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As we usher in the new year, here's a look at what was on the news, the web and our minds in 2006.
Avian influenza
Avian flu, or bird flu, took a turn for the worse in June, when an Indonesian man died after catching it from his 10-year-old son. It was the first confirmed case of human transference of the disease. There were 79 bird-flu deaths in 2006, more than in the last 10 years combined.
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| Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat | |
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Borat
Eager, stumbling and crude,
Celebrity babies
Celeb tykes were in the spotlight even before they saw the light of day. Little Suri (daughter of
Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou chased clues this summer in the suspenseful The Da Vinci Code, based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. While the movie fell short of critics' expectations, it rekindled the theological debates sparked by the novel.
Emo
Fauxtography
Fauxtography during the
It's a verb, it's a noun, it's... Google. Still reaching for the stars, the search giant made headlines again this year when it purchased online video site
Paris Hilton
Said 25-year-old heiress Paris Hilton in a recent interview, "Every decade has an iconic blonde like Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana, and right now I'm that icon." Well, maybe. Hair color aside, how about we ask top femmes Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Jessica Simpson and Pamela Anderson?
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| Steve Irwin, 1962-2006 | |
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Steve Irwin
Farewell to Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. "Queensland's most well-known ambassador ever" was killed by a stingray during filming in September. He is survived by his wife and two children. Crikey, Steve. We'll miss you. Rest in peace.
Judas
A recently reconstructed Coptic translation of The Gospel of Judas shed new light on Jesus' last days, indicating that Jesus may have asked to be "betrayed" by his friend in order to be freed from the limitations of his human body.
Kramer
Michael Richards, famous for his role as Kramer on
Love
Love was more sought after in 2006 than any
MySpace
MySpace got its share of love this year. The anything-goes
Nukes
Will they get nukes? Diplomatic patience wore thin this year as Iran continued its nuclear research amid international fears it was aiming to manufacture an atomic bomb. When talks proved fruitless, the UN Security Council turned to sanctions, limiting trade in nuclear-sensitive materials and technology; a defiant Teheran responded by legislating an acceleration of its nuclear program. Disarmament talks with North Korea, which in October was conducting its own nuclear tests, resumed after UN sanctions were imposed, but also ended at an impasse.
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| High gas prices. Getting old? | |
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Oil
Geopolitical instability and other factors drove oil prices to an all-time high of $78.40 per barrel in July, but as the rollercoaster continued, they fell back to $61.05 — only a penny more than last year's closing price. US drivers paid $2.38/gallon on average in 2006, and while analysts do expect 2007 to be easier on the consumer, pump prices could push past $3/gallon on the West Coast of the US.
Pluto
Pluto, formerly the littlest planet in our solar system, was downsized to "dwarf planet" in August. Pluto was reclassified because it had not cleared its orbital neighborhood of "competitors" and therefore did not meet the new planetary requirements of the International Astronomical Union. Fellow hopefuls Ceres and Xena were also reclassified as dwarf planets.
Quagmire
With some 140,000 US troops (and more than 10,000 international troops) still in Iraq and no clear exit strategy in sight, Operation Iraqi Freedom was repeatedly referred to in the press this year as a quagmire. Debates over the motivation for and achievements of the war flared in December, when the number of American hostile fatalities surpassed the number of 9/11 victims. On the Iraqi side, growing sectarian violence led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths, including those of various lawyers involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein. Saddam was executed on December 30, less than two months after his sentencing.
Riots
The reprinting of twelve Muhammad cartoons deemed blasphemous by Muslims (originally published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005) incensed Muslim communities around the world. A wave of riots ensued, culminating in attacks on Danish and Norwegian diplomatic missions in Beirut and Damascus. After numerous flag burnings, protests and kidnappings and a long international debate, the fires died down in March when the Jyllands-Posten was found to have been acting within Danish law.
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| Discovery. Is the sky really the limit? | |
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Space
After a few quiet years (although one mission did blast off in July 2005), NASA returned to space in 2006 with all engines roaring. Atlantis and Discovery together completed three missions to the International Space Station, finally getting construction there back on track and racking up 15.5 million miles (hear that, frequent flyers?). Farther afield, Mars intrigued scientists by exhibiting signs of flowing water. The implication: possible life on Mars, at least in microbial form.
Trans fats
Will donuts ever be the same? The New York Board of Health wasn't just chewing the fat when it unanimously banned restaurants from using most common frying oils and margarines, ordering trans fats to be phased out completely by July 1, 2008. These fats, which are created when liquid fat is artificially hardened, are thought to be more dangerous than natural fats because they increase bad LDL cholesterol while decreasing good HDL cholesterol.
Ursprache
Vlog
lonelygirl15 reeled in the public with her introspective musings on love and life, which she
Wikipedia
Wiki-wiki is Hawaiian for "quick," and what better way to describe the leaps-and-bounds progress of Wikipedia? The massive encyclopedia site, which has doubled its English entries and tripled its page views in the last year alone, is one of the Internet's top 15. Where to next? Keep your synapses peeled for a new kind of engine that relies on human intelligence rather than computers, such as the one proposed by founder Jimmy Wales at the close of 2006.
Xenophobia
Cries of
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| Sold! YouTube. |
YouTube
Since arriving on the scene as a struggling start-up less than two years ago,
Zizou
French soccer star Zinedine Zidane (Zizou) went out with a bang, first announcing his retirement from professional soccer and then headbutting an opponent during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Not enough buzz for one year? He was also awarded the Golden Ball after leading France to the World Cup finals.
A sneak peek at 2007
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| Harry Potter. New developments? | |
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What to watch for next year:
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