Breaking: Two are dead and almost one hundred are injured following an explosion at the Mega City Mall, near Gun Land.

The explosion occurred at 9:50 AM. At a press conference soon after the explosion, police sergeant Ross Fuglsang informed reporters that nothing is known about the cause of the explosion at this time. There are currently no suspects. Victims have yet to be identified.

Sergeant Fuglsang also noted that the mall has experienced electrical issues in the past, and that power in the area of the explosion was disrupted not long before the explosion happened.

“There is video; we just have not had a chance to analyze it,” he added.

Gun Land assistant manager Maria Zorrilla, who lost her leg in the explosion, said that she need not see any suspicious figures preceding the explosion. “I was leaving the store to get breakfast, when the explosion happened. There was a lot of dust, and I passed out.”

Mall Security Paul Blunt said that he has seen video of the incident and thinks he might have seen the cause of the explosion. However, “I am not at liberty to discuss this information yet.”

Mall custodian Esther Rehtse Noice was also injured in the explosion. “It was very loud,” she said. “There was a lot of shouting beforehand.”

Despite this, Sergeant Fuglsang did note that there is no reason to believe that the incident was terrorism related. However, per standard procedure following explosions, “We have notified Homeland Security and the FBI.”

Area hospitals say that the resulting injuries are consistent with fire and smoke inhalation.

The mall will remain closed for a time in order to verify structural integrity. Per Sergeant Fuglsang, “I do not foresee the mall re-opening until Saturday.”

More updates to follow as the story develops.

The story for today is, as usual, from the New York Times, and can be found here:

Since we discussed at the beginning of the class the importance of a free press, I decided that I wanted to look at an article about how the free press is being threatened abroad. In the nation of Hungary, an autocrat, Viktor Orban, has been in power since 2010, and has slowly been chipping away at the power of the free press. This article is a little old as news articles go (published Nov. 24th of this year), but I figure that threats to the press are always newsworthy and timely, even if a couple of weeks have gone by.

The article specifically discusses a Hungarian news website, Origo, which for years published articles about the corruption of Orban’s government. But through some convoluted bureaucratic processes, Origo now belongs to one of Orban’s allies (and has since 2015), and publishes articles bashing his opposition. The article notes that in 2015, when Origo was sold, it “became one of just 31 outlets owned by Mr. Orban’s allies.” Now? “[T]here are more than 500.”

Mr. Orban is known primarily for his railing against immigrants and refugees, and other right-wing policies. He’s slowly filling Hungary’s courts with his allies, and essentially, is quickly reducing Hungary from a democracy to a dictatorship. In 8 years, Hungary has gone from being the 40th freest country in the world, to the 87th.

The press is needed, globally. I won’t say it’s needed now more than ever, but only because it is always needed desperately. Without a free press, the media is turned into an echo chamber for whichever autocrat is in power. This isn’t good whether the autocrat is leftist (like Venezuela’s Maduro) or right-wing (like Orban). When the media presents only the view of the government, so much is lost, beyond simply the free discussion of differing ideas and viewpoints. Corruption and atrocities become much easier to cover up. In essence, the voice of the people is bound and gagged even before they can realize that is what’s happening.

There are many angles that can be taken on every story. I am sure there are those in Hungary who love what Orban is doing, and still would, even if his corruption was more fully brought to light (just as the situation is here in the US). But in the end, a degree of objective truth can be found on every issue. Either an action was committed, or it wasn’t. Either a government tried to hide a scandal from its people, or there never was a scandal to begin with. Either ocean levels are rising, the climate is changing, and animals/insects are dying en masse, or they aren’t. There are things that can be objectively verified, and while any spin can be put on those things, at the end of the day, there are still solid facts.

Those facts are the Truth. The Truth is what the people have the right to know.

So, Mr. Giuliani, I return to you after a whole semester, and I say again what I said before.

Truth IS Truth.

And until you manage to bound and gag us too, the American press is not shutting up.

Jonathan at Play

Jonathan Roop, eight years old, loves playing with Arctic (left) and Beary (right).

