Listen
Opening a restaurant is always risky, but an economic downturn might be the perfect time.
Word of Mouth
Indie Video Games
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, November 16, 2009.
Most video games are full of camouflaged men and buxom women flipping and kicking on the screen, carrying machine guns and leaving explosions of dust and blood in their wake. But if you reboot and discover the DIY video game movement, you might see something a bit more refined.
In the surreal game Blueberry Garden, flowers blow back and forth against a stark, hand drawn landscape, and you can hear a bird in a top hat landing on floating islands and pieces of cheese. The game won this year’s Independent Games Festival in San Francisco. It’s kind of like a Sundance Festival for indie video game developers, a place where gaming aficionados can step out from behind the controllers and show off games they themselves design.
Joshuah Bearman attended this year’s conference for The New York Times Magazine and joins us with more on the indie video game scene. We also hear from Chris Dahlen, who lives in Portsmouth and reviews video games for the Onion A.V. Club.
New York Times Magazine: Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter?
Fierce Developer: Make your own XBOX games in 10 steps
(Photo courtesy Patrick Brosset via Flickr/CreativeCommons)
Add new comment
Most video games are full of camouflaged men and buxom women flipping and kicking on the screen, carrying machine guns and leaving explosions of dust and blood in their wake. But if you reboot and discover the DIY video game movement, you might see something a bit more refined.
In the surreal game Blueberry Garden, flowers blow back and forth against a stark, hand drawn landscape, and you can hear a bird in a top hat landing on floating islands and pieces of cheese. The game won this year’s Independent Games Festival in San Francisco. It’s kind of like a Sundance Festival for indie video game developers, a place where gaming aficionados can step out from behind the controllers and show off games they themselves design.
Joshuah Bearman attended this year’s conference for The New York Times Magazine and joins us with more on the indie video game scene. We also hear from Chris Dahlen, who lives in Portsmouth and reviews video games for the Onion A.V. Club.
New York Times Magazine: Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter?
Fierce Developer: Make your own XBOX games in 10 steps
(Photo courtesy Patrick Brosset via Flickr/CreativeCommons)
Add new comment
And Now We Hear From You
By Avishay Artsy on Monday, November 16, 2009.
Our segment on those old cassette mixtapes from ex’s that we just can’t let go of got a response from a listener named A. Rioux, who wrote:
The Sounds of Science
By Avishay Artsy on Monday, November 16, 2009.Here’s another way to make science appeal to kids – put it to song. Take one part Mr. Wizard and two parts High School Musical, shake vigorously, and you get The Sounds of Science.
Physics With a Side of Fun
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, November 16, 2009.
On Saturday, hundreds of middle and high school students gathered for a lesson in math and science at the first annual New Hampshire TechFest held at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. The all-day event wasn’t your typical science fair with shoebox dioramas and glue-gun and styrofoam planets.
Instead, students spent the day investigating crime scenes alongside police detectives, charting airplane paths with the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association, and resuscitating a simulation baby mannequin with its own pulse and blood pressure. Professional engineers joined in to show kids the technology they use, and explain why their jobs are more fun than anything they’ll find in a textbook.
Word of Mouth correspondent Robin Respaut covered the festival for us. She’s joins in the studio to tell us about technology and trebuchets.
Derry News: Pinkerton to host first TechFest event
(Photo by Robin Respaut)
On Saturday, hundreds of middle and high school students gathered for a lesson in math and science at the first annual New Hampshire TechFest held at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. The all-day event wasn’t your typical science fair with shoebox dioramas and glue-gun and styrofoam planets.
Instead, students spent the day investigating crime scenes alongside police detectives, charting airplane paths with the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association, and resuscitating a simulation baby mannequin with its own pulse and blood pressure. Professional engineers joined in to show kids the technology they use, and explain why their jobs are more fun than anything they’ll find in a textbook.
Word of Mouth correspondent Robin Respaut covered the festival for us. She’s joins in the studio to tell us about technology and trebuchets.
Derry News: Pinkerton to host first TechFest event
(Photo by Robin Respaut)
Is NBC Too Big to Fail?
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, November 16, 2009.
Think back to the pre-cable days when three networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC ruled the air warves. NBC is the oldest – founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, back when television was a mere twinkle in Philo Farnsworth’s eye.
Since then NBC has been home to hits like The Cosby Show, Friends, The Olympics, and the first Academy Awards Show. The network invited viewers to “Come Home to NBC,” where everybody knows your name. The peacock’s feathers have faded in the ratings in recent years, and audience share plummeted when Jay Leno moved to the 10pm slot this Fall.
Now media giant Comcast plans to swoop in and buy NBC universal, a move that could signal the beginning of the end for network TV. Joining us with more is Mark Harris, who wrote about the beleaguered network for New York magazine.
New York Magazine: Is Broadcast TV Too Big to Fail?
The Associated Press: Broadcast Pioneer NBC Prepares for Cable Takeover
Backstage: Is Broadcast TV Too Big to Fail?
(Photo by Jezlyn26 via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Think back to the pre-cable days when three networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC ruled the air warves. NBC is the oldest – founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, back when television was a mere twinkle in Philo Farnsworth’s eye.
Since then NBC has been home to hits like The Cosby Show, Friends, The Olympics, and the first Academy Awards Show. The network invited viewers to “Come Home to NBC,” where everybody knows your name. The peacock’s feathers have faded in the ratings in recent years, and audience share plummeted when Jay Leno moved to the 10pm slot this Fall.
