Links for 2011-12-31

It wasn't until I attempted to fill a draw of 64, and got stuck at 7, did I realize what a huge year this was for losers. If you weren't getting financially screwed over, you were probably getting divorced, locked up, or pepper sprayed. That's how I'll always remember 2011. With that said, I was still determined to identify and either celebrate or hate on the winners of 2011. After days of Googling "best _____ of 2011" and "who still has a credit score going into 2012", a draw of 32 was completed, with people, innovations, events, and other assorted nouns spread over four categories: sports, celebrities, technology, and movements/phenomena.

#1: Sensors If you are the captain on the bridge of a Star Trek ship, you have the advantage of being well-informed beyond the limits of physical possibility. Your science and tactical officers can consult the Sensors and instantly list for you every object within a few light years. They can tell you what each object is made of. They can give you a map of a planet surface, or approach a never-encountered-before alien spaceship and produce an interior schematic. They can rattle off the number, species, sentience, and state of health of every living thing on a planet. They can tell you what systems are active on an enemy ship. They can even quote for you what the enemy ship's computers are calculating.