mean, and more, including President Obama's prime time news conference last Monday night. We'll also talk with Rep. John Dingell (D-MI). As of today, Rep. Dingell is the longest-serving Representative ever. Following that, in honor of "Love Day" coming up this Saturday, we'll hear your stories of love and heartbreak... in six words. This one isn't mine (really, it isn't) but I remember reading one memoir that said, "Fell in love. Married someone else." Deep, right? You can say a lot in six words. At the end of the first hour, share your six word tales of love.

The legacy of Abraham Lincoln was mentioned quite often during Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Lincoln has long been thought of as a great emancipator of blacks in slavery. But in a new documentary, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. tells how he learned that Lincoln may have hated slavery, but he also told racist jokes, and wanted to resolve America's racial dilemma, by sending blacks back to Africa. Gates will talk about more about his documentary Looking for Lincoln which begins airing tonight on PBS. (check your local listings.) And, last week, the President announced that he will continue the Bush administration's faith-based initiatives through a new Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, will join us at the end of the hour to talk about the new council and whether hiring practices will be different on President Obama's watch.

I know it's an ensemble cast and all, but will Grey's still be Grey's without George and Izzie???

Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight are both leaving "Grey's Anatomy," according to co-star James Pickens Jr.

The New York Post has the scoop.

If this is all true, I wonder how the writers will script the two lovebirds out of the series (especially given Heigl's complaints about the quality of the shows' writing).

Last night, during President Obama's first prime-time press conference, my friend -- and former classmate, Sam Stein, of The Huffington Post got to ask a question:

He caused something of a stir. It was the first time that a journalist from a web-based periodical was called upon to ask a question at a presidential prime-time press conference.

Remakes of Rosemary's Baby? Red Dawn? The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Do we really need another Karate Kid?

"55 movie remakes currently in the works"

Television may be sexier, web video cooler, and podcasts trendier, but nothing yet surpasses our humble radio. Libby Purves tells us why:

Using only sound, radio stretches the imagination and makes the listener its partner. A humble plastic box can introduce you to writers, ideas, arguments, facts, music and atmospheres you might not encounter in two lifetimes. Speech radio, in particular, is a curious medium: more vivid than print, bringing ambient noise and atmosphere, conveying tones and breaths and hesitations and tension in the voice. It is indifferent to the artifices of appearance. Sometimes, listening to a politician or panellist on television, I close my eyes to judge them better. Take away Tony Blair's beguiling grin and he always did sound like a ham. It is a great medium for denying the empty cult of celebrity: watch a screen talk-show and you are at least partially mesmerized by Hollywood glamour. On the radio you judge more squarely ("Who on earth is that giggling idiot?"). Radio is democratic, portable, open, free to hear and cheap to make. It is a pocket university.

Read her whole ode to radio in the Telegraph

Happy Monday! Here's what's happening on the show today:

Tomorrow, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is scheduled to announce a new banking rescue plan that proposes to inject hundreds of billions more into financial institutions. Today in our first hour, we want to hear from you. At a moment when billions of taxpayer dollars go to major banks and fewer and fewer Americans receive loans or credit, what do you want from your bank? Then on our opinon page, New York Times reporter Allen Salkin will give a math lesson on how poor $500,000 per year really makes you. Mr. Salkin, I'd like to give that one a shot.

In our second hour, we'll be joined by author and sociologist Dalton Conley. According to Conley, we have entered a brand new terrain where the line between work and leisure has blurred thanks to advent of the BlackBerry and other techology. Our existence has been reshaped further by changes in our economy and our family structure. Conley will explain it all and break down the title of his new book, Elsewhere, USA: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety. Then, a day before voting in Israel, Steve Clemons, political blogger for thewashingtonnote.com argues "Give us Netanyahu. Please".

Here's something I hadn't thought much about: Many of President Obama's cabinet picks still await confirmation by the Senate. So, who's running the show in the meantime? ProPublica.org found out:

Frequently, the acting position falls to civil servants at their respective departments, non-partisan types who have toiled for years or decades in relative obscurity. William Burns, acting secretary of state until Hillary Clinton took over, is a career Foreign Service officer. Otto Wolf, acting secretary of commerce, was chief financial officer of the department under the Bush administration.

I guess I'm on some sort of middle school kick. Maybe it's all the old friends popping up on Facebook? Anyway, yesterday I defended Tom Daschle's glasses, and today, it's an article about popularity that caught my eye. Apparently, YouTube has very quietly added a new filter, called "Popular," and made it the default over the more plebeian "Most Viewed." What's weird is that YouTube isn't talking about how it defines "Popular," according to David Sarno of the Los Angeles Times.

