On the occasion of their 10th birthday, Internet icon Yahoo! has created a celebration of the “history” of the web. First, some things you should know: This history only covers 10 years, which really only represents the public awakening of the Internet. The origin of the Internet, a military network called ArpaNet, started back in the 1960’s. Second, we should bear in mind the overwhelming success of
Yahoo! to make sense out of chaos. When first conceived, it was another entry in the growing list of tools to help make sense and order out of the rapidly growing World Wide Web. (In fact, the name “Yahoo!” is an acronym representing “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”) But they’ve done some things extremely well in the past ten years, and are now, according to founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, “touching the lives of more than 300 million people every month.” So I think they’re to be forgiven for inserting themselves so brazenly into the history.

For inspiration, Yahoo! looked to the work of information artist Jonathan Harris. Harris’s best-known work is his 10×10 project, which automatically gathers the top 100 words and pictures in the world every hour, based on what’s happening in the news, and then displays these words and pictures in an interactive 10×10 grid. Harris calls 10×10 “an often moving, sometimes shocking,
occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world.”

It works by collecting 100 most relevant words and photos, based on usage by a group of leading international news sources. It then compiles words and photos into an interactive 10×10 grid that allows the user to further explore each topic. The collection runs with complete autonomy, providing no commentary or bias (other than the obvious bias of the subject being topical), so it provides a distinctly unique snapshot of our world – and the events shaping it – every hour.

Yahoo! took the approach from 10×10 and created their own snapshot of the past ten years, as opposed to the last hour. They call their work the “Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 Years“, and it
attempts chronicle the leading events in Internet development over the past ten years. Events highlighted include some of the biggest names around: the incorporation of Yahoo!, the Netscape rise to fame, the birth of eBay, and the death (or at least the temporary demise) of Napster. It also includes some major trends, like day trading, open source development, and fantasy sports.

And, of course, no Internet retrospective would be complete without covering such infamous topics like the rise and fall of Howard Dean; the short life, hype, and death of Pets.com; and the strangely persistent Naked News.

For most of us, this trip down memory lane is filled with moments of “Ah, I remember that…”, some of which are followed immediately by, “I sure wish I could forget it.” The Netrospective, and its inspiration 10×10, are both fun to use, beautiful, and captivating.

Haven’t you had enough of bad news? I have… I think. But here’s
the problem: no matter where you look or how hard you might try to
avoid it, bad news follows you around like a bad penny. TV news,
newspapers, magazines, Internet sites… all seem to make their living
– and acquire the most viewers – using bad news. I think there is
something hardwired into our genetic code that causes us to gravitate
toward bad news; it’s almost impossible to look away. I don’t know
why, but almost all of us slow down when we see a car accident, and
not necessarily to help; often it’s just to gape. (I’d like to think
that this part of our nature is tied to our inherent “fight or flight”
instincts. Perhaps we’re just looking at these things to make mental
notes of what to avoid: Keep your hand out of the blender; check.
Don’t launch bottle rockets using your buttocks as the bottle;
check. But honestly, I may be giving the human race a little too much credit.)

It’s similar with news stories: the ones we talk about,
forward to other people, and read the most are generally bad.

It’s so bad, in fact, that I think we often react with disbelief
when we hear of a good story. “You mean a fifth-grader found a deposit
envelope with $5,000 in cash and he returned it? No way, that’s got to
be an urban legend.” But on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have
no trouble at all believing that a couple was feeding their adopted
children garbage and wallboard paste. I’d like to change this, and you
can help.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on here on my blog
that specifically asked people to share good news. I was tired of all
the bad news, I said, and was just looking for something – anything!
– good. Of the several hundred people that read that post, 8
commented. Of those comments, most were simply commiserating that
they, too, were interested in good news but had nowhere to turn. Only
one person (thanks Mysti!) provided an answer.

What she shared with me is the antidote for the daily news. The
Good News Network is a clearing house of all
of the good news that gets buried everywhere else. Some are newspaper
stories, some are written in-house, many storylines are provided by
readers looking to spread the word about good news in their area. The
site, though not beautiful, is efficient. News is divided into
categories like National, Business, Life, Opinion, Earth, and (my
favorite) Samaria.

In Samaria, you can read stories related to the best news you can
imagine: people behaving well. No murderers, swindlers, cheats,
thieves, or just plain rotten n’er do wells. Just honest to God, real
life people doing blissfully good things.

There’s even a quaint little page offering links to other websites
across the net featuring good news. Lest you think the human race is
not in trouble, this page has a total of eight links. So help me
spread the good word. Tell your friends about The Good News Network
and help us all start our days on a more positive note.

A cop was patrolling at night in a well-known spot. He sees a couple in a car, with the interior light brightly glowing. The cop carefully approaches the car to get a closer look. Peering through the window, he sees a young man behind the wheel, reading a computer magazine. He then notices a young woman in the back seat, knitting.

Puzzled by this surprising situation, the cop gently raps on the driver’s window. The young man lowers it.

“Uh, yes, officer?”

“What are you doing?”

“Well, I’m reading a magazine, Sir.”

Pointing towards the young woman in the back seat the cop says: “And her, what is she doing?”

The young man shrugs: “I believe she’s knitting a pullover sweater, Sir.”

Now, the cop is totally confused. A young couple; alone, in a car, at night in a lovers’ lane, and nothing is happening!

“What’s your age, young man?”

“I’m 25, Sir.”

“And her,” he motions to the girl in the back. “What’s her age?”

The young man looks at his watch and replies: “She’ll be 18 in 11 minutes.”

Moses and Jesus were in a threesome playing golf one day. Moses pulled up to the tee and drove a long one. The ball landed in the fairway, but rolled directly toward a water hazard. Quickly Moses raised his club, the water parted, and the ball rolled to the other side, safe and sound.

Next, Jesus strolled up to the tee and hit a nice long drive directly toward the same water hazard. It landed right in the middle of the pond but kind of hovered over the water, which would allow Jesus to casually walked out on the pond and chip the ball onto the green.

The third guy got up and took a big swing. The ball headed out over the fence and into oncoming traffic on a nearby street. It bounced off a truck and hit a nearby tree. From there, it bounced onto the roof of a shack close by and rolled down into the gutter, down the drain spout, out onto the fairway and straight toward the aforementioned pond. On the way to the pond, the ball hit a stone, bounced out over the water and onto a lily pad, where it rested quietly. Suddenly, a very large bullfrog jumped up on the lily pad and snatched the ball into his mouth. Just then, an eagle swooped down and grabbed the frog and flew away. As they passed over the green, the frog squealed with fright and dropped the ball, which bounced twice and rolled into the cup for a hole in one.

Moses turned to Jesus and said, “I hate playing with your Dad.“

Frank Deford, senior contributing editor at Sports Illustrated, offered a commentary on NPR yesterday that drew a direct correlation between movie car chases and the popularity of NASCAR.

Says Frank:

“The Daytona 500 is even being billed as one of the four prestige TV events during February sweeps: The Superbowl, The Grammys, The Oscars, and the Daytona 500. That’s like champagne, platinum, silk and turnips.”

“What I hated most about the movies when I was a kid was when the drama would give way to the mushy kissing. What I hate most about them now are car chases. I think there is a direct correlation between the number of stupid car chases in movies and the popularity of NASCAR.”

“Some people think that NASCAR fans watch the events to see cars crash. Don’t these idiots get it? They watch to see cars chase. Sure the car chases are better in the movies, but in NASCAR you get to scratch and scream and drink beer as you watch cars chase ’round and ’round and ’round…”

[Listen to Frank’s commentary]