TopFinds: From Attacking Energy Policies to Applauding Bikers with Matzah Balls

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Robot spiders in the military. Trees lowering the risk of asthma. Motorcycle riders trekking to Holocaust memorial sites. These are the top stories making headlines around the world.

Technology & Internet

Can technology help save your life? Look at how Twitter, a micro-blogging website allowing anyone to send quick updates via cellphone, helped free a young man from an Egyptian prison, momentsintime reported. Updating friends and family with regular updates with his cellphone, James Karl Buck eventually hired a lawyer via his Twittering. Now that's technophilia dripping with justice.

What other tech and Internet stories should be stored in your brain's hard drive? Google is blending driving directions with its innovative Street View tool, cgull wrote; BBC's Click claims Facebook has a serious security loophole, allowing third-party developers to steal user data, Maverick warned us; Google's Adwords is coming to a TV commercial near you, malan said (wow, the Big G truly want to infiltrate every part of our lives); a powerful robotic suit increases the wearer's strength ten-fold, Theodora L. discovered; are hospital killing their healthy patients? Nikki W asked in an eye-opener of a feature; and a specialized dating site caters to intelligent singles only. You have to pass an IQ test before entering the site, which makes you wonder if first dates will be filled with Nietzsche philosophies and dirty talk using McLuhan one-liners.

Health & Science

Vote it up! Photo by Jan Tik (flickr.com/photos/jantik) (Creative Commons - Attribution)

Give big props to trees. They not only give us somewhere to build forts and shield us from the sun, but they also help lower the risk of asthma in children, according to Bob Ewing. As the Citizen Journalist wrote: "Trees improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide and release oxygen."

Many health and science stories deserve your eyeballin': a UK study wants to prove that eating chocolate daily will greatly reduce the risk of heart disease, cgull wrote; a man regrew his finger using material from a pig's bladder, malan told us (and I just lost my appetite...again); a 14-hour surgery removed a 16-pound tumor from a girl's face, S.D. wrote; and some scientists are questioning what truly occurred during the first 30 million years of our solar system, Brant David McLaughlin penned. Commenters like Bart B. Van Bockstaele recognize the importance of this issue:

While most of the big questions have now been answered, and while we have essentially a good idea of how the universe came into being and how everything evolved, we still have centuries to go to fill in all the gaps and study all the details.

World

Vote it up! CIA Headquarters Photo courtesy a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (Public Domain)

The CIA wants to bend the international rules on torture, Can Tran informed us, and CIA officials said they could override policies laid out by the Geneva Convention. LewWaters contentiously commented: "The vagueness of the word 'torture' leaves many feeling any method other than politely asking for information, would be considered torture."

For all the news and views concerning worldly matters, read these feature stories: Vietnam will halt all American adoptions after July 1, momentsintime reported, citing concerns over baby-selling and corruption; the UN will address the world food crisis by implementing a "comprehensive plan" in June, Bob Ewing found; okieboy claimed intrusive governments are to blame for high gas prices, not the oil companies; a sacred Indian ritual centers on throwing babies down 50 feet from building balconies onto sheets, malan wrote; solutions to climate change were thoroughly explored in szplug's op-ed on how governments should work together to combat this global problem; and an international mystery may soon be solved -- an expert historian says King Ludwig II of Bavaria was assassinated to "put an end to his extravagant spending" back in 1886, TheMadKing informed us. I smell a made-for-TV movie starring Jim Broadbent.

TopFinds Awards

Vote it up! Baby eastern grey squirrel - Sciurus carolinensis Baby eastern grey squirrel, fallen from the nest. Bart B. Van Bockstaele (All Rights Reserved)

We always like honouring the adventerous Citizen Journalists who look at life through a different lens...their CCD-enabled lens, of course. Winning the TopPhoto Award once again is Bart B. Van Bockstaele, who treated us to a couple articles filled with his spring-happy imagery. He took amazing close-up photos of garter snakes, a task made the more difficult by the reptile's tendency to stay hidden. And for lovers of the cute and furry, Bart snapped well-framed photos of baby squirrels on Toronto Islands, adding the caveat: "Wildlife has its own life. It should be left alone, no matter how much we'd like to hold it, pet it, or help it." Digital Journal is lucky enough to have a talented photographer to capture those precious wildlife moments, and we look forward to more photo essays from Bart and other CJs.

