A part of celebrating the New Year is to sum up the old year, usually with year-end lists. Some of those lists are lists of the best lists. The 2006 List of the Lists of Lists! is the top ten list of those lists of lists. Somewhere here, you’ll find everything you ever wanted to know about the year 2006. And some examples of circular recursion. Link -disclaimer: I wrote this.

Located near the Sorek River west of Jerusalem, Sorek Cave is the only showcave in Israel. The photographs on this Russian site show awesome formations that are the result of dripping calcite-rich water in the limestone-rich quarry area. The cave is open to the public year round. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Art for aliens? Some cool pictures from space (or at least way up there). This gives me an added respect for the engineers and architects who designed such layouts. http://ueba.net/hosted_pages/Earth-Shapes-20061225

The Geostationary Banana Over Texas project calls itself “an art intervention” and is scheduled for launch in August of 2008. The 300 meter banana will be constructed of bamboo and paper and filled with helium. It will float at 30 to 50 km above the state of Texas, which will put it on the line between Earth's atmosphere and space. From the ground, the banana will be visible and recognizable day and night all over Texas. Will this project ever get off the ground, or will there be slip-ups? Link

Youth Zone Fun has a gallery of artful and imaginative snowmen. This one is a star on his own video iPod! Link -via Dump Trumpet

With Visual Acoustics you can paint a musical composition on your screen! Choose an instrument for your brush, set the volume and delay, and move your mouse over the surface to create a pattern both visual and acoustical. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Three-year-old Maadhu Krishnan of Sunnyvale, California can name all the United States capitols, plus the capitol cities of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas! He is also learning multiple languages, including Spanish. Hit play or go to YouTube. You can find the complete collection of Maadhu videos on YouTube, including a television news report. -via Arbroath

On Christmas Eve 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission, Astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr, and William A. Anders, beamed home this holiday message as they orbited the moon (appoximately 240,000 miles above the earth). As profound and inspiring as the Christmas greeting was, the controllers in Houston found a way to lighten the mood by responding with a humorous poem. Hit play or go to YouTube.

If you were impressed by the collaborative work that went into the YouTube Community Choir video, you are going to love this! Dogs with Blogs “perform” Do They Know Its Christmas? Hit play or go to YouTube. -via Arbroath

On July 2, 1982, 33-year-old Larry Walters attached over 40 helium-filled weather balloons to a lawn chair and took off into the skies over Los Angeles. A startled airline pilot reported seeing him at an altitude of 16,000 feet! Walters had taken a portable CB radio and a BB gun to shoot balloons in order to descend. After shooting several balloons, he dropped the gun. He traveled 45 minutes and descended into some power lines in Long Beach, alighting uninjured. Now the audio file of the CB transmissions during Walters’ flight is available for your listening pleasure, along with lots more information on this odd stunt, at the official site of The Lawnchair Pilot. Link -via Metafilter

Who says people have to get together to be in the same choir? Who says you must be able to carry a tune to sing in a choir? The YouTube Community Choir presents The Twelve Days of Christmas. Hit play or go to YouTube. -via Arbroath

Think your boss is cheap? Slate Magazine asked its readers to submit reports of horrible office Christmas parties, gifts, and bonuses. Of nearly 200 submissions, they’ve chosen quite a few tales for The Corporate Scrooge Contest Results. From the story:

A contract consultant sends word that the company to which he is currently assigned recently sent out an e-mail to some 2,000-odd consultants. The company would give away two $100 gift cards—to two of the brave souls who would commit to work 80 hours between Dec. 18 and Dec. 31. As our correspondent noted: "Hey, if you work Christmas, we'll put you in a pool of 2,000 other folks to maybe win a hundred bucks."

Link

Gifter.org is an online experiment in social giving. Gifter will donate a dollar to charity for every comment you leave expressing your wish for the world at The Million Dollar Blog Post. They are also looking for donors to sponsor the million wishes. Donate and get a link to your website.

What if ideas could really change the world simply by people expressing their voice and sharing the idea? The million dollar home page works because someone told you about it, and enough people shared the idea that Alex Tew made a reported million dollars.

What if we shared similar ideas that benefit each other and the world?

We (the Ojibwe team) are going to host a series of experiments in the power of community and generosity in the coming weeks and months. We’ve setup the Gifter.org blog for these experiments.

Each will be an idea that could make the world a better place, but each requires your voice. With each experiment we’ll ask the Internet community to collectively express their support for the idea in simple ways; a link, a comment, or just include the idea in an email to a friend or during a dinner.

http://www.gifter.org/index.php/million-dollar-blog-post/ -via Grow-A-Brain

Watch this street vendor in China create animals with candy while customers wait! Hit play or go to YouTube. Read about the process at China Travels. Link -via Arbroath

I had a craving for french fries one day, so I pulled up to the drive-thru of McDonald's.

* Me: "I'd like a large french fries please."
* Clerk: "Would you like fries with that?"

I got sort of confused at this one and told him no. He told me to pull ahead, so I did, and then he asked me why I was sitting there.

* Clerk: "I thought you didn't want fries."
* Me: "No, I ordered a large french fries."
* Clerk: "Ok. Do you want fries with that?"

Since saying no the last time had gotten me nothing, I figured I'd better say yes this time.

He gave me two large fries.

Things People Said in Restaurants has a large and entertaining collection of anecdotes like this one, as well as ambiguously worded menus and signs that don’t quite make sense. Link -via Cynical-C