The American Male at Age Eight

The world looks different from a height of four feet, eight inches. Cabinets are taller, top shelves are still out of reach, and the tick marks penciled on the wall for older brothers’ heights are still out of sight.

Jonathan Roop is eight years old (eight and a half as of tomorrow, as he’s excited to be reminded). He is among the kids bringing up the rear vanguard of Generation Z, the generation after the Millennials, which runs from 1995 to 2010.

His is the generation that will inherit all the problems that we discuss today as future issues. The only world he’s ever known is one where nuclear arms are an established reality, germs are getting stronger, and the weather is growing ever more unpredictable.

But if you ask him what the biggest problem in the world is, he has a simple answer, and it’s not directly included in the list above.

“Sinners,” he says. “We all sin.” To him, all the bad things in the world stem from human fallacy (even if he doesn’t understand that term yet). In all honesty, this might make him wiser than some of his elders.

But overall, the sandy-haired, green-eyed boy doesn’t have that much to worry about—at least, not right now. He dances around the room, showing off his favorite toy, a light brown teddy bear with big, sparkly eyes.

“This is Beary. Mom gave it to me as a stocking stuffer one time.” He presents another bear, identical except that it is white. “Why I love Arctic so much is he looks exactly like Beary, and I bought him with my own money, and also in my pretend stories, he is Beary’s lost twin brother.”

Beary and Arctic, unsurprisingly, play an important part in his current dreams for the future. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, the answer is quick in coming, a big smile painting his freckled face as it bursts forth.

“A café owner! Its name will be The Beary Café. The food will be pancakes with Beary’s face and blueberries on one side, and Arctic’s face and arctic berries on the other.”

So, then, pancakes must be Jonathan’s favorite food, right? “No,” he corrects gently. “It’s tied between spaghetti, pizza, hot dogs, and lasagna.”

Changing the subject, he starts excitedly discussing the fuzzy blue bowtie he wears to match his velvety burgundy vest. “It’s kinda Christmassy, ‘cause the vest is red,” he says. “My favorite color is red.”

And suddenly, the subject of conversation is Christmas—more specifically, his favorite part of Christmas. “Presents!”

****************************************************************

Some of this (selective) lack of attention span may be due to Jonathan’s level of interaction with digital media. According to Morningside College developmental psychology professor Dr. Jessica Pleuss, kids ages eight to eighteen tend to spend an average of six to eight hours a day interacting with television, video games, and the like.

And that’s all in addition to any media they are being exposed to at school.

“We know this is too much, and that it is harmful,” she says.

But overall, Jonathan’s development is much like other kids his age. It’s normal for eight-year-olds to still enjoy playing pretend with toys or with others, like Jonathan does with Beary and Arctic.

But it’s also common for them to enjoy playing more structured games with rules, like board games, or sports. If there’s one thing Jonathan loves, it’s board games of all types, even the ones he can’t yet quite grasp all the complicated rules for—like Life or Monopoly.

It’s also normal for 8-year-olds to still have what may seem like unrealistic dreams for the future. “By the time they’re eight, they’ve probably lost a lot of the totally outlandish ideas for the future,” Dr. Pleuss says. So, a child this age probably won’t go around saying they want to be a frog or a unicorn when they grow up anymore.

On the other hand, they haven’t started to realize how many restrictions there are that can make it difficult to reach some careers—so dreams of pop star fame, the presidency, going to Mars, or (just as a completely random example) owning a café based off of teddy bears are still certainly on the table.

But at this age, the first few anxieties about kids’ place in society and growing up may be beginning to creep in.

“They are starting to do more social comparison. They’re noticing where their peers are at; ‘How do I compare to my peers?’” says Dr. Pleuss. There’s beginning to be a growing notice of hierarchies—which kids are the most popular? Which are the smartest? Which are the best at sports?

But overall, she says, “Usually the anxieties that come with puberty aren’t there yet, so they still have an optimistic, playful attitude about life.”

For the most part, that seems to describe Jonathan to a T.

****************************************************************

In fact, if you ask Jonathan’s mom what it is she loves most about him, her answer is “How excited he is about everything.”

