The Two-Way
5:11 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Using Hubble, Astronomers Spot Oldest Spiral Galaxy Ever Seen

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 6:29 pm

Astronomers made a surprising announcement today: They have found a spiral galaxy that existed very early in the universe — the oldest spiral galaxy ever seen.

The galaxy is special because such a well-formed spiral wasn't thought to have existed this early on, when the universe was tumultuous.

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Shots - Health Blog
5:02 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

HIV Cure Is Closer As Patient's Full Recovery Inspires New Research

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 7:30 pm

Ask AIDS researchers why they think a cure to the disease is possible and the first response is "the Berlin patient."

That patient is a wiry, 46-year-old American from Seattle named Timothy Ray Brown. He got a bone marrow transplant five years ago when he was living in Berlin.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
3:55 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Motorists To Urban Planners: Stay In Your Lane

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 7:30 pm

Cities and cars share a conflicted relationship these days. Environmental concerns, growing traffic congestion and an urban design philosophy that favors foot traffic are driving many cities to try to reduce the number of cars on the road. In cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Toronto and Boston, some people go so far as to claim there is a "war on cars."

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April Fulton is the blog host of The Salt, NPR's Food Blog. As an editor on NPR's Science Desk, she edits and prepares radio and web reports on food topics ranging from raw milk policy to growing African crops.

Fulton, who joined NPR in 2009 as a health editor, worked with NPR's Health Policy Correspondent Julie Rovner and All Things Considered Senior Host Robert Siegel in preparation for their White House meeting with President Barack Obama just before the health care legislation passed in March 2010. In 2009, she helped launch the Shots health blog, just as the H1N1 flu virus pandemic was making headlines. Also that year, Fulton was part of the team developing content for the newly redesigned NPR.org website, which won a George Foster Peabody Award in 2009.

Before coming to NPR, Fulton spent five years as a freelance food writer. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Capitol File Magazine, US Airways Magazine and on NPR.org.

As a legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Richard Durbin from 2004-2005, Fulton took a brief break from journalism to develop food safety legislation.

Covering health care, labor and transportation policy for National Journal, Fulton worked first as a reporter than as an editor from 2000-2004. During that time, she broke a story on a costly trip made by some Congressional staffers, who oversaw pharmaceutical companies, and paid for by a drug company.

Prior to National Journal, Fulton worked her way up from reporter to editor in chief for a Washington, D.C.-based newsletter covering the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In 2010, Fulton was selected as a Knight Foundation Fellow and attended MIT's Medical Evidence Boot Camp. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in political science from the University of Rhode Island.

The Salt
3:42 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Discarded Food Cans Turn Into Canvas For British Street Artist

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 3:32 am

Those eyes grab you first. Only after a couple of beats do you realize you're looking at the painted bottom of a flattened metal can left on the street, and not some mysterious fairy.

These can art people come from the imagination of a British artist known as My Dog Sighs, who has left a piece of art on the street for someone to find every Friday for the last 10 years.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
3:21 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Drive Time: Commuting In American Cities

Credit CurvaBezier / iStockphoto

Americans' methods for commuting to work vary by city. Some drive alone or carpool, while others use mass transportation. Use this map to explore the geographic differences in how residents in cities with more than 100,000 workers get to work.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The Two-Way
3:09 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

To Help Dissidents, YouTube Introduces Face-Blurring Tool

Credit YouTube
A screenshot of how the face-blurring technology works.

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 7:58 pm

In an effort to make posting video on YouTube safer for activists, YouTube has announced a new tool that automatically obscures faces.

"Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your 8-year-old's basketball game without broadcasting the children's faces to the world, our face blurring technology is a first step towards providing visual anonymity for video on YouTube," Amanda Conway, a policy associate at YouTube wrote in a blog post.

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The Two-Way
2:27 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Netanyahu Points At Iran After Explosion In Bulgaria Kills Israelis

Credit AFP/Getty Images
One bus was largely destroyed and others nearby were damaged by today's explosion in Bulgaria.

Originally published on Sun July 22, 2012 9:42 am

Reports vary on the number of deaths in Bulgaria today from an explosion that tore apart a bus carrying Israeli tourists, most of them reportedly young people in the Black Sea city of Burgas on vacation.

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The Two-Way
2:09 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

In First Enforcement, Consumer Watchdog Fines Capital One

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
People use an ATM at a Capital One Bank branch in Washington in April 2012.

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 2:20 pm

Capital One Bank has agreed to refund two million of its customers $140 million over allegations that it used deceptive marketing tactics to pressure or mislead customers into buying add-on products, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced today. The bank and credit-card lending company will also pay a $25 million penalty.

This is the consumer watchdog agency's first public enforcement action.

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The Two-Way
1:23 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Drought Disasters Declared In More Counties; 1,297 Affected So Far

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
A corn plant that was struggling to survive this week in a drought-stricken farm field near Shawneetown, Ill.

With the addition of 29 counties in eight states today, there are now 1,297 counties across the nation so stricken by drought and heat that they've been declared natural disaster areas, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack just announced. That's about one-third of all U.S. counties, he said.

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