From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish. We begin this hour with President Obama on the campaign trail. He was in the battleground state of Ohio today, but he spent much of his time talking about China. President Obama even announced a new trade complaint against China during a campaign stop in Cincinnati.
A reflection of the Marina Bay Esplanade in Singapore. The nation is increasingly seen as a corporate logistics hub and gateway to the region's emerging markets.
For the past six years in a row, the World Bank has rated the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore as the easiest place in the world to do business. Drawn in part by this reputation, money and talent are pouring into the island nation's growing technology sector.
One of Facebook's co-founders recently renounced his American citizenship and relocated to Singapore, where he has been investing in tech startups.
Anthropologists believe early humans evolved in Africa and then moved out from there in successive waves. However, what drove their migrations has been a matter of conjecture.
One new explanation is climate change.
Anthropologist Anders Erikkson of Cambridge University in England says the first few hardy humans who left Africa might've gone earlier but couldn't. Northeastern Africa — the only route to Asia and beyond — was literally a no man's land.
Since 2008, the North Carolina band Holy Ghost Tent Revival has been crafting a sound rooted in its members' Southern upbringing. Along the way, it's made the transition from playing acoustic bluegrass and folk to becoming a soul-rock horn band that recalls '60s and '70s classic-rock influences such as The Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers, contemporary indie-rock acts like Dr. Dog, and New Orleans brass-band jazz.
A former Asbestos plant is seen February in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Canada has ended its refusal to allow chrysotile asbestos to be added to the U.N.'s Rotterdam Convention on hazardous materials.
Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 4:45 am
Canada's leaders have ended their country's longstanding resistance to asbestos being called a dangerous material under United Nations guidelines, a decision that reflects a shift in the leadership of Quebec province, home of Canada's asbestos industry.
Quebec's incoming premier, Pauline Marois, promised late in her campaign that she would shut down the region's asbestos mines for good. She says that she will use money that would have gone to restart the mines to diversify the local economy.
As Dan Karpenchuk reports for NPR's Newscast unit:
Originally published on Mon September 17, 2012 1:35 pm
How many teens are sending sexual photos or texts by phone? And what else are they doing?
Researchers surveyed nearly 2,000 high schoolers in Los Angeles to find out. Among kids who had cellphones or access to them (and that cover almost all of them), about 15 percent reported "sexting."
Rowdy Smith, who brought his sons to the St. Louis Rams game on Sunday, said that President Obama's "not a leader" and is hurting the energy industry. He's shown here walking in front of the Americans for Prosperity campaign bus.
Credit Alan Greenblatt / NPR
Patrick Werner, Missouri state director for Americans for Prosperity, outside the St. Louis Rams-Washington Redskins football game Sunday in St. Louis.
Originally published on Mon September 17, 2012 1:18 pm
There's nothing like a ready-made crowd to help a group get its message out. That's why a conservative political organization set up shop Sunday outside the St. Louis Rams-Washington Redskins NFL football game.
Why mix politics and football?
"People are here," explained Patrick Werner, Missouri state director for Americans for Prosperity.
Football fans are used to encountering promotional tents for sports-talk radio stations and brands of beer and mixed nuts on their way to the game. Not so many of them expect to discuss politics as part of the pregame festivities.
Following through on what he said he would do if the city's teachers didn't end their week-old strike and return to their classrooms, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has asked a judge to intervene.
The Soyuz capsule lands with Commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin aboard, near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. The capsule's final meter of descent is eased by braking engines.
Credit Carla Cioffi / NASA
The Soyuz capsule floats as it brings Commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin to a landing area near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. When it detached from the space station, the capsule was over Kenya.
Credit Carla Cioffi / NASA
The Soyuz TMA-04M capsule lands in a remote area near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, Monday. Padalka, Acaba and Revin returned from five months onboard the International Space Station, where they served as members of the Expedition 31 and 32 crews.
Credit Carla Cioffi / NASA
The capsule lands, after its braking engines ease its final meter of descent.
U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams is now in command of the International Space Station, after receiving control of the facility this weekend. Three departing astronauts whose capsule left the station early Monday landed safely three and a half hours later.
For NPR's Newscast, Peter van Dyk filed this report from Moscow:
The Occupy Wall Street movement marks its first anniversary this week. Its supporters argue that it elevated the issue of economic inequality, but others say it made more noise than change. Host Michel Martin discusses the movement with author Debra Dickerson, who is still participating in protests and writes about them for Slate.com.
Here's a snapshot from the field as Harrington composed his image of Burnside Bridge — which involved schlepping the huge, fragile camera down a steep incline to get the right perspective.
Credit Claire O'Neill / NPR
The wet-plate camera used by Alexander Gardner after the Battle of Antietam was like this one: It had two lenses, which created a "stereo" image, or two identical images side by side on one plate.
Credit Claire O'Neill / NPR
Here's what you see when you go under that little black cloth. Naturally, the view is in color — though at first it's a bit surprising. You can see how the camera's twin lenses project two identical images. But it takes some getting used to: The images on the focus plate are upside down and backward.
Credit Claire O'Neill / NPR
To work like Gardner did in the field, the photographer needs a portable darkroom. The interior of Todd Harrington's is like an alchemist's laboratory.
Credit Claire O'Neill / NPR
Todd Harrington holds a developed wet plate up to the light to check its exposure.
Credit Claire O'Neill / (@clairevoyant)/Instagram
Harrington compares his exposure to the original, to see if they line up correctly.
Believe it or not, there's a lot of food involved in wet-plate photography. Egg whites (albumen) are used to make the glass plates adhesive to the light-sensitive chemicals. And one way to keep the plates from drying out after processing is to coat them in honey. It's also physically demanding, so you get really hungry.
