LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas. It is currently owned by Village Voice Media (formerly New Times Media), the parent company of other major weeklies such as the New York City's Village Voice, Houston's Houston Press, San Francisco's SF Weekly, and the OC Weekly of Orange County, California. It is distributed every Thursday.

History[link]

According to their website, "LA Weekly has been the premier source for award-winning coverage of Los Angeles music, arts, film, theater, culture, concerts, [and] events." The LA Weekly also recognizes outstanding small theatre productions (99 seats or less) in Los Angeles, with their annual LA Weekly Theater Awards, established in 1979.^[3] Starting in 2006, LA Weekly has hosted the LA Weekly Detour Music Festival every October. The entire block surrounding Los Angeles City Hall is closed off to accommodate the festival's three stages.^[4]

Some of its most famous writers are Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold. Nikki Finke, who until recently blogged about the film industry through the Weekly's Website, left in June 2009 after signing a business deal with an online firm.^[5]

The paper was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who was the paper's editor from 1978 to 1991 and its president from 1978 to 1992.^[6] The majority of its core of initial staff members^[7] came from the Austin Sun, a similarly-natured bi-weekly, which had recently ceased publication.^[6]

Although some former employees have complained about personnel moves since the Weekly's parent company's acquisition by New Times Media (which assumed the Village Voice Media name),^[8] the paper has won a Pulitzer Prize,^[9] and broke the story of the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer.^[10] Some of those disgruntled ex-employees complained when New Times replaced news editor Alan Mittelstaedt with veteran New Times editor Jill Stewart. But in the 2009 LA Press Club Awards, the Weekly won six first-place awards, including three by staff writer Christine Pelisek, who was honored as the city's best reporter in investigative reporting, hard news, and news feature.

Harold Meyerson, once the Weekly's political editor, charged in a departing email to Weekly staffers in 2006 that the new owners had grafted a cookie-cutter template for editorial content onto the publication.^[11]

Writers once closely associated with the Weekly but let go by the paper's current management include Meyerson,^[12] classical music critic Alan Rich,^[13] theater critic Steven Leigh Morris,^[14] film critic Ella Taylor,^[15] and columnist Marc Cooper.^[16] Internal cut backs have resulted in the paper eliminating the position of managing editor, letting go several staff writers and other editorial department positions, as well as cutting the entire fact checking department.^[17] On June 1, 2009, the paper announced that Editor-in-Chief Laurie Ochoa, who began helming the paper in 2001 (before the New Times acquisition), was "parting ways" with the Weekly.^[18] On that same day, ads for her replacement appeared on Craig's List and Journalismjobs.com. Though some speculated that Stewart was a shoo-in for the position,^[19] the job quickly went to Drex Heikes, formerly of the Los Angeles Times. When Heikes left in 2011, he was replaced by Sarah Fenske^[20].

Weekly management have said staff cuts are necessary due to poor economic conditions.^[21] However, some of the cuts are likely attributable to philosophical differences with the paper's current owners.^[22] Former staff writer Matthew Fleischer says that "as part of the company’s 'plug-and-play' management strategy, editors, writers and ad directors were moved from city to city within the chain, without regard for local knowledge. Any old-school Village Voice Media manager who resisted the metamorphosis was denounced as a 'lefty,' a 'throwback,' and worse. They were fired or simply fled."^[23]

In the Los Angeles market, LA Weekly competes against Brand X (a weekly newspaper published by the daily newspaper the Los Angeles Times and is produced by a crew that includes former LA Weekly staffers) and formerly LA CityBeat, a smaller alternative weekly newspaper owned by Southland Publishing, which ceased publication in March 2009, and also owns the Pasadena Weekly (helmed by veteran LA-area newsman Kevin Uhrich).

References[link]

External links[link]

Los Angeles portal

• Official website

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (June 2009)

Nathan Barnatt (born on February 2, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, dancer and filmmaker.^[1] Barnatt appeared on Comedy Central's The Gong Show with Dave Attell in 2008, on Comedy Central's GHOSTS/ALIENS pilot in 2009, and on This Show Will Get You High in 2010. Currently (2012) developing a show with Adult Swim based on his Keith Apicary character.

Barnatt is a performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Hollywood California. He is also an amateur dancer, as displayed in his videos including a Kimberly Cole audition session.

Keith Apicary discography[link]

• Neo Geo: Four Bright Buttons and Two Joysticks (a.k.a. Neo Geo or Four Bright Buttons and Two Joysticks)
• Classic Gaming Wiz
• Sonic the Hedgesong
• Virtual Boy Song
• Dreamcast 2 (first excerpt featured in the Talking Classics episode "Keith Dreams of Dreamcast")
• T.M.N.T.S.O.N.G.

