Well: Straining to Hear and Fend Off Dementia

At a party the other night, a fund-raiser for a literary magazine, I found myself in conversation with a well-known author whose work I greatly admire. I use the term “conversation” loosely. I couldn’t hear a word he said. But worse, the effort I was making to hear was using up so much brain power that I completely forgot the titles of his books.A senior moment? Maybe. (I’m 65.) But for me, it’s complicated...

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WellPoint Hires Joseph Swedish of Trinity Health as C.E.O.

WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, announced on Tuesday that it had chosen an experienced hospital executive to lead it through sweeping changes created by the federal health care overhaul law. Joseph R. Swedish, the 61-year-old chief executive of a major nonprofit Catholic-owned health system, Trinity Health, will become WellPoint’s chief executive on March 25. He will...

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With Pope’s Resignation, Focus Shifts to a Successor

L'Osservatore Romano, via Associated PressPope Benedict XVI announcing his resignation on Monday at the Vatican. At left is Msgr. Franco Camaldo, a papal aide. VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise announcement on Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28 sets the stage for a succession battle that is likely to determine the future course of a church troubled by scandal and declining faith in its...

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Indiana stays at No. 1 in AP Top 25 despite loss

Indiana coach Tom Crean used an analogy to the state's second favorite sport after the Hoosiers remained No. 1 in The Associated Press' Top 25 for a second straight week.It had been over a month since a team managed to stay on top, and Indiana broke that trend despite losing a game last week, leading Crean to bring up auto racing."I had a good friend tell me that in-season rankings are the barometer...

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Health Testing on Mice Is Found Misleading in Some Cases

Evan McGlinn for The New York TimesDr. H. Shaw Warren is one of the authors of a new study that questions the use of laboratory mice as models for all human diseases. For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a...

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Media Decoder: A CBS Deal Bolsters Amazon's Challenge to Netflix

Slowly but confidently, Amazon is building a library of television shows and movies to rival that of Netflix, much to the satisfaction of media companies like Time Warner and CBS, whose executives love to see the competition.Although Amazon will not unveil its own original television shows until the fall at the earliest, it is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to have the exclusive Web rights...

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Syrian War Closes In on the Heart of Damascus

Goran Tomasevic/ReutersFighters from the Free Syrian Army's Tahrir al Sham brigade look at a Syrian Army base in the Arabeen neighborhood of Damascus. DAMASCUS, Syria — Unkempt government soldiers, some appearing drunk, have been deployed near a rebel-held railway station in the southern reaches of this tense capital. Office workers on 29th of May Street, in the heart of the city, tell of huddling...

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No. 4 Duke holds on to beat Boston College 62-61

BOSTON (AP) — Mason Plumlee had 19 points and 10 rebounds, hitting the game-winning free throw with 26 seconds left on Sunday to help No. 4 Duke rally from early and late deficits to beat Boston College 62-61.Seth Curry added 18 points for the Blue Devils, who watched the three teams above them in the AP Top 25 lose to unranked opponents this week — and then nearly joined them.Olivier Hanlan scored...

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For Families Struggling with Mental Illness, Carolyn Wolf Is a Guide in the Darkness

When a life starts to unravel, where do you turn for help? Melissa Klump began to slip in the eighth grade. She couldn’t focus in class, and in a moment of despair she swallowed 60 ibuprofen tablets. She was smart, pretty and ill: depression, attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, either bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. In her 20s, after a more...

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Advertising: Self Magazine Widens Its Focus for a Younger Audience

WHAT’S the point of having Michelle Obama’s triceps if you can’t show them off in a smart sleeveless sheath? That seems to be the thinking behind a remake of Self magazine, the Condé Nast publication best known for teaching women how to crunch their abs, tone their thighs and eat the right foods. Self is broadening its tight focus on exercise and wellness to become a more general lifestyle...

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