1985 was a happening year.  Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union,  Michael Jackson and his friends recorded “We Are the World“,  and Wrestlemania made its debut in Madison Square Garden.

But, 1985 was also a go-go year for geekdom.

Network World has published their fourth annual compilation of the current year’s most notable technology-related 25th anniversaries. The list  includes:

• Microsoft’s release of Windows 1.0,
• Registration of the first dot-com domain names,
• the founding of AOL,  and
• the debut of the Commodore Amiga 1000 personal computer.

I am sure we will see these and other notables, revisited over the year, but here they are today, neatly assembled, by Network World, for your perusal.

2010′s 25 geekiest 25th anniversaries

via Paul McNamara, Network World, 01/11/2010

This is the day that God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
—Psalm 118:24

Morning Prayer: Prayer for Expressing Gratitude

Gracious God, in the busy-ness of my day, I sometimes forget to stop to thank you for all that is good in my life.

My blessings are many and my heart is filled with gratefulness for the gift of living, for the ability to love and be loved, for the opportunity to see the everyday wonders of creation, for sleep and water, for a mind that thinks and a body that feels.

I thank you, too, for those things in my life that are less than I would hope them to be. Things that seem challenging, unfair, or difficult. When my heart feels stretched and empty, and pools of tears form in my weary eyes, still I rejoice that you are as near to me as my next breath and that in the midst of turbulence, I am growing and learning.

In the silence of my soul, I thank you most of all for your unconditional and eternal love.

Amen.

—from Prayers for Living

—via Chi Rho: A Prayer Blog

Image via Daily Icon

The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower at a half-mile high, opened this month in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), after six years of construction.  The 828m (2,716ft) tall tower is named after the president of the UAE and ruler of emirate of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan. The total cost for the Burj Khalifa project was about $1.5 billion with the entire new “Downtown Dubai”, coming in at $20 billion.

Clad in 28,000 glass panels, the tower has 160 floors and more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and apartments.

The tower also boasts to the highest occupied floor, the tallest elevator, and the world’s highest observation deck – on the 124th floor. The world’s highest mosque and swimming pool will meanwhile be located on the 158th and 76th floors.

Burj Khalifa

While hailed as an architectural wonder, it also has been criticized. “It uses as much electricity as an entire city. And every time the toilet is flushed, they’ve got to pump water half a mile into the sky,” says Jim Krane, an author who has written on Dubai.

The FCC is eyeing Internet-based television services, delivered via open-source set-top boxes as a potential avenue to bridge the digital divide and provide universal broadband access.

“Computers may be in 74% of American homes, but televisions are in 99% of homes. Clearly, if your television offered a way to easily switch over to the Internet, we would be providing a way for all Americans to get online,” said FCC Senior Counselor Colin Crowell.

You can read the article that sparked me from the Chicago Tribune.

They quantified what we all suspected, valuing the Longhorn football team at $119 million, with an estimated profit last year of $59 million.

The most valuable teams include the obvious suspects: Notre Dame, Penn State, Nebraska, Alabama and Florida.

That is a lot of money and I don’t begrudge the schools for going after it. But, even though I understand the value of a college education, the players are not getting a fair shake or share.

The Complete Works 1943 - 1959

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was one of the fathers of modern architecture; his work helped define the modern era, had a widespread cultural influence, and remains highly influential today, half a century after his demise.

Part of an exhaustive three-volume monograph featuring all of Wright’s 1,100 designs, both realized and unrealized. This volume covers the postwar years and the “living architecture” period, starting in 1943, when Wright’s organic “living architecture” introduced ideas for the use of solar energy and curved open spaces. In addition to many private projects and the Guggenheim museum, the period up to 1959 includes Wright’s astonishing plans for a new Baghdad, his only realized high-rise tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the crystal figure of the Beth Sholom Synagogue in Pennsylvania, and plans for an endless row of houses with floor plans based on hexagons.

The book is authored by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer (director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, a vice-president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and the author of numerous publications on Wright’s life and work) and edited by Peter Gössel. Originally scheduled for release this month (May 2009), the release date has been pushed back until July 2009.  The publisher, TASCHEN, has a great Leaf Through! option on their website.

How sweet and happy seem those days of which I dream,
When memory recalls them now and then!
And with what rapture sweet my weary heart would beat,
If I could hear my mother pray again.

• Refrain:
  If I could hear my mother pray again,
  If I could hear her tender voice as then!
  So glad I’d be, ’twould mean so much to me,
  If I could hear my mother pray again.

She used to pray that I on Jesus would rely,
And always walk the shining gospel way;
So trusting still His love, I seek that home above,
Where I shall meet my mother some glad day.
Within the old home-place her patient, smiling face
Was always spreading comfort, hope and cheer;
And when she used to sing to her eternal King,
It was the songs the angels loved to hear.
Her work on earth is done, the life-crown has been won,
And she will be at rest with Him above;
And some glad morning she, I know, will welcome me
To that eternal home of peace and love.

Lyrics by John Whitfield “Whit” Vaughan (1879-1945)

Times have changed and while I still have a fascination with vending machines, the offerings have expanded greatly!  Below are five of my favorites.

Cars & Condos

Bike Dispenser

Medicinal Marijuana

Reverse Vending (Recycling)

Video Games