News and Information

Digg

TECHNOLOGY
Digg
At this "social news" site the users, rather than a computer algorithm, determine how important or interesting the stories are, and Digg posts them on the homepage accordingly. The articles are tagged with number of "diggs," or thumbs-up by readers. View the tag "cloud" to see which stories are gaining traction (the headline appears bigger). And don't miss the new Digg Labs page, offering two visual alternatives to displaying the same info: one is called Swarm , the other Stack. For a tight and jaunty summary of the week's best blog posts and news articles, visit the Rojo Blog. Want to go deeper? TechCrunch reports new website launches and covers emerging Web technologies with an eye on what actually might be ready for, and useful to, consumers.

PUBLIC COMPANIES
Footnoted
Here Michelle Leder, a business journalist since the late 80s, consumes public filings and other corporate statements then spits back the meatiest, tastiest bits for finance types to feast on. Written for a knowledgeable audience (the kind that knows "SOX" is short for the Sarbanes-Oxley, not a baseball team), it manages a conversational tone while serving up the good stuff.

DON'T CALL IT A 'ZINE
The Morning News
This online magazine is published weekdays, offering links to Headline News stories (some serious, some strange) along with humor pieces, social commentary and other features by its own contributors. It's based in New York City, so it has a Gotham sensibility (see "The Brooklyn Pigeon Wars"). Don't miss the "Spoofs and Satire" page.

PHILANTHROPY
Charity Navigator
Looking to give away some money? This site has independently evaluated the financial health of some 5,000 charities. Search the database by cause (environment, education, arts, etc.) or keyword. Latest special report assesses agencies that responded to Hurricane Katrina.

SPORTS
Deadspin
This hip new sports blog — hatched out of Nick Denton's shop, which also brought Lifehacker, Gizmodo and Gawker, 50-Coolest finalists from years past — and edited by Will Leitch, is "sports news without access, favor or discretion." In other words: posts are funny, irreverent, occasionally raunchy, and a departure from the usual national sports-commentator fare. Browse posts by category (College Basketball, NFL, NHL, Gay Athletes, Steroids) or search by keyword.

FIELD REPORTING
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone
Veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites, known for his deft use of digital newsgathering techniques and compelling narrative style, continues his work covering conflicts in all parts of the globe. Upon moving over to Yahoo in September 2005, (his site is part of Yahoo News), he embarked on a yearlong mission: to cover every armed conflict in the world in 12 months. From the home "Reporting From" page, click Past Locations for links to his multimedia reports from 17 other troubled regions, from Cambodia to Kashmir; scroll to the bottom of that page for a link to his groundbreaking coverage in Iraq in 2004. For a different perspective, read Baghdad Burning, one Iraqi woman's wartime diary, or Healing Iraq, by Baghdad dentist/blogger Zeyad A. And Lisa Goldman's blog, On the Face provides insight into the Israeli-Lebanese conflict. U.S. soldiers are also active in the blogosphere; click here for Time's list of the best ones or visit MILblogging.com, a searchable index of more than 1,400 military blogs in 27 countries.

TELLING TIME
The Human Clock
Click here to see what time it is. With each passing minute, you get a new image — ranging from shots of a person (or group of people) holding up a sign ("4:17") to inanimate objects arranged or labeled to convey the relevant information (license plates, household address shingles). You can keep things going in a smaller window on your desktop by clicking "gimme a cute window." Visitors are strongly encouraged to submit a photo — provided they follow the do's and don'ts, as in, please don't submit pictures of license plates, they have too many already.

POLITICS
Tailrank
Tailrank culls the day's top stories from thousands of blogs (both liberal and conservative) and news sites; the posts that are linked to the most and discussed the most bubble to the top. (Technology and General News are covered under separate tabs.) Registered users can create their own customized filter; there's a mobile version too and an RSS feed.