Daniel Grossman’s Copenhagen blog

Science reporter Daniel Grossman is in Copenhagen to cover the Climate Summit. The World has asked him to file occasional blog posts. In his first entry, Daniel describes a visit to an unassuming, but very eco-friendly dwelling just outside the Danish capital. Click below to continue reading. (Photo: Rockwool)

• Video: Bo Andersen talks about his eco-friendly home
• Dan Grossman’s homepage
• Our special page on the Copenhagen Climate Conference

Regional security meeting in Bahrain

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Afghanistan was one of the trouble spots on the agenda at a regional security meeting in Bahrain this past weekend. Top US generals rubbed shoulders with Iranian and other leaders. Anchor Marco Werman gets details from Time magazine’s Vivienne Walt, who covered the meeting.

Men in scarves

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

Men throughout the world are posting pictures of themselves online wearing women’s scarves on their head. It’s not a fashion statement. It’s a political statement against the regime in Iran. The World’s Jason Margolis reports.

• Negar Mottahedeh’s blog

Crunch time in Copenhagen

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
There’s little time left for climate negotiators at the summit in Copenhagen. The summit has less than a week to go. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson, who is in the Danish capital to cover the climate summit.

Geo Quiz

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Our daily geography quiz.

Foul language in Irish parliament

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
A foul-mouthed lawmaker has prompted a review of the rules in the Irish parliament. To many people’s surprise, it turns out that Irish lawmakers are allowed to use the f-word. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Harry McGree of The Irish Times.

Video

Geo answer

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The answer to today’s Geo Quiz is Valencia, Spain. Valencia is preparing to host the next America’s Cup sailing competition in February. The US will be represented by the BMW-Oracle team. We hear from 3 team members who describe their radically designed race boat.

Polache

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Honduran singer-songwriter Polache wrote this song, “Mira a Honduras,” for an ad campaign to promote tourism. The song became a hit in the Central American country.

America’s Cup

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
looking for a Spanish port city in today’s Geo Quiz. This city is preparing to host the next America’s Cup sailing competition in February. There’s been some doubt about the venue for this major international sailing event. But barring a last minute appeal, the race will be staged in Spanish waters. The likely host city has been the venue before.

British English as it is, was, and could have been

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In the latest podcast, an audio archive of British World War One POWs recorded by a German linguist. That’s followed by the story of how British convenience store chain Spar is re-writing wine labels in Scottish, Liverpudlian and other UK dialects. Then, how English might have sounded had the Saxons won the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Then, back to the the present day, as an ATM company uses cockney rhyming slang to dispense cash. Finally, American anglophiles on lorries, cricket bats and other linguistic oddities.

Download MP3

World Books: International Reads for the Holidays

“Your Face Tomorrow, Volume Three: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell”: the final volume in Javier Marías’s trio of spy novels extraordinaire is part of World Book’s idiosyncratic round-up of first-rate international literary stocking stuffers.

Entire program – December 11, 2009

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Today on The World: A closer look at America’s not-so-secret drone war inside Pakistan. Also, a ruling on food labeling in Britain highlights the divide between Israelis and Palestinians. Plus — why some say Ontario’s aggressive renewable energy plan could help the earth, but harm people.

The drone war

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

At least three suspected militants have been killed in a US drone attack in north-western Pakistan, officials say. The area is a major sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Pakistan has publicly criticized drone attacks, saying they fuel support for the militants. The US military does not routinely confirm drone attacks, but the US armed forces and CIA in Afghanistan are the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region, analysts say. Noah Shachtman of Wired magazine is just back from the region. Download MP3 (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage
• Wired.com: U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan
• Podcast: Listen to a longer version of our interview with Noah Shachtman
• Marco Werman talked with Ahmed Rashid about drone attacks (Nov 5)
• Jeb Sharp on the controversial US drone strikes (Jun 18)

Ontario’s green energy plan prompts back wind

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Earlier this year, Ontario adopted a sweeping green energy plan that could make it a world leader in phasing out polluting sources of electricity. The plan paves the way for what supporters hope will be a massive expansion of solar, geothermal and wind power. But the province’s headlong rush toward renewables is roiling some rural communities, which fear massive wind farms will harm their economies and possibly their health. Anita Elash reports. Download MP3 (Photo: flickr.com/photos/canadagood)

• Listen to Anita’s Elash’s report: “Ontario’s green energy plan”
• Environment coverage on The World

And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On this first night of Chanukah, Marco Werman talks with Roger Bennett, co-author of And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl about his work saving decades of American Jewish music from obscurity. Download MP3

• Slideshow of album covers
• And You Shall Know Us By The Trail of Our Vinyl
• Roger Bennett’s Idlesohn Society for Musical Preservation
• Amazon book information