See also[link]

• Talking Classics

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.nathanbarnatt.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/user/nathanjbarnatt
• http://www.youtube.com/user/nathanjamesbarnatt

Julia Price

Personal information
Batting style	Right-hand batsman
Bowling style	-
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	ODIs
Matches	10	84
Runs scored	114	365
Batting average	19.00	15.86
100s/50s	0/1	0/0
Top score	80*	38
Balls bowled	-	6
Wickets	-	-
Bowling average	-	-
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	-	-
Catches/stumpings	20/2	70/30
Source: Cricinfo, 19 February 2008

Julia Clare Price (born 11 January 1972) is a cricketer for the Australian women's cricket team. She made her first class debut in 1995 for Queensland Women and her Test debut against New Zealand at Melbourne in February 1996. Her last Test, so far, was against England at Worcester in 2005.

A right-handed batsman she has scored 114 runs at Test level with her best innings an outstanding unbeaten 80 against England . A specialist wicket-keeper, she has taken 20 catches and completed two stumpings in Tests. Nine of her Tests have been in Ashes games against England, her other Test opponent being New Zealand.

She has played 84 One-day internationals for her country, scoring 365 runs at an average of 15.86 with her top score of 38 coming against the Ireland Women's team. She has also bowled one over in ODIs, without success. She was a member of the Australian teams which won the Women's Cricket World Cup in 1997, beating New Zealand, and 2005, beating the Indian team. She was a losing finalist in 2000 when New Zealand took the crown.

With the emergence of Jodie Purves as a young wicket keeper for Queensland Fire, Julia Price often plays now as a specialist middle order batsman for her state. In 89 matches in the Women's National Cricket League she has scored 1,812 runs, with a best of 112* against Western Australia Women, at an average of 23.84. She has scored eight other fifties and taken 78 catches and completed 23 stumpings.

References[link]

• Cricket Archive page on Julia Price
• Cricinfo page on Julia Price

v t e Australia squad – 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup (5th title) 1 Clark (c) 2 AJ Blackwell 3 KA Blackwell 4 Broadfoot 5 Fitzpatrick 6 Hayes 7 Jones 8 Keightley 9 Liddle 10 Nitschke 11 Price 12 Rolton 13 Smith 14 Sthalekar Coach: Jenkin

This biographical article related to Australian cricket is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Dave Navarro
Dave Navarro attending the AVN Awards Show at the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada on January 9, 2010
Background information
Birth name	David Michael Navarro
Born	(1967-06-07) June 7, 1967 (age 45) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, alternative metal, funk rock
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, piano, keyboards, bass guitar
Years active	1986-present
Labels	Warner, Capitol
Associated acts	Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deconstruction, The Panic Channel, Camp Freddy, Spirits in the Sky, Marilyn Manson, Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails
Website	www.6767.com
Notable instruments
PRS Guitars Fender Stratocaster Ibanez RG

David Michael Navarro (born June 7, 1967) is an American guitarist who plays in the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction and cover band Camp Freddy. He has also played with Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Panic Channel, and many others.

Early life[link]

Navarro was born in Santa Monica, California, to James Raul Navarro and Constance Colleen Hopkins. Dave spent a lot of time with his brother Joe Navarro, who currently resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana.^{[citation needed]} Navarro's paternal grandparents were Mexican immigrants.^[1] His mother Constance worked as a model, appearing on the television show Let's Make a Deal. Navarro was the only person in his paternal family who did not speak Spanish. This was a result of James and Constance's divorce when Navarro was 7, and he spent the majority of his time with his mother. He attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, CA. He later transferred to University High School in Los Angeles, CA.

Constance Navarro was murdered by her boyfriend, John Riccardi, eight years after the divorce. Her killer was arrested in 1991,^[2] thanks to a viewer tip after Navarro appeared on the television series, America's Most Wanted. After his mother's death, he moved in with his father.^{[citation needed]}

Professional career[link]

Early influence[link]

On his Instructional Guitar DVD Navarro tells how he started playing guitar at the age of 7 after hearing a Jimi Hendrix song at a skate park.

1986-1993[link]

Navarro joined the band Jane's Addiction in 1986 as the lead guitarist after he was recommended to vocalist Perry Farrell by drummer Stephen Perkins, who was a childhood friend of Navarro's. The band became successful and was popular in the alternative-rock music scene. Personal tensions, however, led to their breakup in 1991. The Lollapalooza festival was created by Farrell as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction.

After the departure of Guns N' Roses' original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin in August 1991, Navarro was the first choice of lead singer Axl Rose to replace Stradlin. However, despite four attempts to have him come in and play with Slash, he never showed up. However, he later went on to play on the 1999 Guns N' Roses song "Oh My God", which was featured on the End of Days soundtrack. In 1993, Navarro formed Deconstruction with Jane's Addiction's Eric Avery on vocals and bass and Michael Murphy on drums, and the band put out one self-titled album in 1994. Rick Rubin was involved in the production and Butthole Surfers singer Gibby Haynes makes a guest appearance. They did not tour due to Avery's exhaustion after Jane's Addiction.