She elaborates, “It’s like, you say, ‘would you like a piece of cheese?’ and he goes ‘YES, I’D LOVE A PIECE OF CHEESE!’ You ask, ‘Are you ready to get ready for bed?’ ‘SURE, LET’S GET READY FOR BED!’”

“He’s just so excited about life, all the time,” she finishes.

On the other side of the room, Jonathan’s dad offers him a handful of cheese crackers. Jonathan’s reaction is an eruption of pure and simple joy. “I’d love some!”

His mom nods with a smile. “See, like that.”

Jonathan is her fifth (and last) 8-year-old (at least until grandkids become an option). Her favorite thing about 8-year-olds is that “They’re old enough to follow directions, but they’re still young enough to find wonder in everything.”

But eight isn’t exactly the easiest age ever to be, his mom explains. “They often have trouble realizing that they’re growing up, so people aren’t gonna wanna let them hug them, or let them play with them, and that upsets and confuses them.”

She watches Jonathan as he flops on the couch to enjoy his snack. “They still expect to get the affection they got when they were four and five, but they’re not getting it any more.”

***************************************************************

But not everything is worth getting happily excited over. Like many other children his age, Jonathan has a vehement answer to the question “Do you like school?”

“NOOOO!” he hollers, followed by a dramatic set of wheezing noises and a flop on the floor. But if pressed to admit his favorite subjects, he begrudgingly offers, “I would probably pick either reading or handwriting.”

However, he only says this after being told that no, lunch does not count as a subject.

His hatred of school runs so deep, that if you ask him what he wishes grownups remembered about being eight, he answers firmly, “How bad third grade is.” Is this the worst part of being eight, then? “No, but I don’t know what other things would be harder.”

So, then, what’s the best part of being eight? “I’m tall enough to reach the cup cabinet without a footstool!” Is there an age he wishes he could be? “Thirteen, because then I get to play internet video games like Fortnite and Overwatch.”

Well, then, what’s the scariest part of growing up?

He pauses for a minute, sitting on the floor, orchestrating a game of Battleship between Arctic and Beary (Arctic’s favorite color is white, so he keeps intentionally missing Beary’s ships).

“You die at the end,” Jonathan finally answers, and quickly returns to his teddy bears’ game.

********************************************************

Despite that almost-pessimistic-sounding observation, Jonathan is, in many ways, a stereotypical little boy. He enjoys explosions, playing outside in leaf piles and snow, racecar video games, and dressing up as a Wild West sheriff. But the toxic masculinity we hear bandied about in the news so often is nowhere to be found.

He loves cute things. Show him a picture of a baby animal, and his reaction will be a croon of “Awh, it’s sooo cute!” His stuffed animal collection is large, and includes several puppy dogs, in addition to the two favored teddies.

But as noted above, Gen Z, especially the younger ranks, is often accused of being far too attached to electronics. Jonathan says that if he had a choice between as many books as he wanted and as many video games as he wanted, he would pick the “vidja games.”

On the other hand, though, he does like reading books, and he enjoys playing pretend or board games, either by himself or with other people. “It’s more fun if I’m not playing alone,” he comments as Beary sinks Arctic’s carrier.

The conversation is beginning to dwindle as he gets ever more absorbed in his bears’ battle (Arctic is now methodically planting an X of misses across Beary’s board). The last question he’s willing to answer is his favorite song.

“The Rainbow Connection,” he replies, and absentmindedly starts to sing. “The lovers, the dreamers, and me.”

The world looks quite a bit brighter from a height of four feet, eight inches. Maybe, just maybe, the dreamers found among the ranks of the end of Gen Z, with their pancake-selling cafés, will help to one day lead us all to that elusive rainbow connection.

But that’s still pretty far off. For now, what matters most to Jonathan are loving his family, surviving the third grade, and painting a world for two twin teddy bears.

Jonathan at Play

Jonathan Roop, eight years old, loves playing with Arctic (left) and Beary (right).