YouTube has posted no blog entry about the change, and nowhere does it define or explain what "Popular" means (This we know: It doesn't mean Most Viewed). In December, when YouTube first introduced what was originally called the "Most Popular" tab, a spokesman wrote vaguely that, "Most Popular incorporates more signals about video related to freshness and activity beyond just a view count."

But the site will not specify what those signals are. As for freshness, there's already a "Rising Videos" filter, which tracks up-and-coming clips -- so it's more than just that. And there are already filters for most comments, highest rating and most favorited. Is this mysterious new "Popular" some kind of hybrid of the above -- or something else completely?

Huh... Kind of like middle school, I still have no idea what "Popular" means.

The first time I saw the curtain rise at The New York City Ballet was in 1994, and I had to squint, the stage was so bright. Juillard, the school I was attending at the time, often got free tickets to the ballet, and I had scored some. It was Balanchine's Allegro Brillante; and the stage was so bright, the dancers in such diamond-hard, sharply drawn attitudes, that the whole tableau might have been made of crystal. It was also the first time I saw Darci Kistler dance; Juilliard shared a dorm with the School of American Ballet, where she taught, and I'd seen her in hallways, elevators, the cafeteria (believe it or not), floating through her paces in the same "simultaneously unearthly and alluring" way the New York Times described her the first time she performed Allegro Brillante. Most of my close friends at Juilliard were dancers, and even though the school focused on modern dance, every one of them knew the queens of New York City Ballet -- Darci, Wendy, Suzanne, Julie. Merrill Ashley could barely walk, but still, she danced. Yesterday, Darci Kistler -- the last of the Balanchine ballerinas -- retired, to prevent that. "I don't want to walk around in pain," she told the New York Times . "I didn't want to see myself with a plastic hip in 10 years."

Oddly, I remember her as being very, very tall -- but I think I may have imagined that, as all of those ethereal women seemed to soar, absolutely elevated beyond all physical possibility. She had that gift of being able to put a point on a movement while simultaneously reaching way, way, beyond it.

A very young Darci, in a very old movie -- that I adore.

This morning, Neal and Sarah were talking about a story I missed. Or deliberately skipped, maybe. In Colombia, scientists discovered the fossilized remains of a 43-foot "super snake"

Ick.

Here's how Thomas H. Maugh II, of the Los Angeles Times, described the thing, a Titanoboa cerrejonensis:

It was the mother of all snakes, a nightmarish behemoth as long as a school bus and as heavy as a Volkswagen Beetle that ruled the ancient Amazonian rain forest for 2 million years before slithering into nonexistence.

At our meeting this morning, Sue, the executive producer of TOTN, mentioned a new article in the National Review by Victor Davis Hanson, whom we've interviewed in the past, called "The Impending Obama Meltdown." It has created some buzz. Andrew Sullivan nominated it for his "Malkin Award."

Although we don't plan to address Hanson's piece directly, we are going to talk about how the press has covered the Obama administration so far.

Have you read Hanson's article? What did you think of it?

It's Wednesday, and time for Ken Rudin and the Political Junkie... And there is SO much to talk about. Tax issues take down Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer in one fell swoop, impeached Rod Blagojevich continues to feel misunderstood, and the Republican National Committee elects Michael Steele as their fearless leader. Thomas Rath, former Attorney General of New Hampshire, will talk about the Democratic governor of New Hampshire's recent appointment of a Republican to fill the state's senate seat. Following political news, we'll talk to Gregg Nations, the co-producer and script coordinator of the hit TV series Lost, about the intricacies of following script continuity, twisting plot lines and time travel to always keep you wondering "What's Next?"

When I was a member of a band, telling people I had a gig coming up sort of made me feel cool... Mainly because "gig" was that laid-back-sounding word used exclusively by musicians and creative "cats" to describe their next "hit". Nowadays, "gig" still sounds cool, but it's not so exclusive. Guest Tina Brown claims that we are in the age of a "Gig Economy" and that anyone trying to pay the rent is hustling to the next gig. Brown, founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, and Sara Horowitz, the executive director of the Freelancers Union, will talk about the growing number of Americans who are being pushed to change the way they work -- and the new lingo being used to describe it. Have you turned to freelancing or part-time work recently? How is it working out for you? Tell us in our second hour. Then, we'll talk with Lt. Col. John Nagl (Ret.), senior fellow at The Center for a New American Security. Nagl was part of a team that wrote the book on military tactics in Iraq. Those strategies have been credited for bringing some stability to region. We'll ask him how lessons learned from those strategies could help stabilize Afghanistan.

