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    <title>Slate Magazine - Explainer</title>
    <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2076770/?from=rss</link>
    <description>Answers to your questions about the news.</description>
    <copyright>2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC</copyright>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:30:07 EST</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:30:07 EST</lastBuildDate>
    <ttl>120</ttl>
    
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  <title>What's the best way for the Twilight vampires to drink blood?</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2236153/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight series, hits theaters today. It features a family of teenage vampires who drink animal blood and who look down on those vampires "weak" enough to prey on humans. The film raises several questions about the logistics—and aesthetics—of blood-drinking.<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2236153/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>explainer</category>
  <author>Christopher Beam</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:18:13 EST</pubDate>
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  <title>How dangerous is the radiation from a mammogram?</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2236145/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended Monday that women without risk factors for breast cancer wait until their 50s before going in for regular mammograms. That's because early screening yields almost 50 times as many false positives as true cancers, triggering unnecessary biopsies and anxiety, and early detection doesn't do much good in 85 percent of cases anyway. The Task Force noted that the radiation exposure associated with mammography was a minor factor in their recommendation; on Wednesday, Slate's Darshak Sanghavi wrote, "It's possible the radiation from those mammograms may end up causing more cancers than they prevent." How much radiation is in a mammogram?<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2236145/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>explainer</category>
  <author>Brian Palmer</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:11:54 EST</pubDate>
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  <title>How does the federal government know how much money it's spending improperly?</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2236025/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  The federal government made $98 billion in improper payments this fiscal year, according to an announcement Tuesday by the White House Office of Management and Budget. That's a 37.5 percent increase from the $72 billion improperly spent in 2008. How does the government know exactly how much it's misspending?<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2236025/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>explainer</category>
  <author>Christopher Beam</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:55:46 EST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
  <title>Obama's getting flak for bowing in Japan. Early Americans bowed all the time.</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2235915/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  President Obama bowed (rather deeply) to the emperor of Japan over the weekend, providing ample fodder for his conservative detractors. Former Vice President Cheney, for one, said "There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone. … Our friends and allies don't expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness." In Japan, bows are standard accompaniments to formal greetings. And as anyone who's seen a period drama about Colonial America knows well, bows were once standard here, too. When did Americans stop bowing?<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2235915/?from=rss">more ...</a>]<!--AD BEGIN--><br clear="all" /><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/slate.rss/politics;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=8322" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/slate.rss/politics;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=8322" border="0" vspace="5" /></a><!--AD END-->  ]]></description>
  <category>explainer</category>
  <author>Juliet Lapidos</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:48:58 EST</pubDate>
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  <title>What makes a prison state of the art?</title>
  <link>http://www.slate.com/id/2235776/?from=rss</link>
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  <description><![CDATA[  Federal officials visited a correctional center in Thomson, Ill., on Monday, to see if it might be appropriate for housing detainees from Guantanamo Bay. A statement from the governor's office described the prison as a "virtually vacant, state of the art facility." What makes a prison "state of the art?"<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2235776/?from=rss">more ...</a>]  ]]></description>
  <category>explainer</category>
  <author>Brian Palmer</author>
  <comments>http://fray.slate.com/discuss</comments>
  <pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:44:56 EST</pubDate>
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