The USDA charged Lance Armstrong

in what may prove to be the largest

drug conspiracy in professional sports.

Armstrong was stripped of his 7 Tour de

France titles, though on Strava, a social

network for cyclists, Armstrong updated

his bio: “According to my rivals, peers, and

teammates I won the Tour de France 7

times.” His first public response comes

via a global simulcast Oprah interview.

This year fans at Coachella were stunned

as a resurrected Tupac (via a hologram

developed by Digital Domain Media Group)

joined Snoop and Dr. Dre for a performance

of “Hail Mary” and “Gangsta Party.” The

Twittersphere blew up during the

performance and Hologram Tupac even

got its own Twitter account with 23,979

followers tuning in to HOLO musings

including “I could have sworn I died with

a shirt on” and “Only Tron can judge me.”

Horse dancing in a tuxedo calling out to

sexy ladies? Yes please. Korean rapper

Psy’s “Gangnam Style” shattered previous

records to become the first video ever to hit

a billion views on YouTube. “Gangnam Style”

was YouTube’s top rising search of 2012 and

on October 6th, the site saw more than five

million searches for the video in a single day.

Mitt Romney was speaking to his audience

when he dismissed 47% of the U.S.

population. Unfortunately, his audience

changed dramatically once a secret video of

his speech went viral. Picked up by

Huffington Post and Mother Jones, the

video got 2 million hits on YouTube in one

day, and sparked strong reactions and

conversation on both sides of the topic

(though mostly negative) with more than

100,000 comments featured below the clip.

“Sometimes you have to go up really high

to understand how small you are,” said

skydiver Felix Baumgartner after his space

jump. Baumgartner became the first human

to exceed the sound barrier outside of any

vehicle in a live-streaming jump from the

edge of space that took him 24 miles above

the earth and had 8 million viewers holding

their breath live on YouTube.

It wasn’t the official video of Carly Rae

Jepsen’s ridiculously catchy pop tune “Call

Me Maybe” that launched it into summer

anthem status. A super fun, low-budget

home video featuring teen stars Justin

Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Ashley Tisdale

lip-synching went viral and inspired a slew

of celeb copycats from Cookie Monster and

Colin Powell to the U.S. Olympic swim team.

“Negligible” support from her father and

racism and bullying from teammates and

coaches alike early in her career lit a fire

that propelled 16-year-old Gabby Douglas to

round up a few firsts at the London Olympic

Games. Douglas became the first U.S.

gymnast to win both the all-around and

team golds in a single Games and the first

African-American gymnast to win the

Olympic all-around title.

When two men from the Taliban stopped

Malala Yousafzai’s school bus in Mingora,

Pakistan, and shot her in the head twice,

they assumed that would silence her for

good. Instead, the 14-year-old, whose BBC

blog described life under the Taliban’s

ban on girls’ education, not only lived,

but galvanized a movement to address

the rights of young girls around the world.

In February, members of the all-female

Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot staged

a guerilla-style performance in Moscow’s

Cathedral of Christ the Savior to protest the

Orthodox Church leader’s support for Putin.

Three of its members were arrested and two

were sentenced to harsh two-year terms for

“hooliganism.” The punk rockers’ plight

sparked international interest as protesters

around the world donned brightly colored

balaclavas to support freedom of speech

and creative expression.

In an attempt to take market share from

Google, Apple replaced Google Maps with a

painfully inferior Apple Maps in iOS6. iPhone

users around the world took to social media

to voice their frustration. In one week there

were more than 7 million online references

to Apple, over 600,000 of which referred

directly to Maps. Shortly after, Google

released its free Google Maps app. The app

saw about 10 million downloads in the first

48 hours after launch. iOS 6 adoption

jumped 29 percent in the five days after the

app was released.

Have you been getting antsy waiting for

the Internet of Things (aka Ubiquitous

Computing) to become a reality? This fall,

Kickstarter-backed Twine finally went on

sale. The Twine sensor can measure

temperature, moisture, position, and

vibration, meaning that the little wireless

square can tell you what your things are

doing by email, text or Twitter.

What is it about cats that has everyone

so mesmerized? Is it their high jinx? Their

cuteness? Their seeming disdain for every

other species including us? We may never

fully understand the magnetic pull, but this

year definitely saw the rise of the celebrity

cat. With multi-platform social media

presence and full merchandise stores

selling everything from onesies to ceramic

mugs, Tard the Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub top

the list with 345,000 and 88,000 likes on

Facebook respectively.

