Hung Hom building collapses, 2 dead

Firefighters were scouring the remains of an old five-storey residential building in Hung Hom for survivors after it suddenly collapsed on Friday afternoon - in a tragedy which has claimed two lives.
Rescuers have already pulled five people from the rubble of the collapsed 50-year-old building, three men and two women.

Of the five, two people have now been confirmed dead, including a 40-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man.

One person, with serious injuries, was rushed to hospital.

At least four people are still missing; and police are continuing to search the mound of rubble.

Director of Fire Services Gregory Lo Chun-hung said the rescue work was difficult and dangerous.

“Our colleagues, including 20 staff from urban search and rescue teams, are doing their best to get people out as quickly as possible.

“But there are dangers, as the remains of the building itself are not stable. It, and the buildings next to it, might also collapse,” Lo said.

Director of Buildings Au Choi-kai agreed that two old buildings next to the collapsed one were dangerous. “We have to close them immediately and residents are not allowed to enter them,”Au said.

Over 20 nearby residents have already been evacuated, television news reported.

The incident occurred when most of the external wall of the building, at 45 Ma Tau Wai Road, crashed down about 1.43pm, a police spokesman said.

Firefighters and police rushed to the scene about 2pm. Witnesses said the wall had collapsed instantly.

Police closed off the scene and are investigating.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who visited the area on Friday afternoon praised the rescuers.

“Some people are still trapped inside the building and the firemen are doing their best to save them,'' he told reporters.

Tsang said he, and colleagues from the Social Welfare Department and Home Affairs Department, had met with nearby residents.

“Naturally they are frightened, scared, worried. I spoke with them,'' he told reporters.

“Definitely we will look after their accommodation tonight and whatever is needed to ensure they have alternative accommodation and will look after their livelihood.''

He said the building collapse had been a “real tragedy”

“We will do whatever we can to ensure this sort of accident will not happen again.”

The rescue work is expected to continue overnight.

SCMP. Jan 29, 2010.

Google 'sister' launches in China

A new search engine and social network provider called Goojje has appeared online in China.

The site contains very similar branding to Google, and the final syllable "jje" sounds similar to the Mandarin word for older sister (jiejie).

Goojje's search results appear to be filtered for sensitive content in accordance with Chinese regulations.

Google has recently objected to those restrictions, but the new site appears to be urging it to remain in China.

Google said on 12 January that hackers had tried to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, in a "highly sophisticated" attack.

The California-based firm - which launched in China in 2006 - said it would remain in China only if the government relaxed censorship.

According to the Reuters news agency, Goojje has a message on its site which reads: "Sister was very happy when brother gave up the thought of leaving and stayed for sister".

While Goojje sounds like "sister", the word Google sounds similar to the Mandarin word gege, which means "big brother".

Google has declined to comment.

BBC News. Jan 27, 2010.

Know your fats

We're always being told to reduce our fat intake. But is cutting out butter really the best option?



In the last 20 years, one type of fat in particular has been portrayed as being especially bad for us: saturated. We are submitted to a barrage of advice: "saturated fats are killing us"; "eat low-fat spread"; "don't use lard"; "trim off all the fat from meat". In the latest instalment of this long-running saga, heart surgeon Shyam Kolvekar is now demanding that we banish butter from our diets.


But no entire food group needs to be (or should be) completely removed from our diet and fat is no exception. Each cell in the body requires fatty acids to absorb vitamins A, D, E and K. Fat adds to the taste of food and is an important energy source. We need it to support our natural growth, to keep skin healthy and taut, to protect our vision and boost our immune functions. We need it to help our brains function normally, too. And we need to eat a healthy balance of naturally occurring fats to get these benefits.


