What was happening when T95 turned 31?

POP CULTURE:

• The first iPad debuts, begging the question: Do we really need yet ANOTHER gadget? (Yes…. yes we did.)
• Hero of JetBlue: Steven Slater gave us one of the best viral moments, when he quite his job as a flight attendant over the loudspeaker, and exited via his plane’s emergency chute… beer in hand. (NOTE: The video below is OBVIOUSLY a parody… but exactly how we pictured it happening.)

• Contrary to popular belief, McDonald’s – not Starbucks – was the first major food chain to introduce free Wi-Fi to customers at their restaurants. McD’s began in January. Starbucks didn’t start until July of 2010.
• Microsoft banned a user from Xbox Live for putting Fort Gay (A real location in West Virginia) as his address. Microsoft refused to believe that Fort Gay actually existed, and eventually took an appeal from the towns Mayor David Thompson for the issue to be corrected.
• A Kansas State University professor went on a Twinkie diet, where he ate mainly Twinkies, Oreos, and Doritos to prove to his students that calorie counting is the important part of losing weight, not nutritional content. He lost 27 pounds in 2 months.
• Sony was still producing the Cassette Walkman up until this year
• Taco Bell secretly reduced the sodium content of its food at 150 Dallas area restaurants by 23%. Without telling anyone, they replaced the salt with “other spices and other ingredients.” Two months later, they had received exactly zero complaints about the changes.
• If you bought ONE share of Coca-Cola stock in 1920, it would be worth $6.7 million by 2010.
• When Google replaced their logo with playable Pacman, users spent an extra 36 seconds on the page. Assuming this time was wasted, it resulted in a $120M loss in man hours.
• “Hide yo kids, hide yo wives…” an interview with Antoine Dodson in Lincoln Park spurred a generation of memes and parodies.

WEIRD S&*T:

• The mummified corpse of Sogen Kato, thought to be Tokyo’s oldest man, was found in his bedroom by government officials. He had actually died in 1978. The family pretended he was alive to continue getting his pension.
• Mattel launched Computer Engineers Barbie. With the accompanying book we learned that CE Barbie needed the help of two men to code the game she was designing and they also needed to help her after she accidentally infected her and her sister Skipper’s computers with a virus.
• An unlucky 49-year-old un-named airline passenger was arrested in Ireland after Slovak security officials placed explosives in his luggage for training, then forgot to remove them before the plane took off.
• A Chinese National Highway Traffic Jam was the longest duration traffic jam in history, lasting 12 days and locking up 62 miles of highway.

SPORTS:

• In March, Tiger Woods returns to the Masters after his dreadful public meltdown. He tied for fourth.
• During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the “Vuvuzela” becomes a household word, as the annoying plastic horn is used nearly non-stop during the matches by a large portion of the crowds on hand.
• Lebron James dedicated an entire hour special on ESPN to announce “The Decision” on where he would be playing after his initial run in Cleveland… he chose the Heat, and wasted 59 minutes, and 50 seconds of everyone’s time.

• New FINA rules require swimsuits to cover from the waste to the knee on men, and form the shoulders to the knee on women. Body-length suits are banned, and the fabric must be a “textile,” or woven material (bye bye to the banana hammocks and bikinis in professional swimming)
• In the Rose Bowl, #1 Alabama bests #2 Texas 37-21 for the BCS National Championship
• Super Bowl XLIV, at Sun Life Stadium in Miamia, FL, the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis colts 31-17. Drew Brees is the MVP.
• The 21st Winter Olympics open in Vancouver, Canada.
• Duke beats the Cinderella team, Butler, 61-59 in the 72nd annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.
• The last piece of (old) Yankee Stadium is demolished, ending a two-year process.
• The Chicago Blackhawks edge out the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in Extra Periods to win the Stanley Cup in 6 games. It is their first Championship since 1961.
• In the longest match in tennis history, John Isner of the U.S. defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon after 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over three days

• The San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers, 3-1 in Game 5 at Arlington, to clinch the Giants first Baseball World Series since relocating from New York in 1958.

MUSIC NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT:

• Lady Gaga meats paparazzi, fellow celebrities, and the world wearing a Meat Dress at the MTV VMA’s.
• Bill Murray walked into Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes at SXSW with RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, and started bartending. No matter what anyone ordered… he gave them shots of Tequila.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rotdA1EdECE

• Tupac’s song Dear Mama was inducted into The Library of Congress Registry with The LOCR stating it is “a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper’s own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference.”
• Conan O’Brien follows only one person on Twitter, a randomly chosen fan (Sarah Killen) who, since being followed in 2010, has gone from 3 to over 300k followers.
• Dave Grohl was admitted to hospital due to a drug overdose… He had consumed too much caffeine from coffee whilst recording a new album.

BOX OFFICE:

• The Social network

• Toy Story 3
• Alice in Wonderland
• Iron Man 2
• Sandra Bullock accepted her Golden Raspberry Award in person for Worst Actress for he role in “What About Steve.” The next night, she also accepted an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in “The Blind Side,” making her the ONLY actress or actor to accept a Razzie and Academy Award in one year.

• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Inception
• Despicable me
• How to Train Your Dragon

TELEVISION: 

• After an experiment with Late Night programming starting at 10 p.m., NBC admits defeat, and moves Jay Leno BACK to 11:35, and displaces Conan O’Brien, who was VERY annoyed!

• Betty White scored a HUGE career boost in a Snickers Super Bowl ad, and was tapped by Facebook audiences to be the host of Saturday Night Live… which she CRUSHED!
• Simon Cowell exits the show he started, American Idol, after a disappointing season.
• Oprah Winfrey starts the final season of her talk show… by bringing the entire audience on an eight-day trip to Australia.
• Post-apocalyptic zombie TV series “The Walking Dead” premieres, starring Andrew Lincoln and Jon Bernthal on AMC

• After 28½ years, and a shift from music to reality programming, MTV drops the “Music Television” moniker from its logo
• Comedy Central airs the 200th episode of South Park, with many of the celebrities the series has previously mocked banding together to sue the town. After the broadcast, Islamic website Revolution Muslim posts a warning to co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, stating they could face serious repercussions for their depictions of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The followup to the episode, “201”, is heavily censored and airs only once, with the network disallowing streaming of the original, unedited version on the Internet.
• Steve Carell confirms he will leave The Office, where he portrays Michael Scott, at the end of the 2010–11 season
• Larry King announces he will end his long-running CNN program Larry King Live in the fall.
• After 54 years on CBS television, As the World Turns, the last of the Procter and Gamble Productions soap operas, airs its final episode
• The producers of PBS’s Sesame Street pull a taped segment featuring singer Katy Perry performing a modified “kid friendly” version of her song “Hot n Cold” with Elmo after a preview on YouTube draws complaints from parents for Perry’s wearing a costume with too much cleavage showing. Later that week, Perry alludes to the incident on Saturday Night Live by wearing a low-cut Elmo T-shirt in a skit.

HISTORICAL EVENTS: