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2:31 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

A Few 'Baloney' Facts In Biden, Obama's Speeches

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Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 4:18 pm

Melissa Block talks to Robert Farley, deputy managing editor of FactCheck.org, to truth squad some of the comments made Thursday night by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Two-Way
2:21 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Texas Road Will Inaugurate 85 MPH Speed Limit, Nation's Highest

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Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 4:18 pm

The highest speed limit in America will be officially unveiled in November, when drivers on one portion of a Texas highway will be allowed to reach 85 mph without keeping an eye out for police cars and speed cameras.

As Transportation Nation reports, the new speed limit allows drivers to "legally drive faster than hurricane force winds."

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Planet Money
1:06 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

The Economics Of Stealing Bikes

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Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 4:18 pm

The normal bike market is pretty straightforward — supplier, middleman and buyer. The market for stolen bikes has the same roles, but different players. Here's a quick look at how it works.

The Supplier

The supplier, instead of Schwinn or Cannondale, is the bike thief.

Hal Ruzzal, a bike mechanic at Bicycle Habitat in Manhattan, describes two types of thieves.

Thief Type 1: "Your standard drug addict."

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Summer Nights: Funtown
1:02 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

A Slamming Good Time On The Jersey Shore

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Credit Elise Hu / NPR
Keith Van Brunt (left) and Tom Mgerack, known as the "Bumper Car Psychos," go for a ride July 27 at the Keansburg Amusement Park in Keansburg, N.J.
Credit Joel Rose / NPR
Signs line the walls of the bumper car ride at the Keansburg Amusement Park on the Jersey shore.
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Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 4:30 pm

The "Bumper Car Psychos" are easy to spot. While the other bumper cars at New Jersey's Keansburg Amusement Park spin wildly from one collision to the next, the Psychos cruise gracefully around the track, grinning from ear to ear as they slam their targets into the wall.

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Sports
12:59 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

A Year After War Wound, American Wins Paralympics

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Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Lt. Brad Snyder mounts the starting blocks while training on his starting technique. Snyder was permanently blinded last year by an IED in Afghanistan, and is now competing in the Paralympics in London.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Following the explosion, Snyder became permanently blind.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., Snyder was captain of the swim team at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated in 2006. Here, he walks with his coach at his training center in Baltimore.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Navy Lt. Brad Snyder talks with his coach, Brian Loeffler, during a training session at the North Baltimore Swim Club in Maryland on July 29. Last year the lieutenant was working on a bomb-disposal squad in Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device took his vision.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
A new generation of wounded war veterans from the U.S. and U.K. has taken their particularly competitive spirit to the Paralympic Games.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Snyder's times in the 400-meter freestyle have improved so drastically in the past year that he set a world record for blind athletes.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Snyder uses the lane dividers to position himself in the pool and stay on the fastest course possible.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Organizers of the Paralympics say new vets raise the caliber of the competition, while veterans say the games provide inspiration and therapy for young catastrophically injured soldiers.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Synder and Loeffler head to the showers after training.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Snyder went to London for the Paralympics ranked No. 1 in several events, including the 100-meter freestyle, where he took gold on Aug. 31.
Credit Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
Bradley Snyder celebrates after winning gold in the 400-meter freestyle at the Paralympics in London on Friday. The Navy lieutenant won the event exactly one year after losing his sight in an explosion in Afghanistan.
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Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 8:06 pm

The first thing you need to know about Navy Lt. Brad Snyder is that he's a bit intense.

If you go to the U.S. Naval Academy, swim competitively, and make the cut for the Navy's elite bomb-disposal squad, you're probably going to be the competitive type.

"Crossfit, surfing, biking, running, swimming, you name it I'm into it. Rock climbing," says Snyder.

The second thing you should know is that Snyder plans to continue doing all these things — even though he's now blind.

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World Cafe
12:26 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Animal Collective On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Animal Collective.
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Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 10:35 am

The members of the inventive, experimental rock band Animal Collective first met in school in Baltimore County, Md. After collaborating throughout high school and college, they released their debut album as a group, Here Comes the Indian, in 2003. More studio albums followed, including the 2009 breakout Merriweather Post Pavilion.

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It's All Politics
12:12 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Deflating Jobs Report May Not Move The Needle On The Election

Credit Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Obama spoke at a campaign event at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, N.H., on Friday.
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Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 12:52 pm

It wasn't what President Obama was hoping for: another disappointing jobs report the morning after he accepted the Democratic nomination and asked Americans to stay the course.

The U.S. economy added just 96,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department, and a drop in the unemployment rate to 8.1 percent was mostly due to people giving up on job searches.

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Book Reviews
12:04 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Safe Landing For 'Stag's Leap'?

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Credit Brett Hall Jones /
Sharon Olds explores her divorce in poetry.
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Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 4:18 pm

What do you do when, after 30 years, your husband tells you he is leaving you for someone else? If you're poet Sharon Olds, you grab your spiral-bound notebook and write about it. And though the marriage ended in 1997, she has waited 15 years to tell us about it — half as long as her marriage lasted.

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Music Interviews
11:55 am
Fri September 7, 2012

Fresh Air Remembers Grammy Winner Hal David

Credit Lawrence Lucier / Getty Images
Burt Bacharach with Hal David (right).
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By NPR Staff

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 3:23 pm

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Asia
11:40 am
Fri September 7, 2012

Little Islands Are Big Trouble In The South China Sea

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Credit Masataka Morita / AP
Last month, Japanese police officers arrested activists holding Chinese and Taiwanese flags who landed on Uotsuri Island, one of the islands of Senkaku (in Japanese), which is known as Diaoyu in Chinese.
Credit Pat Roque / AP
Protesters in Manila, Philippines, marched toward the Chinese consulate during a May rally decrying the standoff between the two nations over the Scarborough Shoal.
Credit Feng Li / AP
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Tuesday in Beijing to press for a peaceful resolution to competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.
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A storm has been brewing for decades in the South China Sea, and it has nothing to do with the weather.

Instead, it's a virtual typhoon of competing claims over tiny, uninhabited island chains that ring the South China Sea and reach even farther north. They all have one thing in common: China has claimed control of them.

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