Prosper.com looks like a really smart implementation of peer to peer banking. It’s a little like eBay, with borrowers in the role of sellers and lenders in the role of buyers, the lowest offered interest rate winning the bid. Loans are repaid by automatic payment from the bank, and Prosper.com takes something from Grameen in harnessing the power of groups to motivate borrowers to pay on time.

Microwaves are not just for popcorn any more: now you can use them to drill holes in concrete, glass and ceramic.

Another don’t-miss novel from 2005 is Laughin’ Boy by Bradley Denton, an edgy, angry, and hysterically funny send-up of American media culture. Surely John Clute does a better job of describing it than I can; suffice it to say, this one is well worth the effort to go out and find. (Alas, there are fewer than 800 copies in existence, so act fast!)

It’s best-of-the-year time in the science fiction world, and Rich Horton has posted a virtual best of the year. He singles out Futurismic‘s own “Consensus Building” by Tom Doyle for inclusion in his hypothetical anthology.

China’s revamped it’s space plans a bit, planning to launch 3 Shenzhou spacecraft in 2010 to create a small station once they link up.