December is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. In Latin, decem means "ten". December was also the tenth month in the Roman calendar until a monthless winter period was divided between January.
December is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.
December 1, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announces that he will send 30,000 extra American troops to Afghanistan within the next six months and start withdrawal in 19 months. (The New York Times)
December 1, 2009, U.S. golfer Tiger Woods announces that he will not be attending his own charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, or any other tournaments in 2009. (AP via Google News)
December 1, 2009,
December 1, 2009, Maurice Clemmons, suspect in the Lakewood police officer shootings, is shot dead by police in Seattle. (BBC)
December 1, 2009, The International Court of Justice begins hearings into the legality of the Kosovan declaration of independence from Serbia. (AFP)
December 1, 2009, The European Union now has legal personality and has acquired the competences previously conferred on the European Community. Community law therefore becomes European Union law. (ECJ)
- The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enters into force. (AFP via Google News)
- The European Court of Justice acquires general jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings in the area of freedom, security and justice. (ECJ)
- The first permanent President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, officially takes office. (AFP via Google News)
- The first EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, officially takes office. (AFP via Google News)
December 2, 2009, Release of TruTv Series Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.
December 2, 2009,
December 2, 2009,
December 2, 2009, The trial of suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk is postponed after he is taken ill. (Deutsche Welle)
December 2, 2009, Wikipedia is ordered by a senior British judge to breach its confidentiality after a woman pleaded for help in identifying an alleged blackmailer. (Daily Telegraph)
December 2, 2009,Leading Climate change scientist Dr. Jones steps down from lead role after Climate-Gate scandal.
December 3, 2009, Copenhagen heats up.
December 3, 2009, Palin-Genesis.
December 3, 2009, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits in United States commercial banks, is running a deficit of $US8.2 billion. (New York Times)
December 3, 2009, Nigerian farmers sue Shell at a court in The Hague over claims that the oil firm polluted their land in the Niger Delta region. (NEXT)
December 4, 2009, Release of Armored.
Armored is a 2009 American crime thriller film directed by Nimród Antal, written by first-time screenwriter James V. Simpson, and starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne.
Early morning, Ty Hackett is getting ready for work. He wakes up his younger brother, Jimmy , and tells him to get ready for high school. Ty is a war hero, having earned the Silver Star in Iraq. Both his parents recently died and left him with the mortgage and Jimmy to look out for. Ty is picked up by Mike Cochrane , and they carpool to work at the Eagle Shield Armored Truck Co.
A newbie guard for an the company Tyler is coerced by his veteran coworkers to steal a truck containing $42 million. But a wrinkle in their supposedly foolproof plan divides the group, leading to a potentially deadly resolution.
December 4, 2009, Release of Brothers.
Brothers is a 2009 drama-war film starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the film is based on Susanne Bier's 2004 Danish film Brødre which takes place in Afghanistan and Denmark. Both films take inspiration from Homer's epic poem The Odyssey.
A young man comforts his older brother's wife and children after he goes missing in Afghanistan.
December 4, 2009, Release of Everybodys Fine.
Everybody's Fine is a remake of the Giuseppe Tornatore film Stanno Tutti Bene that is written and directed by Kirk Jones and stars Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale.
A widower who realized his only connection to his family was through his wife sets off on an impromptu road trip to reunite with each of his grown children.
December 4, 2009, Release of Serious Moonlight.
Serious Moonlight is an upcoming 2009 comedy film directed by Cheryl Hines. It stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, and Justin Long. It will be released by Magnolia Pictures.
When a high-powered female attorney discovers that her husband is about to leave her for another woman, she prevents him from doing so by binding him to the toilet with duct tape. Complications ensue when burglars break into the couple’s home.
December 4, 2009, Release of Up In Air.
Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel, Up in the Air, written by Walter Kirn.
The story is about a corporate downsizer in his travels and follows his isolated life and philosophies, along with the people that he meets along the way.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who travels around the country and using the principles of Cost leadership helps corporations reduce staff count. Walter Kirn stated in the film's press notes: "Ryan is like a masseur who comes in and sort of rubs your shoulders while rolling your desk chair into the elevator." On occasion he delivers motivational speeches about the virtue of a relationship-free life. He relishes the comfort of being anonymous during his perpetual travels. He does not have a personal life. His company chooses to ground him and keep him at the corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. According to Reitman, "The movie is about the examination of a philosophy—what if you decided to live hub to hub, with nothing, with nobody?"
December 4, 2009, With the ongoing Climate-Gate Debate Texas receives 3rd earliest snowfall.
December 4, 2009, The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision closes down the Cleveland based AmTrust Bank. (Dow Jones via NASDAQ
December 4, 2009, An explosion at a nightclub in Perm, Russia, kills at least one hundred and injures around a hundred people. (RIA Novosti)
December 4, 2009, A fire at a nightclub in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, Indonesia, kills at least 20 people. (AFP)
December 4, 2009, At least 50 people are missing after two ferries collide on the River Nile near Rashid (Rosetta) in Egypt. (BBC)
December 4, 2009, At least 47 people drown after a ferry capsizes in Kishoreganj District, Bangladesh. (The Daily Star)
December 4, 2009, The judges and jury in the case of the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 in Perugia, Italy, retire to consider their verdict. (BBC)
December 4, 2009, The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation announces that 25 member countries will contribute a further 7,000 troops to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in addition to 30,000 additional American and 500 British troops previously announced. (BBC)
December 4, 2009, The final draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup takes place in Cape Town, South Africa. (AP via Yahoo sports)
December 4, 2009, Nepal's cabinet meets on Mount Everest to highlight the impact of climate change in the Himalayas. (CNN)
December 5, 2009, National Championship is set.
December 5, 2009, Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in London and other European capitals ahead of a United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen. (AFP)
December 6, 2009,
Big Foot / Galactic Center
Link
December 6, 2009, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom firmly warns newspaper editors in a letter to cease publication of personal pictures of the British Royal Family after years of being "hounded" by paparazzi. (BBC)
December 7, 2009,
December 7, 2009, The United Nations Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen. (CNN)
December 7, 2009, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates admits that the United States has had no information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden for many years. (Dawn)
December 7, 2009, The English town of Swindon becomes the first ever Twin Town of Walt Disney World in the U.S. state of Florida. (BBC)
December 8, 2009, Release of This is War Album By 30 Seconds too Mars.
December 8, 2009,
December 8, 2009, Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, England.
December 8, 2009, A man was arrested for allegedly throwing two tomatoes at Sarah Palin from the second floor balcony during a book signing event at the Mall of America in Minnesota, MyFoxTwinCities.com. reported.
Neither tomato came close hitting the former 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, but did hit a police officer in the face, the station reported.
The unidentified man may face charges for assaulting a police officer, according to the station.
Police identified him as 33-year-old Jeremy Paul Olson from St. Paul, but they think he also goes by the name Jeremiah Wobbe. Police said he was arrested and booked on assault and disorderly conduct charges. Officers added that when they arrested him, they found two more tomatoes he'd been carrying.
The word tomato comes from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl. French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort provided the Latin botanical name, Lycopersicon esculentum, to the tomato. The Latin name translates to "wolfpeach" - peach because it was round and wolf because it was mistakenly considered to be toxic due to its botanical connection to the Solanaceae or nightshade family.
The Bible contains 13 references to wolves, usually as metaphors for greed and destructiveness. In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted to have used wolves as illustrations to the dangers His followers would have faced should they follow him (Matthew 10:16, Acts 10:29, Matthew 7:15)
The Roman Catholic Church often used the negative imagery of wolves in order to create a sense of real devils prowling the real world.
Quoting from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Malleus Maleficarum states that wolves are either agents of God sent to punish sinners, or agents of the Devil sent with God's blessing to harass true believers in order to test their faith.