1993-1998[link]

Navarro joined Red Hot Chili Peppers in September 1993. His first large-scale performance with the band was at Woodstock '94. The only album in which Navarro played with Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute - was released in 1995. The album was seen as a commercial disappointment (even though it sold over 8 million copies worldwide). They also recorded a cover of the Ohio Players' song "Love Rollercoaster" for the Beavis and Butthead Do America soundtrack, the John Lennon song "I Found Out" for Working Class Hero a Tribute to John Lennon, and an original song called "Melancholy Mechanics" for the Twister soundtrack. Many fans preferred former guitarist John Frusciante's guitar style over Navarro's. The album received mixed reviews despite producing three hit singles. Navarro toured with Jane's Addiction for their 1997 Relapse tour with Flea on bass. After two years of touring on and off with Red Hot Chili Peppers, and his subsequent heroin relapse, Navarro was fired in 1998. John Frusciante rejoined Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998.

2001-2005[link]

The album, Trust No One, marked his solo debut in the summer of 2001. In 2002, Jane’s Addiction reformed with bass player Chris Chaney, and started work on a new album. The band entered the studio with veteran rock producer, Bob Ezrin resulting in the album Strays and the Lollapalooza 2003 tour in support of the album. In 2002, Michael Jackson performed at the Apollo Theater, and Dave played guitar for his hit song "Black or White".

Navarro began working with Camp Freddy during this time. In 2003, Dave and his fiancée, Carmen Electra, agreed to have their wedding preparations filmed for an MTV show titled, Til Death Do Us Part. Camp Freddy played at the reception. The show was a great success and was released on DVD in the fall of 2005. Dave’s book, Don't Try This At Home, was released on October 5, 2004 with Regan books, and quickly became a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

On a lighter note, Navarro appeared in two tournaments on Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2004. In the third tournament of the series, he won his qualifying game and appeared in the championship round. In the fourth series, he appeared only in a qualifying round.^[3]

2006-2012[link]

Dave co-hosted with Brooke Burke, two seasons of the Mark Burnett television series: Rock Star: INXS and Rock Star: Supernova. Dave and his band, The Panic Channel, released their album One, in August 2006. They toured with Rock Star Supernova (the band formed from the series) in January/February 2007. During this time, Dave began his own internet radio station: SPREAD RADIO LIVE. He soon broadened his creativity with an internet talk show called: Dave Navarro’s SPREAD TV, which was broadcast on Maniatv.com and is currently available for download on iTunes. The show highlighted a myriad of avant-garde subjects, artistry, and the human condition. Videos from the series are also available on Navarro's YouTube channel.

Navarro in 2007

In 2007, Navarro also teamed with Teravision to direct his first adult movie, Broken starring Sasha Grey, in the first of a planned series of celebrity-directed adult movies.^[4] This effort won "Best High End All-Sex Release" at the 2008 AVN Awards.^[5] Navarro has also made appearances in Season 1 and Season 2 of Z Rock^[6] with Brooklyn-based band ZO2 on IFC.^[7]

Jane's Addiction reunited once more in 2008 with all of the original members. The notoriously tumultuous band's reunion was widely credited by NME magazine for choosing Jane's Addiction as the recipient of their "Godlike Genius Award for Services to Music". Soon after performing together for the first time in 17 years at the NME Award ceremony in Los Angeles, the band was contacted by Trent Reznor. Trent began working with Jane's Addiction in his studio; they recorded and released two songs ("Chip Away" and "Whores") online on the NINJA 2009 Tour Sampler. Both songs were previously released on their self-titled 1987 Live album. This time together in the studio led directly to the pairing of Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction for a worldwide tour in 2009. The tour was branded the NIN/JA tour by fans.

During August 2009, Navarro toured southern California as part of the Billy Corgan-led band Spirits in the Sky.

In 2011, Navarro appeared as the 'Director' of a Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, playing a complicated passage for a 'camper' to emulate, in a commercial for Citibank.^[8][9]

Navarro featured on the track "Girls/Fast Cars" on the album The Wombats Proudly Present: This Modern Glitch. by indie rock band The Wombats.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were named 2012 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame although despite being in the band for five years and playing on one album, Navarro will not be inducted. When the announcement was made of the induction, Navarro said he was happy for the band but later said he had no plans to attend the ceremony which will be held in April 2012.^[10]Anthony Kiedis was asked why Navarro was not included in the induction and he responded by saying "He's in this other band, which may in fact be inducted itself one day, called Jane's Addiction. I think that's the band closest to his heart, and that most represents his contribution to the world in terms of music. So maybe it makes more sense for him to be inducted one day as a member of Jane's Addiction." According to the hall of fame and the Chili Peppers' lawyer, it is the hall of fame's decision on which members are inducted. They eventually selected original members, current members and those who have appeared on multiple albums. Ex-Peppers guitarist, Jack Sherman disagreed and felt that both himself and Navarro were being treated unfairly by the band and they, in fact, did have a say in who was inducted. Chad Smith was the only band member to acknowledge both Navarro and Sherman (along with other former members) during his induction speech.^[11]

He hosted the reality tattoo show called "Ink Master" on Spike January 17, 2012 – March 6, 2012.

Personal life[link]

Navarro has been married and divorced three times. He married his first wife, make-up artist Tania Goddard, in a pagan ceremony^[12] in 1990 and his second wife, Rhian Gittins, in a civil ceremony on October 15, 1994. Navarro married model and actress Carmen Electra, on November 22, 2003. On July 17, 2006, Navarro and Electra announced their split to Star Magazine. Navarro posted a message on his blog the following morning saying "I just want to say thanks for all of your love and support. I'm sure that you can understand that I wish to keep all personal matters private." Electra filed for divorce on August 8, 2006.

Equipment of choice[link]

Dave Navarro on stage in Santa Barbara, USA in 2009.

During the first few years of Jane's Addiction, Dave played a black Gibson Les Paul. Around the time of the band's major label debut Nothing's Shocking in 1988, he played Ibanez RG series guitars, including one custom painted with the album cover art. He is seen in the film "Gift" and the "Stop" video playing a blue Ibanez RG, which suggests it was used in the recording of the album Ritual de lo Habitual. During the 1990 Ritual tour, he primarily played a custom-shaped single cutaway gold Ibanez.

Dave began using PRS Guitars on the Lollapalooza tour in 1991. His signature model PRS (White with Gold Hardware)^[13] is now his number one stage guitar. He has several models in his regular stage and studio rig, and was only the third PRS artist to have both a Maryland-made and SE (Student Edition - a "Budget Model" built in Korea with cheaper wood, electronics, and hardware, but one of the best bargain instruments in their price range^[14] version of their Signature Model.^[15]

He used a Parker Fly Deluxe for the Chili Peppers days during the live versions of "My Friends". He used it for its clean tones and its piezoelectric pickup that sounds similar to an acoustic guitar. Dave also openly admits that "It's one of the ugliest guitars I've ever seen", as quoted from the Dave Navarro instructional DVD.

During this era, Dave went with a more treble based guitar in the Fender Stratocaster for the funk-based tones required for the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog compared to his more traditional "Hard Rock" tone in "Jane's Addiction". He had several in his possession. All of them were a 3 single coil pattern but he also had a Modulus Stratocaster-like guitar made.

Dave has also been seen playing Kramer (Van Halen Signature) Guitars, Fender Telecasters, Takamine Acoustic 12 strings, and even a Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster given to him by Carmen.

Since late 2008, Dave's been seen using live and in studio a custom white Ibanez RG, with a humbucker/single/single pickup layout, gold hardware, and a vintage style tremolo... essentially an Ibanez version of his PRS Guitars Signature Model.^[13] Dave previously used a vintage Marshall JCM800, but now plays through 2 Marshall JCM900 amplifiers which are dubbed Tanjerine and Peach. For large gigs he will also use a Marshall Mode 4 for clean tones. In the studio he is also commonly known to use a Vox AC30 for cleans and a Bogner Uberschall for dirty tones.

With effects, Dave prefers BOSS. He uses a BOSS Octave Pedal, 2 BOSS DD3 Digital Delays, a BOSS Turbo distortion for extra volume during soloing, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Pedal and several others.

Epiphone Guitars (a subsidiary of Gibson) released its Dave Navarro Artist Acoustic in July 2010. According to an interview with Navarro on Gibson.com, the new guitar is based upon the classic Gibson (and Epiphone) "Hummingbird" design, and has already been played by the guitarist in the studio while recording with Jane's Addiction.^[16] Named "Jane", the new guitar is black in color (as opposed to Navarro's usual white guitars), and sports a dead tree and crows on the pickguard, rather than the traditional Hummingbird and foliage images.

Discography[link]

Solo

• 1995 Rhimorse
• 2001 Trust No One
  • "Rexall": U.S. Modern Rock Tracks #12, U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks #9
  • "Hungry": U.S. Modern Rock Tracks #24, U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks #38

With Jane's Addiction

• 1987 Jane's Addiction
• 1988 Nothing's Shocking
• 1990 Ritual de lo Habitual
• 1997 Kettle Whistle
• 2003 Strays
• 2006 Up from the Catacombs - The Best of (Greatest hits album)
• 2009 A Cabinet of Curiosities (Box set)
• 2011 The Great Escape Artist

With Deconstruction

• 1994 Deconstruction

With Red Hot Chili Peppers

• 1995 One Hot Minute and "Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon" ("I Found Out" only)
• 1996 "Love Rollercoaster"
• 2012 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Covers EP

With Nine Inch Nails

• 1995 Further Down The Spiral - guitar on "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)"

With Alanis Morissette

• 1995 Jagged Little Pill - guitar on "You Oughta Know"

With Marilyn Manson

• 1998 Mechanical Animals - guitar solo on "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)"

With Guns N' Roses

• 1999 End of Days OST - guitar on "Oh My God"

With P.Diddy

• 2001 The Saga Continues... - guitar on "Bad Boy for Life"

With Christina Aguilera

• 2002 Stripped - guitar on "Fighter"

With Gene Simmons

• 2004 "Asshole" - guitar on "Firestarter" (The Prodigy cover)

With Glenn Hughes

• 2005 Soul Mover

With Tommy Lee

• 2005 Tommyland: The Ride - guitar solo on "Tired"

