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Afghanistan
4:26 pm
Thu January 12, 2012

Viral Images, The Military's Recurring Nightmare

Credit YouTube
A still frame taken from a YouTube video purportedly shows Marines who desecrated three dead men thought to be members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military says it's investigating a video that appears to show Marines desecrating the corpses of Taliban fighters killed in Afghanistan. Regardless of those findings, the outrage in the Islamic world is likely to be severe, as with other disturbing images that have surfaced during U.S. wars in Muslim countries over the past decade.

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Shots - Health Blog
4:19 pm
Thu January 12, 2012

UConn Claims Resveratrol Researcher Falsified Work

The already shaky case for the anti-aging powers of resveratrol, a substance in red wine, is looking a little shakier.

After a three-year investigation, the University of Connecticut Health Center has told 11 scientific journals that studies they published by resveratrol researcher Dipak K. Das may not be trustworthy.

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The Salt
4:08 pm
Thu January 12, 2012

Could A Soda Tax Prevent 26,000 Deaths Per Year?

Credit Joel Saget / AFP/Getty Images
Researchers say that if the price of soda gets higher, people will drink less of it, which will lead to fewer deaths.

Originally published on Fri January 13, 2012 1:33 pm

A new study in the journal Health Affairs estimates that a penny-per-ounce tax on soft drinks and other sugary beverages could prevent about 240,000 cases of diabetes per year, and 8,000 strokes and 26,000 premature deaths over a decade (or 2,600 per year).

Yes, death by soda.

So the analysis got me thinking: Our behavior is hard to predict, right? I know mine is.

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The Two-Way
3:39 pm
Thu January 12, 2012

How Do Land Birds End Up In A Tiger Shark's Belly?

Scientists are facing a riddle. For two years, researchers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama have been studying the diets of Tiger Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and they found that the sharks not only eat sea creatures, but also make a habit of eating land birds. Yep that's right woodpeckers, catbirds, kingbirds and swallows have all been found in their bellies.

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Shots - Health Blog
3:11 pm
Thu January 12, 2012

Biggest Bucks In Health Care Are Spent On A Very Few

Credit Ricardo Reitmeyer / iStockphoto.com
A relatively small number of patients account for some of the biggest spending on health care.

So you know how on Monday the federal government reported that the $2.6 trillion the nation spent on health care in 2010 translated into just over $8,400 per person?

Well, a different study just released by a separate federal agency shows that second number doesn't actually mean very much.

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