2013's most memorable videos

From the Royal baby to Nelson Mandela's funeral, it has been another very busy year for news.

But it is not always the biggest international events that users of the BBC News website are interested in.

In the past 12 months, you have also been clicking on videos that capture the lighter side of life.

Here, we look back over some of the most memorable and popular videos that appeared on the BBC News website in 2013.

January

On 16 January, two people were killed and 12 others were injured after a helicopter crashed into a crane in Vauxhall, London. It happened at the height of the morning rush hour. The pilot - who was one of those killed - had asked to be diverted because of bad weather.

Police said it was "miraculous" that more people were not killed

This month also saw the BBC's Daniel Sandford gaining rare access inside the Kremlin in Moscow. Both a historic palace and the seat of power, the palace complex has hidden many secrets over the years.

Daniel Sandford explores inside Russia's seat of power

February

On 11 February Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing his decision to resign from Papal office due to his advanced age. It made him to first Pontiff to leave his post alive in nearly 600 years. At the end of the month he left the Vatican for the final time, church bells ringing as he departed by helicopter.

The Pope left the Vatican in a motorcade before boarding a helicopter to the papal retreat

And in Russia, a meteor crashed in the Urals - reportedly injuring hundreds of people. The shockwaves blew out windows and rocked buildings. The meteor landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in the Chelyabinsk region.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford says people described a ball of fire in the sky

March

There was bemusement in Bradford police station this month when a caped crusader walked in the door. A man dressed as Batman came in to hand over a man suspected of handling stolen goods. Initially the identity of the man was a mystery, as the BBC's Danny Savage explained...

Who is the Bradford batman?

But later in the month it emerged that Batman was Stan Worby, 39, a takeaway delivery driver - and in December he was found guilty of burglary himself.

April

April 2013 saw the death of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first and only female Prime Minister. More than 2,000 dignitaries from 170 countries attended her funeral, which was conducted with full military honours.

Last respects paid at Lady Thatcher's funeral in a day of solemn ceremony

There was tragedy in the US when two bombs exploded at the finish line of 2013's Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260. The blasts shattered the carnival atmosphere of one of the biggest sporting events in the US, causing panic and confusion.

At the time of this piece the cause of the explosions had yet to be identified

Following a two-day manhunt, Dhozkhar Tsarnaev was found hiding inside a boat in a backyard garden. The other suspect, his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during a shootout with police the night before.

Back in the UK, there was a lighter moment later in the month when the BBC's Jon Kay reported on a tiny alleyway which had been painted with double yellow lines. Swindon council painted the lines down a road which would not even accommodate the smallest car.

Swindon's over-zealous parking restrictions

May

Footage that emerged from China in March caused shock around the world: firefighters rescuing a newborn baby boy who was lodged inside a sewage pipe. Residents of an apartment building in Jinhua city, Zhejiang province, called rescuers after they hearing the infant's cries. Firefighters had to saw through a section of the pipe to reach the boy.

Martin Patience's report from Beijing contains some distressing scenes

Later in the month Chinese officials announced that they were treating the case as an accident after the baby's 22 year-old mother said he had slipped into the toilet and down the pipe as she gave birth. The child - who received minor cuts and bruises - was released from hospital into the care of his grandparents.

June

The BBC's New Broadcasting House in central London received a special guest in June when the Queen arrived to officially open the new building. In a moment that presenter Simon McCoy described as "one of the most bizarre bits of television that the BBC has produced for some time", she peered through the glass of the main TV news studio as Julian Worricker and Sophie Long looked on from inside.

The Queen got a good view of the BBC News Channel studio

July

The news that Royal-watchers around the world had been waiting for finally arrived in July, when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge emerged from St Mary's Hospital in London bearing their new baby son. Addressing crowds outside, Prince William said his son - whose name was later revealed to be George - had his wife's "looks" and "a good pair of lungs".

The world gets its first glimpse of the new Prince

August

There was widespread revulsion in August when horrifying pictures emerged from the suburbs of Damascus, Syria of what was believed to be a massive chemical weapons attack. Opposition groups in the country accused the country's security forces of killing hundreds of people in the attacks, but the Syrian government denied any involvement.