With The Panic Channel

• 2006 (ONe)

With Dead Celebrity Status

• 2006 Blood Music - guitar solo on "We Fall, We Fall"

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Navarro

• Official website
• Dave Navarro at the Internet Movie Database
• Dave Navarro interview January 2008
• Dave Navarro's Spread on maniaTV.com
• Dave Navarro's Guitars photo gallery
• PRS Guitars Dave Navarro Signature model

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, 37th G8 summit (2011)
Born	Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (1984-05-14) May 14, 1984 (age 28)[1] White Plains, New York, U.S.
Residence	Palo Alto, California, U.S.[2]
Alma mater	Harvard University (Dropped out)
Occupation	Chairman and CEO of Facebook [3]
Years active	2004–present
Known for	Co-founding Facebook in 2004; world's youngest billionaire as of 2008[4]
Net worth	US$ 17.5 billion (2012)[5]
Spouse	Priscilla Chan, M.D. (m. 2012) «start: (2012)»"Marriage: Priscilla Chan, M.D. to Mark Zuckerberg" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Mark_Zuckerberg)
Relatives	Randi, Donna and Arielle (sisters)
Awards	TIME Person of the Year 2010
Website
Facebook.com/MarkZuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of four co-founders of the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chairman and chief executive.^[6]

Zuckerberg was born and raised in a Jewish household in New York state. While still in middle school in his early teens, he took up writing software programs as a hobby, beginning with BASIC, with help from his father. His father then hired a tutor to help his son develop his programming skills further. Zuckerberg's enjoyment in writing programs led him to developing computer games, writing a music player, and setting up a primitive home network he called "ZuckNet." His private tutor calls him a "prodigy." In high school he excelled in classic literature and science, while becoming proficient in four other languages. He was also captain of the school's fencing team.

He later enrolled in Harvard, majoring in computer science and sociology. In his sophomore year he wrote a program called Facemash as a "fun" project, letting students on the college's network vote on other students' photo attractiveness. It was shut down within days, but would become a template for his writing Facebook, a program he launched from his dormitory room. With the help of friends, including roommate Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook went national on other campuses, and they moved to Palo Alto, California. By 2010, the site had an estimated 500 million users worldwide. Zuckerberg and Facebook have since been involved in various legal disputes initiated by others who have claimed a share of the company's profits due to their help in setting it up. Zuckerberg is the largest individual shareholder with 28.4 percent of the common stock and controls 56.9 percent of the voting power.^[7] As of 2012^[update], his personal wealth was estimated at more than $19.1 billion, making him one of the world's youngest billionaires.^[8] Zuckerberg is one of the 30 richest people on Earth.

Zuckerberg was named four times in Time 100: in 2009 as one of the 100 influential people of the world, in 2010 as Time magazine's Person of the Year,^[9] in 2011^[10] and 2012, along with being one of the world's richest and most influential people.^[8][11] In 2010 a fictionalized account of Zuckerberg creating Facebook while in college and its later start-up phase was made into a movie dramatization, The Social Network.

Early life[link]

Zuckerberg was born in 1984 in White Plains, New York.^[12] He is the son of Karen (née Kempner), a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist.^[13] He and his three sisters, Randi, Donna, and Arielle,^[2] were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York.^[2] Zuckerberg was raised Jewish, had his bar mitzvah when he turned 13,^[14][15] and has since described himself as an atheist.^{[15][16][17][18]}

At Ardsley High School, Zuckerberg had excelled in the classics before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy in his junior year, where he won prizes in science (math, astronomy and physics) and classical studies (on his college application, Zuckerberg listed as non-English languages he could read and write: French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek) and was a fencing star and captain of the fencing team.^{[17][19][20][21]} In college, he was known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Iliad.^[19]

Software developer[link]

Early years[link]

Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software as a child in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately. Newman calls him a "prodigy", adding that it was "tough to stay ahead of him". Zuckerberg also took a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while he was still in high school. He enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. In one such program, since his father's dental practice was operated from their home, he built a software program he called "ZuckNet", which allowed all the computers between the house and dental office to communicate by pinging each other. It is considered a "primitive" version of AOL's Instant Messenger, which came out the following year.^[2]

According to writer Jose Antonio Vargas, "some kids played computer games. Mark created them." Zuckerberg himself recalls this period: "I had a bunch of friends who were artists. They'd come over, draw stuff, and I'd build a game out of it." However, notes Vargas, Zuckerberg was not a typical "geek-klutz", as he later became captain of his prep school fencing team and earned a classics diploma. Napster co-founder Sean Parker, a close friend, notes that Zuckerberg was "really into Greek odysseys and all that stuff", recalling how he once quoted lines from the Roman epic poem Aeneid, by Virgil, during a Facebook product conference.^[2]

During Zuckerberg's high school years, under the company name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player called the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot^[22] and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine.^[23] Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he chose instead to enroll at Harvard University in September 2002.

