Most Recent Posts

With members of the House and Senate scrapping over a Ukraine aid bill, Republicans say a magic bullet could break the logjam.

It has nothing to do with the former Soviet republic, its ability to withstand Russia's military intervention in Crimea, or this weekend's referendum in the Ukrainian territory.

It has everything to do with conservatives' fury at the IRS, which they say has waged a partisan, and unconstitutional, war against President Obama's opponents.

First, there was the grindingly slow, intrusive scrutiny the agency gave to Tea Party and other groups seeking tax-exempt status as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations. The IRS gave similar treatment to liberal groups, though not nearly as many of them. And then, last year, the IRS proposed new rules that would make it harder for groups to veer from their social welfare missions into electoral politics. Conservatives call it a vendetta targeting them. Then again, liberal 501(c)(4)s are against the proposed rules, too.

This matters — to American politicians if not beleaguered Ukrainians — because social welfare groups are the hot item in campaign finance; they get to raise unlimited contributions from donors they don't have to disclose. So far, conservatives have a big advantage in this realm of secretly funded politics.

But back to Ukraine. The financial package for Ukraine itself has strong support in Congress. But Democrats want to add another element, boosting the lending power of the International Monetary Fund. Many Republicans never liked the IMF, but they might be persuaded to go along on the bill if it also includes a provision forcing the IRS to stop work on its new regulations.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday, "To get it passed on the floor, the (c)(4) issue is going to have to be dealt with."

He said House Speaker John Boehner is "not going to bring it up on the House floor unless the (c)(4) issue is dealt with. But then maybe those tied together is what pulls through the IMF piece."

It may also be what pulls through the Ukraine aid, which was the original point.

1. That green spear on your plate wanted to be a fern.

Botanically speaking, asparagus is an oddity among vegetables. First of all, farmers only plant a new asparagus crop every 10 or 15 years, and they don't start with seeds. Instead, farmers plant "crowns," which are the roots of 1-year-old asparagus plants. Those roots will grow underground, year after year, and every spring, when the weather gets warm, the roots will send up green spears. If the spears aren't harvested, they will turn into big and bushy ferns.

2. Asparagus spears grow ridiculously fast.

Scott Walker, president of the world's biggest asparagus seed company (Walker Brothers, of Pittsgrove, N.J.), says that he's heard that on really hot days, asparagus can grow an inch per hour. But he's never actually measured them. During harvest season, farmers struggle to stay ahead of the growing spears. Each field has to be harvested every day, and sometimes even twice a day.

"I remember one year, it went from cold to hot, and it looked like the hair on a dog's back out there in the field. It was everywhere, and we could not keep up," Walker says.

After about six or eight weeks, farmers stop harvesting and let them grow wild. The plant needs to grow into a fern to capture energy from the sun and store it in the root for the next growing season.

Asparagus Time lapse from Adam Gregory on Vimeo.

Many of us have those friends who insist that they're coffee connoisseurs and drink exclusively drip brews. But really, there aren't many academic programs that train people in the taste and science of coffee.

That might all change soon. The University of California, Davis, recently founded a Coffee Center dedicated to the study of the world of java. This week, the center held its first research conference.

"There aren't a lot of things that so many people consume several times a day, every day," says J. Bruce German, who directs of the Foods for Health Institute at Davis. But given how much coffee people all over the world chug, there's a surprising lack of academic research on the topic, German says.

There's a lot we still don't fully understand about coffee, German says. What's the best way to treat the beans while they're still green? What's the most environmentally friendly way to roast them? And why are we so obsessed with how it smells?

And since the university is already well known for its winemaking and beer brewing programs, German says coffee seems like a natural next step.

The idea grew out of a seminar called "Design of Coffee," developed by two professors in the chemical engineering department.

Explore NPR's Coffee Week Stories

Speed-reading all rage. Suddenly many speed-reading apps. Spritz. Spreeder. Others.

Some inspired by method RSVP — rapid serial visual presentation.

"Rather than read words

from left to right,"

says Marc Slater, managing director of Spreeder parent company eReflect.

"RSVP

allows

users

to

read

the

words

quickly.

A few at a time."

Prose, Cons

Speed-reading has fans. And detractors.

But maybe we've got it wrong. Maybe it's not about reading faster. But writing faster.

Speed-writing.

For speed-readers.

Only essential ideas. Omit extra words. Few prepositions, fewer articles. Boil down.

Why make readers work harder? Make writers do heavy lifting. Decide important things. Write those.

Quick History

Americans have been intrigued by speed-reading for a long time. Back in the 1930s, researchers were exploring systems to help people read faster. At Stanford University, according to the New York Times in 1934, researchers took photos of people's eye movements, then taught participants new methods of reading in phrases — not words — and using a sort of metronome to increase reading speed.

In the late 1940s, the University of Virginia's Reading Clinic devised a new method of speed-reading, using vertical lines and an alarm clock. "There are two ways to read: microscopically — which is the old way — and telescopically," professor Ullin Leavell, the center's director, told the Los Angeles Times in 1949. "Today we are attempting simply to develop an individual to see a thought unit, instead of individual parts."

Some fast thinkers — Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, for example — were natural born speed-readers, according to the website of the late speed-reading pioneer Evelyn Wood. From the moment she opened her Reading Dynamics school in Washington in 1959, the LA Times reports, her name was synonymous with readingreallyfast.

Fast-Forward

Now RSVP the new rage.

Readers "less likely to subvocalize — say the words in their head as they read — when using RSVP," Marc Slater says.

This increases reading speed "because saying words in your head is often the slowest link in the reading chain."

Speed reading "not usually appropriate for reading difficult content or abstract concepts," Marc says.

"In these cases, it is understanding that limits comprehension, not the rate of input."

Extreme example: "You might read about a really difficult concept in one paragraph and think about it for a week before you truly understand it."

Speed-reading, Marc says, "definitely won't help in cases like that."

And speed-writing?

Jury out.

The Protojournalist: Experimental storytelling for the LURVers – Listeners, Users, Readers, Viewers – of NPR. @NPRtpj