News Cut

News Cut: April 22, 2009 Archive

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Do we still need Earth Day?

Posted at 7:43 AM on April 22, 2009 by Ken Paulman (14 Comments)

An interesting thing happened on Morning Edition today. When host Cathy Wurzer asked listeners to send us text messages on how they were observing Earth Day (that's today -- I know -- I had forgotten about it too), we got almost no response. One person said they were "keeping it non-fiction," whatever that means.

Later, when the question was tweaked to "what have you done in the last year to help the environment?", responses started trickling in. Some people reported they had given up driving and started riding their bikes; others talked about switching to compact fluorescent bulbs; one person said they'd stopped eating meat, fish and dairy: "better for the earth for my health and for the animals."

Indeed, practices like recycling, composting and alternative transportation -- things that were not so terribly long ago the domain of radical hippies -- are now commonplace. It's not as though we've developed a perfectly sustainable society, but environmental issues are now frequently at the forefront of our collective consciousness.

Has Earth Day done its job? Do we even need it anymore?

Update: For an Earth Day bonus, take American Public Media's Consumer Consequences to find out how many earths it would take to sustain your lifestyle.

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Shoes on a wire, theories in the air

Posted at 11:47 AM on April 22, 2009 by Julia Schrenkler (11 Comments)
Filed under: Things that are puzzling

Gerri MacLeod documented some local shoe tossing in Minneapolis and shared it MPR's Flickr photo pool. Not all footwear looks this artful:

3452260063_08721f1376_m.jpg
image courtesy Gerri MacLeod

MacLeod notes, "Now in college, there was a tree that you threw your shoes up on after losing your virginity (or something like that). Is it the same thing even for tossing them on electrical wires?"

According to the urban legend & folklore resource, Snopes.com, there are many theories on the secret language of sneakers. News Cut familiars might note the suggestion they "increase visibility for low-flying aircraft" as one proposal ideally suited to irritate your usual host.

What are your own theories? Do you notice shoes-on-a-wire in your neighborhood? Are shoe trees really a tourist attraction?

I'll hang up and listen.

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A clean slate for the city

Posted at 11:28 AM on April 22, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

The New York Times reports on a plan — and from what you'd gather from the article, a surprisingly non-controversial plan — to effectively wipe out entire blocks and neighborhoods in chronically depressed Flint, Mich.

The population would be condensed into a few viable areas. So would stores and services. A city built to manufacture cars would be returned in large measure to the forest primeval.

Michigan's laws afford local governments a lot of leeway when it comes to dealing with tax-delinquent properties.

The numbers, here, tell a powerful tale of boom and bust in the last half century.

Nothing will happen immediately, but Flint has begun updating its master plan, a complicated task last done in 1965. Then it was a prosperous city of 200,000 looking to grow to 350,000. It now has 110,000 people, about a third of whom live in poverty.

The story ends with the reporter meeting a woman, her pristine house about the only thing left on the block, contemplating whether she would abandon her home if the city offered her a spot in a more stable neighborhood.

Would you?


Update: Bob from the comments recommends this Harper's article: "Detroit Arcadia - Exploring the post-American landscape" (pdf).

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Around the world: "Box"

Posted at 4:09 PM on April 22, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Life

In the course of my work putting together news on MPR.org I'm often asked to find an image to accompany a story.

This often leads to an interesting trip across the world as seemingly thematically unrelated images congregate around a particular keyword search.

Today, we took a trip across the world with "box".



We previously went around the world in "Arms".

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Five at One: Busy Day Edition

Posted at 1:19 PM on April 22, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (1 Comments)

Yes, it's tradition to have these link posts ready to go at 8 a.m., but things got busy. Do understand.

  • Since Jeff Horwich at MPR's In the Loop broke the story of Fox 9 News' plans to do a child abduction story where a reporter in an unmarked SUV was to attempt to talk to school kids in Edina, he's followed up with KMSP's reaction.

    Which turns out to be not much of a reaction.

    Jeff's still got several unanswered questions, but perhaps this best sums its all up.

    WHAT were you thinking? Really -- what were you thinking? No, I mean it: What were you thinking?

    (Hint: The May sweeps period begins tomorrow.)

    MinnPost media watcher David Brauer calls the plan "not only amoral, but inane".


  • Apparently the Yankees are having trouble filling all those expensive seats at their expensive new stadium.

    Seriously, $2,625 to watch a ballgame? The franks had better be outstanding. Seats at the Minnesota Twins' Target Field will top out at $275 a pop next year.


  • While the professional blogger on-staff is on vacation, it's certain a hub-bub about professional blogging will spring up. Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn digs up some dubious numbers about how much (and how many) bloggers are earning.

    Penn writes:

    Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.

    Statistics for Journalism 101, the mean and median can be very different things.


  • And as long as we're all throwing around ginormous numbers, it's worth perusing WallStats' 2009 Death and Taxes interactive graphic.


  • Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, returned to his alma mater over the weekend in a special way — to join Eau Claire's Memorial High School jazz band for a spring concert. Bon Iver's acclaimed 2008 record For Emma, Forever Ago is simply put, a great album.

    Here's Justin singing "For Emma" with the jazz band.

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