Top Ten Viral Videos of 2010. Top Ten Video Games for 2010. Ten Best TV Series of 2010. Top Ten TV Commercials of 2010. Top Ten Travel Issues of 2010. No one could say its name (Eyjafjallajokull), but everyone knew about its ash plume. The Icelandic volcano that erupted on April 14 had been dormant for almost two centuries.
But it quickly made up for lost time, unleashing fountains of fire, incredible lava flows and a smoke plume that rose 36,000 ft. (11,000 m) into the sky — right into the path of oncoming airplanes. Two days later, because of prevailing winds that blew the smoke eastward, most of Europe's major airports were closed, delaying or canceling thousands of flights. The plume hovered above northern and central Europe for days, making it the worst peacetime air-travel disruption in history. Next Steven Slater's JetBlue Freak-Out. Top Ten Talented Web Videos of 2010.
As this year's list of the top viral videos clearly shows, not all that goes viral is great. The flipside is also sadly true: not all great videos go viral. So the multimedia staff at TIME.com came up with a second list of some of the more surprisingly good web videos from the past year: the sleeper hits, clever productions and awesome artistry that have flickered on our computer screens and stuck in our heads. As we looked at the entries and narrowed them down to the 10 best, we saw a theme emerge: talent.
And what better video to kick off a most-talented list than this infectiously happy gem from Toulouse? Using the long tracking shot (one of Hollywood's coolest conventions, whether it's in the hands of a master like Orson Welles or in a viral ad selling whiskey), students at the French graphic arts school Axe Sud Toulouse show equal parts enthusiasm and precision as they lip dub a mix of "Happy Together" and M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes. " Next Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. Top Ten Songs of 2010. Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2010. Settle down, we're talking real horns — 15 of them to be exact, decorating the giant head of the 5,500-lb. (2,500-kg) Kosmoceratops, a beast that lived 76 million years ago in what is now Utah.
Its fossilized remains were discovered by a University of Utah expedition in 2007, but the dino was formally described and named only in September of 2010. The bones shed light not only on the fanciful kinds of beasts that lived so long ago, but on the unfamiliar place North America was. Though the Kosmoceratops lived in Utah, it was a coastal dweller, making its home along the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, a great body of water that divided the continent in two.
Next Big News About a Small Particle. Top Ten Scandals of 2010. It was a big year for scandals, but few of them became an international incident. However, when Tennessee nurse Torry-Ann Hansen put the 7-year-old boy she had adopted on a plane to Moscow in April, asking for him to be taken back, the Russian authorities took a dim view.
Hansen, 34, said in a typewritten note that she sent with the otherwise accompanied minor, Artyom Savelyev, that he was mentally unstable and she feared for her life and that of her family. She claimed the Vladivostok orphanage had misled her about his behavioral issues and that she wanted the adoption annulled. The scandal led some Russian politicians to call for a suspension on foreign adoptions of Russian children, but although that outcome has been averted, it's still unclear whether Hansen will be charged with any crimes. Next Sarah Ferguson Sells the Prince for a Price. Ten Biggest Reality TV Moments of 2010.
Top Ten Plays and Musicals of 2010. Top Ten Photos of 2010. Top Ten Non-Fiction Books of 2010. Ten Biggest Movies of 2010. Ten Most Important Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Antiretroviral drugs have turned the AIDS epidemic around, by thwarting the virus in HIV-positive patients. But new research suggests that this powerful treatment may have another benefit — as a weapon against infection in healthy individuals. In a trial involving nearly 2,500 HIV-negative, but high risk, gay men in six countries, researchers found that a combination antiretroviral pill called Truvada reduced the risk of HIV infection by 44%, compared with placebo. When scientists looked more carefully at the study volunteers who took the medication most faithfully, on a daily basis, they found that the risk of contracting HIV was even lower — 73% lower than the placebo group. More studies will need to confirm the benefit of antiretrovirals in the prevention of HIV, and public health experts warn that even if the results hold up, it would not replace the best method of prophylaxis: safe sex and consistent use of condoms.
