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Shots - Health News
6:03 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

The Weight Of A Med Student's Subconscious Bias

Credit iStockphoto.com
More than a third of medical students in a North Carolina study had a bias against overweight people.

Quite a few medical school students have something against obese people, and most of those who have such a bias are unaware of it.

That's the conclusion of study appearing in the July issue of Academic Medicine. It was conducted at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. The study's author says the subconscious judgments could affect how patients are treated.

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The Salt
5:47 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Inside A Tart Cherry Revival: 'Somebody Needs To Do This!'

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

Some fruits, like apples, you can find anywhere. But others have gotten a little bit lost in today's global food business.

Take tart cherries, also known as sour cherries. Unlike sweet cherries, America's tart cherries are too fragile to ship very far, so most people never get to taste a fresh one.

They're typically frozen, then baked into that iconic American dessert, the cherry pie — and cherry pies aren't as popular as they used to be.

Yet the humble sour cherry is experiencing an unlikely renaissance — and the best may be yet to come.

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The Two-Way
5:41 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Descending Into The Mariana Trench: James Cameron's Odyssey

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 8:44 am

At nearly seven miles below the water's surface, the Mariana Trench is the deepest spot in Earth's oceans. And the site north of Guam is where director and explorer James Cameron recently fulfilled a longtime goal of reaching the bottom in a manned craft.

For the dive, Cameron designed a 24-foot submersible vehicle, the Deepsea Challenger — "this kind of long, green torpedo that moves vertically through the water," as he tells All Things Considered's Melissa Block. Cameron was able to watch his descent, he says, through a window that was about 9-1/2 inches thick.

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Politics
5:39 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Health Officials Decry Texas' Snubbing Of Medicaid Billions

Credit Eric Gay / AP
Texas Gov. Rick Perry addresses the opening session of the Texas Legislature in Austin earlier this year.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

The state of Texas is turning down billions of federal dollars that would have paid for health care coverage for 1.5 million poor Texans.

By refusing to participate in Medicaid expansion, which is part of the Affordable Care Act, the state will leave on the table an estimated $100 billion over the next decade.

Texas' share of the cost would have been just 7 percent of the total, but for Gov. Rick Perry and the state's Republican-dominated Legislature, even $1 in the name of "Obamacare" was a dollar too much.

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The Salt
5:19 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Oprah Winfrey's Latest Venture Is Farming In Hawaii

Credit The Oprah Magazine
The June issue of The Oprah Magazine includes an article with details on Oprah Winfrey's new farm in Hawaii.

The local food movement has a powerful new poster girl.

More glowing than American Gothic, Oprah Winfrey and her pal, Bob Greene, appear on the cover of the June issue of The Oprah Magazine, standing in what looks to be a field of kale.

"Oprah's New Farm!" reads the headline splashed across the pair's checkered shirts. "How She's Growing Healthier — and You Can Too."

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The Two-Way
4:53 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

For Second Time, Moore Family Loses Home To A Tornado

Credit Steve Gooch / AP
An aerial photo shows destroyed houses in Moore, Okla., after Monday's tornado. Rena and Paul Phillips, who lost their home in the storm, also lost a house to a tornado in 1999.

The tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., Monday destroyed some 12,000 homes, according to Oklahoma City Police. And for one family, it was the second house they've lost to a tornado in the past 14 years. Rena and Paul Phillips say that the recent loss won't make them move.

The Phillipses told their story to Rachel Hubbard of Oklahoma member station KOSU, who reports on how they're coping with the loss — and the search for belongings in the rubble of their home — for Thursday's All Things Considered.

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The Salt
4:47 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

This 9-Year-Old Girl Told McDonald's CEO: Stop Tricking Kids

Credit Jamie Robertson / Courtesy Jamie Robertson
Hannah Robertson, 9, and her mom, blogger Kia Robertson — with the makings for kale chips, of course.

