'"Boy Captain America over here. "Best of the best of the best, Sir!" "With honors." Yeah, he's just really excited."'
–Agent J, Men in Black

10 Stories the World Should Hear More About

Even the United Nations has come up with their own Best Of sort of a list this year. Topics include such areas as Somalia, women's issues, a perspective of a hurricane Somewhere Else (Grenada) and, Actors for Change (human rights). Generally, actors should stay away from politics. Or is it just me? While that one raises voices over New Year's dinner, keep the piece about the spread of infectious diseases in your back pocket. That should quiet things down in a hurry. Wow, those U.N. folks. Party animals.

50 Coolest Websites – 2005

This series in Time Online Edition includes the best sites for Arts & Entertainment; Blogs; Lifestyle, Health & Hobbies; News & Information, and Shopping.

Arts & Entertainment? I haven't heard of any of these picks. Man, how disconnected am I? Though, I'm definitely going to check out the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery and the Museum of Online Museums.

Of their Top Blogs, Overheard in New York is Numero Uno — and deserves to be. Funny, funny site mentioned in a previous Light Friday. We're so ahead of the curve here at The Blog. Sometimes. Well, once in awhile. For the sports fans among us, SportsBlogs Nation made the list. And I just have to go see what Go Fug Yourself is all about.

I have absolutely no recognition of the majority of Coolest Websites in the remaining three categories, Lifestyle, News, and Shopping. The only ones I frequent there are under Shopping, including Craigslist and Zappos. The latter has some really good prices on cowboy boots. I'm culturally inept. It's sad, really.

Unfortunately, a few of my favorites — The Smoking Gun, The Onion, and Engadget — are nowhere to be found. (Though Engadget did make to the BlogPulse Top Blogs list.)

Would you recommend any of the winners on Time's Coolest Websites list? What others are must-visits for you?

2005 List of Banished Words

Here's a worthwhile, funny, and sometimes all-too-true list from Lake Superior State University. Topping the list is Red States/Blue States, with the comment "A good map has more than two colors." Enemy Combatant is also a good one. " "Makes no sense. Do we have friendly combatants? Neutral combatants? Or how about enemy bystanders? If they are your enemy, just say so." 'Izzle'-speak also made the list, though I'd thought we'd already stopped doing this. "It was clever for about five minutes, or should I say five 'minizzles?'" Safe and Effective? One person comments, "Safe and effective should not be a selling point, it should be an FDA requirement!" And the catchiest, Body Wash. "Also known as soap.'

The Best of 2005

Clearly competing with Time Online, BusinessWeek Online also has subcategories of Best Of lists, including Leaders, Ideas, Buzzwords, and Products. While the categories are more appropriate for the socially inept (yours truly), the 'lists' themselves are pop-up slide presentations. That's just annoying. Just give me a list and some type, will ya?

Steve Jobs of Apple, Alan Mulally of Boeing (not to be confused with Boing Boing), and Terry Semel of Yahoo!, A.G. Lafley of P&G, and Kim Shin Bae of SK Telecom are at the top of the Leaders list.

Best Ideas is led by limiting your children's inheritance (Just be a freelance editor.), geography doesn't matter anymore, business really craves simplicity, innovate, and DNA is not necessarily destiny. Most of the best ideas here seem to be from The Land of the Bleeding Obvious.

The 50 Best Robots Ever

OK, this one spans far beyond 2005, it was just too good to pass up. Brought to us by Wired magazine, this is a particularly cool list is of both real (GM Unimate, Leonardo, Roomba Discovery, and more) and fantasy (for example, The Terminator, R2-D2, Gort, and the Attack Bots from the movie Runaway) robots. Autonomously navigating to the #1 spot of the list is Stanley, the Stanford Racing Team's Volkswagen Toureg "… that can scan any terrain and pick out a drivable course to a preset destination." Excellent commentary, and the folks at Wired really did their homework.

Tune in tomorrow for Part II…