The beginning of the year's always a good time to observe anniversaries, it seems. Big Ben turns 150 this year, and a website's been set up for the commemoration. (Incidentally, Big Ben was originally the name of the bell, not the clock tower. Now you know.)

Paleo-Future points to a New York Times editorial from 1909 which speculated on the world of 2009. Apparently automobiles should be obsolete by now. We should really work on that.

What's Next has the 2009 map of trends up, although I'd recommend you not try to see it via dialup. It's in PDF and it's massive.

If you're looking for a fun project to start off the year, get thee to the LEGO Flickr Steampunk Contest! You have two months to create something amazing. If you'd rather read about creations than create, you can check out the progress of Keith Newstead's A Steampunk Romance, or help Eric Orchard come up with some ideas for a new weblog focused on anachronism in science fiction art and literature.

Speaking of anachronisms, it's hard to pull off an old-time movie look properly, but Karl Lagerfeld comes pretty close in this teaser for a silent film on Coco Chanel.

And finally, if you're in the middle of the icy season like we are, you can stay inside and steampunkify board games, like this fun Monopoly modification!