In Canto I of Dante's Inferno, the Pilgrim encounters a She-Wolf blocking the path to a hill bathed in light. The She-Wolf represents the sins of concupiscence (Lust) and incontinence ( Passion). She is prophecised by the shade of Virgil to one day be sent to Hell by a greyhound (Tour Bus?).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_ ... _mythology
The color peach represents immortality in Chinese culture (in Western culture, the color amaranth represents immortality). In China, the magical peaches of immortality were said to be consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who ate them. In Daoism The divinity Yu Huang, also called the Jade Emperor, and his mother called Xi Wangmu also known as Queen Mother of the West are said to be the guardians of the peaches of immortality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach_%28color%29
Sarah Palin -> Going Rogue = New Moon (+Wolf) = She Wolf (New Rome).
December 8, 2009, Japan unveils a new ¥7.2 trillion (US$80.6 billion) stimulus package to strengthen the country's economy amid signs it is weakening. (BBC)
December 8, 2009, For the second time in as many years, CBS cancels a United States-produced soap opera, this time As The World Turns after 54 years, in effect putting Procter & Gamble, the creators of said genre, out of that business. (Bloomberg News)
December 8, 2009, Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial spacecraft, is officially unveiled in the Mojave Desert, California. (The Daily Telegraph)
December 23, 2009, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squekquel
December 9, 2009, Release of Malice in Wonderland Album by Snoop Dogg.
December 9, 2009, Release of Expressions Album by Music Go Round.
December 9, 2009, Release of Visitors Album by John O'Rourke.
December 9, 2009,
December 9, 2009,
December 9, 2009, Indonesia raises Obama Statue
December 9, 2009, An unexplained spiral light seen in the sky across large parts of Northern Norway confound spectators. Authorities speculate that the light could come from a misfired Russian rocket, but Russian authorities deny this. (Daily Mail)
In Norway coinciding with Obamas Peace (V/Antenna) prize speech which syncs with the V-Obama connection.
December 9, 2009, Thousands of Jewish settlers stage a protest at the curbs on settlement building in the West Bank. (BBC)
December 9, 2009, India plans to secure its naval harbours with electric fences "against clandestine threats from the sea". (BBC)
December 9, 2009, Tens of thousands of people rally in several cities in Indonesia demanding the government do more to tackle corruption. (CNN)
December 10, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama accepts the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. (CNN)
December 10, 2009, A failed launch of an intercontinental missile RSM-56 Bulava by Russia is reported to be the cause of the mysterious spiral light seen over Northern Norway yesterday. (BBC)
December 10, 2009, Pakistani officials arrest five US citizens wanted by the FBI on suspicion of terrorism. (BBC)
December 10, 2009, Thousands of "red shirt" anti-government protesters demonstrate in Bangkok, Thailand, calling for new elections. (Thai News Agency)
December 10, 2009, It is revealed that Egypt is building an iron wall up to 100 feet deep along its border with Gaza. (The National)
December 10, 2009, New 4,000-page Spanish grammar guidelines, produced by the Spanish Royal Academy and 21 organizations in Spanish-speaking countries, are unveiled. (AP)
December 11, 2009, Release of Did You hear about the Morgan's.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? is a 2009 comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence, and starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? follows a highly successful Manhattan couple, Meryl and Paul Morgan, whose almost-perfect lives have only one notable failure – their dissolving marriage. But the turmoil of their romantic lives is nothing compared to what they are about to experience: they witness a murder and become targets of a contract killer. The Feds, protecting their witnesses, whisk away the Morgans from their beloved New York to a tiny town in Wyoming, and a relationship that was on the rocks threatens to end completely in the Rockies ... unless, in their new BlackBerry-free lives, the Morgans can slow down the pace and rekindle the passion.
December 11, 2009, Release of Invictus.
Invictus is a 2009 biographical drama film based on Nelson Mandela's life during the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film stars Morgan Freeman as the then South African President Mandela, and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the South African team captain. The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation.
After decades in a Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) is released in 1990 and works immediately to bring about the end of apartheid and the initiation of full democratic elections where the black majority population can vote. Mandela wins the race for President of South Africa and takes office in 1994. His immediate challenge is "balancing black aspirations with white fears." The country's still-present racial tensions are shown, in part, through Mandela's security team, which is comprised of both new black and old white officials, with the groups immediately hostile to one another despite sharing the same job and goal.
December 11, 2009, Release of The Princess and the Frog.
The Princess and the Frog is an American animated family film loosely based on E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess, which was in turn inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "The Frog Prince". It is the 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics line.
The film, which began production under the working title The Frog Princess, is an American fairy tale, Broadway-style musical set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A prince named Naveen (Bruno Campos) from the land of Maldonia is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier (Keith David). The frog prince mistakes a girl named Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) for a princess and has her kiss him to break the spell. The kiss does not break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, the two of them must reach the good voodoo priestess of the Bayou, Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator and a hopelessly romantic firefly along the way.
December 11, 2009, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett host Noble Peace Prize Concert.
December 11, 2009, Golfer Tiger Woods announces he is taking an indefinite break from the sport after a scandal over his infidelity in order to focus on "being a better husband, father, and person". (ABC)
December 11, 2009,
December 11, 2009,
December 11, 2009, Vasily Khristoforov, the head archivist for Russia's Federal Security Service confirms for the first time that the Soviet Union's KGB cremated Adolf Hitler's body in 1970 and scattered his ashes in the Biederitz River. (CNN)
December 11, 2009, Oil company Royal Dutch Shell wins the right to develop Iraq's Majnoon oil field in a joint venture with Petronas after the first such auction since the 2003 invasion. The field is expected to generate $900 million a year. (BBC)
December 11, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI releases a statement stating that he shares the "outrage, betrayal and shame" felt by the Irish people over the findings of the Murphy Report into sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy in Dublin. (RTÉ)
December 11, 2009, The USA threatens Iran with "significant new sanctions" over the country's nuclear programme according to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. (BBC)
December 11, 2009, The discovery of the Triassic theropod dinosaur genus Tawa is announced. (AP)
December 12, 2009, US Central Intelligence Agency has cancelled the contract of private security firm Xe Services LLC also know as Blackwater for its services related to Drone operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.(Dawn)
December 12, 2009,
December 12, 2009, Rise of the Black Phoenix.
December 12, 2009, Mark Ingram RB for Alabama Crimson Tide wins Heisman Trophy.
December 13, 2009, American Dad S5 Ep9: Rapture's Delight.
Stan is upset when he can't find his family a good seat for a Christmas Day church service, but that proves to be the least of his worries when Stan discovers that he, Roger, and Francine are among those left on Earth when everyone ascends into Heaven as part of the Biblical end of days, while Hayley and Steve have ascended. Francine becomes upset when Stan cares more about ascending into heaven than being with her and leaves him; she soon meets the second coming of Jesus Christ and becomes his girlfriend.
December 13, 2009, Simpsons S21 Ep8: O Brother, Where Bart Thou?
Lisa informs Bart that she and Maggie share a bond that Bart will never understand because he doesn’t have a brother, so Bart asks Homer for a baby brother. When Homer denies Bart’s request, Bart makes his way to the Springfield Orphanage to find what he thinks he’s missing.
December 13, 2009, Global consulting firm Accenture is ending its sponsorship of Tiger Woods, saying the golfer is "no longer the right representative" after the "circumstances of the last two weeks." (Wall Street Journal)
December 13, 2009, American multinational corporation Procter & Gamble says it will begin phasing Tiger Woods out of promotions for its Gillette brand. (Bloomberg)
December 13, 2009, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hit in the face and knocked to the ground after a political rally in Milan. (BBC News)
December 13, 2009, Campaigners in Copenhagen criticise "heavy handed" tactics by Danish police after 968 people are arrested as a result of protests surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference. (BBC)
December 13, 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to support British forces deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force and to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (BBC)
December 14, 2009,
December 14, 2009, The Group of 77 (including China, India, UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) suspends participation in treaty negotiations at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, citing the unwillingness of developed nations to live up to the Kyoto Protocol and what they view as a lack of open negotiations. (BBC)
December 14, 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, claims that some banks were rescued during the recent global financial crisis by billions of dollars that originated from the illegal drug trade. (Press TV)
December 14, 2009, Researchers report that the Veined Octopus retrieves coconut shell halves to use as shelter, becoming the first invertebrates recorded to use tools. (AP)
December 14, 2009, Dubai receives a US$10 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi to help fund troubled Dubai World. (Gulf News)
December 14, 2009, Austrian bank Hypo Group Alpe Adria is nationalised to avert a bank collapse. (Reuters)
December 14, 2009, TeliaSonera opens the world's first 4G LTE cellular network for public in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden. (The Inquirer)
December 15, 2009, Release of Alicia Keys Album Elements of Freedom.
December 15, 2009, Release of Robin Thicke Album Sex Therapy.
December 15, 2009,
December 15, 2009,
December 15, 2009, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish hosts urge countries on to compromise to salvage agreement on a new U.N. pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change and global warming.(Reuters)
December 15, 2009, The Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' widebody passenger airliner takes its maiden flight, travelling from Paine Field to Boeing Field, in Washington State, U.S.A. (BBC)
December 15, 2009, Evacuations begin in the Albay province of the Philippines as the Mayon Volcano oozes lava, with an eruption possible. (Philippine Inquirer)
December 15, 2009, Canadian sports medicine specialist Anthony Galea, who helped Tiger Woods recover from knee surgery, is accused of providing top athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. (New York Times)
December 16, 2009,
December 16, 2009,
December 16, 2009,
December 16, 2009, Roy E. Disney, head of Disney Animation and responsible for guiding the studio through a golden age of animation, dies in a California hospital in the United States. (CNN)
December 16, 2009, Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they have discovered a burial shroud from around the time of Jesus in a tomb. (Jerusalem Post)
December 16, 2009, The Philippine province of Albay is put under a "state of imminent disaster" as activity at the Mayon Volcano increases. (GMA News)
December 16, 2009, North Korea reportedly bans all foreigners from entering the country until early February 2010, for unknown reasons. (The Chosun Ilbo)
December 17, 2009,
December 17, 2009,
December 17, 2009, Europe is hit by heavy snowfall leading to disruptions in France, Germany, Poland and Spain. (BBC)
December 17, 2009, Egyptian archaeologists recover from the Mediterranean Sea an ancient temple pylon belonging to the palace complex of Cleopatra. (AP)
December 17, 2009, It is revealed that Iraqi militants intercepted live video feeds from U.S. MQ-1 Predator drones, potentially acquiring information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations. (Wall Street Journal)
December 18, 2009, Release of Avatar.
Avatar is a 2009 American 3-D science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, and Stephen Lang. The film is co-produced by Lightstorm Entertainment, and focuses on an epic conflict on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. On Pandora, human colonists and the sentient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, engage in a war over the planet's resources and the latter's continued existence.
The film's title refers to the Sanskrit word Avatar, a representation of a real person in a virtual world.
Nine is a 2009 American musical romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 Tony Award-winning musical of the same name, which was derived from an Italian play by Mario Fratti inspired by Federico Fellini's autobiographical film 8½.
Having reached the age of fifty, director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is facing a midlife crisis that is stifling his creativity and leading him into a variety of complicated romantic involvements. As he struggles to complete his latest film, he is forced to balance the numerous formative women in his life, including his wife, Luisa (Marion Cotillard); his mistress, Carla (Penélope Cruz); his film star muse, Claudia (Nicole Kidman); his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench); an American fashion journalist, Stephanie (Kate Hudson); a prostitute from his youth, Saraghina (Fergie); and his mother (Sophia Loren).
December 18, 2009, Release of The Young Victoria.
The Young Victoria is a 2009 British film based around the accession to the throne and early reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and her marriage to Prince Albert. It stars Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, and Jim Broadbent. The film is produced by Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Sarah, Duchess of York, and Tim Headington.
The film is a romantic dramatisation of some of the events preceding and following the coronation of Queen Victoria, focusing on her early reign and romance with Prince Albert in the 1830s.
December 18, 2009, Thirty world leaders present in Copenhagen for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change agree on a draft accord. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
December 18, 2009, NASA releases the first ever photo of liquid outside of Earth, in the form of sunlight reflecting on a lake on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. (CNN)
December 18, 2009,
December 18, 2009, A large crater resembling a fried egg is discovered off the coast of The Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, prompting speculation that it may have been caused up to 17 million years ago by meteor impact. (BBC)
December 18, 2009, Russian television news channels air repeated coverage of a UFO, shaped like a pyramid and similar to an Imperial Cruiser from Star Wars. (The Daily Telegraph)
December 18, 2009, General Motors announces that it will begin shutting down operations at the Swedish carmaker Saab automobile. (New York Times)
December 18, 2009, The Arbeit macht frei sign is stolen from Auschwitz concentration camp. (JTA)
December 18, 2009, Lava flows and ash explosions continue to emerge from Philippine volcano Mount Mayon while scientists predict a major eruption in the coming weeks and 30,000 people remain in temporary shelter. (BBC)
December 18, 2009, In a reversal of a previous decision, Sir John Chilcot insists that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will give the majority of his evidence to The Iraq Inquiry in public. (BBC)
December 18, 2009, Snowfall across the east of England disrupts transport and power supplies. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, The North American blizzard of 2009 produces record snowfall, causing power outages, deaths, and impacting retail sales. (The Weather Channel)
December 19, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI declares two of his predecessors, John Paul II and Pius XII to be Venerable, the second step toward sainthood. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, Freezing conditions cause electrical faults in the Channel Tunnel between Great Britain and France, isolating 2,000 passengers in five trains. The situation is coupled with disruptions at London Heathrow Airport and traffic delays due to snowy conditions in the south-east of England. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, Police recruit sniffer dogs and detectives in their hunt for the Arbeit macht frei sign missing from Auschwitz as appeals for its return are made by Israel, Poland and the European Union. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, Scientists announced the discovery of GJ 1214 b, an ocean planet orbiting a star in the Ophiuchus constellation. (Nature)
December 19, 2009, In association football, FC Barcelona sets a new record by winning all 6 possible competitions (The Sextuple) in one year. (The Guardian)
December 20, 2009, Brittany Murphy Dies at age 32.
December 20, 2009, A crisis state of emergency is declared when at least three people are killed, hundreds are wounded and buildings collapse when an earthquake strikes Malawi. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
December 20, 2009, United States Army Major General Anthony Cucolo makes pregnancy a court-martial offense for both female and male troops under his command in northern Iraq. (BBC)
December 21, 2009, Release of Eminem Album Refill.
December 21, 2009, Soon to be King (Sun) spends night homeless (Lowest Status).
December 21, 2009,
December 21, 2009, Remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back
to the time of Jesus have been found by Israeli archaeologists. (The Jerusalem Post)
December 22, 2009, A priest in York causes controversy when he says shoplifting from large national chain stores is acceptable in certain circumstances. (The Irish Times)
December 22, 2009, Brazil Judge Hands Goldman Custody Win (CBS)
December 23, 2009, Release of Alvin and the Chimpmunks: The Squeakquel.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is a 2009 American live-action/CGI film and sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) starring Zachary Levi, David Cross, Wendie Malick, and Jason Lee. The film also stars the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, and Amy Poehler.