It's not every day that a 9-year-old girl chastises the CEO of one of the world's biggest fast-food chains.

Yet that's exactly what young Hannah Robertson did Thursday morning at McDonald's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago. When the meeting opened up to questions, Hannah was first up at the mic with a pointed criticism.

"It would be nice if you stopped trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time," she told McDonald's CEO Don Thompson.

Ouch.

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Around the Nation
4:44 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Boy Scouts Vote On Whether To Allow Openly Gay Members

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

Members of the Boy Scouts of America will vote on Thursday on whether to allow gay members.

Around the Nation
4:44 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Okla. Family Must Rebuild Tornado-Damaged Home A Second Time

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Authorities in Moore, Oklahoma say that 12,000 homes were damaged in Monday's tornado. In this next story, we're going to meet one family that was affected, and not for the first time. The Phillips lost their home in a tornado that hit Moore on May 3rd, 1999. They loved the community and bought another house two miles away, a house flattened by Monday's tornado.

Rachel Hubbard, of member station KOSU, toured what's left of their home to try to understand how a family can cope with such a loss twice.

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Around the Nation
4:44 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

In La., Families Still Searching For Storm-Scattered Remains

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

Lionel Alverez is in the Promised Land Cemetery again, taking inventory. He has been coming to this cemetery in Plaquemines Parish, La., all his life. The graveyard is hemmed in between the Mississippi River and the marsh on a lonely stretch of highway.

Promised Land has been the final resting place for the Alverezes for generations. Alverez, 61, points out several graves, one by one. "Albert Alverez. Huey Alverez and Harold Alverez. My brother Allen is near the rear, back there."

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The Two-Way
4:10 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

NOAA Predicts Above-Average Hurricane Season

Credit NOAA
Satellite image of Hurricane Sandy in October of last year.

With memories of last year's Superstorm Sandy still fresh, NOAA is warning East Coasters and those farther inland to brace for another active Atlantic season, predicting that as many as six major storms will develop between the beginning of June and the end of November.

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Shots - Health News
3:49 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Researchers Find Bird Flu Is Contagious Among Ferrets

Credit iStockphoto.com
Of ferrets, men and bird flu.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 3:52 pm

Scientists have completed the first assessments of how readily the H7N9 flu virus in China can pass among ferrets and pigs. The mammals provide the best inkling of how dangerous these bugs may become for humans.

The news is both bad and good. They've found the new bird virus is easily passed between ferrets sharing the same cage.

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The Two-Way
3:43 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Obama To Limit Drone Strikes, Renew Effort To Close Guantanamo

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama speaks about his administration's drone and counterterrorism policies at the National Defense University on Thursday.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 7:03 pm

President Obama on Thursday unveiled a major pivot in White House counterterrorism policy, calling for a limiting of CIA drones strikes and for a renewed effort to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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Movie Interviews
3:36 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Julianne Moore, Relishing Complicated Characters

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 4:03 pm

In the film What Maisie Knew, Julianne Moore plays a troubled rock star whose young daughter witnesses her parents' volatile behavior as they argue over custody during their rocky separation.

On the surface, Moore's character, Susanna, might seem to be an entirely terrible one — a self-involved person and inappropriate mother who's not paying attention to her child. But Moore makes her more complicated than that.

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Television
3:36 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'

Credit Claudette Barius / HBO
Michael Douglas stars as the flamboyant pianist and entertainer Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's new HBO biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 6:43 pm

Before you see any of Behind the Candelabra -- when you just consider the concept of the TV movie and its casting — this new HBO Films production raises all sorts of questions: How much will be based on verifiable fact, and how much will be fictionalized? On an anything-goes premium-cable network such as HBO, how graphic will the sex scenes be?

And the most important questions involve the drama's two leading men, playing an ultra-flamboyant piano player and the wide-eyed young man who becomes his behind-the-scenes companion for five years. Michael Douglas? Matt Damon?

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