It’s again that time of year when we get to chuckle at the supreme idiocy of some of our fellow man and marvel at their backward ingenuity.

Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve human genome by accidentally removing themselves from it. Here’s a compilation of the winners for 2007 along with those dating back as far as 1995.

Always good for some laughs, these tales of voluntary gene pool pruning demonstrate that there may still be hope for civilization. I can’t help but wonder, though, if there isn’t some way to speed up the process.

According to CNN, Hillary Clinton has overtaken Obama and been declared the winner in Nebraska.

Solid support from registered Democrats and women in New Hampshire were crucial Tuesday as Sen. Hillary Clinton rebounded from her third-place finish in last week’s Iowa caucuses, narrowly defeating Sen. Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary, with 39 percent of the vote to Obama’s 37.

Forty-three percent of self-styled independents said they voted for Obama, and 31 percent said they backed Clinton. Independents made up 43 percent of all voters polled. But Clinton was ahead of Obama 45 percent to 34 percent among those who said they were registered Democrats. Those voters made up a majority — 54 percent — of all those respondents. Clinton also claimed the majority of women’s votes, according to the polling…

What can I say? I’m speechless.

Two boys in Chicago were playing baseball when one of them was attacked by a rabid Rottweiler. Thinking quickly, the other boy ripped a board off of a nearby fence, wedged it into the dog’s collar and twisted it, breaking the dog’s neck.

A newspaper reporter from the Chicago Tribune witnessed the incident and rushed over to interview the boy. The reporter began entering data into his laptop, beginning with the headline, “Brave Young Cubs Fan Saves Friend From Jaws Of Vicious Animal.”

“But I’m not a Cubs fan,” the little hero interjected.

“Sorry,” replied the reporter,” but since we’re in Chicago, I just assumed you were.” Hitting the delete key, the reporter began, “Barack Obama Fan Rescues Friend From Horrific Dog Attack.”

“But I’m not an Obama fan either,” the boy responded.

The reporter said, “I assumed everybody in this state was either for the Cubs or Obama. What team or person do you like?”

“I’m an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and I really like John McCain,” the boy said.

Hitting the delete key, the reporter began again: “Arrogant Little Conservative Bastard Kills Beloved Family Pet…”

Jim Cramer* listed his top 10 predictions for 2008 last week and seeking alpha reported on it, opining that some of Cramer’s forecasts seem more likely than others while a few appear to be wishful thinking:

1. Goldman Sachs (GS) makes more money than every other brokerage firm in New York combined and finishes the year at $300 a share. Not a prediction—an inevitability. In fact, it’s only January, and I think it’s already come true.

2. Oil goes much higher, maybe as much as $125 a barrel… We are running out of oil more quickly than people can imagine, and that means great returns for oil companies. Just buy the stock of the company you filled up at today or buy a driller (Transocean (RIG) is my favorite), then sit back and make money.

3. The Fed arranges an Arabic Heimlich maneuver on Citigroup (C), so the banking giant doesn’t choke on the worst mortgage portfolio in the country.

4. Verizon (VZ) becomes your cable provider.

   Cramer praised Verizon’s Fios, and predicted that the stock will be the best performing in the Dow Jones averages. Time Warner (TWX) and Comcast (CMCSA) will be hit hard, he adds.

5. Turning to private equity, Cramer predicted that Cerberus Capital Management will fail to resuscitate Chrysler (which he attributes partly on the choice of Bob Nardelli), and that Congress will agree to bail out the fund.

6. Cramer is bullish on Google (GOOG): Google stock reaches $1,000. The company becomes one of the top three companies in the U.S. in market capitalization… and successfully challenges Microsoft (MSFT) for operating-system dominance.

7. With the dollar weak, Cramer foresees European companies swooping in to buy up the likes of Merrill Lynch (MER), JPMorgan (JPM), Colgate (CL), Clorox (CLX), Whirlpool (WHR), and Black & Decker (BDK) which, he forecasts, will all see their stocks rise as a result.

8. Apple (AAPL), he predicts, will reach $300. He sees it successfully taking over the music business and, among other knock-on effects, he forewarns that Warner Music Group (WMG) will file for bankruptcy.

9. Turning to the media, Cramer posits that the cash-strapped New York Times (NYT) will accept a buy-out offer from Mayor Michael Bloomberg at $20 a share.

   Don’t be so quick to scoff: The cash is spare change for Bloomberg who, don’t forget, already owns a small media company. I’d say the $10 share price is even money. That’s how bad it is at the Times. The Bloomberg buyout is probably a 100-to-1 shot, but may be less if he decides not to run for president and needs something else to do this year.

