 December 28 In the "They keep changing their minds" news it should come as no surprise that once again, the medical/science community has decided that what was once bad for you is not good for you. They do this with everything. Now it's sunlight: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article335359.ece *** PC World Magazine editors named their choices for the top gadgets of the last fifty years. They named fifty top gizmos. Such lists are always open to debate but the choices the editors make can only be attributed to youth and inexperience. Well, that's being kind. If it's not their youth and inexperience, it's their stupidity. The 50 greatest gadgets of the last fifty years? While many of their choices are fitting, many seemed to be uninformed guesses. That's where the inexperience or stupidity comes in. For example, they ranked the Sony Walkman as Number One. Okay, so Sony came up with a way to carry music around with you. That miniaturization that brought music and entertainment out of the living room and into our back pocket is more beholding to the first transistor radios, not anything Sony sent over here. The transistor radio at least made it to the top ten in the PC Magazine list. What the Ipod is doing on the list after the Walkman, I have no idea. It's just another way of carrying entertainment around in a pocket. My reasoning is the same for wanting to know their third choice off the list entirely. TIVO has no business on the list at all. The Beta Max tape recorder gave the world home video recording. without it, the idea of TIVO would not have even been possible. And while I don't like the idea of having two gizmos that do the same thing on such a list, an exception might be made for VHS tape machines that truly started not only the home recording fad, but spawned the video rental business. One might even say that the advent of VHS exponentially increased the porn industry. I suppose a case could be made for the CD player being on the list, but should gizmos and gadgets be a real improvement over what their gizmoing or gadgeting to replace? Any adiophile will tell you that vinyl is better. The most ludicrous inclusion was no less than six cell phones. All the bells and whistles on the models they cited don't mean diddly. The first cell phone , yes, but the rest are still, well, just cell phones. *** This is the time of the year when the news agencies start remembering the past year, the important events, and making their own lists. I have my own list of important events: My grandson's first stepsI have no particular order for my list or reason for the inclusion or exclusion of any event. It's my list. Make your own.
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