In a complex world, the process of trial and error is essential. That's what Tim Harford — columnist for The Financial Times — writes in his new book Adapt. And while that idea might seem like common sense, it's one that is often remarkably hard for humans to accept because errors are associated with failure.

The subtitle of Harford's book is "Why Success Always Starts with Failure." For anyone familiar with Internet startups, that concept probably sounds pretty accurate; it seems every successful Internet CEO has a list of past missteps under his or her belt.

This week, the House begins debate on a defense spending bill that would authorize the president to attack al-Qaida and its associates all over the world.

Supporters say the measure would give the U.S. more leeway to fight terrorists after the death of Osama bin Laden. But critics worry that it hands the White House too much power.

Poet Dean Young has dealt with impermanence a lot in his career, but it's a particularly poignant theme in Young's latest collection, Fall Higher. The new collection was published in April, just days after the poet received a life-saving heart transplant after about a decade of living with a degenerative heart condition.

Young, whose work is often frank and rich with twisted humor, tells NPR's Renee Montagne that as he recovers from surgery, he's also slowly returning to his everyday writing habits.

President Obama is in Ireland on Monday kicking off a six-day European trip during which he will visit Buckingham Palace, address British Parliament, attend the Group of Eight summit in France and meet with Central European leaders in Poland.

First, though, the president has some family business to attend to: As Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny explained on St. Patrick's Day, the land of O'Connells, O'Neills, and O'Donnells is also the land of Obamas.

The Food and Drug Administration has told companies that make "metal on metal" artificial hips to take a closer look at how patients fare after their hip replacement surgery. The request involves about 20 manufacturers.

Well over a million U.S. men are thought to get prostate biopsies every year – a test that involves firing needles into a man's prostate gland from a probe stuck into his backside.

For the vast majority the test isn't fun, but it's not dangerous.

But specialists are worrying about an increasing risk of complications from prostate biopsy, especially hard-to-treat bloodstream infections that can send men to the ICU and require weeks of heavy-duty antibiotic treatment.

Kentucky Republicans held a post-primary rally at state GOP headquarters in Frankfort Saturday to show a united front for the fall.  But despite claims of party unity, it appears the Republicans may have a few chinks in their armor.

Death Cab for Cutie's music has long had a certain innocence to it; a boyish, vulnerable charm that feels unmistakably collegiate. When the Bellingham, Wash., band broke big in the early '00s, its records played like the soundtracks to breathless long-distance romances between young adults who'd always been just a little too smart for the rooms they were in.

My Morning Jacket has been tricky to peg lately, especially after the 2008 release of Evil Urges, which saw the band's cavernous rock sound sprawl out to include absurd forays into loopy funk. At its best, Evil Urges is a monster, but it's not exactly consistent.

When we got our first taste of the Brooklyn band Cults earlier this year, winter was still holding on strong. The group's self-released Go Outside 7" sailed in like a welcome, balmy breeze. No one knew much about the mysterious then-duo, which sported no official website and a nearly un-Googleable name. (Seriously, if you're looking for biographical information, searching "Cults members" won't help.) But that didn't matter — what wasn't to like? We warmed our hands over Cults' summery groove, with its twinkling xylophone and girl-group vocals, without a second thought.