Most Recent Posts

Ask Americans to describe themselves, and chances are you'll get adjectives like "energetic," "friendly" or "hard-working."

In Japan, the responses would likely be much different. "Dependent on others" and "considerate" might pop up, studies have found.

Since the 1990s, psychologists have known that people in East Asia think differently, on average, than those in the U.S. and Europe. Easterners indeed tend to be more cooperative and intuitive, while Westerners lean toward individualism and analytical thinking.

Now psychologists have evidence that our ancestors planted these cultural differences hundreds of years ago when they chose which grains to sow.

i i

If the students at Stanford University believe they sent the coal industry a strong message this week, they should think again. The school's decision to eliminate coal from its portfolio did not send shock waves through the industry. In fact, representatives say it will have no financial impact on the industry at all. Nor will it curb the growing demand around the world for coal-generated electricity.

"It strikes us as a politically expedient course of action rather than a rational response," says Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association. Even if more universities decide to follow suit, it won't have a material effect on coal companies, he says.

University endowments commanded nearly $450 billion last year, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Of that, only about 5 percent of the money is invested in energy, including everything from coal to solar.

The Two-Way

Stanford University Says No To Coal Investments

"To me it was hollow," he says, "and I think it was hollow for my father, though he would not have ever brought that to his conscious mind. He totally loved cowboys and so did most of the cowboys he worked with and that got him through his life. But he knew perfectly well that it wouldn't last another generation ... it just was not going to last."

In his new book, The Last Kind Words Saloon, McMurtry creates an unvarnished picture of one of the heroes of Western myth: Wyatt Earp and his sidekick, Doc Holliday. Over the years Earp has been portrayed as legendary lawman but McMurtry says it's a reputation he doesn't deserve.

"Wyatt didn't do much of anything except drink and pester his wife and run around," he says. "He didn't do anything remarkable his whole life, ever."

McMurtry strips Earp down to a guy who doesn't talk much, hits his wife and gets people killed for no particularly good reason. Earp and Holliday spend a lot of time doing nothing. At one point they try, unsuccessfully, to become stars in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. The duo's adventures culminate in the infamous shoot out at the O.K. Corral.

More With Larry McMurtry

Books

McMurtry's 'Literary Life': Not Simple, But Practical

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki tells NPR that he's determined to "get to the bottom" of allegations that veterans may have died at a Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital while waiting for care.

The accusations of extended delays in providing health care at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system surfaced last month. The facility reportedly kept two lists of veterans waiting for care, one it shared with Washington and another secret list of wait times that sometimes lasted more than a year.

"Allegations like this get my attention," Shinseki tells All Things Considered. "I take it seriously and my habit is to get to the bottom of it.

"If allegations are substantiated, we'll take swift and appropriate action," he tells host Robert Siegel.

Last week, Shinseki announced that three officials had been placed on leave at the facility in Phoenix, where up to 40 patients reportedly may have died while on a wait list for care.

The VA has acknowledged that 23 patients have died as a result of delayed care in recent years, according to The Associated Press. At one clinic at a Fort Collins, Colorado, the VA's inspector general says officials were instructed on how to falsify appointment records. Other problems have occurred in Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia, according to the AP.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the problems "an embarrassing period for the VA." Three GOP Senators, John Cornyn of Texas, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Richard Burr of North Carolina, have called for Shinseki to resign.

The VA's inspector general has been tasked with investigating the Phoenix hospital. Asked if the allegations are substantiated whether he'd step down, Shinseki said "Let's see what the inspector general comes back with."

The retired U.S. Army four-star general and former Army chief of staff says that the question of resignation is "a hypothetical.

"But what's not a hypothetical is that I serve at the pleasure of the president," he tells NPR. "I signed on to do this to help him make things better for veterans in the near term, as quickly as possible, but also to put in place for the long term those changes to this department that will continue to help veterans well into this century."

Shinseki, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to the Veterans Affairs post in 2009, has pledged to clear up the backlog of disability claims and to end the problem of homeless veterans, says he's confident that the numbers showing progress in those two areas are solid.

"In the case of disability claims, that's a number we can see because the claims are in the system and we can measure decisions going out the door, so that's one I am very confident of," he said. On the question of homelessness, "I am confident that we have taken veterans off the street."