The year is quickly winding down and we've collected 2012's biggest events and happening for you in one place. Some you may have forgotten, others completely baffled you, or all together genuinely reminded you "hey humans aren't all so bad!"

In no specific order, here are 2012's biggest, baddest, and saddest, happenings!

1. Felix Baumgartner

Who could forget being glued to their computer, waiting for some Austrian dude they had never heard of before that Red Bull had found him, to jump from the edge of Space!? 

Dubbed as this generations Niel Armstrong, Red Bull pushed the boundaries of science, by having Felix free fall to earth, thus breaking the sound barrier.

Red Bull Really Did Give Him Wings!

2. Gangnam Style

If you haven't seen Psy's Gangnam style video, then your probably not one of the Billion viewers who have seen his video on Youtube. The Korean singing sensation/rapper, was catapulted onto the music scene early this year with his crazy Korean rap song, that went viral.

Now with over 1 billion views, breaking Youtube records as well, Psy has gone down in history as the most viewed video ever!

3. President Morsi Elected

It was the summer of 2012, when Egyptians sat in front of their TVs anxiously watching their first Democratically elected president take the stand as their new leader! Little did they know they were in for a whirlwind of a ride 5 months down the line.

Whether he is seen as a positive or negative reinforcement to the country he sure will go down in history!

4. Dec. 21st & The Mayans

Like most people noted, December 21st, 2012 was the most annoying day in social media history! With the world not ending, as the Mayans had predicted, everyone and their mother had a joke to make about the day.

Why are we marking this day down, for the simple reason that we waited the whole year to see whether or not we would really all perish on the 21st! Turns out the Mayans weren't so smart after all.

5. Olympics - Usain Bolt

The summer Olympics in London were not short of an extravagant event, both the closing and opening Ceremonies becoming some of the biggest trending topics the world had seen! But there were a few star athletes that left us in awe!

Take Mr. Usain Bolt, the Jamacain sprinter was coined the fastest person on Earth, after breaking records this summer in London. Literally no one stood a chance against the man!

6. Whitney Houston

The world lost one of its most talented singers February of 2012! Diva Whitney Houston was found dead in her hotel room, which left her fans all around the world in utter shock.

Ok we can't say shock, since the woman had been on quite a destructive path for years, but the world loves a comeback story and unfortunately she did not get hers!

Rest in Peace Whitney, your music lives on in our Itunes playlists

7. Hurricane Sandy

One of the worst natural disasters to have hit the U.S.'s East Coast, Hurricane Sandy left thousands stranded without electricity, water, and shelter. Some in New York and New Jersey stayed without any electricity for over a week, while others were left stranded due to rescue missions being unable to reach them.

Till today, the U.S. is still cleaning up after Sandy, but at least they were much quicker to react than when Irene had hit!

8. Syria

Bashar El Assad's days are numbered, as rebel forces make their way into Damascus, many speculate that the Syrian regime will fall sooner rather than later!

After nearly two years of civil war (or a revolution) depending how you look at it, and thousands of Syrians fleeing their own country, this is probably one of the worst atrocities that the past two years had witnessed. Innocent lives lost, and a power hungry regime make for a disheartening story!

9. Qatar Buying the world - Valentino,

The Qatari's have made it their quest to buy the world, LITERALLY! Eyeing some of the hottest brands, locations, countries, you get our drift! The little Gulf country has made it a point that they are here to stay and they have BILLIONS upon BILLIONS to throw around!

International fashion house Valentino was bought by the Qatari Royals this year, as well as Harrod's last year. Let's put it this way, they pretty much own Knightsbridge!

10. Bye Bye Blackberry

Ahh, once the most coveted phone to have, now the least regarded. There are still those who insist on holding on to their Blackberry for their BBM service, but the mother company RIM seems to be crashing more and more each year.

If they do not come out with a smart phone that can rival the likes of Samsung and Apple, their doom is then near!

11. Gun Control U.S. - Batman, Sandy Hook

The U.S. had some pretty bad blunders to deal with this year, when it came to their gun control issues and the Second ammendment. First the shooting at a Colorado Movie theater during the premier of Batman's Dark Night and the most recent being the Sandy Hook elementry school shooting.

When will the U.S. government wake up and realize that these lives are precious and actually these deaths can be prevented, we do not know!? But we sure do hope that in 2013 that this issue will be combated strongly!

12. The Birth of Scoop Empire

Of course our Birth as website must be marked in history! Closing almost 8 months, the Empire would like to thank you all for diligently checking us out, and making us your Urban Destination for your up to date news and ramblings source!

We Said This: May 2013 bring us even more things to bitch, whine and smile about!

Before the Olympics even got under way, Egyptian athletes received the most embarrassing news of their lives when the uniforms they had been given by the Egyptian Olympic committee where found to be fakes. What followed was a series of ludicrous statements by the EOC Chairman made in an effort to absolve himself and the committee from any wrongdoing. “All Nike products are made in China, and have the same logo so how can you know?”

