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8:29pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Music

Kishi Bashi: Unique Performances In Time

Originally published on Sat June 9, 2012 10:58 am

Credit Jennifer Leigh
Kishi Bashi is the stage name of Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist K. Ishibashi.

Consider this name: Kishi Bashi. It has a pleasant, repetitive character with a nice — if unusual — little loop. It's an apt stage name for a musician who's creating something haunting, beautiful and maybe a little off-kilter through the technology of looping.

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7:17pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

Attorney General Holder Assigns Prosecutors To Leaks Probe

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 8:21 pm

Credit Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Attorney General Eric Holder testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Attorney General Eric Holder said he was assigning two U.S. attorneys to investigate possible leaks of classified information.

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6:54pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

Very Few Users Vote On Facebook's Privacy Changes

Credit Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images
Facebook's logo.

At the beginning of this month, we told you that Facebook was giving its users the opportunity to vote up or down on changes to its privacy policy.

Voting closed today and Mashable didn't mince its words when it described the results: "Facebook Election Is a Bust: 0.00038% of Users Voted On Privacy Change," was its headline.

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6:16pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

Markets Post Best Week Of The Year

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 6:30 pm

The markets ended in positive territory for the fourth day in a row, capping off the best week this year.

Of course, last week, was painful with big losses. The Wall Street Journal reports on the numbers:

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6:14pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Middle East

In A Syrian Village, Evidence Of A Slaughter

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 10:03 pm

Credit Edlib News Network / AP
Anti-government protesters in the northern Syrian village of Hass protest on Thursday following the deaths of dozens of civilians a day earlier in the village of Mazraat al-Qubair. The banner reads, "The al-Qubair massacre challenges the world's humanity."

NPR correspondent Deborah Amos joined U.N. monitors and a small group of journalists Friday who were able to enter the Syrian village of Mazraat al-Qubair, where 78 people, including women and children, were killed on Wednesday by pro-government forces, according to opposition activists.

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5:58pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

Court Refuses To Dismiss Charges Against WikiLeaks Suspect

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 6:38 pm

Credit Patrick Semansky / AP
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, left, is escorted from a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., on Thursday.

A military judge refused to dimiss 10 of the 22 counts against Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who stands accused of giving classified information to WikiLeaks.

The AP reports:

"Col. Denise Lind also indicated she will postpone Pfc.Bradley Manning's trial, currently set to start Sept. 21, to November or January because of procedural delays.

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5:09pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Economy

As Economic Headwinds Pick Up, Employers Lay Low

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 6:59 pm

Credit Chris Arnold / NPR
Srinivas Konanki and his wife own a small laboratory device company near Boston. Concerns about the economy have left them wary of hiring new employees.

After adding a robust 275,000 new jobs back in January, job growth appears to be slowing. The Labor Department reports that the economy added only 69,000 jobs in May.

Meanwhile, despite the worst recession in generations, there are still countless small business owners plugging away around the country, seeking to expand and hire more employees.

"This year we hired two more technicians, and we hope to hire one more," says Srinivas Konanki, who employs 20 people at Pipette Calibration Services, a laboratory equipment company he owns with his wife.

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4:45pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

Egyptian State-TV Launches Ad Campaign Stoking Fear Of Foreigners

Credit Nile TV
A screen shot of an Egyptian state TV ad.

Egyptian state television has begun running an ad that seems to be stoking fear of foreigners.

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4:45pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Around the Nation

Disastrous S.D. Flood Caused National Wake Up Call

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 9:57 pm

Survivors say the wall of water was like a tsunami that destroyed nearly everything in its path as it roared through a Black Hills canyon and into town. The flash flood that hit Rapid City, S.D., on June 9, 1972, was one of the worst floods in U.S. history. It killed 238 people and damaged or washed away more than 1,300 homes.

On Saturday, the city will read the names of those who died and reflect on how the flood changed the way the city and others towns across the country built themselves.

'It Was Hell'

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4:33pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Taking The Sting Out Of Jellyfish Isn't Easy

Originally published on Wed June 13, 2012 8:09 am

If you're stung by a jellyfish or Portuguese man-o-war, how do you treat the pain?

Some emergency room docs at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center pored over all the scientific papers they could find to come up with answers based on evidence instead of intuition.

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4:03pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Salt

Food Truck Cookbook Tracks Best Meals Served On Wheels

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 6:59 pm

Credit Debbie Elliott / NPR
The crew of Shindigs sets up shop in a parking lot in Birmingham.

