Best of News Cut 5x8

1) THE FACE IN THE FACE (posted Friday, Sept. 14)

This might be the most extraordinary image in the news today. Who's not spending a generous amount of time looking at it?

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It's an almost human-like face. It's a "new monkey," discovered in the Central Congo, NPR says.

More animal science: Cockroaches could be used for search-and-rescue missions. (Los Angeles Times)

2) TOO SOON? (posted Thursday, Sept. 13)

On his Facebook page, Mike Binkley of WCCO submitted this documentation of what was going up at the Neiman Marcus store at Bloomington's Mall of America downtown.

"Too soon," a follower on Twitter reported. But is it? If the stores are pushing Christmas ever earlier, there is presumably some evidence that customers are buying ever earlier too.

3) CIVIC STORIES (posted Wednesday, Sept. 12)

The League of Women Voters in Northfield has unveiled a unique series profiling residents of the area who are the foundation of "political, civic, and humanitarian endeavors in the local community and beyond." It involved St. Olaf students who asked the question, "What does Citizenship mean?".

Here's one of the profiles...

Find the rest here.

(h/t: Locally Grown Northfield)

4) HELPING WITH HORSEPOWER (posted Tuesday, Sept. 11)

I'm hoping to meet up with the people on the Bus 52 project (I wrote a little about it last week) today. They've been in the state for a few days digging up some stories on their cross-country journey in which they stop to find tales of people doing good work.

Like this one just posted from their stay in Michell, SD.

5) THE KLUWE CHRONICLES (posted Monday, Sept. 10)

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe wrote a profanity-filled letter to a Maryland Republican official who criticized a football player for the Baltimore Ravens who donated to a gay marriage fundraiser.

Via Twitter, I stirred up the question of whether the profanity in a highly-publicized missive does more harm than good? Does it distract from the message? Does it prevent wider distribution? Does it make it easier to dismiss? Hey, Churchill didn't need an f-bomb.

Kluwe responded on his Pioneer Press blog...

Secondly, I heard from quite a few sources (including my dad) that the letter would have been more powerful and delivered the message better without the swearing. That those who would refute the point could seize upon my colorful insults to dismiss the main thrust as little more than childish antics and egotistical displays of temper.

Bollocks.

The swearing is there for a reason. What Emmett C. Burns Jr. wrote, what I responded to, was far more disgusting and foul minded than any simple scatological reference or genital mashup. His words degrade the very essence of the English language with their barely hidden venom and intolerant hate; drag it screaming into the muck of iniquity by wrapping a mantle of seeming reasonableness around corruption and control; masquerade as discourse while screaming their very lie to any Heaven you care to name - I could go on.

Kluwe reprints his letter without the obscenities, substituting phrases that mock those who raised the point in the first place, ignoring the fact that many raising the point are sympathetic to the underlying issue.

Well played.