The best-of lists for which you’ve been waiting all year

Some people would say that the best reason to even have a year is so that at the end of it, you can totally over-analyze everything that’s happened during the previous 11 months. These people obviously have nothing better to do than to pour over lists of stuff. These are probably the same people who ask questions like “hot enough for you?” These people are not me, and I’ll bet they’re not you. For you, here’s a handy guide to the technological high points of 2006, assuming nothing cool will happen for the next 36 days:

Scientific American has announced their top 50 researchers, business and policy leaders, with former Vice President Al Gore receiving the “Policy Leader of the Year” accolade. SciAm has other suggestions for people to admire, including people who weren’t cruely robbed of the presidency. For example, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, whose foundation provides funding to female scientists so that they can pay for baby-sitters and housekeeping, and 454 Life Sciences, who developed a method for making DNA sequencing fast, cheap and easy – my three favorite adjectives.

Popular Science Magazine has chosen the top 50 innovations of the year that was. Our lives are better this year because of tissue engineer Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University, who was able to seed an artifical bladder with a patient’s own cells. The cells grow over the bladder, the artifical parts dissolve, and problems with tissue rejection are avoided. The “recreation” and “home entertainment” sections read like a nerd’s fantasy gift list. Just don’t get it mixed up with the artifical bladder section.

Last, and most disappointingly, is Time Magazine’s best inventions of 2006. You’ve probably already seen that YouTube was named “Invention of the Year”. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy watching a dog imitate a blender as much as the next girl, but is it really better than a countertop food sanitizer or a snow shovel re-designed to be easier on the back? YouTube may have had more of an impact on our lives, but the name of the list is ‘Best’, not ‘Most Impactful’, confirming what we mostly knew all along – Time Magazine sucks.

Slashdot also has commentary on the PopSci and SciAm nominees.

Watch Out for Steny Hoyer!

A. Citizen brought this post from Jane at Firedoglake to my attention.  I, in turn, want to bring it to your attention:

Mr. Hoyer, please explain how the passage of the bankruptcy bill last year will actually benefit anyone OTHER THAN the credit card companies and the big banks in light of the rising expense, employment instability, and healthcare uncertainty of living in the United States, especially given that more than half of all bankruptcies filed by individuals in the past were in response to a single catastrophic event, such as losing a job or experiencing a health-related crisis.

Read his response and Jane’s very poignant comment…

- tekstone