The 25 best inventions of 2014

Time’s annual list of the year’s best inventions starts with a real-life hoverboard, similar to the one Marty McFly used in Back to the Future Part II. But not everything on the list is so frivolous. Also included is the Mangalyaan, the spacecraft from India that is currently orbiting Mars that cost less than the budget for the film, Gravity.

The BMW i3 electric car, on a couple of my holiday gift guide lists (this one and this one), also makes an appearance here. As does the superbanana, a strain of banana that is enriched with vitamin A developed for African communities, where up to thirty percent of kids under the age of five are at risk of going blind.

There are also some questionable inclusions. Does an edible wrapper really qualify as a best invention, I wonder? Or a cooler that includes a blender and USB charger?

Consumer Electronics Show 2015 is next week

I won’t be in Las Vegas for CES, but will be watching the live streams and press conferences from the comfort of my own desk chair. Next week I’ll run down the trends to watch in the coming year.

What Canadians searched for online in 2014

Yesterday, Google Canada unveiled its list of the things Canadians were searching for in the past year. The analysis comes out of more than two trillion searches that were done globally in 2014.

Robin Williams was the topic most searched in Canada. With Philip Seymour Hoffman (at #6) and Joan Rivers (at #8) it’s clear that we pay attention when someone famous dies.

The only other names in the top 10 list were Jian Gomeshi (#9) and Jennifer Lawrence (#7). And if you think Lawrence was being searched because of her Oscar nomination, you haven’t been paying attention to events on the Internet.

As for the top 10 Canadians being searched, last year Rob Ford topped the list. He was pushed to #2 by Gomeshi this year. No surprise there; collectively, we just love a train wreck.

But of the top 10 Canadians, six were athletes (tennis player Eugenie Bouchard, snowboarder Mark McMorris, freestyle skier Sarah Burke, figure skater Tessa Virtue, and hockey players Jonathan Toews and Jean Beliveau).

And the top two trending events were World Cup and Winter Olympics (Wimbledon was #6). Most of the rest of the events list were all disasters: Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, ebola, Ukraine, the shooting in Ottawa, and the shootings in Moncton. Whether the Scotland referendum and the Toronto election were disasters depends, I surmise, on your perspective.

Most watched YouTube videos of the year

Google also owns YouTube, and recently released a list of the top videos watched in Canada in 2014.

Jimmy Fallon’s lip sync battle with Emma Stone was at the top of the list. Jimmy was also at #6 with will.i.am — the two appeared in drag — and the music video for Ew! making fun of teenager social media culture.

And the seventh edition of the segment celebrities read mean tweets from Jimmy Kimmel Live was at #2 on the list. (What is it with guys named “JImmy”?)

BuzzFeedYellow’s video (#5) shows Americans eating, for the first time, Canadian snacks including poutine, maple sugar candy, and Nanaimo bars.

But my favourite video from last year was an online spot from Always, the feminine hygiene brand. Introducing the hash tag #LikeAGirl, this video shows just what it means to do something like a girl. For a guy with a seven-year-old daughter who is capable and competent and amazing, and who I want to stay that way forever, this is everything.