Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Review: Year 2004
So it's come down to the end of the wire for 2004, a good old leap year. Lots of good stuff happened, lots of bad stuff happened. I'm getting my events from Wikipedia, a great site. In fact I think I'll post it on our sidebar.
January 2004:
The two Mars rovers land; they take lots of nice pictures. Mars is indeed red.
People are STILL talking about 9/11!
February 2004:
The CIA admits that WMD threat was falsified in Iraq. But it's OK, because the world is a safer place without Saddam Hussein, right? And it's also a much better place now that we don't have that pesky 150 billion dollars lying around, or those 30,000 people alive anymore.
March:
Kerry wins the nomination! Democrats everywhere yawn in enthusiasm!
Madrid train bombings make sure everyone knows there are extremists everywhere.
April:
The Iraq war continues to go south. I'm not sure, but wasn't this the month where the death toll after Bush declared victory exceeded that of the official war?
May:
The greatest website of all time is starts from humble beginnings.
June:
The 9/11 report is released. I think something happened that day.
July:
They start building on the site of the WTC. Wait, what happened to the WTC?
The Democratic National Convention opens. Liberals everywhere start saying "I think we have a chance!"
August:
The Olympics! Wow, they were so great! Or did they suck? I don't remember. But at least there was only one bombing.
The Scream was stolen. I would have thought it would be a little harder to steal than just taking it and running out to a car.
The RNC opens, and they only reference terrorism and 9/11 1,244,232,213 times.
September:
Chechen rebels take a school hostage, rig it with bombs, and manage to kill 300+ people, including children. Congratulations, you've proved once again that 8 year olds are no match for grown adults wielding bombs and automatic weapons.
More Hurricanes hit Florida. I think they have a lot of those down there.
October:
SpaceShipOne wins the X Prize.
The Red Sox win the World Series.
Osama goes on TV to tell everyone that he doesn't hate freedom, just the US. Me too, Osama. Except that I wouldn't go around killing people... yet.
November:
America fucks itself. And 11 states decide that they hate gays.
Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 are released.
The Ukraine shows the US that even though they're a much newer democracy, they've got this 'unfair election' thing down to a science.
December:
More bad shit continues to happen in Iraq.
Christmas comes and goes, and good old Americans spend lots of money.
A massive earthquake causes huge tsunamis, killing 33,000+ in Southeast Asia. This is still going on, so you don't need me to remind you.
So, to sum up; I'd say 2004 was a below average year for the world. There were only a few great happenings, and plenty of upsetting ones. Of course, the news tends to show us only the bad ones, so perhaps that's just media bias.
Environmentally, things progressed a bit; hybrid cars, advancements in fuel-cell technology, deforestation and global warming all were good. Nothing impressive.
Human rights-wise, I don't know. Terrorism still abounds, genocide still happened in Darfur, overpopulation and disease are still problems. And the US invaded a country that actually wasn't doing THAT badly in terms of human rights.
Scientifically, SpaceShipOne and the Mars Rovers were nice boosts. Stem cell research still went on, new computer chips were made. No cure for cancer or AIDS, creationists won a few battles, and a couple new physics breakthroughs were made. Plus, a bunch of money was created for new telescope arrays.
Economically, I don't know. The dollar fell, the stock market rose, the rich got richer, the SEC jailed Martha. FREE MARTHA! Isn't she almost done with her sentence anyway?
And in terms of America, more damage was probably done on November 2nd than the rest of the year put together. At least the economy is picking up. Everyone likes money.
I give it 4/10.
January 2004:
The two Mars rovers land; they take lots of nice pictures. Mars is indeed red.
People are STILL talking about 9/11!
February 2004:
The CIA admits that WMD threat was falsified in Iraq. But it's OK, because the world is a safer place without Saddam Hussein, right? And it's also a much better place now that we don't have that pesky 150 billion dollars lying around, or those 30,000 people alive anymore.
March:
Kerry wins the nomination! Democrats everywhere yawn in enthusiasm!
Madrid train bombings make sure everyone knows there are extremists everywhere.
April:
The Iraq war continues to go south. I'm not sure, but wasn't this the month where the death toll after Bush declared victory exceeded that of the official war?
May:
The greatest website of all time is starts from humble beginnings.
June:
The 9/11 report is released. I think something happened that day.
July:
They start building on the site of the WTC. Wait, what happened to the WTC?
The Democratic National Convention opens. Liberals everywhere start saying "I think we have a chance!"
August:
The Olympics! Wow, they were so great! Or did they suck? I don't remember. But at least there was only one bombing.
The Scream was stolen. I would have thought it would be a little harder to steal than just taking it and running out to a car.
The RNC opens, and they only reference terrorism and 9/11 1,244,232,213 times.
September:
Chechen rebels take a school hostage, rig it with bombs, and manage to kill 300+ people, including children. Congratulations, you've proved once again that 8 year olds are no match for grown adults wielding bombs and automatic weapons.
More Hurricanes hit Florida. I think they have a lot of those down there.
October:
SpaceShipOne wins the X Prize.
The Red Sox win the World Series.
Osama goes on TV to tell everyone that he doesn't hate freedom, just the US. Me too, Osama. Except that I wouldn't go around killing people... yet.
November:
America fucks itself. And 11 states decide that they hate gays.
Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 are released.
The Ukraine shows the US that even though they're a much newer democracy, they've got this 'unfair election' thing down to a science.
December:
More bad shit continues to happen in Iraq.
Christmas comes and goes, and good old Americans spend lots of money.
A massive earthquake causes huge tsunamis, killing 33,000+ in Southeast Asia. This is still going on, so you don't need me to remind you.
So, to sum up; I'd say 2004 was a below average year for the world. There were only a few great happenings, and plenty of upsetting ones. Of course, the news tends to show us only the bad ones, so perhaps that's just media bias.
Environmentally, things progressed a bit; hybrid cars, advancements in fuel-cell technology, deforestation and global warming all were good. Nothing impressive.
Human rights-wise, I don't know. Terrorism still abounds, genocide still happened in Darfur, overpopulation and disease are still problems. And the US invaded a country that actually wasn't doing THAT badly in terms of human rights.
Scientifically, SpaceShipOne and the Mars Rovers were nice boosts. Stem cell research still went on, new computer chips were made. No cure for cancer or AIDS, creationists won a few battles, and a couple new physics breakthroughs were made. Plus, a bunch of money was created for new telescope arrays.
Economically, I don't know. The dollar fell, the stock market rose, the rich got richer, the SEC jailed Martha. FREE MARTHA! Isn't she almost done with her sentence anyway?
And in terms of America, more damage was probably done on November 2nd than the rest of the year put together. At least the economy is picking up. Everyone likes money.
I give it 4/10.
# posted by Stuart @ 2:19 PM 