The world famous singing pre-teen chipmunk trio return to contend with the pressures of school, celebrity, and a rival female music group known as The Chipettes.
December 23, 2009,
December 23, 2009, Gävle's giant straw goat — a traditional symbol of yuletide in Scandinavia — is burned down for the 24th time. (The Daily Telegraph)
December 23, 2009, American Airlines Flight 331, with 154 people onboard, overshoots the runway at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, injuring 44. (Jamaica Observer)
December 23, 2009, Soyuz TMA-17, carrying an international crew of one Russian, one American, and one Japanese astronaut, docks with the International Space Station. (RIA Novosti)
December 24, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI is knocked down by a woman during a procession before the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. He is uninjured, but Cardinal Roger Etchegaray suffers a hip fracture. (Sky News)
December 24, 2009, The United States Senate passes a controversial health-care bill expected to extend insurance coverage to 30 million additional Americans while substantially raising taxes, in a party-line vote, 60-39. (BBC)
December 25, 2009, Christmas.
December 25, 2009, Release of Dr. Parnassus: Imaginarium.
December 25, 2009, Release of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional character of the same name. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg is based on Lionel Wigram's story and Doyle's characters. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law portray Holmes and Dr. Watson respectively.
The film opens with Holmes and Watson racing against time to prevent a human sacrifice ritual conducted by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). They manage to stop the sacrifice ritual just in time. The police, led by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), arrive after Holmes and Watson neutralize Lord Blackwood and proceed to arrest him.
London is astir with rumors about his dark powers and Holmes and Watson resume their hunt to track him down Their adventures lead them to uncover an occult-dabbling secret society known as the Temple of the Four Orders (similar in vein to secret societies such as the Order of the Eastern Temple, the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Rosicrucians), with Blackwood eventually leading it on a quest for world domination.
December 25, 2009, Release of Nine.
"Nine," based on the Tony Award Winning Broadway musical and inspired by Fellini's classic film "8 1/2," stars Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will be Blood") as world famous film director Guido Contini as he prepares his latest picture and balances the numerous women in his life. Contini's wife "Luisa Contini" is played by Cotillard, his sultry mistress "Carla" by Cruz, Kidman stars as his film star muse "Claudia Graham," Judi Dench plays the role of "Lily" - his confidant and costume designer, Sophia Loren is his mother or "Mamma" and Hudson plays "Stephanie" the young American fashion journalist.
December 25, 2009, Release of It's Complicated
Jane (Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has—after a decade of divorce—an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Baldwin). But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together turns into the unimaginable—an affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman.
Caught in the middle of their renewed romance is Adam (Martin), an architect hired to remodel Jane’s kitchen. Healing from a divorce of his own, Adam starts to fall for Jane, but soon realizes he’s become part of a love triangle.
Should Jane and Jake move on with their lives, or is love truly lovelier the second time around? It’s…complicated.
December 25, 2009,
December 25, 2009, The 19th century St Mel's Cathedral of Longford in Ireland is destroyed by an ongoing fire in the town. (RTÉ)
December 25, 2009, American officials investigate a possible attempted terrorist attack after an incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
(MSNBC)
December 27, 2009, A consortium led by Korea Electric Power gets a US$20.4-billion contract to build nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, the largest-ever energy deal in the Middle East. (The Wall Street Journal)
December 27, 2009, A tomb, believed to be that of Cao Cao, one of the Chinese leaders during the Three Kingdoms period, is discovered in Henan Province. (Xinhua)
December 28, 2009,
December 28, 2009, Two Argentine men become the first gay couple to legally marry in Latin America at a civil ceremony. (Buenos Aires Herald)
December 28, 2009, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez quotes Mary and Karl Marx in a New Year message broadcast by state media, describing an end to the "illusion" of Barack Obama and predicting a global ecological disaster. (Reuters)
December 29, 2009,
December 30, 2009,
December 30, 2009, Police in Italy locate a wooden toy guitar sculpture which co-founder of Cubism Pablo Picasso made for his daughter Paloma. (BBC)
December 31, 2009,
December 31, 2009,
December 31, 2009, A High Court in Malaysia rules that the country's Christians have a constitutional right to use the word Allah in reference to God, declaring the government's ban on the use of Allah by non-Muslims as unconstitutional. (BBC News)
December 31, 2009, Former Catholic Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Cahal Daly, "the hierarchy's foremost theologian and its most trenchant critic of politically-inspired violence", dies in Belfast aged 92. (RTÉ)
December 31, 2009, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade issues an apology to "humiliated" Christians for comparing an "idolatrous" statue to Jesus Christ. (BBC)
December 31, 2009, The Althing (Icelandic parliament) approves the payment of €3.8 billion to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as deposit insurance for the collapsed Icesave savings scheme. (BBC News)
December 31, 2009, Patrick Stewart, the actor who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor X in X-Men, is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. (CNN)
December 31, 2009, Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. (CNN)
December is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.
December 1, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announces that he will send 30,000 extra American troops to Afghanistan within the next six months and start withdrawal in 19 months. (The New York Times)
December 1, 2009, U.S. golfer Tiger Woods announces that he will not be attending his own charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, or any other tournaments in 2009. (AP via Google News)
December 1, 2009,
December 1, 2009, Maurice Clemmons, suspect in the Lakewood police officer shootings, is shot dead by police in Seattle. (BBC)
December 1, 2009, The International Court of Justice begins hearings into the legality of the Kosovan declaration of independence from Serbia. (AFP)
December 1, 2009, The European Union now has legal personality and has acquired the competences previously conferred on the European Community. Community law therefore becomes European Union law. (ECJ)
- The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enters into force. (AFP via Google News)
- The European Court of Justice acquires general jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings in the area of freedom, security and justice. (ECJ)
- The first permanent President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, officially takes office. (AFP via Google News)
- The first EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, officially takes office. (AFP via Google News)
December 2, 2009, Release of TruTv Series Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.
December 2, 2009,
December 2, 2009,
December 2, 2009, The trial of suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk is postponed after he is taken ill. (Deutsche Welle)
December 2, 2009, Wikipedia is ordered by a senior British judge to breach its confidentiality after a woman pleaded for help in identifying an alleged blackmailer. (Daily Telegraph)
December 2, 2009,Leading Climate change scientist Dr. Jones steps down from lead role after Climate-Gate scandal.
December 3, 2009, Copenhagen heats up.
December 3, 2009, Palin-Genesis.
December 3, 2009, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits in United States commercial banks, is running a deficit of $US8.2 billion. (New York Times)
December 3, 2009, Nigerian farmers sue Shell at a court in The Hague over claims that the oil firm polluted their land in the Niger Delta region. (NEXT)
December 4, 2009, Release of Armored.
Armored is a 2009 American crime thriller film directed by Nimród Antal, written by first-time screenwriter James V. Simpson, and starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne.
Early morning, Ty Hackett is getting ready for work. He wakes up his younger brother, Jimmy , and tells him to get ready for high school. Ty is a war hero, having earned the Silver Star in Iraq. Both his parents recently died and left him with the mortgage and Jimmy to look out for. Ty is picked up by Mike Cochrane , and they carpool to work at the Eagle Shield Armored Truck Co.
A newbie guard for an the company Tyler is coerced by his veteran coworkers to steal a truck containing $42 million. But a wrinkle in their supposedly foolproof plan divides the group, leading to a potentially deadly resolution.
December 4, 2009, Release of Brothers.
Brothers is a 2009 drama-war film starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the film is based on Susanne Bier's 2004 Danish film Brødre which takes place in Afghanistan and Denmark. Both films take inspiration from Homer's epic poem The Odyssey.
A young man comforts his older brother's wife and children after he goes missing in Afghanistan.
December 4, 2009, Release of Everybodys Fine.
