I don’t know why, but I actually feel good about having only seen 10 of the things on this “Definitive List of the 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced on the Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something.” Admittedly, the 10 I’ve seen were pretty good.  (Well, eight of them.  Well, seven.)

But who doesn’t love a good list?

• Reading: read (most of) Kelly Link’s Magic For Beginners online, for free, legitimately!  (And then read an interview with her at Meeting House Mag.)  [via Bookslut]
• Watching: watch Stalker, online.  It’s a movie by the guy who did the good Solaris.  What’s not to like? [via Warren Ellis]
• Listening: all about con men.  And by “all about”, we mean “some about”.  Which is still more interesting than none about.  Australian con men, mind you.  Though there’s presumably some universality to conning. [source misplaced]
• Anticipating: Timecrimes.
• Remembering: That word… you know… the one with… it’s like…  Whatever.  Finally, a resource for finding the word you kind of sort of remember, partially.  [Tip of My Tongue, via Lifehacker]

The top 10 most discarded books in hotel rooms

1. The Blair Years by Alastair Campbell
2. Don’t You Know Who I Am? by Piers Morgan
3. A Whole New World by Jordan
4. Wicked by Jilly Cooper
5. Dr Who Creatures & Demons by Justin Richard
6. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown
7. I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna
8. Humble Pie by Gordon Ramsay
9. The Story Of A Man And His Mouth by Chris Moyles
10. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

(via Bookslut)

• Two words: Velociraptor Safari
• The stillness
• Fears of the end of the universe
• Prosthetic legs with secret iguana-smuggling compartments
• Bikinis cultivate impatience, in more ways than you might expect

…or when they were whatever age it is you put into the form. Some of it depressing, as you’d expect, in that it lists the enormous accomplishments by Historical Figures and Celebrities in their youth(s). Other bits are comical, such as the following two pieces, from which I can hardly pick a favorite:

Jan Birkeland from Norway managed to get to work without hitting a single red light.

Derrick Pallas was horrified to realize he was losing his hair, just like Dad.¹

All of this found at the eponymously-titled web site.

(via MeFi)

¹ Both of these things accomplished by the age of 26, in case you were wondering.

Washington Monthly digs into the omnipresent US News & World Report College Rankings, turning them inside-out and upside-down and everything. WM re-orders the list based on things like national service, research grants & student aid, and so forth. Unsurprisingly, US News & WR’s list is flip-flopped a bit, with some top-ranked schools sinking to the bottom (w/, for instance, national universities, only 2 of US News & WR’s top 10 make it to Washington Monthly’s top 10) and some underdogs rising to the top (like the previously unranked South Carolina State University).

Sure, a list can only tell you so much. But they are fun, lists are.

A bit past-due, I realize.  But worth perusing.  A list-of-lists, Fimoculous compiles links to lists of practically everything, best, worst, or otherwise.  Top 10 kitchen utensils of 2005, 100 most annoying things, best serial dramas, best i-pod accessories… it’s all there.  And more.

…last year, at this time; a list of 100 things, put out by BBC News Magazine. A sampling:

• Baboons can tell the difference between English and French. Zoo keepers at Port Lympne wild animal park in Kent are having to learn French to communicate with the baboons which had been transferred from Paris zoo. (#7)
• In America it’s possible to subpoena a dog. (#23)
• You’re 10 times more likely to be bitten by a human than a rat. (#52)

Lots more, obviously.

(BBC News Magazine: “100 things we didn’t know this time last year.” [Dec 30, 2005])