Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final day of 2008. While many will take the day to party like it's 2009, I sit and read and watch year-in-review stories, and I read a ton of top 10 lists. Probably the best source, in my opinion, for a wealth of top 10 lists at the end of any given year is Time Magazine. In Time you can look at anything from the Top 10 Albums (Fleet Foxes didn't make the list, but I'll go on record calling that my #1. Sorry Time Magazine, you missed a gem as you were distracted by commercial successes) of the year, to the Top 10 Fiction Books, to the Top 10 Movies (Slumdog Millionaire ranked #7, but I'll just go ahead and say right now for the record, that for AP World History purposes, it is the #1 film of the year. It truly is the story of India in the last part of Season 5. Just phenomenal!), to the Top 10 TV Series, to the Top 10 Museum Exhibits (Hey Atlanta! We made #4 with the Chinese Terracotta Warrior Exhibit at the High!). At any rate, there are 50 top ten lists available, and you can look at any or all of them by clicking here.I will showcase just one list on this post, and that is the Top 10 News Stories of 2008. It has been an eventful year for sure. One big story was just overshadowed by another as the months went by on this year. So what were the top ten stories? First, let me just say, that in the final week of 2008, another story is breaking, and it's getting nasty fast. I'm speaking of Israel's launch of attacks on the Gaza Strip in the past few days. Your knowledge of the the roots of this issue may still be pretty fuzzy, but I assure you that by the time we have completed Season 5, you will understand the situation quite clearly. The current series of events are not in the top ten list because they launched after publishing. However, as you can see in the above photograph, Gaza is once again in dire straits. As always, the BBC is doing an excellent job of covering the story, and you can read all the current and background news on the crisis by clicking here. In any case, on with the Top 10 News Stories of 2008...
1. When We Realized the Sky Was Falling (September 13, 2008- the day Lehman Brothers collapsed)
2. Yes, He Could! (November 4, 2008-Barack Obama's election)
3. Mumbai Held Hostage (November 26-29, 2008- The Mumbai Terrorist Attacks)
4. Devastation in Islamabad (September 20, 2008- The Blast that Destroyed the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's Capital)
5. Pirates Rule the Waves (November 18, 2008- The Somali Pirate Hijacking of the Saudi-owned Supertanker, the Sirius Star)
6. War in the Caucasus (August, 7, 2008- Russia's Attack on Georgia)
7. China Spreads the Melamine (September 15, 2008- The Chinese Melamine Scandal Goes Public)
8. Twilight of Cuba's Patriarch (February 20, 2008- Fidel Castro Relinquishes the Cuban Presidency to His Brother Raul)
9. An Audacious Rescue in Colombia (July 2, 2008- Ingrid Betancourt's Rescue from FARC Forces in Colombia)
10. Mother Nature's Double Whammy (May 2, 2008- Devestating Cyclone Hits Burma; May 12, 2008- Devestating Earthquake Rocks Sichuan Province in China)
So there it is ladies and gents, your top ten news stories of 2008. Here's to a quieter 2009.
1 comment:
when i first looked at the top ten fiction book list i was kinda like "huh? say what?", but i'm kinda glad that they obviously based it off of best written books rather than most popular (though they may be extremely well known best sellers but i'm to under a rock to notice.) i honestly mostly say this because i am kinda glad that twilight wasn't on there. that book may be popular, but of course looking back it wasn't that well written. the list was kinda more quality over quantity (in reference to best sellers.)
to be honest i think i would have thrown up if the twilight series was on there. i read them, it was just the more i read them the more i realised they weren't very good.
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