A Very, Very, Very, Delicate Balance

"The artist who did this, Michael Grab, is a balancer of rocks. In an interview on Compliment Vices, he describes what happens when he builds these sculptures in front of live audiences, which, apparently, he's done a few times — in Costa Rica, in Italy. Once, at the Boulder Creek Path Festival in Boulder, Colo., a guy came up to him and said, "My brother absolutely does not believe these are balanced like this. He thinks there's bars or glue." He demanded proof that these sculptures were for real."

"'Everybody's watching, everybody heard the whole exchange,' Michael says. 'So I just go up and tap one in the middle and it just collapses. And everyone is like [gasp!] So I just like, get down, start making it again. Make it a tiny bit different.'"

'The Great Agnostic': Giving Up Politics to Preach Against Religion

"Attention American history buffs, here's a name you might not have heard before: Robert Ingersoll. According to author Susan Jacoby, he was 'one of the most famous people in America in the last quarter of the 19th century.'"

"'He went around the country,' Jacoby tells NPR's Rachel Martin. 'He spoke to more people than presidents. He was also an active mover and shaker behind the scenes of the Republican Party.'"

"But Ingersoll is largely forgotten today. His crime? Speaking out in favor of the separation of church and state. Jacoby, the author of a new biography The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought, says he promoted Darwin's theory of evolution and fought publicly against government interference in religion."

3D Printing Is Kind of a Big Deal

"The first key to thinking about 3-D printers is this: Do not think printer. Think magic box that creates any object you can imagine."

"In the box, razor-thin layers of powdered material (acrylic, nylon, silver, whatever) pile one on top of the other, and then, voila — you've got a shoe, or a cup, or a ring, or an iPhone case."

"It's miraculous to see. Press a button, make anything you want. But just how important is 3-D printing? Unlike earlier big-deal technologies (like, say, the tractor) 3-D printing won't really replace what came before."

"'If you're producing trash cans or stadium seats, you'll more than likely produce them the old way,' says analyst Terry Wohlers."

You Can't See It But You Will Be a Different Person in 10 Years

"No matter how old people are, they seem to believe that who they are today is essentially who they'll be tomorrow."

"That's according to fresh research that suggests that people generally fail to appreciate how much their personality and values will change in the years ahead — even though they recognize that they have changed in the past."

"Daniel Gilbert, a psychology researcher at Harvard University who did this study with two colleagues, says that he's no exception to this rule."

Downton Abbey: It's More Fun Downstairs

"With the third season of the sumptuously upholstered period drama Downton Abbey coming to PBS Masterpiece Classic on Jan. 6, Morning Edition's David Greene sat down with a half-dozen members of the cast to talk about what's in store."

"For those who don't know the show, Downton Abbey is a grand English country house, a world choreographed by ritual and rank — where every person knows his place and everything is just so. It's home to an aristocratic British family headed by the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley, and his American-born wife, Cora."

"But now, in the years after World War I, change is in the wind — rising and falling fortunes, social changes, characters adjusting to new roles both upstairs and down. Actors Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, who play the Granthams, joined cast mates Joanne Froggatt, Sophie McShera, Jim Carter and Rob James-Collier, who all play members of the house's sprawling staff, to talk class, character — and, of course, clothing."

An Evolutionary Whodunit: How Did Humans Develop Lactose Tolerance?

"Got milk? Ancient European farmers who made cheese thousands of years ago certainly had it. But at that time, they lacked a genetic mutation that would have allowed them to digest raw milk's dominant sugar, lactose, after childhood."

"Today, however, 35 percent of the global population — mostly people with European ancestry — can digest lactose in adulthood without a hitch."

"So, how did we transition from milk-a-phobics to milkaholics? "The first and most correct answer is, we don't know," says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London in the U.K."

Music Streaming Services Hunt For Paying Customers

"2012 has been a strange year for content creators — authors, producers, musicians. It was a year when the very idea of physical ownership of a book or CD or even a song file became almost passe."

"It was also the year in which music-streaming services like Spotify and Pandora launched major efforts to convince people to pay for something they didn't own. But it's been slow going."

