This is simply shocking: World gives hearty welcome to 2010

New York City

(CNN) -- At least 1 million people marked the passing of another year at the iconic ball drop in New York's Times Square, despite an early morning dusting of snow and late-night freezing rain.

With the help of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and students from 12 city high schools, the dazzling crystal ball began its descent at 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday. Revelers counted down the final seconds of a decade that many were happy to bid farewell to.

Though it seemed the whole world was packed into a small portion of Manhattan, celebrations were spread across the globe.

The New Year got under way with blasting horns and fireworks shot from the Sky Tower as revelers partied Friday morning in Auckland, New Zealand.

Similar celebrations moved like a wave from east to west as midnight joyously struck across the globe, starting at the International Date Line in the mid-Pacific Ocean.

Throngs danced to pounding rock 'n' roll music and cheered a spectacular 12-minute fireworks display over the picturesque Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia.

A giant bell rang before a huge crowd in Seoul, South Korea.

Crowds across Europe braved near-freezing temperatures to ring in 2010.

In London, England, people gathered along the banks of the River Thames to hear Big Ben strike midnight and watch a fireworks display at the London Eye. A multicolored light show at The Eiffel Tower dazzled crowds in Paris, France.

Always up for a party, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was among the first places in the Western Hemisphere to say hello to 2010.

In New York, security was tight for Thursday night's iconic ball drop. After the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit, Michigan, security forces were on high alert.

"We want people to have a happy experience. But we are also concerned about a terrorist event. We have to do that after 9/11," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

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New York police estimated a million people had already filled the square by early Thursday evening.

Weighing 11,875 pounds, the sparkling sphere features 2,668 crystals woven into a triangular pattern and is powered by 32,256 LED lights. It is capable of producing a kaleidoscopic array of 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns, according to the event's official Web site.

This New Year's ball is also greener, consuming 10 to 20 percent less energy than last year's ball and 78 percent less energy than the 2007 ball. It uses the equivalent amount of energy per hour as two traditional home ovens.

The 2010 numerals are also more energy efficient, as Duracell Batteries set up a lab in which visitors ride stationary bikes to provide the power to light the numbers on the ball.

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Times Square has served as one of the most popular sites of New Year's festivities since 1904, though the New Year's Eve ball made its inaugural drop down the flagpole at One Times Square in 1907. That first ball, built with iron and wood, featured a hundred 25-watt light bulbs and was designed by Jacob Starr, a young immigrant metalworker.

The New Year's Eve ball has beamed every year since with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when America was embroiled in World War II and New York City observed a city-wide "dimout" to cut energy costs.

As in previous years, security was tight. Police searched garages and subway tunnels for bombs, trash cans were removed and mailboxes and manhole covers were sealed. Detectives were asking hotel and restaurant personnel if they had noticed any suspicious people or activity.

See images from Times Square

Law enforcement officials have a number of tools at their disposal to help combat potential crime and terrorism, including sniper teams, bomb-sniffing dogs, infrared radar-equipped helicopters, and radiation detectors on New York's waterways, Kelly said.

In the years before terrorism was a concern inside the United States, the Times Square celebration was a rowdy affair, fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, often transported via backpack. These days, alcohol and backpacks are banned from the area on New Year's Eve, and revelers are herded into 2,500-person pens, but the mood is festive nonetheless.

New Yorker Julio Ortiz-Teissonniere, a CNN iReporter, said he's too jaded to take part in the spectacle, but that wasn't always the case.

"When the ball drops, it's like an earthquake," he said. "The amount of people screaming and stomping -- it's amazing."

CNN's Allan Chernoff, Jim Kavanaugh, Jesse Solomon, Jamie Guzzardo and Katie Hawkins-Gaar contributed to this report.

Since so many people commented on the last New York City snapshot

Just now I was browsing for New York City pics and I stumbled onto this sweet photo: beauty old yet ever new! I am going to post more New York City images like this one.

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The marble figures and fountains on either side of the main portico entrance of the New York City Public Library Main Branch, by Frederick MacMonnies, were installed in 1921. Plaster casts stood in place of the statues for nearly five years. Beauty, a woman seated on the winged horse Pegasus, representative of inspiration and elevation above worldly concerns. Above the figure is an inscription from the twenty-first stanza from American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier's The Shadow and the Light: BEAUTY / OLD YET EVER NEW / ETERNAL VOICE / AND INWARD WORD.



Click for the url of the original New York City picture since the publisher asked.



Can anyone add a few kind opinions?

Celebrations in Times Square Despite Troubled Times

New York

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Hundreds of thousands of revelers welcomed the new year in New York City’s Times Square, despite the rain, slushy streets and heightened security, capping worldwide celebrations that often emphasized the hopes for a more peaceful tomorrow.

The poor weather and tight security could not dampen the otherwise festive mood in midtown Manhattan, where the cast of the Broadway show “Hair” was among the acts to perform. People wearing oversized 2010 glasses rushed to grab hats proclaiming “Happy New Year” that were tossed into the crowd. But the mood of the times was perhaps best embodied by the famous ball that dropped at midnight in Times Square - which was “more energy efficient than ever before,” organizers boasted, with its 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs and covered in 2,688 Waterford crystals.

The celebration followed spirited festivities elsewhere. In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, about 2 million people, most of them dressed in traditional white, gathered at Copacabana Beach. In Hyderabad, Pakistan, the street was dotted with little white lights, emanating from candles that peace marchers were holding. In Venice, a high tide that flooded low-lying parts of the city, including St. Mark’s Square, coincided with the midnight celebration.

And in the United States, the attention naturally was focused on Times Square.

"Coming here is a dream that many people have," said Francisca Lopez, 47, a tourist from Mexico, as she waved a noisemaker in the air. She had staked out a coveted spot on Broadway between 46th and 47th streets with her teenage son and daughter. "This is the first year that we’re living it."

In an interview on a live Web cast offered by the Times Square Alliance, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg reflected on the weather.

“Everybody always says that when you have a wedding and it rains, everybody’s going to be happy and have good luck,” Mr. Bloomberg said, standing under a blue umbrella. “This sort of guarantees that 2010 is going to be a great year.”

Gustavo Postal, 23, a Brazilian from Sao Paulo,, was part of the crowd that had spilled up Seventh Avenue to Central Park, huddling under awnings and doorways for shelter from the drizzle.

“I think it’s a great time to be here,” Mr. Postal said. “I think the weather is good. Not too cold. I’d rather it snow.”

About 20 minutes later, he got his wish, as small white flakes began to descend around 10:30 p.m. Many others wishes would descend from the sky at midnight, written on paper, with two tons of confetti at midnight.

The police department estimated that about a million people were gathering at the site. They were joined by thousands of officers, including 250 rookies, dispersed throughout the crowd, including some in plain clothes.

The tight security was evident at 50th Street and Broadway, where an officer kept watch over a damp pile of bookbags, which were prohibited inside the police barricades. Their owners had stuffed the contents of the bags in their pockets and abandoned them.

Elsewhere, celebrations were marred by tradition taken to the extreme. In the Philippines, hundreds of people were injured by gunfire and firecrackers — the result of a belief that loud noise will scare away evil spirits. A quieter ceremony took place at Zojoji, a large Buddhist temple in Tokyo, where worshippers released clear, helium balloons into the night sky.

Colin Moynihan and Karen Zraick contributed reporting for this article.