The Two-Way
2:34 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Sometimes, 4Chan Users Do The Right Thing

Credit Anonymous
This is the photo posted on 4Chan last night.

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 3:42 pm

4Chan is a cesspool. That's not even editorializing. A few minutes on the notorious, free-for-all Internet message board that gave birth to Anonymous will — in the famous words of Gawker — "melt your brain."

But every once in a while, they do the right thing — like today.

As Hypervocal reports, last night a 4Chan user posted a picture of someone standing on two containers full of lettuce with the taunting caption: "This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King."

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Shots - Health Blog
2:17 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Cholera Vaccination Test Reached Targets In Haiti

Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A lone pig roots through trash dumped over the side of a sewage canal that runs from the center of Port au Prince through Cite de Dieu. During the rainy season, the canal overflows its banks and fills nearby houses with sewage, which can carry cholera.

The results are in on this spring's high-visibility pilot project to vaccinate 100,000 Haitians against cholera.

Almost 90 percent of the target population – half in Port-au-Prince and the other half in a remote rural area – got fully protected against cholera, meaning they got 2 doses of the oral vaccine.

The results defy the forecasts of skeptics who said in advance of the campaign that it would be lucky to protect 60 percent of the target populations.

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Economy
2:06 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

States Make Tough Calls To Close Budget Gaps

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 2:30 pm

Over half of U.S. states will have to close a combined budget gap of 55 billion dollars, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in the 2013 fiscal year. To avoid raising taxes, most states are implementing continued cuts to deal with budget shortfalls.

Africa
1:58 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

One Year Later: South Sudan's Ongoing Conflict

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 2:32 pm

A year after South Sudan declared its independence, intractable problems remain: tribal conflict, oil disputes, corruption, hunger and continued fighting. New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson traveled to the remote Nuba Mountains, in Sudan, where the conflict between north and south rages on.

NPR Story
1:58 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Laying Down New Rules For The 'Not-So-Empty Nest'

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 10:16 am

A few years back, Sally Koslow was settling into an empty nest. Her two 20-something sons were launched out of the house and into the wider world. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, her sons landed back home. She was startled and depressed to learn they were part of a much larger trend.

According to the Pew Research Center, one-fifth of young adults aged 25-34 live in multigenerational households. The bad economy is the main contributing factor, but the trend also reflects shifts in social norms.

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The Salt
1:54 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

FDA Bans Chemical BPA From Sippy Cups And Baby Bottles

Credit Fabrizio Balestrieri / iStockphoto.com
FDA makes it official, banning the chemical BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups.

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 3:04 pm

It's been years since manufacturers voluntarily stopped using the plastic additive BPA (Bisphenol A) in sippy cups and baby bottles. But now they have no choice. The FDA announced it has formally banned BPA from these products.

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Shots - Health Blog
1:39 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Athletes Look For Doping Edge, Despite Tests And Risks

Credit Oli Scarff / Getty Images
An analyst works in the Olympic anti-doping laboratory in January. The lab in Harlow, England will test 5,000 of the 10,490 athletes' samples from the London 2012 Games.

Last weekend Debbie Dunn, a U.S. sprinter set to compete in the London Olympics, resigned from the team after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

And as the games draw closer, we expect to see more reports of elite athletes who have turned to prohibited substances in their search for stronger, faster, and leaner body.

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The Two-Way
1:28 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

William Raspberry, Pulitzer-Winning Columnist, Dead At 76

Credit Denis Paquin / AP
Washington Post columnist William Raspberry in 1994, after it was announced that he had won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 10:17 pm

William Raspberry, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his column in The Washington Post, died today at his home in Washington, his paper reported. He was 76.

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Business
1:03 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Debt, Debt And More Debt: Is Democracy To Blame?

Credit Dimitri Messinis / AP
The marble statue of Plato stands in front of the Athens Academy in Athens. The ancient Greek philosopher had his doubts about democracy.

High-profile experts are staging two separate Washington press conferences Tuesday to demand action on public-debt problems. One group is targeting state budget crises; the other, the federal budget mess.

If the ancient Greek philosopher Plato were still alive, he might hold a third press conference to declare: "It's hopeless. I told you so. Democracy will always degenerate into chaos because people will vote for their immediate self interests, not the long-term good."

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NPR News Investigations
12:48 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Calculating The Value Of Human Tissue Donation

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 9:11 pm

Part 1 of a four-part series

The story of how Chris Truitt went from being a tissue industry insider to an industry skeptic starts with a family tragedy.

In 1999, his 2-year-old daughter, Alyssa, died of a sudden health complication. Truitt and his wife, Holly, donated their daughter's organs and tissue, which saved the life of another young girl, Kaylin Arrowood.

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