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The Two-Way
2:21 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Sweet Story: Bear Breaks Into Candy Shop, Feasts; Camera Captures It All

So, a bear walks into a candy shop.

No, we're not starting a bad joke.

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The Torch
1:44 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

How Do You Stack Up Against An Olympic Athlete?

Credit Lars Baron / Getty Images
Weightlifter Kazuomi Ota of Japan takes a moment after failing to lift the required weight in the men's +105kg final in London. At 6 feet and 324 pounds, Ota is one of the largest Olympians.

Sure, you might spend a lot of time on your couch, as you watch the Summer Olympics. And hey, maybe you've drifted a couple pounds above your fighting weight. But there's all kinds of athletes competing in London — one of them has to be around the same size as you, right?

Now you can find that out, thanks to the BBC, whose site has an interactive chart that lets you enter your height and weight — and then tells you which two Olympic athletes you most resemble.

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All Tech Considered
1:36 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

As Starbucks Adopts 'Square' Payments, Will Other Merchants Follow?

Credit Square screen grab
Square allows merchants to accept payments automatically from recognized registered customers.

You could soon pay for a latte at Starbucks simply by walking into the store with a smartphone in your pocket and giving the cashier your name.

Square, a San Francisco-based payments startup unveiled a deal Wednesday with the world's largest coffee chain that will move its mobile payments products into Starbucks stores around the U.S. starting this fall.

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The Salt
1:09 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Here's Where Farms Are Sucking The Planet Dry

Credit Nature
Check out some of the world's most important - and threatened - aquifers. Click to see a high-resolution version of this map.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 4:49 pm

This map is disturbing, once you understand it. It's a new attempt to visualize an old problem — the shrinking of underground water reserves, in most cases because farmers are pumping out water to irrigate their crops.

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The Two-Way
1:03 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Amazingly Earth-like: Curiosity Beams First Full-Frame Photo Of Mars

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 3:20 pm

We can't help but tune into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's daily news conference about NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission.

For the most part, it's very much inside baseball. The scientists talk about the nitty gritty details of getting the Curiosity Rover going and onto doing some science. They talk about reorienting antennas and about how a higher-than-predicted temperature won't have a significant effect on the mission.

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Shots - Health Blog
12:32 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs Have A Dark Side When It Comes To Health

Credit PRNewsFoto/OSRAM SYLVANIA
Scientists say energy-saving compact fluorescent (left) or light-emitting diode (right) light bulbs can have unsavory health effects.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 9:34 pm

Everybody knows that one good way to prevent a sunburn is to stay inside, where you're safe from the sun's ultraviolet rays. Right?

Well, that may not be true anymore if your house is lit with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Last month, researchers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook showed in a paper that tiny defects in the bulbs can let through UV light that can damage skin cells and lead to cancer.

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The Torch
11:49 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Field For Women's 200 Meters Is Loaded With Talent, And Speed

Credit Quinn Rooney / Getty Images
American sprinter Allyson Felix leads the field on her way to winning the women's 200 meters gold medal in London's Olympic Stadium.

Originally published on Mon August 13, 2012 9:29 am

Allyson Felix has won the women's 200 meter race in London's Olympic Stadium, running a time of 21.88. Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took the silver medal at 22.09, as she wasn't able to track Felix down in the closing stretch.

The four center lanes were stacked with speed, with Jamaica's Fraser-Pryce and defending gold medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown in lanes 4 and 5, respectively. Just outside of them were Americans Sanya Richards-Ross and Felix, in lanes 6 and 7. And on the outside, in lane 9, was Carmelita Jeter.

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The Two-Way
11:46 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Australia Orders Google To Delete Personal Data Once And For All

Credit Daniel Mihailescu / AFP/Getty Images
The camera mounted on a Google Street View car used to photograph whole streets obscures part of the U.S. Internet giant's logo.

Australia's privacy commissioner is asking Google to delete all personal data its Street View vehicles collected from unsecured wi-fi networks. The directive comes a little more than a week after Google said that in error, it had kept a small portion of the 600 gigabytes it collected.

As we reported, the slurped data is known to include passwords, emails, pictures and web searches.

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Participation Nation
11:33 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Providing Holistic Care In Durham, N.C.

Credit Courtesy of Caare
Sharon Elliott-Bynum is the co-founder of Caare.

