Word Count: Reka Szekely on politics and social media

Things online that make me sleepy

I find that when I need help getting to sleep at night, nothing makes me tire faster than logging online and try these snooze-inducing activities.

1. Play some Fruit Smash -- It's like Bejeweled, but with fruit. So it's healthier. Play mindlessly until your brain gets tired enough to sleep.

2. Read a classic book -- I know, I know, classic novels are supposed to be enjoyed. But sometimes they can be sleep inducing. For me, Wuthering Heights does it every time.

3. Listen to some soothing music -- Just search on YouTube, there's lots of options.

4. Bob Ross -- Search for online episodes of Bob Ross's Joy of Painiting and bliss out as he draws happy little trees and clouds.

5. Counting sheep -- Now in British!

Should Twitter and Facebook take responsibility for London riots?

One of the things that's become clear in the wake of the England riots is that those participating in the riots are using social media to target areas, flash mob-style. Mainly they're using BlackBerry Messenger, but also Twitter and Facebook.

Now, it seems the British Prime Minister is asking for a clampdown on social media to quell the rioting.

I found this paragraph particularly interesting:

The prime minister told parliament on Thursday that Facebook, Twitter and Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry devices, should take more responsibility for content posted on their networks, warning the government would look to ban people from major social networks if they were suspected of inciting violence online.

Now, clearly there's a major free speech issue here. But it begs the question, are Facebook and Twitter responsible for what their members post? I doubt either company actively polices posts, instead they operate on a complaints basis.

As for RIM, they don't even do that much because BBM communications are private. Does anyone really want RIM reading their all BBM messages, just in case?

I think the answer is no. And I think when it comes to the riots, it's the police who should do the policing. Not private companies like Twitter or Facebook or RIM.

Incidentally, here's my weekly column which talks about the riots and flash mobs and how they're using social media.

Twilight: The best and worst book ever written

I wrote my column this week about how sites like librarything.com and goodreads.com are changing reading into a much more social activity.

GoodReads in particular has a section called listopia which is lists of books by different topics. Say you love reading romance novels about dukes, there's a list for that or a list of books that were better than the movies and so on.

I thought I'd check out their lists of worst and best books ever written. It kinda proves that reading shouldn't be a democratic effort because the majority of books on the best list in the top 10 are in the Twilight and Harry Potter series. I haven't read the former, but the latter are fine. I just wouldn't consider them the best books ever written.

As for the worst, I thought it was funny how Twilight is considered the best and the worst. And in fact the Twilight books grab the top four spots followed by the Miley Cyrus autobiography. Books by Fox News contributors don't seem so popular either.

Top 20 best books ever according to goodreads.com:

Who hasn't tried to build a nuclear reactor in their kitchen?

I love this story via mashable.com. Apparently a Swedish fellow decided to try to create a small nuclear reactor in his kitchen.

And of course he decided to blog about it.

Things were going well, aside from a minor meltdown on his stove top (but don't worry he didn't drink the juice that may have been contaminated), until he sent a question to Swedish authorities asking if his project was legal and he ended up getting arrested.

Ya know with the trend towards roof-top solar panels or geothermal wells, why not personal nuclear reactors? It could all be party of the home energy mix.

Here's what I hate about my job

This week I wrote my column about folks quitting their jobs in dramatic fashion. In it I make the point that everyone dreams about quitting their job at some point, which prompted a friend to ask me about whether I want to quit my job.

No, not really. Though if I got a job offer to be an all expenses paid travel reporter I'd jump at the opportunity.

But generally speaking I'm happy with the career I chose and I like the people I work with.

The benefits of being a reporter include getting to meet and interview interesting people, being in the know about what's going on in the community, variety and a lack of boredom in the work place and a sense of accomplishment when you see your work in print.

Still, there are tough aspects to this job that they don't tell you about in journalism school, so here are a few:

Writing isn't fun

It may surprise some readers to learn that writing is my least favourite part of being a reporter. It's actually just one piece of the effort it takes to come up with a story and the interviewing and research is much more enjoyable. Writing means taking all the information you have a paring it down and down and down on a complicated story until you have something that fits into that day's news hole.

I like the research that goes into writing and reading the end result, but the process of it is somewhat torturous and on a tough day it makes me want to make me tear my hair out when a story just isn't coming together. At moments like that a lottery win and a margarita on a deserted beach sound heavenly.

You're at the mercy of your sources

There are times when you have a story just about wrapped up and you're missing just one piece of the puzzle or need one source to call you back, and waiting for it can be maddening. If it's a Friday afternoon in the summer the chances of an apocalypse are more likely than your sources calling you back and when your editor asks how much longer until the story is in, you can just shrug and say as soon as possible.

Sometimes you gotta do what you don't want to do

Probably the worst aspect of being a reporter, for me, is contacting the family members of victims.

