2006 Highlights.
Submitted by Taran on Sun, 12/31/2006 - 21:53
Yeah, 2006 is almost over, and if you look at 2006, you'll see some of the world highlights - starting with Russia cutting off natural gas to the Ukraine (last New Years) to the sinking of M/V Senopati Nusantara yesterday. Oh, and Saddam Hussein was executed too - which probably overshadowed the Indonesian ferry for most of you. My morbid fascinations are a bit more controlled, I suppose.
Some more trivia for those of you who skim the headlines and leave out the interesting stuff.
On the 11th of January, the Augustine Volcano (Alaska) erupted twice - 20 years since the last time it erupted.
On the 11th of February, Dick Cheney shot his pal Harry Whittington in a hunting accident. Imagine foreign policy if you can do that to your friends.
On March 4th, a new species of shark was discovered: Mustelus hacat.
On March 9th, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft discovers geysers of a liquid substance shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, signaling a possible presence of water. Or maybe oil. Get ready to invade Saturn and install democracy.
On March 30th, Brazil entered space vicariously through Marcos Pontes.
On May 27th, the May 2006 Java earthquake killed more than 6,000, injuring at least 36,000 and left 1.5 million people homeless. Interestingly, they did have an emergency SMS system in place which aided in finding casualties. I wrote about that somewhere on here...
On July 6th, the Nathula Pass reopens after 44 years.
On August 24th, the International Astronomical Union demotes Pluto to the status of 'dwarf planet' more than 70 years after its discovery. The short creatures on Pluto had no comment, but made very emphatic gestures.
On the 13th of September, the solar system's largest dwarf planet (not Pluto) got a real name: "Eris"; its satellite is now known as "Dysnomia". No astrologers predicted this.
On September 15th, spinach finally kills someone during the 2006 United States E. coli outbreak. Children around the world now can say, 'Yes, spinach has killed someone!'
On December 13th, the Chinese River Dolphin went the way of the Dodo. No matter how many times you count 0...
Sure, other things happened in 2006, but you can read about that elsewhere. :-)
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