"Music-streaming services have been trying to win over two types of customers: a younger generation that doesn't buy at all and an older generation that still likes owning physical albums."

Don't Fear That Expired Food

"Now that the Christmas feast is over, you may be looking at all the extra food you made, or the food that you brought home from the store that never even got opened."

"And you may be wondering: How long can I keep this? What if it's past its expiration date? Who even comes up with those dates on food, anyway, and what do they mean?"

"Here's the short answer: Those "sell-by" dates are there to protect the reputation of the food. They have very little to do with food safety. If you're worried whether food is still OK to eat, just smell it."

Dig Evidence of Pre-Jesus Bethlehem

"Thousands of Christian pilgrims streamed into Bethlehem Monday night to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's the major event of the year in that West Bank town. But Israeli archaeologists now say there is strong evidence that Christ was born in a different Bethlehem, a small village in the Galilee."

"About 100 miles north of where the pilgrims gathered, shepherds still guide their flocks through green unspoiled hills, and few give notice to the tucked-away village with the odd sounding name: Bethlehem of the Galilee. But archaeologists who have excavated there say there is ample evidence that this Bethlehem is the Bethlehem of Christ's birth."

The Paradox and Mystery of Our Taste For Salt

"Salt is one of those dangerously tasty substances. We add the magical crystals of sodium chloride to almost everything that we cook or bake, and according to many public health experts, we add too much."

"They want us to cut back, to lower our risk of heart attacks or strokes."

"Yet when you really start looking for ways to do this, you run into a paradox and a scientific puzzle."

"First, the paradox. Too much salt may kill us, but our bodies need some of it to survive."

NIH to Revisit Debate on Controversial Bird Flu

"On Tuesday, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland is holding a second day of talks about whether and how to continue funding some controversial scientific experiments."

"Back in January, virologists agreed to temporarily stop research that was creating new forms of bird flu because critics argued that the work was too dangerous. NIH officials are now seeking input from scientists and the public about how to proceed."

"Scientists, national security experts and public health workers have come from all over — including places like the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia and Vietnam — to discuss thorny issues raised by the research."

Counting Bugs In Panama: Get Out of Your Tree Raft

"There are more species of insects than pretty much anything else in the world. And scientists know there are millions they haven't even identified yet. Now, in a tropical rainforest in Panama, a multinational team of scientists has just completed the first ever insect census."

"Scott Miller, an entomologist at the Smithsonian who worked on the Panama, shows off one of the species from the survey that's at the National Museum of Natural History's insect zoo in Washington, D.C."

"'We're standing in front of a colony of leafcutter ants,' he says. 'There you see one of the worker's who's carrying a leaf above its head and across its back as if it were sort of a sail, it looks sort of the like a sailboat, walking across the rock here.'"

Scientists Mourn Popular Wolf Shot By a Hunter

"The most popular wolf in Yellowstone National Park was shot by a hunter last week, a big blow to scientists and many wildlife enthusiasts who loved following her story."

"'She was very recognizable, and she was unique and everybody knew her,' says biologist Douglas Smith."

"The animal known as 832F had a beautiful gray coat and was the alpha female of the Lamar Canyon pack. Smith has followed this wolf for years but only got to put a tracking collar on her in February."

The World in 2030: Asia Rises, The West Declines

"By the year 2030, for the first time in history, a majority of the world's population will be out of poverty. Middle classes will be the most important social and economic sector. Asia will enjoy the global power status it last had in the Middle Ages, while the 350-year rise of the West will be largely reversed. Global leadership may be shared, and the world is likely to be democratizing."

"But the planet may also be racked by wars over food and water, with the environment threatened by climate change. Individuals, equipped with new lethal and disruptive technologies, will be capable of causing widespread harm. Global economic crises could well be recurring."

"It all depends on how events develop over the next decade, according to a new report, Global Trends 2030 [PDF], prepared by the National Intelligence Council, comprising the 17 U.S. government intelligence agencies."

Hopper's Lonely Figures Find Some Friends in Paris

Earlier this summer, I looked for Edward Hopper's Morning Sun at its home in the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio. In the painting, a woman sits on a bed with her knees up, gazing out a window. She's bare, but for a short pink slip. The iconic Hopper is a must-see, but on the day I visited, it was on loan to an exhibition in Madrid.

I finally caught up with Morning Sun in Paris, where it is on display as part of a Hopper show at the Grand Palais. When I first walked in, the gallery was empty, but not for long. The room quickly filled — as has the whole exhibition — since it opened in October.

Knightley's Anna Karenina Loses the Innocence

"Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has been adapted for TV or film at least 25 times. It's a title role made great by screen legends Greta Garbo and Vivian Leigh, and now, it's Keira Knightley's turn."

"Knightley reunites with Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright in a new adaptation of the book. Here, she talks to Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered, about bringing the title character to life."

"'Anna finds herself in the role of the perfect wife and the role of the perfect mother, and suddenly that role doesn't fit. So I think the first thing we did talk about was this idea of her, in the opening sequence, her dressing for the role of Anna Karenina. There was even talk very early on of do you take it one step further and do you actually see me, Keira Knightly, dressing as the actress dressing as the role of Anna Karenina? We thought that would be taking it just one step too far.'"

Remembering the Vital Force of Jazz Pianists--Dave Brubeck

"For millions of Americans who came of age in the 1950s, Dave Brubeck was jazz. His performances on college campuses, Top 40 radio play, his role as a jazz ambassador for the U.S., his picture on the cover of Time magazine — all made him one of the most recognized and recognizable musicians of the era."

"He died Wednesday morning, the day before his 92nd birthday, in Norwalk, Conn. The cause was heart failure."

"Brubeck's start in music was like the jazz he played: unorthodox. He never learned to read sheet music growing up. And he developed his chops playing in a military band for Gen. George Patton's Third Army. In the '50s he formed a quartet with saxophone player Paul Desmond that broke into the Top 40 with 'Take Five.' It was released as a million-selling single with 'Blue Rondo à la Turk' on the flip side."

Cat Fight in Rome: Beloved Shelter Faces Closure

"Anyone who has visited Rome and its antique monuments has also seen their four-legged residents: the many stray cats that bask in the sun amid the ruins."

"One site in central Rome is known as "cat forum," thanks to its adjacent cat shelter. But Italian archaeology officials have issued the Torre Argentina Cat Shelter Association an eviction notice, and feline lovers from around the world are bracing for a cat fight."

"The Roman ruins at Torre Argentina are an oasis in the middle of the city's chaotic traffic. The site is dotted with the broken columns of four ancient temples. It was here, at a theater designed as a meeting place for politicians, that Julius Caesar is said to have been stabbed by Brutus."

The Next Workplace Behind the Wheel

"Brad Hines is a building contractor in Los Angeles who spends a good eight hours a day in his 2008 Dodge Ram. He talked to us from his truck — hands-free, of course."

"'I do everything in my truck. I drive from job site to job site. I take calls. I try to get on the computer and clean up daily reports. I answer emails on my phone. I use my truck as a mobile office,' Hines says."

"The idea of the mobile office is far from new — Willy Loman; the Avon Lady; plumbers; electricians. Now, technology is taking the idea of working from the road to a whole new level."

"Hines is not alone. For people who drive trucks, utility is key."

Music Video Borrows From 200 Million Year Old Artist & Disappears

"It's You Tube's 17^th Most Viewed Video of All Time, and the 4^thMost Liked, "Somebody That I Used to Know." sung principally by Wouter "Wally" De Backer, also known as "Gotye," who took his clothes off and got a paintjob from designer Emma Hack."

"Emma covered naked Wally with color patches, set him (and another singer, Kimra) in front of a painted backdrop. When she was done the two singers blended in and became part of the painting. It's a pretty cool display of camouflage technique."

"It's nothing new, though. Far from it."

I'm thinking, most recently, of Liu Bolin, a Chinese artist who can almost totally disappear — and he does it in ordinary settings. No fancy art backgrounds. Here he isn't (actually he is)in a supermarket. (Look for his shoes.)"