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When dictionaries add trendy words like "twerk," they're prioritizing the fleeting language habits of the young, says Geoff Nunberg. And our fascination with novel words tends to eclipse subtle changes in the meanings of old ones — "which are often more consequential," he says.

This week, a group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, many with disabilities, marked Sept. 11 by climbing two peaks in Yosemite National Park. Climbing as a team, they say, gives them an opportunity to recapture what they miss about the military: a sense of camaraderie with a shared challenge.

Louisiana officials say they identified for the first time a dangerous form of amoeba in a municipal water supply. It was found after a 4-year-old boy died of a brain infection caused by the amoeba. They say this may make it easier to diagnose cases of encephalitis with unknown causes.

If you demand democracy in China, you can quickly find yourself at odds with the government. So these days, reformers are trying to use the constitution to make the party accountable to the people. But that didn't keep a Shanghai professor from getting suspended.

Critics of the NSA's secret surveillance hoped the debate that followed Edward Snowden's leaks would prompt the NSA to rethink the operation. Instead, one of the most noticeable effects so far has been a diversion of resources away from intelligence missions toward assessing damage from the leaks.

In his new book, Washington Post correspondent Dan Balz offers an insider's account of the forces that shaped the political strategies of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and the flaws and misfires that led to Romney's defeat. He discusses the 2012 campaign and the future of the Republican Party.

The State Department on Tuesday advised all U.S. citizens to leave Yemen because of "extremely high" danger there. This comes as 19 U.S. embassies and consulates remain closed across much of the Middle East and Africa because of a security threat. Al-Qaida chatter picked up by intelligence sources suggested a major attack was in the works.

Even as Detroit files for bankruptcy protection, Bruce Katz says many American cities are showing promising signs of renewal. In The Metropolitan Revolution, he writes that, together, cities and suburbs have the power to take on the challenges Washington won't.

Food labels have become battlegrounds. Government regulators, companies and food movement activists have been fighting over what belongs on the label. (GMOs? Trans fats? Claims that bran prevents heart disease?) We asked four big thinkers for their dream food label.

Scientists suspect that warming air and rivers, as well as smaller winter snowpack, is endangering western trout. But on a ranch in Montana, methods to protect trout from the effects of cattle ranching are helping the trout become more resilient to the inevitable change in their environment.