Surely I am not the only one who has harbored secret dreams of being an heiress — not the nouveau riche kind with a reality television crew trailing behind me, but the sort with a full staff, gobs of silver and afternoons spent on the hunt. Though I've come around to my untitled American life, I still adore reading books about drafty old houses and the privileged people who inhabit them.
The difference between these two dogs is not as great as you think. New research shows almost all physical traits in dogs are controlled by just a few genes.
Humans are complicated genetic jigsaw puzzles. Hundreds of genes are involved in determining something as basic as height.
But man's best friend is a different story. New research shows that almost every physical trait in dogs — from a dachshund's stumpy legs to a shar-pei's wrinkles — is controlled by just a few genes.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Sunday he would release his 2010 tax returns on Tuesday. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports Romney is ceding to increased pressure that might have contributed to his loss in South Carolina's Primary. Guy Raz talks with NPR's senior Washington editor Ron Elving about Newt Gingrich's upset in South Carolina's primary and what it means for the GOP race.
For his directorial debut, actor Ralph Fiennes brings William Shakespeare's work to the big screen with a modern adaptation of Coriolanus. Fiennes also stars as the eponymous Roman general, a role he played on the stage 11 years ago.
The original play, Fiennes tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz, is complex.
"I had this feeling that if you were to clear away a lot of the denser passages, and shorten it and edit it, you are left actually with a very visceral, sinewy political thriller," Fiennes says.
North and South Korea are still officially at war, even though a truce was declared more than 50 years ago. As a result, there are upwards of 22,000 North Korean defectors now living in South Korea. The journey across the heavily guarded border is treacherous and often deadly. It's been just over a month since Kim Jong Un rose to power after his father Kim Jong Il's sudden death and there are some reports of would-be defectors being shot down while trying to flee the impoverished nation.
The NFL is on the cusp of determining who will be playing in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. Tomorrow on the West Coast, the San Francisco 49ers face the New York Giants, and on the East Coast, the New England Patriots host the Baltimore Ravens. NPR's Mike Pesca is here to preview the matchups. Mike, hello.
A new documentary tracks the history of the U.S. War on Drugs. As the film explains, after 44 million arrests, sales of illegal drugs are still on the rise. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz speaks with director Eugene Jarecki, who debuts his film The House I Live In at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend.
Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, (from left to right) are remanded in custody in New Zealand on Friday.
When the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI shut down the web site Megaupload yesterday, there were many responses, from outrage to confusion to applause, and nearly as many questions. One that stood out was simple: If Megaupload provides a service that can be used for legal pursuits, are they legally responsible for the users who use it to illegally share copyrighted material?