So how much fat is safe? Fats should not take up more than 35% of one's daily calorie intake. That may sound like a lot, but fat is a very intensive calorie source. For example, 100g of butter – 10 of the small packs that cafes provide with a scone – provide 717 calories, making up one third of the average female's recommended daily calorie intake of 2,000 (men's is higher, at 2,500). And "good" fats don't contain any fewer calories than bad fats, so substituting an olive oil-based spread for butter won't make you slimmer (and it will likely be laden with colourants and other undesirable additives).


But there is more to fat than calories, so knowing your trans fats from your monounsaturates is one of the best things you can do for your health.


Saturated fat


This is the most traditional source of fat and is largely animal-based. It includes the fat found in meats, butter, cheese and cream. There are also many food products that contain these fats, with cakes, biscuits and pastries being the obvious culprits. Slightly less obvious are items such as barbecued chicken, many sauce mixes, pre-frozen roast vegetables and confectionary bars. Guidelines tell us that we should not exceed 11% of our daily fat intake in this form. It is seen as a bad fat because too much of it will contribute to hardening and narrowing of the arteries.


Unsaturated fats ('good' fats)


There are two main kinds of unsaturated fats – monounsaturated and poly unsaturated. The former come mainly from the oleic acid found in most nuts, avocado pears, rapeseed and olive oils. Monounsaturated fat is believed to lower cholesterol and may assist in reducing heart disease. Like polyunsaturated fat, it provides essential fatty acids for healthy skin and the development of body cells. And polyunsaturates are the essential fatty acids that contain the richest sources of Omega-3 and Omega-6, mainly found in fish oil, sunflower and corn oils and products made from these oils. Polyunsaturates can help reduce the "bad" cholesterol caused by saturated fat. You will find good sources in cold-pressed, unfiltered organic oils such as flax and rapeseed as well as in fish oils.


Trans fatty acids (TFAs)


A by-product of hydrogenated vegetable oil, TFAs are technically monounsaturates, but have been proven to be dangerous to health. Denmark was the first country to cut them out completely, saying there was "no such thing as a safe limit". Switzerland and Austria have since followed. And this week the UK Faculty of Public Health, representing 3,300 doctors, is urging ministers to eradicate them here, too.


TFAs were originally created in 1903 when an American chemist worked out that by boiling cottonseed oil to 260C, he could make it solidify. Why did he want to do that? To make cheap candles. Proctor & Gamble spotted the potential for food and bought the patent in 1909. It soon launched Crisco shortening in the US, a wonder food that contained no animal fat, didn't soak up other flavours and had a great shelf life. It wasn't until the 1970s that researchers discovered how damaging TFAs were.


TFAs do not just lower your "good" cholesterol level; they simultaneously raise the "bad". The most important research began in the US in 1976 and ran for 13 years. It found that a 2% increase in TFA calories would bring a 23% increased risk of heart ­disease. So, in terms of heart health, consuming 25g of TFA is equivalent to eating an entire 227g block of butter. And something like a take-away pie could easily contain 15g of TFA.


These days, a voluntary code has drastically reduced the amount of trans fat in supermarket own-brand products, but look out for hydrogenated vegetable oil on the ingredients lists of familiar brand names. You will still find it in cakes and confectionary, instant hot drinks, ready-bake cake mixes and, most commonly, where it is unidentified: that is, in take-away foods (especially anything that has been deep-fried). Trace amounts of TFAs (less than 1%), naturally occur in meat and milk too, but these do not seem to carry any risk.


So our Victorian ancestors, it seems, had a point: stick to natural sources and just watch the quantities. There really is nothing wrong with butter as long as you spread it on in moderation.


Guardian.co.uk

Solving 4 Rubik's cubes in 70 seconds

Hundreds protest costly railway project in Hong Kong

Hundreds in Hong Kong ringed the city's legislature on Friday as public frustration mounted over government attempts to bulldoze through a high speed railway, an issue that has also catalyzed a fresh push for full democracy.

The HK$66.9 billion (US$8.6 billion) high speed railway linking Hong Kong to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been championed by officials as a vital infrastructure project that could bring upwards of HK$87 billion in economic benefits over 50 years by vastly cutting travel times to Chinese cities.