The BBC's Frank Gardner says the footage shows people gasping for breath and convulsing

Later in the year a report by UN investigators confirmed that the deadly nerve gas sarin was used in the attack, but did not determine whether the government or rebels had used the weapons. In the aftermath of the attack there was widespread condemnation of the Syrian government, and international action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime was only avoided when he allowed international inspectors to begin destroying the country's chemical weapons as part of an agreement brokered between the US and Russia.

September

After the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise liner in January, experts had been waiting for months before beginning the painstaking operation of righting the ship. In September - in an operation that lasted 18 hours and used cables and metal boxes filled with water - the ship was finally rolled onto a platform. Dramatic time-lapse footage showed how the salvage operation unfolded.

This time-lapse footage shows the first day of the Costa Concordia salvage operation

October

In October a powerful storm named St Jude caused chaos across parts of Europe. Four people died after the storm battered many parts of Britain, leading to 625,000 homes losing power, and rail and flight cancellations. At the height of the storm, a top wind speed of 99mph was recorded on the Isle of Wight.

Footage from across the south shows the storm's impact, as Robert Hall reports

November

Audiences around the world reacted with both shock and amusement in November at the news that the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, had been filmed smoking crack cocaine while in office. Ford admitted to smoking the drug - and then later in the month a new video emerged which showed him threatening to kill someone. BBC News brought together a selection of the comments he made to the media in reaction to the various revelations.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: In his own words

December

2013 ended with the sad news of the death of Nelson Mandela, aged 95, on 5 December. South Africa's first black president was remembered at a large memorial event attended by dignitaries from around the world including US President Barack Obama. Later his body was laid to rest in a family burial plot following a state funeral service.

The traditional Xhosa ceremony was held in Mr Mandela's ancestral home, Qunu

And in the UK, there was something of a tabloid frenzy as two sisters went on trial accused of defrauding Nigella Lawson and her former husband Charles Saatchi. During her evidence, Lawson admitted she took cocaine with her previous husband John Diamond and in the later years of her marriage to Mr Saatchi. Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo were cleared of the charges - with Lawson describing her time in the witness box as "deeply disturbing".

The BBC's Luisa Baldini was inside court when Ms Lawson admitted taking cocaine Read more

Auto Industry Trends 2014

Good things come to those who wait, and everyone waiting for new car sales to once again pass the pre-recession threshold of 16 million will finally be rewarded in 2014. Edmunds.com's forecastof 16.4 million light vehicles expects car buyers to continue to flock to market, taking further advantage of more freely flowing credit to refresh the oldest vehicle fleet in history. Sales also will receive a boost in 2014 from an expected 300,000 additional lease returners, compared to 2013, who will lease or buy a new vehicle when their current leases end. At the same time, the downside risk to sales growth will be lower as the economy and consumer confidence continue to improve. While economic growth will remain modest overall, enough progress has been made that car buyers will be largely undeterred by the next rounds of U.S. fiscal crises.

Segment trends will reflect industry strength. The last top-selling segment to lag behind the overall industry recovery — large trucks — finally gained some momentum in 2013, bringing sales to 87 percent of 2007 levels (compared to 74 percent in 2012). This progress will continue in 2014 since the key factors driving truck sales — a recovering housing market, stable gas prices, and refreshed product offerings (notably the Ford F150) — will remain in play. Plus, numerous other segments will get new product infusions as automakers expand their product lines to meet untapped consumer demand. Luxury automakers in particular will branch out with new compact cars from Audi and BMW following the recently introduced Mercedes CLA-class; a Porsche compact crossover SUV; and a Maserati midsize sedan. Meanwhile, traditional value brands like Hyundaiand Kia will continue to push the upper price envelope with high-end sedans. On the green front, the first mainstream fuel-cell vehicles are within sight. And, the rapidly dwindling midsize truck segment will get a boost in 2014 with the reintroduction of the Chevrolet Colorado, adding another dimension to the truck party in progress.

In addition to offering a wider variety of vehicles, automakers will continue to increase new car production to grow sales and share, while the used car market will see a surge in off-lease vehicles and older trade-ins. Growing inventories could mean more deals to attract car buyers, which will appeal to the deal-seeking mentality prevalent since the recession. The quest for more-bang-for-the-buck also will mean that buyers will be increasingly drawn to leasing. In general, more car buyers will arrange funding through dealers, with leases and dealer-financing supporting over three-quarters of transactions as the share of sales from other funding sources, such as cash and loans from third party lenders, declines further. Regardless of how they pay, buyers will be less tolerant of the traditionally long-winded negotiations in the dealership, preferring instead to lock in the price and as many other terms of the deal as possible before arriving.

