Happy New Year, and No Predictions

No predictions — I’m sick of them. But looking back at 2006, here are ten things — some everyday, small and some major — I’m happy and thankful for:

  1. My son Julian was born
  2. My now 13-year-old cousin Ariel survived bone cancer
  3. I have a happy, healthy family
  4. I have great friends
  5. I have a cool job and nice colleagues, and work in an exciting field
  6. My window-box flowers lasted the entire summer and into the fall, and looked pretty good
  7. We sold our home in Brooklyn and now are able to get a new home for our larger family
  8. My Jeep Wrangler, which I purchased in college, is 11 years old and still runs like new
  9. I documented personal and business life through just over 2,000 digital photos, over 10 hours of video (and a lot more hours of editing), a few hundred blog posts and about 40 published articles about media and culture
  10. I launched AttentionMax
… Read the rest

A Super-Slippery Material To…Slip People Up

The New Scientist offers its patent sleuth’s most interesting, surprising and sometimes alarming, discoveries of 2006. My favorite is:

An even less lethal alternative might be to coat an adversary with slippery slime. US researchers developed a super-slippery material that could be sprayed from the back of a truck or tank.

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Please Please, No Cloned Farm Animals In My Diet!

Despite the shortcomings of my own diet, I just don’t feel good about eating cloned farm animals. And according to discussions in the blogosphere, numerous others also disapprove of the FDA’s tentative decision to stamp the "freak food" edible.… Read the rest

The Blogosphere’s Ultimate Power Lies In Its Ability to Empower The Unknown to Instantaneously Harness Passion and Mobilize Masses

While many so-called A-list bloggers would be expected to fill the top ranks of blog posts most linked to, it’s interesting how a relatively unknown blog can quickly capture the passion of thousands and mobilize a community overnight. And that was the case with mother.livejournal.com’s… Read the rest