TORO has been covering the beautiful and talented women of the world for years. For all the guys who feel left out, we celebrate all that can be done by the stronger, dumber sex.

David Chen, Vigilant Vigilante



More then three years ago Toronto shopkeeper David Chen made headlines after he and two employees forcibly held a shoplifter in their van until police arrived. In a bizarre twist they were charged for assault, while the accused (a repeat offender who stole from Chen multiple times a day) was let off.

Chen and his fellow crime busters were found not guilty. This past week, their victimization was not only acknowledged but rewarded: Canada's Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced an amendment to the criminal code allowing citizens to catch criminals not necessarily in the act, but within a reasonable amount of time on or close to private property. For giving the often-ambiguous (and in some jurisdictions, nonexistent) idea of a “citizen’s arrest” more weight, Chen is a man who changed our country for the better.

DeStorm, Instagram Fan



Hip hop is known to speak the praises of oddly specific products; shoes, lip gloss, French cognac, and so on.

Rapper DeStorm has turned this idea into his trademark. Accepting the unusual challenge of rhyming about anything and everything has bred “How to Play Monopoly,” “Rapping Book Titles” and this past week, “Instagram.” Yes, there is now a rap song about the application that turns digital pictures into faux-Polaroids, and it’s kind of awesome. If DeStorm wasn’t such a strong rapper with a sense of humour above and beyond the novelty his output suggests, the joke would be on him. As it stands, he’s an innovator in a genre overrun with the same old shit.

Lonesome George, Last Tortoise Standing



We all know what it’s like to feel lonely, but even in the quietest neighbourhood we’re never far from our own kind. Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises, spent decades isolated from others of his subspecies who had moved on to that great sandy beach in the sky.

Species often go extinct, but tortoises and turtles have some of the longest life spans in the animal kingdom. That meant George had a lot of time to bask in his unusual celebrity, being the most visible “last specimen” in science. This past Sunday, he finally kicked the bucket at the Charles Darwin Research Centre in the Galapagos Islands, leaving behind no suitable heirs. While efforts remain underway to find another Pinta Island tortoise in the wild, it seems George has closed that chapter of nature’s ongoing story.