Morning Edition from NPR

Conflicting information raises even more questions about the fate of the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared nearly a week ago with 239 people on board.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

The most re-tweeted photo ever was Ellen DeGeneres's star-studded Oscar selfie. OK. So Colin Powell is not a big tweeter, but yesterday the former secretary of State posted on his Facebook page a photo of his very handsome young self, looking in the mirror with camera in hand. Black-and-white, pretty old-fashioned, but it allowed Powell to boast: I was doing selfies 60 years before you Facebook folks.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm David Greene. Earlier this week I made a joke about hipsters and it caused an overwhelming reaction from listeners, especially on Twitter. So we started wondering what makes someone a hipster anyway. Some of our overnight producers have thoughts.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Hipsters are hairy.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Rolling your own cigarettes.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Flannel is back.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Fedoras.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: Being about to move to Portland.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Big East basketball tournament is underway at Madison Square Garden in New York City. For many fans it is nothing like it used to be. In the 1980s, even up until recently, this was a marquee event for college basketball and for New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "REQUIEM FOR THE BIG EAST")

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With Russia making moves on Ukraine's Crimea region, German leader Angela Merkel has been talking tough, and perhaps no Western leader understands Vladimir Putin's intentions better than Merkel.

The German chancellor has been on the phone with the Russian president more than half a dozen times since the crisis began. Yesterday, she warned that Russia would suffer massive political and economic damage if Russia follows through on annexing Crimea - if, as many expect, Crimeans vote for that this Sunday.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

Tourists always try to get the famously straight-faced British royal guard to crack a smile. This week, a guy with a Borscht Belt touch pulled it off. Yankel Ineyamuka(ph) stood next to one of the Queen's Guard in his tall red hat and offered an absurd monologue in how they were at school together at Kensington, how he never talked. And what finally got the guard to giggle, how his mom picked him up from school until he was 20.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene.

The city of Birmingham, England has been promoting a wedding fair on the city council's website. The only problem: that event is taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. And this is not the first such mix-up. In 2008, the city council accidentally sent out pamphlets picturing the U.S. city's skyline instead of their own. After the recent confusion, a city spokesman joked that the council's website is so successful, even events 4,000 miles away are desperate to advertise on it.

Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk takes his case to the United Nations on Thursday, as he tries to build support for his country in its territorial conflict with Russia.

Many of us can barely make it through the morning without first downing a cup of hot coffee. It's become such a big part of our daily rituals that few actually give much thought to what it is that we're putting in our bodies.

To help us break down the little-known things about caffeine, NPR's David Greene spoke with Murray Carpenter, author of Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us. These are the things you probably aren't thinking about as you wait in line at your local coffee shop.

Caffeine is a drug. Treat it as such.