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A new magazine arrives on-line today, after a few false starts. Failure magazine is, as its title implies, about failure: battles lost, sports blunders, products that didn't catch on. The fact that someone would even come up with an idea for such a magazine suggests that, in an age when dot-coms come and go like buses, the very notion of failure may not have the stigma it once did when Willie Loman first walked the boards. NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports. (7:30) For more information, visit http://failuremag.com

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports that the Taliban, which governs most of Afghanistan, has lost much of the goodwill it enjoyed when it came to power six years ago. The Afghan people initially thought the Taliban would bring peace and stability to a country engulfed by war. But the Taliban has continued to pursue an offensive against the military alliance that still controls the northern part of the country. The Taliban also has failed to address the problems that make life in Afghanistan a misery for most people. The economy is in shambles, opium production is rampant and the strict version of Islamic law enforced by the Taliban has greatly restricted the lives of women who previously had enjoyed wide freedom.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports Florida's race for Governor is a tight one. Democrats vowed from the minute Al Gore lost the presidency that Jeb Bush would pay for it. They are hoping the residual anger from 2000, plus the overcrowding of school classes, will propel Bill McBride to victory. But Governor Bush is running a tight campaign, with far more money in the bank than his opponent.

His new film is Lost in La Mancha. It's a documentary about Gilliam's failed attempt to adapt the story of Don Quixote to the screen. The film Gilliam was supposed to make was titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis and Jean Rochefort. Gilliam is a former member of the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe and was responsible for the Monty Python TV show's quirky animation. He went on to write and direct such films as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, an adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel.

NPR's Renee Montagne talks with literary sleuth Don Foster about his new book Author Unknown: on the Trail of Anonymous. Foster has made a name for himself by putting a name on works when their authors don't. He's been credited with discovering the author of Primary Colors, he discovered that a poem signed by W.S. was indeed a lost work of Shakespeare. recently, Foster believes, that Clement Clarke Moore did not write the classic the Night Before Christmas. Foster says it's actually the work of Major Henry Livingston, a veteran of the Revolutionary war, who penned the poem in 1823.

Lisa speaks with John Chowning, Vice President of Church and External relations at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville Kentucky about some of the things a town goes through when a factory shuts down. Two years ago the small town lost its largest employer, Fruit of the Loom, but some of the jobs were replaced by Amazon.com. In the last few weeks, residents there have been facing the fear once again of potential job loss, but so far the town has escaped job cuts, at least for now. (5:30).

Commentator Rick Ridgeway recounts his return to a Tibetan mountain where twenty years ago an avalanche stopped his climb, and killed his friend Jonathan Wright. Ridgeway went back to Minya Konka with Wright's daughter, Asia, who had grown up without ever knowing her father. (4:00) Below Another Sky: A Mountain Adventure In Search of a Lost Father, by Rick Ridgeway is published by Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 0-8050-6284-X.

To help people connect with those they've lost touch with during the pandemic, Canada Post, the primary postal operator in the country, has sent every household a postage-paid postcard for free.

In this latest installment of our Lost and Found Sound series, NPR's Don Gonyea remembers the heyday of powerhouse AM radio. Gonyea grew up in Detroit, where the big station in the 60's and 70's was CKLW. It broadcast from across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. It was a loud, glitzy noise-making enterprise. Everything was shouted -- even the news. The 50,000-watt giant spewed rock and roll and hyped-news across 28 states and mid-Canada. Gonyea describes the formula that made CKLW and its imitators successful.

Former fire commissioner of New York City, Thomas Von Essen. He led the department through the Sept. 11 attacks and during rescue and early recovery efforts. During the attacks, the department lost 343 men, many of them Von Essen's friends and colleagues. Von Essen stepped down as fire commissioner on December 31, 2001. He's written a new memoir with Matt Murray, Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York.