I just came across a list of things that have changed in the past ten years and it almost doesn’t seem believable. Please enjoy:
- The iPod, XBox, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Ubuntu, and Blu-Ray did not exist.
- IBM was still in the PC business, Handspring was still around, and Blackberries were data-only devices with no telephone capabilities.
- The Euro had not yet entered circulation, currencies like the Franc, Mark and Lira were still legal tender.
- George Harrison, The Queen Mother, Gregory Peck, Barry White, Johnny Cash, Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles, Julia Child, Pope John Paul II, Johnny Carson, Steve Irwin, Gerald Ford and Michael Jackson were still alive.
- SARS, Avian Flu, H1N1 were not in the common vernacular.
- Enron and WorldCom were still in business.
- Oil was $24/barrel, gold was $276/ounce, NASDAQ was at 1912.41, and the DOW was at 10,382.35.
- The Concorde still flew.
- The Petronas Towers were the tallest skyscrapers in the world. (They’ve been surpassed twice since.)
- Lost and 24 had never aired, there were only four books in the Harry Potter series, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was still making movies.
- Lance Armstrong had only won the Tour de France 3 times. (He went on to win 4 more.)
- The most recent Boston Red Sox World Series win had been 1918 (which remained true until 2004).
- The Netherlands was the only country in the world that legally recognized same sex marriages. (That stands at 7 now).
- Charley, Ivan, Jeanne, Katrina, Dean, and Ike were not names associated with weather.
- 61 Extrasolar planets had been discovered. (Currently that’s up to 424).
- Pioneer 10 signals were still being received on Earth.
I guess there’s only one word to describe all this… progress?