Brian Gongol
This year's "dream dates" for New Year's are an interesting mix: Oprah and Sean Connery are both in their respective "top fives", alongside Jamie Foxx, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Aniston, and George Clooney.
The National Film Registry, which is kept by the Library of Congress, has added 25 classics and contemporary classics to the list this year, including "Blazing Saddles," "Fargo," and "Groundhog Day." The point of the registry is to make sure that the "classics" don't get lost due to neglect and decay. This year's top-grossing movies included a bunch of animated and family films like "Cars" and "Ice Age" -- but also the latest Bond film, "Casino Royale."
The 52-year mortgage that's being offered now in Great Britain sure seems like a curious length -- why not 50? Perhaps it's because average life expectancy for British men is 75.7 years. Maybe they're figuring you'll buy your first house at age 23 and die just after paying it off.
The top Google searches of 2006 are all over the place -- from sports ("World Cup" placed #3) to entertainment (#7 was "video), but more than anything, people wanted to know how to connect with one another: MySpace was #2, and Bebo was first. Both of those are social-networking websites. On the news end, people wanted to know about things like autism (#8) and cancer (#3), but people wanted to know more about Paris Hilton than any other search term on Google's news search.
Given that there's so much interest in social-networking sites, here are a few tips in case you set up your own page:
- It's probably smart to register your own name, just so no one else takes it
- Once you do, think twice about what pictures you put up
- Always ask yourself what you might think of seeing this page in 20 years -- stuff really does stay on the Internet this long
- If you're going to complain, don't complain about your job