National News

Researchers say a study of more than 58,000 U.S. Facebook users says their "likes" can be used to accurately predict everything from their sexual orientation to their political views. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Both are surprising and fun. In their own way, they're also kind of sweet.

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Criticism over a study's findings has not deterred researchers from saying their work may represent one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs in hundreds of years: "fossilized biological structures" in a meteorite.

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The judge in the case said if James Holmes pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, he could be interviewed using a truth serum. Holmes is expected to enter a plea in a hearing on Tuesday.

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Less sleep equals more eating, according to a rigorous new study. People who slept just five hours a night burned more energy but also ate more — so much more that they gained almost 2 pounds in less than a week.

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In separate events, high ranking officials from both sides called for rules regarding hacking. China also continued to defend itself against accusations that it was behind the hacking of dozens of American companies.

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Almost 100 years ago, a water-supply diversion from Owens River helped quench Los Angeles' thirst some 200 miles away. L.A. thrived, but it drained the Owens Lake and created a salt flat that now pollutes the air. A century later, the finger-pointing continues, and this week, the city's water department is back in court over its cleanup plan.

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Dr. Ben Carson, a well-known surgeon, made a splash last month when he criticized President Obama's policies in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. "It's a shame that we've reached a level in our country where we think that you don't have the right to put your opinion out there," he tells NPR.

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When President Obama took office, he changed the rhetoric from the Bush years. But he never abandoned the idea of global war — a concept with profound legal implications.

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A state Supreme Court justice said the regulations overstepped the authority granted to the New York City Board of Health. And the judge noted that the regulations wouldn't have applied equally across food retailers.

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Chains like H&M and Forever 21 turn out new styles so quickly that they've been dubbed "fast fashion" retailers. While the stores reap big profits, many say the business model has hidden costs, like encouraging poor labor practices and churning out cheaply made products that quickly end up in landfills.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder has been a problem for many military members returning from combat zones. Now the military is looking more closely at whether its canine members suffer from PTSD in the same ways.

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Craig is making the argument to justify using campaign funds to mount a legal defense. Craig was arrested at a Minneapolis airport for allegedly sexually soliciting an undercover officer.

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The video is not for the squeamish. But climber Mark Roberts' bumpy trip down an ice-covered cliff in Wales thankfully ended with him bruised and battered, but alive. His camera captured the whole ride.

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A judge has halted the ban on sugary drinks over 16 ounces, set to go into effect in New York City. New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling wrote that the regulation was "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had pushed for the ban, and city government is set to appeal the ruling.

Some local businesses shared the judge's concerns. Others saw an opportunity. Managers at Frames Bowling Lounge, in Manhattan, have spent the past week taste testing freshly squeezed juices as an alternative to pitchers of soda.

"I think that having alternatives to soda means that people might choose that over soda," said Frames marketing manager Frayda Resnick. "The reason why restaurants are excited to serve soda to begin with is because of the potential markup. But if the potential markup is there with the juice as well, restaurants can offer this ... and pass on the savings to the customer."

That juice will cost $1-$2 more than a soda, in the range of $4-$6 for a pint glass of juice. Flavors include apple-beet juice with a cinnamon swizzle stick. However, with the ban on hold, the pitchers of soda will continue to flow.

While its true that noroviruses are "perhaps the perfect human pathogens," as The Journal of Infectious Diseases reports, it also seems that Noma could have spared some of its diners from the pathogens if the staff had read emails from health inspectors.

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There’s no denying the $70 billion video game industry is a business force. But unlike say, film, video games have struggled to gain artistic credibility. A new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is perhaps the biggest sign yet that the art and design establishment is accepting gaming into its fold. This embrace of gaming could bring new visitors into museums, adding to the next generation of visitors that cultural institutions must cultivate to stay healthy.

The latest exhibition to open in MoMA’s third floor design galleries showcases 14 video games, the first to enter MoMA’s collection. Most are playable, with joysticks, controllers and headphones to hear the action. The games are displayed minimally, on screens set inside gray walls. Attentive ears will recognize video game music piped into the gallery.

There are widely-popular titles like "Pac-Man" and "Tetris," as well as lesser-known works. The museum finds them aesthetically compelling, culturally relevant and innovative enough to be included along with Eames chairs and Frank Lloyd Wright windows. 

"You move in time when you're in the screen," says senior curator Paola Antonelli, explaining in part why MoMA has added video games to its design collection. "And the combination of time and space is this sense of moving architecture."

The museum plans to acquire more titles, with a notable exception: violent games. Antonelli says that’s because the collection recognizes constructive design, not destruction.

She admits the art and design establishment has been slow to embrace gaming.

“It’s our fault,” Antonelli says. “We take a little while to catch up. But it’s about time and it’s a natural move.”

That move could bring some new visitors to the museum’s design floor, which can get overlooked by crowds on their way to the Van Gogh or Cézanne masterpieces upstairs.

MoMA joins the Smithsonian American Art Museum as another newcomer recognizing games. A recent exhibition from there is now touring the country. Museums are learning that exhibiting games is one way to get more young visitors through the door.

"They rely on donations and they rely on visitors,” says Jamin Warren, founder of Kill Screen, a thoughtful magazine covering games and gaming culture. He’s one of the people MoMA consulted as it built its collection. “What better way to get a new generation of people interested in the life of the museum than to start talking the language that they’re talking?"

The Museum of the Moving Image in New York is fluent in that language. Games have appeared alongside film and television exhibits there almost since the museum’s 1988 opening.