Harvard years[link]

By the time he began classes at Harvard, he had already achieved a "reputation as a programming prodigy", notes Vargas. He studied psychology and computer science as well as belonging to Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity.^{[2][6][9][24]} In his sophomore year, he wrote a program he called CourseMatch, which allowed users to make class selection decisions based on the choices of other students and also to help them form study groups. A short time later, he created a different program he initially called Facemash that let students select the best looking person from a choice of photos. According to Zuckerberg's roommate at the time, Arie Hasit, "he built the site for fun". Hasit explains:

We had books called Face Books, which included the names and pictures of everyone who lived in the student dorms. At first, he built a site and placed two pictures, or pictures of two males and two females. Visitors to the site had to choose who was "hotter" and according to the votes there would be a ranking.^[25]

The site went up over a weekend, but by Monday morning the college shut it down because its popularity had overwhelmed Harvard's server and prevented students from accessing the Internet. In addition, many students complained that their photos were being used without permission. Zuckerberg apologized publicly, and the student paper ran articles stating that his site was "completely improper".^[25]

Around the time of Facemash, however, students were requesting that the university develop an internal website that would include similar photos and contact details. According to Hasit, "Mark heard these pleas and decided that if the university won't do something about it, he will, and he would build a site that would be even better than what the university had planned."^[25]

Career[link]

Zuckerberg listening to President Barack H. Obama before a private meeting where Obama dined with technology business leaders in Woodside, California, February 17, 2011. (Also pictured, from left: Carol Bartz of Yahoo!, Art Levinson of Genentech, Steve Westly of The Westly Group, and Eric Schmidt of Google.)

Facebook[link]

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2004.^[26][27] An earlier inspiration for Facebook may have come from Phillips Exeter Academy, the prep school from which Zuckerberg graduated in 2002. It published its own student directory, “The Photo Address Book,” which students referred to as “The Facebook.” Such photo directories were an important part of the student social experience at many private schools. With them, students were able to list attributes such as their class years, their proximities to friends, and their telephone numbers.^[26]

Once at college, Zuckerberg's Facebook started off as just a "Harvard thing" until Zuckerberg decided to spread it to other schools, enlisting the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz. They first started it at Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Penn, Brown, and Yale, and then at other schools that had social contacts with Harvard.^{[28][29][30][31]}

Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz and some friends. They leased a small house that served as an office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel who invested in the company. They got their first office in mid-2004. According to Zuckerberg, the group planned to return to Harvard but eventually decided to remain in California.^[32][33] They had already turned down offers by major corporations to buy out Facebook. In an interview in 2007, Zuckerberg explained his reasoning:

It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. Having media corporations owned by conglomerates is just not an attractive idea to me.^[27]

He restated these same goals to Wired magazine in 2010: "The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open."^[34] Earlier, in April 2009, Zuckerberg sought the advice of former Netscape CFO Peter Currie about financing strategies for Facebook.^[35]

On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that the company reached the 500 million-user mark.^[36] When asked whether Facebook could earn more income from advertising as a result of its phenomenal growth, he explained:

I guess we could ... If you look at how much of our page is taken up with ads compared to the average search query. The average for us is a little less than 10 percent of the pages and the average for search is about 20 percent taken up with ads ... That’s the simplest thing we could do. But we aren’t like that. We make enough money. Right, I mean, we are keeping things running; we are growing at the rate we want to.^[34]

In 2010, Steven Levy, who authored the 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, wrote that Zuckerberg "clearly thinks of himself as a hacker".^[37] Zuckerberg said that "it's OK to break things" "to make them better".^[37][38] Facebook instituted "hackathons" held every six to eight weeks where participants would have one night to conceive of and complete a project.^[37] The company provided music, food, and beer at the hackathons, and many Facebook staff members, including Zuckerberg, regularly attended.^[38] "The idea is that you can build something really good in a night", Zuckerberg told Levy. "And that's part of the personality of Facebook now ... It's definitely very core to my personality."^[37]

Vanity Fair magazine named Zuckerberg number 1 on its 2010 list of the Top 100 "most influential people of the Information Age".^[39] Zuckerberg ranked number 23 on the Vanity Fair 100 list in 2009.^[40] In 2010, Zuckerberg was chosen as number 16 in New Statesman's annual survey of the world's 50 most influential figures.^[41]

In a 2011 interview with PBS after the death of Steve Jobs, Zuckerberg said that Jobs had advised him on how to create a management team at Facebook that was "focused on building as high quality and good things as you are".^[42]

Wirehog[link]

A month after Facebook launched in February 2004, i2hub, another campus-only service, created by Wayne Chang, was launched. i2hub focused on peer-to-peer file sharing. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook were gaining the attention of the press and growing rapidly in users and publicity. In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D'Angelo, and Sean Parker launched a competing peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog, a precursor to Facebook Platform applications.^[43][44]

Platform and Beacon[link]

Zuckerberg at World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland (January 2009)

On May 24, 2007, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Platform, a development platform for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. Within weeks, many applications had been built and some already had millions of users. It grew to more than 800,000 developers around the world building applications for Facebook Platform.

