Word: balle
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...decades, residents of U.S. cities would synchronize their pocketwatches using a giant globe that would descend from a pole in a public space to mark the exact hour. Ochs conceived of an ornate "time ball" that would descend just before midnight to mark the exact end of the year. The first ball to drop - an illuminated 400-pound iron-and-wood orb - was lowered from a flagpole. Tradition took root and the ball has heralded a new beginning almost every year since - in 1942 and 1943, during World War II, the ball was temporarily put out of commission...
Although the newspaper moved to a different location in 1914, the ball remained a Times Square tradition, with several makeovers along the way. In 1955 it slimmed down to a 200-pound aluminum globe, and remained that way until the 1980s when red lights and a green stem were added to make it an apple promoting the city's "I Love New York" tourism campaign. That flashy phase ended in 1988 in favor of simple white lights, followed later by edgier rhinestones and strobes. But the biggest overhaul was saved for the ball that would ring in the new millennium...
This year's ball - first unveiled for the 2008 drop - is 12 feet in diameter (double the size of balls past) and weighs 11,875 pounds; it sparkles with 32,256 LED lights and 2,668 crystals. It's not the only thing that's gotten bigger since the 1900s; a crowd estimated at a million people will be celebrating in Times Square on Dec. 31, and millions more will be watching worldwide...
...time Jeremy was 5, Gie-Ming was taking him to the local YMCA in Palo Alto, Calif., to play ball in a kids' league. For Jeremy, it wasn't exactly love at first sight. "He stood at half-court sucking his thumb for the entirety of about half his games that season," says Jeremy's older brother Josh, 24. "It came to the point where my mom stopped going to watch his games." Then Jeremy asked his mother Shirley to start coming to the Y again. Before Shirley would commit, however, she wanted to know if he'd actually...
...Calderón insists the country will break the ominous century-cycle next year and make 2010 "a moment of peaceful transformation." Last month, he predicted next year will see "Mexico on a different trajectory toward development and progress." Calderón tried to get the ball rolling this month with a major political reform proposal that would allow re-election for Mexican office holders like mayors and legislators, a change he insists will give voters more power. It would still limit Presidents to one six-year term; but the move is significant, especially on the eve of 2010, because...