The American Male at Age Eight

The world looks different from a height of four feet, eight inches. Cabinets are taller, top shelves are still out of reach, and the tick marks penciled on the wall for older brothers’ heights are still out of sight.

Jonathan Roop is eight years old (eight and a half as of tomorrow, as he’s excited to be reminded). He is among the kids bringing up the rear vanguard of Generation Z, the generation after the Millennials, which runs from 1995 to 2010.

His is the generation that will inherit all the problems that we discuss today as future issues. The only world he’s ever known is one where nuclear arms are an established reality, germs are getting stronger, and the weather is growing ever more unpredictable.

But if you ask him what the biggest problem in the world is, he has a simple answer, and it’s not directly included in the list above.

“Sinners,” he says. “We all sin.” To him, all the bad things in the world stem from human fallacy (even if he doesn’t understand that term yet). In all honesty, this might make him wiser than some of his elders.

But overall, the sandy-haired, green-eyed boy doesn’t have that much to worry about—at least, not right now. He dances around the room, showing off his favorite toy, a light brown teddy bear with big, sparkly eyes.

“This is Beary. Mom gave it to me as a stocking stuffer one time.” He presents another bear, identical except that it is white. “Why I love Arctic so much is he looks exactly like Beary, and I bought him with my own money, and also in my pretend stories, he is Beary’s lost twin brother.”

Beary and Arctic, unsurprisingly, play an important part in his current dreams for the future. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, the answer is quick in coming, a big smile painting his freckled face as it bursts forth.

“A café owner! Its name will be The Beary Café. The food will be pancakes with Beary’s face and blueberries on one side, and Arctic’s face and arctic berries on the other.”

So, then, pancakes must be Jonathan’s favorite food, right? “No,” he corrects gently. “It’s tied between spaghetti, pizza, hot dogs, and lasagna.”

Changing the subject, he starts excitedly discussing the fuzzy blue bowtie he wears to match his velvety burgundy vest. “It’s kinda Christmassy, ‘cause the vest is red,” he says. “My favorite color is red.”

And suddenly, the subject of conversation is Christmas—more specifically, his favorite part of Christmas. “Presents!”

****************************************************************

Some of this (selective) lack of attention span may be due to Jonathan’s level of interaction with digital media. According to Morningside College developmental psychology professor Dr. Jessica Pleuss, kids ages eight to eighteen tend to spend an average of six to eight hours a day interacting with television, video games, and the like.

And that’s all in addition to any media they are being exposed to at school.

“We know this is too much, and that it is harmful,” she says.

But overall, Jonathan’s development is much like other kids’ his age. It’s normal for eight-year-olds to still enjoy playing pretend with toys or with others, like Jonathan does with Beary and Arctic.

But it’s also common for them to enjoy playing more structured games with rules, like board games, or sports. If there’s one thing Jonathan loves, it’s board games of all types, even the ones he can’t yet quite grasp all the complicated rules for—like Life or Monopoly.

It’s also normal for eight-year-olds to still have what may seem like unrealistic dreams for the future. “By the time they’re 8, they’ve probably lost a lot of the totally outlandish ideas for the future,” Dr. Pleuss says. So, a child this age probably won’t go around saying they want to be a frog or a unicorn when they grow up anymore.

But on the other hand, they haven’t started to realize how many restrictions there are that can make it difficult to reach some careers—so dreams of pop star fame, the presidency, going to Mars, or (just as a completely random example) owning a café based off of teddy bears are still certainly on the table.

But at this age, the first few anxieties about kids’ place in society and growing up may be beginning to creep in.

“They are starting to do more social comparison. They’re noticing where their peers are at; ‘How do I compare to my peers?’” says Dr. Pleuss. There’s beginning to be a growing notice of hierarchies—which kids are the most popular? Which are the smartest? Which are the best at sports?

But overall, she says, “Usually the anxieties that come with puberty aren’t there yet, so they still have an optimistic, playful attitude about life.”

For the most part, that seems to describe Jonathan to a T.

****************************************************************

In fact, if you ask Jonathan’s mom what it is she loves most about him, her answer is “How excited he is about everything.”

