The look (5x8 - 4/29/11)

Posted at 7:08 AM on April 29, 2011 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

Faces of war, tornadoes and climate change, when people do good, the kissing case, and Superman snubs the U.S.

1) THE FACES

These expressions never change over time, and yet they are always the most compelling of photographs when they appear.

This is the family of Joseph Kennedy of Inver Grove Heights. The soldier was buried at Fort Snelling cemetery yesterday, killed in Afghanistan last week.

They are the same expressions as this picture I've carried in my wallet for almost 20 years (which I wrote about here)

(© John Francis Ficara)

And here

and here...

And on thousands of other people since war began.

What you can't see here, of course, is what the grieving relatives see: a battery of camera lenses pointed at you. It takes an incredible amount of grace and courage to allow others to document the worst moments of your life.

2) TORNADOES AND CLIMATE CHANGE

It's the question many people are dying to ask, but don't want the usual political chatter that follows it. But let's ask it anyway. Are the tornadoes in the southeast a link to a changing climate? LiveScience.com addresses the question today. The answer? It's not "no," but it's not "yes," either.

"The impacts of climate change on any weather events will likely only be seen in the statistics -- more rainfall that occurs in intense bursts, more overall water vapor, more heat waves, less cool nights," Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, wrote in an email to LiveScience. "But the combination of events that lead to the tornado swarms we've seen are both rare and complex, and to ask climate scientists to pronounce definitively on them the instant they happen is just asking for trouble."

What does seem to be changing is that tornadoes are hitting cities more often, but that may well be because there are more cities now, especially in the south. A tornado at night in the middle of Nowhere, Minnesota? People may not even know it existed to add it to a count of the number of tornadoes.

What we've learned this week -- if not earlier -- is we people in the Twin Cities can't be depending on the mythical "heat island" to protect us from tornadoes.

President Obama is flying to the region today to survey the damage from Wednesday evening's tornadoes. That's not fast enough for one letter-writer to the Star Tribune today:

So many floods and tornadoes across the south. Loss of life. Devastation. Wildfires in Texas. President Obama flies over all of it to go to California to raise money for his 2012 campaign at political fundraising dinners.

Any other president would be called out on this. Where is the media demanding accountability? We need a leader.

ADIE WOLCYN, CAMBRIDGE, MINN.

Speaking of the wildfires in Texas, a friend of mine took a look at the damage the fires caused in the Dallas area. Find his photos here.

Closer-to-home weather factoid: On Sunday, the Red River in Fargo-Moorhead will drop below major flood stage for the first time in about a month.

3) WHEN PEOPLE DO GOOD (CONT'D)

Some kids in Hermantown have organized an art show and auction for Saturday to raise money for an organization that helps homeless young people.

"When you're a high school senior in your last quarter, you're thinking about graduation and prom," a history teacher tells the Duluth News Tribune today. "Here's a large group of seniors doing something to benefit homeless teenagers. It just makes you feel good about being an educator."

Senior Rachel Hannan is one of the organizers, drawing on her childhood of poverty. "It was just really tough," Hannan, 18, tells the paper. "But my mom made sure I had everything I wanted. There were Christmases when she didn't have money to buy toys, so she rewrapped ones I had forgotten about. She did everything by herself."

Pass it on.

More good: Architectural students have helped Hammond, Minnesota recover from last year's tornadoes flood (h/t: Minnesota Prairie Roots).

The cost of doing good: It cost $170,000 for a small church in Emily, Minnesota to meet state standards for a kitchen that provides free meals. That's a lot of money for a church that gets fewer than 100 people in the door for services on Sunday, the Brainerd Dispatch says. When it was shut down a year ago, it served more than 170 meals a day in the community. It reopened on Wednesday, thanks to donations and volunteers, but still is about $7,000 short.

Related: Researchers say the number of Minnesotans who are homeless jumped 25 percent between 2006 and 2009, the latest count. Many people who are homeless rely on shelters and hot meal programs for food. A new group in Ramsey County is working to improve the nutritional quality of those meals.

4) THE KISSING CASE

In 1958, James Hanover Thompson was arrested, taken to jail, and beaten by the cops. A white girl had kissed him on the cheek. Thompson is black.

