Search results for

The World Toe Wrestling Championships, the Cone Museum, and the Blood Pudding Tossing Contest: these along with other British eccentricities are celebrated in the light-hearted book Eccentric Britain. Host Jacki Lyden speaks to author Benedict le Vay about the people that in some countries would be looked at as crackpots, but in Britain are respected and even revered. (Eccentric Britain: The Guide to Britain's Follies and Foibles;The Globe Pequot Press; 2000)

Linda has a series of interviews about tonight's scheduled shutdown of Napster -- the Web-based service that allows users to trade music recordings free of charge. A US District court judge ordered Napster to stop facilitating these trades tonight at midnight, saying the company was aiding copyright infringement. Linda talks to Ric Dube an analyst with Webnoize, which researches and reports on the new media entertainment industry. Then she chats with two university students. First, Jeff Meredith, who will be a senior at Indiana University in the fall, and has 1000 MP3 files on his computer, about 400 of which come from Napster. And finally, Sam Ross, a student at the University of Virginia who has thousands of mp3 files, downloaded courtesy of Napster.

Millions of music fans cheered Friday's appeals court ruling that lets the internet music company Napster stay in business at least temporarily. Napster was slated to shut down most of its Web service at midnight Friday. Jacki talks to NPR's Rick Karr about why Napster has been such a hot-button case for music fans and internet users, and why the move to shut it down may hurt the recording industry more than help it.

Mid-summer is the busiest time of year for America's traveling circuses. These family-owned businesses play rural towns and county fairs across the country. Stiff competition from movies and television has forced circuses to be leaner and more efficient - but the allure of clowns and elephants and trapeze artists still draws a good crowd. Reporter Brian Mann spent the morning recently with a circus as they prepared for a show.

On Tuesday, three members of the Kansas State Board of Education who voted to remove the theory of evolution from state-wide assessment tests are facing election battles. Peter Hancock of member station KANU reports that the school board race is garnering unprecedented attention, and the evolution issue has become something of a litmus test for candidates in many state-wide races.

NPR's Rob Gifford takes a visit to a summer camp for overweight children in Shanghai China. The opening of American fast-food restaurants, and only children who are spoiled with sugary treats, have resulted in an explosion of obese children.

Host Jacki Lyden speaks with Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research about Arab reaction to President Clinton's statement that he would consider moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Such a move would directly support Israeli claims over the city. Shikaki says the President's statement helps breed deep suspicion that the U.S. isn't impartial when it arbitrates between Israel and the PLO.

Jason Beaubien of member station WBUR reports that the Boston Red Sox and lawmakers have agreed on terms to finance a new stadium to replace the 88 year old Fenway Park. The new ball-park could cost more than 300-million-dollars, making it the most expensive stadiums ever built.

She could become the nation's new First Lady - but what does the nation know of Laura Bush? This week's GOP convention will give voters the first chance to see the woman who stands at the candidate's side. NPR's Wade Goodwyn spent time with Bush friends and associates and brings us this profile of Laura Bush.

A new magazine arrives on-line today, after a few false starts. Failure magazine is, as its title implies, about failure: battles lost, sports blunders, products that didn't catch on. The fact that someone would even come up with an idea for such a magazine suggests that, in an age when dot-coms come and go like buses, the very notion of failure may not have the stigma it once did when Willie Loman first walked the boards. NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports. (7:30) For more information, visit http://failuremag.com