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Hamelin was the setting for the tale of the Pied Piper who lured the town's rats into a river and then led away its children when he wasn't paid. Some 700 years later, the rats have returned and chewed through the electric cable powering the town's fountain.

NPR's Frank Langfitt can't get over how much things have changed for movie fans such as him. In only a decade or so, China's theaters have gone high-tech. And they've gotten expensive.

Jeff Neely, the regional official at the General Services Administration who hosted a 2010 taxpayer-funded conference that became a scandal as details about excessive spending, gifts and lavish parties were revealed, is no longer with the agency.

Politicians routinely use Twitter, but harder to find are those whose tweets actually, really, identifiably come from them. The ones who tweet interesting facts, interact with constituents, and even — gasp — crack jokes on occasion. Let me recommend a few who walk the walk and tweet the tweet.

The Land of the Free has become a legal minefield, says attorney Philip K. Howard — especially for teachers and doctors, whose work has been paralyzed by fear of suits. The answer? Howard has four propositions for simplifying U.S. law.

President Obama rhetorically hit Mitt Romney, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, with a little barnyard humor. He accused the former Massachusetts governor of not only lying about his record as president but Romney's also.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for practical wisdom as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.

Eurvision, the European song contest, is being held this year in Azerbaijan. Lois Parshley of Foreign Policy has this list of seven acts that might make you want to turn off your television forever.

President Obama revealed in his memoir "Dreams for My Father" his youthful use of illegal drugs as he grew up in Hawaii. But journalist and biographer David Maraniss apparently fills in the picture with quite a few colorful details.

Brian Banks spent more than five years in prison. Then for the past five years, he had been on probation and wearing an electronic monitoring device. But his accuser recanted. Now he's hoping to get his life back together.