Now media giant Comcast plans to swoop in and buy NBC universal, a move that could signal the beginning of the end for network TV. Joining us with more is Mark Harris, who wrote about the beleaguered network for New York magazine.
New York Magazine: Is Broadcast TV Too Big to Fail?
The Associated Press: Broadcast Pioneer NBC Prepares for Cable Takeover
Backstage: Is Broadcast TV Too Big to Fail?
(Photo by Jezlyn26 via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Here's What's Awesome: Robots in the Ocean, Lightswitch Ghosts
By Brady Carlson on Sunday, November 15, 2009.Welcome to Here's What's Awesome, answer the secret word and you'll get an extra fourteen cents. It's a common word, something you find around the internet.
20,000 Robotic Submersibles Under the Sea
The Specialists
By Deb Baker on Saturday, November 14, 2009.When Thorkil Sonne’s son was diagnosed with autism in 1999, he read up on the disorder. What he learned worried him: there is no cure for autism, there is less support for children with “invisible” disabilities like autism and almost no support for adults, and autistic adults often have trouble finding and keeping jobs.
Temperature & Temperament
By Martha Poole on Friday, November 13, 2009.
In common vernacular, a “warm person” is someone who is open, amiable. A new study gives a more literal meaning to the term. The study suggests that temperature actually affects peoples' sense of judgment.
Dreamy Songs from Shelley Short
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, November 12, 2009.
Singer and songwriter Shelley Short is 29 years old. She’s from Portland, Oregon, and has just released her third album, a dreamy collection of plaintive folk songs called A Cave, A Canoo. We caught her earlier this week while she was in Germany on her first European tour.
Daytrotter Session: Innocence Need Not Fade
(Photo courtesy of Laurent Orseau)
Singer and songwriter Shelley Short is 29 years old. She’s from Portland, Oregon, and has just released her third album, a dreamy collection of plaintive folk songs called A Cave, A Canoo. We caught her earlier this week while she was in Germany on her first European tour.
Daytrotter Session: Innocence Need Not Fade
(Photo courtesy of Laurent Orseau)
Subprime Student Loan Crisis
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, November 12, 2009.
The recession is encouraging a record number of Americans to attend or return to college. Enrollment reached a record 11.5 million last fall. With unemployment on the rise, that number is expected to climb.
For-profit colleges are aiming to fill the demand. Many students drawn in by promises of close personal attention and immediate career growth agree to take on high interest loans, often times unaware of what they’re signing. On graduation day they face the real world saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
In many cases private student loans come with variable interest rates that can top twenty percent. In addition, a number of recent graduates contend that the education they paid for included sub-par labs, mediocre instructors, and fell short of the quality education that was advertised. The New America Foundation’s Stephen Burd has been investigating the for-profit college industry for The Washington Monthly and joins us with more on what he found.
The Washington Monthly: The Subprime Student Loan Racket
Marketplace: Allegations Against U of Phoenix Persist
Schools like the ones we discussed are often described as "diploma mills." Well, some skeptics proved just how easy it is to walk away with a degree - by enrolling their cats. Now users of Wikipedia have posted a list of several such accomplished felines. Like Colby Nolan. Undercover agents enrolled the housecat at Trinity Southern University in Dallas, which earned him an MBA degree. And science journalist Ben Goldacre was able to score a diploma in nutrition from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants for his dead cat, Henrietta.
(Photo by BdwayDiva1 via Flickr/Creative Commons)
The recession is encouraging a record number of Americans to attend or return to college. Enrollment reached a record 11.5 million last fall. With unemployment on the rise, that number is expected to climb.
For-profit colleges are aiming to fill the demand. Many students drawn in by promises of close personal attention and immediate career growth agree to take on high interest loans, often times unaware of what they’re signing. On graduation day they face the real world saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
In many cases private student loans come with variable interest rates that can top twenty percent. In addition, a number of recent graduates contend that the education they paid for included sub-par labs, mediocre instructors, and fell short of the quality education that was advertised. The New America Foundation’s Stephen Burd has been investigating the for-profit college industry for The Washington Monthly and joins us with more on what he found.
The Washington Monthly: The Subprime Student Loan Racket
Marketplace: Allegations Against U of Phoenix Persist
Schools like the ones we discussed are often described as "diploma mills." Well, some skeptics proved just how easy it is to walk away with a degree - by enrolling their cats. Now users of Wikipedia have posted a list of several such accomplished felines. Like Colby Nolan. Undercover agents enrolled the housecat at Trinity Southern University in Dallas, which earned him an MBA degree. And science journalist Ben Goldacre was able to score a diploma in nutrition from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants for his dead cat, Henrietta.
(Photo by BdwayDiva1 via Flickr/Creative Commons)
About us
Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.
Contact us
Say what you want to say. How you want to say it. We want to hear from you.
Search us
Podcast
Word of Mouth is on the move! Sign up for our podcast and take the show wherever you go.
Support From
is supported by
committed to clean energy solutions
Here's What's Awesome
Television
youth
Mathematics
antiquarian
Next Green Thing
robots
climate change
berlin wall
Journalism
Internet
neuroscience
Games
FDA
twitter
You Tell Us
public television
cell phones
Documentary
music
board games
Germany
health care
Film
Photography
Language
Teens
Sesame Street
environment
science
