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The Making of a Dead Zone

Pictures from another awful Oklahoma tornado, this one in May 1955. 

nwkarchivist:

Remembering The Super Outbreak Tornadoes Of April 3-4, 1974- 150 Tornadoes In 24 Hours, Killing Over 300 People.

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Your Tuesday longread: Patty Murray, in 19 takes.

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Horrifying. Just horrifying.

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vanityfair:

The Sad Reality of Gun Control by Bruce Feirstein

Illustration by Steve Brodner

sigh.

There’s nothing “baffling” about the military’s high suicide rate

The same month the GAO’s follow-up report was released, in February 2005, Army Spec. Jeffrey Henthorn, a young father and third-generation soldier, killed himself in Balad, Iraq. The M-16 he used was so powerful that “fragments of his skull pierced the barracks ceiling.” According to the Hartford Courant, which featured Henthorn’s story in a series called “Mentally Unfit to Fight,”he “had been sent back to Iraq for a second tour even though his superiors knew he was unstable and had threatened suicide at least twice, according to Army investigative reports and interviews.”

Henthorn was one of22 soldiers who killed themselves in Iraq or Afghanistan in 2005— nearly double the rate of the year before.Three otherswhose stories were featured had been kept in combat and given potent psychotropic medications—with little supervision and despite the potential of these drugs to increase suicidality.

So enough with the military’s alleged bafflement over the rising service-member suicide rates.

What will it take, if not the suicides of hundreds of men and women, to warrant the same kind of attention for the military’s mental-health crisis?

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Aaron Park, a 29-year-old Portlander who describes himself as a “full-time student, part-time educator and part-time baker” (he works Saturdays at an artisanal bread shop) recently met a pair of anti-fluoridation activists on his porch, and initially expressed support for fluoridation. “The World Health Organization calls it the greatest lifesaving measure of all time,” he said cheerfully as a plump basset hound played at his feet and Tibetan hangings fluttered from eaves above.

But his expression darkened as the activists made their case. “Wow, I’m sure there is some selection bias going on,” Mr. Park said. “I love having my mind changed!”

The controversy has drawn in the city’s indie rockers. “My drummer and my mom both pointed out issues with fluoride to me, so I was already thinking about it,” said Zia McCabe, keyboardist and vocalist for the Dandy Warhols, a Portland rock band.

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— People in Portland, saying Portlandish things, being part-time bakers.

fastcompany:

The sitting Congress has the most women of any in history. Artist Emily Nemens is capturing each of them in paint, and using their likenesses in graphics to show how far we still have to go to bring gender equality to Washington.

The women of Congress, in fabulous watercolor infographics

This is awesome. Ladies in the HOUSE. No, really. Record number of ladies in the House!

"YOLO"

— The Virginia GOP, we assume. Nothing else explains the fact that E.W. Jackson—who once said Planned Parenthood is more evil than the KKK—is their Lieutenant Governor nominee.