How Mr Facebook makes a killing: he slits throats, kindly

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg, the face of Facebook, posted an enigmatic message on his Facebook Wall. “I just killed a pig and a goat,” the 27-year-old billionaire announced to his 850-or-so Facebook friends. His nework of friends, who are familiar with how Zuckerberg made a killing – figuratively speaking – by betting on Facebook, were somewhat puzzled. Because the Zuckerberg they knew didn’t go around conducting animal sacrifices, some of his friends suspected that his Facebook account had been hacked. [caption id=“attachment_16957” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“If looks could kill: Mark Zuckerberg says his new challenge is to eat only what he kills. Robert Galbraith / Reuters”]  [/caption] Others thought the geeky nerd who, going by his onscreen portrayal in The Social Network, never makes funny was, you know, just kidding. A few others were confused – and still others were downright appalled. So Mr Facebook stepped in to clarify things. On May 4, Fortune magazine reports, Zuckerberg posted  another message to say that no, he wasn’t kidding at all. Zuckerberg said: “Every year I have a yearly personal challenge. It’s a good way to explore different things I wouldn’t normally do and challenge myself. Towards the end of last year I reflected a bunch of how thankful I was that we were building so many good things and things have gone well so far and I decided to make this year’s challenge around being more thankful for what I have. I struggled for a while about how to implement this, but eventually decided that forcing myself to get personally involved and thank the animals whose lives I take in order to eat them was the best day-to-day way to remind myself to be thankful. So every day when I can’t eat meat I am reminded of why not and how lucky I am, and when I do get the chance to eat meat it’s especially good. This challenge also has the benefit of making me generally healthier, and I’m also learning a lot about sustainable living.” In a subsequent interview to Fortune, Zuckerberg expanded on the theme.  He said that every year, he takes up a “personal  challenge – something to learn about the world, expand my interests and teach myself greater discipline.” Last year, for instance, he said, he set about learning Chinese, the tonal language that constitutes a formidable challenge to learners (as this classical poem about a Lion-Eating Poet in a Stone Den will testify). And this year, he said, he had his personal challenge centred around “being thankful for the food I have to eat”. Evidently Zuckerberg’s education in this area is being advanced by Jesse Cool, a Silicon Valley chef, who advised him how to kill “his first chicken, pig and goat”. “He cut the throat of the goat with a knife, which is the most kind way to do it,” Cool told Fortune. More here and here.