Monday, December 31, 2007

Looking Back at 2007

Welcome to a new blog home!

Let's start a new year by looking back at the year that was. It did go by so quickly!

MM's Person of the Year:
Time magazine's choice of Vladimir Putin as its Person of the Year has caused quite a stir. Admittedly, the choice rests on influence, not on whether that influence was positive or not.

I have my own choice for Person of the Year: I give you . . . General David Petraeus.

Honorable mention must go to the late, great professor Liviu Librescu.

A Year in the News:
What are your picks for most important news stories of the year?
The UK-Iran captured-sailors incident? The debut of the world's most famous polar bear cub? The EU's 50th birthday? The Don Imus snafu? Virginia Tech? The rise of Sarkozy in France? The wretched immigration bill that blew up in May-June? Tainted goods from China -- with poisonous lead in almost everything? Major war games in Taiwan with jet fighters on Sun Yat-sen Freeway? Enormous doping scandal at the Tour de France? The Live Earth concert madness? Petraeus's surge in Iraq? The assassination of Benazir Bhutto? The Spice Girls reunion as a sign of the coming apocalypse? The start of the fractious political horse race for the 2008 U.S. Presidency? The debut of the iPhone? The end of the Harry Potter saga? The self-parody of Al Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize? Bobby Jindal winning the Louisiana governor's election? The famous King Juan Carlos smackdown of Hugo Chavez? "Don't tase me, bro"? More rioting in Paris? Lee Myung-bak's new role as South Korea's president? The Frankenstein-like revival of the EU Constitution? Libel lawsuits by Arabs against academic presses in the UK and US? The baseball scandal? Oh, and news that didn't deserve to be news -- every single, stupid, degrading celebrity "story" that sullied the airwaves through the entire year.

The Best of MM in 2007:
This is quite a load of self-referential tripe, I'm afraid, but it might be fun to look back at 2007 in the blog. These aren't news links, per se. These are my picks from Quirky Asia Files, Quirky Euro Files, and various nerd notes. Here's a glance back at a year of rants, laughter, thoughts, and concerns.

January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December


That was the year that was!

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