5:18pm

Fri January 13, 2012
The Two-Way

Russian Spacecraft Expected To Crash Into Earth This Weekend

There's two stories about space junk today: First, the AP reports that the International Space Station had to fire its engines to move out of the way of some space junk.

"NASA officials said debris from an old U.S. private communication satellite would have come within three miles of the orbiting outpost on Friday had the station not changed its orbit," the AP reports.

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5:07pm

Fri January 13, 2012
It's All Politics

Obama's Most Vocal Black Critics Dial Back Attacks As Election Year Begins

Credit JIM RUYMEN / UPI /Landov

The dynamic duo of PBS host Tavis Smiley and professor/activist Cornel West was it again in Washington Thursday evening during a live television broadcast of a program addressing poverty.

The two have made a traveling roadshow out of their roles as the loudest African-American critics of President Obama.

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4:08pm

Fri January 13, 2012
NPR Story

A Look At Romney's Olympic Legacy

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 10:07 am

Ten years after the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, there's still some debate about Mitt Romney's claim that he helped "save" the games — and about whether he used the Olympics to relaunch a fledgling political career.

In 1999, Romney accepted the job as CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC), five years after he failed to oust Sen. Ted Kennedy from his Massachusetts Senate seat.

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3:58pm

Fri January 13, 2012
Election 2012

The Ron Paul Paradox: GOP Questions His Impact

Originally published on Fri January 13, 2012 9:08 pm

Credit Stephan Savoia / Associated Press

Four years ago, Texas Rep. Ron Paul finished fifth in the New Hampshire presidential primary with just under 8 percent of the vote.

On Tuesday, he got nearly 23 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, finishing second to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican contest. That came a week after Paul's third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

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3:48pm

Fri January 13, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

India Marks A Year Free Of Polio

Credit Narinder Nanu / AFP/Getty Images

A year ago today, India saw its last recorded case of polio in an 18-month-old girl in West Bengal named Rukhsar Khatoon. She recovered without lasting paralysis.

One year without another case is an impressive milestone in the decades-long effort to wipe the poliovirus from the face of the planet. Only a few years ago, India reported more polio cases than anywhere else — as many as 100,000 cases a year.

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3:46pm

Fri January 13, 2012
World Cafe

Tori Amos On World Cafe

Originally published on Wed March 28, 2012 1:30 pm

Credit Courtesy of the artist

For more than 20 years, Tori Amos has been one of the most inventive and distinctive singer-songwriters in contemporary music. With eight Grammy nominations and millions of albums sold worldwide, Amos has become a living legend. Her solo career has evolved unpredictably, from acoustic piano to electronica and orchestral styles.

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3:37pm

Fri January 13, 2012
The Salt

Waste Whey? Some Say No Way.

Credit GAETAN BALLY / KEYSTONE /Landov

When you open a tub of yogurt, do you pour off that cloudy layer of liquid that collects on the top? If so, you're not just wasting nutritious protein and lactose – you're tossing out what some scientists see as a valuable raw material.

Strange though it might seem, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering in Germany announced this week that they're turning whey into plastic-like films.

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3:34pm

Fri January 13, 2012
Marin Alsop on Music

Alsop Sprach Zarathustra: Decoding Strauss' Tone Poem

I can't imagine a more stimulating conversation opener than "God is dead." Indeed, this quote by Friedrich Nietzsche sparked heated debate in his time, as it still does today. But how many of us know the writings of this 19th-century philosopher?

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3:30pm

Fri January 13, 2012
It's All Politics

A GOP 'Station Of The Cross,' Bob Jones Is Not On Romney's Itinerary

Credit BRIAN SNYDER / Reuters /Landov

Bob Jones University used to be a "station of the cross for aspiring presidential candidates," NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on Friday's All Things Considered. Candidates like Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan all spoke at the school, a "bastion of the most conservative brand of evangelical Christianity," Shapiro says.

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