The Week in Uppers

Storms devastated the Midwest this week, but there were still some reasons to be cheerful

By Peter Finocchiaro

The tragedy in Joplin, Missouri dampened our spirits this week, but there was still some news worth smiling about:

The London Zoo has a new tourist draw in the form of some unlikely animals — a pack of penguins with their own personal pool. (Reuters)

Princess Beatrice’s iconic (if bizarre) Royal Wedding hat has been was auctioned off for $131,000 on Monday. All proceeds will go to UNICEF and Children in Crisis. (Reuters)
Kitten hugs — too adorable to completely process. (Buzzfeed)

Paula and Alan Sprecher, a legally blind couple from Chicago, chose to adopt two children with similar vision impairment in order to help them overcome the same hardships they faced when growing up. (Huffington Post)
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to a drug called Dificid — the new medicine in a quarter century to treat a particularly harmful form of hospital-acquired infection. (NYTimes)
Chicago Bears rookie J.T. Thomas accompanied a 14-year-old, wheelchair bound girl to her school dance when she had trouble finding a date. (Fox Sports)
A baby who developed outside his mother’s womb beat the odds and was born this week. (NBC News)
Even with gas prices near historic highs, consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in May, as spending and income inched upward. (Business Week)
A week after storms devastated Joplin, MO, military veterans are helping the twister-savaged community rebuild. (NBC News)