Savvy List of Lists 12|31

What a year it's been.  Here's a list of the savviest lists: look-backs at 2008 and upcoming trends for 2009.

News and Pop Culture
NYT: year in ideas.  Lots of inspiring (and some disturbing) ideas for inventions, trends, and ideas that could change the world we know it.  Everything from harvesting energy from our everyday movements to a vending machine for crows to turning school buses into mobile classrooms.

CNN: Top political stories of theyear  I just shuddered a little bit.  All I can say is that I'm so glad that this election is over.

Reuters: Year in Review Lots of great slidehows of best pictures on news, entertainment, weird, and eye-witness categories.  The most popular "oddly enough" articles of '08 include Buffett's time bomb, penis theft, and Fleetmood Mac?

SI: Greatest sport photos of the year  And sometimes the best things in sports are the weirdest - check out this list of weird sports happenings this past year FoxSports: weird year in sports, huh?  (and yes, my Virginia Tech Hokies are in a bowl game, even with 4 losses)

TIME: People who mattered in 2008

NPR Word of the Year:  Lots of important dictionaries went with words like: hypermiling, oversharing, bailout, post-racial.  But this NPR linguist thinks the word of the year is: Joe. Listen to this segment to hear a history of the word.  Let's also not forget NYT: The year in buzzwords

Lycos: 50 most searched terms in 2008  16 are women.  And Barack Obama got beat out by the likes of Carmen Electra and Dragon Ball.  But who uses Lycos anyway?

LA Times: 10 Most Popular Stories of 2008:  Some obvious ones (Palin) and some just odd (Tupac Shakur)

BusinessPundit: top layoff sites:  Okay, this is a little depressing, but there's actually a list of websites that track layoffs and companies that are going out of business.

EW: top 10 best TV shows and TimeOut: Best (and worst) 10 TV Shows

Amazon: best DVDs of the year:  Surprise!  The people have spoken: 1. Dark Knight  2. Sex and the City. 3. John Adams (HBO miniseries)

Top brands  I'm surprised that Google has only risen to #10.  The new kid on the block: H&M (silly me, I always equated HM to "high maintenance")

Epicurious: Top 10 food trends

Technology, science, and web savvy
CNN's Tech And Science Review:  lots of stuff to make us faster: swimsuits, netbooks, twitter

Time: Top 10 iPhone apps:  Some very useful ones like AroundMe.  Or if you prefer ones for pure entertainment: turn you iPhone into a musical instrument (just blow in the mic).

Computer Shopper: Top 100 tech products:  Most of these will be old news to the tech-savvy, but there are still a few hidden gems in here, like YouSendIt or FactCheckEd

Discover Magazine: Top 100 Science Stories  This is all those who love to read about black holes, smart robots, gene therapy, energy storage.  Scary thing is that cells phones are to our generation as this stuff will be to our kids.

MaximumPC: Top 50 geek skills:  I guess I'm not a geek - I've only done 4 of these.

Kiplinger: Best Financial websites.  My personal favorite new discovery: retailmenot.com

Mashable: Most underrated websites.  Underrated indeed, never heard of any of them.  The best the web can get is giving you "insider" info: JobBite and Where the Locals Eat

The Family
Best Toys of the Year by Parents Magazine  and also by by ToyPortfolio.  Yes, there are a lot more electronic-looking things, but also some good old classic remakes, too.  Don't miss: Washington Post's list of best kid books.

NPR: 2008 saw a measles epidemic due to the backlash against vaccinations. 135 cases of the measles in the U.S. last year, the most in a decade

Babble: the best and worst of 2008 in parenting.  I don't know what to think of this odd pairing of sacred and obscene, serious (child obesity) and silly (Brangelina).  Tell me what you think.

PetFinder: Top pet names of 2008.  Buddy for dogs. Lucy for cats.

Grandparents: Top 11 grandparents.  For the first time in a long while, our nation will get a "First Granny."

2009 predictions sure to go wrong

Yahoo Finance: two more financial crises on the horizon:  And I thought we were done with meltdowns.  Two more biggies waiting in the wings: municipals and social security.

BusinessWeek: Tech trends to watch in 2009: On the way up: SmartPhone apps, netbooks, and big screen TVs

TheStreet: 10 Business Predictions in 2009.  I've also heard from my friends that 75% of start-ups in Silicon Valley will die off next year.  Many of those will be web 2.0 companies.  Speaking of which: Fast Company: How will web 2.0 change in 2009?  The answer: a lot.

Personally, I think 2009 will be the year of the Social Business.

Stay warm out there.  For your kids' sake, remember that happiness is contagious.  Happy new year!