Next Synthetic Cell. Top Ten Magazine Covers of 2010. Late Night Jokes- The 2010 Top Ten. Top Ten iPhone Apps (according to Time) for 2010. Netflix customers were thrilled about this year's release of an authorized iPhone app that let them stream movies and TV shows instantly to their phones. The Netflix app for iPhone comes on the heels of its iPad app, which was a hit after the tablet went on the market in April. Subscribing to any of the monthly Netflix packages, which start at $8.99, gives iPhone users access to Netflix's instant streaming queue anywhere, even on a 3G connection (though a wi-fi connection provides a better experience). It also lets users resume watching from their instant queue where they left off on their TVs or computers. It's an ideal app for commuters or parents who want to keep their kids entertained on the go. Price: Free via iTunes (with a monthly Netflix subscription) Next Groupon. Top Ten Green Stories of 2010. There's no contest.
The biggest environment story of the year began on April 20 — the 40th anniversary of Earth Day — when BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. That began what is now known to be the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, with at least 185 million gallons of crude pouring into the Gulf. The disaster grabbed the public's imagination as no environmental story had since, well, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Underwater cameras revealed the daily failure of BP and the government to stop the flow of oil, while photographers captured oil-drenched beaches in Louisiana and animals slicked with crude. One thing everyone agreed — the spill wouldn't be forgotten any time soon. Next The Death of Cap-and-Trade.
Top Ten People Related Lists of 2010. Top Ten Gadgets of 2010. Top Ten Facebook Trends of 2010. Top Ten Buzzwords of 2010. Top Ten Business Deals of 2010. The airline industry consolidated yet again in 2010. In a May, United and Continental announced a $3.2 billion hook-up to create the world's largest airline. When the integration is completed, the company will serve 378 airports with hubs in 10 cities.
It will have 5,811 daily departures and an estimated 144 million passengers a year. The combination could also produce more than $30 billion in revenue a year, or nearly 50% more than its nearest competitor American Airlines. Despite the merged company's size, the deal flew through the approval process — such is the state of this beleaguered industry. The biggest point of contention seems to be about the logo. In late 2011 or 2012, the combined company will go by United but use Continental's golden globe as its logo.
Next General Motors' IPO. Top Ten Animals Stories of 2010. Outrage over the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the subsequent Gulf of Mexico oil spill seemed to reach its apex when photos of animals coated in oil made the nation's newspapers. For those who weren't directly impacted by the spreading plumes, seeing the heart-wrenching images of oil-coated fish and birds, and hearing the news of vast underwater plumes that were almost certainly affecting sea life, drove the catastrophe home. This oil spill was deadly. Even animals that weren't immediately killed by the oil could be harmed, as scientists are just beginning to understand the long-term impact the oil will have the ocean's ecosystem. In particular, there is the possibility of oil making its way up the food chain — as bacteria feasts on the oil, is then feasted on by plankton, eventually finding its way into larger fish.
Long after the well was finally plugged, the impact of Deepwater Horizon persists. Next The Reign of the Bedbugs. Top Ten Tweets in 2010. "@Sn00ki u r right, I would never tax your tanning bed! Pres Obama's tax/spend policy is quite The Situation. but I do rec wearing sunscreen! " When you call your daily routine "gym, tan, laundry," it's hard not to take a tanning tax personally. That's why, during an episode of Jersey Shore, reality star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi called out President Obama's health care bill, which included one very specific tax. "I don't go 'tanning' tanning anymore because Obama put a 10% tax on tanning [beds], and I feel like he did that intentionally for us," she said as she applied bronzer. "McCain would never put a 10% tax on tanning. Because he's pale and he would probably want to be tan.
" Senator John McCain responded with this June 9 tweet, even name-checking her co-star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino. Next Sarah Palin. Top Ten Quotes for 2010. Top Ten Twitter Moments of 2010. The Top Ten Numbers for 2010. Gallons of oil that leaked into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of BP's Deepwater Horizon spill The oil leak that seemed as if it would never end was finally plugged in July after three months of gushing, but not before almost 5 million bbl. of oil spilled into the Gulf. What began as an April drilling-rig explosion turned into weeks of environmental anxiety. After multiple attempts at blocking the leak, the wellhead was capped on July 15. In the end, it was the worst accidental spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The leak put an estimated 53,000 gal. of oil a day into the Gulf, and BP's estimated costs for the cleanup and compensation now sit at $40 billion. The Top 10 Everything of 2010.