{"id":69,"date":"2006-01-03T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-03T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=69"},"modified":"2006-01-03T02:39:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-03T10:39:00","slug":"yearly-review-not-by-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/yearly-review-not-by-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Yearly Review, not by me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>YEARLY REVIEW<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The number of people killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami<br \/>rose to 230,000. A study showed that 310,000 Europeans die<br \/>from air pollution each year, and the U.N. predicted that<br \/>90 million Africans will have HIV by 2025. An<br \/>international task force of scientists, politicians, and<br \/>business leaders warned that the world has about 10 years<br \/>before global warming becomes irreversible. The<br \/>U.S. Congress officially ratified President George<br \/>W. Bush\u2019s election victory after a two-hour debate over<br \/>voting irregularities in Ohio. Terri Schiavo, Johnnie<br \/>Cochran, Frank Perdue, Mitch Hedberg, Arthur Miller, Saul<br \/>Bellow, and the pope died, as did the man who wrote the<br \/>theme song to \u201cGidget.\u201d An Australian tortoise named<br \/>Harriet turned 175. General Motors was spending more for<br \/>health care than for steel, and an increasing number of<br \/>Americans were heating their homes with corn. El<br \/>Salvadoran police arrested 21 people for operating a<br \/>smuggling operation and seized 24 tons of contraband<br \/>cheese. NASA announced that it wanted to return to the<br \/>moon.<\/p>\n<p>A study found that the worldwide percentage of land<br \/>stricken by drought has doubled within the last 30<br \/>years. The Jordan River was filled with sewage, and the<br \/>last of Gaza\u2019s Jewish settlers left their homes on armored<br \/>buses. Terrorists in London set off bombs on four trains<br \/>and a bus, killing 52 people; President Bush condemned<br \/>attacks on innocent folks by those with evil in their<br \/>hearts. A 13-year-old boy in Kalamazoo accidentally burned<br \/>down the family meth lab. New Orleans flooded after levees<br \/>broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; many evacuees were<br \/>not allowed to take their pets with them. \u201cSnowball!\u201d<br \/>cried a little boy after police took away his<br \/>dog. \u201cSnowball!\u201d At least 42,000 people died in an<br \/>earthquake in Pakistan. It was announced that Cookie<br \/>Monster would cut back on cookies. Authorities in Malaysia<br \/>arrested 58 people who worship a giant teapot. Poor people<br \/>rioted in France.<\/p>\n<p>In North Carolina Kenneth Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner<br \/>executed since the United States reintroduced the death<br \/>penalty in 1976. A 1,600-inmate faith-based prison opened<br \/>in Crawfordville, Florida. Police began random bag checks<br \/>of subway passengers in New York City. It was revealed<br \/>that the CIA had set up a secret system of prisons, called<br \/>\u201cblack sites,\u201d around the world; it was also revealed that<br \/>the National Security Agency was spying on Americans<br \/>without first obtaining warrants. Journalist Judith Miller<br \/>was released from jail and said she wanted to hug her<br \/>dog. U.S. Congressman Tom DeLay was arrested; U.S. Vice<br \/>President Dick Cheney\u2019s Chief of Staff I. Lewis \u201cScooter\u201d<br \/>Libby was indicted. The Pentagon admitted to using white<br \/>phosphorus during the 2004 attack on Fallujah, Iraq, and<br \/>allocated $127 billion to build a robot army. The total<br \/>number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq war rose to<br \/>2,174, while the total number of Iraqi civilians killed<br \/>rose to 27,636. \u201cWe are all waiting for death,\u201d said an<br \/>Iraqi soldier, \u201clike the moon waiting for sunset.\u201d The<br \/>U.S. Defense Department, in violation of the federal<br \/>Privacy Act, was building a database of 30 million 16- to<br \/>25-year-olds. The Department of Homeland Security<br \/>announced that it had wasted a great deal of money and<br \/>needed much more. Starbucks came to Guantanamo<br \/>Bay. Scientists began work on a complete, molecule-level<br \/>computer simulation of the human brain. The project will<br \/>take at least ten years.<\/div>\n<p>\u2013Paul Ford<\/p>\n<p>Permanent URL for this column:<br \/>http:\/\/harpers.org\/YearlyReview2005.html<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2005 Harper\u2019s Magazine Foundation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>YEARLY REVIEW The number of people killed by the Indian Ocean tsunamirose to 230,000. A study showed that 310,000 Europeans diefrom air pollution each year, and the U.N. predicted that90 million Africans will have&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}