9:39am

Mon May 16, 2011
Monkey See

A Quick Guide To The Network Upfronts: Dogs At 8:00, Ponies At 8:30

Credit Kharen Hill / Fox

This is the week of the network upfronts. What are the upfronts? They're presentations held by the broadcast networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and the CW) where they announce their fall schedules and put on marketing displays about their new shows — all theoretically for the benefit of advertisers, though it's also a big week for critics and pundits to get their eyes on the schedules and the new stuff.

Today, NBC and Fox present, tomorrow is ABC, Wednesday is CBS, and Thursday is the CW.

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9:34am

Mon May 16, 2011
Energy

A Nuclear-Powered World

Nuclear power plants generate 14 percent of the world's electricity, but some countries are more dependent on this power source than others. France relies on nuclear for 75.2 percent of its electricity; the United States, about 20 percent. And while China gets just 1.9 percent of their electricity from nuclear (the lowest proportion of any nuclear country) it plans to boost the number of nuclear power plants in operation by over 1,000 percent by 2020.

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9:15am

Mon May 16, 2011
Books We Like

A Partyboy Reflects On Life, Lip Gloss

Back in 1976, a seven-year-old boy named Jon-Jon Goulian wrote himself a postcard. He gave his postman strict instructions to arrange for the letter to be delivered 30 years later, to his grandfather's summer home in Vermont. As it happens, grown-up Jon-Jon was in Vermont the day his directive was carried out, and received a message from his pint-sized self.

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9:00am

Mon May 16, 2011
13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Top US Scientists To Nation: Global Warming. Really. We Are Not Kidding.

Last week the Nation Research Council, one the nations leading scientific bodies, published yet another report on the current state of climate research. What was newsworthy about this effort was the degree to which (from my perspective) the nations best scientists seemed to be getting fed up with being asked to write reports which are then ignored. The message was simple: Climate Change is happening and its happening now.

As the report states,

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8:53am

Mon May 16, 2011
Space

All Systems Go For Shuttle Endeavour Launch

The space shuttle Endeavour was taking on fuel Monday morning in preparation for the penultimate flight of the shuttle era.

Liftoff was slated for 8:56 a.m., and NASA was confident that the electrical problems that delayed the mission two weeks ago had been fixed.

As many as half a million people are expected to gather in the area around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch Endeavor blast off, bound for the International Space Station one last time before heading to retirement at a Los Angeles museum.

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8:46am

Mon May 16, 2011
The Two-Way

UN Prosecutor Calls For Gadhafi Arrest Warrant

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

The head of the International Criminal Court wants Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi arrested and charged with crimes against humanity. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters he would also seek arrest warrants for the leader's son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and Abdullah al-Sanussi, the country's intelligence chief.

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8:32am

Mon May 16, 2011
The Two-Way

Olympic Marathon Champion Sammy Wanjiru Dies In Fall From Balcony

"Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru died in a fall from a balcony after a domestic dispute involving his wife and another woman, [Kenyan] police said Monday," The Associated Press reports.

From Nairobi, the AP adds that "one police official said Wanjiru committed suicide, while another said he jumped to stop his wife from leaving the house after she discovered him with another woman."

Wanjiru, 24, won the marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, finishing in an Olympic record 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds.

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8:28am

Mon May 16, 2011
Opinion

New Republic: GOP Critique Of Obama Must Shift

Credit Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images

Ed Kilgore is a special correspondent for The New Republic.

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8:08am

Mon May 16, 2011
Religion

Vatican Issues Guidance For Sex Abuse Cases

The Vatican sent a letter to bishops around the world Monday offering guidance on dealing with reports of clerical sexual abuse.

But the suggestions in the letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are vague and nonbinding and fall far short of recommending the tough U.S.-style norms that bar a credibly accused priest from ministry while his case is investigated.

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8:03am

Mon May 16, 2011
The Two-Way

LIVE: Endeavour Set To Launch

Credit Bruce Weaver / AFP/Getty Images

Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of six astronauts is on schedule to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:56 a.m. ET.

As NPR.org writes, "with wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) on hand to watch ... Endeavour is poised to give the work week a roaring and historic start Monday morning, overcoming wiring problems that grounded it last month." It is set to be the shuttle's final mission.

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