All in all, the trends emerging for 2014 point to another strong year for the auto industry, with benefits for car buyers (competitive pricing and greater choice) as well as automakers and dealers (more sales).

High Finance and Financial Education

Web-based financial education sites are eager to tell you how to assess your own credit reports and scores. But it’s not easy to find a credibility report on the sites themselves, some of which are sponsored by major players in the game they promise to explain.

Better Money Habits conveys useful information in a friendly and effective way. But, at least to date, it omits some of the most important information ordinary people need. Long on advice about how to qualify for more credit, it remains short on advice on how to shop effectively for lower interest rates.Bank of America recently teamed up with Salman Khan of Khan Academy, a highly respected on-line educator, to promote a website, Better Money Habits (a phrase they have officially trademarked). Huffington Post has a new collaborativefinancial education section.

Warnings are not entirely missing — viewers are urged not to sign up for credit cards just because they look pretty or offer store discounts. But the group of videos entitled “Understanding Credit” urges viewers not to pay off their entire balance immediately in order to develop a better credit record history – rather unseemly advice coming from the third largest issuer of credit cards in the United States, which profits from the resulting interest payments.

The video that best showcases Mr. Khan’s winning style of presentationcompares the total interest paid over the life of a $1,000 credit-card loan to buy a computer in two different scenarios, both at an annual percentage rate of 22.9 percent. In the first scenario, the borrower pays only the required monthly minimum payment; in the second, the borrower pays an additional $10 per month.

The comparison makes the second option look attractive by comparison, making it clear that the first option leads to a form of costly debt peonage. Yet the second option is hardly a good choice either, adding up to $443.29 in interest over the life of the loan. You don’t need a computer to figure out that’s not a great way to finance the purchase.

A comparable personal loan at my local credit union charges a far lower annual percentage rate of 9.9 percent. Paying off such a loan would also help establish a good credit record.

In general, university credit unions offer students better and more cost-effective services than commercial banks, but Bank of America is unlikely to point that out. Nor does it have much incentive to link to consumer-directed websites such as Credit Card Forum, which publishes detailed ratings of credit cards (including those issued by Bank of America) along several dimensions.

Those who worry about the devilish features of Better Money Habits can consult Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, which purports to teach “God’s way of handling money” and urges young people to avoid going into debt if at all possible. Ironically, the actual courses offered charge a hefty fee, and the site promotes a number of specific businesses, as well as its own.

Some excellent noncommercial financial education materials are available online, including many offered by the National Endowment for Financial Education. These include a feature entitled “Life without credit cards – it can be done.”

The new federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency also offers reliable materials intended to help consumers understand their credit card agreements, as well as a fact sheet documenting the results of new regulations imposed in 2010 under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. These regulations have reduced interest rates and penalty payments, as well as enforcing greater clarity in the explanation of credit card costs.

A recent survey financed by Bank of America found that 78 percent of adults in the United States believe it is difficult to learn about personal finance, and 43 percent worry they have missed good financial opportunities as a result.

The survey also found that the problem is not lack of information: Forty-two percent of adults say they are overwhelmed by the amount of information available. A related problem is uncertainty about whom to turn to for advice; 28 percent say they don’t know where or whom to turn to.

In general, it’s a good idea to turn to a source that doesn’t stand to gain from its own advice.

Coming in 2014 Extremely Smart Watches and Wearable TVs

For technological innovation, 2013 was a remarkably boring year. Apple, often the hotbed of “new,” mostly just updated familiar devices in different colors and with crisper screens. Social media companies fought over who had better photo filters. And Silicon Valley start-ups offered more of less, with slight iterations on existing products.

But 2014 has a lot of promise.

Predicting the future is a lot more difficult than evaluating the past, but you could wake up on Jan. 1, 2015, in a different digital winter wonderland.

No, you won’t lie in bed while your humanoid robot helper makes you bacon and eggs and walks the dog — which is also possibly a robot, made byGoogle. That’s more of a 2035 prediction. But you might wake up to the call of a watch on your wrist — not your cellphone on your night table. This year we’ve seen some efforts at smartwatches, like those made by Pebble; next year, these gadgets could look a lot better.