The most recent example for me was a couple of weeks ago when a Clarington CN worker was hit by a train in Pickering. With that kind of breaking news story, reporters tend to work together so I had worked the phones speaking with police and media reps while another reporter went to the scene. The day after the incident, the man's name was released and it came out he was a Durham resident named Rick McColl.

An editor found the family's phone listing and asked me to give them a call. Immediately, I got a knot in the my stomach. I didn't want to do it (just like I never want to attend funerals for work) but I know it's part of the job and not something I can complain about. Still, I did feel some irrational anger at the editor asking me to do this uncomfortable thing.

Part of it is fear, not knowing what reaction I'll get from the family member and whether they'll scream at me and part of it is a deep discomfort knowing that the person I'm calling has suffered a terrible loss. Really what can I say to them?

I took a deep breath called and the phone was answered by Mr. McCall's son, who very graciously spoke to me for a few minutes and told me about his father. I wrote the information up and filed the story.

The editor later thanked me for making the call and pointed out that having the family's perspective  in the story completely changed the tone. It was no longer some detached story about an unusual accident, but the story of a family's loss and a life cut tragically short.

Sometimes people ask why we write these stories, why we attend funerals as reporters, and the reason is because people want to read about them and also because when we do, it puts so much more meaning into what's happening in the news. You can read about a shooting or an accident and get the where and the when's of it, but when we understand who the victim is we can truly understand that a terrible thing happened and people in our community are devastated and the deceased's life had meaning. It's not just a random statistic. We can't be desensitized to it.

I'm not sure I explained that right, but it's what it is.

So, that's the part of my job that I hate the most and the part that I'd rather not do.

 

Looks like Google+ is catching on like crazy, have you tried it?

Last week I wrote my column about starting to use Google+ and at that time it looked like there were 10 million users for the new social media networking tool.

Apparently that number is now doubled. If Google can keep up that exponential growth, it won't be long before it's seriously challenging Facebook.

As Google+ is growing, iPhone users are freaking out about a buggy Facebook ap and general Facebook users are ranking the site low on customer satisfaction.

I gotta say, personally speaking, I'm not a huge Facebook fan. I use it 'cause I have to. Whereas I'm downright excited about G+. Could be 'cause I'm fickle and likely to tend towards the new. But we'll see.

I just got the iPhone ap for G+, so I'm going to have to see if I like it. I also have to give Rogers a call to see if it's gonna be included in my unlimited social media package. I'm thinking not.

Have you tried it? What did you think? Do you prefer Google+ over Facebook?

Careful where you click on Twitter

So this morning I was checking my Twitter account at work. Generally I'm pretty careful where I click, but because I had a number of responses I was quickly going through, I simply clicked on a link from a user. Perhaps I hadn't had enough coffee, but in retrospect I should have know it was a spammer. The tweet consisted of "@rszekely http://somerandomlink".

So I clicked. And got porn. I shut the window as quickly as possible, but it would have made for a very awkward moment if one of my co-workers had walked by at that exact moment.

Anyway, it's easy for spammers to disguise links on Twitter because everyone uses sites like tinyurl.com to shorten links. My advice? If you don't know the person and there's no other content in the link, don't click.

Pickering airport: Yay or Nay?

Finally, the federal government has released the needs on a Pickering airport. Read the whole thing executive summary here, but here's the main quote:

Even though an additional airport will not be needed within the Greater Golden Horseshoe before 2027 at the earliest, the study concludes that the Pickering Lands should be kept and protected for future aviation needs.  This is based on a number of factors such as: the site size; proximity to a large potential market; accessibility to major highways (Highways 401 & 407); and a relatively low population in the immediate vicinity of the lands.

The study also notes that it is inconceivable that a large parcel of land comparable in size to the Pickering Lands could be amassed again in the future.  Furthermore even if an alternate site could be identified, the financial and social costs associated with such an endeavour would likely render it implausible. 

Now, an airport in north Pickering has both a pro and a con side to it. On the one hand there's the noise factor and the loss of rural lands. On the other hand, it would be a huge economic impact in Durham bringing thousands of jobs to the Durham Region.

Take the poll and if you want to justify your vote, leave me a comment.

 

Check out the Bayly and Harwood proposal

This is a copy of the slide show presentation on the apartment complex and public square proposal for the lands located at Harwood Avenue and Bayly Street. My story on the agreement is here and there will be an updated version of it posted by the end of the day is an update version posted.

The document includes the basics on the project as well as some concept art. Download the PDF file by clicking here: Download Bayly-Harwood slide show

A couple of fun links

Here's a fun link for today: Ryan Seacrest's website compiles the most annoying type of Facebook updates here. The one I think has a lot of people seeing red is number five, the "spoiler" status update.

Also from his site, Top 20 cutest pics of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's new dog, a Puli. I've got a soft spot for the breed because they're a Hungarian breed. when they grow up they're the ones with the dreadlock fur. I had no idea they were so fluffy when they were puppies.