Tom Daschle, colorblind or fashion-forward? Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Let me start with this: I generally enjoy reading Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times. Nine times out of ten when I notice she's got a new one, I'll click on it, read it through, and walk into work thinking about it. She's smart and provocative. That said, there's one little bit she wrote today that I cannot stop thinking about, and I don't think it's the point of a piece largely about President Obama's missteps in his first two weeks. Obama, on his appointment of former Sen. Tom Daschle:

He told the anchors that the man who helped make him president, Tom Daschle, had made "a serious mistake" by not paying taxes on a car and driver. (It should have been a harbinger of doom when Daschle began sporting those determined-to-be-hip round red glasses.)

The important part of that clip? Daschle, the taxes, and the mea culpa. But the part I fixated on is the "determined-to-be-hip round red glasses." It just made me feel sorry for Daschle. I thought the glasses were kind of attractively un-Washington, but when Dowd called him out for them, it took me straight back to my childhood.

When my sister and I were growing up, everyone scrunched his or her socks down around his or her ankles -- no one wore "tall socks," athletic socks pulled up, or knee highs. We were determined to make our Dad "cool," so we constantly pushed his tall socks down, and he bore our sartorial directives with a smile. But if a 1980s Maureen Dowd type had seen him at the mall with his socks pushed down, she probably would have thought the same thing she thought about Daschle.

So what's the point? Dowd, keep doing what you do. I usually enjoy it, and you're not trying to impress me anyway. And Daschle? There's one person out here who likes those specs.

Red AND a Hummer. More tickets, or fewer?jwinfred

 

There are a bunch of myths and superstitions about who gets tickets, and when they get 'em. Like, drivers of red cars get stopped more often. Then, there's one I heard -- you can't get a speeding ticket in the rain because the radar guns don't work.* Or, incredibly, that tin foil in your hubcaps can fool police radar. But here's a generalization that feels like a fact: Hummer drivers get more tickets. According to Ben Mack at Wired.com, "people who drive Hummers receive almost five times as many traffic tickets as the average driver." From his article on the Quality Planning Corp. study:

The study found those who drive the leviathans get 4.63 times as many tickets as the average driver, something the researchers attribute to the feeling of invincibility that comes from driving a rolling bank vault.

"The sense of power that Hummer drivers derive from their vehicle may be directly correlated with the number of violations they incur, or perhaps Hummer drivers, by virtue of their driving position, are less likely to notice road hazards, signs, pedestrians and other drivers," Raj Bhat, president of Quality Planning, said in a statement.

So what do you think? Are the drivers just disregarding the rules of the road and being justly penalized? If you think so, what do you make of this, further down in the article:

What's weird is the Hummer is essentially a Chevrolet Tahoe under the skin, but Tahoe drivers were less likely than average to be ticketed for moving violations.

I know I've cursed the drivers of those behemoth's on multiple occasions, accusing them of all kinds of crimes against drivers, pedestrians, and humanity in general. But is the ticketing disparity about the drivers or the police? I doubt we'll ever know, but it sure made me think...

*It seems rain can, at least, mess up the reading.

Does two make a trend? This time, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had a shoe chucked at his head during a visit to Cambridge University.

Before the guards could stop him, the unidentified protester took off his shoe, a heavy grey trainer, and threw it at the stage, missing Mr Wen by a few feet. Two large security guards immediately moved on to the stage at the West Road Concert Hall to shield the Prime Minister.

Culture wars. A confrontation of ideas. Right vs. Wrong. Conservatives vs. Liberals. The "haves" vs. the "have-nots". It is safe to say we are smack dab in the middle of our own culture war, and in it's midst, President Obama has vowed to bring bipartisanship to the negotiation table, fostering relationships with Republican leaders. Is that possible? Guests with opposing points of view discuss the landscape of how the culture war is changing, not only in The White House, but in the country. Then, to bong or not to bong? That is the question. Okay, not really. But we will talk about whether or not Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps should be criticized for taking a bong hit last weekend. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan says absolutely, he should. And today marks "The Day the Music Died." Fifty years ago, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and a disc jockey, who called himself the Big Bopper, were killed in a plane crash. At the end of the first hour, we'll remember the "Big Bopper," JP Richardson.

