It’s New Year’s Eve, and if you live in the States, there’s a good chance you’ll spend the final minutes before midnight watching a 12-ton bright, glowing geodesic dome descend from a 141-foot flagpole in Times Square. New Yorkers have been ringing in the New Year with fireworks and a giant crystal ball since 1907, when Adolph Ochs, owner of the New York Times, commissioned Artkraft Strauss to design a display to commemorate the newspaper’s gleaming new headquarters.