A Digital Journalist covers the South African election. An India man trapped inside a baby’s body. And U.S. gun sales surge, but why? These are the top stories gaining attention around the world.
DigitalJournal.com readers are treated to many on-the-ground reports from writers in various communities. This online news network has reporters in South Africa, Vancouver, New Orleans, Toronto, France, Australia and more. As always, these reporters are busy finding the the hottest stories in their region, while also spotlighting the news that doesn’t always make it to print.
In South Africa, the citizens went to the polls. There to capture the frenzied excitement was Christopher Szabo, based in Pretoria. He wrote a detailed article on the polling stations in his neighbourhood, the security forces guarding the areas and the “party mood” hovering in the air. His photos are also a nice complement to his piece. He also followed up on his first article by reporting on the ANC win and the objections raised by some of the parties. Again, solid photojournalist work accompany this article, proving Szabo’s value as a thorough Digital Journalist.
Stephen Dohnberg wrote an excellent follow-up to his war resister piece. He explained how Sgt Chiroux successfully challenged his misconduct hearing by only earning a general discharge. This is an important story, Dohnberg stressed — it could give other dissenting soldiers a “green light” to resist their call to a duty they want to stiff-arm.
The headline couldn’t be missed: Big World Magazine launch proves the world is not flat. Digital Journalist Michael Krebs interviewed the editor of a new magazine, discussing the decision to launch a print mag during a recession and why Big World tries to promote hyperlocal journalism. It’s a fascinating interview for anyone interested in media, magazines or global travel.
Eastern massasauga rattlesnake
Bart B. Van Bockstaele
Onto lighter fare, Bart B. Van Bockstaele gave us a few glimpses of the animal kingdom, first getting slimy with a rattlesnake and then profiling local frogs. Especially noteworthy are his pics and videos, and for anyone who can stomach snake sightings you don’t want to miss his incredibly intimate vid clip of a rattlesnake-awareness workshop
Finally, some kudos to our entertainment reporters. Don Rennick recounted his night out with an Elvis impersonator in North Bay, Ontario, providing a blow-by-blow description of how Shawn Klush wowed the audience with his version of the King. And Katherine Zarchikoff tripped the light fantastic during Leonard Cohen’s packed concert at Vancouver’s GM Place. She gave a glowing review: “At the heart of all Cohen songs, beneath the despair and the grief, lies an intense and profound happiness, which Cohen brought to life for the fans.”
Many other major stories are popular on DigitalJournal.com, including:
• Iranian President Gets Thumbs Down After Durban 2 Performance: No huge shocker here — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spewed such dicisive words as “Western capitalism is at end” at the Durban Review Conference and several representatives of world nations walked out. Reaction can best be summed up by what the UN High Commissioner said after the speech: “In our view this speech was completely inappropriate at a conference designed to nurture diversity and tolerance.”
President of Iran at Columbia University.
Photo by Daniella Zalcman
• Roxana Saberi Sentenced To Eight Years In Jail: In other Iran news, we learned that the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi may face eight years of jail time in Tehran. But she isn’t taking the verdict lying down, and her appeal may be decided within a week. Should media and journalist associations take a more active role in trying to free Saberi?
• Alleged ‘Craigslist Killer’ Arrested: A major crime story is sending shockwaves across the U.S. Philip H. Markoff, 22, has been accused of preying on women who advertise their “casual encounter” services on the online classified site Craigslist. He is clean-cut, engaged to be married and is attending medical school in Boston. Looks can be deceiving, as Ontario learned with the Paul Bernardo case.
• Gun Sales Up, Supplies Not Meeting Demand: In New York, “the demand for guns and ammunition are depleting store stock and suppliers are having a hard time keeping up with the orders.” Debra Myers reported on how gun sales are booming thanks to Obama’s presidency. Retail sales of firearms and ammunition have jumped 15 per cent, she noted. It’s unclear if other parts of the U.S. have seen rising gun demand.
• Antarctic ice cap ‘growing’ and aren’t theories misunderstood?: Another week, another powerful opinion piece from our Australian correspondent, Paul Wallis. He probed theories on global warming and why the Antarctic ice cap is actually spreading out. He leaves us with a chin-stroker: “What this illustrates beyond doubt is that the macrocosm of the ice melts is highly complex, and local factors have roles which aren’t fully understood.”
• Would-be Robber Becomes Russian Woman’s Sex Slave: Think twice before you rob someone. A wannabe robber got caught by the female resident and ended up as her sex slave, being forced into intercourse and being fed Viagra. He told Russian police his genitalia suffered injury. Bet he didn’t think his penis would the main victim of his attempted B&E.
University of Miami Football Game
specvthis
• Playboy Ranks University of Miami as the Top Party School: In case you take Playboy’s recommendations to heart, find out how the adult mag recommended the University of Miami as the best school for party animals to attend. Saikat Basu wrote how Playboy scored the colleges “using a combination of ratings of the weather at the school, its guy-to-girl ratio and its cheerleaders.” But don’t worry, parents, U of M also scored high academically.
• Medical Anomaly: Indian Man With Body of Toddler: This is a real-life Benjamin Button story — 26-year-old Jerly Lyngdoh “is the world’s oldest baby, as he was born with a bizarre condition experts believe is caused by secreting growth hormone glands that have somehow been damaged.” His parents dress him like a baby (we’re certain that doesn’t help) and he measures just 33 inches tall. Do you think Lyngdoh should be treated like an infant or a man?
• Susan Boyle Receives Apology from Piers Morgan and Offer of Date: Sick of Susan Boyle news yet? We give you another week. Carol Forsloff brought us a Boyle update with her article about Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan apologizing to the Scottish Singer, and even offering her a date. Some Digital Journalists enjoy Boyle’s inspiring tale. Jane Iwenofu wrote: “People need an uplifting story like that to remember that anything is possible when you keep hope alive.”
TopFinds Awards
The honourees of this week’s TopFinds Awards attracted impressive attention and widest readership. Digital Journal thanks the following Digital Journalists with Awards for their passion for covering the top issues of the day: Debra Myers, Paul Wallis, M Dee Dubroff, Carolyn E. Price, Saikat Basu, Michael Billy, Don Rennick , Michael Krebs , Nikki Weingartner, Katherine Zarchikoff, Stephen Dohnberg , Christopher Szabo, Carol Forsloff, Bart B. Van Bockstaele, and KJ Mullins.
The Top Blog Post of the Week goes to Cynthia Trowbridge for dousing us with some humour in a hilarious post. She gave us some new stock market terms — CEO is Chief Embezzlement Officer, cash flow is “the movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet” and Windows is “What you jump out of when you’re the sucker who bought Yahoo at $240 per share.” Guess we all need to laugh and cry at the same time, right? (We call it claugh).
Top Comment of the Week is awarded to W. Christopher Epler for his insight into Wallis’s article on the Antarctic ice cap. He spoke about “the danger of overly quickly assuming a given theory is the final word about anything” and cited a cute example about a trucker and a kid. We know, this summary doesn’t do the comment justice so we recommend you check out Epler’s own words (and definitely read the interesting points other users raise in the subsequent comments).
