The 6th Annual Year in Ideas (NYT Magazine - golly, I LOVE stuff like this)

...don't agree with all of it...but love to read it....

Unfortunately, you have to go to each topic to read...but it sure is fun!

You might like:

Bicycle Helmets Put You at Risk:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10bike.html

The Boomerang Drone (Invisible)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10section1A.t-8.html

The Boomerang Drone
By CLIVE THOMPSON
When the Phantom Sentinel takes flight, it looks like an awkward boomerang — a set of three small blades. It spins in a circle, faster and faster as it ascends into the sky. Then, when it reaches about 50 feet, it whirls so fast that something remarkable happens: it vanishes right before your very eyes.

The Sentinel is still there, but you can’t see it. It is the world’s first “invisible spy drone,” a new class of remote-controlled stealth aircraft. Driven by electric-engine propellers on two of its blades, the Sentinel also moves in virtual silence. “You could fly it 75 feet above the Macy’s parade, and nobody would know it was there at all,” says Dean Tangren, president of VeraTech Aero Corporation, which received a patent for the invention this summer.

The Phantom Sentinel works by putting the difficulty we have in perceiving rapidly spinning objects to use. Think of a helicopter: the body is immobile and thus visible, but the blades are moving so fast that the eye sees them as only a vague blur. Tangren’s device works like a helicopter, except that the whole craft is nothing but the blades. Meanwhile, cameras mounted near the center of the Sentinel whirl in circular patterns, capturing a 360-degree panorama and broadcasting live video to the operators. A Sentinel can be folded up into a backpack and can fly for up to 40 minutes before its batteries need refueling.

Military agencies have already contacted Tangren about using the Sentinel for spy surveillance. So have private-sector firms, including an oil company that envisioned using Phantom Sentinels to patrol its 5,000 miles of oil pipelines. If Osama bin Laden is ever caught by one of these drones, it would be a scene straight out of science fiction: the world’s most reclusive terrorist, nabbed by a pair of invisible eyes.

I like:

"The Culture of Socialism"

It must be defeated in every twisted form regardless of race.

Thanks to MaryFromMichigan: (I should have thought to go to the source code - doh!)

Here is the code if you'd like to post the links... Mary

The Aerotropolis

Air-Index Impressionism

The Ambient Walkman

The Ballot That Is Also a Lottery Ticket

The Beer-Gut Flask

Bicycle Helmets Put You at Risk

Big Urbanism

The Boomerang Drone

Cohabitation Is Bad for Women’s Health

The Comb That Listens

Creative Shrinkage

Digital Maoism

The Diplomat-Parking-Violation Corruption Index

The Drivable One-Man Blimp

The E. Coli Wipe

Empty-Stomach Intelligence

Energy-Harvesting Floors

The Eyes of Honesty

The Fashion Czar

For-Profit Philanthropy

The Gyroball

The Hidden-Fee Economy

The Lady Macbeth Effect

Literary Spam

Low Starting Prices Lead to High Auction Sales

Misery Chic

Money-Circulation Science

The Myth of ‘the Southern Strategy’

Narcissistic Celebrities

N.C.A.A. Psyop

Negativity Friendships

Psychological Neoteny

Publication Probity

Redefining Torture

The Return of the Corporate State

Reverse Graffiti

The Robot Fielder

Rods From God

Sailing an Oil Tanker

Salt That Doesn’t Stick

Shipping Containers Explain Everything

Smart Elevators

The Social-Cue Reader

Straw That Saves Lives

Taxing Virtual Economies

Voting-Booth Feng Shui

Walk-In Health Care

Web-Based Microfinancing

The Wheelchair Car

Wine That Ages Instantly

Workplace Rumors Are True

Yodeling Is Universal

The YouTube Referee Indictment

The Ziggurat of Zealotry

Interesting post, thanks.

How about the Latest Public Health Frauds (junk science vs legit work and interputation) being legislated on across this nation. Bans Rules Regulation Tax Increases on everything from smoking to transfat. All done in an effort to save us from ourselves.

Fun thread!
Thanks for posting it!

...

b

Thanks.