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 9:11 am

This month we are collecting your stories about the good things Americans are doing to make their community a better place. Some of your contributions will become blog posts and the project will end with a story that weaves together submissions to make a story of Americans by Americans for Americans.

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The Two-Way
11:17 am
Wed August 8, 2012

How Hot Was It? July Was Warmest Month On Record For U.S.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 12:14 pm

The Torch
11:04 am
Wed August 8, 2012

The Olympic Art of Shushing: Who Decides When Fans Can Be Noisy?

Credit Julian Finney / Getty Images
Fans make some noise as they watch Olympic women's beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade in London. There seems to be little consistency in which sports require quiet from spectators.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 1:25 pm

There seems to be a vague logic that dictates which Olympic sports are conducted against a backdrop of noise, and which operate in a cone of silence.

For the most part, the more a sport depends on a fine motor skill, the quieter the spectators are meant to be. Shooters squeeze triggers before mostly hushed crowds. But in many shooting disciplines, the competitors line up in a group and can shoot at any point during their time allotment. So not only is gunfire ringing in their ears, crowds often become noisy, depending on the results.

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It's All Politics
11:04 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Missouri's Claire McCaskill Gets Clarity On Her Opponent, If Not Her Future

Credit Jeff Roberson / AP
The Missouri Republican primary win by Rep. Todd Akin gives Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Democrat, the choice she seemed to prefer.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 12:05 pm

U.S.
10:52 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Motive in Sikh Temple Shooting May Remain A Mystery

Originally published on Fri August 10, 2012 6:20 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

There are some new developments in the case of the Wisconsin man who opened fire on a Sikh temple last Sunday. The man at the center of the attack is a 40-year-old Army veteran named Wade Michael Page. Page killed six people at the temple and wounded three others, including a police officer. Page himself died at the scene.

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The Two-Way
10:29 am
Wed August 8, 2012

After Being Shot By Police, Sikh Temple Gunman Killed Himself, FBI Says

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 11:23 am

Wade Michael Page, the man authorities say killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Sunday, appears to have "died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," FBI Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson told reporters in Milwaukee this morning.

After a Oak Creek, Wis., police officer shot Page in the stomach, she said, video from the scene appears to show Page taking his own life.

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Fitness & Nutrition
9:54 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Surgeon General: Don't Let Hair Get In The Way

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 4:00 pm

Dr. Regina Benjamin wants a culture of fitness, and she's asking black women to stop worrying about their hair, and hit the gym. She's promoting a contest for the best gym-friendly hairdos.

Around the Nation
9:54 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Shooter Was On Radar For Years, Expert Says

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 4:53 pm

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. We'd like to take a moment to think more deeply about what seems like a barrage of mass shootings this year alone.

In May, a belligerent man in Seattle shot up a cafe, killing five people after he was denied service. Nearly three weeks ago, 12 people were killed and close to 60 people were wounded in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. This past Sunday, six people died in Wisconsin after being gunned down in a Sikh temple.

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Around the Nation
9:54 am
Wed August 8, 2012

A Link Between Mental Health And Mass Violence?

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 3:52 pm

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Earlier we talked with Dr. Carl Bell. He is a psychiatrist and a professor at the University of Illinois. He's the president and CEO of the Community Mental Health Council in Chicago, Illinois, and we've spoken with him on a number of occasions about issues in mental health, but he has a particular interest in the issue of violence. In fact, he's the founder of the Institute for the Prevention of Violence, has done extensive research in this area, and we caught up with him on Tuesday.

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The Torch
9:53 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Rogue Condoms Appear In Olympic Village; Organizers Take Action

Credit Scott Heavey / Getty Images
London Mayor Boris Johnson picks up a packet of Olympic branded condoms during a visit to the Olympic Village last month. Durex, the official Olympic supplier, has sent 150,000 condoms to the village. A bucket of rogue condoms has created a small controversy.

It should come as no surprise that Olympics organizers take brand endorsements and official suppliers very seriously. That extends beyond logos on shorts and shoes — up to, and including, condoms. That's right, the Olympics has an "official" condom — and organizers want to get to the bottom of how a bucket of rogue condoms reached the Olympic Village.

As has happened before at the London Games, it started with a tweet.

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The Two-Way
9:38 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Wisconsin Teen Looks To Repeat As Texting Champ, FAWC

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 6:02 pm

Update at 5:11 p.m. ET. Back-ToBack:

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The Torch
8:48 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Let's Catch Up: London Abuzz Over Women's Soccer; Alternate Medal Count

Credit Cameron Spencer / Getty Images
Chinese trampoline gold medalist Dong Dong competes in London. An analysis by Yahoo finds that China's Olympians outpace their U.S. counterparts in judged competitions, such as trampoline and diving.

