Assignment 7

Hard:
Obama heading to Michigan and Florida
By CHARLES BABINGTON and MATT APUZZO
05/12/08 09:02:01
Barack Obama's surging presidential campaign announced Monday that he will visit politically neglected Florida and Michigan, as he focuses on a general election strategy with his primary race winding down.

My Soft: There is a pain that overwhelms when one watches a great and wonderful movie come to an end. One just wishes there were more: more entertainment, more excitement, more munchkins from Oz. With something so exciting as the democratic primary elections between a black man and a woman occurring, one hates to see this battle come to an end --because there will be a winner, eventually. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has said that he will be focusing on a general election strategy until the end of elections, visiting Florida and Michigan this week.

Thousands feared dead in China quake
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
8:08 AM PDT, May 12, 2008
BEIJING -- A powerful 7.8 earthquake rocked a broad swatch of western China today, leaving as many as 8,000 people dead.

My Soft: Fifth grade American science class included a lecture on plate tectonics and the earths lithosphere. If there were ever a way of learning things “hands-on,” it would be through experiencing seismic waves due to plate shifting: an earthquake. The most recent large-scale earthquake occurred in Western China, rocking fifth grade classrooms with a 7.8 on the Richter scale.


Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship
By IAN URBINA
Published: May 12, 2008
The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

My Soft: Voting is a right, but only to the rightful heirs of the right. Lawmakers in Missouri are debating over whether or not to support a required proof of citizenship from voters in a proposed constitutional amendment.

Soft:

In Mali, S.U.V.'s and Camels Deliver the Fans
By KEVIN MOLONEY
Published: May 11, 2008
The Festival au Desert, held each January in the remote African city of Essakane, Mali, is a time-shifting experience. This year, as it began to come to life, Tuareg men in billowing clothes and brightly colored turbans ducked in and out of leather and canvas tents. Camels strolled into camp by the hundreds and folded their ungainly legs as vendors prepared their wares for an invasion of foreign travelers.

My Hard: This years Festival au Desert, in Essakane, Mali, included a special guest, Tinariwen, the Tuareg band that recently caught international attention and a spot opening for the Rolling Stones.

Craig (of the List) Looks Beyond the Web
By NOAM COHEN
Published: May 12, 2008
Imagine what it might have been like to be Dr. Kleenex. You invent a modern miracle, the cheap paper handkerchief, and suddenly you become the person blamed for America’s disposable culture, praised for a more convenient life, or both.
There never was a Dr. Kleenex, though — the product was created by a team of researchers at Kimberly-Clark laboratories in the 1920s. But there is a real Craig in Craigslist, and lately he is looking at life beyond his little list that happens to be the seventh-most-popular Web site in the United States.

My Hard: Craig Newmark, the founder of the seventh-most-popular website, is becoming more of a public figure and promoting causes including: the Barack Obama campaign and financing investigative journalism.

That Must Be Bob. I Hear His New Hip Squeaking.
By BARNABY J. FEDER
Published: May 11, 2008
The first time John L. Johnson’s artificial hip squeaked, he was bending down to pick up a pine cone in his yard in Thomasville, Ga. Mr. Johnson looked up, expecting to find an animal nearby.

My Hard: Some patients’ noisy artificial hips are interrupting daily life and raising questions about more serious problems.