On November 6, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a new social advertising system called Beacon, which enabled people to share information with their Facebook friends based on their browsing activities on other sites. For example, eBay sellers could let friends know automatically what they have for sale via the Facebook news feed as they list items for sale. The program came under scrutiny because of privacy concerns from groups and individual users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond to the concerns quickly, and on December 5, 2007, Zuckerberg wrote a blog post on Facebook^[45] taking responsibility for the concerns about Beacon and offering an easier way for users to opt out of the service.

In 2007, Zuckerberg was named to the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.^[46]

On July 23, 2008, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Connect, a version of Facebook Platform for users.

Legal controversies[link]

ConnectU lawsuits[link]

Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally making them believe he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com (later called ConnectU).^[47] They filed a lawsuit in 2004 but it was dismissed on a technicality on March 28, 2007. It was refiled soon thereafter in federal court in Boston. Facebook counter sued in regards to Social Butterfly, a project put out by The Winklevoss Chang Group, an alleged partnership between ConnectU and i2hub. On June 25, 2008, the case settled and Facebook agreed to transfer over 1.2 million common shares and pay $20 million in cash.^[48]

In November 2007, confidential court documents were posted on the website of 02138, a magazine that catered to Harvard alumni. They included Zuckerberg's social security number, his parents' home address, and his girlfriend's address. Facebook filed to have the documents removed, but the judge ruled in favor of 02138.^[49]

Saverin lawsuit[link]

A lawsuit filed by Eduardo Saverin against Facebook and Zuckerberg was settled out of court. Though terms of the settlement were sealed, the company affirmed Saverin's title as co-founder of Facebook. Saverin signed a non-disclosure contract after the settlement.^[50][51]

Pakistan criminal investigation[link]

In June 2010, Pakistani Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Azhar Sidiqque launched a criminal investigation into Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes after a "Draw Muhammad" contest was hosted on Facebook. The investigation also named the anonymous German woman who created the contest. Sidiqque asked the country's police to contact Interpol to have Zuckerberg and the three others arrested for blasphemy. On May 19, 2010, Facebook's website was temporarily blocked in Pakistan until Facebook removed the contest from its website at the end of May. Sidiqque also asked its UN representative to raise the issue with the United Nations General Assembly.^[52][53]

Paul Ceglia[link]

On June 30, 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a wood pellet fuel company in Allegany County, upstate New York, filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, claiming 84% ownership of Facebook and seeking monetary damages. According to Ceglia, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract on April 28, 2003, that an initial fee of $1,000 entitled Ceglia to 50% of the website's revenue, as well as an additional 1% interest in the business per day after January 1, 2004, until website completion. Zuckerberg was developing other projects at the time, among which was Facemash, the predecessor of Facebook, but did not register the domain name thefacebook.com until January 1, 2004. Facebook management dismissed the lawsuit as "completely frivolous". Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told a reporter that Ceglia's counsel had unsuccessfully sought an out-of-court settlement.^[54]

Pursuant to the contract, Ceglia agreed to pay Zuckerberg $1,000 for StreetFax and $1,000 for PageBook. The contract also refers to The Face Book, a project that was to be completed by January 2004. Ceglia offered a receipt for $1,000, dated six months after the contract, to prove he paid Zuckerberg, but it was not the full amount due, and the contract did not specify what occurs in the event of a default.^[55]

In an interview with ABC World News, Zuckerberg stated he was confident he had never signed such an agreement. At the time, Zuckerberg worked for Ceglia as a code developer on a project named "StreetFax". Judge Thomas Brown issued a restraining order on all financial transfers concerning ownership of Facebook until further notice; in response, Facebook removed the case to federal court and asked that the state court injunction be dissolved. According to Facebook, the injunction would not affect their business and lacked any legal basis.^{[56][57][58][59][60][61]}

Depictions in media[link]

[edit] The Social Network

A movie based on Zuckerberg and the founding years of Facebook, The Social Network was released on October 1, 2010, and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. After Zuckerberg was told about the film, he responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive."^[62] Also, after the film's script was leaked on the Internet and it was apparent that the film would not portray Zuckerberg in a wholly positive light, he stated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy".^[63] The film is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, which the book's publicist once described as "big juicy fun" rather than "reportage".^[64] The film's screenwriter Aaron Sorkin told New York magazine, "I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling", adding, "What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy's sake, and can we not have the true be the enemy of the good?"^[65]

Upon winning the Golden Globes award for Best Picture on January 16, 2011, producer Scott Rudin thanked Facebook and Zuckerberg "for his willingness to allow us to use his life and work as a metaphor through which to tell a story about communication and the way we relate to each other.”^[66] Sorkin, who won for Best Screenplay, retracted some of the impressions given in his script:^[67]

"I wanted to say to Mark Zuckerberg tonight, if you're watching, Rooney Mara's character makes a prediction at the beginning of the movie. She was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a visionary, and an incredible altruist."