He and a friend spent three months in detention, and each week they were sent to a psychologist. "And he'd tell me, 'They should have castrated y'all.' I mean, it was just something," he tells Story Corps.

You'll want to read and listen to their story.

5) DON'T LET THE SCREEN DOOR HIT YOU IN THE CAPE

Superman may renounce his U.S. citizenship, setting off alarm among commentators on the planet. "'Truth, justice and the American way' - it's not enough anymore," Superman says, "The world is too small, too connected."

"It doesn't seem that he's abandoning those values, however, only trying to implement them on a larger scale and divorce himself from the political complexities of nationalism," Comics Alliance says.

Plus, he can't run for president here, anyway.

The move creates an opportunity for you, Christian Ponder.

Bonus: Northfield's British Pub, The Contented Cow, hosted a wedding-watching party this morning. Griff Wigley snapped some photos:

The wedding broke online streaming records across the planet today, an indication that at least a few of the people pooh-poohing the fantasy, were fibbing.

TODAY'S QUESTION

The federal government has proposed new guidelines for marketing food to young people. The voluntary guidelines would aim to promote healthy food choices. Today's Question: Should the federal government try to limit food marketing aimed at children?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: Judging GOP contenders through job creation

Second hour: Jazz legend Irv Williams.

Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: Gary Schwitzer, publisher of Health News Review

Second hour: BBC's royal wedding highlights special

Science Friday (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: The Cape Cod wind project.

Second hour: "Blood Work" author Holly Tucker.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - We might have something about the wedding.

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Comments (11)

Nice to see some media outlets that aren't letting the royal wedding hit their top 5.

Google news in the mean time, has it as the top story in "top stories" and then the head line "Shuttle Endeavour fueled up for its royal exit" as the top story in technology.

Posted by Jon | April 29, 2011 8:00 AM

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For the record, though, 5x8 isn't my idea of the top 5 news stories. Just five themes *I* find interesting.

I generally don't do much with news stories you can get in a million other places unless there's some element of it that's undercovered.

There's nothing about the wedding, of course, that's undercovered.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 29, 2011 8:07 AM

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>>I generally don't do much with news stories you can get in a million other places unless there's some element of it that's undercovered.

And this is why we come back to you every day. Thanks.

Posted by nk | April 29, 2011 8:54 AM

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this didn't make 5x8:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2011kha1.php#details

I didn't feel it but it was aparently in the neighborhood.

Posted by Jay sieling | April 29, 2011 9:25 AM

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If I start wasting space on things that register 2.5, the whole blog will be out the kids who go by with their car stereos turned way up load.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 29, 2011 10:16 AM

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Regarding the President not getting to the South fast enough: pretty much nails it.

Posted by Tyler | April 29, 2011 10:24 AM

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Dear Bob -

Thanks for nothing on the wedding. :-)

Regarding the photos of grieving families and the background story, I now better understand your personal interest in the military.

Perhaps in one case here, a picture is worth 1001 words:

The Black Label Society insignia on the boy's leather jacket represents a Death Metal band.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | April 29, 2011 11:26 AM

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// I now better understand your personal interest in the military

It's not a personal interest in the military. It's a personal interest in humanity.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 29, 2011 11:34 AM

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Dear Bob -

"It's not a personal interest in the military. It's a personal interest in humanity. "

Your humanity shines through every single day in so many different ways.

That's why I was confused about what I - until now - perceived as de facto drum banging and saber rattling with all of the coverage of the military.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for

Posted by Jim Shapiro | April 29, 2011 11:52 AM

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So who is to blame for the completely misguided criticism of President Obama on the Strib website - the author of the note, Adie Wolcyn, or the Strib editor who published it. This is yet another example of sloppy or irresponsible journalism out of the Strib. There's not even an editor note pointing out the obvious factual error. This is how absolutely incorrect information becomes accepted as fact in this country and it has to end. The shift to electronic news isn't the only factor in the Strib's declining readership.

Posted by Al | April 29, 2011 4:08 PM

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Technically not wrong since the writer included the wildfires, which were underway at the time of the fundraiser (although the governor didn't ask for federal assistance until AFTER the fundraiser).

But, the writer was wrong that you'd fly over Mississippi, Alabama, or Texas when flying from DC to California.

I don't believe you do.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 29, 2011 4:55 PM

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