In the week that was, we saw tragedy, wonder and lunacy. In many ways, that's a normal week in the world of online news. But, alas, we start with the tragedy.
Our top article of the week was a story from on the Gold Coast, when a five year-old girl was found dead along with her father. As this developed, it began to look like a triple-murder and suicide borne of a custody battle, police said.
And while many of you, our readers, come to SBS for world news, this kind of story clearly unites all of us in horrific fascination, and it became our highest clicker of the week. At the expense, it might be noted, of last week's number one, which popped up at number two.
'Cops crack down on planking craze' was still doing well, presumably as lots of grown-ups attempted to find out what the heck this Facebook craze was all about. Of course, planking as a sport/artform/waste of time took a hit this week with the terrible news that a young man fell to his death attempting a particularly daring plank, but there appears to be no end to the appetite for
planking-related content.
In an unusual twist, last week's top ten features in the top ten, possibly (and I'll go out on a limb and say probably) by virtue of its horizontal-fad-referencing title 'Planking craze smashes top 10 articles of the week.'
And here's a vertical cracker. A lady who boarded a flight in New York was clearly not interested in paying attention to those mobile-phone use warnings, or she wouldn't have been able to snap this cracking picture of the space shuttle Endeavour casually bursting through the clouds. No amount of red wine, stodgy food and crap films are going to keep your eyes off that one.
What was that I said about world news? Anyone who argues that Eurovision is not an important global event obviously hasn't been listening to Ricardo Goncalves. Or maybe they were too busy secretly taking a look at our tantalising gallery on Europe's big-budget karaoke free-for-all. Who can say?
For another week, our asylum-seekers 'myths and facts' article made it into the top 10, in an attempt to put some clarity into the debate which never fades from prominence in Australia.
And here's another topic which is never too far away - the fear of terrorism striking at one of society's weak points; air travel. News that threats against Melbourne's airports were being taken seriously had viewers keen to find out more. It turned out to be a hoax - but such hoaxes invariably end up causing almost as much disruption as a real bomb.
Meme alert! The situation room at the White House provided us with plenty laughs last week, and it continues to as our gallery reappears in the top ten. If you missed it, you take one part seminal photo (White House big wigs reportedly watching the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound), add any number of amusing alterations, and you have one of the biggest Internet 'memes' of the year.
Some real party-people up next, with bible-armed doomsdayers preaching the end of the world, via means of a very big earthquake. At the time of writing, it hasn't happened yet, so I'll go easy on them. But if you're reading this after May 21st, you're permitted a superior chortle.
Finally, there were presumably a few bibles being held close to hand as the Mississippi rose mercilessly this week, prompting the US army to open up a major Louisiana floodgate. This was good news for downstream New Orleans, but not so good for those whose homes will be sacrificed. Saving the 'Big Easy' is likely to be of little consolation to residents of poorer rural communities in these tough economic times - even if they do live on the floodplain of one of the world's mightiest rivers.
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