Public bitterness has grown, however, over the planned razing of a village and rural swathes to make way for the project, along with growing cost estimates that now make the rail link one of the most expensive in the world on a per kilometer basis.

Outside the city's legislature, Hong Kongers ranging from grizzled activists and villagers facing eviction, to young protesters feverishly posting updates on Twitter and Facebook, appealed to lawmakers inside not to approve funding for the rail-link that will augment a slower existing one to Guangzhou.

"The government has never asked us what we want," said Chu Hoi-dick, a young activist who opposed the demolition of Hong Kong's historic Star Ferry clock tower several years ago.

The rail link has also become a lightning rod for the venting of broader discontent at Hong Kong's lack of democracy and government accountability for major policies.

Pro-democracy politicians are poised to resign en-masse from the city's legislature this month in frustration at what they say is too slow a pace in political reforms.

"Hong Kong's role is changing in that no longer are we a so-called economic city. Hong Kong is fully aware that to stand up for our rights is the only way to safeguard our future," said Albert Lai, chairman of the Professional Commons.

The Commons is an influential coalition of working professionals, whose detailed proposal for a cheaper alternative rail link with fewer disruptions has so far fallen on deaf government ears.

A vote on the rail link wasn't expected until late evening.

Earlier this week, Leung Chun-ying, a senior member of Hong Kong's cabinet, warned of growing public discontent, fueled in part from a yawning income gap and high property prices.

"Such a politically-alienated majority may perhaps at present have little capacity to disrupt economic life or political decision-making but within 10 years ... this will no longer be so," he wrote in an article in the Hong Kong Journal this week.

An average of 99,000 passengers are expected by 2016 to travel daily on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong link, which will join Hong Kong to China's high-speed rail network.

Officials have warned of great costs of further delays, while a fresh wave of Chinese visitors are expected to bring tourism, retail, logistics and other economic benefits.

Construction worker unions have also marched in support of the rail-link, saying it will bring thousands of new jobs.

Reuters. Jan 8, 2010.

Google 'may quit' China

Internet giant Google has said it may end its operations in China following a "sophisticated and targeted" cyber attack originating from the country.


It did not accuse Beijing directly, but said it was no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine - google.cn.

This could result in closing the site, and its Chinese offices, Google said.

Chinese rival Baidu called the move "hypocritical" and financially driven. In US trade on Wednesday Baidu's shares were up 13%, and Google's down 0.57%.

Google said the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were the primary target of the attack, which occurred in December.

The search engine has now said it will hold talks with the government in the coming weeks to look at operating an unfiltered search engine within the law in the country, though no changes to filtering had yet been made.

Google launched google.cn in 2006, agreeing to some censorship of the search results, as required by the Chinese government.

It currently holds around a third of the Chinese search market, far behind Baidu with more than 60%.

Email targeted


In a blog post announcing its decision, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said: "A primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists."


The company said its investigation into the attack found two accounts of its online mail service - Gmail - appeared to have been accessed.

However, the attack was limited to accessing account information such as the date the account was created and subject line, rather than e-mail content, it said.

It said it had also discovered that the accounts of dozens of US, China and Europe-based Gmail users, who are "advocates of human rights in China", appeared to have been "routinely accessed by third parties".

It said these accounts had not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but "most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on users' computers".

At least 20 other large companies from a wide range of businesses were similarly targeted, it added.

'Makes me sick'



In a blog, the chief architect of Baidu said Google's decision to quit was for financial reasons, rather than a human rights issue, as Google had failed to dominate the Chinese search market.


"What Google said makes me sick," he said. "If you are to quit for the sake of financial interest, then just say it."



Google's decision to concede to China's demands on censorship in 2006 led to accusations it had betrayed its company motto - "don't be evil" - but Google argued it would be more damaging for civil liberties if it pulled out of China entirely.

