Book is still book

The Mayan Doomsday Prediction

Source:

http://www.2012thetruth.com/2012DoomsdayPrediction.php

Topic:
2012 Doomsday Prediction

Author:
Jim Stein

In Bible it is said that the human beings will end in some day – the Doomsday. The predictions for this special day have emerged in many kinds of civilizations or religions. Recently, the prediction that the world will end at 21 December 2012 according to the Mayans has been quite hot. Many people in the world have their doubts about this prediction, for example, will this prediction finally come true? Or how the world will end when this day come?

In the first part of this article, the author uses evidences to demonstrate that there will be no gravitational force or radiation to be expected from the end of the world. But the author has given three possible scenarios for this special day. The first one is at that day the planet will move away from the galactic planet systems. Second, the earth will end due to an unknown planet called Nibiru. The last possible theory is the Earth's magnetic poles will shift.

Since the 2000, the Mayan’s prediction of Doomsday has been reported in magazines and websites. Articles about the prediction and the end of the world in all aspects are around the Internet. At the same time, there are also many books about this Doomsday have been published. Unlike most of the online articles, these books are very comprehensive. Book is a good source when a journalist wants to introduce some experts’ voice. I believe, even people have relied on Internet, where they can get easy answer by search engine, most of these articles cannot give readers professional vision and a systemic understanding.

It seems that Jim Stein happened to coincide with me on this point. He introduces many books in his article and provides more books links. I believe Jim attaches importance to books to give readers a wider story.

Your everyday life and 2012 doomsday

Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/its-the-end-of-the-world-but-not-as-we-know-it-20091203-k8pg.html

Topic:
It's the end of the world but not as we know it.

Author:
Andrew Frost


This article is a movie review about the movie “2012 Doomsday”. At the beginning of the article, the author uses concise language to summarize the whole movie. Then he observes a popularity of doomsday movie and gives many examples, such as “knowing”. He also finds out that another kind of movie is unusual hot, that is vampire and zombie movie. Moreover, he provides an analysis about this popularity. The reason is people are worrying about the future of the world, but they try to believe that they can survive or maybe they can transfer to another kind of living creature, which will never die.

This movie review is the best one I have ever seen, comparing with other articles about the movie “2012 Doomsday”, because of its in-depth analysis. The author Andrew Frost is a professional art critic. He not only focuses on the popularity of the movie, but also points out the reason behind this popularity. As a movie critic, He points out the problem sharply, “The problem with our collective imagination is that the end of the world isn't something that we'll get to watch from a comfortable chair in an air-conditioned cinema. It's something that we'd be a part of.”

A movie is just a movie. The reason why media pay attention to movie is not just for entertainment. If we look at different kinks of movie and figure out in a particular period which kind of movie is most popular, we are not just talking about the movie, but the social trend. The type of social trend is developed by a particular cultural and historic reason. Movie is like a mirror, which shows what people are thinking and doing.

Interview gives readers the direct story

Source:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103790515

Topic:
Grieving Chinese Family Quells Memories to Heal

Author:
Melissa Block

The terrible earthquake happened in the Sichuan province of China in 2008 shocked the world. As an international journalist, Melissa Block has reported this disaster at that time. This article is one of her follow-up articles.

In the earthquake, a young couple lost their two-year old son and their parents.Melissa Block has interviewed Wang Dan, the couple’s brother. This article reports how their family goes through the next year. The whole article is based on interview, including seven questions and answers. Melissa Block firstly asks Wang about what the couple did in last year. Then, the author emphasizes the emotion of the couple after the loss of their closest relatives.

When comparing with Melissa Block’s other articles, which reports the unfortunate family last year, she no longer writes the story from her point of view. Instead, she uses interview to let the person who is involved into this disaster to talk his own story. Without her own description and judgment, her just let the victims talk so the readers can touch their feelings directly.

As a journalist, the way to tell the story is very important. This report is a good example. The journalist chooses the best way to describe this sad family’s story by giving the vision of one of the involvers. It is like photography. A good photo is a photo can talk by itself. A good journalist aims to tell the readers all the facts. Although Melissa Block doesn’t have many words in this article, we can see her wisdom by how she chooses and organizes the questions. Interview gives readers the direct story .

Logical stuecture is stil important

(picture from Salemnews)

Source:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july112010/doomsday-methane-ta.php

Topic:
Doomsday: How BP Gulf Disaster May Have Triggered a 'World-Killing' Event

Author:
Terrence Aym

21 December 2012, the Doomsday in Mayan’s calendar is coming soon. Terrence Aym describes a picture of how the world will end for readers ---- the massive eruption of explosive methane gas.

At first, the author tells us two massive historical disasters caused by methane gas eruption under the ocean, which is the same disaster that may be brewing near the Gulf of Mexico. Secondly, the author introduces a theory from Northwestern University's Gregory Ryskin. According to this theory, the oceans periodically produce massive eruptions of explosive methane gas and agreed by many geologists that this eruption will certainly be catastrophic which may bring the doomsday of the whole world.

In this article, the Gulf Coast will be the Ground Zero of the global disaster. Fortunately, this federal government has already taken measures to keep resident away and lower the harm. But the influences of the disaster may result in massive death on the water and the poisoned air, water and land.

I have to admit that the writer presents his point in a very logical way. He first uses the history to illustrate the image of the disaster may come and then expound the theory. After that, the rest of the news uses the quotes and facts as evidences to move forward his point. Basically, this whole article is an example of good, traditional online news. It has good logical structure and uses many hyperlinks for every professors, evidences and sources. With these links, the readers can have a systematic view of the methane gas eruption.

In my opinion, today, the readers are easily attracted by the pointless fancy stuffs so may miss the true point the writer want to demonstrate. The good effective online news should be like this article, logical structure and sufficient links for all the useful sources that can not only present the author’s point but also convenient for its readers to broaden their horizons.

Well-designed disaster calendar

Source:
http://feww.wordpress.com/2010-disasters/


Topic:
2010 Disaster Calendar


Author:
FEWW


For human beings, 2010 may be a year full of different kinds of terrible disasters. In his blog, FEWW make a detailed Disaster Calendar. He collected almost all kinds of disasters all over the world and arranged them by date.


The first part of this article is ‘What’s a disaster?’ In this part, the author shows not only the official definition of disaster from the UNISDR, but also the ‘FEWW definition’. Comparing with the official definition, the author uses more simple words to re-define the disaster and give readers a fresh look upon disaster.


The most interesting part of the article is the schedule of the disaster events by months. When clicking the hyperlinks for each month, the readers can see a list of disasters followed by brief description happened in that month. I have to admire the patience of the author.This article is so detailed that I believe it may cover all the terrible events this year.


The comprehensive content is not the only thing that interests me. Moreover, the whole arrangement of this blog is interesting. At first, the slogan of this blog is humorous.




Called Google as the Internet Mafia is very effective slogan to attract the readers to keep eyes on his blog.



No just the slogan, at the left side, the author continues this Google joke.

Observing this website, there is some interesting stuff around. Like in the left side, there is a calendar to show every day environmental issues. And in the right side, readers can input their email address to follow the recent update. Plus the plenty links to the related environmental issues, so the readers can follow an issue from diverse angles.
Detailed content, humorous style plus useful design, it is reasonable that this website can get so many comments.