The Top 100 Gadgets

A fascinating list of The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time with photos.

Whether they’re strapped to our belts, sitting on our desks, or jammed in an overstuffed closet, we absolutely love our gadgets.

So it wasn’t exactly easy coming up with the definitive list of the 100 best gadgets ever unleashed. In the weeks we spent debating the entries, tempers were flared, fingers were pointed, chairs were smashed over heads, and feelings were hurt. But we emerged, like Moses from the mountain, with the world’s most authoritative ranking of the best gadgets of all time.

Wilbur’s Home Page

For NewMexiKen’s readers who share his love of the Arizona Wildcats — Wilbur’s Home Page.

Peace

Bad week for …

Differences of opinion, after four men attacked the home of an Oregon family that had hung up a rainbow-colored flag bearing the word “pace”—”peace’ in Italian. Lisa Wells, who is married, said the men threw things and called her a lesbian. “He told me I should die. He told me I should read the Bible.”

From The Week Newsletter.

The Week Quiz

The Week Quiz.

Ouch, NewMexiKen only scored five correct out of ten. Silly, obscure questions.

Best line of the day, so far

“‘The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people,’ [Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography] said.”

Report from CNN.

Studies looking at the oceans and melting Arctic ice leave no room for doubt that it is getting warmer, people are to blame, and the weather is going to suffer, climate experts have said.

Link via dangerousmeta!

Let them play!

A great essay from Broken Cowboy on the Hokies win over Duke and the quality effort by ESPN.

And so as another Ewing three-point attempt clanked off the rim and the good folks of Blacksburg, VA, showed their inexperience at celebrating as they tentatively wandered down onto the court, looking like hesitant swimmers dipping their toes in the water, I wondered why all basketball games couldn’t be like this.

Welcome to the ACC Virginia Tech. Football champions and a very respectable 6-6 in their first season on the hard court.

A little bit (too much) of heaven

Another report from Jill:

In the car on the way to the chocolate festival, Erinn could not contain her enthusiasm.

“Tommy, you’re going to have such a fun day,” she enthused to her four-year old son.

Tommy smiled excitedly,

Erinn continued, “There’s going to be a fountain made of different kinds of chocolate. And you can buy some candy to take home with you. And you can taste some of Mommy’s ice cream. Then, afterwards we’re going to have pizza for lunch. Your perfect day! You are going to be in heaven!”

She looked in the rear-view mirror. Tommy’s face was ashen. His lip quivered.

“I’m going to heaven?” he asked.

Oh, to be 4 again, when love was easy and problems were, too

Jill, official daughter of NewMexiKen, reports on the four-year-old world:

Today was Purple Day at school. Mack wore a purple shirt and his purple Mack hat.

When I dropped him off, Mrs. Corish said, “Oh, Mack, you look great!”

At which point, a mother who was standing nearby, taking off her daughter’s coat, turned and said, “Oh, is this Mack? Amanda is in looooooove with Mack.”

Amanda, by the way…..long blond hair and incredibly cute. But famous as the girl who picked her nose, right in front row center, during the class’s singing presentation at church.

Google Maps for “miserable failure in Washington”

Google Maps - miserable failure in washington dc

NewMexiKen could think of a few addresses to add.

Idea from kottke.

Black History Month

To honor Black History Month, MakesMeRalph has posted several interesting little items all titled “Black History Factoid”.

They’re just a click away.

Toni Morrison

One of America’s great writers, the Nobel Laureate for Literature in 1993, Toni Morrison is 74 today.

It’s the birthday

… of “Dragline.” George Kennedy is 80.

… of the woman who broke up the Beatles. She’s 72 today. In 2003 Time Asia published an informative profile of the complex artist Yoko Ono.

… of Vinnie Barbarino. He’s 51 today. So are Vincent Vega, Chili Palmer, Michael, Buford ‘Bud’ Uan Davis, Tod Lubitch, Danny Zuko and Tony Manero. And so is John Travolta.

… of the letter lady. Vanna White is 48 today.

… of Jack Palance (86), Cybill Shepherd (55), Matt Dillon (41), and Molly Ringwald (37).

Wallace Stegner

In 1999, San Francisco Chronicle readers ranked the 100 best non-fiction and fiction books of the 20th century written in, about, or by an author from the Western United States.

NewMexiKen has posted the top 10 from the lists previously, but repeats them here — because the lists are interesting, but primarily to honor Wallace Stegner, who was born on this date in 1909.

First in fiction, second in non-fiction; now that’s a writer.

TOP 10 FICTION
1. “Angle of Repose,” by Wallace Stegner
2. “The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck
3. “Sometimes a Great Notion,” by Ken Kesey
4. “The Call of the Wild,” by Jack London
5. “The Big Sleep,” by Raymond Chandler
6. “Animal Dreams,” by Barbara Kingsolver
7. “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” by Willa Cather
8. “The Day of the Locust,” by Nathanael West
9. “Blood Meridian,” by Cormac McCarthy
10. “The Maltese Falcon,” by Dashiell Hammett

TOP 10 NON-FICTION
1. “Land of Little Rain,” Mary Austin
2. “Beyond the Hundredth Meridian,” Wallace Stegner
3. “Desert Solitaire,” Edward Abbey
4. “This House of Sky,” Ivan Doig
5. “Son of the Morning Star,” Evan S. Connell
6. Western trilogy, Bernard DeVoto
7. “Assembling California,” John McPhee
8. “My First Summer in the Sierra,” John Muir
9. “The White Album,” Joan Didion
10. “City of Quartz,” Mike Davis