All Things Considered

It's a point of pride for electronic musicians to come up with novel sounds. So I was duly impressed to hear that one of my favorites had made a new record in which his laptop plays second fiddle to an ancient instrument he'd heard ringing out from the city hall in Oslo, Norway.

Hendrik Weber, who records under the name Pantha du Prince, collaborated with the percussion ensemble The Bell Laboratory for his latest album, Elements of Light.

Forty-seven states now have widespread outbreaks of the influenza virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We look at the Philadelphia area, where health officials say flu season arrived early this year.

President Obama gave the last news conference of his first term on Monday. The president said Congress must break the habit of negotiating its way through crisis over and over again.

When it comes to supernutritious foods, the blueberry has long had a health halo floating over it.

Going back to Colonial times when Native Americans and English settlers ground up blueberries and added them to porridge, in both dried and fresh forms, there have been hints of health-promoting effects.

America's military future is decidedly undecided.

Looming sequestration cuts of massive proportions, coupled with a U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan are adding to the boiling partisanship over nominating Chuck Hegel as defense secretary. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that some of the biggest challenges for the Department of Defense come from inside U.S. borders.

New York's nonprofit bookstore Printed Matter in west Chelsea lost close to 10,000 books and sustained more than $200,000 in damages during Hurricane Sandy. The day after the storm, volunteers were at the store to help - even though some didn't have power themselves.