When the reasons for the fake clothing being unable to be distinguished from the real gear were laughed off and brushed aside, a new line of comic relief was put forth by the EOC. “It was the economical choice given the current state of affairs in Egypt.” This statement could hold water if the EOC would reveal to the public the expenses incurred by the EOC delegation that travelled to London. With the history of corruption that exists in Egypt, I’m sceptical that EgyptAir economy class was the preferred mode of transport, or that Holiday Inn was the first choice accommodation. Let alone the near certainty that not every member who travelled had legitimate reason to. 

In all this mess however, nobody brought up the most important question. Why did the EOC create a tender in order to buy the clothing in the first place? What should have happened is that the Committee creates a tender for the reverse. Invite all global sports brands to bid for the RIGHT to provide the gear for the Egyptian delegation. That’s how sponsorship works; they pay you. So what reasons did the EOC have for their model? Maybe they wanted everyone to be seen wearing Nike in order to put up a façade of superiority? A type of show off mentality that we can’t deny exists in Egypt. Most likely a series of “Golden Handshakes” were involved in the process, but I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusions.

To make matters worse, on the last day of competition two Egyptian wrestlers had to forfeit their events due to being late, an Olympic first. Where were the coaches? How was it that no one was able to even do such a simple task as to go online and check what time the fight they have been waiting years for would begin.

Poor management is a recurring theme when it comes to our so-called Olympic Committee and federations. These governing bodies are run on a policy of nepotism where being the favourite is all that is required to receive the best training and placement for tournaments around the globe. Unsurprisingly, in many sports one of the athletes will be of some relation to a member of the executive. Regardless of their talent level this individual will get all the support they need at the expense of other individuals who posses a superior level of talent and a much more dedicated mentality. Generations of athletes have been lost due to this treatment and there is no way of telling how far they could have progressed if given a fighting and fair chance.

None of this will change in Egypt unless we, the said upper class, get over this formality that it is “rude to point out corruption” for even the simplest of reasons such as that we personally know some of those involved. And continue to come up with superfluous excuses such as “but he’s a good person” or some other garbage. If we want to succeed then we have to train our best, and clearly our best are not the ones who receive all the training because daddy is the chairman and you want an all expenses paid trip to a tournament in Paris where you can try and bed as many random as you can as opposed to focus on the competition at hand.

From the very first moment, twitter was where it's at for the Olympics. From the athletes sharing photos and status updates that take their followers inside the Games,  to the teams sending out updates of scores and athlete stats to the fans covering what they are seeing and reveling in the Olympic drama. 

Even here in Egypt, it was the first time that we have athletes communicating directly via twitter to their fans and thanks to a twitter and Facebook account @Olympic_Egypt that kept track of them all , it became possible for people on twitter to follow up on them.

There are a few hashtags being used including #Olympics #London2012 and #OpeningCeremony and oh boy these were some trending topics. How did it all stack up on Twitter over the event’s first 10 days? Mass Relevance, Twitter’s official social curation and integration partner, tracked the tweets to produce the infographic below, which shows just that.

WE SAID THIS: If it's happening out there, then it is happening on twitter...

The event of the summer is coming to a close pretty soon, which means only one thing…. ATHLETICS FINALS. Most importantly, the men’s 200 meter and the men’s and women’s 4 x 100 meter relay. Yesterday (August 8th) Team USA collected several gold medals in the Olympic Stadium including the men’s 110 meter hurdles, the women’s long jump and the women’s 200 meter sprint. Today, the 200 meter final was clearly a case of cool runnings, with Usain Bolt retaining his title followed by Yohan Blake and Warren Weir (meaning Jamaica made a clean sweep of the 200 meter medals).

Other highlights included the women’s beach volleyball final featuring the USA versus the USA! The bronze medal went to the Brazilian twosome. In men’s beach volleyball, the Latvians won bronze, Brazil the silver and Germany took the gold.

August 8th was the last day of Olympic equestrian jumping events, with Steve Guerdat of Switzerland taking the individual gold medal, Gerco Schroder of the Netherlands won silver and Cian O’Connor of Ireland collected the bronze.

Olympic women’s football drew to a close today, Canada finished in the bronze medal position, while impressive Japan took the silver and gold went to the USA. 

Tomorrow (August 10th) will be the men’s bronze medal match between Korea and Japan, and the final (between Mexico and Brazil) will take place on the August 11th.

WE SAID THIS: Check back tomorrow for more athletics finals news, and a bunch of other sports that will probably be dominated by the Chinese.

