The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Necklacing Returns to South Africa, Tutu Calls for Peace, and History Repeats Itself

Ted Kennedy’s Malignant Brain Tumor: Sad News, But the Work Goes On

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Nicole Hughes:

Bush’s Food Aid Package Promotes Use of GMOs

Gas Prices Exceed Those of 1973 Oil Crisis

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Andy Kondrat:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Cost US 38 Trillion Annually

USDA Budget Squeeze Forces Agency to Stop Tracking Pesticide Use

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Jon Popham:

Brooklyn Bridge Birthday Celebration!

Smokey the Bear: Environmental Icon

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Giulia Rozzi:

Suicide Tourism in New York City

Kristin Davis and Her Solar Powered Home

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Gina Telaroli:

Media That Matters Film Festival Premieres on May 28th

Top 10 Ways Indiana Jones Saved the World: Part #1

I read a really interesting article in New York Magazine last week about  how the same things that attract millions of tourists to New York City (the glamour, the skyline, the anonymity) also attracts visitors to come specifically to the city to kill themselves.

…researchers stumbled on a striking fact about suicides in New York: A surprising number of people who kill themselves in the city come here from out of town, and many appear to come expressly to take their own lives. In a report published last fall called “Suicide Tourism in Manhattan, New York City, 1990–2004,” researchers at the New York Academy of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College found that of the 7,634 people who committed suicide in New York City between 1990 and 2004, 407 of them, or 5.3 percent, were nonresidents. More strikingly, nonresidents accounted for 274, or 10.8 percent, of the 2,272 suicides in Manhattan during that time (the numbers did not include college students, who were considered residents for the purposes of the study). The researchers didn’t look at comparable data from other cities, but, says the study’s lead author, Charles Gross, “One in ten people that commit suicide in Manhattan don’t live here. That’s a big chunk.” [NY Magazine]

and visit http://www.save.org/ for ways you can help prevent suicide.

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Combining literature, theatre and music, a group of passionate folks are trying to promote a non-violent and healthy world.

Circle of Health International (COHI) is an international non-governmental organization that seeks to empower women’s health care professionals in crisis settings. Founded in 2004, COHI currently works in Louisiana, Israel/Palestine, Tanzania, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Sudan.COHI operates on the tenets of consensus-based decision-making, non-violence, and the grassroots model of social change.

On March 26th a group of New York based artists and activists will produce a performance of A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer to support COHI’s efforts. Edited by V-day founder Eve Ensler, A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer features pieces from “Until the Violence Stops,” the international tour that brings the issue of violence against women and girls to the forefront of our consciousness. The collection includes pieces by Maya Angelou, Kathy Najimy,Edward Albee, Alice Walker and many more.

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Who Will Carry the Word? is based upon the true story of Charlotte Delbo’s of life in concentration camps. The play depicts the lives of 23 women while they shared a barracks in Auschwitz. Their goal: to keep the strongest of them alive so that someone could share what they had experienced with the world.

The Red Fern Theatre Company’s production of Who Will Carry the Word?, opened February 21, 2008 at Center Stage (48 West 21st Street, between 5th & 6th Ave.) and ran through March 2. Proceeds from the production benefited Remember the Women Institute, a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that conducts and encourages research and cultural activities that contribute to including women in history.

Although the productions run has ended you can still get involved with Remember the Women Institute by visiting rememberwomen.org

This Valentines Day, I am treating myself to a sneak preview of George Romero’s new film Diary of the Dead. I’m curious to see what Romero has up his sleeve, as his latest horror flick is said to be a commentary on young people, media and technology, and it’s also supposed to have a pretty strong anti-war message. I love political allegory and I love it when I can be entertained but still have something to think about afterwards - it’s what good cinema does!

Watch the trailer below and check back on Friday (when the film opens in LA and NY) for my thoughts about the film and it’s message and to see what the folks at the Youth Free Expression Network have to say about teens and technology today.

TMZ has installed a live-feed camera on the corner of Prince and Mercer.According to TMZ.com “the once-artsy, now-ritzy downtown district absolutely teeming with celebrities, both resident and guest.”Once- Artsy? Teeming with celebrities? Gross, gross and gross. Really, are people that desperate for a glimpse of a starlet chomping on a soft pretzel while carrying Scoop NY bags? Not only does this sound lame, boring and pathetic but it also seems rather creepy. I mean doesn’t this violate some kind of public privacy law or something? It must. Right?Hmmm. I think tomorrow I stand on the corner of Prince and Mercer and pick my nose for a few hours. Oh boy, this could be my big break!

By Giulia Rozzi  A video  recently surfaced online of a male being beaten by a group of girls on the A train in Manhattan. The man who first posted the video to YouTube denies knowing the girls who initiated the beating.So is posting such videos an act of civil duty or voyeuristic disgust? While the video may help police find the girls ( if they are even on the case) it can also be passed along as hideous eye-candy (that thing we all do when we see a terrible accident on the highway-we can’t help but stare).