Category Archive: 2007

Jan 01

2007 Year-end Review

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2007, Wreckollection

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The Chinese called it the Year of the Pig. The United Nations dubbed 2007 the International Year of the Dolphin. It was the year that Scouting turned 100 years old.  2007 also marked the 100th anniversary of the:

Hershey’s Kiss

United Parcel Service

Taxi cabs

The electric vacuum cleaner

Canada Dry Ginger Ale

Bakelite (the precursor to modern plastic)

Paper towels

Color photography

Paper cups

The gas station

The State of Oklahoma

The term “egg-head”

Looking back, 2007 was for the most part a pretty ho hum year; but although nothing much changed, there was no shortage of folks who were into diapers albeit not for the purposes of change.  A lady astronaut launched the year by donning her diapers to travel halfway across the United States to make a rival in romance disappear.  She was followed by a host of players (none of them winners) all attempting to get into the diapers of Anna Nicole Smith’s only living heir.

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Jan 01

Story of the Year for 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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Chinese missile test prompts concerns

China opened the year with a very big bang on January 11, when they fired a ballistic missile that blasted one of their old weather satellites out of orbit more than 800 kilometers above the Earth.  The Chinese satellite was about the same distance from Earth as U.S. spy satellites.  The U.S. has been able to knock out satellites with missiles since the mid-1980s. The only U.S. test was conducted on Oct. 13, 1985. Later that year, the U.S. government implemented a ban on testing anti-satellite weapons.

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Jan 01

Feel Good Story of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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MacLean Magazine’s Warren Buffet Interview by KENNETH WHYTE | October 15, 2007 | http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20071015_110163_110163&source=srch

Warren Buffet talks about his announcement in 2006 that he would give away 85 per cent of his roughly $50-billion fortune to charities.  In a year that was rife with stories that ranged between the bizarre, irrelevant and/or darker side of the people and the news, this one really stands out as one of the few pick-me-up pieces that I can remember.  The following excerpt is one of his nuggets of wisdom from that interview that we should all aspire to live by (even though some of us might not have a couple billion dollars burning a hole in our pockets):

K.W.: “You decided you didn’t want to leave it all to your kids. You have a line about that?”
W.B.: “Yeah, I want to leave them enough so they can do anything but not enough so they can do nothing.”

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Jan 01

Newsmaker of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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China. 

Canadian Newsmaker of the Year: The RCMP.

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Jan 01

Person of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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Canadian New Democrat MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis.

She proposed a private member’s bill that would effectively ban fees at automated teller machines in Canada.  Of course the banks are claiming that, “Without this competitive pricing flexibility, it is unlikely that we would be able to continue to maintain a network of 4,000 plus ATMs – innovation and access would suffer and costs to consumers would rise”

 In a related Story:  The global consulting firm Deloitte reports that by 2010 banks will spend almost one-third of their collective IT Budget (which currently stands at $44 Billion – offshore).

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Jan 01

Innovation of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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Neurofeedback helmets for use with the various mainstream game consoles. 

Smartbrain Technologies, Emotiv Systems and NeuroSky are three young companies in a vanguard that is adapting a relatively old concept to transport the measurement of brain waves (neurofeedback) from the medical sphere into the realm of computer games.  The technology is already getting a lot of attention from the Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) community (and that wholly accidental pun/oxymoron speaks volumes) as well as memory clinics for executives and seniors. Lynda Thompson, director of the ADD Centre and Biofeedback Institute in Mississauga, Ont. explains that children have been told to “pay attention” their entire lives without actually knowing what that means.  In one study she conducted using neurofeedback on 111 ADD subjects, their IQ’s climbed an average of 12 points, poor readers advanced four grade levels and, most importantly, 79% of the Ritalin users stopped medication completely. Bottom line: Anything that educates the kids and lets them have fun in the process while, at the same time, reducing dependency on drugs can’t be bad and deserves my vote for innovation of the year.

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Jan 01

Conspiracy of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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None come to mind.

…but just because I am not as paranoid as I used to be, that doesn’t mean they are not still out to get me.  It might also be attributed to the fact that we are dealing with a stupider breed of conspirators that are prone to getting caught while their hands are still in the cookie jars.

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Jan 01

Sleeper Story of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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Who knew that while citizens everywhere were lambasting their national security agencies for anal retentive airport security regulations that outlawed hair gels, toothpaste and other toiletry products in carry on luggage, it was actually a clever counter-terrorism tactic designed to dupe uneducated terrorist wannabes into trading in their C-4 for K-Y jelly.  The first evidence that the ploy is working comes when a mad bomber tosses a bag of toiletries over the fence at the Canadian Prime Minister’s residence.

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Jan 01

Movie of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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“300”

Runner Up:  “(Live Free or) Die Hard IV

 Honourable Mention:  Casino Royale (James Bond); The Transformers

Best Movie filmed by a camera crew comprised solely of persons with “Attention Deficit Disorder” using only cell phones (or so it seemed): The Bourne Ultimatum.

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Jan 01

Book of the Year 2007

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2007, Wreckollection

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“What is the What” by David Eggars.

This epic story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, puts the origins and the tragedy of Darfur into a very readable perspective. It is a must read for everyone and should probably be front and centre on every school board’s required reading lists for grade eight’s in order to put their own lives, prejudice and/or perceived realities of the world they live in into context.

Honourable Mention: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling smashed US sales records when it sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours after its release.  It represented a fun and nicely knotted, albeit, at times long-winded and thick, end to the series (however, it will probably play better on the big screen).

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