She elaborates, “It’s like, you say, ‘would you like a piece of cheese?’ and he goes ‘YES, I’D LOVE A PIECE OF CHEESE!’ You ask, ‘Are you ready to get ready for bed?’ ‘SURE, LET’S GET READY FOR BED!’”

“He’s just so excited about life, all the time,” she finishes.

On the other side of the room, Jonathan’s dad offers him a handful of cheese crackers. Jonathan’s reaction is an eruption of pure and simple joy. “I’d love some!”

His mom nods with a smile. “See, like that.”

Jonathan is her fifth (and last) eight-year-old (at least until grandkids become an option). Her favorite thing about eight-year-olds is that “They’re old enough to follow directions, but they’re still young enough to find wonder in everything.”

But eight isn’t exactly the easiest age ever to be, she explains. “They often have trouble realizing that they’re growing up, so people aren’t gonna wanna let them hug them, or let them play with them, and that upsets and confuses them.”

She watches Jonathan as he flops on the couch to enjoy his snack. “They still expect to get the affection they got when they were four and five, but they’re not getting it anymore.”

***************************************************************

But not everything is worth getting happily excited over. Like many other children his age, Jonathan has a vehement answer to the question “Do you like school?”

“NOOOO!” he hollers, followed by a dramatic set of wheezing noises and a flop on the floor. But if pressed to admit his favorite subjects, he begrudgingly offers, “I would probably pick either reading or handwriting.”

However, he only says this after being told that no, lunch does not count as a subject.

His hatred of school runs so deep, that if you ask him what he wishes grownups remembered about being eight, he answers firmly, “How bad third grade is.” Is this the worst part of being eight, then? “No, but I don’t know what other things would be harder.”

So, then, what’s the best part of being eight? “I’m tall enough to reach the cup cabinet without a footstool!” Is there an age he wishes he could be? “Thirteen, because then I get to play internet video games like Fortnite and Overwatch.”

Well, then, what’s the scariest part of growing up?

He pauses for a minute, sitting on the floor, orchestrating a game of Battleship between Arctic and Beary (Arctic’s favorite color is white, so he keeps intentionally missing Beary’s ships).

“You die at the end,” Jonathan finally answers, and quickly returns to his teddy bears’ game.

********************************************************

Despite that almost-pessimistic-sounding observation, Jonathan is, in many ways, a stereotypical little boy. He enjoys explosions, playing outside in leaf piles and snow, racecar video games, and dressing up as a Wild West sheriff. But the toxic masculinity we hear bandied about in the news so often is nowhere to be found.

He loves cute things. Show him a picture of a baby animal, and his reaction will be a croon of “Awh, it’s sooo cute!” His stuffed animal collection is large, and includes several puppy dogs, in addition to the two favored teddies.

But as noted above, Gen Z, especially the younger ranks, is often accused of being far too attached to electronics. Jonathan says that if he had a choice between as many books as he wanted and as many video games as he wanted, he would pick the “vidja games.”

On the other hand, though, he does like reading books too, and he enjoys playing pretend or board games, either by himself or with other people. “It’s more fun if I’m not playing alone,” he comments as Beary sinks Arctic’s carrier.

The conversation is beginning to dwindle as he gets ever more absorbed in his bears’ battle (Arctic is now methodically planting an X of misses across Beary’s board). The last question he’s willing to answer is his favorite song.

“The Rainbow Connection,” he replies, and absentmindedly starts to sing. “The lovers, the dreamers, and me.”

The world looks quite a bit brighter from a height of four feet, eight inches. Maybe, just maybe, the dreamers found among the ranks of the end of Gen Z, with their pancake-selling cafés, will help to one day lead us all to that elusive rainbow connection.

But that’s still pretty far off. For now, what matters most to Jonathan are loving his family, surviving the third grade, and painting a world for two twin teddy bears.

News Comment 11/30/18

November 27, 2018 | | 1 Comment

The story for today is a feature from the New York Times, and can be found here.