Everybody's Fine is a remake of the Giuseppe Tornatore film Stanno Tutti Bene that is written and directed by Kirk Jones and stars Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale.
A widower who realized his only connection to his family was through his wife sets off on an impromptu road trip to reunite with each of his grown children.
December 4, 2009, Release of Serious Moonlight.
Serious Moonlight is an upcoming 2009 comedy film directed by Cheryl Hines. It stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, and Justin Long. It will be released by Magnolia Pictures.
When a high-powered female attorney discovers that her husband is about to leave her for another woman, she prevents him from doing so by binding him to the toilet with duct tape. Complications ensue when burglars break into the couple’s home.
December 4, 2009, Release of Up In Air.
Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel, Up in the Air, written by Walter Kirn.
The story is about a corporate downsizer in his travels and follows his isolated life and philosophies, along with the people that he meets along the way.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who travels around the country and using the principles of Cost leadership helps corporations reduce staff count. Walter Kirn stated in the film's press notes: "Ryan is like a masseur who comes in and sort of rubs your shoulders while rolling your desk chair into the elevator." On occasion he delivers motivational speeches about the virtue of a relationship-free life. He relishes the comfort of being anonymous during his perpetual travels. He does not have a personal life. His company chooses to ground him and keep him at the corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. According to Reitman, "The movie is about the examination of a philosophy—what if you decided to live hub to hub, with nothing, with nobody?"
December 4, 2009, With the ongoing Climate-Gate Debate Texas receives 3rd earliest snowfall.
December 4, 2009, The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision closes down the Cleveland based AmTrust Bank. (Dow Jones via NASDAQ
December 4, 2009, An explosion at a nightclub in Perm, Russia, kills at least one hundred and injures around a hundred people. (RIA Novosti)
December 4, 2009, A fire at a nightclub in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, Indonesia, kills at least 20 people. (AFP)
December 4, 2009, At least 50 people are missing after two ferries collide on the River Nile near Rashid (Rosetta) in Egypt. (BBC)
December 4, 2009, At least 47 people drown after a ferry capsizes in Kishoreganj District, Bangladesh. (The Daily Star)
December 4, 2009, The judges and jury in the case of the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 in Perugia, Italy, retire to consider their verdict. (BBC)
December 4, 2009, The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation announces that 25 member countries will contribute a further 7,000 troops to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in addition to 30,000 additional American and 500 British troops previously announced. (BBC)
December 4, 2009, The final draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup takes place in Cape Town, South Africa. (AP via Yahoo sports)
December 4, 2009, Nepal's cabinet meets on Mount Everest to highlight the impact of climate change in the Himalayas. (CNN)
December 5, 2009, National Championship is set.
December 5, 2009, Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in London and other European capitals ahead of a United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen. (AFP)
December 6, 2009,
December 6, 2009, Release of Alice Mini-Series.
Alice is a 2009 television mini-series being broadcast on American cable television channel Syfy. The miniseries is a reimagining of the classic Lewis Carroll stories Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, with science fiction and additional fantasy elements added. The miniseries is being produced by RHI Entertainment, the company that produced Tin Man, the highly successful 2007 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. The series is four hours long, split into two parts, and premiered on Sunday, December 6, 2009. Writer and director Nick Willing previously directed a 1999 adaptation of the books which followed the story more closely; however, Alice is intended to be a modern interpretation, imagining how Wonderland might have evolved over the last 143 years.
Plot
Wonderland is an outlandish city of twisted towers and casinos built out of playing cards, all under the rule of the Queen of Hearts (Scarlet Women = Monarch = Fascism). The White Rabbit is a secret organization that works for the Queen of Hearts and abducts people from the real world, so they can gamble in the Queen's casino. Once people are kidnapped, they are referred to as "oysters," and play in the casino so their emotions can be drained by the Queen. These drained emotions serve as the currency of Wonderland. The Queen keeps people under control by sedating them with elixirs (Rainbow Drugs = (Apotheosis)) that provide an instant fix of emotions as a way to pacify them when they become too unruly.
Alice Hamilton (Caterina Scorsone), a woman in her twenties who lives with her mother, finds herself in Wonderland after the man she loves is kidnapped by the White Rabbit. However, the Queen is not very happy about Alice’s arrival. In the course of her adventure, Alice enlists the help of an array of characters including the resistance fighter Hatter (Andrew-Lee Potts), resistance leader Dodo (Tim Curry) and the White Knight (Matt Frewer). Unlike the Alice in Carroll's original stories, this characterization of Alice is a modern, assertive woman and not a young child.
Big Foot / Galactic Center
Link
December 6, 2009, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom firmly warns newspaper editors in a letter to cease publication of personal pictures of the British Royal Family after years of being "hounded" by paparazzi. (BBC)
December 7, 2009,
December 7, 2009, The United Nations Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen. (CNN)
December 7, 2009, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates admits that the United States has had no information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden for many years. (Dawn)
December 7, 2009, The English town of Swindon becomes the first ever Twin Town of Walt Disney World in the U.S. state of Florida. (BBC)
December 8, 2009, Release of This is War Album By 30 Seconds too Mars.
December 8, 2009,
December 8, 2009, Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, England.
December 8, 2009, A man was arrested for allegedly throwing two tomatoes at Sarah Palin from the second floor balcony during a book signing event at the Mall of America in Minnesota, MyFoxTwinCities.com. reported.
Neither tomato came close hitting the former 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, but did hit a police officer in the face, the station reported.
The unidentified man may face charges for assaulting a police officer, according to the station.
Police identified him as 33-year-old Jeremy Paul Olson from St. Paul, but they think he also goes by the name Jeremiah Wobbe. Police said he was arrested and booked on assault and disorderly conduct charges. Officers added that when they arrested him, they found two more tomatoes he'd been carrying.
The word tomato comes from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl. French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort provided the Latin botanical name, Lycopersicon esculentum, to the tomato. The Latin name translates to "wolfpeach" - peach because it was round and wolf because it was mistakenly considered to be toxic due to its botanical connection to the Solanaceae or nightshade family.
The Bible contains 13 references to wolves, usually as metaphors for greed and destructiveness. In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted to have used wolves as illustrations to the dangers His followers would have faced should they follow him (Matthew 10:16, Acts 10:29, Matthew 7:15)
The Roman Catholic Church often used the negative imagery of wolves in order to create a sense of real devils prowling the real world.
Quoting from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Malleus Maleficarum states that wolves are either agents of God sent to punish sinners, or agents of the Devil sent with God's blessing to harass true believers in order to test their faith.
In Canto I of Dante's Inferno, the Pilgrim encounters a She-Wolf blocking the path to a hill bathed in light. The She-Wolf represents the sins of concupiscence (Lust) and incontinence ( Passion). She is prophecised by the shade of Virgil to one day be sent to Hell by a greyhound (Tour Bus?).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_ ... _mythology
The color peach represents immortality in Chinese culture (in Western culture, the color amaranth represents immortality). In China, the magical peaches of immortality were said to be consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who ate them. In Daoism The divinity Yu Huang, also called the Jade Emperor, and his mother called Xi Wangmu also known as Queen Mother of the West are said to be the guardians of the peaches of immortality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach_%28color%29
Sarah Palin -> Going Rogue = New Moon (+Wolf) = She Wolf (New Rome).
December 8, 2009, Japan unveils a new ¥7.2 trillion (US$80.6 billion) stimulus package to strengthen the country's economy amid signs it is weakening. (BBC)
December 8, 2009, For the second time in as many years, CBS cancels a United States-produced soap opera, this time As The World Turns after 54 years, in effect putting Procter & Gamble, the creators of said genre, out of that business. (Bloomberg News)
December 8, 2009, Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial spacecraft, is officially unveiled in the Mojave Desert, California. (The Daily Telegraph)
December 23, 2009, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squekquel
December 9, 2009, Release of Malice in Wonderland Album by Snoop Dogg.
