OPEC Extraordinary Meeting
Vienna
Extraordinary times (and gas prices) call for extraordinary meetings. Citing the need for "extreme vigilance in assessing the market," ministers from the oil cartel's 13 nations--responsible for 40% of global output--will hold a special summit at OPEC HQ in Vienna. (Has anyone else ever wondered why OPEC is based in oil giant Austria?) Our money is on the petro power brokers voting to hold production steady before adjourning for lavish amounts of schnitzel. --Jeff Chu
Super Bowl XLII
Glendale, Arizona
Most years, Super Bowl Sunday is less about the football than the ads (list price this year is up to $2.7 million for a 30-second spot) and guacamole (though the oft-repeated factoid--that more than two-thirds of U.S. annual avocado consumption is pegged to the big game--is myth). While we don't expect major innovations in guac, watch for ads from first-time Super Bowl advertiser Cars.com and from Doritos, which will air the debut of an unsigned singer who wins an online fan vote. --JC
The National Biodiesel Conference and Expo
Orlando, Florida
The whole biofuel thing may be au courant, but we're still not sure how a conference with sessions such as "Feedstock Procurement and Risk Management" and "Biodiesel Plant Feasibility" lures the likes of Larry Hagman and Daryl Hannah. If you're still not filled up with all things biodiesel by the end of this four-day meeting, the National Ethanol Conference--also in Orlando--starts on February 25. --William Lee Adams
Debut of the Low-Emission Zone
London
Britain's capital tries to clear the air a bit as the government begins charging old, diesel-fueled vehicles to drive into the city center. Trucks, buses, and vans that weigh more than 12 tons and don't meet current European standards for new vehicles will have to pay up--or, policy makers hope, stay out. --JC
Rock On
By Dan Kennedy
It's everyone's childhood dream, no matter the level of musical talent, to be part of the rock-and-roll world. In his memoir Rock On, humor writer Dan Kennedy chronicles how his fantasy is fulfilled, albeit cruelly, as an office drone at a record label. His workplace boasts all the dysfunction of The Office, except it's the real deal. Sycophantic underlings jockey for position, psychotic bigwigs condescend, Kennedy's soul slowly withers--and we laugh, as he describes it all with satirical playfulness. Along the way, there are cameos by Jewel ("Who's that attractive blonde woman walking toward me? ... Connie, maybe? From accounts payable?"), Jimmy Page, and Stevie Wonder. --Abe Lebovic
LIFT08
Geneva
One word on LIFT's program snapped us out of the winter doldrums: "cyborg." Among the speakers at this ideafest, centered on emerging technologies' effects, is British cyborg-researcher Kevin Warwick, who had a microchip implanted in his body so he could study his nervous system via PC linkup. (His goal is to aid the disabled.) Also on the agenda: Anthropologists for Nokia and Intel discuss how their studies of tech users affect product design. --JC
Chinese New Year
The Chinese do know how to usher in a new year: A 15-day festival marks the start of the Year of the Rat, traditionally a time of wealth and business opportunity. The horoscope foresees a flourishing global economy, which will be sweet music to the ears of Ben Bernanke, and says it's a fine time to start a business. The New Year is also boom-time in Vegas--in '07, a rush of Chinese gamblers turned the festive period into the year's most lucrative fortnight for Venetian owner Las Vegas Sands. --WLA
ICANN's 31st International Public Meeting
New Delhi
Point, click, ka-ching. Every time a Web-site address is registered with the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN gets 20 cents, giving this nonprofit an annual budget of nearly $47 million. ICANN coordinates the Net's naming system and oversees domain-name registries. That may seem bureaucratic, but this shop has real power; at a meeting last year, ICANN members nixed a proposal to create a ".xxx" domain--perfect for sites aspiring to be in a virtual red-light district. This year, a hot topic will be a proposal to internationalize domain names by translating terms such as ".com" into non-Latin scripts, so that the user of, say, a Chinese keyboard can type the now-nonexistent Chinese equivalent of .com as easily as a QWERTY user can type the original. --Jocelyn Hanamirian
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