Who and what was the most googled in 2006? The Year-End Google Zeitgeist top ten lists for general and news searches on the Internet this year include Paris Hilton and Bebo -- and cancer.

Of the celebrities most searched for, Paris Hilton outranked Orlando Bloom and the social networking site Bebo outranked MySpace. In the news category, cancer ranked as the third most searched for topic, before podcasting, autism, Hurricane Katrina, and bankruptcy.

The top ten Google searches were, in this order: Bebo, MySpace, World Cup, Metacafe, Radioblog, Wikipedia, Video, Rebelde, Mininova and Wiki. The top ten Google news searches were, in this order: Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, cancer, podcasting, Hurricane Katrina, bankruptcy, Martina Hingis, autism, the 2006 NFL Draft and Celebrity Big Brother.

Surprised to see Paris Hilton topping the list of news searches? Sadly, me neither. Personally, I am not certain that she has ever done anything newsworthy, other than having proven a supreme talent for the uniquely cunning ability to stay in the headlines for no particularly meaningful reason.

It is substantially interesting that cancer was the third most searched for news topic this year. I know that those whose lives have been touched by cancer can feel very alone, and if this proves anything, we are certainly not alone in trying to sort through the many issues linked to cancer.

As Larry Stewart tells it, the story begins 26 years ago, when a week before Christmas he was fired from his job. It was the second year in a row he had been fired from a job the week before Christmas. As he sat in his car at a drive-in restaurant commiserating his untimely employment fate, he noticed the car hop was not wearing a warm coat as she worked in the elements of winter cold for nickels and dimes in tips. Although his recent unemployment status made his financial security uncertain, he decided to pay for his meal with a $20 dollar bill and told her to keep the change.

What happened next changed his life and the lives of countless others who would come to benefit from the generosity of a stranger. The car hop began to cry. She told Stewart he had no idea how much the extra money would help. Touched by her reaction, he went to the bank, withdrew $200 dollars, and then drove around looking for people who might need a few extra dollars.

Over the last 26 years, the cable television and long-distance telephone service businessman, who went on to earn millions after his rocky start in the working world, has given away over a million dollars. Anonymously. Stewart never wanted anyone to know his name or the name of his company. Until now.

Stewart has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus that has spread to his liver. He thinks it is time to reveal the mysterious identity of the Secret Santa many in Missouri and elsewhere have wondered about for the last 26 years. Why? By speaking publicly about giving, he is hoping to inspire others to give. According to Stewart, "that's what we are here for -- to help other people out."

The aftermath of devastation and unimaginable horror when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans is still making headline news. The images and reporting coming out of New Orleans in the first days after the hurricane disaster by mainstream and citizen media were disturbing. The government, state and local authorities failing to provide safety for the people of New Orleans are more than one. But the purpose of this post is not about political failings but medical ethics and the possibility that a doctor and two nurses committed the most unthinkable act of choosing to euthanize patients as they waited to be rescued from the flooding after the storm hit.

Memorial Medical Center had been cut off by flooding after the hurricane. Power was out in the 317-bed hospital and the temperatures inside rose over 100 degrees. As it is told, the medical staff did the best they could under extreme circumstances to care for patients as they waited day after day -- four days total -- to be evacuated from the flooded conditions. As they waited, patients died.

Stories started to surface that some of the deaths were decided on by a small group of medical staff. An investigation that followed as to whether there was any truth to the rumors that patients in pain had been euthanized. One doctor and two nurses have now been arrested on charges of second-degree murder. The arrest warrants state the three intentionally killed four patients at Memorial Medical Center.

"We're not calling this euthanasia. We're not calling this mercy killings. This is second-degree murder," said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles C. Foti.

Arrests are not convictions, and it is my belief that we should hold judgment. I cannot help but be saddened that human beings were put into such dire straits as the people of New Orleans were during the flooding after the hurricane, or that stories like this could even be true. It appears the Attorney General's office feels they have enough evidence to prove the truth to what were once rumors -- and if proven true in a court of law -- there is no justifiable reason to do what these three are accused of doing. Doctors and nurses have to be trusted to do everything humanly possible to save lives. What are your thoughts about this story?

Husband and wife team -- Dr. Tyler Curiel and Dr. Ruth Berggren -- prepare to relocate to San Antonio, Texas and will leave behind the city torn apart by Hurricane Katrina -- the same city where they worked tirelessly in 100-plus degree heat to rescue frozen cells and tissue from destruction during a storm that destroyed nearly everything in its path. They worked for one week caring for trapped patients at the inner city Charity Hospital, using diminishing generator power and the very basic of supplies. And they worked by flashlight to preserve their temperature-sensitive cells -- the cells that made up most of their life's work. They were successful in their mission -- and happily saved the cells of one of Curiel's medical students who once worked in his lab but died in 2004 of a rare cancer.

In September, the duo will leave New Orleans and will begin work at a nationally recognized cancer center -- the San Antonio Cancer Institue. Curiel will share his expertise in gynecological cancers -- specifically ovarian cancer -- and Berggren will join the health science center as an infectious disease specialist.

USA Today features a story, Cancer makes life harder in the Big Easy, about the fact that life isn't getting any easier for cancer patients in the long-term aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's destruction of their soulful and spirited New Orleans. While some of the residents have returned to a place that is more than just a place, cancer patients still must leave the area to find cancer treatment. Before Hurricane Katrina, cancer treatment services were often a few miles away -- now the same treatment is sometimes hundreds of miles away. Charity Hospital, which treated many of the city's poor and uninsured, has been shut down since the storm. The same residents who could not leave right before the hurricane hit because they had no transportation, are now faced with the challenge of how to get to cancer treatment that can be miles away -- with no transportation.

Donna Williams, director of the Louisiana Cancer Control Program, and her staff, have been asking doctors for the names and addresses of cancer patients, then going to the last place they lived. If no one is there, they leave a sign tacked to the front letting the person with cancer know there are people out trying to find them -- to help them. "We put signs on whatever was left of their homes, on piles of rubble sometimes, hoping people would come back," Williams says. "If they didn't come back, hopefully a friend or neighbor would see it." Williams worries about the cancer patients she can't find. Williams, and the others like her, are the best of who we are as a people -- and sometimes better than some of us ever get a chance to be. They are the angels in our midst.