Remembering 2000 Naught and Looking Forward to 2000 Teen

Is is just me or do people seem to be in a big hurry to leave 2000 Naught* behind them?  Take a moment to read  This Decade in Words from language columnist Mark Peters to find out why just about everyone is elbowing their way forward to 2000 Teen.    Or perhaps you are a visual person like me and find this graphic reflection Picturing the Past 10 Years by Phillip Neimeyer  more revealing. 

The end of the year always brings a bevy of "best of" lists.  Eudutopia, filmmaker George Lucas' website dedicated to "what works in public education" has a Year in Review featuring its best blog posts.  If you don't have time to read many blogs (except this one of course) you might want to cut to the best and check out The Edublog Awards best of 09 list featuring blogs on education and libraries.  If you'd like a smorgasbord of Top 10 lists check out Time Magazine's Top Ten Everything of 2009, but don't click on Top Ten New Species if you're squeamish. 

But enough about the last year and decade, what about the history of the world?  BBC Radio 4 is kicking off an ambitious project called A History of the World in 100 Objects by weaving together stories about 100 objects from the British Museum.  Each object will get 15 minutes of erudite fame in true BBC fashion starting on January 17th.  The whole enterprise will be captured on their A History of the World website.  It's worth a bookmark, and I'll be checking back in with the venerable BBC to see if any of my favorite objects will be put on display.  (I am a huge fan of the winged-lion and wish it were in front of my office to protect me from the "forces of chaos.")

And what about books?  I started the New Year reading Stumbling on Happiness by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert. It's a book about looking forward, and I recommend it to anyone who is thinking-----Onward!

*According to my handy dictionary the archaic phrase bring to naught means "ruin; foil" and set at naught means"disregard; despise" so the 2000 Naught moniker fits in more ways than one IF you're feeling cranky about the past decade.