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan Jones said Google had also seen a significant amount of internal dissent over its decision to operate under censorship.

In 2008, it signed the Global Network Initiative agreement with rivals Microsoft and Yahoo, pledging better protection of online privacy and freedom of speech against government interference.

Those commitments, however, are weighed against the commercial opportunities that China provides as a fast growing market.

Nearly 340 million Chinese people now online, compared with 10 million only a decade ago.





BBC News.  Jan 13, 2010.

Anne Frank helper dies aged 100

Miep Gies, the last surviving member of the group who helped protect Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, has died in the Netherlands aged 100.

She and other employees of Anne Frank's father Otto supplied food to the family as they hid in a secret annex above the business premises in Amsterdam.

Anne's diary of their life in hiding, which ended in betrayal, is one of the most famous records of the Holocaust.

It was rescued by Mrs Gies, who kept it safe until after the war.

Miep Gies died in a nursing home after suffering a fall just before Christmas.

Speaking last year as she celebrated her 100th birthday, Mrs Gies played down her role, saying others had done far more to protect Jews in the Netherlands.

She and her fellow employees kept Anne and the seven others supplied for two years, from 1942 to 1944.

When the family were found by the authorities, they were deported, and Anne died of typhus in the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.

It was Mrs Gies who collected up Anne's papers and locked them away, hoping that one day she would be able to give them back to the girl.

In the event, she returned them to Otto Frank, who survived the war, and helped him compile them into a diary that was published in 1947.

It went on to sell tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages.

Mrs Gies became a kind of ambassador for the diary, travelling to talk about Anne Frank and her experiences, campaigning against Holocaust denial and refuting allegations that the diary was a forgery.

For her efforts to protect the Franks and to preserve their memory, Mrs Gies won many accolades.

Memories of Anne

In an interview from 1998, published on the annefrank website, Miep Gies says she thought it "perfectly natural" to help Anne and the seven others despite the penalties she could have suffered under the Nazi occupation.

"They were powerless, they didn't know where to turn..." she says. "We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need."

Her role was, she recalls, to fetch vegetables and meat while others supplied bread or books.

Her memory of Anne is of having the feeling she was "speaking to an adult".

"I'd say to myself, 'My goodness, child, so young and talking like that already'," she says in the interview.

She believes that she once came across Anne writing the diary.

"It was a very uncomfortable situation," she says.

"I tried to decide what to do. Should I walk away or go to her? At that moment she glanced at me, with a look that I'll never forget.

"This wasn't the Anne I knew, that friendly, charming child. She looked at me with anger, rage. Then Anne stood up, slammed her diary shut and glared at me with great condescension. 'Yes,' she said, 'I'm writing about you, too.'

"I didn't know what to say. The only thing I could manage was: 'That ought to be interesting.'"

Mrs Gies also remembers the day the Franks were taken away and how she went up into the empty annex to find the pages of the diary lying on the floor.

Removing the pages, she did not read them immediately, telling herself at the time: "These may belong to a child, but even children have a right to privacy."

BBC News. Jan 12, 2010.

Frozen Britain

The freezing weather looks set to stay with them for up to a week but what do the figures tell us about the cold snap so far?

BBC News - Frozen Britain.

Star Trek was the 'most pirated movie' of 2009

The latest Star Trek film was illegally downloaded more than 10 million times in 2009, according to an internet blog site that monitors file-sharing.

The figures suggest it is 2009's most pirated film, ahead of Transformers sequel Revenge of the Fallen.
Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla was the third most pirated movie, with The Hangover and Twilight completing the top five.

The TorrentFreak blog reports on peer-to-peer activity which uses BitTorrent file-sharing software.
BitTorrent is one of the most popular means of transferring large files over the internet.
Other films featured in the list of most illegally downloaded titles include sci-fi thriller District 9 and the sixth Harry Potter adventure.

But X-Men Origins: Wolverine ranks fairly low in the Top 10, despite an unfinished version of the film appearing online ahead of its release.