The pink slips just keep coming. As more and more layoffs are announced, employees who remain usually deal with pangs of survivor's guilt. In our second hour, we'll take a look at what happens to workers who didn't get laid off, and whether there really is a good and a bad way to let someone go. Then, we'll talk to NPR's Intelligence and National Security Correspondent Tom Gjelten about reports that senior U.S. officials claim that air strikes have "decimated" al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan. Could this be a signal that al-Qaeda is close to defeat? Also in our second hour, we'll read from your email and blog comments.

Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, who exchanged salacious text messages with a city employee, then pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and no contest to assault, was released from prison today. According to the Associated Press, Kilpatrick hopes to travel to "a job interview Wednesday with an unnamed company at an undisclosed location in Texas." So, it seems, he'll ride off into the sunset.

Well, Kwame, thanks for the memories... Especially this one, a dramatic reading, which is probably my favorite moment in the Kilpatrick scandal:

Enjoy!

Lawyers for former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, take note: Bill Geist has a novel defense at The Daily Beast:

The now-former governor of Illinois is getting a raw deal. It's not that he's innocent. It's that, compared to the greats of Illinois corruption, he's not guilty enough.

Sifting through the newspapers this morning, I was surprised to read this: "The Obama administration is sending a women's badminton team to Iran this week as part of a broad bid to engage the Iranian people through educational and cultural exchanges."

Badminton? Really?! Seems like a pretty-narrow bid to me. No offense to the badminton players in our audience, but since when has the sport represented American culture? It's a British game!

As an aside, a few of NPR's finest -- host Steve Inskeep, reporter Mike Shuster, and producer Tom Bullock -- are in Tehran this week, working on a series of stories about Iran. I'll have 'em get right on this badminton business.

After Barack Obama gave his inaugural address, Elizabeth Alexander, a poet and Yale professor, following in the footsteps of Maya Angelou and Robert Frost, recited some original verse.

Although her poem, "Praise Song for the Day," didn't receive great critical acclaim, it has done wonders for Graywolf Press, which the Christian Science Monitor calls "the little boook publisher that could." On February 6th, Graywolf will send some 100,000 copies of Alexander's poem, in chapbook form, to bookstores around the country. And for them, that's an awful lot.

It's February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow (that dude ALWAYS sees his shadow. Drat!) and the show must go on. Here's what's happening today:

For years, the African-American community has stressed the importance of good role models, particularly for young Black men. Well, it could be said you can't get much better than Barack Obama. The fact that he was raised by a single mom and overcame adversity to become the President of the United States seems to speak directly to Black men. But does the story resonate as strongly for them if you add that he graduated from Columbia and Harvard? Or that he became a Senator? In our first hour, we'll look at how Barack Obama's story fits in with the actors, musicians and athletes who have risen to role-model status within the African-American community. And on the opinion page at the end of the hour, we'll talk about the overwhelming reaction regarding the octuplets born last week in California.

In our second hour, we'll take you inside the Vidocq Society. The members are Philadelphia-based criminology experts who meet up once a month and try to figure-out unsolved crimes, particularly homicides. We'll talk to two of the founding members of the organization about how the Vidocq Society got started, how members of the group are selected, and the step-by-step process that goes into investigating a cold case. Then at the end of the hour, we'll talk about the 3-D commercials that debuted during last night's Superbowl game. Did you watch them? Do you see a future in 3-D advertisements jumping out at you?

So, the #1 Super Bowl Sunday commercial I was excited for was the 1-second Miller High Life spot. We talked about it at TOTN, the cuts I heard on Marketplace were hilarious, and I was stoked. I watched the entire Super Bowl, and insert blink-and-you-missed-it joke here, but I never saw the ads. Digging around a bit this morning, I'm stumped: what happened?

It looks like viewers in Oregon may have seen one, but not Chicago or D.C... Patrick St. Michel at Northwestern points to this article from The Business Journal of Milwaukee for an explanation:

MillerCoors must buy the commercial time through local market NBC affiliates because the brewer's top competitor, Bud Light brewer Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, has an agreement that makes it the exclusive national alcohol advertiser for Super Bowl XLIII in 2009. To build anticipation for the debut of the one-second ad, which may not air in all parts of the country, High Life has launched www.1SecondAd.com.

Ok, fine. But why the heck didn't that come up in all the pre-Bowl hype I heard? Bummer.