10. Returning to his lament over governmental and Fed policies, Cramer predicts that the victims of foreclosure will lead a march on the White House and lay siege on the Fed. This, he says, will lead to Bernanke resigning, his replacement slashing rates, and the markets rebounding. As Cramer admits, this one’s a very very long shot.

    But if Bernanke or a future Fed chair does cut rates meaningfully, here’s a sure bet: That’s the time to start buying.

*Jim Cramer is an American television personality, former hedge fund manager, and best-selling author. In 2007, NewsBios.com named him one of the 100 most influential business journalists in the United States.

Bob Rivers’ spoof on Al Gore and “global warming”…

Got this from James…

Here’s a sterling example of how to win a Darwin Award; float a live surge protector on a pair of flip-flops in the pool… while you’re in it! Seriously, how did these jackasses not kill themselves? Hmmm… Maybe they did. Look for them in the 2008 Darwins.

Amazing what interesting trivia you sometimes stumble across on the Internet. For example:

During WWll, the Red Cross delivered special Monopoly games to POWs that included real “get out of jail free” cards, writes Brian McMahon in the November-December issue of Mental Floss, a magazine of far-flung trivia.

In 1941, the British Secret Service asked the game’s British manufacturing licensee, John Waddington Ltd., to add secret “extras” to some sets, which the Red Cross delivered to Allied POWs inside Germany. These specially marked sets included metal files, compasses and silk maps to safe houses in the areas of the respective POW camps (silk, because it folds into small spaces and unfolds silently). Even better, real French, German, and Italian currency was hidden amongst the game’s fake money. Soldiers and pilots were told that, if they were captured, they should look for these “special editions” identified by a large red dot in the game’s “Free Parking” space.

Of the 35,000 prisoners of war who escaped prison camps, “more than a few certainly owe their breakout to the classic board game,” says McMahon.

Here are some more fun facts about Monopoly from the Hasbro site.

Someone sent me this “Blog Readability Test” the other day so, naturally, I took it. Or rather, I inserted this blog’s URL in the designated space and, in less that a nanosecond, it read my entire blog and determined that a high school education is required to understand it.

I suppose that’s about right. I write most posts for easy readability by a wide audience that includes my teenage grandsons. But considering the program’s rapid response, I suspect it merely searched for four syllable words and, finding relatively few, determined the blog’s readability quotient. Perhaps I’ll pen a long, nonsensical essay laced with four or more syllable words and resubmit. Farcical, you say? Impracticable? Perhaps. But incontrovertibly gratifying.

Now that she’s lost Iowa, Hillary Clinton says the state “doesn’t really matter.” I wonder if Nebraskans will appreciate her newly minted “I’m really a down-home, cookie-baking mom” persona?

Her handlers thought it best that Bill stay away from Iowa. Didn’t help. I suspect now he’ll rush to her aid.

I wonder if Nebraska will “matter”…

Darnel sent this graphic in response to this morning’s PCWorld “100 Best Products” post. I’d seen it around; in fact, you can Google the phrase and find countless related discussion threads. I’m not sure where the graphic originated or why there are so many threads on the subject, but my guess is that it’s self-explanatory.

Anyway, here’s the graphic. Draw your own conclusions as to what it means.

The editors of PCWorld have ranked the best PCs, HDTVs, components, sites, and services of 2007 and listed the products they’re looking forward to in ‘08. Here are the top 10:

1. Google Apps Premier Edition. I wasn’t surprised - hosting core applications on Google’s servers rather than on users’ makes sense, and the number of initial clients shows that it’s likely to enjoy continued acceptance.

2. Intel Core 2 Duo. Again, no surprise here. Intel is producing some great “new generation” chip sets these days and the things lined up for introduction are amazing.

3. Nintendo Wii. I haven’t used one of these but the ads make it look fun!

4. Verizon FiOS.

5. RIM Blackberry 8800. Great smartphone with peripherals.

6. Parallels Desktop. Allows Mac users to run - not emulate - Windows. Works better than on PCs in some cases!

7. Pioneer Elite 1080p PRO-FHD1.

8. Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV.

9. Apple Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”. A great operating system made even better with the latest release.

10. Adobe Premiere Elements 3. Long missing from the landscape, Premiere has reestablished itself as a player in video production.

Two things I found particularly telling after reading the list: First, no where is there any mention of Microsoft’s premiere operating system, Windows Vista! Apple’s OSX Tiger and the Canonical Ubuntu 7.04 operating systems came in at numbers 9 and 16 respectively, but Vista failed to make the cut! I’m sure Vista fans will cry foul, but PCWorld is highly respected in the industry…

And second, that Google Apps Premier Edition won the “Product of the Year” crown. Microsoft may still be the ten-ton hippo of office applications, but for the majority of us that rarely require such a bloated, albeit feature rich, office suite, Google Apps is looking like a no-brainer.

