NPR Blogs

Pages

The Two-Way
4:26 pm
Thu November 22, 2012

100-Vehicle Pileup In Southeast Texas Kills 2, Injures Dozens

At least two people are dead and dozens injured in a 100-vehicle pileup on Interstate 10 in southeast Texas that's being blamed on early morning fog on Thanksgiving Day.

KFDM TV reports that the dead included a man and a woman in a Chevy Suburban that was crushed by a tractor trailer. State troopers told the TV station that between 80 and 120 people were hurt; they were taken to hospitals in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Winnie. The crash occurred southwest of Beaumont, 80 miles east of Houston.

Read more
The Salt
5:58 am
Thu November 22, 2012

Ingredients For A Homestyle Thanksgiving, 200 Miles Above The Earth

Credit courtesy NASA
Space food.

Originally published on Thu November 22, 2012 6:20 pm

For Thanksgiving, NASA's space food experts always try to make sure astronauts get to enjoy traditional holiday fare, even if its not exactly home cooking. And being so far from home, astronauts can get pretty attached to their comfort foods.

This year, Kevin Ford, the commander of Expedition 34 and currently working at the International Space Station, says he has the ingredients to make one favorite Thanksgiving dish the NASA nutritionists may not have anticipated: Candied yams with marshmallows.

The yams are thermostablized and come in a plastic pouch.

Read more
The Salt
3:26 am
Thu November 22, 2012

A Readable Feast: Poems To Feed 'The Hungry Ear'

Originally published on Thu November 22, 2012 4:45 am

This Thanksgiving, as hearty aromas fill the house, take a moment to savor a different kind of nourishment — poetry about food.

The Hungry Ear, a new collection, celebrates the pleasures and the sorrows of food with poems from Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath and dozens more. Poet Kevin Young cooked up — or edited — this readable feast. He tells NPR's Renee Montagne that, much like the best meals, the best poems are made from scratch.

Read more
Shots - Health News
5:29 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

With Routine Mammograms, Some Breast Cancers May Be Overtreated

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 6:01 pm

The endless debate over routine mammograms is getting another kick from an analysis that sharply questions whether the test really does what it's supposed to.

Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, coauthor of the analysis of mammography's impact, which was just published in The New England Journal of Medicine, tell Shots that the aim was to "get down to a very basic question."

Read more
Shots - Health News
5:03 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

When Fetuses Yawn In The Womb

Credit Courtesy of A Little Insight 3D 4D Ultrasound.
Could that be a yawn? An ultrasound scan catches an opened-mouth fetus.

Why people yawn is a mystery. But yawning starts in the womb.

Past studies have used ultrasound images to show fetuses yawning, but some scientists have argued that real yawns were getting confused with fetuses simply opening their mouths.

So Nadja Reissland, a researcher at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, used a more detailed ultrasound technique to get images of fetal faces that could distinguish a true yawn from just an open mouth.

Read more
The Two-Way
5:02 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

Judge Approves Hostess' Plan To Liquidate

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
The big name in the Hostess lineup.

Maybe the end is nigh, after all.

A judge has approved Hostess' plan to liquidate the company, all but assuring that the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Donettes and Wonder Bread will cease to exist.

The New York Times reports:

Read more
Monkey See
5:01 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

Rob Delaney Talks About Gratitude, Perspective, Spaceships And A Career With Teeth

Credit
A screenshot from Rob Delaney's standup special, "Live At The Bowery Ballroom."

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 5:57 pm

Full disclosure: The first thing I said when I saw that Rob Delaney would be talking to NPR's Audie Cornish on today's All Things Considered was that I was curious to see whether he had ever said anything on Twitter — where he has almost 670,000 followers (including me) as of this writing — that they thought they could read on the radio. It's an exaggeration. But not by that much.

Read more
The Two-Way
3:55 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

VIDEO: Maine Newscasters Quit On Live TV

Credit YouTube
A screen shot of the Bangor, Maine newscast.

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 4:13 pm

Shots - Health News
2:56 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

World AIDS Epidemic Slows, But Fight Stalls In Parts Of Asia

Credit AP
Students paste red ribbons on a window to mark World AIDS Day in Nanjing, China, in 2006. Between 2007 and 2011, the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in China has nearly quadrupled to 40,000.

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 3:10 pm

New HIV infections have dropped more than 50 percent across 25 developing countries since 2001, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS reported on Tuesday. And, transmission of the virus from mothers to infants has decreased by 24 percent in just the past two years.

Read more
The Two-Way
2:30 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

Reports: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Will Announce Resignation

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) in 2009.

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 3:09 pm

Update at 3:02 p.m. ET. Jackson Resigns:

After much controversy over an extended medical leave and facing an ethics investigation, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat from Chicago, resigned from Congress today.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Jackson said he resigning effective immediately so he can "focus on restoring my health."

Read more
The Two-Way
2:10 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

How Did Thanksgiving End Up On Thursday?

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 5:30 pm

Move Thanksgiving to Friday? That's what F.B. Haviland asked President Hoover in 1929.

Didn't happen. But while we're on the subject, ever wonder why we carve our gobblers on the fourth Thursday of November? Hint: It's not because Thanksgiving Thursday is more alliterative than Thanksgiving Friday.

Read more
Shots - Health News
1:01 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

OB-GYNs Say No Prescription Should Be Needed To Get The Pill

Credit iStockphoto.com
Time for oral contraceptives to be available without a prescription?

The time has come for the pill to be available over-the-counter, the nation's leading group of obstetricians and gynecologists says.

Why? "There's a 50 percent unintended pregnancy rate in the U.S., which is extremely high for a resource-rich country," says Dr. James T. Breeden, president of the American Congress of Obstetrician and Gynecologists. Easier access to oral contraceptives could go a long way to bringing that number down, he tells Shots.

Read more
The Two-Way
12:58 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

As Talk Of Affirmative Action Heats Up, Asians Contemplate Their Position

Credit Eric Gay / AP
Students walk through the University of Texas at Austin campus. A case before the U.S. Supreme Court challenges the school's consideration of race in its admissions.

Originally published on Thu November 22, 2012 12:35 pm

It's been an eventful couple of months for those following the debate over affirmative action.

Read more
The Two-Way
12:27 pm
Wed November 21, 2012

Reports: Sikh Temple Shooter Acted Alone, Had No Drugs In System

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
Photos of victims are seen during a candlelight vigil in Union Square for victims of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting on August.

Originally published on Sun November 25, 2012 10:19 am

The FBI has concluded its investigation into the shooting spree at a Sikh temple that left six dead.

After interviewing 300 people and following 200 leads, the FBI concluded that Wade Michael Page acted alone when he opened fire at the Oak Creek, Wis. temple in August.

What's more, reports The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, because Page killed himself, we may never know his motive. The FBI said that there was no evidence that Page acted because of his connections to white supremacist groups.

Read more
Krulwich Wonders...
11:27 am
Wed November 21, 2012

Double Thanks

Credit vimeo
monkey

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 12:58 pm

Pages