All My Faves

SkyView – This amazing iPhone app (compatible with 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2) offers a unique planetary experience using cool augmented reality technology. Watch your favorite stars and constellations fade in and out of your camera view, search for stars and planets’ current location, and track celestial objects’ path through the skies in a 24 hour period (including satellites and the space station!) Tilting your iPhone to landscape view prompts the SkyView’s scientific mode which gives real-time azimuths and elevation of starts.

SkyView not only offers captivating images of celestial objects and zodiac constellations, but also offers a fantastic way to learn astronomy and physics. Available on the App Store on iTunes.

Patch – This cool website seeks to keep you informed with what’s happening in your very own town. This extremely local news provider includes photos and videos of events taking place near you, keeps you updated on local businesses, it invites you to join discussions and even encourages you to submit your own announcements, photos and reviews. In this era of massive information consumption the local community often gets lost. Thanks to Patch, your own neighborhood becomes the center of attention.

Here’s what the Patch coverage looks like for Apple Valley, MN:

Per Square Mile – This unique blog -and a Weekly Blog champion- focuses on density. As blogger Tim De Chant explains, “It’s about what happens when people live like packed sardines. It’s also about what happens when people live so far apart they can go days without seeing another soul.”

Although Per Square Mile is not rich in photos or videos, its top quality textual content makes up for any visual downsides, and it really dives into the effect of density on people’s lives, for better or worse. An interesting post that will help you get into this blog’s mood is this one, discussing residential houses situated near train tracks. You can also click the image below to get to the full post.

TwistedSifter – Here’s a sweet website that will satisfy your crave for interesting and creative things online. TwistedSifter finds all the most popular stories, photos and posts currently on the Web, and the site’s use of large photos whenever possible makes it visually appealing as well.

TwistedSifter offers a variety of categories for you to explore. These include Picture of the Day, The Shirk Report (the funny side of the Web), Current Events, Galleries and more. In short, TwistedSifter truly offers a hot spot for interesting and creative content the Web has to offer. Click the image below to go to my favorite post.

Portrait of Muhammad Ali, created by Michael Kalish. Photograph by Jon David

YouTube’s First Orbit - On April 12, 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to fly into outer space and complete an orbit around planet Earth. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of humanity’s most important milestones, YouTube created a compelling movie,  “a real time recreation of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering first orbit, shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station. The film combines this new footage with Gagarin’s original mission audio and a new musical score by composer Philip Sheppard.”

First Orbit is a poignant film unlike anything you’ve seen before. It is a well-documented piece of history everyone should enjoy and cherish.

What Was There – If cement could talk. It’s hard to believe, but today’s streets of America’s metropolises hold countless stories and moments of history. To us the streets of major cities have always been there, but What Was There shows what the streets that are so familiar to us today looked like in the past.

Based on Google Maps technology and user-submitted data and photos, What Was There is “a virtual time machine of sorts that allows users to navigate familiar streets as they appeared in the past.”  The result is nothing short of astonishing and fascinating. Here are a couple of examples:

Tammany Hall, NYC, 1914

Not only you can see photos of what the streets looked like decades, even 100 years ago, you can use the magnifying glass feature on any zoomed in photo to see more details (simply roll over the photo). It’s just like going back in time.

In front of Tiffany’s, CA 1899

If you have an old street photo of anywhere in the world, and you wish to submit it to this formidable project, sign in and upload your photos. Help in perpetuating the human experience of past places and moments.

Google Crisis Response – Google.org initiated this blessed project back in 2005 (following Hurricane Katrina) to help hard-hit locations worldwide cope with the aftermath of natural disasters by making relevant information readily available for everyone, everywhere.

The recent earthquake and consequent tsunami in Japan forced the island country to come to terms with its worst natural disaster on record. The Google Crisis Response project gives you all you could possibly need in one easy page; comprehensive coverage along with real-time updates and latest news on the sitatuion in Japan; direct donations to the Japanese Red Cross using Google Checkout; detailed maps of the affected area; emergency phone numbers; people finder; current status (transportation, government warnings, blackout info) and much more.

Google’s Crisis Response project makes helping out fast and easy. Just imagine how helpful this could have been back in 2005 when New Orleans was in dire need of fast assistance. Please visit this project and help where you can. You would appreciate the same, God forbid you should find yourself under the circumstances Northern Japan communities are currently dealing with.

Philips Wake-Up Light – Living in extreme northern latitudes means going through several long months of complete darkness each year. That’s right, people go to sleep and wake up to what seems like night time, day in day out. Studies have shown that prolonged polar night can lead to depression in humans, and affects their day-time energy since the alarm clock is their only indication that a new day has come.

Philips have studied the effects of the polar night on people and initiated a fascinating experiment; the company handed out free Wake-Up Lights to the community of Longyearbyen, an arctic town in Norway living in a polar night of 11 weeks each year. This special light imitates gradual sunlight in the morning. This means a gradual wake up process rather than an abrupt (and rude) awakening from deep sleep with an alarm clock. What do you think happened? See the experiment video of the below to learn more. Amazing!

EcoSquid – If you have an old gadget no longer in use, you already know that throwing it to the garbage is not an option. So, what are some of the options out there? Selling and recycling, mainly. If you are looking for either or both, EcoSquid is your solution.

Claiming to be an impartial source of information, EcoSquid shows you which places would give you the highest value, and which have the highest service rating in case you’re looking to sell. In case your old gadget is beyond recovery, EcoSquid will direct you to reliable donation/recycling entities for you to consider. Either way, EcoSquid’s mission is to help you “prolong the life of your electronics or responsibly dispose of them.” Here’s why you should use EcoSquid:

Great job, EcoSquid team! We like!

Red Bull Street Art View – Another fantastic manipulation of Google Street View, the Red Bull Street Art View takes you to the otherwise hidden gems of street art and graffiti all over the world. Start with the ‘world map’ view (see below) and click on any red circle to zoom in to an area with a variety of street artworks.

Here’s an amazing Street View picture of a wall graffiti in Mexico City, Mexico:

Don’t see your city here int his art project? Add a street art work of your town!

EnergySavvy – What if there was an easy way for you to learn not only how to make your house more efficient in terms of energy and sustainability, but also how to save big bucks along the way? Now you can with EnergySavvy. This handsome website will guide you through the various aspects in your home that could be improved to save on energy and cash. No download is necessary. Simply insert your zip code and follow the questionnaire. Don’t worry. It’s not the boring questionnaire type you have in mind. This one’s colorful, interesting and over in a breeze.

Apart from making energy efficiency easier to homeowners, EnergySavvy exposes users to financial incentives that bring down energy use, provides additional tips, and offers listings of “the best energy efficiency contractors in the industry.” You can rely on EnergySavvy for speaking the truth; some of their partners include the US Department of Energy, the Energy Trust of Oregon, and other organizations.

Brisbane Floods Before and After – The recent floods in Australia have hit the Brisbane area the hardest, leaving entire residential and commercial neighborhoods in a wet mess.  See the before and after photos for yourself, courtesy of ABC News, Australia. Simply hover your mouse courser over each photo to see the difference. Any additional commentary would be superfluous. Here’s an example of before and after the flood at Rocklea, Brisbane.