Swimming star Michael Phelps is caught using a marijuana bong. The reaction to Obama’s stimulus bill. And Bill Gates unleashes mosquitoes on an unsuspecting crowd. Find out what other top stories are making news around the world.
Impressive citizen journalism made an impact on DigitalJournal.com, in a variety of subjects. Tamara Baluja interviewed the CEO of an iPhone application focused on speed-dating. If you’ve ever wondered about this dating trend, and curious how it can be applied to cellphones, don’t miss this stellar piece.
Carol Forsloff deserves kudos for her tireless coverage of the Super Bowl. She wrote about Jennifer Hudson’s stirring singing, how James Harrison scored an historic touchdown and why the Steelers had the edge on the Cardinals. This kind of thorough reportage could give ESPN stringers a run for their money.
For the travel fiend, Bill Jencks outlined the benefits of retiring in the Philippines. He used the recession as a way to leap into the story — “The only way to survive this financial crisis in the long term was to to trim down expectations and move somewhere that was fairly primitive, cheap and beautiful.” Jencks was quick to break down the cost of living differences between life in the US and Philippines. Very informative and eye-opening for anyone looking to live elsewhere.
And in entertainment, Rob Campbell treated us to his review of Toronto’s Second City sketch comedy troupe. He not only dissected the elements of their show but also provided hilarious photos that will surely get you smiling. Don’t miss the one of comedian Marty Adams baring his forest-y chest.
Many other stories are popular on DigitalJournal.com right now:
• GOP Governors Give Their Support To Obama’s Stimulus Bill: The economic package continues to be a hot topic in the U.S., and this time Can Tran reported on how Republicans are supposedly supporting Obama’s bill. Then again, some critics still rip apart some portions of the stimulus.
• Obama ‘Googlebomb’ diffused by Google: In other Obama news, a supposed “Googlebomb” was stopped in its tracks by the Big G. This “bomb” would’ve allowed anyone searching for “cheerful achievement” on the search engine to see top results pointing to Obama’s website. Remember the old George Bush Googlebomb too? Wow, hackers are bored.
• George Obama Arrested For Bhang: No, not a typo, Obama’s half-brother was arrested for possessing bhang, a cannabis derivative. The Kenyan mini-celeb is the last of Barack Obama Sr.’s children so expect the media to be salivating over this guy’s ever misdeed.
• Cold Case File: Man Found Guilty of Killing Girl after 34 Years: Nothing like three decades to turn a cold case into a hot investigation. Jerome Barrett, 61, has been arrested for killing college student Sarah Des Prez in 1975. As Carol Forsloff rightly pointed out, “Sometimes real life has more drama than television shows, as the case of Barrett reveals.”
• Girl, 4, dies in washing machine accident: A sad story out of California, where a four-year-old girl climbed into a washing machine and her 15-month-old brother turned on the machine. The machine was on at least for two minutes before her mother discovered the tragedy. Let’s just say that if the story mentioned the washing machine brand, sales would plummet dramatically.
• God or Ape, Louisiana Teachers Get New Handbook to Teach Both: Louisiana teachers are being instructed on how they can teach intelligent design, DigitalJournal.com readers learned. “When the law allowing the teaching of creationism and intelligent design was passed in Louisiana there was scarcely a peep from the people. The law went through the legislature quite smoothly, with a few intellectuals protesting but the rank and file of folks simply not knowing or thinking it a good idea.” What do you think, should intelligent design be taught in schools?
• First ever extinct animal cloned in Spain, but dies: Cloning haters now have new ammo — a cloning attempt in Spain briefly gave birth to the extinct ibex. But the young ibex then died of lung defects, giving rise to the controversy surrounding cloning’s safety. Then again, as Paul Wallis explained, “Cloning extinct animals, sadly, may be the only way of returning Earth to some sort of environmental normalcy, after the man made global environmental disaster finally ends.”
• Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes on Crowd: He’s not just a tech superstar; Bill Gates can also be, um, quirky. At the annual Ted Conference, he released dozens of mosquitoes into the audience to teach them about malaria. But the insects weren’t infected with the disease, of course. It was just a way to shock the audience into hearing his short lecture. We think a PowerPoint presentation would be easier on the skin.
• Woman Breaks Record With 38KKK Breasts: Many an eyeball must’ve careened to the photo accompanying this story, a photo displaying gargantuan breasts that would put Pam Anderson to shame. Sheyla Hershey was successful in super-sizing her already-massive melons to the KKK size. Debra Myers commented: “Wow! I would hate to have her back and shoulders in about 5-10 years!”
• Michael Phelps Caught With Marijuana Pipe: It’s funny (and unfortunate) to see what one photo can do to a career. Swimmer Michael Phelps is getting flak for being caught smoking from a marijuana bong. No word on what was in the bong but we’re guessing it wasn’t fruit salad. No surprise, Phelps was suspended by USA Swimming for three months. Only good that come out of this? The newspaper News of the World, which published the photo, enjoyed an uptick in popularity.
TopFinds Awards
The honourees of this week’s TopFinds Awards attracted impressive attention and widest readership. Digital Journal thanks the following Citizen Journalists with Awards for their passion for covering the top issues of the day: Kesavan Unnikrishnan, Chris V. Thangham, KJ Mullins, Paul Wallis, Can Tran, Carol Forsloff, and Richard James.
The Top Comment of the Week is awarded to Bart B. Van Bockstaele, who brought his acute logic to the Asperger’s article written by Carol Forsloff. He commented on the dangers of self-diagnosis: “The untrained person who reads about symptomatology nearly invariably assumes the worst, something a real doctor cannot afford to do…” Let Bart know whether you agree or disagree with his statement.
