Looking backward and forward: a year of ideas

How to find powerful strategic ideas?

I am an inveterate scanner. If I could clone myself, I'd have at least one or two additional selves surfing the web, attending intriguing presentation, and meeting thoughtful people full time. I thrive on stimulating new possibilities.

Of course, there are never enough hours in to
devote to this sort of free ranging; so, I am grateful for compilations of great ideas such as those put together by Popular Science or Mass High Tech or J. de Francisco's highly innovative and informative blog, consultaglobal.

The New York Times has recently published its 7th Annual "Year in Ideas," which offers material from the sublime to the ridiculous for strategic thinkers to consider. I loooove this article that appeared as the cover story of the NYT Magazine earlier this month. Here are their picks for the best ideas of 2007. I can't help but anticipating that these ideas, taken as a whole, are going to have significant impacts in the years ahead.

• Airborne Wind Turbines
• Alzheimer’s Telephone Screening
• Ambiguity Promotes Liking
• Appendix Rationale, The
• Best Way to Deflect an Asteroid, The
• Biodegradable Coffins
• Biofuel Race, The
• Braille Tattoo, The
• Cardboard Bridge, The
• ‘Cat Lady’ Conundrum, The
• Climate Conflicts
• Community Urinalysis
• Craigslist Vengeance
• Criminal Recycling
• Crowdware
• Culinary Orientalism
• Death of Checkers, The
• Digital Search Parties
• Edible Cocktail, The
• Electric Hockey Skate, The
• Faces Decide Elections
• Fake Tilt-Shift Photography
• Fish-Flavored Fish
• God Effect, The
• Handshake Sex Appeal
• Height Tax, The
• Honeycomb Vase, The
• Hope Can Be Worse Than Hopelessness
• Iconic-Performance-Network Player, The
• Indie-Rock Musicals
• Interstellar Ramadan
• Jogging Politique
• Knot Physics
• Lap-Dance Science
• Left-Hand-Turn Elimination
• Lightning Farms
• Lite-Brite Fashion
• Marijuana Mansions
• Mindful Exercise
• Minimal Chair, The
• Mob Jurisprudence
• Murphy Balcony, The
• Neurorealism
• Next Violin, The
• Office-Chair Exercise (for Men and Women)
• Pixelated Stained Glass
• Pop Fecundity
• Posthumous E-Mail
• Postnuptial Agreements
• Prison Poker
• Quitting Can Be Good for You
• Radiohead Payment Model, The
• Right to Medical Self-Defense, The
• Rock-Paper-Scissors Is Universal
• Second-World Solidarity
• Self-Righting Object, The
• Smog-Eating Cement
• Starch Made Us Human
• Suing God
• Telltale Food Wrapping
• 24/7 Alibi, The
• Two-Birds-With-One-Stone Resistance
• Unadapted Theatrical Adaptation, The
• Vegansexuality
• Wave Energy
• Weapon-Proof School Gear
• Wikiscanning
• Wireless Energy
• Youtube (Accidental) Audition, The
• Zygotic Social Networking