Search results for

The annual Jobs Rated Almanac, by Les Krantz has been released. It rates 250 occupations from the best to the worst based on five criteria. All Things Considered asked some workers where they thought their jobs would place. (2:30) Jobs Rated Almanac 2001, by Les Krantz is published by Griffin, ISBN # 0312260962.

A cheery story by Franz Kafka about an executioner called In the Penal Colony has been turned into a pretty opera by Phillip Glass. It's being directed by Glass' former wife, celebrated theater director Joanne Akalaitis. The work is premiers in Seattle tonight at ACT Theater. It travels to Chicago in November. Marcie Sillman, of member station KUOW, reports.

Host Renee Montagne talks with actor and author John Lithgow about his new children's story, The Remarkable Farkle McBride. Lithgow intended to produce a musical program that would draw children to the symphony. Soon after he started, he realized he had the makings of a children's book as well. In the book, Farkle McBride is a musical prodigy that learns to play something from the 4 instrument groups that compose a symphony orchestra. Farkle eventually gives them all up in fits of frustration before he discovers his passion is for conducting. (7:00) John Lithgow's The Remarkable Farkle McBride is published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0689833407.

Linda talks with Hod Lipson, a research scientist at Brandeis University about a robot he and computer scientist Jordan Pollack designed, which constructs other robots. He says this is a new step towards the autonomy of artificial life.

Minority enrollment is up at Florida's state universities and Governor Jeb Bush is attributing the increase to his "One Florida" program. The governor's plan abolished affirmative action in state college and university admissions. It substituted a program where the top 20% of students in each high school class is guaranteed admission to a state institution. But critics say the governor is off base, because other outreach and recruiting efforts are really behind the increase. Susan Gage of Florida Public Radio reports.

The cottontail rabbit used to be a common sight among the oak forests and mountain trails of New England. No more. NPR News correspondent John Nielsen reports on a request by conservationists to put what once was thought to be the most procreatively successful American animal on the endangered species list.

Jason Beaubien reports on tensions between teachers unions and school districts in Boston and Philadelphia - tensions that could lead to teachers' strikes in those cities. One issue is that teachers' hard-won rights regarding seniority are clashing with attempts to make poor-performing schools better.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports traditional Indian medicine men in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, are trying to stop transnational companies from what they call bio-piracy -- making off with medicinal plants from the region and then taking out patents for any pharmaceutical potential. The Mayans say that such drug prospecting does not benefit Indian communities. The companies and some scientists say they stand to lose billions of dollars and perhaps the chance to cure deadly diseases.

Novelist James Welch has a new novel called The Heartsong of Charging Elk, based on an Oglala Sioux Indian who was part of the cast of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. From this historical incident novelist James Welch has made his new work -- (1:30) The Heartsong of Charging Elk is published by Doubleday.

A federal appeals court today decided to keep former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee in jail, in response to a Justice Department request. A lower court federal judge had ruled last week that Lee should be allowed to return home, but will remain under house arrest until his trial on charges of breaching national security. The Justice Department asked for more time to prove that Lee's release would be a threat to national security. Critics of the investigation and Lee's defense team allege that Lee was targeted as an espionage suspect by federal agents because of his race. NPR's Barbara Bradley reports.