December 9, 2009, Release of Expressions Album by Music Go Round.
December 9, 2009, Release of Visitors Album by John O'Rourke.
December 9, 2009,
December 9, 2009,
December 9, 2009, Indonesia raises Obama Statue
December 9, 2009, An unexplained spiral light seen in the sky across large parts of Northern Norway confound spectators. Authorities speculate that the light could come from a misfired Russian rocket, but Russian authorities deny this. (Daily Mail)
In Norway coinciding with Obamas Peace (V/Antenna) prize speech which syncs with the V-Obama connection.
December 9, 2009, Thousands of Jewish settlers stage a protest at the curbs on settlement building in the West Bank. (BBC)
December 9, 2009, India plans to secure its naval harbours with electric fences "against clandestine threats from the sea". (BBC)
December 9, 2009, Tens of thousands of people rally in several cities in Indonesia demanding the government do more to tackle corruption. (CNN)
December 10, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama accepts the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. (CNN)
December 10, 2009, A failed launch of an intercontinental missile RSM-56 Bulava by Russia is reported to be the cause of the mysterious spiral light seen over Northern Norway yesterday. (BBC)
December 10, 2009, Pakistani officials arrest five US citizens wanted by the FBI on suspicion of terrorism. (BBC)
December 10, 2009, Thousands of "red shirt" anti-government protesters demonstrate in Bangkok, Thailand, calling for new elections. (Thai News Agency)
December 10, 2009, It is revealed that Egypt is building an iron wall up to 100 feet deep along its border with Gaza. (The National)
December 10, 2009, New 4,000-page Spanish grammar guidelines, produced by the Spanish Royal Academy and 21 organizations in Spanish-speaking countries, are unveiled. (AP)
December 11, 2009, Release of Did You hear about the Morgan's.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? is a 2009 comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence, and starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? follows a highly successful Manhattan couple, Meryl and Paul Morgan, whose almost-perfect lives have only one notable failure – their dissolving marriage. But the turmoil of their romantic lives is nothing compared to what they are about to experience: they witness a murder and become targets of a contract killer. The Feds, protecting their witnesses, whisk away the Morgans from their beloved New York to a tiny town in Wyoming, and a relationship that was on the rocks threatens to end completely in the Rockies ... unless, in their new BlackBerry-free lives, the Morgans can slow down the pace and rekindle the passion.
December 11, 2009, Release of Invictus.
Invictus is a 2009 biographical drama film based on Nelson Mandela's life during the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film stars Morgan Freeman as the then South African President Mandela, and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the South African team captain. The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation.
After decades in a Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) is released in 1990 and works immediately to bring about the end of apartheid and the initiation of full democratic elections where the black majority population can vote. Mandela wins the race for President of South Africa and takes office in 1994. His immediate challenge is "balancing black aspirations with white fears." The country's still-present racial tensions are shown, in part, through Mandela's security team, which is comprised of both new black and old white officials, with the groups immediately hostile to one another despite sharing the same job and goal.
December 11, 2009, Release of The Princess and the Frog.
The Princess and the Frog is an American animated family film loosely based on E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess, which was in turn inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "The Frog Prince". It is the 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics line.
The film, which began production under the working title The Frog Princess, is an American fairy tale, Broadway-style musical set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A prince named Naveen (Bruno Campos) from the land of Maldonia is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier (Keith David). The frog prince mistakes a girl named Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) for a princess and has her kiss him to break the spell. The kiss does not break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, the two of them must reach the good voodoo priestess of the Bayou, Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator and a hopelessly romantic firefly along the way.
December 11, 2009, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett host Noble Peace Prize Concert.
December 11, 2009, Golfer Tiger Woods announces he is taking an indefinite break from the sport after a scandal over his infidelity in order to focus on "being a better husband, father, and person". (ABC)
December 11, 2009,
December 11, 2009,
December 11, 2009, Vasily Khristoforov, the head archivist for Russia's Federal Security Service confirms for the first time that the Soviet Union's KGB cremated Adolf Hitler's body in 1970 and scattered his ashes in the Biederitz River. (CNN)
December 11, 2009, Oil company Royal Dutch Shell wins the right to develop Iraq's Majnoon oil field in a joint venture with Petronas after the first such auction since the 2003 invasion. The field is expected to generate $900 million a year. (BBC)
December 11, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI releases a statement stating that he shares the "outrage, betrayal and shame" felt by the Irish people over the findings of the Murphy Report into sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy in Dublin. (RTÉ)
December 11, 2009, The USA threatens Iran with "significant new sanctions" over the country's nuclear programme according to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. (BBC)
December 11, 2009, The discovery of the Triassic theropod dinosaur genus Tawa is announced. (AP)
December 12, 2009, US Central Intelligence Agency has cancelled the contract of private security firm Xe Services LLC also know as Blackwater for its services related to Drone operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.(Dawn)
December 12, 2009,
December 12, 2009, Rise of the Black Phoenix.
The Queen is to hand over a substantial part of her public duties to Prince William to help him prepare for the day when he becomes King, according to a confidential document obtained by The Mail on Sunday.
Secret papers reveal that plans to ease the strain on the 83-year-old monarch and her 88-year-old husband, Prince Philip, are at an advanced stage.
The disclosures come despite months of denials from the Palace that the Queen was planning to step back from her official work in favour of her 27-year-old grandson.
The information is contained in a briefing note written by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Treasury officials about new financial arrangements for Prince Charles and his sons.
Key paragraphs, disclosing the reason for the changes, are blacked out.
But this newspaper has obtained an uncensored version of the document which confirms that the Queen is grooming William as a ‘Shadow King’.
LinkDecember 12, 2009, Mark Ingram RB for Alabama Crimson Tide wins Heisman Trophy.
December 13, 2009, American Dad S5 Ep9: Rapture's Delight.
Stan is upset when he can't find his family a good seat for a Christmas Day church service, but that proves to be the least of his worries when Stan discovers that he, Roger, and Francine are among those left on Earth when everyone ascends into Heaven as part of the Biblical end of days, while Hayley and Steve have ascended. Francine becomes upset when Stan cares more about ascending into heaven than being with her and leaves him; she soon meets the second coming of Jesus Christ and becomes his girlfriend.
Seven years pass and the world is shown to be a wasteland, brought on by the war between Jesus and The Anti-Christ. Jesus meets with Stan (who lost a hand and an eye) in a bar and convinces him to help him to rescue Francine, who has recently been captured by the Anti-Christ. On their mission they meet up with Roger, who for the past seven years has been trying to repair his spaceship to return to his home planet. They use the golden turd from previous episodes to power the ship, which they use to reach the Anti-Christ's lair at the United Nations headquarters. After a drawn-out battle Stan is shot by the Anti-Christ, taking a bullet meant for Jesus. When Francine goes to help Stan, she tears his shirt away to see that he has always kept their wedding rings. Stan then activates a bomb to destroy the lair and end the war once and for all. Francine tries to rescue him but the bomb would soon go off and Stan asks her to leave. Stan dies in the explosion and is sent to heaven; when guided to his "personalized heaven" we see that it is his home just as it was at the beginning of the episode, the only difference being Klaus' dead fish body (from earlier in the episode) being mounted on a plaque hanging on the wall.
December 13, 2009, Simpsons S21 Ep8: O Brother, Where Bart Thou?
Lisa informs Bart that she and Maggie share a bond that Bart will never understand because he doesn’t have a brother, so Bart asks Homer for a baby brother. When Homer denies Bart’s request, Bart makes his way to the Springfield Orphanage to find what he thinks he’s missing.
