Microsoft Launches WorldWide Telescope
From the world of competitive astronomical websites (isn’t the Internet grand?) comes this new offering from Microsoft, WorldWide Telescope. Like others before it Microsoft’s new offering allows users to explore planets and other celestial objects. You can also view/track objects from any place on earth and in any point in time. Of course as you might expect from Microsoft there’s more going on than that. There is a lot of imagery from NASA including the Mars rovers, Hubble telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. There are also ‘tours’ set up by expert astronomers or you can even save your own ‘5 year missions’.
Like with Google’s ‘The Sky’ or the open source Stellarium users must first download the free WorldWide Telescope software from Microsoft (windows only).
WorldWide Telescope (via BBC News)
Make A Shirt From A Dollar Bill
Origami (from ori meaning “folding”, and kami meaning “paper”) is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. No doubt you have seen the amazing works created by talented practitioners of the art. And if you’re anything like me you never thought you’d have the slightest chance of creating even the simplest piece.
But after we found this money origami site created by Clay Randall even I was able to make the first project I tried, the little T-shirt. What’s great about this site is 1) the detailed step by step pictures and precise instructions AND 2) because you’re using money there is an added advantage of being able see and compare the patterns on the bill in the example pictures which makes it a lot easier for the novice to follow. Plus the simple money origami pieces you can create pretty quickly once you get the hang it add a ‘cool factor’ to the tips you leave to your restaurant server or give as cash gifts.
How To Make A Shirt From A Dollar Bill and other cool pieces
Eyewitness To History
If you’ve ever wondered what it might have been like to witness a particular historical event or to have known a famous historical figure, short of time travel there isn’t a better way than to read a first hand account.
Enter Eyewitness To History. While there are many great collections of historical texts what makes this site stand out is its collection of articles and stories written by people who were actually there and categorized by their period in history. From ancient times to modern times you can read what it was like to chow down with Attila the Hun (Party like its 448 AD!), live through the Black Death, ride the Pony Express, see the Battle of Gettysburg through the eyes of 15 year old or about Elvis meeting President Nixon. And of course much more.
Truly an outstanding collection.
The Museum of Ancient Inventions
As part of their coursework students at the Smith College History of Science have replicated many of the coolest ancient inventions and set up a virtual museum so that you can learn all about them. The museum’s web page seems to have gone stagnant since 2001 but nonetheless there is a lot of good information and quite honestly in the realm of ancient history what’s another 7 years?
Although scientists don’t always agree on the more spectacular such as the ‘Baghdad battery’ nonetheless it’s interesting to see that not everyone was just sitting around waiting for the Industrial Age.
How To Beat A Lie Detector
Like a lot of the cool sites we find I came by this one quite by accident. And boy do they hate lie detectors.
When I was 19 I was offered a job that required taking a polygraph test. The purpose I was told was to determine whether a potential hire had ever stolen from a previous employer (the job entailed working around valuable and easily stolen merchandise). This seemed reasonable enough at the time and the first 2/3 of the exam asked questions like ‘have you ever taken anything from an employer worth more than $50?’ Then they started asking about things that had nothing to do with the work environment, like how often you went to bars or nightclubs, did you gamble or use drugs. It was really quite invasive so at first I refused to answer, then after a few more I quit the test. The next morning I was offered the job. I guess all they really cared about was whether I was going to steal or not, the rest was just them being nosy.
How To Beat a Lie Detector and other interesting information about polygraphs.
And for another point of view . . .
The World’s Photo Album
EarthAlbum is one of our favorite ‘photo on a map’ sites. Using Google maps you can select any place on earth and then see the top Flickr photos for that area via a nifty floating toolbar. And since over time the top photos change on Flickr they change on EarthAlbum. It’s a great way to get an intimate look at an area you’re interested in, via the mostly amateur photos of the folks who live there.
In case you didn’t know, the technical slang term for a site like EarthAlbum is a ‘mashup. A mashup is a web site that takes the data from two or more other sources and combines them in a new and useful way. You can read more on Wikipedia.
How To Build a WiFi Antenna From A Tin Can
We haven’t tried it yet but the Cantenna looks looks like a cool and cheap (under $5) way to extend the range of your WIFi network. And as a bonus you get to show off to your friends that you did it with the same container that your lunch came in. Cool beans!
You might think this is as simple as connecting a wire to a can but apparently there are some frequency vs can things to work out that require some calculation but fear not Greg @ Turningpoint has provided a handy calculator to help you get your can extending your WiFi network in no time.
The Breathing Earth
The Breathing Earth ‘displays the carbon dioxide emission levels of every country in the world as well as their birth and death rates – all in real time’.
This is pretty cool, you can move your mouse around and see who the biggest offenders are (no surprises). What’s kind of sobering tho is that according to the simulation during the few minutes you were dragging your mouse around and cursing industrialized nations a few thousand people have been been born and died. Mostly born.
Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century
I spent a lot more time checking out Americanrhetoric.com’s list of the Top 100 Speeches of the 20th century than I first thought I would.
Full text, audio, and video database of the 100 most significant American political speeches of the 20th century, according to 137 leading scholars of American public address, as compiled by Stephen E. Lucas (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Martin J. Medhurst (Baylor University).
Overall the site has a audio/visual library of over 5000 “full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events”.
Most Requested Speeches (when we visited):
- MLK: I Have A Dream
- Barack Obama: 2004 DNC
- JFK: Inaugural
- MLK: On Vietnam
- MLK: Mountaintop
- X: Ballot or Bullet
Dynamic Optical Illusions
"An intriguing selection of old, new and exclusive optical illusions.
Many pictures are enhanced via the use of 3D and animation".
If you do nothing else, go to their page and about half way down check out the Checker Shadow Illusion. Its’ freaky cool.
