Each year Google releases their zeitgeist, giving an idea of the fastest rising search terms. The overall most popular searches included terms you would expect like iphone, webkinz, and tmz. What’s interesting is to see the graphs within some of the targeted sections, because the spikes are labeled with major events which contributed to them. Click on newsmakers to see the increase in searches for Ron Paul when he raised $4 million in one day. The showbiz link reveals pronounced spikes when Britney Spears cut off her hair and when Paris Hilton was released from jail. Use the all the rage link to gauge which competing products are generating the most buzz. The Wii continued to gain ground through the year as far as video game consoles go, and HD DVD and LCD TVs were searched more often than Blue-Ray and plasma TVs respectively.

Here’s an interesting and somewhat disturbing collection of Olin Mills portrait photos on the List of the Day Blog. Some of them are simply dated, like the mullet on this guy, others are funny, and a few are downright scary. There’s no doubt you’ll see some backdrops that you recognize from days gone by - How come so many people get their picture taken in the same library where the shelves aren’t quite straight? And you’ll probably see some clothes and hair styles that remind you of your past. If nothing else, the pictures are good for a quick laugh.

Each year Central Connecticut University releases a list of America’s most literate cities. After two years at number 2 behind Seattle, Minneapolis took the top spot in 2007. Below is a description of the criteria used to determine the ranking as described on the site.

A total score was tallied for each city across six different literacy categories: Booksellers; Educational attainment; Internet Resources; Library Resources; Newspaper Circulation; and Periodical publications. All categories were compared against the city’s total population.

The top 10 Most Literate Cities in America

Many of us are now thinking about replacing our old tube TVs with a widescreen flat panel plasma or LCD. The problem is that it’s not completely straightforward to compare one style to the other. A specification as simple as size, for example, needs to be qualified because the screens have a different aspect ratio. Widescreens use the same diagonal measurement, but what does that actually mean when you’re watching “The Office” on Thursday night? That’s where the Display Wars website comes in. Enter in the two screens you’d like to compare, and it will give you an image representation of the relative sizes and shapes, as well as a summary of statistics. It’s interesting that if you are watching a channel that is not HD (i.e. that new widescreen TV will have black bars on the sides), you would need to have a 44 inch screen in order to have a picture as big as a 36 inch tube TV. On the other hand, the 36 inch tube TV will show widescreen content equivalent to a 33 inch screen.

A dry sense of humor is required to enjoy the tongue in cheek website Marmaduke Explained. Most days, the author posts the predictably banal Marmaduke cartoon and adds his own far more humorous commentary after it. The running joke is that the commentary comes in the form of an explanation of the cartoon, which of course is in no need of being explained. Click on the image at left to see the caption added to this cartoon, and then go to the site to browse through some more.

Wired magazine hands out the 2007 foot-in-mouth awards for science and technology. Follow this link to the full story for a better explanation of the context, but the entries include these gems.

Marc Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook:

Once every hundred years, media changes.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft on the iPhone launch:

There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple on the sudden iPhone price drop:

That’s technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology.

One day a hobby photographer got hungry and headed out to Taco Bell for a couple of Taco Supremes. After unwrapping the tasty treats in the long shadows of the evening sun, he noticed the perfect contrast of textures and forms and reached for his camera. That’s how I imagine the idea for fine art taco photography started. Even if the back story is not quite so romantic, the niche marketing seems to be working. You can purchase a set of 3 8×10 prints which are “suitable for framing” for only $32.