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The Two-Way
11:11 am
Wed December 5, 2012

China's Communists Declare War ... On Boring Meetings

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 9:14 pm

Suffer from insomnia? The droning rhythm of a Chinese Communist official reading a work report out loud will likely do the trick.

It certainly does for many party members: Just 10 minutes into any party meeting, look down the serried ranks of the attendees, and you'll spot the dozers and snoozers, napping away, heads lolling lazily toward their neighbors.

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The Two-Way
11:09 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Citigroup Cutting 11,000 Jobs, Taking $1.1 Billion In Charges

Credit Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 2:48 pm

Saying it needs to "further reduce expenses and improve efficiency across the company," Citigroup announced today that it is eliminating about 11,000 jobs — 4 percent of its global workforce.

The banking giant also said it is expects to take "pre-tax charges of approximately $1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 and approximately $100 million of related charges in the first half of 2013."

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Monkey See
10:42 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Forty Years After 'Free To Be,' A New Album Says 'It's Okay To Do Stuff'

Credit Rooftop Comedy Productions

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 10:29 am

Krulwich Wonders...
10:26 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Strange Looking Tombstone Tells Of Moving Ice, Ancient Climates And A Restless Mind

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 12:39 pm

With glaciers melting and crumbling all over the world, let me tell you the story of the man who first imagined ice ages, the man buried under this stone in Cambridge, Mass. It's an odd gravestone; a rough, clumpy hunk of granite that doesn't look at all like the other markers at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

That's because it isn't. It's an erratic. A single stone found sitting downhill from a glacier in Switzerland that was lifted, packed, shipped to all the way to Massachusetts to honor this man.

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The Two-Way
10:25 am
Wed December 5, 2012

'NY Post' Photographer: I Was Too Far Away To Reach Man Hit By Train

Credit New York City Police / Reuters /Landov
Before the attack: Two men are seen talking on a New York City subway platform Monday in this framegrab from a video released by the New York City Police Department. Moments later, police say, Ki-Suk Han (whose face is obscured) was pushed on to the tracks.

Originally published on Thu December 13, 2012 3:26 pm

It's a horrifying image that has sparked a passionate debate.

By now you've probably heard about the front page photo on Tuesday's New York Post of a man struggling to climb out of an approaching subway train's way. He had been pushed on to the tracks by a stranger.

Ki-Suck Han, 58, did not make it. He died from the injuries he received.

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Shots - Health News
9:51 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Medical Residents Work Long Hours Despite Rules

Credit iStockphoto
To reduce errors by doctors in training, medical educators have capped how long they can work. But enforcing the limits can be a challenge.

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 10:05 am

More than 10 years after she was a internal medicine resident, Dr. Vineet Arora still thinks about how her shifts used to end.

She says the best shift change was one that didn't require her to transfer single patient to the next bunch of residents. "A good sign out was 'nothing to do,' " she recalls. "When I trained, you worked here until your work was done."

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Monkey See
9:43 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Jimmy Fallon And The Roots Help Restore The Charm Of Mariah Carey's Christmas Classic

Credit

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 12:40 pm

The Two-Way
9:21 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Top Stories: Hundreds Dead In Philippines; Port Strike Ends

Credit Zhang Jun / Xinhua /Landov
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, at Tuesday night's lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree.
The Two-Way
8:56 am
Wed December 5, 2012

118,000 Jobs Added To Payrolls Last Month, Report Signals

Credit Carlo Allegri / Reuters /Landov
A "closed" sign at a coffee shop in New York City, where many businesses had to shut down for at least a few days before, during and after Superstorm Sandy.

There were 118,000 jobs added to private employers' payrolls in November, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report.

That's slower growth than in October, when ADP's employment measure grew by 157,000 jobs.

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The Two-Way
8:41 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Egads! Aussie DJ Pretends To Be Queen, Gets Hospital To Talk About Kate

Credit PA Photos /Landov
Hullo: The real Queen Elizabeth II, we swear, in 1961.

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 6:00 pm

Oh dear:

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The Two-Way
7:45 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Hundreds Dead, Hundreds Missing After Typhoon Slams Philippines

Credit AFP/Getty Images
A woman carries a child through a flooded road on the island of Mindanao.

"The death toll from a typhoon that ravaged the Philippines jumped to 238 Wednesday with hundreds missing, as rescuers battled to reach areas cut off by floods and mudslides," The Manila Times writes.

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The Salt
2:36 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Milk Producers Peer Over The Dairy Cliff

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 9:09 am

There's more than one cliff drawing controversy this month. The federal farm bill is one of many items caught in congressional gridlock. The bill resets U.S. agriculture policy every four years, and most farmers are still covered by crop insurance and other programs until next planting season. But there's one exception: dairy.

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The Salt
2:34 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Palestinian Olive Harvest Turns Bitter As Economy Sputters

Credit Hazem Bader / AFP/Getty Images
Palestinian women harvest olive trees near the occupied West Bank village of Deir Samet near the town of Hebron.

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 9:12 am

Across the West Bank, olive harvesting season is drawing to a close once again. But this year, the usually joyous occasion has become grimly purposeful because the Palestinian economy, according to some economists, is being held hostage to politics, and is on the verge of collapse.

In the West Bank village of Deir Ibzie, Amal Karajeh and her husband, Basem, comb through the leaves and branches of an olive tree in their front yard.

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Shots - Health News
5:20 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Computerized Health Records Breed Digital Discontent For Some Doctors

Credit iStockphoto.com
Electronic medical records can have drawbacks, too.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:50 pm

Two years and $8.4 billion into the government's effort to get doctors to take their practices digital, some unintended consequences are starting to emerge.

One is a lot of unhappy doctors. In a big survey by Medscape, an online site for doctors, 38 percent of the doctors polled said they were unhappy with their electronic medical records system.

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Monkey See
5:20 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Home Video Review: 'Lawrence Of Arabia' On Blu-Ray

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:50 pm

Time now for some home-viewing advice from our movie critic, Bob Mondello. This week, a 50th-anniversary Blu-ray release of the ultimate sand-and-sandals picture: Lawrence of Arabia.

Sand dunes for days, armies astride camels, and 29-year-old newcomer Peter O'Toole as British Army Lt. T.E. Lawrence, leading Bedouin warriors on a charge that would shake the Ottoman empire and shake up moviemaking for decades.

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