Russian has a word for light blue and a word for dark blue, but no word for a general shade of blue. So when interpreters translate "blue" into Russian, they’re forced to pick a shade. It’s one of the many complexities of translation David Bellos explores in his new book, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/14/142309214/meaning-of-everything-often-lost-in-translation?sc=tw
Tagged with language translation npr
For reasons that remain mostly mysterious, the note we call "B flat" does the oddest things. It aggravates alligators, it lurks in the stairwell of an office building, and it emanates from a supermassive black hole 250 million light years from Earth.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7442915
Tagged with robert krulwich sound npr
What would it take to design a yawn so powerful that it would make everyone who saw it yawn back? Would it have to be a big yawn? And a dog can make a person yawn, but what about the other way around? Robert Krulwich investigated these questions.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14654608
Tagged with robert krulwich yawning npr
Roger Craig has wanted to be on Jeopardy! since he was 12 years old. When he finally got his shot, he knew he had to make it count. So he built a computer model to mine Jeopardy! for patterns. He says the most exciting part wasn’t the money - it was that his system worked.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/20/142569472/how-one-man-played-moneyball-with-jeopardy
The life of David Sedaris took an unexpected, and not entirely unwelcome, turn when his "Santaland Diaries" were first broadcast on Morning Edition in 1992.
Sedaris recounted his experiences playing Crumpet the elf at Macy’s in New York during the holidays. Almost overnight, he went from obscurity to sought-after talent.
Now, 13 years later, he is a best-selling author who still appears on public radio from time-to-time.
And in those intervening years, the popularity of his original NPR appearance has only grown. So, here, once again, is Sedaris reading in 1992 from his "Santaland Diaries."
From: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121900361&ps=cprs
Tagged with christmas book:author=david sedaris santaland diaries npr
Krulwich makes a bet he can find tools that have gone extinct but it turns out old technology doesn’t disappear like you’d think. Tools from centuries ago are still being made and used, by more people than you’d think.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/02/02/133188723/tools-never-die-waddaya-mean-never
On October 3, 1955, the Mattel toy company began advertising a gun called the "Thunder Burp." The reason the advertisement is significant is because it marked the first time that any toy company had attempted to peddle merchandise on television outside of the Christmas season.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514
Try this: Put a blindfold on someone, take them to a park or a beach or a meadow and ask them to walk for as long as they can in a straight line. Then watch what happens.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/11/03/131050832/a-mystery-why-can-t-we-walk-straight