Breakfast of Champions: 12/20

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

Deuce-double-aught-seven has raced by like a greyhound on Adderall, and we find ourselves in a time of reflection. The first of our year-ending pieces are up (and more are on the way). We forge forward by looking backward: the new Year in Photos slideshow recalls some of the year's top stories and the images attached to them. It's a fun trip down Amnesia Avenue as we look back on the year that was.

Will he? Won't he? No, we're not talking about R. Kelly's waffling on whether to come to our fair dual metropolis, we're talking about Jim Ramstad's maybe decision to maybe retire or maybe unretire. Matt Snyders blogs it.

Speaking of R. Kelly, has anyone made the following joke: "He said the show was canceled due to inclement weather, but we all know it was because he found out the real age of consent here."? If not, consider it made. Yeah, I gotta go for the low-hanging fruit.

BRAIN CANDY

If you saw our winter bike commuters slideshow, you know some of the conditions faced while in two-wheeled non-motorized transport. Metroblogging Twin Cities offers some bike safety tips.

From Okinawa comes news of a fresh way to make muscles for robots. Paging Will Smith and, for that matter, Twiki and Bender.

Whales, as it turns out, may have descended from a deer-like animal the size of a raccoon. For the science-inclined, you can check out the speculative family tree here. For the non-science inclined, you can always ask Kirk Cameron.