December 13, 2009, Global consulting firm Accenture is ending its sponsorship of Tiger Woods, saying the golfer is "no longer the right representative" after the "circumstances of the last two weeks." (Wall Street Journal)
December 13, 2009, American multinational corporation Procter & Gamble says it will begin phasing Tiger Woods out of promotions for its Gillette brand. (Bloomberg)
December 13, 2009, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hit in the face and knocked to the ground after a political rally in Milan. (BBC News)
December 13, 2009, Campaigners in Copenhagen criticise "heavy handed" tactics by Danish police after 968 people are arrested as a result of protests surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference. (BBC)
December 13, 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to support British forces deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force and to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (BBC)
December 14, 2009,
December 14, 2009, The Group of 77 (including China, India, UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) suspends participation in treaty negotiations at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, citing the unwillingness of developed nations to live up to the Kyoto Protocol and what they view as a lack of open negotiations. (BBC)
December 14, 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, claims that some banks were rescued during the recent global financial crisis by billions of dollars that originated from the illegal drug trade. (Press TV)
December 14, 2009, Researchers report that the Veined Octopus retrieves coconut shell halves to use as shelter, becoming the first invertebrates recorded to use tools. (AP)
December 14, 2009, Dubai receives a US$10 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi to help fund troubled Dubai World. (Gulf News)
December 14, 2009, Austrian bank Hypo Group Alpe Adria is nationalised to avert a bank collapse. (Reuters)
December 14, 2009, TeliaSonera opens the world's first 4G LTE cellular network for public in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden. (The Inquirer)
December 15, 2009, Release of Alicia Keys Album Elements of Freedom.
December 15, 2009, Release of Robin Thicke Album Sex Therapy.
December 15, 2009,
December 15, 2009,
December 15, 2009, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish hosts urge countries on to compromise to salvage agreement on a new U.N. pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change and global warming.(Reuters)
December 15, 2009, The Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' widebody passenger airliner takes its maiden flight, travelling from Paine Field to Boeing Field, in Washington State, U.S.A. (BBC)
December 15, 2009, Evacuations begin in the Albay province of the Philippines as the Mayon Volcano oozes lava, with an eruption possible. (Philippine Inquirer)
December 15, 2009, Canadian sports medicine specialist Anthony Galea, who helped Tiger Woods recover from knee surgery, is accused of providing top athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. (New York Times)
December 16, 2009,
December 16, 2009,
December 16, 2009,
December 16, 2009, Roy E. Disney, head of Disney Animation and responsible for guiding the studio through a golden age of animation, dies in a California hospital in the United States. (CNN)
December 16, 2009, Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they have discovered a burial shroud from around the time of Jesus in a tomb. (Jerusalem Post)
December 16, 2009, The Philippine province of Albay is put under a "state of imminent disaster" as activity at the Mayon Volcano increases. (GMA News)
December 16, 2009, North Korea reportedly bans all foreigners from entering the country until early February 2010, for unknown reasons. (The Chosun Ilbo)
December 17, 2009,
December 17, 2009,
December 17, 2009, Europe is hit by heavy snowfall leading to disruptions in France, Germany, Poland and Spain. (BBC)
December 17, 2009, Egyptian archaeologists recover from the Mediterranean Sea an ancient temple pylon belonging to the palace complex of Cleopatra. (AP)
December 17, 2009, It is revealed that Iraqi militants intercepted live video feeds from U.S. MQ-1 Predator drones, potentially acquiring information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations. (Wall Street Journal)
December 18, 2009, Release of Avatar.
Avatar is a 2009 American 3-D science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, and Stephen Lang. The film is co-produced by Lightstorm Entertainment, and focuses on an epic conflict on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. On Pandora, human colonists and the sentient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, engage in a war over the planet's resources and the latter's continued existence.
The film's title refers to the Sanskrit word Avatar, a representation of a real person in a virtual world.
In AD 2154, humans are engaged in the colonization of Pandora, the lush moon of Polyphemus, one of three gas giants that orbit Alpha Centauri A, 4.3 light years from Earth. Pandora is filled with incredible life forms, and is home to the Na’vi, an indigenous sentient humanoid race who are considered primitive by human standards, yet are more physically capable than them. The Na'vi are tailed, slender creatures with sparkling blue skin, standing three meters tall. They live in harmony with their unspoiled world, which the humans have found to be rich with unobtanium, a valuable mineral that is essential to remedying an economic and energy crisis that is gripping Earth.
Humans are unable to breathe the Pandoran atmosphere; in order to interact with the Na'vi, human scientists have created genetically engineered human-Na'vi hybrid bodies called Avatars, and use them to interact with the natives and gain their trust for a relocating operation. A human who shares genetic material with the avatar can be mentally linked to it, allowing them to control its functions and experience what it experiences, while their own body sleeps. The story's protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a former U.S. Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. His twin brother Tony was a scientist working on the Avatar program; when he is killed, Jake is extended the opportunity to take his brother's place, as he shares Tony's genetic material and is therefore compatible with his avatar.
Jake travels to Pandora, and assumes control of his avatar body, delighted at being able to walk and run once again as a whole being. Sent deep into Pandora's jungles as a scout for the soldiers that will follow, Jake encounters many of Pandora's beauties and dangers. There he meets a young Na’vi female, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), who teaches him the ways of her people: the Omaticaya clan of the Na'vi. Despite having originally been sent to gain the trust of natives, and convince them to abandon their Hometree, which sits above a large deposit of unobtanium, Jake finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and his love for his adopted home and people. He is forced to choose sides as the humans grow increasingly violent in their mining activities, and the oppressed Na'vi rise up to protect their home, resulting in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire race.
December 18, 2009, Release of Nine.
Nine is a 2009 American musical romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 Tony Award-winning musical of the same name, which was derived from an Italian play by Mario Fratti inspired by Federico Fellini's autobiographical film 8½.
Having reached the age of fifty, director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is facing a midlife crisis that is stifling his creativity and leading him into a variety of complicated romantic involvements. As he struggles to complete his latest film, he is forced to balance the numerous formative women in his life, including his wife, Luisa (Marion Cotillard); his mistress, Carla (Penélope Cruz); his film star muse, Claudia (Nicole Kidman); his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench); an American fashion journalist, Stephanie (Kate Hudson); a prostitute from his youth, Saraghina (Fergie); and his mother (Sophia Loren).
December 18, 2009, Release of The Young Victoria.
The Young Victoria is a 2009 British film based around the accession to the throne and early reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and her marriage to Prince Albert. It stars Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, and Jim Broadbent. The film is produced by Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Sarah, Duchess of York, and Tim Headington.
The film is a romantic dramatisation of some of the events preceding and following the coronation of Queen Victoria, focusing on her early reign and romance with Prince Albert in the 1830s.
