Closet NPR Junkie

I'm one of the only sixteen Republicans in Massachusetts. Of those sixteen, I'm one of only two who admit to being an NPR listener. Let's face it, and I don't care how much NPR attempts to argue otherwise, NPR is only slightly less biased than Air America. I digress.

Political views aside, there are three great programs on NPR. One is Science Friday, which I enjoy in snippets if I happen to remember to tune in. Another is Car Talk (which as my family will tell you that I listen while wearing earphones every Saturday). The third is This American Life. I don't set aside time to listen to TAL, but download it as a podcast. It's perfect iPod fodder when mowing the lawn.

If you've got 20 minutes to spare, you might enjoy listening to this week's episode. I couldn't tear myself away. What happens if you're the president of the society of cryogenics during this pseudoscience's infancy? Too many bodies to preserve? Almost no money and sketchy technology? Then you do the best you can, and keep your moral ground.

Or, with the hindsight of time and the scrutiny of investigative reporting, lie your way out of utter shame. The people are already dead, so who cares about the lies you told the families?

You’re as Cold as Ice.

In the late 1960s, a California TV repairman named Bob Nelson joined a group of enthusiasts who believed they could cheat death with a new technology called cryonics. But freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it sounds. Harder still was admitting to the family members of people Bob had frozen that he'd screwed up.

Great stuff.