Directed by JJ Abrams, Star Trek charted the early days of James T Kirk, Mr Spock and other crew members of the Starship Enterprise.

BBC News. 

Complete exam practice - Sets 1 & 2

You can download Set 1 and Set 2 from the following links.

Set 1.

Set 2.

For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk

For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels.

“It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. “You get used to it.”

When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel’s tiny plastic cubicles offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home.

Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II.

Once-booming exporters laid off workers en masse in 2009 as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, have become homeless.

The country’s woes have led the government to open emergency shelters over the New Year holiday in a nationwide drive to help the homeless. The Democratic Party, which swept to power in September, wants to avoid the fate of the previous pro-business government, which was caught off-guard when unemployed workers pitched tents near public offices last year to call attention to their plight.

“In this bitter-cold New Year’s season, the government intends to do all it can to help those who face hardship,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a video posted Dec. 26 on YouTube. “You are not alone.”

On Friday, he visited a Tokyo shelter housing 700 homeless people, telling reporters that “help can’t wait.”

Mr. Nakanishi considers himself relatively lucky. After working odd jobs on an Isuzu assembly line, at pachinko parlors and as a security guard, Mr. Nakanishi, 40, moved into the capsule hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in April to save on rent while he worked night shifts at a delivery company.

Mr. Nakanishi, who studied economics at a regional university, dreams of becoming a lawyer and pores over legal manuals during the day. But with no job since Christmas, he does not know how much longer he can afford a capsule bed.

The rent is surprisingly high for such a small space: 59,000 yen a month, or about $640, for an upper bunk. But with no upfront deposit or extra utility charges, and basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, Mr. Nakanishi says.

Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows.

Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks.

Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance.

“Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train,” said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel.

But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for dwellers of a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsules are rented out by the month.

After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode; that made it easier to land job interviews.

At 2 a.m. on one recent December night, two young women watched the American television show “24” on a TV inside the sauna. One said she had traveled to Tokyo from her native Gunma, north of the city, to look for work. She intended to be a hostess at one of the capital’s cabaret clubs, where women engage in conversation with men for a fee.

The woman, 20, said she was hoping to land a job with a club that would put her up in an apartment. She declined to give her name because she did not want her family to know her whereabouts.

“It’s tough to live like this, but it won’t be for too long,” she said. “At least there are more jobs here than in Gunma.”

The government says about 15,800 people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone. Those numbers do not count the city’s “hidden” homeless, like those who live in capsule hotels. There is also a floating population that sleeps overnight in the country’s many 24-hour Internet cafes and saunas.

The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply. The country’s 15.7 percent poverty rate is one of the highest among industrialized nations.

These statistics have helped shatter an image, held since the country’s rise as an industrial power in the 1970s, that Japan is a classless society.

“When the country enjoyed rapid economic growth, standards of living improved across the board and class differences were obscured,” said Prof. Hiroshi Ishida of the University of Tokyo. “With a stagnating economy, class is more visible again.”

The government has poured money into bolstering Japan’s social welfare system, promising cash payments to households with children and abolishing tuition fees at public high schools.

Still, Naoto Iwaya, 46, is on the verge of joining the hopeless. A former tuna fisherman, he has been living at another capsule hotel in Tokyo since August. He most recently worked on a landfill at the city’s Haneda Airport, but that job ended last month.

“I have looked and looked, but there are no jobs. Now my savings are almost gone,” Mr. Iwaya said, after checking into an emergency shelter in Tokyo. He will be allowed to stay until Monday.

After that, he said, “I don’t know where I can go.”

New York Times. Jan 2, 2010.

The boulders they concrete in place, to be sure

A hiker examines a large boulder on a hiking trail from 

Sok Kwu Wan to Tung O on Lamma Island that has been 

supported by concrete slabs. Someone in Hong Kong's 

vast bureaucracy believes rocks that have stood on outlying 

islands hills for more than 100,000 years now pose a danger to hikers.

