It's almost curtains down on good old 2011. This means there will be a host of "end of the year" lists coming one's way. One of the favorite such listing is that of You Tube's list of the top ten most watched videos.
No doubt watching all these videos at one shot makes one feel as if one is dunking one's head in a bathtub wedge filled with highly viral ear worms. Yet it still is a clean look at what was entertaining, horrifying and managed to mesmerize throughout the year.
As per the official You Tube Blog there are more than ... hold your breath… a mind-boggling one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) playbacks on the video-sharing service, this year. If that is broken down, it apparently means 140 video views for each individual on earth (phew amazing, isn't it)
Now what the staff at You Tube did was they went through and viewed all those playbacks, chucked off the ones linked to videos from major music labels. Then they figured out which ten best clips managed to grab the most eyeballs world over.
Now among all the ten, it was Rebecca Black's "Friday," a music video most would love to hate, that bagged the top spot. It topped the list despite temporarily vanishing from You Tube, at one point in time.
Darryl Humenny and Stephanie Peterson hold their twin babies, Beckett and Freya, at the Hennepin County Medical Centre on Sunday. The twins were born hours apart, one on December 31, 2011 and the other on January 1, 2012.
Minneapolis (Agencies): They can only be called a New Year bundle of joy. A Minneapolis hospital witnessed the birth of twin girls, one became the last baby of 2011, and the other, the first of the new year. The two were separated by a few hours, which led one to be born in the new year.
The elder, Beckett, was born at 6:40 pm on New Year's Eve 2011. His sister, Freya, was born six hours later, at 12:26 am on January 1, 2012, and the nurses at Hennepin County Medical Center threw confetti to celebrate the New Year and the extraordinary birth event.
"It was a party when she came out," said their mom, Stephanie Peterson, 30, of Wayzata. There will come a time, she said, when Beckett will probably tease his sister that she's a year a younger, but "I'm excited that they will have two birthdays," she said. Hospital officials and birth center staff said they could not recall another time when twins were born just before and just after the New Year.
Born at 34 weeks, both babies are small but healthy. Beckett was 4 pounds 11 ounces, and Freya was 5 pounds 2 1/2 ounces. They will spend a week in the newborn intensive care unit before going home. For the parents, from now on the two-day holiday will instead be a two-day birthday. "It used to be such a long day in the past," said Darryl Humenny, 33, the babies' father.
Chennai/ Puducherry: Cyclone Thane hit the
coast of Tamil Nadu on Friday, making landfall between Puducherry and
Cuddalore that has resulted in the death of 27 people so far. While 19
people have been reported dead in Cuddalore, eight have died in
Puducherry.
After the landfall, the cyclone moved further
westward and weakened rapidly into a deep depression and lay centered at
about 100 km west of Cuddalore, the regional weather office said.
The
storm crossed the coast between Cuddalore and Puducherry bringing in
its wake torrential rains accompanied by gale that uprooted hundreds of
trees and knocked electric poles, snapping power supply in several
areas.
The tiny Union Territory of Puducherry was cut off from
neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu with the uprooted trees blocking
road traffic.
The cyclone also disrupted rail and air operations
with services cancelled or rescheduled. Flights to international
destinations including the middle-east and Malaysia from Chennai were
cancelled following the inclement weather.
Southern Railway partially cancelled and rescheduled most of the trains between Chennai and southern districts.
However, rains continued in the coastal districts of the state and southern Andhra Pradesh till Saturday evening.
Puduchery
District Collector S B Deepak Kumar said that rescue operations were in
full swing in the Union Territory. Uprooted trees were being removed
from the roads.
Cuddalore was the most affected, with damaged
roads rendering it difficult for rescue teams including those from
National Disaster Response Force and fire and rescue services to reach
the cyclone hit fishing hamlets.
District
Collector Amuthavalli said even as communication lines remained
affected, over 5000 houses of fishermen had been damaged.
"We
don't know what is happening in the outside world. All that we have been
hearing since last night is the howling of the wind. Several trees have
fallen down. Even mobile phone signals are not proper," S Ravikumar, a
Puducherry resident, told IANS.
Some 250 coastal villages
inhabited by fishermen had been put on high alert and there was fear all
night long. Several hundreds were evacuated and taken to the 49 relief
shelters. Others have had to fend for themselves.
Jaya,
a fisherman from Puducherry said to NDTV, "I have not seen a cyclonic
storm like this ever. At least the tsunami, we ran away and saved our
life. This time we have not earned even 10 rupees in the last one week.
No one has come to our help.''
Most fishermen have suffered
financial losses due to the cyclone. "Catamaran, boat, nets, engine, all
have been either damaged or washed away. What are we going to do? They
have not even offered us shelter in a school or some other building,''
said Shankar, another fisherman in Puducherry.
A comprehensive
assessment of the damage done by Cyclone Thane will take some more time.
The immediate danger of loss to life has passed. But a question mark
hangs over the future for thousands of fishermen along the coast who
have lost or had their catamarans and boats damaged.
Chennai helpline numbers:
Chennai
Corporation - 1913, 25619237; Kancheepuram district administration -
1077, Police control room - 9445465536, 27238001; Tiruvallur district
administration - 27661200; Police control room - 27661010.
തൃശ്ശൂര്: അത്താണിയില് പടക്കനിര്മ്മാണശാല പൊട്ടിത്തെറിച്ച് ഉടമ ഉള്പ്പെടെ അഞ്ച് പേര് മരിച്ചു. പടക്കനിര്മ്മാണശാലയുടെ ലൈസന്സി ഇലവത്തിങ്കല് ജോസി, വാസുദേവപിള്ള, രാധാകൃഷ്ണന്, അനില്,ബീഹാര് സ്വദേശി ബബ്ലു എന്നിവരാണ് മരിച്ചത്.
ഗുരുതരമായി പൊള്ളലേറ്റ ഏഴുപേരെ തൃശ്ശൂര് മെഡിക്കല് കോളേജ് ആസ്പത്രില് പ്രവേശിപ്പിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. സജീഷ്, ജയന്, പ്രസാദ്, വിജയന്, ദേവസ്യ, മാധവന്, പഴനിമല എന്നിവരാണ് ആസ്പത്രിയിലുള്ളത്.
മൂന്നു പേര് പരിക്കുകളില്ലാതെ രക്ഷപ്പെട്ടു. 15 പേരാണ് പടക്കനിര്മ്മാണശാലയില് ജോലിയെടുത്തിരുന്നതത്. ഉച്ചക്ക് 12.30നായിരുന്നു സ്ഫോടനം. പടക്കനിര്മ്മാണത്തിനുള്ള വെടിമരുന്ന് ശേഖരിക്കിച്ചുവെച്ചതാണ് പൊട്ടിത്തെറിച്ചത്.
അത്താണി ആനപ്പെരുവഴിയിലെ കുന്നിന്മുകളിലെ റബ്ബര്തോട്ടത്തിനിടയിലായിരുന്നു പടക്കനിര്മ്മാണശാല പ്രവര്ത്തിച്ചിരുന്നത്. മൂന്നുഷെഡ്ഡുകളിലായി വെടിമരുന്ന് സൂക്ഷിച്ചിരുന്നതായാണ് വിവരം. പടക്കനിര്മ്മാണം നടന്ന സ്ഥലത്തായിരുന്നു സ്ഫോടനം. സമീപത്തെ മൂന്നുവീടുകളും കത്തി നശിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്.
