Top News Stories of 2014

Top News Stories of 2014
 

Top News Stories
of 2014

Quote of the Year

 'Inequality Is The Root of Social Evil'

Pope Francis

 

Year of the Selfie and
the Ice Bucket Challenge

 junk,

John Tyner

In reference to the security pat downs taking place at US Airports

 

"tdc's Froggy"
             tdc's Animated Frog   Be patient, I'm coming!

Notable Passings

Pete Seeger - January 2014
Shirley Temple - February 2014
Mickey Rooney - April 2014
Jim Flaherty - April 2014
Jesse Winchester - April 2014
Maya Angelou - May 2014
Sen. Howard Baker - June 2014
Robin Williams - August 2014
Richard Attenborough - August 2014
Joan Rivers - September 2014
Ian Paisley - September 2014
Oscar de la Renta - October 2014
Mike Nichols - November 2014
Pat Quinn - November 2014
P.D. James - November 2014
Jean Béliveau - December 2014

 

 

Our thanks to Fred Webster for this great animation  

 

Froggy's  Comments 
Right  From The Pond

"
I May Be all Wet but I know what I'm talkin' about..."

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USA Politics

 

The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century.

 

An exhaustive, five-year Senate investigation of the CIA’s secret interrogations of terrorism suspects renders a strikingly bleak verdict of a program launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, describing levels of brutality, dishonesty and seemingly arbitrary violence that at times brought even agency employees to moments of anguish.

 

November - The Republican party now controls the US Senate after the mid term elections, making it almost impossible for President Obama to carry out his mandate and provide lame duck leadership during his last two years in office.

Mid August, a young black boy Michael Brown is killed by a local policeman in Ferguson Missouri  and all hell breaks out.  The President weighs in to solve the problem as well as the Attorney General, Governor of the State with riots, looting, involvement of local police, highway patrol, national guard,  and curfews imposed.  A reminder of racial issues from the 50's and 60's.

 Science

A Canadian-led international team of researchers has begun solving the mystery of just how a specialized cell taken from a person’s skin is reprogrammed into an embryonic-like stem cell, from which virtually any other cell type in the body can be generated.

 

Google shows off its prototype self driving car .... It has no steering wheel or pedals.

 

Biggest dinosaur ever found in Patagonia. The as-yet unnamed behemoth evidently stood 7 stories tall and weighed as much as 77 tons

Economics

 

 

Late December it was reported that Dow Jones stormed past 18,000 for first time as U.S. economy grows at fastest pace in 11 years

 

Driven by low crude oil prices, Russia in December decides to raise its prime interest rate from 10 % to 17 %.  The value of their Ruble against US dollars falls to less than half the value it was in 2013.

 

In November, Canada signs an agreement with China whereby each country is able to trade goods and services in each other's currency without using US dollars.

 

In early October it was reported that the U.S. jobless rate dipped to 5.9% in Sept., a 6-year low China poised to pass US as world’s leading economic power this year

In 20 percent of American families in 2013, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), not one member of the family worked.

Energy

 

A team of researchers in the Netherlands is developing a new and cheaper way of harnessing energy from the wind.
By flying one kite, they are able to produce enough electricity to power 10 homes.

 

In December oil prices collapse to less than $60 per barrel sending the cost of gasoline to record lows.  All this begs the question of whether or not these low prices will lower the cost of all goods and services which in some way are dependent upon oil. 

 

Scotland announces that they powered their country entirely using wind generators in October.

Sports
Germany defeats Argentina to win the FIFA World Cup in Soccer.
Space

NASA rover finds methane, organic chemicals on Mars.

European Space Agency spaceship Rosetta lands on a comet moving at a rate of 44,000 miles per hour and over 300 million miles from Earth. European comet lander Philae 'sniffed' organic molecules containing the carbon element that is the basis of life on Earth before its primary battery ran out and it shut down, German scientists said.

Mid September India's Mars Orbiter Mission successfully entered Mars' orbit, becoming the first nation to arrive on its first attempt and the first Asian country to reach the Red Planet.

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has taken a step toward combating the asteroid threat. A special U.N. action team on near-Earth objects (NEOs) has recommended the creation of an International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), which is designed to gather and analyze NEO data and provide timely warnings to national authorities if a potentially hazardous NEO were to threaten Earth.

Rosetta launched in 2004 and arrives at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 August. It is the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the Sun, and deploy a lander to its surface. Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.
Health
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever strikes three countries in West Africa with the first cases in March 2014 and killing an estimated 12,000 people worldwide.

