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Almost all modern computers descend from a machine built before World War II by physics professor John Atanasoff. But today, almost no one has heard of him. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley set out to remedy that.

It may not be in your history books. But it ended with scores of sunken ships, hundreds of missing soldiers and Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere facing charges of cowardice and incompetence. What went so wrong on the New England coast back in 1779?

This week saw two big music releases: a new album from pop baritone Josh Groban and the new download from mash-up genius Girl Talk. Music critic Tom Moon offers his thoughts on two very different albums.

NPR producer Art Silverman uncovers New Jersey's filthy situation: the Passaic River. U.S. manufacturing was jump-started along its banks. Now the river is so toxic, part of it is a superfund site, and much of the rest is, as one writer puts it, "a toilet."

NPR producer Art Silverman uncovers New Jersey's filthy situation: the Passaic River. U.S. manufacturing was jump-started along its banks. Now the river is so toxic, part of it is a superfund site, and much of the rest is, as one writer puts it, "a toilet."

Hamburg-born Astrid Kirchherr met the Beatles in 1960, before they were famous. She took some of the earliest photographs of the group and was engaged to Stuart Sutcliffe, the Beatles' original bassist, before he died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962.

Songwriter Hugh Martin co-wrote the Christmas tune that Judy Garland made famous in the 1944 classic Meet Me in St. Louis. Martin, who recently released a memoir, explains how he came up with his famous lyrics.

Susan Stamberg first broadcast her mother-in-law's "sounds terrible, tastes terrific" relish recipe on All Things Considered in 1972. This year, she asked rapper and chef Coolio to taste the Pepto-Bismol-hued Thanksgiving dish: "The color is a little weird, but it was actually quite good," he reports.

Officials from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are in Dublin to discuss the Ireland's financial crisis. The country in slipping deeper and deeper into debt as a result of trying to rescue its banks, which were heavily over-exposed after Ireland's housing "bubble" burst. There are concerns in financial markets that Ireland might eventual be unable to pay its debts, and worries in Europe that Ireland's crisis could lead to another loss of confidence on the euro.

The Roosevelts' unorthodox marriage was equitable, sexually open — and spanned four decades. Hazel Rowley profiles the uncommon union of a four-term president and his first lady in Franklin And Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage.