Carnival of the Badger XX- The List To End All Lists (For 2005, At Least)

Welcome to the twentieth edition of The Carnival of the Badger and Happy New Year to you all. I guess I can say that without upsetting too many people, even though Chinese New Year won't be here until February and the Jewish New Year was three months ago. The changing of the calendar leads most folks to making lists. We are inundated with lists of best, worst, most unusual and most significant. This week the carnival looks at a few of the lists that are floating around right now while starting a list or two of its own.

First up, and so first on our list of Badgerland Bloggers, is Jay Bullock from folkbum's rambles and rants. Jay takes us back through a post he wishes had been written differently in "Shut up," he wrote, and almost immediately regretted it .

James Wigderson's Library and Pub got into the spirit of the carnival by submitting a list of his own. Check out the Top Ten Things Political Consultants Don't Want To Hear from his list.

Science Magazine announced their Greatest Breakthroughs of 2005 and an old favorite came out on top. Evolution was called the greatest of 2005. Other breakthroughs included research in planetary exploration, the relationship between genetics and abnormal human behavior, the new field of cosmochemistry, fresh evidence of global warming, and an engineering approach to molecular biology and superconductivity. Elliot over at From Where I Sit takes a look at one of Wisconsin's science breakthroughs from 2005 and why the Big Apple may object to the Flying Bratwurst.

The trouble with year-end lists is that everyone gets to write one. Someone named Jurgen Fauth has written his own Top Ten List of 2005 Films. His top three? 1) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 2) Downfall 3) Munich. Somehow The Lords of Dogtown missed his list.

Brad V, writing at Letters In Bottles, wants to know how his own funds are being used in one of December's top news stories. Are student funds being used by Voces de la Frontera?

The Wisconsin Historical Society took their own look at the news stories of 2005 to see which had the greatest history-making significance. The passings of Proxmire, Nelson and Rehnquist were their top story. Fred of Real Debate Wisconsin takes a look at the top news stories of 2006 and offers RDW's predictions for the coming year. He calls it cliche. We call it classic.

Now that Christmas is over, the debate over which toy was the best of 2005 should be finished. Dipika Mirpuri gave her list of Top Ten Girl's Toys and decided that Playmobil My Take-Along Doll House was the best. The Happy Circumstance took its own poll and decided that Playmobil also had the worst toy of last year.

Bill at The Xoff Files has a story on the Best Pagan Holiday Celebrated By A Wisconsin Governor. At my house we had the airing of grievances but ran out of time before the feats of strength because of the length of the lists.

Brian at Fraley's Dailytakes makes a list of things to do now that we have more extra time to kill than we knew. He asks Whatchya Gonna Do??? If you don't want to do any of those, how about a good TV show? The NYT has their list and House and Katrina both are on it.

Korbel Mike writes on The Spring City Chronicle about how tough it is to sort through the lists we already have and wonders how we got into the Medicare Part D fix we're in.

Brent, Milwaukee's Layton Park Blogger decided to start a list of his own and sent in two posts this week. His first is a list of questions about evolution and False Gods. His second wonders What the @#$% is going on in Milwaukee? Patrick at Badger Blogger weighs in with updates on that same story.

PC World magazine has their own list of The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years. They list the Sony Walkman and the Apple I-Pod as 1 and 2. My guess is that they never got a chance to rate the Banana Guard. Aaron at Subject To Change shows us a new gizmo to make us slightly safer that has nothing to do with DHS. Go figure.

Ben B at Badger Blues comes to us with some thoughts about the latest news in the FISA scandal. He writes about Our liberty in the hands of an angry president. In the meantime Eleanor Clift writes about the Biggest Political Lies of 2005 in her Newsweek column.

Peter at Texas Hold'Em Blogger offers a 2005 update on a Jeff Foxworthy list, You Might Be A Redneck If. USA Today Weekend offered up a Year In Quotes Section with some that may become classics in years to come. Patrick Swayze is quoted regarding how he makes the choice of which movie to do next to further his career. “You have to be willing to say no to the ungodly amounts of money people have to produce crap."


As for me and The Happy Circumstance, I'll nominate my candidate for the Worst Smoke-Stopping method I've seen lately and then dedicate this whole list to Marderos Nersesian. For the last 12 months he has been the champion liar of the Burlington Liars Club. The 2005 champion will be announced on Saturday. I'm sure he or she won't be the biggest liar of the year but they'll have a certificate that says they're the best and that was good enough for the Scarecrow.

That brings to a close the twentieth and final Carnival of the Badger for 2005. Thanks to all who submitted a post for this list of lists. Send Nick a note to let him know when you'd like to host the carnival yourself.

Have a safe and prosperous New Year. We'll see you on the other side.