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The Salt

2:04 am

Tue June 26, 2012

The Making of Meat-Eating America

Credit Lass / Getty Images

Men at a slaughterhouse stand near hanging beef carcasses, late 1940s.

By editor

Originally published on Tue June 26, 2012 11:44 am

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We eat a lot of meat in this country; per person, more than almost anywhere else on Earth. (Here's a helpful map of global meat-eating.)

But why? What makes an American eat ten or twelve times more meat than the average person in Mozambique or Bangladesh?

Fine Art

2:02 am

Tue June 26, 2012

Reflective Art Brings Light, Color To Historic Spaces

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Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot's Red Bowl installation in Beauvais, France, recalls the way lepers once bathed in animal blood in an effort to cure themselves and avoid being ostracized to the one-time leprosarium where the installation is located.

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

The installation, on display in Georgetown's historic Dumbarton Oaks Gardens, combines the luxurious (crystals) with the mundane (chicken wire).

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

Cao and Perrot's White Dome hangs inside a free-standing tower that used to be part of Beauvais' Saint-Barthelemy Collegiate Church.

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

According to the artists' website, the crystals that hang in the tower are meant to serve as symbols of the soul's purification by ascension to heaven.

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot's Red Bowl installation in Beauvais, France, allows visitors to cross a pond into a hemisphere of metal rods topped with red marbles.

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

The marbles recall the way lepers once bathed in animal blood in an effort to cure themselves and avoid being ostracized to the one-time leprosarium where the installation is located.

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

Cao and Perrot's Cloud Terrace was designed to extend the shade of surrounding trees across the terrace it adorns in Washington, D.C.

Credit Courtesy of Cao | Perrot Studio

Cao and Perrot's White Dome hangs from a tower that used to be part of a collegiate church in Beauvais, France. Its 3,000 tiny crystals serve as symbols of the soul's purification by ascension to heaven.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Tue June 26, 2012 12:03 pm

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This is a story about amazing beauty, imagination and magical effects — and it begins, ironically enough, at a one-time leprosarium, or hospital for lepers, in Beauvais, France, a small town outside Paris.

Lepers were sequestered in Beauvais in the 12th century. That history is now noted in an outdoor art installation made up of slim metal rods that curve up into the shape of a bowl. Each rod is tipped with a red, marble-sized glass ball.

Books

2:01 am

Tue June 26, 2012

Four Books To Help You Master Chicago Politics

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Credit Southern Illinois University Press

Credit AP

Richard J. Daley served as the mayor and Democratic Party boss of Chicago for more than two decades, from 1955 to 1976. His son, Richard M. Daley, served as mayor from 1989 to 2011. Click here for more on the Daley dynasty.

By editor

Originally published on Tue June 26, 2012 8:08 am

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The term "Chicago politics" gets bandied about whenever people complain about what they see as corruption and abuse of power.

Republicans often apply the concept to President Obama, who calls Chicago home. Earlier this year, presidential candidate Mitt Romney called one of the president's appointments "Chicago-style politics at its worst," and Illinois Republican Aaron Schock once described Obama's team as "the Chicago machine apparatus."

But what does that mean? And what are Chicago politics really like?

The Record

7:06 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Springsteen's American Dream, Beautiful And Bleak

Credit Richard E. Aaron / Redferns

Bruce Springsteen onstage during the Born in the USA tour in 1985.

By Ann Powers

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 6:39 pm

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All Tech Considered

6:40 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Facebook Changed Your Primary Email Address, But Says It Warned You

Credit Leon Neal / AFP/Getty Images

Facebook recently changed all its users' primary email addresses.

By editor

Originally published on Tue June 26, 2012 7:28 am

A key change was made to your Facebook profile recently that you may not have noticed yet. Facebook has replaced the primary email address users entered in their profile contact information with brand-new @facebook.com addresses. These addresses allow you to email external accounts from your Facebook inbox. Forbes first noticed the change:

The Two-Way

6:33 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Phelps And Lochte Set To Square Off In Olympic Trials Final

Credit Al Bello / Getty Images

Michael Phelps swims in a preliminary heat at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. Phelps and rival Ryan Lochte were awoken from their afternoon naps by a fire alarm at their hotel Monday.

By Bill Chappell

Originally published on Mon June 25, 2012 7:35 pm

The London Olympics are still more than a month away, but fans of swimming were eager to see the 2012 edition of the rivalry between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte get started Monday, when the two Olympic gold medalists face off in the final of the 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Update at 8:32 p.m. Lochte Beats Phelps

Lochte defeated Phelps at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.

Here's more from The Associated Press:

The Two-Way

5:55 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Greek Workers Find Ancient Highway In Subway Dig

Credit Nikolas Giakoumidis / AP

Officials unveiled an ancient road found during construction of Thessaloniki's new subway system Monday.

By Bill Chappell

A Greek city's new subway project has led to the discovery of an ancient road made of marble that was laid nearly 2,000 years ago. The road in Thessaloniki is made of paving stones that show signs of use by both horse-drawn carriages and local children, the AP reports.

The Two-Way

5:35 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Facebook Names Sheryl Sandberg To Board

Credit Vincenzo Pinto / AFP/Getty Images

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was named Monday to the company's board of directors. Sandberg is the first woman on Facebook's board.

By editor

Originally published on Tue June 26, 2012 5:43 am

Facebook now has a woman on its board of directors: The company announced Monday that Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg would join the board.

Sandberg, the company's No.2 executive, was hired away from Google in 2008.

Shots - Health Blog

4:40 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Could Kaiser Permanente's Low-Cost Health Care Be Even Cheaper?

Credit Michel Euler / AP

George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, speaks during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2009.

By editor

Originally published on Tue June 26, 2012 4:27 pm

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Kaiser Permanente rose out of Henry J. Kaiser's utopian, industrialist dream.

Shots - Health Blog

4:30 pm

Mon June 25, 2012

Why Are Women More Likely To Die From Lung Cancer In Alabama?

Credit Joan C Fahrenthold / AP

Back in 1998, Colleen Maxwell, then a 23-year-old student, smoked outside a San Diego bar, just weeks after California became the the first state in the nation to to ban smoking in most bars and gambling casinos.

By editor

Originally published on Thu June 28, 2012 7:46 am

California has long been a trendsetter. But when it comes to reducing smoking and lung cancer, the Golden State's success hasn't taken the entire nation by storm.

Just take a look at the chart, which shows lung cancer death rates among white women by the year they were born.

For those women born since 1933, lung cancer death rates in California have dropped by more than half. In Alabama, they've more than doubled.

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