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4:22 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Netflix Gets Disney Movies Ahead Of Pay TV Channels

Credit Netflix
A promotional image for the Netflix Just for Kids portal. The new deal announced with Disney is the first time that one of Hollywood's major studios has sold the coveted rights to Netflix Inc. instead of a premium TV network.

Netflix's video subscription service has trumped pay-TV channels and grabbed the rights to show Disney movies shortly after they finish their runs in theaters.

The multiyear licensing agreement announced Tuesday represents a breakthrough for Netflix as it tries to add more recent movies to a popular service that streams video over high-speed Internet connections.

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Shots - Health News
4:17 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Computerized Health Records Breed Digital Discontent For Some Doctors

Credit iStockphoto.com
Electronic medical records can have drawbacks, too.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:50 pm

Two years and $8.4 billion into the government's effort to get doctors to take their practices digital, some unintended consequences are starting to emerge.

One is a lot of unhappy doctors. In a big survey by Medscape, an online site for doctors, 38 percent of the doctors polled said they were unhappy with their electronic medical records system.

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Deceptive Cadence
3:49 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past

Credit Jamie Jung / Courtesy of the artist
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 10:26 am

British composer Edward Elgar wrote his cello concerto in 1919 — soon after the end of World War I — and it's suffused with the dark weight of that war.

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It's All Politics
3:14 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Obama and Boehner Call It Negotiation; The Rest of Us Are Permitted To Laugh

Originally published on Sat December 8, 2012 1:29 pm

If you're tempted to throw back your head and guffaw when you hear the word "negotiation" linked with "Congress" and "fiscal cliff," please, don't hesitate.

Because what you're seeing play out publicly between congressional Republicans and Democrats and the White House bears little resemblance to negotiation.

"The game that's being played is the same game that's been played over the past few years — brinksmanship, and hard positional bargaining," says William Ury, who knows negotiation when he sees it.

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The Salt
3:13 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

A Hidden Hanukkah Tale Of A Woman, An Army, And Some Killer Cheese

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 9:11 am

At Hanukkah, many Jewish families celebrate with foods such as latkes and donuts that are fried in oil. The tradition honors the story of the miracle that occurred when a one-day supply of oil burned for eight days inside a temple under siege by the enemy .

Some Jews also eat dishes like kugel, cheesecake or rugelah that all share one ingredient — cheese. But how did cheese make it onto the holiday menu?

It starts (as many of these tales do) with a woman. This woman was Judith.

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Shots - Health News
2:59 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

A Polio Outbreak In Pakistan Reveals Gaps In Vaccination

Credit Jackie Northam / NPR
A child is inoculated with the polio vaccine at a traffic checkpoint just outside Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Roadside vaccinations help health workers reach children in mobile populations.

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 9:55 am

Pakistan has made a lot of progress this year in wiping out polio. There are signs that one type of poliovirus is gone and transmission of other strains seems to be slowing.

But a recent outbreak of polio there has health officials concerned about the overall effectiveness of the effort to eliminate polio in that country.

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The Two-Way
2:51 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Remembering Kim Jong Il ... And His Parka

Credit STR / AFP/Getty Images
Kim Jong Il and his favorite parka in 2009.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 4:16 pm

The Two-Way
2:49 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

NATO Approves Turkey's Request For Patriot Defense Missiles

Credit Shaul Schwarz / Getty Images
An Israeli army Patriot missile battery is deployed at an unidentified base in central Israel.

NATO has announced that it will deploy Patriot defense missiles that Turkey had requested to protect itself against attacks from Syria that have so far killed five Turks.

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Books
2:45 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Fleeing North Korea Through 'Asia's Underground Railroad'

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 3:21 pm

North Korea remains one of the most isolated and repressive countries in the world.

Each year, though fleeing the country is a capital offense, a brave few attempt an escape to freedom using a secret network of safe houses and routes from North Korea to Southeast Asia.

In her book Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad, writer Melanie Kirkpatrick tells the harrowing stories of North Korean defectors who attempt to escape from a place she calls "hell on Earth."

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Mental Health
2:18 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

The Challenges Of Treating Personality Disorders

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 3:33 pm

Personality disorders represent some of the most challenging and mysterious problems in the field of mental health. People suffering from antisocial personality disorder or obsessive compulsive personality disorder are often misdiagnosed. The effects on the sufferers and their families can be wrenching.

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