Can't stop listening.

Rikki Ililonga and Musi-O-Tunya Dark Sunrise 

crisp fall days

aint it the truth...

I'm always in the mood for Randy Newman lately. And that's not necessarily a good thing. It seems like whenever the country's kind of at a low point, I’m always in the mood for Randy Newman.
-Sarah Vowell on KCRW

symphonic diplomacy

The Pyongyang Concert

The New York Philharmonic became the first major American orchestra to perform in the insulated communist country. North Korean officials broadcast the concert nationwide and internationally, and it is now captured on a new DVD titled The Pyongyang Concert.

The audience applauded for more than five minutes, and orchestra members, some of them crying, waved. People in the seats cheered and waved back, reluctant to let the visitors leave.
(NY Times 2/27/08)

looking real good for 35

heart soaring music

Ray LaMontagne "You Are the Best Thing"

from Gossip in the Grain (2008)

remember to kick in

a true respect for work

"Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits"

-Studs Terkel (b.1912 d. 2008)

author of Working (1974)

crisis advice

"In a crisis - don't just do something, stand there."

- Simon Johnson Economics Professor MIT
Here's What I'm Doing from NPR's Marketplace

death in the civil war

Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

Interview from NPR's Fresh Air
10/24/08

"Men and women approach death in ways shaped by history, by culture, by conditions that vary over time and across space.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States embarked on a new relationship with death, entering into a civil war that proved bloodier than any other conflict in American history."

nice timing, hank

The Fannie And Freddie Bailout, In 10 Easy Links from NPR.org

pay up, suckers

the big picture delivered in under an hour

This American Life (radio) 355: The Giant Pool of Money

Prologue.
Ira talks with NPR business and economics correspondent about two gatherings he attended. One at the Ritz Carlton and one at a community college in Brooklyn. The first was an awards dinner for finance professionals who created the mortgage based financial instruments that nearly brought down the global economic system. The other was a non-profit conference for people facing foreclosure. Ira explains that today's show lays out how the finance guys and the people facing foreclosure are connected by a chain of middlemen, and that together, they all brought about the current housing and credit crisis. (4 minutes)

american lore meets dna

"The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar"

This American Life, Episode #352

destroying everything in it's path from sea to shining sea

Study Finds Soil Bacteria Can Live on Antibiotic Diet
Morning Edition, April 4, 2008 · Antibiotics normally kill bacteria. But scientists have discovered that hundreds of bacteria living in dirt not only resist being killed by antibiotics — they use the antibiotics as food.

hey, thanks nasa

David Palmer and Tim Kallmanfor the Ask an Astrophysicist team, http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Question: Why does the Moon sometimes come out during the day?

Answer: It might be useful to think of the Sun as a large light bulb, and the moon as a large mirror. There are situations where we can't see the light bulb, but we can see the light from the bulb reflected in the mirror. This is the situation when the moon is out at night. We can't see the Sun directly because the earth is blocking our view of it, but we can see its light reflected from the moon. However, there are also situations where we can see both the light bulb and the mirror, and this is what is happening when we see the moon during the day. You can explore this for yourself with a light and a hand mirror. Depending on which way you face (away from the light or sideways to the light) you can see either just the mirror, or both the light and the mirror.

where bruce springsteen and janis joplin meet

oh, ira

"When you are a writer, coming up with ideas is your job. You have to work at it."

-Ira Glass 2/24/08
























1. Read the paper (a well edited one)
2. Find an unanswered question buried within one of the articles
3. Go from there

way to go, public employees

A Small Bet on Big Trees Posted by Keith Johnson

CalPERS, the big public pension fund, has decided that mounting concern about climate change is making trees a better investment.

The $253 billion pension fund sees two ways to make money from the move. Forests yield biomass, an increasingly popular fuel source. And because forests store carbon dioxide, keeping them intact is like cutting CO2 emissions elsewhere–which is starting to have an economic payback.

oh valkyrie, why can't i forget you?

Hear all three acts and read the plot synopsis on NPR's World of Opera