Another milestone for Gabrielle Giffords: Doctors today took her off a ventilator for the first time since last week’s shooting, reports CNN . They removed her breathing tube—she was breathing on her own all along, but it had been left in as a precaution—and replaced it with a tracheotomy…
Continue reading …The Obama administration is loosening the rules about travel to Cuba to make it easier for students, church groups, and cultural organizations to go there, reports the Miami Herald . The move means that more airports will be allowed to offer charter flights—up from the current three in Miami, Los…
Continue reading …In response to Amy Chua’s much-discussed book excerpt in praise of ultra-strict Chinese mothers, Ayelet Waldman begins her defense of “ambivalent” Western moms by rattling off a bunch of supposed no-nos she’s allowed her four kids to do—quit music lessons, sleep over at a friend’s, surf the web, etc….
Continue reading …Eating carrots and other fruits high in carotenoids makes you more physically attractive, a new study suggests. British researchers had volunteers score pictures of other subjects by physical attractiveness, reports the AFP. It turned out that people who ate the most carrots, plums, and other strongly pigmented foods had a…
Continue reading …Two US troops were killed today by an Iraqi soldier who apparently smuggled real bullets into a training exercise and opened fire. A US military official said the shooter was immediately killed by American soldiers who were running the morning drill at a training center on a base in the…
Continue reading …Seems like a reasonable enough request: Nearly 50 members of Congress want drilling companies to disclose what kind of chemicals they use to “frack” gas wells on federal land. Worried that toxins will leach into groundwater during the practice known as hydraulic fracturing, they’ve asked the Interior Department to require…
Continue reading …Tunisia got a new interim president today—parliamentary leader Fouad Mebazaa—who is technically the third leader in 24 hours, notes the Los Angeles Times . He takes over from the previous interim president, who briefly held power when longtime leader El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country in the face…
Continue reading …The right loves to hate Bill Maher—and sometimes the left hates to love him. With his “prickly-pear” personality and his tendency to rile his audience—and not care in the slightest—“Maher is American punditry’s cranky uncle,” writes Matt Zoller Seitz on Salon . The crankiness was on full display…
Continue reading …Rough story out of Colorado: A woman admitted leaving her 13-month-old son alone in the tub while she played Café World on Facebook in another room, reports Denver’s ABC 7 News . Shannon Johnson told police she checked on him once, then went back in a few minutes to find him…
Continue reading …Filers with uncomplicated taxes can take care of business in a matter of minutes—by smartphone, of course. Intuit’s $15 Snap Tax app works on iPhones and Android phones by taking a photo of the filer’s W-2, then using that data to fill out the form, explains the New York…
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