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Barack Obama toured the tornado-ravaged town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, today, expressing amazement at the wreckage and promising help for those left rebuilding. “I’ve never seen devastation like this,” the president said. “We’re going to make sure you’re not forgotten.” Obama has declared a major disaster in the state and ordered…

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Why NASA Scrapped Today’s Endeavour Launch

Hoopla and liftoffs have never really mixed that well. No matter how much hype precedes a space launch—and there was plenty leading up to today’s planned flight of the space shuttle Endeavour, what with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the Obama family in attendance—it takes just a small thing to shut down the whole show. Today

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Dear Rapist …

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Dear Rapist …

Twenty years after her assault at a college party, Liz Seccuro received a letter of apology from her attacker. The correspondence that followed led her to pursue justice at last It was late summer 2005 and we were about to set out on an extended vacation with our two-year-old daughter, Ava. “Hey, you got a letter,” said my husband Mike, tossing it to me like a Frisbee. It smelled faintly of vanilla, nice paper. I ripped it open and began to read the very precise, almost feminine cursive script. Dear Elizabeth: In October 1984 I harmed you. I can scarcely begin to understand the degree to which, in your eyes, my behaviour has affected you in its wake. Still, I stand prepared to hear from you about just how, and in what ways you’ve been affected; and to begin to set right the wrong I’ve done, in any way you see fit. Most sincerely yours, Will Beebe In 1984, I arrived, like any other student, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. An only child, I was the first in my family to attend college. My parents were thrilled, although the university was far from our home town, a suburb of New York City. I had graduated top of my high school class and was prepared to make something great of myself. But those hopes and dreams were dashed about five weeks later. A dorm friend, desperately wanting to join a

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A federal appeals court overturned the ban on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research today in a 2-1 ruling. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that such funding did not violate a 1996 law forbidding the use of federal money for research…

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Computer says: um, er…

Since the 1950s, scientists have been striving to create computers that can think like humans. And each year they pit their efforts against a panel of real humans. Brian Christian went head to hard drive… It’s early September and I wake up in a Brighton hotel, the sea crashing just outside. In a few hours, I will embark on what I have come here to do: have a series of five-minute-long instant-message exchanges with strangers. It may not sound like much, but the stakes for these quick chats are high. On the other side of the conversation will be a psychologist, a linguist, a

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I didn’t leave my house for a decade

‘In the early years I tried leaving many times, but my husband would threaten to kill me and I was demoralised enough to believe him’ When my husband John

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Traveling Man: Brian Williams Explains Why He Ditched The Royal Wedding

While it may seem like everyone is breathlessly watching the Royal Wedding with all its pomp and fanfare, elsewhere in the world real news is taking place. Which is why NBC anchor Brian Williams chose to abandon his plan to cover Will and Kate’s wedding — just hours after touching down in London — and

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John Paul II continues his speedy path to sainthood this weekend, and Peggy Noonan thinks it’s well-deserved. You want miracles? How about the political one he pulled off with his 1979 visit to his native Poland. It was simultaneously one of the “greatest moments in the history of faith” and…

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How Vaccines Can Prevent Serious Diseases

Vaccines can protect you from serious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, and meningitis. Immunization facts you should know.

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Hepatitis A & B Vaccines: Why You Should Get Them

Learn how hepatitis A and B vaccines protect you from the viruses that can lead to this liver disease.

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