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Long before smart watches became the latest pursuit for tech companies, Gordon Moore of Intel was experimenting with wristwatch computers. Intel's co-founder and his colleagues built a line of chip-powered watches in the late '70s. The concept was visionary, but the business was a failure. Moore now keeps a memento that he calls his "$15 million watch."

Millions of American homeowners are underwater — that is they owe more than their house is worth. That number though is falling as home prices rise, and as more houses get foreclosed on.

A scientist in Birmingham, Ala., is trying to help overharvested sea urchins, considered a delicacy in many parts of the world, find their way back to a restaurant near you. He's developed an urchin farm to help grow them more sustainably and a special feed that gives them a sweet umami taste.

Robert Siegel speaks with automotive reporter Michele Maynard about the death and legacy of Eiji Toyoda, the former president and later chairman of Toyota.

Evan Mandery's A Wild Justice is an account of the legal battles that led to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down capital punishment, then reversing course four years later. He says that today, prisoners who are sentenced to death have a 10 percent chance of actually being executed.

Sharing power in the Eisenhower administration, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles were the forefathers of using covert operations to upset foreign governments. Journalist Stephen Kinzer, who wrote a book on the siblings, says Americans are still paying the price for them.

Morton Subotnick has been a pioneer in the creation, composition and popularization of electronic music since the 1960s. Now 80, he recently unveiled his latest creation: an iPad app that allows children (and everyone else) to create their own electronic compositions.

Thomas Keneally's new novel, The Daughters of Mars, follows two Australian sisters who become nurses during World War I. Naomi and Sally Durance share a guilty secret, but they don't share any sisterly closeness — until the horrors of war begin to bind them together.

Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's sports correspondent Tom Goldman about ESPN pulling out of a documentary about concussions in professional football, the Little League World Series and Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully.

Anita Elberse's new book, Blockbusters, examines the strategy behind making and marketing megahits. She tells NPR's Renee Montagne that content companies — publishers, movie studios and the like — can create blockbusters by dedicating most of their budgets to a select few likely winners.