This longer story, written for the Times‘ magazine, focuses on the decline in insect populations in recent years, and takes a look at some of the consequences the earth could experience as the numbers continue to decline. Like many feature stories, it starts with a more soft-news section about a specific individual, in this case, Sune Boye Riis, a Danish high school teacher who is also an amateur bug-tracker. The introduction follows Riis as he sets up a big bug-catching net on the top of his car, and talks about his experiences with bugs as a child. After five paragraphs about Riis, the story starts to move more into hard news territory, as statistics about insect loss are quoted. The rest of the article focuses on how this problem has come to be, how people are trying to track it, what is being done to counter it, and what sort of consequences we are likely to see going forward. The article ends by returning to Riis and his bug-catching expedition, and closes with a verbal image of him looking at a single butterfly he has caught in his net.

I think this is the first time I’ve looked at a feature story rather than a hard news report for a news comment this semester. This article was definitely the longest I’ve chosen to comment on, but I enjoyed reading it anyway. The story is broken into sections, marked by bolded words at the beginning, which provides exit points throughout.

The only thing I found to be strange or thought might be missing is the fact that even though this was a story for the magazine, there were no photos of any of the people being interviewed. There was a cover splash art and a later image of a bug exploding into a mushroom cloud, but no photos of the people involved. I would have liked to actually see Riis and his giant bug net on his car.

This story is definitely newsworthy, due to impact: declining insect numbers will affect us all going forward, as ecosystems continue to collapse and food sources become fewer and fewer and more and more far-between. One thing I liked about this article was the fact that the article actually pointed to a couple of ways to move forward, namely, banning neonicotinoid pesticides (pesticides that affect insects’ brains). Unlike the article about the decline in wildlife from earlier in the semester, this one actually offered a course of action that can be followed to help.

While not really part of the article itself, I appreciated this comment the editors chose to feature mid-article, posted by Wayne Patari of Mexico: “Many years ago as a child I remember watching hundreds of bees going from clover flower to clover flower on our lawn…now people want that perfect lawn and that perfect unblemished fruit in the store. Insecticides & weed killers are now the norm in every household and are used in very large quantities on farms. So think about this…People consume glyphosate residues in food – such as children’s breakfast cereal. Who is going to disappear next?”

Anecdote (for Article 4)

November 26, 2018 | | 1 Comment

But overall, Jonathan, a sandy-haired, green-eyed, boy doesn’t have that much to worry about–at least, not right now. He dances around the room, showing off his favorite toy, a light brown teddy bear with big, sparkling eyes.

“This is Beary. Mom gave it to me as a stocking stuffer one time.” He presents another bear, identical except that it is white. “Why I love Arctic so much is he looks exactly like Beary, and I bought him with my own money, and also in my pretend stories, he is Beary’s lost twin brother.”

Conversation bit

November 15, 2018 | | 1 Comment

I had book club at 8 AM this morning, so I was up and about much earlier than normal. After book club, I had about thirty minutes of free time before a meeting with Dr. Hennings, so I decided to hang out in the library. I saw Will Phillips, a non-traditional student here at Morningside and a fellow history major, so I decided to sit at his table.

We didn’t really talk much; we both complained about history exams in general but agreed that Dr. Guelcher’s exams are definitely easier than Dr. Bass’. After that, we chatted a bit about video games while he played some World of Warcraft and I played a quick round of Overwatch. While there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation, it was nice to just sit across the table from someone while I took a short brain break.

Article #3 Final Draft

November 15, 2018 | | 1 Comment

Good afternoon from KMSC Radio in Sioux City. I am Elizabeth Roop, with your afternoon news.

The Iowa District 4 House race has been decided, and the results are both unsurprising and surprising.

While Republican Steve King was expected to bag an easy reelection in the normally deep-red district, Democratic opponent J.D. Scholten came within four percentage points of his lead. This is the closest an opponent has ever come to defeating King in a race.

Also of note is that for the first time, the Sioux City Journal did not endorse King for reelection. The newspaper put their official support behind Scholten instead. This is also the first time that King lost in Woodbury County, the Journal reports.

