If you took a vacation from the news recently, you missed articles about space weapons, Vista-bashing Apple ads, a mysterious hip-hop death, and Europe’s shameful recycling scorecard. To get you caught up, these are the stories for all news junkies.
Technology & Internet
Germans love David Hasselhoff but they also love cellphones. As cgull reported, German early adopters gobbled up 10,000 iPhones on the first day of sales. Germany’s iPhone carrier, T-Mobile, said it was confident it could meet any demand, even during the frenzied shopping season.
An important Net story — especially for news junkies — involves the online version of Wall Street Journal, which is now allowing people to view articles free. Also, as malan told us, a Digg.com button is being added to WSJ.com articles which means, the author wrote, “the future of news is looking good and feeling free.”
Other tech and Net stories worth another look include: a laptop orchestra will perform its first streaming concert, clixy123 reported; Apple unveiled three new TV ads directly attacking Windows Vista (no surprise there, considering Vista’s problems); and Sony CEO Howard Stringer admitted the next-gen DVD format war is practically a stalemate. Wow, that gives customers confidence (he said sarcastically).
Politics
The headline was as shocking as the article itself: Ron Paul accepts money from Neo-Nazis. Spotlighting an under-reported story and digging to find the truth that so many mainstream journalists missed, lensman67 explained how the presidential candidate received contributions from a white Supremacist group without intending to return it. But shouldn’t there be some action taken? lensman67 pointed out:
What does it say about the ethics of a candidate willing to accept tainted money from these bigots and not criticize them publicly for their ideology?
What other political stories made headlines this week? News Corp’s support for Rudy Giuliani is under scrutiny after a former Fox employee filed a lawsuit against the broadcaster, S.H. Mills wrote; Americans must change their notion of privacy to allow the government to protect their private communications, a U.S. intelligence official said (and as omnithought wrote, is there no better example of “doublethink” than this hypocrisy?); and Canada was rocked by a political scandal that put former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney back in the mind of everyone who thought the words “kickback” and “Schreiber” would eventually fade away.
Celebrity & Entertainment
It was the hip-hop death heard around the world (and it wasn’t even a rapper who passed): Kanye West’s mother died after complications resulting from plastic surgery, pajamadeen told us. skyangel5402 voiced what many readers must’ve wondered when she wrote:I’ll be curious to know what the autopsy discovers.
Several other celeb and entertainment articles made us double-take: hair-metal band Iron Maiden is once again touring, Ringwraith wrote in a comprehensive overview of the band’s successes; is Jon Bon Jovi running for governor? Brandigal wondered (oh man, I hope not!); and finally, the Hollywood writers’ strike is still affecting hundreds of thousands of media fans, and to learn what one viewer thinks of the entire debacle, read szplug‘s op-ed on the matter here.
TopFinds Awards
She’s a writer, jewelry designer and “happy agnostic.” She is also winner of the Top New User of the Week Award, so let’s have a round of applause for zadzi. She covered two intriguing articles this week, profiling an ethical trophy hunter one day and penning a well-written review of Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib exhibit the next day. zadzi fills her articles with poignant details and useful quotes, giving her pieces an extra gleam. We look forward to more contributions from this impressive Citizen Journalist.
When it came time to decide TopFinds Award this week, there were plenty of excellent articles to select. Once again, Citizen Journalists proved their worth by honing their writing talent and showcasing ideas and current affairs that deserve to be read. Chief among those articles was an opinion piece rooted in factual and anecdotal evidence, penned by lensman67, who wins this week’s Top OpEd Award. His take on what should be done about the U.S. Air Force enlightened readers to several bold statements, such as the Force selling “its soul to the Devil of strategic bombing.” For anyone who wants the inside scoop on military affairs, lensman67’s piece is a great place to start.
A fly in the ointment. A wrinkle in the plans. Some great ideas have even greater problems, which is where the winner of the TopScience Award comes in. Wanderlaugh‘s illuminating article on why growing phytoplankton in the ocean may actually backfire brought to light a scientific and environmental issue rarely printed in mainstream media. Once again, Wanderlaugh explained a heavy idea clearly, detailing the complex chemistry that goes into carbon sequestration. Already scratching your head in confusion? Wanderlaugh does a better job at making this important issue very palatable.
Also on the mind of any green-friendly consumer is recycling, but did you know that Europe never recycles small household appliances? And medium-sized devices are only recycled 25 per cent of the time? Europe’s recycling scorecard was analyzed by clixy123, who takes home the TopEnvironment Award for providing insight into the sorry state of Europe’s green record. It’s important to learn how some nations are pulling their weight in the recycling arena, and how some are sadly lax. But Europe isn’t prepared to let the no-recyle trend continue. As clixy123 wrote:
The researchers put the minimum recycling rate for small devices at 60% – these include MP3 players, hairdryers.
Imagine a missile launcher situated in space capable delivering 12,00 pounds of weaponry at a distance of 9,000 miles within two hours. And now imagine this space weapon could be created thanks to a $459 billion military bill before U.S. Congress. Sounds like sci-fi conspiracy theories? It’s too real, and this futuristic weapon also earns phree a TopPolitics Award. phree unearthed info about how the FALCON program will begin R&D this year. Kudos to this Citizen Journalist for unearthing a very real and scary military advancement that could overhaul how overseas combats are fought.
Every step Iran makes is carefully surveilled but what about U.S. intelligence about Iran? That’s come under the microscope, as omnithought wrote about a position paper on Iran surpressed by vice-president Dick Cheney. Winning this week’s TopWorld Award, the article reported “…sixteen [government] intelligence agencies collaborated on a report regarding Iran, and their findings contradict the picture that Cheney and the White House have been painting. So, Cheney sat on it.” The paper didn’t justify the Bush Administration’s policy on the dangers Iran poses.
Whenever an article like omnithought’s exposes a government’s duplicity, everyone wins: the citizen journalist for finding an important story, and readers for learning more about the real tactics behind the world’s only superpower.