With recent news that even Paris has one, food trucks are certainly in vogue these days. In the U.S., they're now spreading from the hot scenes in Los Angeles and New York to smaller cities, like Milwaukee and Madison. Even school systems are jumping on the food truck bandwagon.

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3:54pm

Fri June 8, 2012
World Cafe

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros On World Cafe

Originally published on Mon December 31, 2012 11:36 am

Credit Myles Pettengill
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

A band's sound is only as big as its members, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' music is huge. The 10 members are a whirl of roving horns, as well as whistles, claps, shouts, strummed string instruments and percussion involving drums, hands and anything else they can find. The group's communal folk sound blew up in 2009 with the heart-pounding, foot-stomping single "Home"; with its universal sentiment, the song includes a back-and-forth between frontman Alex Ebert and bandmate Jade Castrinos.

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3:47pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Latin America

Mexicans Want New Approach To Bloody Drug War

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 6:59 pm

Second of two parts

Mexicans select a new president on July 1, and they want a leader who can reduce the rampant violence in their country. Warring drug cartels have killed more than 50,000 people in the past 5 1/2 years, while thousands have disappeared and some cities have been turned into lawless zones.

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3:39pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

Secret Walls And A Temper: Feds Want 10 Years For 'Whitey' Bulger's Girlfriend

Credit AP
This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Catherine Greig, the longtime girlfriend of Whitey Bulger.

Saying her case of harboring notorious mob boss James J. 'Whitey' Bulger was no "garden variety," prosecutors said they want his girlfriend to serve 10 years in prison.

"It is the most extreme case of harboring this District has seen," the federal prosecutors wrote in a 36-page filing with the U.S. District Court District of Massachusetts.

So what exactly is Catherine Greig, who pleaded guilty in March, accused of doing?

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3:17pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Science

Is Japanese Dock A Noah's Ark Or A Trojan Horse?

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 6:59 pm

A bizarre event has drawn scientists to a beach in Oregon — a floating concrete dock from Japan has washed ashore. It had been ripped from its moorings by last year's tsunami and floated across the Pacific.

The dock is encrusted with mussels, barnacles and other marine life from Asia. Scientists are amazed these organisms survived the 14-month voyage, but they're also worried some of these organisms could become pests in U.S. waters.

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1:19pm

Fri June 8, 2012
It's All Politics

GOP Dope Slaps Obama For Saying Private Sector's 'Doing Fine'

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 4:39 pm

Credit BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama handed Republicans an unexpected gift which they in turn bashed him with.

-- Updated at 4:20 pm ET. See end of post --

President Obama opened himself up to withering Republican attacks Friday via an off-hand statement he made in a brief White House news conference.

Obama seemed to suggest that matters were going swimmingly for the private-sector part of the economy and that it was the reduction of government jobs that was the real problem.

Asked to respond to Republican charges that he was blaming Europe's economic policies for the alleged failure of his own domestic economic policies, Obama said:

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1:18pm

Fri June 8, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Tips For A Healthy Summer With Your Kids

Originally published on Wed June 13, 2012 8:08 am

Credit iStockphoto.com
Summer is almost here.

The days are getting longer, and the kids are getting antsier.

Summer must be right around the corner.

So earlier this week, we led a chat on Twitter with Dr. Robert Block, a pediatrician who is president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, about some tips for a healthier summer.

In an action-packed half-hour, he tackled questions ranging from how to pick a sunscreen to how to get kids to eat better.

Here are some highlights from the chat, which was tagged #nprkids, on Twitter.

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1:12pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

LISTEN: NPR Hosts, Reporters Take On 'Call Me Maybe'

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 2:18 pm

Credit Vanessa Heins / Courtesy of the artist
Carly Rae Jepsen.

It could very well end up being the song of this summer. Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," a sunny pop song about a nascent crush, is No. 2 on the pop charts and No. 1 on iTunes.

But, perhaps the bigger sign that it has just crept everywhere is when someone on the Internet mashes up a President Obama remix.

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1:10pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Salt

Our Obama Family Dinner Survey Shows Brown Rice Is Still A Tough Sell

Credit Mark Wilson / Getty Images
First Lady Michelle Obama, here with students from Bancroft Elementary School and Kimball Elementary School, has done a lot to promote healthy family dinners and garden-fresh food.

More than 10,000 of you took our recent survey about how your family meals stack up against the Obamas'. And it turns out, you're a pretty healthy bunch.

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12:45pm

Fri June 8, 2012
The Two-Way

'She Hit Me First,' Greek Slapper Says

Credit YouTube.com

This sounds like something we said in first grade:

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