My Year at Newsvine in Review - 2009

From the article North Korea's Pathetic Saber-Rattling Society.

From the article Israeli Conflict Proves It's Dumb to Vote Terrorists Into Power.

From the article Welcome AB's Newest Staff Member, Sara Watson.

From The Wacky World of Piracy in Somalia.

From The 15 Greatest Women in Space and Aeronautics.

From NASA Sets the Date We Finally Land Men on Mars - April 15, 2025 - and Here's How They Plan to Do It.

From Reading, Writing, and Name-Calling - Hanging Out at the Literary Festival.

From Far Right's Blind Hatred of Obama Hits New Low as They Celebrate America's Loss in Bid for Olympics.

About every Thanksgiving, I do a review of my activity at the Vine for the previous year. I went into January at full speed, doing a whopping twenty-one articles, starting with a plea for our new President to end the war in Iraq now, instead of waiting for 2011.

Articles were all over the place, on all manner of subjects. The excitement of being freed from the Bush Legacy at last may have served as inspiration. Here are some of the notable ones for the year:

Among the January articles were a Ten Question Poll on Palestinians, then later asking readers to submit their best childhood memories, followed by why it's dumb to vote terrorists into power, and how to make the best barbequed chicken you'll ever eat. And even though I was a big supporter of Obama for the Presidency, I tossed in a humorous article called 'Good News/Bad News for President Obama', and how Senator Claire McCaskell from Missouri went postal.

When February rolled around, I was exhausted. I could only manage four articles. I spoke about North Korea's pathetic saber-rattling society, the story about how rocker Eddie Cochran actually died, my personal take on the Recession, and tried to explain the Stimulus in a way ordinary people could understand.

In March I was quite busy with the book and magazine biz and only did a half-dozen articles. (We were about to launch our biggest release to date) I think the two best were the ten reasons Ford didn't need or want a bailout from the Feds and some cartoons that poked fun at North Korea's infamous missile testing.

April of 2009 was dominated in the news by the Somali pirates and the Guantanamo torture scandal. So I asked people to take a ten question poll about torture and showed how a brave American crew turned the tables on the pirates, with a bit of help from the U.S. Navy.

As summer rolled around, we added a new staff member: Sara Watson. She got three million hits to an article at Boing-Boing that showed her painting a car to make it look invisible. Then I got together with the staff for a joint article that researched the question of whether John Demjanjuk really was a war criminal, and our answer for Newsvine was a unanimous YES.

June was a month again dominated in the news by two events, the death of Michael Jackson and the rigged vote in Iran that caused massive protests in that country. I gave my personal thoughts on Jackson and showed how Iranians voted in record numbers...for nothing.

July was The Month of Anger, with the exception of a movie review for Johnny Depp's new film, Public Enemies. Those movie websites get better all the time. I ranted about the Sci-Fi Channel changing their name to a cheesier version, and did a little fear and loathing bit about why health insurance companies want to crush reform. As the month ended, I gave a fond farewell to Sarah Palin, urging her not to let the door hit her on the way out.

In August I asked anyone from Britain to stop by and tell Americans about their National Health Service. I thought this would help alleviate some of the fear about proposed health care reform. There was an illustrated sci-fi adventure (with pictures) about two men stranded together on a rock in the middle of the ocean, and what happened when I attended the Big Literary Festival in my hometown and handed out books to kids. Although that article only got a few votes, I had a lot of fun writing it.

I think September was my most creative month for 2009 at the Vine. Not only did I pick up the pace with the articles, doing fourteen of them, but they were some of the best. I showed readers the exact mission plan NASA already has ready to put people on Mars, and how you could actually have your name sent to Mars a bit sooner. Wrapping up the space theme, I introduced everyone to the 15 Greatest Women in Space and Aeronautics. Readers met Elena Filatova, aka the 'Kid of Speed,' who loves to cruise the dead zones of Chernobyl on a fast motorcycle and take pictures. I had to say something about the Tea Party protesters, so I tried to show how they bring shame on America. That article proved the delete button was good for something, since a few commenters got carried away and forgot my standard warning. ('Hatred, racism, and name-calling are NOT allowed...and will be deleted without mercy.')

In October, I dropped a bombshell about knowing (with 90-95% certainty) the identity of the skyjacker known as 'D.B. Cooper' and how we were going to publish the book about it in February 2010. Both AB and the author got so many emails that I deleted the article and decided to just make people wait for the book. We settled for an announcement on our main website. However, I did leave up the link to the 2007 article at the New York Magazine that got the whole thing started. Everyone on the staff is extremely excited about this project, and we are under a confidentiality agreement regarding the files until the book comes out. Makes me feel like Sam Spade or something. I gave President Obama some advice from Rocky and Bullwinkle regarding Afghanistan and came down hard on folks who celebrated America's loss of the Olympics, which I found downright UN-American.

Finally, I let everyone at the Vine know that Tedd Riggs, the infamous 'Spam Killer' for Newsvine, was alive and well.

In retrospect, I had a lot of fun doing all the articles, the cartoons, the stories, and everything else that comprises the column. My main hopes for 2010 are that we pass health reform, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and pull this wonderful country out of its worst recession in decades. I have the greatest hope for the future of mankind, and I think we will be fine as long as we don't make the planet completely uninhabitable or blow ourselves up.

A massive asteroid strike, however, is not within our control. So support NASA. We may end up needing them to save us all. :)

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