Blogosphere Buzzes About Healthy Eating, Tax Cuts

In the weekly "BackTalk" segment, Tell Me More's "digital media guy" Lee Hill discusses listener feedback and news story updates, with host Michel Martin. This week, listeners react in droves to Martin's commentary tackling criticisms of First Lady Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiative. Also, a blog post by Tell Me More contributor and political science professor Lester Spence - on whether President Obama's latest political compromises negatively affect African Americans - sparks responses.

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Team Wins Siemens Prize For Speech Analyzer

NPR's Melissa Block talks to Matthew Fernandez, the high school junior from Oregon who, along with his partner, Akash Krishnan, won the team prize in the 2010 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Fernandez and Krishnan built a computer algorithm that analyzes speech and figures out the emotional state of the speaker. Fernandez says the technology could improve service at call centers, where irate customers could be quickly recognized by the computer's phone menu and quickly put through to a human. It could also be used to help autistic children better understand the emotion of someone speaking to them.

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Incandescent Bulbs Not Going Away, Just Changing

Lighting manufacturers are pushing back against widespread rumors that the federal government is banning incandescent light bulbs. Rush Limbaugh and some Republicans in Congress are calling for the repeal of a 2008 law signed by President Bush that sets tougher standards for light bulbs beginning in 2012. They claim consumers would be forced to use less popular fluorescent bulbs. But bulb manufacturers say that claim is false.

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Amid Riots, Haiti Candidate Vows To Challenge Vote

A popular singer vowed to legally challenge election results that narrowly ousted him from Haiti's presidential race, while his supporters barricaded streets and set fires in violence that threatened the fragile stability that followed a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly urged his backers on Wednesday to nonviolently protest results from Nov. 28 presidential elections that demonstrators say were rigged. His campaign manager later said they would formally challenge the tallies released late Tuesday to Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council.

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