My week has been hell: three long stories to finish and the deadline was last week. I’m a rebel. But really, one can never be too busy for YouTube. Awesome ad.

Rhoel Dinglasan, a Filipino entomologist and biologist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland has discovered a new vaccine against malaria. I’m no med student or doctor, but for millions of people–children–in Africa, this could save their lives. As an aside, how can you not mistake the name Rhoel for Filipino? I’m just saying.

Dinglasan has found an antigen, called AnAPN1, that causes humans to create antibodies that prevent transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. Get enough of these antibodies into mosquitoes, and you lock the disease up there and prevent it from infecting us. Sounds good, but how do you implement such a strategy? You can hardly vaccinate the mosquitoes themselves. Instead, you put the AnAPN1 into their food source: us. A mosquito that bites an inoculated person would pick up the antibodies and then be sidelined from the malaria-transmission game.

Continue reading here.

JWT, the world’s best-known marketing communications brand, released its list of 100 Things to Watch in 2010. According to them, the following things, people, and trends will make a mark in the next twelve months as leaders in their respective fields. Sounds exciting.

I’m still a bit of a skeptic with entries like (Number 7) Bacon Everywhere: I don’t hate bacon. In fact, I love it to bits, and strips. But I cannot imagine what exactly “bacon everywhere” implies? Bacon t-shirts? Bacon day?; (Number 40) Harry Potter in Orlando: Again, this entry begs the question, “WTF?”; (Number 99) The Wonder Girls: If you were one of those people secretly clapping their hands twice whenever the chorus of Nobody played on the radio, this wouldn’t be a surprise. But if you weren’t, this would be an insult; and (Number 44) Ironic Sports: How can sports be ironic? Is it like Tiger Woods, a golf player and a playah? I’d say that’s ironic

1. 3D at Home
2. Airline Subscriptions
3. Alternative Measures of Prosperity
4. Alternative Metals in Jewelry
5. Asia’s Widening Income Gap
6. Augmented Reality
7. Bacon Everywhere
8. Bio-Based Airplane Fuel
9. Boeing 787 Dreamliner
10. Bogotá
11. Brighter Colors
12. Buycotting
13. Carey Mulligan
14. Coconut Water
15. Composting
16. Contemporary Indian Art
17. Cordless Power
18. Customized Pharmaceuticals
19. Deficit Neutral
20. Donald Glover
21. Dry Shampoo
22. East Africa Wired
23. Electric Car Networks
24. Electric Cars
25. Electronic Libraries
26. Ellen on Idol
27. Energy Dieting
28. Ethical Fashion
29. European Free Speech
30. Exotic Berry Flavors
31. Fermentation
32. Fernando Torres
33. Foursquare
34. Gambling in Singapore
35. Gaming Software
36. Green Retrofits
37. Greening the Palate
38. Hand-Me-Ups
39. Handwriting
40. Harry Potter in Orlando
41. Haute Fashion on eBay
42. Hybrid Boats
43. Impact of the U.K. General Election
44. Ironic Sports
45. Japan on the Sidelines
46. Japan’s First Lady
47. Jay Chou
48. Kindle Rivals
49. LED Bulbs
50. Li Ning
51. Lifestreaming
52. Lionel Messi
53. Little Boots
54. Local, Nonprofit Online Newspapers
55. Lost Series Finale
56. Luxury Goes East
57. Marina Silva
58. Mia Wasikowska
59. Michael Jackson Tribute Concert
60. Mobile Money
61. Mobile Ticketing
62. More Virtual Currencies
63. New Portrait of Hispanic America
64. “Nutrition-Washing”
65. Obesogens
66. Organic Fast Food
67. Pandemic Fatalism
68. Paying for Online Content
69. The Pirate Party
70. PlayStation 3 Motion Controller
71. Post-Lula Brazil
72. Pro Modding
73. Public Bicycles
74. Recycling Gray Water
75. Retail as Third Space
76. Return of the Water Fountain
77. Runaway Democracy
78. Silent Dance Parties
79. Ski Cross at Winter Olympics
80. Slow Beverages
81. Slow Communication
82. Spanish E-books
83. Spider-Man on Broadway
84. Spotify
85. Stephen Strasburg
86. Stevia
87. Tactile/Visual Design
88. Trip Bundling
89. TV for Tween Boys
90. TV/Web Integration
91. Urban Fruit Gleaning
92. U.S.-Cuba Ties
93. Video
94. Virtual House Calls
95. Volunteer Rewards
96. Water Footprint Tracking
97. The Waterless Washing Machine
98. The Wine-Tail
99. The Wonder Girls
100. Zach Galifianakis

According to The Guardian, 2009 was the year of Facebook. Time Magazine echoed this in their annual top ten of everything where they called Facebook “the site that ate everything.”

Personally, my vote goes to Twitter. It was from Twitter that Michael Jackson’s death rippled around the world, and let’s not forget the Iran elections, the woman they called Neda, and the tweets of protest, help, and indignation. It would suffice to say that 2009 was the year of social media–a term that barely existed a decade ago.

Still, I can understand why Farmville and Mafia Wars addicts genuflect in the presence of Facebook. Started by 25-year-old Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg, the social network started the year with 150 million members. By April, that number rose to 200 million, and by September it had amassed 300 million — an average growth rate this year of about 550,000 new members a day. Facebook’s current net worth has been estimated by analysts to be at $15 billion

There is little doubt that 2009 was the moment that the site truly exploded. In January, Zuckerberg announced the “milestone” of 150 million users worldwide. Less than a year later, the social network has more than doubled and now boasts that more than 350 million people log on each month.

