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American Airlines Fliers Fed Up As Labor Clash Rages

Credit Joe Raedle / Getty Images

American Airlines planes sit on the tarmac at Miami International Airport this month. Reports indicate that American Airlines has canceled somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of flights in recent days, reportedly blaming a surge in pilot sick days and maintenance write-ups by pilots.

By Wade Goodwyn

Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 11:37 am

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Pat Henneberry is an airline's dream customer. She flies all week, every week, and buying an $800 ticket so that she can have full flexibility is standard operating procedure. She's an American Airlines platinum customer. But she is fed up with the endless delays and cancellations.

3:12 pm

Thu September 27, 2012

'Looper': Time-Travel Nonsense, Winningly Played

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Credit Alan Markfield / Sony Pictures

Old Joe (Bruce Willis) and his younger self (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), two iterations of the same assassin, play a particularly personal game of cat and mouse in the time-travel thriller Looper.

Credit Alan Markfield / Sony Pictures

Sara (Emily Blunt) is a single mom who's learned to stand her ground to protect her home — and her young son.

By David Edelstein

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I adore time-travel pictures like Looper no matter how idiotic, especially when they feature a Love That Transcends Time. I love Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, The Time Traveler's Wife, even The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in different years sending letters through a magic mailbox. So terrible. So good. See, everyone wants to correct mistakes in hindsight, and it's the one thing we cannot do. Except vicariously, in movies.

2:49 pm

Thu September 27, 2012

Yasek Manzano: Jazz From Havana's Streets

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Yasek Manzano.

By editor

All month, World Cafe invites listeners to discover the music of Havana, Cuba, with the series Sense of Place.

2:11 pm

Thu September 27, 2012

Streams Of Water Once Flowed On Mars; NASA Says Photos Prove It

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Credit NASA

NASA says it has found proof that water shaped the rocks on the left, in a photograph taken by the Mars rover Curiosity (left). For comparison, the agency released an image of rocks from the Earth (right).

Credit NASA

Pathfinder, 1997: The first mission to land a rover on Mars, Pathfinder touched down in Ares Vallis, an ancient flood plain in the planet's northern hemisphere. Among the 2.3 billion bits of data sent back by the lander and its rover, Sojourner, were 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, which suggested Mars had once had liquid water and a thicker atmosphere.

Credit NASA

Spirit, 2010: When NASA's Spirit rover got stuck in Martian sand, it proved to be a lucky break: The spinning wheel churned up soil that provided evidence of rocks formed in the presence of water.

Credit NASA

Opportunity, 2004: Opportunity discovered tiny mineral spheres — nicknamed blueberries — poking out of rocks that were likely formed by water. Researchers using Opportunity's science instruments identified them as concretions rich in the mineral hematite, deposited by water saturating the bedrock.

Credit NASA

Curiosity 2012: A wider view of the outcrop of a former streambed shows bedrock that scientists believe was likely exposed by meteorites striking the surface of Mars.

Credit NASA

Curiosity, 2012: NASA says that water shaped the rocks on the left, in a photograph taken by the Mars rover Curiosity. For comparison, the agency released an image of rocks from the Earth (right).

By Bill Chappell

Originally published on Thu September 27, 2012 8:31 pm

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NASA's Curiosity rover has found definitive proof that water once ran across the surface of Mars, the agency announced today. NASA scientists say new photos from the rover show rocks that were smoothed and rounded by water. The rocks are in a large canyon and nearby channels that were cut by flowing water, making up an alluvial fan.

"You had water transporting these gravels to the downslope of the fan," NASA researchers say. The gravel then formed into a conglomerate rock, which was in turn likely covered before being exposed again.

1:55 pm

Thu September 27, 2012

Hit In The Head In His First At Bat, Adam Greenberg Will Get A 2nd Chance

Credit NBC.com

Adam Greenberg, who's going to get another chance to bat, on NBC's The Today Show.

By Mark Memmott

On July 9, 2005, Adam Greenberg of the Chicago Cubs went to the plate for his first major league at bat.

One pitch later, his major league career was over.

Until now.

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3:24 pm

Thu September 27, 2012