Good morning. Only five days remain in the Summer Games, and China leads the United States in the medal count, with a total of 73 (34 gold) to America's 71 (30 gold). Here's other news that caught our eye this morning:

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The Two-Way
8:48 am
Wed August 8, 2012

For Sikhs, 'Anger Is Not Just Futile, It's A Sin'

Credit Darren Hauck / Getty Images
Mourners gathered Tuesday night in Oak Creek, Wis.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 10:06 am

  • Steve Inskeep speaks with Swaranjit Arora.

Sunday's attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, which left six people and the gunman dead, has for many of us opened a window on a religion, a culture and a people we know little about.

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The Salt
8:11 am
Wed August 8, 2012

School Lunch Milk Cartons Take A Hit In New Ad Campaign

Credit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
The newest campaign from vegan advocacy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine targets dairy in school lunches.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 1:33 pm

Forget the school vending machine fights. An anti-cheese group says that innocent-looking carton of milk on lunch trays is the real culprit for our children's weight woes.

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The Two-Way
7:30 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Flooding In Philippines Forces 400,000 To Evacuate; 16 Deaths Reported

Credit Ted Aljibe / AFP/Getty Images
A man paddled an improvised raft along a flooded street in suburban Manila earlier today.

The scope of the flooding in Manila and other parts of the Philippines due to torrential rains in recent days is daunting.

According to the country's disaster response agency:

-- 1.2 million people are in affected areas.

-- Nearly 400,000 have fled to evacuation centers or homes of friends or relatives.

-- At least 16 deaths have been attributed to flooding or landslides.

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World
6:26 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Cameron Athletes Disappear From Olympic Village

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 10:52 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

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Around the Nation
6:23 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Nudist Convention Meets In Sunshine State

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 10:52 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Tampa will host the Republican National Convention. A big honor, but nothing compared to this week's convention in a Tampa suburb. It's the American Association of Nude Recreation convention. Channel 10 News covered the event from head to toe. Like the GOP, this group nominates someone for president, though they debate issues in a place labeled the Bare Buns Cafe. One attendee said I've never seen so many people with such beautiful eyes. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The Two-Way
6:21 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Situation In Sinai Is 'Extremely Dangerous' As Egypt Moves Against Militants

Credit Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images
In Cairo on Tuesday, Egyptian Army military policemen carried the coffin of one of the 16 border guards killed during an attack on a crossing post in the northern Sinai on Sunday.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 7:27 am

  • Steve Inskeep speaks with Leila Fadel on 'Morning Edition'

The news that Egypt's military has attacked groups of what it says are "Islamist militants" in the Sinai with missiles from aircraft and shells fired from tanks underscores how "extremely dangerous" the situation has quickly become along that nation's border with Israel, NPR's Leila Fadel said earlier today on Morning Edition.

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Participation Nation
6:07 am
Wed August 8, 2012

A Fantastic Camp In Front Royal, Va.

Credit Courtesy of Camp Fantastic
Tammy Jenkins is the medical coordinator for Camp Fantastic.

This month we are collecting your stories about the good things Americans are doing to make their community a better place. Some of your contributions will become blog posts and the project will end with a story that weaves together submissions to make a story of Americans by Americans for Americans.

Read more
Around the Nation
4:30 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Sikh Resident Experienced 'No Hatred' In Milwaukee

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 10:52 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Decades ago, there were hardly any Sikhs in the Milwaukee area. After a 1960s change in immigration law made it easier for people to reach the U.S. from Asia, they began flowing in. And one of the earliest arrivals was Swaranjit Arora, who came in the '60s and arrived in Milwaukee in 1972 to teach at the University of Wisconsin. He talked with us about how things have changed.

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Sports
4:24 am
Wed August 8, 2012

U.S. Gymnast Raisman Wins Gold, Bronze Medals

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 10:52 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

The Fierce Five have finished their run at the London Summer Olympics. Fierce Five is the nickname given to America's whiz-kid female gymnasts - average age just a bit over 16. They started the Games by winning the most important gold medal, in the team event. They finished yesterday with their team captain finally getting a break that seemed elusive. From London, here's NPR's Tom Goldman.

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