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Around the Nation
5:29 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Drought Spreads Misery Through Arkansas River Basin

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 8:19 pm

Drought has set in early and hard across the Midwest, parching the Arkansas River basin. The river trickling out of the mountains is dry before it reaches some of the major agricultural uses downstream. And the drought is torching crops, sapping tourism and threatening supplies of drinking water.

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The Two-Way
5:27 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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Around the Nation
4:31 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Ore. Wildfires Leave Ranchers Without Grazing Land

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

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Two giant wildfires in eastern Oregon have killed hundreds of cattle and jeopardized ranchers' livelihoods. The fires have burned more than 1,000 square miles of sagebrush and juniper and that leaves ranchers with nowhere to graze the cattle they managed to save.

That's a problem in a town called Burns, as we hear from Amelia Templeton of Oregon Public Broadcasting.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
4:27 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

City Life Snapshot: A.J. Auto Accessories

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

Transcript

DAVID ORTIZ: This is A.J. Auto Accessories. You people are welcome any time you want.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

A different take on car culture now in this City Life Snapshot.

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Environment
4:23 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Drought In Danger Of Beaching Mississippi Barges

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

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And now we turn to the Mississippi River. The drought has brought parts of the Mississippi to near record low water levels. Those shallow conditions pose difficulties for barge traffic on the river and we turn now to Mark Mestemacher who is co-owner of Ceres Barge Line. It's based in East St. Louis. Welcome to the program.

MARK MESTEMACHER: Thank you.

SIEGEL: And how low is the river in East St. Louis?

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Presidential Race
4:07 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Obama Campaign Still Pushing For Romney's Taxes

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

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

The Obama campaign is not letting the issue of Mitt Romney's tax returns go away. Listen to this TV ad released yesterday in Pennsylvania.

(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD)

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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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Arts & Life
3:48 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Seinfeld Hits The Web, Still Talking About Nothing

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

Jerry Seinfeld's new series is called Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and the promos promise exactly that. The comic toodles around in his vintage wheels, drinking java with his pals Alec Baldwin, Michael Richards and Larry David, and discussing (among other things) the effrontery of ordering herbal tea when invited out for coffee.

But the next act from the man behind the most popular sitcom on television won't be on television. It's a webseries.

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The Salt
3:33 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/.

World Cafe
3:19 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Anders Osborne On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of Jerry Moran
Anders Osborne.

Originally from Sweden, Anders Osborne left his home in Uddevalla at 16 to hitchhike through Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Eventually finding his way to the U.S., the singer-songwriter and guitarist settled in New Orleans in 1984. The Crescent City clearly came to inspire Osborne's music, which ranges from muddy backwater blues to upbeat country-rock, and fills in many of the gaps in between.

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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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Human Tissue Donation
2:43 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Am I A Tissue Donor, Too?

Credit iStockphoto.com
Organ and tissue donation forms vary from state to state. Some are very general, while others allow people to choose or restrict what they want to donate.

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 9:20 pm

Part 3 in a four-part series

Maybe you've agreed to be an organ donor. There might be something on your driver's license — a red heart, a pink dot or the word "Donor" — to show it. That also means you've very likely agreed — even if you don't realize it — to donate more than just your organs.

I know that I'm an organ donor. I signed up years ago, when I renewed my driver's license. But I had no idea that I'd also signed up to donate my tissue. That is, until Laura Siminoff, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school, explained it to me.

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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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