NPR News

In 1894 Octave Chanute published a volume called "Progress In Flying." A more appropriate title would have been "Lack Of Progress In Flying." The book's detailed list of failed flying machines – from Da Vinci's famous flapping ornithopter to the fins an overconfident French nobleman strapped to his arms and legs – is very humorous. The book's detailed list of injuries suffered by would-be aviators is not.

Over the past decade, Chinese companies have become major players in the global telecommunications market. This week the House Intelligence Committee issued a report that could interrupt that growth. The committee warned American companies not to do business with two of China's main telecom manufacturers, saying they posed a security threat.

Huawei Technologies is the miracle story of the Chinese high-tech industry, says telecommunications consultant Roger Entner.

The first two debates of the 2012 election cycle have had stratospheric viewership on TV. Critic Bob Mondello isn't surprised. He argues we've spent the last decade training the public to watch contests on television and then vote — think American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

During the debates, networks all but beg us to kibitz in social media, which makes instant judgment universal. We're encouraged to watch for the purpose of reacting.

Lately, we've been learning more and more about the teeming masses of bacteria inside our bodies - essentially trillions of tiny organisms that make us sick and keep us healthy.

Now two scientists at the University of Colorado have dared to ask what kinds of bacteria lives inside our mouths. And they're finding some pretty surprising things in there.

A day after resigning under pressure from U.S. Speedskating, former head coach Jae Su Chun says he didn't report a tampering incident at an international meet last year to protect skater Simon Cho, who confessed to sabotaging a Canadian athlete's skate blade.

"I know I chose Simon over my own principles," Chun says in a written statement translated from Korean by a spokesman.

Robert Siegel talks with Obaida Hitto, a 25-year-old Syrian American from Texas who spent five months assisting the Free Syrian Army in Deir al-Zour on the Euphrates River, near the border of Iraq. He documented the violence in the eastern Syrian city through videos he posted on the Internet, until he was injured in a mortar attack by Bashar Assad's forces at the end of September. He is now recovering in Istanbul.

Robert Siegel talks with Mike Pesca about Major League Baseball's postseason.

One day after Congressman Paul Ryan debated Vice President Joe Biden, Mitt Romney took to the campaign trail in Virginia and Ohio.

One day after his debate with Paul Ryan, Vice President Joe Biden took to the campaign trail. He spoke at a rally in LaCrosse, Wis.