You likely have never heard of “fat biking,” but it’s one of the fastest-growing segments of the cycling industry. From station KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska, hear how Alaskans are getting (and enjoying?) outdoors…even in subzero weather.
![Bike shop owner Kevin Breitenbach rides a fat bike in the White Mountains National Recreation Area in Alaska in March.[npr.org / Josh Spice]](https://hearditonnpr.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/fat-biking.jpg)
Bike shop owner Kevin Breitenbach rides a fat bike in the White Mountains National Recreation Area in Alaska in March.
[npr.org / Josh Spice]
A quick read on “necking” in the male giraffe community. Now this would have been neat (traumatizing??) to see on a school zoo trip.
Well this is comforting. Hear microbiologist Elisabeth Carniel discuss the reemergence of the plague.
A copper engraving from 1656 shows a plague doctor in Rome wearing a protective suit and a mask. / Artwork by Paul Furst /Wikimedia.org
Now microbiologists have evidence that strains of the plague may be able to reactivate themselves and trigger new outbreaks — even after lying dormant for decades.
I’m just as sick of flash mobs as you are…but the setting, timing, and song choice for this one…you can’t help but smile.
“Spanish unemployment tops 26 percent, and most economists forecast that rate will get worse before it gets better.”
Read.
Scientist Edie Widder on All Things Considered discusses her amazing video footage (first-ever) of the giant squid and her technique to capturing the elusive sea creature in action. Discovery Channel will be airing a documentary in late January.
Courtesy of Edie Widder/Discovery Channel
“The reason we know giant squids exist is that they happen to float when they die. But we really [have] only explored 5 percent of the ocean, and I think we’ve explored that in the wrong way. I think we’ve scared a lot of animals away. So what about the stuff that doesn’t float when it dies?”
Morning Edition Sunday interviewed the husband-wife duo that make up Big Harp, a “low-key folk-rock laced with subtle irony and dark humor” band signed by indie favorite Saddle Creek Records. Their sophomore album, Chain Letters, will be released later this month. Hear the story and check out their sound.
“I didn’t start touring, playing music until I was like 25, and Hank was born when I was 26, so I only had a year of doing it the other way,” he says. “It was really fun, but this way it feels a lot healthier. We wake up early in the morning don’t stay out too late.”
I heard it on NPR 