“Smartwatches, which connect to your smartphone, are going to create an entirely new category of computing in the coming year,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a former Forrester analyst who specializes in wearable computing. She noted that the long-awaited Apple smartwatch, which is expected to be announced in 2014, could change the way we engage with our wrist in the same way Apple changed the cellphone industry in 2007.

Smartwatches will allow us to peer at messages without having to pull cellphones out of our pockets or purses. They will make it easier to monitor our health with heartbeat and movement sensors, recording daily how much we have exercised, or how much we haven’t.

According to Citigroup, the global watch industry generated $60 billion in sales in 2013. Numerous research estimates expect the smartwatch industry to generate billions more in revenue for consumer tech companies in 2014.

Your cellphone next year will look almost exactly the same as the one in your pocket today — though slightly larger and a little slimmer. But the software on it will be a bit smarter because of improved location sensors. Rather than your having to look at your phone all the time, your phone will start letting you know when you need to look.

Foursquare, the location-based social network, is at the forefront of this innovation. Its app works in the background to corral different pieces of information — including your location, the time of day and where your friends have been — and then makes suggestions for what to do. “It looks like you’re near the Sightglass Coffee,” the company’s app says if I walk by a coffee shop in the morning, “Your friend Dennis has been there and recommends the cappuccino.”

Now imagine all your apps start doing this? Twitter could tell you when a news event happens near your house. Facebook could let you know if your friends are saying “congratulations” to someone’s specific post — and you should too. Your phone automatically could keep emails, texts and phone calls at bay while you’re sitting down for dinner with the family, all by sensing that your spouse and children’s phones are in the dining room at the same time in the evening.

Smartphones are also expected to get other kinds of unusual sensors next year. Benedetto Vigna, a general manager at STMicroelectronics, a company that creates sensors for mobile devices, said 2014 would be when we would start to see mood-detecting sensors in phones. Imagine playing a video game that determines your excitement level and adjusts the experience accordingly, he said.

What about the home?

Until now, television screens have been pretty standard sizes and shapes: rectangular. While that won’t change in 2014, we will probably see prototypes of something different.

“We’ve been working on flexible displays for more than a decade and this past year we finally came up with solutions,” Peter Bocko, the chief technology officer for Corning Glass Technologies, said earlier this year. This means screens could wrap around clothing we wear, or the packages we buy.

In our homes, this flexible technology could translate into wallpaperlike screens that can be stuck to a wall.

But don’t be alarmed if you sit down to enjoy a nice cup of tea in front of your new flexible display and hear a buzzing sound outside: That’s probably your neighbor’s drone inspecting the back garden to see if his grass is greener than yours.

Till now, drones have been mostly used by hobbyists and photographers, but the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to issue rules for expanded commercial drone use by January.

Jonathan Downey, the chief executive of Airware, which makes drones, said we will then start to see people use these vehicles for agriculture and farming, or to reach places that are dangerous for human workers today. Rooftop inspection, for example, could be done with high-resolution thermal imaging sensors attached to a drone.

Mr. Downey predicted that any privacy concerns about drones would abate.

“When GPS first came out from the government, people saw it as something that could track them and they said absolutely not,” Mr. Downey said. Yet now, we all have GPS in our cars and smartphones. “I think we’ll see something very similar happen with drones.”

This year we did see the improvement of 3-D printers that can make physical objects from digital files. In 2014, we could start to see these devices become a fixture in our homes just as inkjet printers became a norm in the late 1980s.

According to Gartner, the research firm, consumers and companies will spend more than $600 million on 3-D printer-related products in 2014.

What will you use these for? Maybe you’ll make your own iPhone covers rather than buy them from stores, print out new salt and pepper shakers, or download a pattern and print a new part for your drone.

And who knows, if you do get a 3-D printer next year, maybe you could start downloading the parts for your very own humanoid robot helper that can make your breakfast and walk your dog in 2015.

Five New Technologies That Will Soon Change Your Life

In the next few years investigators visualize a tops y-turvy future, where classrooms learn from their students rather than other way around and brick-and-mortar stores make a comeback after years of suppression.

Driving this thought is a wave of soon-to-be released super computers that will be designed with cognitive function, meaning they’ll be able to think, learn, even reason. Read More