January 17th: What's On Today's Show

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In our second hour, Henry Alford talks about good manners in the modern age, and his new book, Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?

Who's Behind The Covert Attacks On Iran?
In December, President Obama approved strict economic sanctions on Iran that go into effect later this year. The sanctions escalated what some analysts call a clandestine war between Iran and the United States. Recent events, including the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist, which some Iranians blamed on the U.S and Israel, and Iran's threats to close the Straits of Hormuz have further strained the relationship between the United States and Iran. Still, there are concerns that Iran is developing nuclear capabilities and the price of oil is likely to continue to rise as these tensions build. Host Neal Conan speaks with Patrick Clawson, director of the Washington Institute's Iran Security Initiative, and Gary Sick of Columbia University's Middle East Institute about the threat of war between Iran and the United States and how the Obama Administration should deal with Iran.

Tuesdays With Dorie
A community of bakers, connected through a blog, vowed to bake a recipe every Tuesday from their Bible, Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, which won the coveted James Beard Award. The 100 devotees baked and baked until all the galettes and cobblers had been tested and tasted. They finished the book in December 2011. Host Neal Conan talks to the muse of Tuesdays with Dorie, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan.

'Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?'
We all think we know bad manners when we see them, but what do good manners look like in this day and age? What's the problem with saying "No problem" as a substitute for "You're welcome"? Is it acceptable to answer a phone call with an email? In a new book, author Henry Alford chronicles his travel to Japan, interviews with etiquette experts, and time spent volunteering as an online etiquette coach, in search of how things might look if people were on their best behavior a bit more often. Neal Conan talks with Alford about his new book, Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?: A Modern Guide to Manners.

The Legends And Laws Of Ship Captains
Five more bodies were recovered today from the Italian cruise ship that ran aground off the shore off Tuscany, bringing the death toll to 11. The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it hit a reef and shipwrecked, and many people are still missing. Prosecutors have accused Capt. Francesco Schettino of manslaughter for abandoning the ship before evacuation was complete. Schettino insists he remained on board, but audio from a recording with the coast guard has emerged, where Schettino is heard resisting commands to stay onboard. Host Neal Conan talks with maritime law professor Bob Jarvis about the responsibilities and expectations of captains, and how their role has changed in the 100 years since the Titanic sank.

What's In That Food? The SuperTracker Knows

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The SuperTracker is an interactive tool that builds off of MyPlate.gov.

USDA The SuperTracker is an interactive tool that builds off of MyPlate.gov.

January is a giddy time for weight-loss companies, which usually rake in profits as New Year's resolutions shuttle earnest dieters to their doors. Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would like to get in on the action, too. Not the money, mind you. The feds want us to use their new online food-and-exercise tracker, SuperTracker.

Tracking is a concept known all too well to anybody who has ever been on a diet. Write down what you eat, and you'll eat less, or at least eat healthier, the thinking goes. Research has shown that tracking does help people lose pounds and keep them off.

And in the past few years weight-loss companies like WeightWatchers and Jenny Craig have rolled out interactive trackers and apps that make this tedious task a bit simpler. But you've got to join, and pay, to use those trackers. The government is offering up SuperTracker for free.

 

SuperTracker launched on Dec. 22, when most of us were not regulating what we ate at all. But it has already logged 9 million visits. It offers three main features: a database of nutritional information for food; a diary for tracking daily consumption; and a physical activity tracker.

That's not so different than many free food trackers already online. But SuperTracker's big bonus may be the Food-A-Pedia, with nutritional information on more than 8,000 foods. The data comes not from manufacturers, but from chemical analyses by the USDA's Agriculture Research Service.

"It's the gold standard of food composition," says Robert Post, deputy director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which built SuperTracker.

The database leaves something to be desired, though. The Salt tried looking up random foods, only to find the first four — Pop-Tarts, HoHos, farro, and peppermint ice cream — weren't there. (By comparison, the WeightWatchers tracked Pop-Tarts and peppermint ice cream, but failed on HoHos and farro.) Simpler requests, like "brown rice," deliver nine different options on SuperTracker. And the nutrient information for each provides way more info than a package label, including Omega 3-EPA and Omega 3-DHA.

USDA officials designed the SuperTracker based on comments from users of its previous interactive tool, MyPyramid.gov. The pyramid was retired last June and replaced with ChoseMyPlate.gov, after the USDA unveiled new dietary guidelines for the nation. The SuperTracker's the interactive tool.

Enlarge USDA

Compare nutritional value with Food-A-Pedia.

USDA Compare nutritional value with Food-A-Pedia.

Even though MyPyramid logged more visits than any other dot-gov site, it wasn't user-friendly, Post admits. Users told the USDA that they didn't want to be forced to register to use the site. They wanted a clean, simple way to find the information they wanted. And they wanted to be able to compare two foods just for calorie content, or drill down and get detailed nutritional information.

The feds must have listened to the focus groups, because SuperTracker is pretty much a breeze to use. Users do have to register if they want to track their eating and activity over time, which seems the whole point of a food diary. But registration also opens the door to customized advice based on age, weight, and gender, as well as the ability to share progress on Facebook or Twitter.

Post swears that the government is not interested in what you're eating, but a privacy-conscious user of the site might want to use a nom de Web when registering.

Mobile apps are in the works, Post says, and will be built based on user feedback from the Web-based tracker.

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