Small talk: Printing a house, music to wake up the Mars rover
The news that didn't quite make the headlines. This week: The Californians Help Eliminate All The Evasive Registration Scofflaws program, the morning playlist of the Mars rover Curiosity, and a printer that can make a house.
Kai Ryssdal: I’m not gonna tell you this has been a big, heavy week for serious news. But sometimes — late of a Friday — you need a break from the headlines anyway. When that happens to us, we have our own Brendan Francis Newnam and Rico Gagliano ask around a bit about the news that didn’t quite make the headlines.
Brendan Newnam: Marketplace’s David Brancaccio, what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
David Brancaccio: A new program out of California called Californians Help Eliminate All The Evasive Registration Scofflaws.
Newnam: Catchy.
Brancaccio: Yeah, really. Apparently if you move to the state, you have just 20 days to register your car and pay all the fees and if you don’t, this new system allows your neighbor to rat you out. They’re trying to collect apparently millions of dollars in uncollected fees.
Newnam: So what’s with the awkward title?
Brancaccio: It works out to be CHEATERS.
Newnam: Which sounds like a bad reality TV show.
Brancaccio: Some sort of lame sports bar.
Rico Gagliano: Bridget Bodnar, production assistant, what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Bridget Bodnar: I’m going to be talking about the playlist for NASA’s robot on Mars, Curiosity. These NASA scientists have programmed various music to wake it up in the morning.
Gagliano: Oh, so what’s on it?
Bodnar: We’ve got “Good Morning Good Morning” by The Beatles. I went through it — I was born in 1989 — and there’s only one song released after I was born.
Gagliano: Which is?
Bodnar: “Got The Time” by Antrhax, 1998.
Gagliano: I don’t know. You’ve got to be careful what you wish for. You don’t want Curiosity blasting Mars with Justin Bieber. That could happen.
Bodnar: OK. What about a little Spice Girls?
Newnam: Dave Shaw, what’s your story?
Dave Shaw: A printer that can make a house.
Newnam: Computer printer?
Shaw: Uhh, sort of. It’s a 3D printer. Instead of printer ink, it’s got this concrete-like material. It was invented by a professor at the University of Southern California.
Newnam: Wow. How much would that cost?
Shaw: Given what printer ink will run you, I don’t even want to know.
Ryssdal: The radio show Rico and Brendan do is called The Dinner Party.