Al Gore’s $100,000 lectures. The origin of humans. A bad case of Murdoch-phobia. Revisit all those stories and more with another whimsical journey back into a week of breaking news, refreshing ideas and bold opinions.
Digital Journal — After seven days of news on DigitalJournal.com, you could adapt to any conversation. From the Tech section you could pull factoids on phishing scams to fit in with the geek crowd, and from the Entertainment area you could read about Bjork’s comeback to get hip with your arts buddies. No matter the topic, Citizen Journalists were quick to dish out the latest news to give you that well-rounded I-know-a-bit-about-everything feeling.
Technology & Internet
One of the more entertaining op-eds this week came from a section usually filled with up-to-the-minute news on tech trends and product launches. But malan went a different route by giving us a thorough overview of his reaction to buying an iPhone. Yes, malan has an iPhone, we’re all very jealous (and very curious if malan is coming to Toronto anytime soon). His op-ed wondered if he’d kill himself by playing with his new toy, as in getting hit by a truck while he’s walking and resizing photos. So malan asked, “Is the iPhone a menace to society?”
Other popular tech stories included: scented cellphones that double as air-fresheners, courtesy of MDee (what, you saying my pockets smell?); a couple becoming so obsessed with the Net they let their two young children starve, as museinspiredart wrote; Google helping small businesses with a $100-per-year search-engine support, momentsintime found; and Web phishing scams have prompted worldwide clampdowns, with the latest arrests coming from Italy, Russcam wrote, even providing contact info in case you find a scam worth reporting.
malan’s piece wasn’t the only iPhone story this week. Besides staff contributions (here and here), pbrite posted an intriguing story on how the iPhone can now broadcast a beating heart image, writing:
The doctor can log onto the Web, register his password and receive the images to be viewed on his iPhone, therefore cutting down the diagnostic time to almost instantaneous.
Wow. Too bad the iPhone and the AT&T contract are so expensive, not even doctors can afford them.
Science
The week began with a story applicable to anyone who’s felt pain. Basically, everyone. Wanderlaugh (always the busy science water) penned a thought-provoking piece on a study that found how memory can reactivate pain and how certain behaviour can improve painful hotspots. Ringwraith couldn’t agree more, commenting:
I believe that a positive attitude is essential to escaping discomfort, I’m glad to see that there is evidence for this.
Another discovery came from permafrog‘s assignment desk. His post on finding adhesive material through animal properties (particularly from the mussel and gecko lizard) shed new light on repairing damages tissue using sticking material. Also worth mentioning:unusualsuspect‘s post on the benefits of placebo experiments. And you thought sugar pills did nothing to you.
Our resident science fanatic, franklin, had a field day this week but particularly interesting was her article on the origins of humans. The “Out of Africa” theory is gaining evidence, she wrote, because a new study confirms the South-Central African origins of homo sapiens. No wonder I enjoy djembe drums so much.
Business
No one likes product recalls, but sometimes we need to know about them. Giving us the goods on the latest tainted food was permafrog’s piece on Castleberry recalling selected chili sauce and canned meat items. This news was especially useful for cgull, who said he buys this brand sometimes. Now that’s a DigitalJournal.com public service.
Other newsworthy business headlines this week included: Chrysler pulling commercials showing electrocuted dogs, as jaguar told us; Apple is supposedly launching a music label, run by Jay-Z and girlfriend Beyoncé, museinspiredart wrote (mmm, Def Jam and Apple makes a delicious dessert); and an inside look into Toronto’s transit strategy and why cutbacks can spell doom for Canada’s largest metropolis, as Posthappy reported.
Politics
Sometimes, a mini-series holds your attention longer than a single piece. museinspiredart went the extra mile with back-to-back posts on how Al Gore charges $100,000 a lecture “through his use of junk science and fear” and how the climate-change advocate supped on an endangered species of fish at his daughter’s wedding. Undoubtedly, muse doesn’t agree with Gore’s theories, and no matter where you stand on the topic the articles serve as a reminder that anyone in the public eye cannot escape scrutiny.
A powerful op-ed in this category offered a candid view of the U.S. election from the eyes of a non-American. Wanderlaugh believed the U.S. needs to get the wheels in motion again instead of bogging down with incessant infighting. He ended with a pithy suggestion:
Stop tolerating the greedy careerist nobodies and sycophantic networking bloodsuckers and totally untrustworthy lobbies full of shills.
Another article worth noting was a piece courtesy of new user Dheeraj Vaswani, who got a bee in his bonnet about the American wealthy class. And rightly so — he wrote the top one per cent of American households has more wealth than the bottom 95 per cent combined. This illuminating article made me think of a line of poetry from Toronto spoken word artist Mike Smith:
Welcome to America…mind the gap — it’s widening.
