Economic turmoil continues
The global economic crisis shows little sign of ending. Stock and bond markets remain volatile, while food and energy prices continue to rise. A real estate bubble is about to burst in China, threatening to plunge the world into further chaos. With protests continuing in many countries, various movements for change are emerging, aided by social media like Twitter and Facebook.
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
6th February 2012 marked the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (as well as the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth). Celebrations were held in these countries to mark the occasion.
In June, there is an extra public holiday in the UK. An event is staged in London which includes a concert produced by singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, formerly of Take That. A maritime parade of boats and events takes place along the River Thames, in which up to 1,000 boats take part (the largest flotilla to be seen on the river in 350 years) and a million people watch from the riverside.* Street parties take place around the country.
Queen Victoria, in 1897, is thus far the only other monarch in the histories of Britain, Canada and a few other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee.
Euro 2012 is held in Poland and Ukraine
The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship is hosted by Poland and Ukraine.*
London hosts the Olympic Games
London hosts the Olympic Games for the 3rd time in its history - the only city to have done so this many times. The two week event takes places amidst the largest security operation ever seen in peace-time Europe.
Aside from a small number of arrests, it passes without incident. Despite this, the media tries to hype the threat of a terrorist attack as much as possible.
London is transformed this decade by a number of massive construction projects. In addition to the Olympic Games venues themselves, there is neighbouring Stratford City - an entire new business district, with over 13.5 million ft² of floor space. Then there is Crossrail - a £15 billion rail connection, linking Heathrow Airport with the central and eastern parts of the city.
Vast areas of land are being redeveloped all over the city - including Greenwich Peninsula, Elephant & Castle, Croydon, Paddington, Battersea and elsewhere. These mixed-use developments contain hundreds of thousands of new homes, shops and offices to provide for London's booming population.
Several new landmarks dominate the skyline, including the 87-storey Shard of Glass. This becomes the tallest tower in the European Union, and the first to break the 1000 ft barrier.
Completion of the International Space Station
This is by far the largest man-made structure ever put into orbit - measuring 110m wide, with a mass of 345,000 kg and a living volume of 1000 cubic metres. The primary fields of research on board the station include human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology. It will remain in operation until 2028.
Mars Science Laboratory explores the Red Planet
This is by far the largest and most powerful rover ever sent to Mars. Among its many instruments is the first ever video camera taken to another planet. As well as filming the surface environment, it also records the descent through the atmosphere, in HD quality. The rover also features the first 3D camera on Mars.
The mission has four goals:
to determine if life ever arose on Mars
to characterize the climate of Mars
to characterize the geology of Mars
to prepare for human exploration.
Windows 8 is released*
Windows 8 features a much faster startup, an App Store, integrated web applications, improved digital media support (including AVC HD and 3D video), faster resumes from low-power states, and support for both USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0. It also includes facial recognition (due to the increasing use of webcams integrated into computers), which can log a user in automatically. There are major improvements for touch usage.
Quad-core smartphones and tablets
The first quad-core smartphones and tablets are released in 2012, offering a substantial boost in processing power. This new generation includes the Samsung Galaxy S3, iPhone 5, HTC Edge, HTC Zeta, HTC Quattro tablet and the Asus Transformer Prime.**
Nintendo launches the Wii U
The Wii U is the first of the 8th generation games consoles - the others being the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4, which are launched in 2013. The Wii U features gameplay in full 1080p resolution, 8GB of flash-based memory for storing game saves, a touch tablet controller with built-in camera, and game discs with 25GB of content using a Nintendo-proprietary format based on that of Blu-ray Discs. It is backward compatible with Wii software.*
Brain-computer interfaces allowing the paralyzed to walk again
By this date, a prototype full-body exoskeleton has been devised which allows the paralysed to walk again - using their thoughts alone to control it.*
This is achieved using a neuroprosthetic device with a highly advanced brain-computer interface (BCI) at its core, driven by neurochips implanted in the patient's skull. These monitor electrical brain activity and adjust the movement of the limbs accordingly.
The project has been developed by an international team of neurophysiologists, computer scientists, engineers, roboticists, neurologists and neurosurgeons at laboratories around the world. Fresh hope is now being offered to millions of people affected by paralysis.*
The world's first 1-Gigawatt offshore wind farm
Construction of the largest ever offshore wind farm is underway off the southeastern coast of England. Known as the "London Array", it will supply enough power for 750,000 homes - a quarter of all those in London.*
With a total of 341 turbines, it will reduce carbon emissions by nearly 2 million tonnes every year: a significant milestone in the government's plan to cut emissions by 80% by 2050.
This project marks the beginning of a major expansion of offshore wind power in Britain. Numerous other large-scale wind farms will be constructed in the coming decades - greatly reducing the country's dependence on foreign energy and creating thousands of new jobs in the green industry.
Mass hysteria grips the world as the Mayan calendar reaches the end of its current cycle
The Mayans were an ancient people that lived thousands of years ago, in what is now Central America. They are noted for having the only fully-developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas – as well as its art, architecture, mathematical and astronomical systems. As part of their culture, the Mayans used a Long Count calendar. This identified a particular date by counting the number of days from a starting date, which is calculated to have been 11th August 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. A b'ak'tun was the longest unit of measurement in this system and was equivalent to 144,000 days, or 394 years. When correlated with the modern Western calendar it can be shown that the 13th b'ak'tun ends on 21st December, 2012.
This date has generated enormous publicity, with many predicting the end of the world, or a transformative event of some kind. This is despite no record of the Mayans themselves believing that any such event would occur.
The media plays a huge role here, whipping up a frenzy of speculation. Though mostly tongue-in-cheek, it is enough to influence many gullible and/or vulnerable people. Various threats are debated: from a polar reversal of the Earth, to a global computer crash, runaway climate disaster or other cataclysm. On some talk shows, even the second coming of Christ is predicted. There are numerous hoaxes on the Internet and elsewhere, creating further confusion and paranoia during this time. Some people engage in panic buying of food, or build shutters and barricades around their homes. Others spend their entire life savings to enjoy one "last day" before the end of the world.
A small minority of people become involved in more serious activity. For these troubled individuals, it becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. In their misguided belief that the world will actually end, they resort to extreme or illegal behaviour, putting themselves and others at risk. Consequently, there is a brief spike in the number of murders, rapes, accidents and suicides worldwide.
Of course, for the vast majority of rational people, the date passes without incident - and life continues as normal on 22nd December.*
