Caribbean Music Stars at Latin Grammys

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LUKE BURBANK, host:

Hello there. It's THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT from NPR News. I'm Luke Burbank.

ALISON STEWART, host:

I'm Alison Stewart.

BURBANK: You know, Ali, I didn't understand why we had that team of guys with pocket protectors, some of the best and brightest from MIT. Why we're employing them? Because we're a small staff. Why do we need six guys with those kind of black glasses with tape?

STEWART: I don't know. You tell me.

BURBANK: Well because they have developed this special secret algorithm that we use to mathematically figure out what the most e-mailed stories are, the most viewed stories, most printed stories and…

STEWART: I wondered what they did.

BURBANK: Yeah, I was actually ready for that music to be done. So that was perfect how that worked out.

(Soundbite of laughter)

BURBANK: What these guys have been able to figure is the things that you guys are reading and emailing to your friends and very interested in, and then what we do is put it together in a segment that we like to call The Most.

(Soundbite of music)

BURBANK: And I was ready for that music to start. See? Everything happens as it should happen on this program.

All right. First up, pointing at herself wildly in the controller, Trisha McKinney, what do you got?

STEWART: Me first, me first.

TRICIA McKINNEY: I just have to say I like the way you always describe me on the air, I sound like a total freak, which is probably true.

BURBANK: Yeah. That's…

McKINNEY: Rache is going, yeah, and what's your point? Okay.

BURBANK: Yeah, that's kind of a…

McKINNEY: So mine is the most e-mailed on MSNBC.com. It's actually a story about a guy who survived a shark attack. He was a surfer. He was attacked in August. And he says that a pod of bottlenosed dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around him that allowed him to get to shore and saved his life. And I think that's just amazing. And he was on the "Today" show yesterday so that's, I think, why people are sending this to their friends. So we have little clip from the "Today" show where he's describing the attack.

(Soundbite of clip, "Today" show)

Mr. TODD ENDRIS: There's no warning at all. And maybe I saw him a quarter of second before it hit me but no warning, and there was just a giant shark that just shows you how perfect predator they really are. And then the second time, he came down and clamped on my torso and my board - sandwiched my board and my torso in his mouth. And then the second him bit he swallowed my right leg which kind of give me a leverage to kick him with my left leg…

Unidentified Man: Well, that's a good news.

Mr. ENDRIS: …with might help me.

McKINNEY: Yeah.

BURBANK: Holy mackerel.

McKINNEY: Yeah. No kidding. That guy's name is Todd Endris.

STEWART: That guy is lucky.

McKINNEY: He's 24. His back was shredded like a banana peel. Peeled back like a banana peel he said. I guess I'll have to stop there. But anyway, thanks dolphins.

BURBANK: They swallowed my leg but it allowed me to kick him in his brains. So that was the upside.

STEWART: That was a classic half full guy.

BURBANK: Yeah. Boy, oh, boy. And then the dolphins apparently helped play a role - this is like animals playing to their most stereotypical images. Come on, people. Sharks as attacker, dolphins as smart saviors?

McKINNEY: I'm okay with that.

BURBANK: Yeah, I guess it kind of works.

STEWART: All right. Who's up next? Dan?

DAN PASHMAN: Hey guys. I watched that video clip real quick about on the "Today" show and the guy was in pretty good shape.

BURBANK: Okay.

PASHMAN: It had a happy ending.

BURBANK: All right. What have you for us?

PASHMAN: Most e-mailed New York Times, the Rationalization. I think it is a little we all do. We all rationalize certain behaviors that may be irrational -like, for instance, Luke, I'm sure that you probably have convinced yourself that scarf is really, really awesome.

(Soundbite of laughter)

PASHMAN: You know? And that it looks totally appropriate here indoors. But, you know, we all do irrational things. What was it is about this article where they've discovered that rationalization may actually be hardwired. And they've done experiments that show that monkeys actually rationalize their own behaviors. Basically when a person or animal is faced with conflicting thoughts, they generally deal with by eliminating one of those thoughts so that everything sort of makes sense in their little world.

STEWART: Okay.

PASHMAN: The experiment they did with these monkeys is they first gave them an array of different-colored M&Ms. And when - they assumed the monkey that would pick any color equally. They didn't have a color preference. Then they forced them to choose between only two colors.

STEWART: Okay.

PASHMAN: And whichever M&Ms they chose became their preference. So they - all of a sudden they rationalized this blue was the best M&M after they chose blue. And suddenly red, which they had discarded sucks. Like, I don't want any red M&M.

STEWART: So they always - that became desirable? After they chose it, it was desirable.

PASHMAN: Exactly.

STEWART: For no real reason except that they chose it?

PASHMAN: Exactly.

BURBANK: Now were any of the monkeys wearing awesome scarves from H&M? That they had just picked up for $9 that I think look pretty stylish?

PASHMAN: If they had been, I'm sure they would have been as pleased with themselves as you are.

BURBANK: I'm just saying it's a really good scarf, and it looks really good on me.

PASHMAN: Same thing with 4-year-old, by the way. They did the same experiment with 4-year-olds and stickers, and it work with them too.

BURBANK: Wow.

STEWART: And 31-year-old and scarves.

PASHMAN: Yeah.

STEWART: Is there (unintelligible) to them now?

BURBANK: It was cold when the show started. All right, Alison.

STEWART: All right, my most is from Yahoo Most Viewed. I love this. Researchers in 2005 listed all the best-selling songs and discovered that a third of all popular songs refer to substance abuse. And then they broke it down by genre, and they found that that 37 percent of the top country songs featured references to drug or alcohol compared to just 14 percent of rock songs. Can you imagine that?

You know what, though? If you throw in rap songs, 77 percent of rap songs referred to some sort of drugs or alcohol.

BURBANK: I'll tell you. Here's where it is: Courvoisier and Miller light. Thank you guys. Courvoisier for the hip-hop songs, Miller Light for the country songs. Skewing the numbers a little bit of the sticky, icky, icky. As Snoop would say, put your finger in the air, ooey. Still, I'm surprised it was that high. And what's the best part, the photographic accompaniment?

STEWART: They put a picture of Keith Urban. Next to this story is were guys been in and out of rehab. He becomes the photo imagery for this story on Yahoo Most Viewed. Poor, Keith.

BURBANK: Ali, do you want to sneak one more in?

STEWART: I could. Do we have time?

BURBANK: I don't know. Yeah, sure. They're nodding. You know.

STEWART: Okay. This is also from Yahoo. They - you know, they have this thing called the buzz index. That tells me what terms people are searching. This term was up 51,000 percent just yesterday, and the term is Leaning Tower of Pisa. And that is because it has been displaced in the Guinness book for the building with the biggest lean.

A 15th-century church steeple in Germany snatched the accolade away from the most tilted tower in the world. Apparently, this church steeple in Germany, and if you look at the picture that things leaning. So the Leaning Tower of Pisa: number two now.

BURBANK: That, my friends, is The Most. Thank you, Danimal. Thanks, Trish.

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