Arts & Entertainment
One of the top video posts this week showed us why we all feel inadequate when we’re two: Tyler Hudson was a competent drummer at two-years-old, a soloing whiz at 4 and a touring star at 11. Thanks to cgull, we now can look at our old photos and think: “If only my Mom bought me a drum kit instead of a sweater for my birthday.”
Speaking of music, malan gave us a pang of nostalgia with a post revealing how Doors frontman Jim Morrison truly died. And JustJoe updated Icelandic music lovers on when the pride of Reyjkjavik, the singer Bjork, will be making her anticipated comeback. Even more interesting is the producer working on a portion of her new album — Timbaland.
Two artistic pieces caught our eye: Wanderlaugh gave us an Australian art lesson with a profile of Norman Lindsay, whose work Wanderlaugh linked to here. Going more fringe, museinspiredart introduced DJ to satellite dish art, where painting flourishes spice up ye ol’ TV dish. It’s encouraging to see such interesting art stories in order to inspire the more creatively inclined readers visiting the site.
World
Talk about spanning the globe with thorough research and writing flair: permafrog posted breaking news on potable water discovered in Darfur, giving hope that one aspect of the Sudan conflict will disappear; we then travel to Tunisia to learn about Nazi loot uncovered by a British researcher, thanks to Russcam’s journalistic spidey-sense; we then take a jaunt back to Africa to figure out what happened to pygmy musicians moved to a zoo by Congolese officials to make way for a festival, according to gohomelaker.
And GotTheScoop took a macro view of Earth with her valuable post on the United Nations’ funding shortage, pegged at $2.5 billion US. Rescue and recovery efforts will be practically impossible to maintain without additional funds, GTS wrote. franklin summed up what many of us were thinking when she commented:
I really want to know where the heck all of their money disappeared?!
Finally, cgull gave us a global tour of the McDonald’s menu by showcasing different food items from a country’s Golden Arches. Pita in Greece? Rice in Costa Rica? Maybe North America is getting stiffed when fast-food lobster is introduced into sandwiches, like in some parts of Canada. Ugh. And kudos to cgull for posting wonderful photos to accompany the editorial.
TopFinds Awards
It’s always encouraging to see recently joined writers getting in the swing of Citizen Journalism. That’s why it’s important to honour the most impressive rookie reporter with the TopFinds New User of the Week Award, gladly bestowed upon melysah. Writing seven stories within the first two days of membership, melysah hit the keyboard hard with articles primarily focused on Buddhism. Everyone’s got their beat, right? But melysah was also quick to write on must-read health issues, including info on the dangers of antidepressants and the threat of hazardous bacteria in water. Welcome to Digital Journal, melysah, and I got a feeling you’ll be one of those frenetic dedicated posters — I never knew you gave up sleep to join DJ!
If anyone’s been on top of the Dow Jones-News Corp story, it’s been our favourite Australian, Wanderlaugh. And when he posted a timely analysis of the how the Wall Street Journal will change when Rupert Murdoch takes it over, it was plain to see who would take home the TopJournalism Award this week. Using a New York Times article as background, Wanderlaugh excellently injected into the post business acumen and insight into Murdoch’s character. This is the kind of piece you can use at the next dinner party when someone asks, “So what’s with the Wall Street Journal takeover, anyway?” Thanks to Wanderlaugh, you have some delicious nuggets of info to drop into the conversation.
Can you name the DJ member who loves commenting on stories but rarely posts his own? This week, we give thanks to a writer everyone loves to debate, and who shared a knack for column writing with a post that wins TopOpEd Award. lensman67 penned a thoughtful piece on legalizing prostitution, pointing out the inherent benefits coming from letting the women of the night operate openly. Filled with third-party quotes and a case example from the Netherlands, this op-ed definitely deserves attention for bringing an important topic to the front burner of social discourse.
As more political discussion heats up this summer over the U.S. election in 2008, some Citizen Journalists are taking it upon themselves to do some digging. Enterprising writers always catch an editor’s eye, which is why the TopPolitics Award goes to Left-Handed Elephant for his probing post, Should Journalists Donate to Politicians? Inspired by a CNN show on the topic, LHE was curious about which journalists donated to which political parties. After doing some research on Open Secrets, LHE revealed to the DJ community that CNN staff have given $58,000 to political causes and candidates (and journalists as a whole have donated $440,447). Why should this matter? LHE summed up his concern with this statement:
When someone is listed as a correspondent or executive producer and they’ve written checks to the DNC, it makes me question their objectivity.
It’s been another fascinating and thought-provoking week on DigitalJournal.com, where you never know what idea or trend will win its way to the Good Find box. Keep digging for buried stories, and you never know — a TopFinds Award could be shining on your shelf very soon.