Today’s round up is a combination of the results from August 6th and 7th. Lots of medals were won yesterday, mostly by China but that’s not really surprising. Over at the Olympic Stadium, athletics were well underway, though several disciplines are still in the qualifying stage, some medals were awarded on Monday. Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic won gold in the men’s 400 meters, and Kirani James of Grenada took the gold in the 400 meters (that medal is Grenada’s first medal in the Olympic games, EVER).

Yesterday at the ExCel arena, weightlifting qualifiers and finals were held. Our very own Karam Gaber wrestled in the Greco-Roman 84 kg category. He sailed through the qualifying stages, but unfortunately was stopped short in the final against Russia’s

Alan Khugaev, who won the gold. Gaber took home silver, while Damian Janikowski of Poland received the bronze medal. That gives Egypt a total of 2 medals in the Olympics, so far.

The team showjumping finals took place yesterday in Greenwich Park, the equestrian event had the arena filled with spectators. The fences were enormous and the course was tricky, but the host nation’s team completed the course with the utmost ease.

Team GB won the gold medal, which they have not done since the 1952. Holland came in second place and in third, to everyone’s surprise, was Saudi Arabia. They performed magnificently and truly deserved a spot on the podium, winning Saudi Arabia’s third medal ever in Olympic history.

Men’s football produced some interesting results today, as favourites Japan received a 3-1 lashing by Mexico, and Brazil annihilated South Korea 3-0, sending them through to the final with against Mexico.

Beach volleyball has been awesome to watch, and it is now down to the final stages for both women and men. The women’s final will be two American teams battling it out for gold, while the men’s final will be a showdown between Brazil and most probably Germany (I say most probably because I am currently watching the Germany vs Holland semi-final).

Today in the Olympic Stadium, Usain Bolt ran in the 200 meter qualifier… sorry did I say “ran”? I meant lightly jogged. He cruised to an easy win the first heat of the qualifier, undoubtedly the actually race will be a tiny bit harder for him but by the looks of things he wont have any trouble. In the men’s 1500 meters, Algerian Toufik Makhloufi won gold, beating out Kenyan favorite Asbel Kiprop. In other track and field disciplines, Russia’s Ivan Ukhov won gold in the men’s high jump, Australia’s Sally Pearson snatched the gold medal in the 100 meter hurdles, and Robert Harting of Germany took top honours in the men’s discus throw.

WE SAID THIS: Keep it here for more Olympic news and results.

PS - the beach volleyball semi-final just ended. Germany won, which sends them through to the final against Brazil.

Step aside Michael Phelps, yesterday all eyes were on Jamaica’s Usain Bolt as he raced to retain his 100 meter title, which he did with ease. There were some serious contenders in yesterday’s race; Justin Gatlin was on the track after a ban due to a doping case back in 2004, he came in second, Yohan Blake (a fellow Jamaican sprinter) came in third. The most disappointing runner on the track last night was Asafa Powell (also of Jamaica), he came in dead last, which was really surprising.

Over at Wimbledon, I am 100% convinced that Roger Federer let Andy Murray win the final. Considering the fact that the Olympics do not change international rankings, and do not really mean much to someone like Federer (also he beat Murray a few weeks back during Wimbledon). I firmly believe that he just decided to play like a complete novice. Andy Murray walked away with the gold medal, Federer took the silver and the bronze medal went to Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina. The Williams sisters won the women’s doubles gold medal, and the pair from Belarus took gold in the mixed doubles event.

The equestrian event was extremely entertaining yesterday over in Greenwich Park, it was day two of the jumping qualifiers. After an ok performance in the first round, Egyptian rider Karim El Zoghby needed a flawless round to qualify for the final. Even though he rode extremely well, he finished his round with 5 penalty points and did not progress to the next round. In the top spot at the moment are the Saudi Arabian team, they’ve only got 1 penalty point between the four of them! (That’s really good, for those of you that know nothing about this sport).

Wrestling, Weightlifting, Sailing, Shooting, Gymnastics, Fencing, Diving, Cycling and Badminton all awarded medals yesterday but I was busy watching the equestrian event and track and field. China is at the top of the scoreboard currently, with 30 gold medals, followed by the USA with 38 and Great Britain with 16.

WE SAID THIS: There Are Some Really Good Events on The 6th of August, Check Back Later!

Everyone has heard of Carly Rae Jepsen's hit song "Call Me Maybe".

Well it has left a huge impact on everyone, that it has been popping up in all the events and shows and conversations. Here are 2 of our favorite renditions of the song that we came across in the past few days alone. Firstly with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots performing backstage of the show with Carly using classroom instruments: We love how they are holding back from cracking up!

And here is the USA Swimming Olympic team making a video while moving around London during the Games with the whole team joining in!! We gotta give them props for this one! Check it out ! (if static shows up saying that you cant watch it, click here to go to youtube): -

WE SAID THIS: The youngins seem to be taking over the music world, and everyone is loving it.