Dec
27

Creating the Ultimate Housework Workout

Robert Wright for The New York TimesChris Ely, an English butler, and Carol Johnson, a fitness instructor at Crunch NYC, perfecting a houseworkout. CAN housework help you live longer? A New York Times blog post by Gretchen Reynolds last month cited research linking vigorous activity, including housework, and longevity. The study, which tracked the death rates of British civil servants, was the latest...
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U.N. Envoy Calls for Transitional Government in Syria

MOSCOW — The international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, on a mission to Damascus seeking an end to the escalating civil conflict in Syria, said Thursday that a transitional government should be granted full executive powers until President Bashar al-Assad’s term ends in 2014. Mr. Brahimi’s remarks to journalists, reported by news agencies, follow intensive talks this week with Mr. Assad and a range...
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Dec
26

Recipes for Health: Penne With Mushroom Ragout and Spinach

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesPenne with mushroom ragout and spinach. ​​Mushrooms and spinach together is always a match made in heaven. I use a mix of wild and regular white or cremini mushrooms for this, but don’t hesitate to make it if regular mushrooms are all that is available.   1/2 ounce (about 1/2 cup) dried porcini mushrooms 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive...
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Recipes for Health: Penne With Mushroom Ragout and Spinach

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesPenne with mushroom ragout and spinach. ​​Mushrooms and spinach together is always a match made in heaven. I use a mix of wild and regular white or cremini mushrooms for this, but don’t hesitate to make it if regular mushrooms are all that is available.   1/2 ounce (about 1/2 cup) dried porcini mushrooms 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive...
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The 30-Minute Interview: The 30-Minute Interview With Nick J. Romito

Mr. Romito, 30, is the founder and chief executive of View the Space, a new real estate technology business that creates online video tours, primarily of office space, and provides data-tracking services to commercial real estate companies, among them SL Green Realty, Vornado Realty Trust and Silverstein Properties. Before starting the business last year, Mr. Romito worked as a commercial...
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Lübeck Journal: Museum Seeks to Update Thomas Mann for Age of Texting

Gordon Welters for The New York TimesAs the Buddenbrookhaus, a museum about Thomas Mann, prepares to grow, it aims to make a formidable writer more accessible. LÜBECK, Germany — The latest sensation from the literary lion Thomas Mann is more than a century old and runs over 500 characters, not pages, long. In one of a trove of 81 recently discovered postcards, Mr. Mann rhapsodized to his...
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Dec
25

News Analysis: Getting Polio Campaigns Back on Track

How in the world did something as innocuous as the sugary pink polio vaccine turn into a flash point between Islamic militants and Western “crusaders,” flaring into a confrontation so ugly that teenage girls — whose only “offense” is that they are protecting children — are gunned down in the streets? Nine vaccine workers were killed in Pakistan last week in a terrorist campaign that brought...
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News Analysis: Getting Polio Campaigns Back on Track

How in the world did something as innocuous as the sugary pink polio vaccine turn into a flash point between Islamic militants and Western “crusaders,” flaring into a confrontation so ugly that teenage girls — whose only “offense” is that they are protecting children — are gunned down in the streets? Nine vaccine workers were killed in Pakistan last week in a terrorist campaign that brought...
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With a Parent at War, a Holiday of Pain and Pride

Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesMercedes Patterson, 16, helped Tango Jackson, 17, with his R.O.T.C. uniform tie in the hallway at Fort Campbell High School at the Army post in Kentucky. More Photos »FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Signs of the season have been everywhere at Fort Campbell High School over the last couple of weeks: a student soloist sang the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas, Darling” at the annual...
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Dec
24

Gun Makers Based in Connecticut Form a Potent Lobby

Gun owners packed a hearing room in the Connecticut capital, vowing to oppose a bill that would require new markers on guns so that they are easier to trace. One after another, they testified that the technology, called microstamping, was flawed and would increase the cost of guns. But the witness who commanded the most attention in Hartford that day in 2009 was a representative of...
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