Abdul Hye at King's College London and his colleagues have identified 10 proteins in blood that can predict who will develop Alzheimer's disease a year after having mild memory problems. Its accuracy is almost 90 per cent. That could prove a huge boost for researchers seeking treatments.
Environment

 

2014 is the warmest year that the world has experienced.

 

In November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Obama have struck a deal to limit greenhouse gases, with China committing for the first time to cap carbon emissions and Obama unveiling a plan for deeper U.S. emissions reductions through 2025.

 

Comparisons of direct measurements with satellite data and climate models suggest that the oceans of the southern hemisphere have been sucking up more than twice as much of the heat trapped by our excess greenhouse gases than previously calculated. This means we may have underestimated the extent to which our world has been warming.

Reported in May that climate change as cause by humans is happening now.


Peace
Children's rights activists Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India are the 2014 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

In Hong Kong, the communist government announces that when the next election is held, the Beijing government will choose the candidates who will run for election. In early October thousands of the Hong Kong protest wanting a freely elected choice of candidates and the resignation of the present Hong Kong leadership.

Mid July - Palistine fires rockets into Isreal and Isreal fires upon Palistine targets. Commercial Boeing 777 airliner of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is shot down by a ground to air missle over the eastern Ukraine from 33,000 feet with 295 aboard.

Mid June - ISIS serious terrorist group in Iraq captures major cities in Iraq.  They behead a US reporter and a British social worker and the world goes wild to defeat ISIS.  By October, a coalition  of many countries headed by the US is formed to destroy ISIS.

Nigerian terriorist organization Boko Haram claims to have kidnapped 300 teenage girls from their school and say these girls will be sold. The US is sending resouces to try to get them back to their parents.

In May pro separatist Ukrainians hold a referendum and proclaim they want to separate from the Ukraine and join Russia. The West and Europe say that the referedum was rigged as Europe and western countries impose more sanctions on Russia and Russia retaliates with sanctions against the west.

In March, Russia has taken over the Crimean Peninsula which was part of Ukraine much to the distaste of some western powers and Europe.
Religion
The Anglican Church of England votes positively to allow women to become Bishops in their church.
Internet
If you are flying to the US please make sure any of your electronic devices are charged before you travel. If your device does not switch on you may not be allowed to bring it onto the aircraft.

Communications

 

Living

 

U.S. life expectancy for a child born in 2012 was 78 years and 9½ months, up about six weeks from life expectancy in 2010 and 2011. That’s a record.

 

For someone 65, the CDC estimates that men have about 18 years of life left and women about 20½ years. The between men and women grew slightly, compared to 2011.


More Americans than ever live in multigenerational households, and the number of millennials who live with their parents is rising sharply.

Mid May, Turkish coal miners are still missing after an explosion caused a pit to collapse, killing at least 238.

Google said in late April that its self-driving cars are now capable of maneuvering through city streets, a more complex challenge than the highway driving the project initially focused on.

240 teenagers and teachers die as their South Korean ferry sinks in mid April.

MH 370 is an Malaysian 777 airplane with 239 people aboad that disappeared from the radar and whose remains were found in the southern Indian Ocean where the depth of the water exceeds 9000 feet. All 239 aboard are deemed to have died in the crash.

Agriculture


A class of pesticides tied to mass bee deaths is also harming butterflies, worms, fish and birds, a new research has warned. A group of 29 scientists from four continents found unequivocal evidence from hundreds of published studies to claim that "neonics' - the most widely used pesticides in the world - are having a dramatic impact on the ecosystems that support food production and wildlife.

Entertainment


In December Hollywood is attacked by hackers who extract the latest James Bond script from Sony.

Increased costs and low attendance continue to challenge film makers and investors in the film business.

Biggest Disappointments
of the Year


Truely the biggest disappointment is the fact that despite the efforts of many nations they were unable to find the remains of flight MH 370 a Boeing 777 airliner that crashed into the southern Indian ocean with 239 people aboard.

And the failure to recover 200 + Nigerian girls who were kidnapped.

It seems that order to survive today we need to have:
clean air, clean water, organically grown food, shelter, clothing, communications,
financial planners, entertainment, education, security, insurance
- what next?

Ask people living in 3rd world countries if they have any of these things
and why they keep smiling 

Your Comments?

 

Have a Happy 2015 Folks !


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