The huge boulders scattered around the hills of the outlying islands have stood for more than 100,000 years. But someone, somewhere in Hong Kong's vast bureaucracy, believes they may suddenly roll down the slopes and injure hikers. And so to that truly Hong Kong solution - concrete and paint. One instance of such work is the hiking trail that cuts along a slope in Tung O, Lamma Island. Large boulders along the trail increase the beauty of the landscape that has been designated an area of special scientific interest. But now concrete slabs, painted light blue, have been pegged under some of the boulders. Short concrete barriers have been built in front of the rocks. Does it help hikers better enjoy the scenic beauty? No, says Laura Ruggeri, chairwoman of Living Lamma, a local conservation group. "[These works] are tantamount to vandalism. It is totally out of proportion," she said. "The area is uninhabited and intensive development would not be permitted under the current land zoning restrictions." Young Ng Chun-yeong, chairman of the Association for Geoconservation, said the granite boulders were naturally formed by weathering over at least 100,000 years. "[It may take] another 10,000 or more years to break down to smaller pieces [as it is]." Spokeswomen for the Development Bureau and the Home Affairs Department say they are trying to find out why the work was carried out and who is responsible. If the concrete slabs are intended to stop the boulders from rolling downhill, it won't work, Ng says. "They may never roll downhill unless there's an earthquake or a really heavy downpour which may trigger a massive landslide, [and under such circumstances] the whole area will collapse because of the landslide." Hikers are miffed. "[They] destroy the natural beauty of the location for all hikers for centuries to come. It is truly a shame," said Melanie Moore of the Lung Fu Shan Environmental Concern Group. Ruggeri, a regular hiker in the Alps, says there are better ways to secure maintain slopes, such as using plants and wood. The work on Lamma Island reflects a lack of awareness and understanding of aesthetics among the city's engineers and contractors, she says. "Hong Kong should learn from others. The [United Nations] Food and Agriculture Organisation organises conferences [on slope maintenance] that are attended by forest experts from around the world, China included. [But] my friend, who attends these events, told me he never met any Hong Kong delegates." Ruggeri said concerns were raised with a district councillor, but she felt the councillor was more interested in pursuing more of these minor public works to keep contractors busy. "These are jobs for the boys," she said. "If the government has money to pay the contractors, it may as well pay them to do their work properly."

SCMP. Jan 3, 2010.


Has the government done the right thing? Tell me your opinion.

2010 - How do you say it, 'twenty ten' or 'two-thousand ten'?

2010 - How do you say it, 'twenty-ten' or 'two-thousand ten'? - The year 2010 is here, but how do you pronounce it? Do you say "twenty ten" or "two-thousand ten"? It's up to you, of course, but you may notice people moving back and forth among various choices in the way they say the year for awhile before they settle on a preferred pronunciation.

One theory has it that because we pronounced the first ten years of the millennium "two-thousand one, two-thousand eight, etc." we may begin 2010 saying it that way at first. Then, the theory goes, as the year wears on, we will change over to "twenty ten."

If you look back to the olden days of the twentieth century, we pronounced the years "nineteen ninety-nine." This would lend support to the "twenty ten" model.

Another way of looking at it is by syllable count. "Two-thousand and ten" = 5 syllables. "Two thousand ten" = 4 syllables. "Twenty ten" = 3 syllables. This theory claims that people will eventually use the quickest and easiest way to say the year. If this proves true, you can count on people saying "Twenty ten" soon and "Twenty eleven" perhaps more easily a year from now.

Comment: What way do you pronounce 2010 right now? What ways have you heard it pronounced? What way do you think you'll pronounce 2010 in the future--will you change the way you say it, do you think? Do you not care how it's pronounced as long as you make it through all 365 days of it? Let us know your thoughts in the Comment Section!

In the meantime, have a very happy 2010 - however you pronounce it!

Examiner.com  Jan 1, 2010.