The astounding predictions of an octopus, the perils of “chexting” and the pain of getting around on planes were the laughing matters of last year.
News that a Sicilian man had stolen sweets and chewing gum so he could spend New Year’s Eve in jail to avoid his relatives seemed odd until another Italian man was stabbed by his son after a quarrel over tactics for a soccer videogame.
An ash cloud from an Iceland volcano caused travel chaos around Europe and spawned jokes across the Internet about the coincidence of the volcano’s eruption and the collapse of Icelandic banks owing billions to angry savers in Europe.
“The last wish of the Icelandic economy was to have its ashes scattered over Europe.”
Ash clouds and airport security woes failed to deter two women in Britain from trying to smuggle a dead relative wearing sunglasses onto a flight bound for Germany, but the agony of air travel sent others over the edge.
US flight attendant Steven Slater became an overnight sensation for issuing a string of profanities, grabbing a few beers and leaping down the emergency chute of his plane at JFK International Airport to head home following an altercation with a passenger.
An Internet “Don’t Touch My Junk” campaign encouraged US Thanksgiving travelers to refuse airport full body searches after a widely viewed YouTube video captured California man John Tyner telling a security official during a full body search: “If you touch my junk I’m going to have you arrested.”
The unfavorable economic climate also took its toll on the sex lives of US seniors, with a poll showing people in their 50s were having less sex.
However, lovelorn Chinese workers did not despair. Their government set up a matchmaking Web site to help thousands of busy, but lonely government workers find love at work.
“Are you still single and -bitter?” asked the pink-themed Web site (www.ywqq.gov.cn). “Look no further.”
A US study advised men seeking women to wear red, but British men risked a Valentine’s Day anticlimax by stocking up on anatomy-boosting underpants.
“The briefs mean that no man ever needs to feel inadequate again on the most passionate day of the social calendar,” Rob Faucherand of UK shop Debenhams said. “However, we can’t be held responsible for what happens once the pants come off.”
Infidelity by mobile phone text, Facebook and Twitter highlighted the dangers of “chexting” last year.
Golfer Tiger Woods and US TV celebrity Jesse James, who was married to Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock, were the top celebrities who saw their lives unravel amid revelations of cheating on their spouses, in part by arranging liaisons via text messages.
“It’s lipstick on the cellular — digital proof that becomes evidence you’ve been unfaithful,” said Peter Dedman of Predicto Mobile, the largest paid mobile community in the US.
Other words also took the English language by storm.
The Oxford English Dictionary welcomed “vuvuzela,” the plastic trumpet which wreaked havoc at the World Cup.
The incessant buzzing vuvuzelas blown by fans at World Cup soccer matches in South Africa in the summer drowned out almost all other sounds, caused mayhem with referees and broadcasters, became an iPhone app, a sensation on YouTube and were finally banned by European soccer’s governing body UEFA.
Paul, the oracle octopus who shot to fame for his uncanny ability to predict the results of Germany’s World Cup campaign, enjoyed brief fame before dying in October after disappointing his hosts by correctly predicting they would lose their semi-final match to eventual World Cup champions Spain.
Spaniards asked for Paul’s transfer to Spain from his German home, while some annoyed Germany fans wanted to grill him.
World leaders also waded into the world of wackiness.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi drove past the Israeli-built wall in the West Bank, but failed to notice it and caused offense when he said it was “better to like beautiful girls than to be gay.”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told mothers they could cure insomnia in their children by making them watch his lengthy televised speeches and took up Twitter, urging Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales to join in.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he sleeps only when President Dmitry Medvedev is awake.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono released his third album of pop songs and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy launched an anthology of Japanese-style Haiku poetry.
One reads:
“In a nearby ditch,
Toads mating passionately,
Inaugurate spring.”
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
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