NPR News

Pages

The Two-Way
12:40 pm
Fri July 6, 2012

Hot Damn! It's National Fried Chicken Day

Credit Steve Parsons / PA Photos /Landov
Celebrating the day.

Originally published on Fri July 6, 2012 1:23 pm

Someone please tell us, because we've searched and can't find the answer: Who decided this is National Fried Chicken Day?

It apparently is, judging from all the stories, Web posts and tweets we're seeing.

It's why the Los Angeles Times is offering up "Fried Chicken Five Ways" — five recipes, from classic buttermilk-battered to Korean.

Read more
Middle East
12:38 pm
Fri July 6, 2012

Yemen Airstrikes Punish Militants ... And Civilians

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 3:46 pm

The destruction is total. In Jaar, a town in southern Yemen, an entire block has been reduced to rubble by what residents say was a powerful airstrike on May 15.

For the first time in more than a year, the sites of the escalating U.S. air war in southern Yemen are becoming accessible, as militants linked to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula have withdrawn from the area. This retreat follows the sustained American air campaign and an offensive by the Yemeni government forces on the ground.

Read more
Books
12:38 pm
Fri July 6, 2012

SciFri Book Club Talks Silent Spring

Transcript

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

I hope you're having your cup of coffee, your beverage of choice, maybe a little snack, sitting in your comfy reading or driving chair, settled in now because the first meeting of the SCIENCE FRIDAY Book Club is about to go underway. And for our first book, we have chosen the Rachel Carson classic "Silent Spring."

Read more
Science
12:35 pm
Fri July 6, 2012

Peering Into The Dark Side Of Scientific Discovery

Transcript

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Now picture this: You're one of the many graduate students working round the clock in a university lab on a series of seemingly dead-end experiments, until one day, you strike gold. It turns out, you've discovered the cure to a mysterious disease which will save the lives of millions around the world.

Read more
NPR Story
12:23 pm
Fri July 6, 2012

At Long Last, The Higgs Particle... Maybe

Originally published on Fri July 6, 2012 12:55 pm

This week physicists announced the discovery of the long-sought-after Higgs boson--or at least something that looks a lot like it. Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll explains why the tiny particle is so fundamental to our understanding of the universe, and why it took 50 years to find it.

NPR Story
12:23 pm
Fri July 6, 2012

What's Your IQ On SPF?

Originally published on Fri July 6, 2012 12:48 pm

In an unscientific survey of Times Square, Science Friday found that not one passerby could explain how sunscreen works. Dermatologist Jennifer Linder explains that and other basics of sun protection, including the meaning of SPF, and whether sunscreen blocks vitamin D production.

Monkey See
11:20 am
Fri July 6, 2012

Sex, Violence, And Kickstarter: Rediscovering An Exploitation Pioneer

Credit Process Blue
A still from The Ecstasies of Women, one of three films credited to Herschell Gordon Lewis that are being restored by Process Blue.

Herschell Gordon Lewis is cheerfully ambivalent about his place in film history. "What's really puzzling: if you go to a legitimate distributor such as Netflix, Netflix has a number of my movies," says Lewis from his home in Florida. "And again, that's a very sad commentary on what's going on in the world of motion pictures — but I'm not about to object to it."

Read more
Shots - Health Blog
11:13 am
Fri July 6, 2012

Under Pressure, Pfizer Agrees To Change Vitamin Claims

Credit CSPI
Pfizer will drop or qualify some health claims on labels and in ads for Centrum vitamins and supplements.

Originally published on Fri July 6, 2012 11:56 am

If you pay any attention at all to ads for vitamins, you'd be forgiven for thinking they're good for just about anything that could ever ail you.

Read more
Planet Money
11:10 am
Fri July 6, 2012

Rigging LIBOR: Banking Scandal Hits Home (Literally)

Credit Lefteris Pitarakis / AP

Originally published on Mon July 30, 2012 8:20 pm

The biggest scandal in the world right now has nothing to do with sex or celebrities. It's about an interest rate called LIBOR, or the London Interbank Offered Rate.

Most Americans probably never heard of LIBOR. When I first moved to New York, I hadn't. Back then, I could barely afford my apartment and got an adjustable rate mortgage. And so I wondered: When my rate adjusts, how will I know how much I'll be paying?

I searched through all the documents and it was right there — LIBOR. I would be paying a few percentage points above whatever LIBOR was.

Read more
Deceptive Cadence
11:03 am
Fri July 6, 2012

Behind The Music: Charles Ives

Credit Pablo Helguera

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 3:23 pm

Got an idea for a classical cartoon, or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. You can see more of his work at Artworld Salon and on his own site.

Read more

Pages