Time Magazine's Person of the Year

It really is Mark Zuckerberg's year. Facebook has reached half a billion users, a blockbuster movie with lots of Oscar buzz came out-much to the dismay of Zuckerberg and now the very news publication thats writing about him has named the young billionaire as their Person of the Year. Past winners have included presidents, world leaders, media moguls, national heroes, and Hitler. With 1 in 10 people now using the social media application, Facebook and its founder has gotten a lot of attention. The Social Network came out and brought up a lot of questions of integrity and motives behind starting the website. This article is newsworthy just by the sheer importance and power behind each person selected. This will definitely not be the last news coverage of Zuckerberg. As Facebook grows, his private life will become more and more of public interest and knowledge.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037183_2037185-2,00.html

And now for something completely different

Enjoy this alternative means of communicating a Christmas tradition. And by all means, laugh out loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU

AP Stylebook help

If you are on Twitter, you might want to follow APStylebook and note the following:

APStylebook AP Stylebook
Don't forget: Our next #APStyle Twitter chat is tomorrow Thursday/12/16) at 2 p.m. EST. Send your questions using the hashtag #APStyleChat.

WikiLeaks...

WikiLeaks has, until a few days ago, remained as a foreign topic to me. Suddenly, everyone here in Malaysia is talking about it when a leaked cable revealed that a sodomy charge (against a former deputy Prime Minister) was discussed between the Australian and Singaporean intelligence agencies. The Singaporean officials told their Australian counterparts that the ex-PM had indeed been guilty based on their "technical intelligence". Not only that, the senior officials at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also found to have bad-mouthed Malaysia. For instance, they had said:

• there was a "distinct possibility of racial conflict" which might cause ethnic Chinese to "flee" and "overwhelm Singapore"
• the current PM is in a "tight spot"
• Malaysia was in a "confused and dangerous" state due to "its incompetent politicians"

The news has made politicians from both sides jumped. Many demanded explanation from our neighbour, and the Foreign Minister has sent a protest note to its counterpart, who clarified that the leaks did not tally with their records. "One purported meeting did not even take place," he said.

The incident has caught both Malaysia and Singapore in an embarrassed situation as it would affect the bilateral ties between the two neighbours. One of the officials who was reported to have made the scathing remarks was expected to lead a delegation to Malaysia next week. I guess people are waiting to see what will he say when he arrives.

I do not understand why a local daily used a lot of anonymous sources when reporting on the issue. It quoted "Malaysian officials" who wanted explanation from Singapore. There were also a couple who said that the government should not have sent the protest note as the information was based on leakages and not the act of a government. The quotes were good, but I couldn't help doubting the stories' credibility.

Compared to these news stories, I would rather read one that quoted the politicians on security concerns. At least I know that real people are behind the quotes.

A story of survival with fun at the same time!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/nyregion/15kitchen.html?hpw

This is a story of a bunch of people from different work-fields getting together in a rented kitchen in New York who are food-entrepreneurs now after being laid-off.

The piece provided relevant details like the rent and entrepreneurs backgrounds and their view about their new profession. It served as an amazing advertisement for these businesses as well. Loved the use of the verb cratered as in "economy cratered."

I understand the article is about this new form of making money through rented kitchen for these laid-off people. But I would have liked to hear from a customer who expressed whether or not they knew if what they were ordering was made in a facility where Indian, Mexican, middle-eastern etc is all made in one space or do customers only come across the website interface.

Also, the writer hinted at the dynamics between different chefs as to how they ordered common supplies to avail of discounts and how they acted as taste-testers for each others. I would have liked an elaboration on the cultural aspect of it: how these chefs from different cultures are experiencing different food cultures and otherwise being in the same space.

Moreover, I wanted to know if these people want to stick with this system of using rented kitchen for long for whatever reasons or do they want to establish their own space in the near future because of any inconveniences etc.

Nevertheless, a well-done story of human survival in face of adversity..sounds cliche?..add a never-ending demand commodity--food-- and cultural element to it. interesting!

How to lose a reader in one paragraph

It can be easy! Just start with a run-on sentence.

Here's Elisabeth Bumiller's into to her New York Times article about a report on the Afghanistan war.

"As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border."

I understand her desire to cram as much information as possible, but I lost my train of thought about halfway through. Worse yet, she backloads the intro, saving the article's point for the end of the run-on.

I think it would have been more effective had Bumiller kicked off the intro by diving right into the report. She could still have juxtaposed it with President Obama's review and it would have been more organized and readable.

Just for laughs: "I want to work for the New York Times!"

This is quite funny despite the mundane voices. The student aspired to be a journalist but didn't plan to start from the bottom. He dreamed of joining the New York Times right after graduation and no matter how the journalist tried to tell him it's not going to be as rosy as he had imagined, he just refused to listen! The best quote from him was, "You are very bitter. Journalism needs people who are fired up about the important work of communicating the news of the day with the people. I want to be in the newsroom bantering with my colleagues about the important things we are writing about."