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The Roundup: September 13 - 19

By Caroline Walker | Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:59 AM ET

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You're over the hump of the week and sliding into chill-out bliss. There's still time to dig through the top Tonic stories you may have missed between cups of coffee and heavy headlines. Don't worry: There's plenty of good to go around.

Geek out for a good cause! That's the rally cry from Katie Gustafson in "Lend a Helping Hard Drive." She's got the downlow (so tempted to shamelessly pun "download") on Mozilla Service Week, a Firefox-fueled initiative to spread the technological love. In our computer-reliant day and age, everyone should have access to skills, knowledge and machines that keep us up to speed and connected – not to mention valuable in the fragile job market. Read up on how to share what you know so no one is left behind.

I must confess that I am slow to take to the Kindle craze. Saving heaps of paper and making reading simple and accessible through electronic media is pretty revolutionary ... but i am a sucker for the tactile pleasure of turning a page. There's good news for old schoolers like me: Kathy Erich Dowd has the scoop in "Literary Tree Hugging." It's easy to cringe thinking about the 30 million (yes, 30 million) trees used to print books in the US, but the Green Press Initiative is crusading hard to make recycled paper a major priority for publishers everywhere.

Keeping in line with our commitment to supporting kids who are doing outrageously good things to make their worlds a better place, Katie Gustafson gives us "Meet Joshua Williams, Philanthropic Boy Wonder." She scoured hard during her research to see if perhaps he had altruism's version of a stage mom, but it turns out that the project is indeed the brainchild of, well, a brainy child. (His mom, for the record, couldn't be cooler or more supportive, reports Katie.) Distributing 250,000 pounds of food by eight years old (he's been at it since five)? He's doing alright, I guess ...

In "French Kisses" by Courtney Rubin you might just get the urge to borrow one serial smoocher's bright idea. A student is spreading the love in the City of Lights, planting wet ones (ew) on strangers all over gay Paree as part of a personal challenge to push past fear and have more fun. It's kinda awesome to track her experiences, see who surprises her with enthusiasm and who reveal their inner prudes. Yes, there are photos. Yes, they're PG.

Top it all off with some feel-good brain candy, courtesy of the Smile File! It's riddled with very important matters this week: a teapot blow, a Chippendale's dance-off, Kanye's mystery solved. We never let a day go by without giving you the perfect procrastination excuse ... or the quirkiest internet oddities that your friends will be impressed that you've discovered. We've got your back like that.

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Caroline Walker is Tonic's Senior Editor, fusing her experience with media production -- writing, editing, video production -- and nonprofit advocacy work.