Its most recent exhibition covered five decades of video game history, a reminder that gaming goes back further than Nintendo, Atari or even Pong. On a recent visit, an enthusiastic and mostly 20-something crowd of visitors pumped tokens into games old and new inside a large room.

Younger visitors welcome video games in a museum. But many of the older people who actually run museums didn’t grow up gaming. Some perceive video games as mere youthful diversions. That’s part of why acceptance of video games by the cultural establishment has been slow.

Another difficulty video games have had gaining cultural credibility is one that impacts other design objects. To the extent that they are commercial products seeking a mass audience, some critics and curators believe games are commerce, not art.

“Get over it,” advises Carl Goodman, executive director of the Museum of the Moving Image. “For us, that’s the sweet spot, when a work can be tremendously influential and successful and also artistically relevant.”

At the recent Museum of the Moving Image exhibition, Meagan Burns blasted her way through the geometric landscapes of the fast-paced 1981 arcade game "Tempest." She’s a designer at a firm that creates websites and apps. For her, more museums taking gaming seriously means more opportunities for inspiration.

“It’s always great to kind of revisit the roots and explore different ways, how people have done it in the past and how we can kind of change it for now,” Burns says.

Film, architecture, and photography were once all outsiders looking in at an art world dominated by painting and sculpture. Like it or not, video games too are now inside the castle walls. How increased artistic credibility will change gaming remains to be seen.

“That battle about whether or not games are art is over,” Warren says. “But the challenge over the next decade will be to create the types of things that are worthy of a place in a museum.”

Kai Ryssdal: Think about this the next time you shoo your kid off the couch and tell him to turn off the Wii. Video games are an $70 billion industry. A mass-market global business force to be sure.

Does that, though, make them art? Turns out for a number of mainstream museums, the answer is 'you bet.'

From graphics to the computer code to the interaction between humans and machines, digital games add up to modern design. And conveniently showcasing them could add up to museum revenue.

Marketplace's Mark Garrison reports.

Mark Garrison: Headphones are hardly unusual at the Museum of Modern Art. You can use them to hear the audio tour or experience a piece of video art. But when you pick up the headphones now installed on the museum’s third floor, you’ll hear something brand new to MoMA.

That would be Pac-Man gobbling his way through a maze, seen on a TV set inside a gray wall. And, despite my best efforts on the joystick, him getting caught by a ghost. Pac-Man is one of 14 video games now on display at MoMA. Attentive ears will recognize video game music piped into the gallery.

There are popular titles like Tetris and lesser-known works, gifts to the museum from their designers and game companies. MoMA finds them aesthetically compelling, culturally relevant and innovative enough to be included along with Eames chairs and Frank Lloyd Wright windows. Senior curator Paola Antonelli explains part of why MoMA now has video games in its design collection.

Paola Antonelli: You move in time when you’re in the screen. And the combination of time and space is this sense of moving architecture.

She says MoMA’s avoiding violent games, because the collection recognizes constructive design, not destruction. MoMA joins the Smithsonian as another newcomer that sees games as art. Antonelli admits the art and design establishment has been slow to embrace gaming.

Antonelli: It’s our fault. You know, we take a little while to catch up. But it’s about time and it’s a natural move.

That move could bring some new visitors to the museum’s design floor, which can get overlooked by crowds on their way to the Van Gogh or Cézanne masterpieces upstairs. Jamin Warren is founder of Kill Screen, a gaming culture magazine. MoMA consulted him and others as it built its collection. Exhibiting games is one way to get more young visitors through the door.

Jamin Warren: They rely on donations and they rely on visitors and what better way to get a new generation of people interested in the life of the museum than to start talking the language that they’re talking.

The Museum of the Moving Image in New York is fluent in that language. Games have appeared alongside film and television almost since its 1988 opening. Plenty of visitors in their 20s were there for a recent exhibition on five decades of video game history. Younger people like Celia Vargas and James Rodriguez, who dropped tokens in Space Invaders, one of many games on display in a gym-sized room.

The perception of video games as mere youthful diversions is one reason the generally older people who run museums have taken so long to accept them. Also, some dismissed video games as commerce, not art.

Carl Goodman: Get over it.

Museum of the Moving Image executive director Carl Goodman.

Goodman: For us, that’s the sweet spot, when a work can be tremendously influential and successful and also artistically relevant.

At his museum’s exhibition, Meagan Burns is blasting her way through the geometric patterns of the 1981 arcade game Tempest. She designs websites and apps. For her, more museums taking gaming seriously means more opportunities for inspiration.

Meagan Burns: It’s always great to kind of revisit the roots and explore different ways, how people have done it in the past and how we can kind of change it for now.

How increased artistic credibility changes video games remains to be seen. For gaming journalist Jamin Warren, what matters is how game creators respond.

Warren: That battle about whether or not games are art is over, but the challenge over the next decade will be to create the types of things that are worthy of a place in a museum.

Film, architecture, photography. All of these were once outsiders looking in at an art world dominated by painting and sculpture. Like it or not, video games too are now inside the castle walls. In New York, I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.

Like in 1986, citizens are expected to stick with the British. But there's little doubt that the ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom will continue long after the referendum is settled.

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Social media has definitely ingrained itself into our lives, but now it's seeping into our afterlives as well. A few companies are building services to maintain your online presence once you're six feet under. One's slogan is: "When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting."

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Social media has definitely ingrained itself into our lives, but now it's seeping into our afterlives as well. A few companies are building services to maintain your online presence once you're six feet under. One's slogan is: "When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting."

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