Frank Caliendo’s parody of an Al Gore movie sequel from his new show, Frank TV, on TBS.

Thanks Shannan!

Reserve A Spot in Heaven claims to be “the only licensed and registered distributor of reservations in Heaven.” Thus far the site offers two novelty packages: The “Essential Travel Kit” for $12.79, which includes “everything needed to transport one individual to Heaven,” and an “All Access Travel Kit” for $24.95 that comes with an additional VIP Pass that “will grant you access to VIP exclusive areas including the Land of Milk and Honey where all the elite get together and kick it.” More

In its 2007 Year in Pictures, MSNBC has again compiled a stellar list of photographs it believes best represent 2007. Presented as an audio slideshow, it’s the News images that to me are the most moving.

So you’ve listed your New Year’s resolutions and now you find yourself where you always do after announcing your intentions - struggling to act on them, to put them in motion. You tell yourself that you’re not alone, that everyone is in the same boat when it comes to following intentions with empowering actions, but you wish, just once, you could actually follow through. Believe me, I know. I’ve often been right there in the proverbial boat with you. But Dawn and I decided that this was going to be our year and so we took some unconventional, albeit fun, steps to help us give it a kick-start.

It was Dawn’s idea, I think, and pretty soon both her mom and sister had signed on, so there was no way I could shrug off doing my part as well. It seems Dawn (or maybe her mom) had read an article in the January issue of Redbook by shuistrology expert Ellen Whitehurst on some cures to make this the best New Year ever. All we needed, claimed Whitehurst, was a little New Year feng shui! Here’s what she recommended and how we did…

A Clean Sweep. Before New Year’s Day, we were to clean the entire house “to clear the way for new and exciting energies to enter your home.” The task apparently can’t be done on New Year’s Day as doing so is thought to “sweep away” all the fortune and luck that is headed your way in the coming year. If that was too big a project (it was!) then cleaning just the kitchen (we did) would be okay since it represents our health, happiness and prosperity. An integral component was to move 27 things around our home (we stayed in the kitchen) as this simple change up causes the same-old to head out with the old year. We were off and running!

Create a Cash Flow. Next, we headed to the bank for 27 one-dollar bills and 49 coins each so as to make our wallets appear full and bring us “untold and unexpected fortunes in the year ahead.” We even sprinkled dried ground ginger on the wallets and our checkbooks. I’m not sure what that does but we wanted to give ourselves every possible advantage. It wasn’t clear whether we were to leave the ginger in place or remove it. I dusted mine off. Hope that didn’t disqualify me from any untold and unexpected fortunes.

Begin New Rituals. We didn’t refer to anything from the past on New Year’s Day, speaking instead of our hopes, wishes and dreams for the future. The placement of nine mandarin oranges in a bowl in our kitchen was to help “orchestrate sweet treats that will make the coming year’s dreams come true.” And since we were home as the year turned, we briefly opened and closed all our doors and windows, no small task in a home the size of ours, “to let the previous year’s energies out and allow some new, interesting ones to come in.”

We passed on the recommended lighting of firecrackers or the banging of pots and pans to “scare away any maligning influences” that may have been headed our way - firecrackers are illegal in El Dorado County and the cookware too heavy and expensive - but since it’s considered very auspicious if the first thing one sees on New Year’s Day is a red bird, I Googled up a few on the computer screen. Red bird sighting? Check.

Find the Right Words. There was no crying on New Year’s Day as doing so “could have triggered a yearlong deluge.” No losing of tempers, foul language or whining, either. And since the first words one utters at the top of any New Year have “a huge impact on your fortune and luck in the 12 months following”, we chose to say “health, happiness, prosperity” to one another at midnight. (I inadvertently included “and”, possibly a technical foul.)

Chew On This. Many traditions maintain that abstaining from eating meat on New Year’s Day will grant you a long and happy life. Easy for Dawn - she never eats beef, pork or lamb - and not difficult for me either. Eating fish on this promising day is said to aid in intelligence, build immunity and symbolize “a year swimming in abundance and prosperity.” So on New Year’s Eve, I drove to Placerville and bought enough of Steamer’s “lazy man’s cioppino” to cover lunch and dinner on New Year’s Day. For those unfamiliar, Powell’s Steamer makes a dynamite cioppino and removes all the shells. As always, it was delicious and now we’re ready for a big helping of abundance and prosperity. We also avoided using anything sharp, like knives or scissors, as this could conceivably have cut our coming fortunes in half.

All in all, we covered most of the bases and had a lot of fun in the process! These suggestions and much more are apparently covered in Ellen Whitehurst’s new book, Make This Your Lucky Day so, if you’d like to learn how to be prepared for the rest of this year and next, it sounds like a read worth adding to your library.