Okay, I’ll try to lay of the Flash games for awhile, but Jay is Games recently announced their Best of Casual Gameplay 2008 list", and I’ve been enjoying the big ass sword, jazzy soundtrack, and the variety of ways to die in Amorphous+.

The Beast has posted the 2008 edition of their 50 Most Loathsome People In America series. Brutal. “You” have made the list every year:

• 2002 (#3)
• 2004 (#3)
• 2005 (#4)
• 2006 (#16)
• 2007 (#9)

… and finally, 2008 (#43):

Charges: You think it’s your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have on crap you don’t need. You think Hillary lost because of sexism, when it’s actually because she’s just a bad liar. You think Iraq is better off now than before we invaded, and don’t understand why they’re so ungrateful. You think Tim Russert was a great journalist. You’re hopping mad about an auto industry bailout that cost a squirt of piss compared to a Wall Street heist of galactic dimensions, due to a housing crash you somehow have blamed on minorities. It took you six years to figure out what a tool Bush is, but you think Obama will make it all better. You deem it hunky dory that we conduct national policy debates via 8-second clips from “The View.” You think God zapped humans into existence a few thousand years ago, although your appendix and wisdom teeth disagree. You like watching vicious assholes insult each other on TV. You support gun rights, because firing one gives you a chubby. You cuddle falsehoods and resent enlightenment. You think the fact that 43% of whites could stomach voting for an incredibly charismatic and eloquent light-skinned black guy who was raised by white people means racism is over. You think progressive taxation is socialism. 1 in 100 of you are in jail, and you think it should be more. You are shallow, inconsiderate, afraid, brand-conscious, sedentary, and totally self-obsessed. You are American.

Exhibit A: You’re more upset by Miley Cyrus’s glamour shots than the fact that you are a grown adult who is upset about Miley Cyrus.

Sentence: Invaded and occupied by Canada; all military units busy overseas without enough fuel to get back.

Still, 3, 3, 4, 16, 9, 43. I guess “you” (and I) had a good year.

FlowingData’s 5 Best Data Visualization Projects of the Year.

The Big Picture, The Year 2008 in Photographs (part 1 of 3). Use the “j” and “k” keys to navigate through these. Really nice UI touch, so much better than using Page Up/Down or the scrollbar. Can’t believe I didn’t notice that before. The “graphic content” filter is nicely done too.

Some heartbreaking shots in there.

P.S. Part 2 is up. Ouch. Plus some Usain Bolt action.

P.P.S. Part 3. That can’t really be what the moon looks like from Tibet, can it? Long exposure?

Seed Magazine’s 2008 science & nature picks (also pages 2 and 3). I’ll have to dig into some of these, maybe Bonk first:

There are many humorous science books. There are not many hilarious science books. With Bonk, a review of science’s study of sexual behavior, Mary Roach has written a volume so viscerally funny, it’s easy to overlook how obsessively she researched her subject. But Roach’s tales of a day with pig inseminators, a hands-on experience with penile implants, and a romp under an ultrasound machine serve as not-so-subtle reminders of her commitment to writing the first-ever comprehensive book on sex research.

Two gift guides I look forward to are up: Hackszine and Core77.

Joseph Sullivan at The Book Design Review picks his favorite book covers of 2008. The Obsession cover needs a closer look to fully appreciate.

Core77 does the best holiday gift guide.

Fortune Small Business is running a feature, "The Next Little Thing" (big ideas from small businesses). They're all pretty cool, but the bold ones in particular grabbed me:

• Six-foot roses
• An ATM for books
• Removable tattoos
• Electricity from wave power
• Cow parts for medical devices
• Street-smart filters for rainwater
• Drug plans go generic
• Lunch-hour liposuction
• Your new bankers: Hedge funds
• Tap the tide

A few guides to good, free, online games have cropped up. Probably because nobody gets anything done between Christmas and New Years:

• Casual Gameplay 2006 Nominees
• Jason Kottke's list
• Good Experience Games
• Finally, some offline action at Metafilter: Ink and Paper: Instant Party.

Post your favorite of the ones you try.

Design blogs have the best gift guides:

• Core77's 77 Design Gifts Under $77
• Inhabitat's Cheap Gifts Under $30
• Josh Spear's "holiday"-tagged posts