Superstorm Sandy delivered a devastating

blow to New York and New Jersey in late

October. At the height of one of the most

polarizing elections in recent U.S. history,

outspoken Republican Governor Chris

Christie praised President Obama’s

leadership in a large step toward

bipartisanship and healing. On November

6th, Obama marked his electoral victory

via Twitter posting a photo of him and

Michelle hugging, with the simple line:

Four more years. Within hours, the Tweet

simultaneously became the most retweeted

of 2012 and the most retweeted ever.

Diego Kolsky

Mike PrestonJustin KaczmarTara Mastrelli

Special thanks to the entire team at MBLM for their contributions, observations, insights and input — their FLTR work on science made this report possible.

Check our other issues of FLTR:

OlympicsTravelEducationScienceFood

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary

school left the entire nation heartbroken,

shocked and asking what can we possibly

do to help? Ann Curry answered the

question via Twitter: “imagine what would

happen if all of us committed to 20 acts

of kindness to honor each child lost in

Newton.” She added, “I’m in. If you are, RT

#20Acts.” Social media took the idea, upped

it to 26 to honor all the victims, and #26acts

was born. From anonymously picking up

someone’s tab to donating pet food to a

shelter, kindness went viral.

Even before December 21, 2012, came and

went without a murmur from the fictional

planet Nibiru or a stray devastating meteor,

NASA went about reassuring people that

the world wouldn’t end. On November 28th

almost 3,000 people attended a Google+

hangout allowing them to throw their

questions at six astronomers, live. The

experts spent nearly an hour patiently

debunking myths from the public, including

one woman who insisted she’s in touch with

aliens from the Zeta Reticuli star system.

Tour de Lance“Armstrong Still the Tour Champion — Or So He Says on Social Media,” Velo News, 8 Jan. 2013. Web: 15 Jan. 2013. http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/01/news/armstrong-still-the-tour-champion-or-so-he-says-on-social-media_270725

The 47% “Election 2012: Mitt Romney’s ‘47%’ Speech Goes Viral,” WSJ, Video: 18 Sept. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013. http://live.wsj.com/video/election-2012-mitt-romney-47-speech-goes-viral/12DDD1DB-27B9-4582-8FC3-A3EBE5A8DED2.html#!12DDD1DB-27B9-4582-8FC3-A3EBE5A8DED2

Mapplegate“Report: Google Maps Drives iOS 6 Adoption Up 29% in Five Days,” Forbes, 19 Dec. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/12/19/report-google-maps-drives-ios-6-adoption-up-29-in-five-days/

Tupac Resurrection Hologram Tupac, Twitter, Web: 15 Jan. 2013. https://twitter.com/HologramTupac

Space Jump“Space Jump: Felix Baumgartner Describes His Record-Breaking Skydive,” ITN News, Video, 15 Oct. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaX7hOVVKc

Internet of Things“Our 32 Favorite Products From 2012,” Fast Company. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671488/our-32-favorite-products-from-2012#-9

Hey, Call Me Maybe? “Ultimate ‘Call Me Maybe’ Viral Mashup,” The Huffington Post, 25 Jul. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shira-lazar/ultimate-call-me-maybe-vi_b_1700301.html

Oppan Gangnam Style“’Gangnam Style’ Hits 1 Billion Views on YouTube,” Mashable, 21 Dec. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://mashable.com/2012/12/21/gangnam-style-billion-views-2/

Celebrity Cats “The 30 Most Important Cats of 2012,” BuzzFeed, 13 Dec. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/most-important-cats-of-2012

Gabby Takes Flight“America’s Golden Girl,” Vanity Fair, October 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/10/gabby-douglas-told-to-get-nose-job-buzz-bissinger

Malala Lives“Malala Yousafzai, the Girl Shot by the Taliban, Becomes a Global Icon,” The Atlantic, 12 Oct. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/malala-yousafzai-the-girl-shot-by-the-taliban-becomes-a-global-icon/263527/

Russian Riot Grrls“Pussy Riot Was Carefully Calibrated for Protest,” The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/arts/music/pussy-riot-was-carefully-calibrated-for-protest.html

Christie Hearts Obama“One Result of Hurricane: Bipartisanship Flows,” The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/in-stunning-about-face-chris-christie-heaps-praise-on-obama.html?_r=0

“Golden Tweets,” 2012 Year on Twitter. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.https://2012.twitter.com/en/golden-tweets.html

#26acts“Inspired to act: #26Acts of kindness to honor those lost in Newtown, Conn.,” NBCNews.com. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/17/15972814-inspired-to-act-26acts-of-kindness-to-honor-those-lost-in-newtown-conn?lite

The World Didn’t End“NASA vs. the Maya Madness,” Time, 12 Dec. 2012. Web: 15 Jan. 2013.http://science.time.com/2012/12/12/nasa-versus-the-mayan-madness/