Morningside political science professor Valerie Hennings (?) offers some context on why Scholten did so well against King.

“First, he did very well when it comes to his campaign fundraising. Unlike other challengers to Steve King, he outraised the incumbent. And that is usually a clear indicator of a very strong campaign. Something else that he did well, the fact that he approached the district, and he got out into the different communities.”

King’s House seat will be up for reelection again in 2020. Whether the local political climate will have moved farther left by then remains to be seen.

In international news, shooting for the moon may soon become a much easier task–as long as you’re willing to accept imitations.

TIME reports that in Chengdu, China, scientists hope to send an artificial moon into orbit by twenty-twenty. The satellite will shine up to eight times brighter than the real moon, and will reflect controlled amounts of sunlight down to specific areas of Earth.

China’s plan is for the artificial moon to serve as an energy-efficient alternative to streetlights. It will orbit the earth from about three hundred miles (or five hundred kilometers) above.

Morningside students find the idea a bit incredulous, but seem to take a positive view of the idea. Senior Kristen Brown has this to say. “I don’t know what to think of that, I mean, it’s a neat idea…sounds cool.”

Similarly, Certification-only student Leah Phillips had this opinion. “Honestly, my first instinctual reaction is it sounds awesome if it works.”

If the new moon proves a success, the plan is to launch three more by twenty-twenty-two. So, if you’re planning to go to China in a few years, keep your eyes open—you may just spot a new moon.

In campus news, the Morningside College student group Christ Connections invites all interested students to their monthly worship night. The event will be held on November 26th. Group design vice president Kaitlynn McShane offers this information about the event.

“We are gonna be having a worship service in the Weikert Auditorium from 8 to 9. We will be having hot chocolate, and we will have a guest speaker, Phil Frieberg, who will tell us about his faith journey through cancer.”

So, if you are looking for something to do that evening, there is an option for you. Again, that is at 8 pm, November 26th, in Weikert Auditorium.

This has been your afternoon news. This is Elizabeth Roop reporting from KMSC Radio in Sioux City.

News Comment 11/15/18

November 13, 2018 | | 1 Comment

The story for today, from The Japan Times, can be found here.

This story is about the fact that over 80% of people surveyed in a Japanese study claimed they have a positive attitude about the idea of being cared for by robots in nursing care facilities in the future. Many subjects also said they would prefer robot care to human care, because then they would not have to feel like a burden on human caregivers. A fair majority of couples also said they would like to be in a situation where they were living near each other and could care for each other that way. The story seems to suggest that robots would be used as a resource for elder care, but would not entirely replace human care.

The lead of this story is direct and straightforward. The story itself is much briefer than most of the stories I’ve looked at this semester, but it seems to include all of the necessary information. The one question I still have after reading it, is for the group of people who said they neither want to be cared for by humans nor robots, who do they want to be cared for by? Do they hope to remain purely self-reliant, or what? I would have liked an idea of what other options were voiced. The article has no direct quotes; I would have liked to see an expert’s opinions on this subject, but I suppose since the purpose of the article seems to be simply getting the information across as simply as possible, that absence makes sense. The subject is newsworthy if only because it’s quite odd and unusual to hear people seeming totally fine with being cared for in their old age by robots.

The profile I chose, published by the New York Times in April 2018 on Stan Lee, can be found here:

This profile is a profile feature. It was written in response to the rumor that Lee was being confined to his house by greedy managers/caretakers. It starts by addressing this rumor and Lee’s opinion on the rumor, before turning toward Lee’s history, and then what was planned to happen going forward. If there was any detail about Lee I was surprised wasn’t included, it was the miscarriage of a child he and his wife went through early in their marriage, which he mentioned as an important life event in his autobiography. However, I could see how this didn’t really fit the narrative the profile was trying to convey. The frame is obstacle-solution–the rumor is that Lee was a victim of elder abuse, and the reporter offered the solution that this rumor wasn’t true.

I believe the sixth paragraph is what would be considered the nut graf.

I chose this profile because Mr. Lee passed away today, and so I thought a profile on him could be interesting to discuss.