Europe
3:00 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

As Greeks Withdraw Cash, Banks Grow Vulnerable

Credit John Kolesidis / Reuters/Landov
Many Greeks fear that the value of their savings will drop sharply if the country leaves the eurozone and returns to the drachma. This has led many Greeks to withdraw their money from banks.

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 6:13 pm

Since the Greek debt crisis began nearly three years ago, more than $90 billion has left the country.

At first, it was just big business and the wealthiest Greeks moving money abroad in case Greece dropped the euro and reverted to its previous currency, the drachma.

Now people with smaller portfolios are also withdrawing money, and that's left the country's fragile banks on edge.

Read more
The Salt
2:38 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

How To Grow The Tastiest Tomato? One Secret's In The Soil

Credit iStockphoto.com
A tomato expert recommends planting seedlings in rich soil with lots of organic matter and a steady slow-release fertilizer.

Originally published on Sun June 3, 2012 3:57 pm

It's tomato time here in the mid-Atlantic – the critical moment when those of us eager to pull fat, bright fruit off our own backyard vines in a couple months are scurrying to get tender little plants in the ground.

But as anyone who's spent a few summers of kneeling in the dirt can tell you, healthy-looking vines will not necessarily get you a mind-blowingly delicious tomato. And why?

Read more
The Two-Way
2:34 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

First-Edition Book Of Mormon Goes Missing From Ariz. Store

Credit Matt York / AP
An 1830 first-edition Book of Mormon owned by retired bookstore owner Helen Schlie.

The first-edition Book of Mormon brought faithful from around the country to a book store in Mesa, Ariz.

As the AP describes it, the book is one of 5,000 printed "after Joseph Smith found the gold plates that he translated into the Book of Mormon, which members of the faith consider to be scripture alongside the Bible."

So when people came to take pictures with the book Helen Schlie, a converted Mormon, would always oblige, telling people when they touched the book they shared "their DNA with Joseph Smith himself."

Read more
The Two-Way
2:34 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

'Help' Hizzoner: Tell Bloomberg What To Ban Next

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
What's he got his eye on now? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 5:59 pm

So, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) wants to ban nearly all sales of big, sugary drinks.

Goodbye Big Gulp.

This comes after his earlier campaigns to stamp out smoking and trans fats.

Read more
The Two-Way
2:32 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

For New Jersey Shoppers, No More Sales Tax Holiday On Amazon

Credit Scott Sady / AP
An Amazon worker grabs boxes off a conveyor belt in Nevada, one of a handful of states in which the online retailer collects sales tax.

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 3:51 pm

It might seem counterintuitive that Amazon is doing a deal with New Jersey to build two distribution centers in exchange for collecting sales tax on purchases made in the Garden State starting July 1, 2013.

After all, the free lunch enjoyed by many consumers as they shop tax-free online is one of the huge draws, right?

Read more
Monkey See
1:44 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

John Edwards: Once More With (Or Without) Feeling, He Takes Full Responsibility

Credit Sara D. Davis / Getty Images
Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards addresses the media alongside his daughter Cate Edwards and his parents Wallace and Bobbie Edwards yesterday after the conclusion of his trial on campaign finance charges.

Yesterday, after being acquitted of one of six campaign finance fraud charges against him and seeing the jury deadlock on the other five, John Edwards held a brief press conference in which he said this:

Read more
Health
1:42 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

Remembering A Son In 'Immortal Bird'

Transcript

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. For the rest of the hour, a look at an extraordinary life and a heartbreaking loss. In his new memoir "Immortal Bird," Doron Weber takes us to the inner circle of his family, where we meet his son Damon, a smart, likeable, aspiring actor born with a congenital heart defect. At 16, Damon undergoes a heart transplant, and his short life ends not long after in the ICU of a hospital that, according to Doron, seemed to botch his care in multiple and unimaginable ways.

Read more
The Two-Way
1:41 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

Nation's Worst Dressers Are In Anchorage, Survey Says

Credit Michael Dinneen / AP
High fashion in Anchorage. (Just kidding! It's a photo from the 2011 Iditarod.)

Which U.S. city has the worst-dressed citizens?

According to readers of Travel and Leisure magazine, it's Anchorage.

Read more
Health Care
1:35 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

Can Technology Deliver Better Health Care?

Transcript

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. If you have trouble sleeping, your doctor might send you to a sleep lab and spend $3,000 a night to chart your sleep cycle, or you could do the same thing at home with a commercially available headband, which wirelessly transmits your sleep data to your smartphone for under 100 bucks.

Read more
It's All Politics
1:30 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

May Jobless Report Keeps Obama On Defensive, Aids Romney's Offense

Credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Military veterans Kris Hummel (l) and Shane Foley, speak with a TSA representative at a May 15, 2012 job fair in Utica, NY.

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 3:04 pm

How to convince voters that while the economy isn't roaring, the situation is still improving?

That's President Obama's challenge, made more difficult with every passing month where the jobs report disappoints, as on Friday. The latest Labor Department report informed us that only 69,000 jobs were created in May, less than half what analysts had forecast. Meanwhile, the jobless rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point to 8.2 percent.

Read more

Pages