On January 29, 2011, Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, which was being hosted by Jesse Eisenberg. They both said it was the first time they ever met.^[68] Eisenberg asked Zuckerberg, who had been critical of his portrayal by the film, what he thought of the movie. Zuckerberg replied, "It was interesting."^[69] In a subsequent interview about their meeting, Eisenberg explains that he was "nervous to meet him, because I had spent now, a year and a half thinking about him ..." He adds, "Mark has been so gracious about something that’s really so uncomfortable ... The fact that he would do SNL and make fun of the situation is so sweet and so generous. It’s the best possible way to handle something that, I think, could otherwise be very uncomfortable."^[70][71]

Disputed accuracy[link]

Jeff Jarvis, author of the book Public Parts, interviewed Zuckerberg and believes Sorkin has made too much of the story up. He states, "That's what the internet is accused of doing, making stuff up, not caring about the facts."^[72]

According to David Kirkpatrick, former technology editor at Fortune magazine and author of The Facebook Effect:The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, (2011),^[73] "the film is only "40% true ... he is not snide and sarcastic in a cruel way, the way Zuckerberg is played in the movie." He says that "a lot of the factual incidents are accurate, but many are distorted and the overall impression is false", and concludes that primarily "his motivations were to try and come up with a new way to share information on the internet".^[72]

Although the film portrays Zuckerberg's creation of Facebook in order to elevate his stature after not getting into any of the elite final clubs at Harvard, Zuckerberg himself said he had no interest in joining the final clubs.^[2] Kirkpatrick agrees that the impression implied by the film is "false".^[72]

Karel Baloun, a former senior engineer at Facebook, notes that the "image of Zuckerberg as a socially inept nerd is overstated ... It is fiction ..." He likewise dismisses the film's assertion that he "would deliberately betray a friend".^[72]

Other depictions[link]

Zuckerberg voiced himself on an episode of The Simpsons, "Loan-a Lisa", which first aired on October 3, 2010. In the episode, Lisa Simpson and her friend Nelson encounter Zuckerberg at an entrepreneurs' convention. Zuckerberg tells Lisa that she does not need to graduate from college to be wildly successful, referencing Bill Gates and Richard Branson as examples.^[74]

On October 9, 2010, Saturday Night Live lampooned Zuckerberg and Facebook.^[75] Andy Samberg played Zuckerberg. The real Zuckerberg was reported to have been amused: "I thought this was funny."^[76]

Stephen Colbert awarded a "Medal of Fear" to Zuckerberg at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on October 30, 2010, "because he values his privacy much more than he values yours".^[77]

Use of other social networks[link]

Zuckerberg created an account with Google+ soon after the social network was unveiled, saying he sees it as a "validation for his vision" of online social networking.^[78] By July 2011, Zuckerberg had become the most followed user on Google+, outranking Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.^[79] As of March 6, 2012, his ranking has dropped to 184 on the service, behind Page and Brin.^[80] His public profile is minimal with one photo and a bio that reads "I make things".^[81]

Zuckerberg has maintained a private account on Twitter under the username "zuck", though in 2009 he revealed that the public account "finkd" also belonged to him.^[82]

Philanthropy[link]

Zuckerberg donated an undisclosed amount to Diaspora, an open-source personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service. He called it a "cool idea".^[34]

Zuckerberg founded the Start-up: Education foundation.^[83][84] On September 22, 2010, it was reported that Zuckerberg had arranged to donate $100 million to Newark Public Schools, the public school system of Newark, New Jersey.^[85][86] Critics noted the timing of the donation as being close to the release of The Social Network, which painted a somewhat negative portrait of Zuckerberg.^[87][88] Zuckerberg responded to the criticism, saying, "The thing that I was most sensitive about with the movie timing was, I didn’t want the press about The Social Network movie to get conflated with the Newark project. I was thinking about doing this anonymously just so that the two things could be kept separate."^[87] Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker stated that he and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had to convince Zuckerberg's team not to make the donation anonymously.^[87]

On December 9, 2010, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and investor Warren Buffett signed a promise they called the "Giving Pledge", in which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time, and invited others among the wealthy to donate 50% or more of their wealth to charity.^[89][90][91]

Personal life[link]

At a party put on by his fraternity during his sophomore year, Zuckerberg met Priscilla Chan, a fellow student who he began dating in 2003. Chan is of Chinese descent, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and is a 2003 graduate of Quincy High School.^[92][93] In September 2010, Zuckerberg invited Chan, by then a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco,^[94] to move into his rented Palo Alto house.^[2][95] Zuckerberg studied Mandarin Chinese in preparation for the couple's visit to the People's Republic of China in December 2010.^[96][97]

On Zuckerberg's Facebook page, he listed his personal interests as "openness, making things that help people connect and share what's important to them, revolutions, information flow, minimalism".^[98] Zuckerberg sees blue best because of red–green colorblindness; blue is also Facebook's dominant color.^[99]

On May 19, 2012, Zuckerberg and Chan married in Zuckerberg's backyard in a celebration also marking her graduation from medical school.^{[100][101][102]} Chan has a medical degree, and, according to some sources, is planning to begin interning and residencing towards becoming a pediatrician in 2012 or is a pediatrician currently.^{[103][104][105][106]}

References[link]