December 18, 2009, Thirty world leaders present in Copenhagen for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change agree on a draft accord. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
December 18, 2009, NASA releases the first ever photo of liquid outside of Earth, in the form of sunlight reflecting on a lake on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. (CNN)
December 18, 2009,
December 18, 2009, A large crater resembling a fried egg is discovered off the coast of The Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, prompting speculation that it may have been caused up to 17 million years ago by meteor impact. (BBC)
December 18, 2009, Russian television news channels air repeated coverage of a UFO, shaped like a pyramid and similar to an Imperial Cruiser from Star Wars. (The Daily Telegraph)
December 18, 2009, General Motors announces that it will begin shutting down operations at the Swedish carmaker Saab automobile. (New York Times)
December 18, 2009, The Arbeit macht frei sign is stolen from Auschwitz concentration camp. (JTA)
December 18, 2009, Lava flows and ash explosions continue to emerge from Philippine volcano Mount Mayon while scientists predict a major eruption in the coming weeks and 30,000 people remain in temporary shelter. (BBC)
December 18, 2009, In a reversal of a previous decision, Sir John Chilcot insists that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will give the majority of his evidence to The Iraq Inquiry in public. (BBC)
December 18, 2009, Snowfall across the east of England disrupts transport and power supplies. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, The North American blizzard of 2009 produces record snowfall, causing power outages, deaths, and impacting retail sales. (The Weather Channel)
December 19, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI declares two of his predecessors, John Paul II and Pius XII to be Venerable, the second step toward sainthood. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, Freezing conditions cause electrical faults in the Channel Tunnel between Great Britain and France, isolating 2,000 passengers in five trains. The situation is coupled with disruptions at London Heathrow Airport and traffic delays due to snowy conditions in the south-east of England. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, Police recruit sniffer dogs and detectives in their hunt for the Arbeit macht frei sign missing from Auschwitz as appeals for its return are made by Israel, Poland and the European Union. (BBC)
December 19, 2009, Scientists announced the discovery of GJ 1214 b, an ocean planet orbiting a star in the Ophiuchus constellation. (Nature)
December 19, 2009, In association football, FC Barcelona sets a new record by winning all 6 possible competitions (The Sextuple) in one year. (The Guardian)
December 20, 2009, Brittany Murphy Dies at age 32.
December 20, 2009, A crisis state of emergency is declared when at least three people are killed, hundreds are wounded and buildings collapse when an earthquake strikes Malawi. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
December 20, 2009, United States Army Major General Anthony Cucolo makes pregnancy a court-martial offense for both female and male troops under his command in northern Iraq. (BBC)
December 21, 2009, Winter Solstice.
December 21, 2009, Release of Eminem Album Refill.
December 21, 2009, Soon to be King (Sun) spends night homeless (Lowest Status).
December 21, 2009,
December 21, 2009, Remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back
to the time of Jesus have been found by Israeli archaeologists. (The Jerusalem Post)
December 22, 2009, A priest in York causes controversy when he says shoplifting from large national chain stores is acceptable in certain circumstances. (The Irish Times)
December 22, 2009, Brazil Judge Hands Goldman Custody Win (CBS)
December 23, 2009, Release of Alvin and the Chimpmunks: The Squeakquel.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is a 2009 American live-action/CGI film and sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) starring Zachary Levi, David Cross, Wendie Malick, and Jason Lee. The film also stars the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, and Amy Poehler.
The world famous singing pre-teen chipmunk trio return to contend with the pressures of school, celebrity, and a rival female music group known as The Chipettes.
December 23, 2009,
December 23, 2009, Gävle's giant straw goat — a traditional symbol of yuletide in Scandinavia — is burned down for the 24th time. (The Daily Telegraph)
December 23, 2009, American Airlines Flight 331, with 154 people onboard, overshoots the runway at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, injuring 44. (Jamaica Observer)
December 23, 2009, Soyuz TMA-17, carrying an international crew of one Russian, one American, and one Japanese astronaut, docks with the International Space Station. (RIA Novosti)
December 24, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI is knocked down by a woman during a procession before the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. He is uninjured, but Cardinal Roger Etchegaray suffers a hip fracture. (Sky News)
December 24, 2009, The United States Senate passes a controversial health-care bill expected to extend insurance coverage to 30 million additional Americans while substantially raising taxes, in a party-line vote, 60-39. (BBC)
December 25, 2009, Christmas.
December 25, 2009, Release of Dr. Parnassus: Imaginarium.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a 2009 fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown. The film follows the leader of a travelling theatre troupe who, having made a deal with the Devil, takes audience members through a magical mirror to explore their imaginations.
Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, and Heath Ledger star in the film, though Ledger's death one-third of the way through filming caused production to be temporarily suspended. Ledger's role was recast with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell portraying transformations of Ledger's character Tony as he travels through a dream world.
December 25, 2009, Release of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional character of the same name. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg is based on Lionel Wigram's story and Doyle's characters. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law portray Holmes and Dr. Watson respectively.
The film opens with Holmes and Watson racing against time to prevent a human sacrifice ritual conducted by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). They manage to stop the sacrifice ritual just in time. The police, led by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), arrive after Holmes and Watson neutralize Lord Blackwood and proceed to arrest him.
London is astir with rumors about his dark powers and Holmes and Watson resume their hunt to track him down Their adventures lead them to uncover an occult-dabbling secret society known as the Temple of the Four Orders (similar in vein to secret societies such as the Order of the Eastern Temple, the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Rosicrucians), with Blackwood eventually leading it on a quest for world domination.
December 25, 2009, Release of Nine.
"Nine," based on the Tony Award Winning Broadway musical and inspired by Fellini's classic film "8 1/2," stars Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will be Blood") as world famous film director Guido Contini as he prepares his latest picture and balances the numerous women in his life. Contini's wife "Luisa Contini" is played by Cotillard, his sultry mistress "Carla" by Cruz, Kidman stars as his film star muse "Claudia Graham," Judi Dench plays the role of "Lily" - his confidant and costume designer, Sophia Loren is his mother or "Mamma" and Hudson plays "Stephanie" the young American fashion journalist.
December 25, 2009, Release of It's Complicated
Jane (Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has—after a decade of divorce—an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Baldwin). But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together turns into the unimaginable—an affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman.
Caught in the middle of their renewed romance is Adam (Martin), an architect hired to remodel Jane’s kitchen. Healing from a divorce of his own, Adam starts to fall for Jane, but soon realizes he’s become part of a love triangle.
Should Jane and Jake move on with their lives, or is love truly lovelier the second time around? It’s…complicated.
December 25, 2009,
December 25, 2009, The 19th century St Mel's Cathedral of Longford in Ireland is destroyed by an ongoing fire in the town. (RTÉ)
December 25, 2009, American officials investigate a possible attempted terrorist attack after an incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
(MSNBC)
December 27, 2009, A consortium led by Korea Electric Power gets a US$20.4-billion contract to build nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, the largest-ever energy deal in the Middle East. (The Wall Street Journal)
December 27, 2009, A tomb, believed to be that of Cao Cao, one of the Chinese leaders during the Three Kingdoms period, is discovered in Henan Province. (Xinhua)
December 28, 2009,
December 28, 2009, Two Argentine men become the first gay couple to legally marry in Latin America at a civil ceremony. (Buenos Aires Herald)
December 28, 2009, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez quotes Mary and Karl Marx in a New Year message broadcast by state media, describing an end to the "illusion" of Barack Obama and predicting a global ecological disaster. (Reuters)
December 29, 2009,
December 30, 2009,
December 30, 2009, Police in Italy locate a wooden toy guitar sculpture which co-founder of Cubism Pablo Picasso made for his daughter Paloma. (BBC)
December 31, 2009,
December 31, 2009,
December 31, 2009, A High Court in Malaysia rules that the country's Christians have a constitutional right to use the word Allah in reference to God, declaring the government's ban on the use of Allah by non-Muslims as unconstitutional. (BBC News)
December 31, 2009, Former Catholic Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Cahal Daly, "the hierarchy's foremost theologian and its most trenchant critic of politically-inspired violence", dies in Belfast aged 92. (RTÉ)
December 31, 2009, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade issues an apology to "humiliated" Christians for comparing an "idolatrous" statue to Jesus Christ. (BBC)
December 31, 2009, The Althing (Icelandic parliament) approves the payment of €3.8 billion to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as deposit insurance for the collapsed Icesave savings scheme. (BBC News)
December 31, 2009, Patrick Stewart, the actor who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor X in X-Men, is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. (CNN)
December 31, 2009, Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. (CNN)
In Liberec Zoo in Czech Republic 2 lions managed to open a door into the White Tiger's cage and then killed it.
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