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Books News & Features
12:01 am
Mon February 20, 2012

Forget Lincoln Logs: A Tower Of Books To Honor Abe

This President's Day, a group of historians in Washington, D.C., decided they wanted to do something different to recognize the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. But how do you memorialize someone who is already one of the most memorialized people in history?

Their solution: to physically illustrate Lincoln's importance by creating a tower of books written about him. The tower measures about eight feet around and 34 feet — that's three and a half stories tall.

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Business
12:01 am
Mon February 20, 2012

Bondholders To Take A Hit In Greece Bailout Plan

European finance ministers are expected to vote on the latest $171 billion bailout package for Greece Monday. The package needs to be approved so Greece can make payments on bonds that come due a month from now. Even if the bailout is approved, it is likely to be only a temporary solution to Greece's troubles.

Across the Atlantic in New York, Hans Humes likes to ride his bike from his home in Brooklyn to his office at Greylock Capital Management in Manhattan. On a recent morning he showed up for our interview still carrying his bike helmet.

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Around the Nation
12:01 am
Mon February 20, 2012

As Bear Population Grows, More States Look At Hunts

Credit Eddy Philippe / AP
In a photo from autumn of 2011, a family of bears investigates a dumpster behind a diner in Pomona, N.Y. Black bears are becoming more common in populated areas around the United States.
NPR Story
7:58 pm
Sun February 19, 2012

The Role Of Political Spouses: Decoding An Image

One of the most talked about personalities on the Republican presidential campaign trail, Callista Gingrich, rarely says a word. That hasn't kept her out of the spotlight, though. From their hair to their home life, potential first ladies get attention on the campaign trail.

Technology
5:39 pm
Sun February 19, 2012

The New Running Game Where 'Zombies' Chase You

The new iPhone app called "Zombies, RUN!" is not your standard running game.

It's designed to encourage folks, such as say, video gamers, who aren't usually associated with exercise to take up running.

British writer Naomi Alderman, who is a gamer herself as well as an Orange-award winning novelist, came up with the idea for "Zombies, RUN!" while in a class for amateur runners she tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Mary-Louise Kelly.

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Latin America
4:02 pm
Sun February 19, 2012

Can Mexico's First Female Presidential Nominee Win?

Credit Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images
Josefina Vazquez Mota celebrates her selection as the presidential candidate of the National Action Party in Mexico City on Feb. 5. She's the first woman to run for president in Mexico on a major party ticket.

Earlier this month, the National Action Party of Mexico nominated the country's first ever female presidential candidate, economist Josefina Vazquez Mota. As Vazquez Mota accepted the nomination, she vowed to be the first woman to become the Mexican head of state.

The PAN, as the conservative party is known in Spanish, is Mexico's current ruling party. It has also put forth a woman, Isabel Miranda de Wallace, in Mexico City's mayoral race. Both elections take place on July 1.

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Health
3:58 pm
Sun February 19, 2012

What's The Cure In The Race Against Breast Cancer?

Credit Tom Worner / AP
Breast cancer survivors stand to form the shape of a pink ribbon at a Susan G. Komen Foundation charity race in Tyler, Texas, in 2004.

Tracy Grant was just 39 when she got the diagnosis.

"They asked me to stay a little bit longer because they saw something a little weird," she remembers. "In my mind I was saying, ... 'Here we go, this doesn't look good.' "

It was breast cancer. As devastating as the news was, it wasn't a surprise. Her mother, Catherine Grant, was diagnosed at age 51.

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The Impact of War
3:00 pm
Sun February 19, 2012

Medics In Training: Treating Soldiers In Transit

Among the thousands of U.S. military men and women still fighting in Afghanistan, many will have their missions cut short by serious injury. Quickly airlifting them out of the war zone requires teams of specially trained medical personnel. Cheri Lawson of WNKU spent the day at a Cincinnati, Ohio, hospital where the rigorous training takes place.

Remembrances
3:00 pm
Sun February 19, 2012

The Man Who Revolutionized Pinball Dies At 100

Sunday the world lost a man who elevated a simple arcade game into an American obsession. Steve Kordek was Mr. Pinball. National Pinball Museum founder David Silverman talks to guest host Mary Louise Kelly Kordek and his legacy.

Pop Culture
11:39 am
Sun February 19, 2012

The Deep-Seated Meaning Of The American Sofa

Credit Dierk Schaefer / Flickr
The sofa can be the epicenter of our lives. It is home base, North Star, study carrel, dining booth and royal throne rolled into one.

A tale of two couches: The first, pictured recently in the New York Daily News, is where NBA supernova Jeremy Lin reportedly spent nights — perhaps battling Linsomnia — before erupting into a game-changing beast and leading the New York Knicks to a euphoric win streak.

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Education
8:00 am
Sun February 19, 2012

What's Behind The Rise Of College Tuition?

Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin talks to NPR education reporter Claudio Sanchez about the huge rise in public college tuition as states face a budget squeeze.

Around the Nation
8:00 am
Sun February 19, 2012

Providence Seeks Aid From Ivy League Resident

The mayor of Rhode Island's largest city is calling on the city's tax exempt hospitals and universities to chip in and help Providence stay out of the red. From member station Rhode Island Public Radio, Ian Donnis reports on how this has made for a sharp battle between Providence and its Ivy League university.

Around the Nation
8:00 am
Sun February 19, 2012

North Vs South: Carolinas Seek To Redraw Border

Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin talks about the 18-year process to re-plot the border between North and South Carolina along its original, 1772 line.

The Salt
8:00 am
Sun February 19, 2012

Dining After 'Downton Abbey': Why British Food Was So Bad For So Long

Originally published on Fri October 19, 2012 3:06 pm

If you've ever watched the television show Downton Abbey, you've probably deduced that dining was a very, very big deal in the lives of the landed gentry of Edwardian England.

Much of the drama surrounding the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants unfolds against a tableau of the table.

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The Two-Way
7:57 am
Sun February 19, 2012

Paying Respects To A Fallen Journalist In Libya

Credit Andy Carvin / NPR
The grave of Mohamed "Mo" Nabbous is seen in Libya. Mo was killed by a sniper on March 19, 2011 while filming Libya's revolution.

A light mist of cold rain started falling on us from the moment we reached the cemetery. If I hadn't felt it on my face, I probably wouldn't have even noticed it, as the hardscrabble stretching throughout the grave yard appeared just as parched as one might expect in a desert country.

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Middle East
7:43 am
Sun February 19, 2012

Food, Supplies Short For Syrian Regime's Opposition

Credit Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images
Syrians demonstrate against the regime after Friday prayers in the north Syrian city of Idlib on Friday. Thousands of Syrians rallied to demand Bashar al-Assad's ouster, as the embattled president's forces unleashed their heaviest pounding yet of Homs in a brutal bid to crush dissent, monitors said.

The offensive started on the city of Homs, where neighborhoods that have seen some of the largest protests and armed resistance to the government are now under constant fire from tanks, rockets and mortars.

Homs is in central Syria, and it is thought that if the regime lost it to the opposition, that would cut the country in half. The offensive continued in the city of Zabadani, a mountain resort town just outside of Syria's capital of Damascus.

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Africa
3:46 am
Sun February 19, 2012

'Enough Is Enough' Say Sengalese Rappers

Credit AFP/Getty Images
Police arrest Kilifa, center, one of two leaders of Senegal's rapper-led youth movement on Thursday in Dakar.

Senegal's capital of Dakar remains jittery, with the youth and the riot police locked in running street battles.

The police are using teargas, rubber bullets and water cannon spray to chase away angry opposition demonstrators, including rappers from the Y'en a Marre movement. Their name means "We're Fed Up, Enough is Enough."

This past week, a planned overnight sleep-in protest was broken up by the security forces. Founding member and rapper, Djily Baghdad, blames Abdoulaye Wade for the ban, the crackdown and for overstaying his welcome as president of Senegal.

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Arts & Life
2:38 am
Sun February 19, 2012

E-Books Flipping The Page On Publishing Standards

The publishing business is not known as a hot bed of experimentation and has been slow to embrace the transition from print to e-books. But this past week in New York, the Tools of Change digital publishing conference attracted entrepreneurs and innovators who are more excited by, rather than afraid, of the future.

It was the kind of crowd where some were more inclined to say "steal my book" than to argue over what an e-book should cost. These are people who see digital publishing not as a threat, but as an opportunity.

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Technology
1:00 am
Sun February 19, 2012

Building A Village, One Home-Brewed Tool At A Time

Do-It-Yourselfers have made everything from bamboo bicycles to 3-D printers, but nothing as ambitious as what's happening on a farm in northwest Missouri where tractors and other industrial machines are being made from scratch.

Marcin Jakubowski earned a Ph.D. in physics and his doctoral thesis deals with velocity turbulence and zonal flow detection, whatever that is. But when Jakubowski graduated in 2004, he wanted nothing to do with physics or academia.

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Music News
6:40 pm
Sat February 18, 2012

Fans Flock To Newark For Whitney Houston Memorial Service

Credit Michael Nagle / Getty Images
Fans mourn outside the funeral service for singer Whitney Houston in Newark, N.J., on Saturday. The pop superstar was found dead in a California hotel room a week ago. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

It was at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., where Whitney Houston first learned to sing, and it was there that friends and family gathered on Saturday to say goodbye to the pop superstar.

The star-studded service lasted more than three hours. Among those in attendance were Dionne Warwick, Kevin Costner and Alicia Keys.

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