

NPR's 404 Page - WingForward
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=404

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markbao
NPR is the best thing that has happened to radio and media. All Things
Considered, Fresh Air, On Point, and Car Talk are some of the best programs on
radio.

~~~
aroon
please don't forget Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Greatest news quiz show ever.

~~~
baconbritches
You forgot the best one... this american life

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gruseom
That's PRI not NPR, which is relevant because NPR famously rejected the show
(then had to license it from PRI because it's so good).

I once heard Ira Glass talking about why he didn't make it on NPR... he was
hosting the national phone-in show for a few months, and they would have
expert panels discussing things like the Cold War. One day, some national
security expert -- evidently trying to play the folksy card -- responded to a
question by saying, "Well, it's like my grandmother says, blah blah blah".
Glass' immediate instinct was to say, "Oh really? Tell me more about your
grandmother!" He always wanted to go for the marginal, overlooked thing. I
love that story.

One other point before I get off this NPR binge: has anyone else noticed that
Ira Glass' vocal mannerisms have been picked up by the new generation of NPR
journalists? This is really annoying. It's like a whole generation of singers
imitating Bob Dylan. Listen, people: it was cool when _he_ did it; _you_ are
making asses of yourselves. The worst offenders are the people on that "Planet
Money" team; I can hardly listen to them. Ok, rant over.

~~~
iamwil
Which is funny because Ira Glass specifically warns against that. Talk like
yourself. But then again, maybe we imitate masters to learn before we figure
out which ones of the things we're imitating are right, and which are just
effects we're cargo culting.

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ehsanul
_After three years of searching for the Apollo 11 tapes, NASA concluded that
the footage of the first manned moon landing is probably lost forever._

How come I never knew that Apollo 11 footage was lost?

~~~
ehsanul
I'm wondering why my comment downmodded; I'd like to know in what way I may
have violated community guidelines, so I don't again. I suppose my comment was
not useful, is that it?

~~~
gojomo
Yes. Only you know why you hadn't seen the coverage of the lost Apollo tapes.
So, your comment was about as useful to the conversation as, "where oh where
did I put my car keys?"

~~~
mhb
If his question were taken literally, then that might be a good explanation.
But it seems pretty obvious that he is asking why it isn't more widely known
that something so important was lost.

Two potentially instructive responses might be "The lost Apollo 11 tapes have
been all over the news and everyone except you knows about them" or "NASA only
recently admitted this embarrassing fact and it was released on Sunday morning
to minimize media coverage."

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gojomo
BTW, I didn't downvote until his comment was briefly at +2; it wasn't a _bad_
comment, just a vague/rhetorical/possibly-paranoid comment I wouldn't want to
encourage.

If he had clarified that he was wondering why it hadn't gotten more coverage,
I would have pointed out I remembered a bunch of coverage a few years ago --
coverage that even yielded a Wikipedia article,
<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes>](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes>),
with a 3+ year edit history.

Instead, he seemed genuinely interested in why someone would have disliked his
comment, so I gave a likely answer.

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yread
yes 404 pages can be cool. see
[http://www.instantshift.com/2009/03/24/creative-404-error-
pa...](http://www.instantshift.com/2009/03/24/creative-404-error-pages-around-
for-inspiration/)

there, now I am ontopic so i can afford to rant: why is this interesting?

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teeja
That's way way better than leaving someone feeling like they've been thrown in
the dumpster!

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thinkbohemian
So now...the quest to find a page that will give us a 500 error message ^_^

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quinto42
what is special about it?

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kgrin
"It's a shame that your page is lost, but at least it's in good company; stick
around to browse through NPR stories about lost people, places and things that
still haven't turned up." Followed by: Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Hoffa, Waldo,
etc.

~~~
josefresco
Not helpful for the person who's trying to find the missing page, but
entertaining.

