Best Books for Gifts

A great Christmas is a stack of brand new books. Each one is a adventure just waiting to be started. Here's are some lists that might help you decide what book to get for those you care about.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,4809,00.html
http://www.amazon.com/Must-Read-Books-for-2006/lm/F7VGP5ZHI84Z
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/childrensnotable/notablecbooklist/currentnotable.htm
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/06bbya.htm
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2003477626_bestbooks170.html
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6395088.html
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/review/20061210tenbestbooks.html
http://www.playlibrary.com/2006/12/10/new-york-times-notable-childrens-books-of-2006/

Happy Holidays
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year
js

50 Coolest Websites of 2006

Here's a real time killer--better wait till next week and all your holiday preparations are finished! 50 Coolest Websites of 2006 http://www.time.com/time/2006/50coolest/. From Time magazine and CNN. I haven't looked at them yet but the homepage looks like a lot a penguins resembling Homer Simpson. js

Ask City

Ask.com is becoming a very interesting competitor to Google. Here's their answer to Google Maps. Try Ask City to find businesses, movies and events in almost any city and it links you with a map to the location, contact info, reviews, booking agencies, and more.

Thoughts for the Christmas season from a new study called The World Distribution of Household Wealth:

• The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth.
• The richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000.
• The richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total.
  
• The bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.
• The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000.
  
• To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group with 37 million members worldwide.

Cell Phones and Marketers

I got this today and sent it to about 20 people: "Marketers will soon be able to call you on your cellphone. If you don't want them to use up your time or money (your cellphone charges will still apply) call: 888-382-1222 or go online to http://www.donotcall.gov and register your number."

Oops! I probably got snookered by an Urban Legend. If you don't know about Snopes.com, I suggest you try it whenever you get email that encouragesyou to pass it on to everyone you know (even if the email is from your children or maybe especially from your children -- and other relatives). I seems that this has been circulating on the web for several years.

On the other hand, I called the number and registered my cellphone--and no harm was done. js