Are energy policies coming from Hillary Clinton and John McCain just hot air? So wondered TruthMan, winner of this week's TopOpEd Award. In a scathing feature, he criticized the candidates' idea of suspending the 18.4 cents per gallon federal excise tax on gasoline. He also pointed out how the U.S. "has catapulted downward regarding solar energy technology," offering timely examples to support his argument. Like any good op-ed, TruthMan's article made us think outside the box and injected an important issue with thoughtful analysis.

A well-deserved kudos to Brant David McLaughlin for his intriguing interview with Anne Bryant, the daughter of a former Walt Disney Corp VP and businesswoman leading an enormous Gulf Coast power-station project. Brant takes home the TopInterview Award for enlightening us to Bryant's opinions on everything from wealth, Dick Cheney and the benefits of capitalism. Even if you didn't agree with all of Bryant's arguments, it was hard not admire her conviction. And learning about this woman's ideas unfiltered in a straight-up Q&A format was also a nice change of pace.

"Looks like the future is today." That's a line from the winner of the TopTech Award and the bumper sticker pithily summed up TheMadKing's intriguing feature on advances in robotics. The piece suggested the rise of humanoid robots within the next several years, putting humans out of harm's way in dangerous situations. We learned about robot sharks, robots controlled through brain signals, robots that destroy ticks, and mini robots to aid military personnel. The future is indeed here and it looks very shiny and metallic.

Climate change's victims takes many shapes, and it's always illuminating to find out who those victims are in a Citizen Journalist's backyard. Winning the TopScience Award is Paul Wallis for exposing the droughts afflicting Melbourne and local rivers. He complained about how Australia has sadly become accustomed to regular droughts and "If you want a look at climate change, come out here and have a look." Keep up the intrepid reporting, Paul.

Health stories rained down on DigitalJournal.com this week but one stood out for two reasons:the journalist introduced us to an innovative device for diabetes sufferers, and the article contained an interview with the company's spokesperson. The TopHealth Award-winning feature on a wireless device to monitor blood glucose levels was written by Bob Ewing, who has previously written about diabetes news. A journalistic high-five to Bob for digging deep past the press release and giving readers pertinent info they can remember, perhaps passing it along to people who can take advantage of this diabetic invention.

The headline itself deserved an award: Bikers with Matzah Balls. Taking home the TopLifestyle Award is Gar Swaffar, whose article on motorbike riders travelling to Holocaust memorial site Yad Vashem is a different kind of story you don't read every day. The Ride to Remember is meant to remind bikers and their supporters about the Holocaust tragedy. Gar's nose for news picked up a good scent here, offering a story both charming and altruistic, both inspiring and memorable.

Think globally, act locally. We've all heard it before but it's always encouraging to see Citizen Journalists bring the latter half of that mantra into their work. Samantha A. Torrence gets the TopLocal Award for writing about various aspects of her home state, Ohio. She informed us about an Ohio bill to mandate parent participation in a child's education; she exposed the Nigerian scheme's middle man in Warren, OH; and she profiled the Save the Dream Initiative, a lawyer-run program to assist Ohioans affected by the foreclosure crisis. Would we have learned about these Ohio issues elsewhere? Sure, maybe in local papers in the state, but Samantha collected all the newsy information in one spot and gave us good reason to care about Ohio affairs. There seems to be no shortage of interesting news affecting that state.

Vote it up! TopFinds Awards Topfinds award winners for the week ending May 2, 2008 Illustration by DigitalJournal.com (Creative Commons - Attribution)