Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus <em>Weekend Edition</em> math guy Keith Devlin graded the Body Mass Index, a popular measure of determining healthy body weight, and failed it on 10 grounds.
Reporting The Binghamton Shootings Three months ago, 13 people were killed when an mentally-ill immigrant named Jiverly Wong opened fire in an immigrant resources center in Binghamton, New York. Wong then killed himself. Reporter Brian Mann covered the shooting. In this reporter's notebook, Mann says the assignment wasn't an easy one to have.
Politicians Are People, Too Politicians are human. If you prick them, they will bleed. If you pet them, they'll lick your hand. They're filled with anxieties, contradictions and duplicities. But what groups — including journalists, salespeople, hammer dulcimer makers, or Franciscan priests — are not?
Remembering Last Reunion Of Civil War Veterans Commentator John McDonough recalls the last great reunion of Civil War veterans from the North and South. It took place July 3-5, 1938, on the 75th anniversary of Gettysburg — at Gettysburg, Pa. At the time, the whole country was almost painfully aware that the last living links to a decisive event were about to slip away.
A Summer Challenge: Learning To Nap Commentator Andrei Codrescu has been a vigilant observer of the world for years. He's tried to reshape revolutions, parsed the media landscape, wrestled with scandals and triumphs. Now, he is taking on a new challenge: learning to nap.
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough Michael Jackson It's been a week since Michael Jackson's death at 50 stunned the world. But seven days after the King of Pop stepped off stage and left us behind, it's clear we just can't seem to get enough of him.
Anonymous Lovers In Afghanistan Commentator Benjamin Tupper recalls the day his army interpreter fell in love with an anonymous stranger. The two lovers had never met in person, never even seen each other, only spoken via cell-phone. What happened next?...nothing. But Tupper says, that's Afghanistan.
Why Doesn't NPR Call Waterboarding Torture? Waterboarding is the interrogation technique employed during the Bush Administration on some suspected terrorists. Some NPR listeners take issue with NPR's policy to not explicitly call the simulated drowning procedure torture.
Debating The Burqa: Sarkozy Proposes Ban French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to ban Muslim women from wearing the burqa, a religious traditional covering, in public. American Muslim Mehded Maryam Sinclair explains why she appreciates the right to cover her face and head in public, while Muslim feminist and columnist Mona Eltahawy tells why she sees the garment as a source of oppression.
When Your Name Is The Name Of A Dead Woman Commentator Neda Pourang says it was absolutely awful being an Iranian kid growing up outside of Iran. For years, she tried to bury every trace of where she was from. But now, as the world watches the aftermath of a vote count turned sour, and violent clashes between police and protesters in Iran, Pourang is forced to consider her homeland. She says nothing stays buried.
Foreign Policy: Kurdistan's Man In Washington At a breakfast with reporters yesterday, Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative in Washington, urged the U.S. not to get "caught up in the euphoria" over withdrawal from Iraqi cities, or think that the job in Iraq is somehow done. "Having lived through 'mission accomplished 1,' we don't want to see 'mission accomplished 2,'" he said.
The New Republic: Congress 2.0 The news that Al Franken is finally going to the Senate has prompted all sorts of musing about the Democrats' new supermajority. But, in fact, the Democrats don't have 60 votes—and it's not even the fault of Independent Joe Lieberman, who's actually been a relatively loyal Democrat of late. No, the real impediments to Senate Democrats achieving a supermajority are staph infection and brain cancer.