Remember Friendster? They’re still doing fine at close to 110 million members worldwide. But early this month news circulated that the newly-lay-outed social networking site (it’s green now) is looking to be sold to an Asian company for more than $100 million.

As a side note, in late 2008, Facebook approached Twitter about a potential merger. Zuckerberg offered company stock worth about $500 million but Twitter turned down the offer. Still, if there’s something we’ve learned from the internet, it’s that things, no matter how big or great, don’t last.

However unassailable Facebook’s position may appear today, history suggests that even the largest websites can fall spectacularly from grace in just a few years. A decade ago AOL was one of the most powerful companies in the world, worth so much money that it was able to force a $162bn merger with media giant Time Warner – the biggest ever seen

I think it was Conan O’Brien who said that in the event Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube merge, a gigantic new social media tool would emerge. It would be called You TwitFace.

Happy new year everyone. Make new friends.

December issues come out this week. I’m giddy about seeing ours. In the foreign magazine section, Hearst Corp, big-time media company and magazine publisher, announced a few weeks ago that Esquire would launch a new “augmented reality” issue for release in December. And just the other week, they finally unveiled they’re newest invention that, while it promises some moments of pure fascination and awe, still begs the question, “What now?”

On the cover of Esquire’s December issue is the new Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. in a three-piece suit, proudly showing the package between his legs. It is this device, along with a program you need to download off the Esquire website and a web cam, that enables the actor to literally jump off the cover. Awesome sh*t.

Once the AR program is installed, users will have to point the “marker” located at the bottom of the magazine towards the web cam to activate the feature. For the cover, Robert Downey Jr. does a song and dance, among other things. Inside, a fashion photo shoot changes the model’s clothes and the weather, depending on how you hold and rotate the magazine. Their monthly “Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman” section has actress Gillian Jacobs tell another joke, and there’s an ad from Lexus, which reportedly shouldered the cost of the AR issue coming in at six figures according to Wall Street Journal.

Esquire’s Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour

While AR seems to be a huge leap in the print medium, attempting to tie in the web element of Esquire, Augmented Reality feels like another passing fancy. It’s a chore to download and install the AR program. And after viewing the few pages AR is featured in, you’re left with, well, a magazine. And no one buys one for AR and AR alone.

The tactile experience of holding a magazine is still a whole different experience. Augment it as you may want, in the end, it’s content that matters the most. And that’s what made and still makes Esquire one of the best men’s magazines in the world. And that’s why people still buy magazines. Great idea, but what now?

Still, if there’s one thing I’ll always like about Esquire, it’s their original content and the punk-ass attitude with which they present them. Only they can put “WTF?!” on their cover and get away with it.

I’m not a Macphile. The only place I use a Mac is at work. I remember picking up the Apple one-click mouse on my first day at work, staring at it for five minutes trying to decipher how to make a right-click. But I can see why millions of people around the world are obsessed with everything that passes through Steve Jobs’ hands. It’s white gold, and so damn sexy. Not his hands. The partly-eaten image of an apple has become as iconic as his black turtleneck sweater and denim jeans. If I had all the money in the world, I’d live in a Mac house.

The following article was forwarded to me by my editor. I always get this ambivalent feeling whenever I encounter great writing: I get pissed that I write so crappy, and excited at having discovered something I can admire and imitate.

Fortune Magazine named Apple CEO Steve Jobs as CEO of the decade in their November 2009 issue. Good job, Job.

The decade of Steve: How Apple’s imperious, brilliant CEO transformed American business. Adam Lashinsky

How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.

The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. What makes that simple statement even more remarkable is that barely a year ago it seemed likely that any review of his accomplishments would be valedictory. But by deeds and accounts, Jobs is back.

It’s as if his signature “one more thing” line now applies to him as well. After a six-month leave of absence in the early part of this year, during which he received a liver transplant, he is once again commanding a 34,000-strong corporate army that is as powerful, awe-inspiring, creative, secretive, bullying, arrogant — and yes, profitable — as at any time since he and his chum Steve Wozniak founded Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) in 1976.

Superlatives have attached themselves to Jobs since he was a young man. Now that he’s 54, merely listing his achievements is sufficient explanation of why he’s Fortune’s CEO of the Decade (though the superlatives continue). In the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets — music, movies, and mobile telephones — and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.

Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard-of. Think about that for a moment. Henry Ford altered the course of the nascent auto industry. PanAm’s Juan Trippe invented the global airline. Conrad Hilton internationalized American hospitality.

In all instances, and many more like them, these entrepreneurs turned captains of industry defined a single market that had previously not been dominated by anyone. The industries that Jobs has turned topsy-turvy already existed when he focused on them.

He is the rare businessman with legitimate worldwide celebrity. (His quirks and predilections are such common knowledge that they were knowingly parodied on an episode of “The Simpsons.”) He pals around with U2’s Bono.

Consumers who have never picked up an annual report or even a business magazine gush about his design taste, his elegant retail stores, and his outside-the-box approach to advertising. (”Think different,” indeed.)

It’s often noted that he’s a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It’s totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend.

Yet for all his hanging out with copywriters and industrial designers and musicians — and despite his anticorporate attire — make no mistake: Jobs is all about business. He may not pay attention to customer research, but he works slavishly to make products customers will buy.

He’s a visionary, but he’s grounded in reality too, closely monitoring Apple’s various operational and market metrics. He isn’t motivated by money, says friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500). Rather, Jobs is understandably driven by a visceral ardor for Apple, his first love (to which he returned after being spurned — proof that you can go home again) and the vehicle through which he can be both an arbiter of cool and a force for changing the world.

Read the full article here.

PHOTO CREDITS
Diana Walker/Contour by Getty Images