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76. Veils
French law says women can't cover their faces in public. French law loves women. Almost as much as Italian law.
77. Gas prices
Up more than 85 cents a gallon from a year ago, which adds up to a few hundred dollars a year — about what America is saving now that porn is free on the Internet. And yet it drives consumer-confidence numbers.
78. Football fantasy leagues
Totally replaced team loyalty, freeing people to move from city to city.
79. Birds
Angry birds eat up our time. Cute birds appear as outlines on our housewares and clothes. Actual birds are still not influential.
80. Sexting
After Tiger Woods, people were predicting its decline. But it's destroying the lives of Brett Favre, Congressman Christopher Lee and high school girls everywhere.
81. Supermoon
It was just a full moon that looked a tiny bit bigger than a regular full moon, but it was just the kind of stupid phrase people like to write about on Twitter. It is technically called a perigee-syzygy, which makes me really glad it didn't happen in the early 1970s, or else instead of a Twitter hashtag it would have been a concept album by Yes.
82. 3-D everything
3-D has taken over movies, television, porn, video games and even real life.
83. Pink toenail polish
An ad e-mailed by J. Crew showed one of the company's execs playing with her son, who had pink toenail polish on. The Media Research Center called it "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children." The Media Research Center should not come to our house, which is plastered with motivational posters featuring transgendered children.
84. The NFL strike
It's like the debt-ceiling threat, except even less likely not to be settled in time.
85. Charter schools
The private schools of the Great Recession.
86. Short hair
The greatest argument between the sexes is back. Being sported by Emma Watson, Elle style director Kate Lanphear, Katie Holmes, Carey Mulligan and the one who started this, Agyness Deyn. My wife pretty much wrote this one. I hope she's right.
87. The singularity
The theory that in the not-so-distant future, computers become smarter than humans and are able to make, all by themselves, even smarter computers, way smarter than people. Influential not because it will ever happen but because it is giving meganerds airtime on television shows.
88. Kiva.org
Microlending without anything scammy going on. Plus, for $25 you get to feel like an international bank that, unlike many of them lately, doesn't lose money.
89. Live shows
As if mainstream media weren't already taking it from the Internet, everybody is also physically taking their shtick right to the people: Conan O'Brien, Larry King, Charlie Sheen, Rainn Wilson.
90. Cricket
Cricket diplomacy brought together Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, to watch their teams play each other in the World Cup semifinals. Then India won the cup, which probably didn't help the diplomacy thing that much.
91. Shale
The April 11 TIME magazine cover says, "This Rock Could Power the World." Could be true, though I vaguely remember the same headline on a 1983 TIME cover about Men Without Hats.
92. Public radio
Straight from boring the nation to infuriating it. Marco Werman is now somehow as bad-ass as Che Guevara. I think it was the Girls Gone Wild–style steel-drum intro.
93. Wiretapping
Rupert Murdoch's News of the World allegedly listened in on celebrity phone calls. This could be the Watergate of our era, with politicians replaced by interesting people.
94. Spider silk
Stronger than steel, more bulletproof than Kevlar, and yet somehow I can tear webs down with a small stick. Other problem: spiders are lazy. So scientists are trying to genetically modify other animals, including goats, to make spider silk. Julie Taymor is very, very interested.
95. Cloud girlfriend
She tweets at you, she leaves you Facebook wall posts, she doesn't physically exist. The exact opposite of Internet porn. Influencing the world by signaling the end of the social-networking boom.
96. Salvia
This short-acting hallucinogenic herb is legal in many states and much cooler since Miley Cyrus got caught smoking a bong of it.
97. Las Vegas' New York–New York Statue of Liberty
Posing as the real Statue of Liberty and fooling post-office stampmakers.
98. Stripper heels
Super-high heels — sometimes Lucite — on Beyoncé and Taylor Momsen. Even more influential than stripper stripping.
99. Arsenic-eating bacteria
This means there might be living bacteria on other planets that have arsenic. Worst Star Trek movie ever. "Bones, set your phaser to 'Throw out the milk.' "
100. Duck Duck Moose's "Fish School"
The ABC song is over. It's all "Fish School" now. It was just "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with bad lyrics anyway.