Law
3:21 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Five Questions, Answers About The Megaupload Case

Credit TV3/ / AFP/Getty Images
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, in an Auckland, New Zealand, court today.

The arrest of four executives of Megaupload, a major Internet file-sharing site, has triggered an online backlash and raised fresh questions about electronic piracy and copyright violations. What's behind the controversy? NPR asked two experts to help clarify the facts behind the arrests.

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The Two-Way
2:35 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Wisconsin 'RecallCam': Boring, Beautiful Or Both?

Credit State of Wisconsin Government Accountability Board
Watch if you dare. You may get hooked.

As our friend Micki Maynard at Changing Gears says, "forget live streams watching the giant panda in Edinburgh, or the weather in Chicago. The newest Internet plaything is the Wisconsin Web Cam."

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The Two-Way
2:30 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Palestinian Women Behind The Wheel, And Ahead Of The Pack

Credit Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
Noor Daoud holds a trophy after she won third place in the first day of Formula Israel's women's race, in Eilat, Israel. Daoud went on to take the women's title at the event.

Palestine might not seem like a breeding ground for race car drivers. After all, the area is dotted with checkpoints and roadblocks, hundreds of obstacles that can cramp a driver's ability to explore a car's limits.

But that hasn't stopped a group of Palestinian women from driving very fast, winning races and making a name for themselves along the way.

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Shots - Health Blog
2:08 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Researchers Agree To Temporary Halt For Bird Flu Experiments

Credit Cynthia Goldsmith / CDC
H5N1 avian flu viruses (seen in gold) grow inside canine kidney cells (seen in green).

Scientists have said that they are voluntarily putting some controversial bird flu research on hold.

The move to suspend the work for 60 days comes in response to critics who say their work is dangerous.

People rarely get sick with bird flu, caused by the H5N1 virus, and when they do, they're generally not contagious.

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Shots - Health Blog
1:27 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

How Tears Go 'Pac-Man' To Beat Bacteria

Credit iStockphoto.com
Tears contain an enzyme that eats bacteria the way Pac-Man eats Power Pellets.
The Two-Way
1:25 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Not A Record, But Audubon Set Still Sells For A Tidy $7.9 Million

We wouldn't want to say that $7,922,500 isn't an awful lot to pay for one set of four books.

But we do have to point out that it's not a record.

Thursday, we previewed the Christie's New York auction of a rare set of John James Audubon's Birds of America. As we reported, there was talk that it might fetch more than the record $11.5 million paid for another full set of the books in 2010.

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The Two-Way
1:10 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Megaupload Is Trying To Go Back Online Even As Execs Sit In Jail

Credit TV3/ / AFP/Getty Images
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, in an Auckland, New Zealand, court today.

A judge in New Zealand today ordered that Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz) and three others remain in custody at least until a bail hearing on Monday as the legal process of possibly extraditing them to the U.S. to face copyright infringement and conspiracy charges got underway.

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Energy
1:00 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Innovative Projects Tap Renewable Energy Sources

Two projects aim to harness renewable energy using cutting-edge technology and engineering. AltaRock's Susan Petty discusses plans to turn hot rocks at a dormant volcano into a source of power. University of Maine's Habib Dagher talks about the potential of deepwater floating wind turbines.

Medical Treatments
1:00 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Synthetic Windpipe Transplant Boost For Tissue Engineering

Surgeons in Sweden replaced an American patient's cancerous windpipe with a scaffold built from nanofibers and seeded with the patient's stem cells. Lead surgeon Dr. Paolo Macchiarini discusses the procedure and the benefits of tissue-engineered synthetic organs.

NPR Story
1:00 pm
Fri January 20, 2012

Seeing Super-Fast Animals

A high-speed video camera is a must for biologist Sheila Patek, of University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Patek studies the lesser-known speed demons of the animal kingdom. A trap-jaw ant can move at over 100mph and a mantis shrimp can accelerate with a g-force of 100,000 (the space shuttle accelerates at 3Gs).

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