Google Now Graphing Public Data

“Google’s new search tool allows users to search for public data, such as the unemployment rate for various states and counties, and see it presented as an interactive graph. The initial launch includes population and unemployment data, although Google hopes to expand the service to cover other areas.”   Full Story    (click graph to test)

Microsoft’s Answer to Facebook and Twitter

“With a new product called Vine, Microsoft is tackling the issue that, in the Digital Age, contact management is no longer static–where you are and what you’re doing at a given moment can matter just as much as what your cell phone number is.    Full Story

Helpful Database: Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues

This website, hosted by an independent, non-profit organization presents the pros and cons of such diverse issues as the death penalty, euthanasia, illegal immigration and the use of nuclear power.

It might prove useful for school assignments. Check it here

World’s Most Influential Person?

“In a stunning result, the winner of the third annual TIME 100 poll, and new owner of the title world’s most influential person, is Moot. The 21-year-old college student and founder of the online community 4chan.org, whose real name is Christopher Poole, received 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of 90 (out of a possible 100) to handily beat the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Oprah Winfrey. To put the magnitude of the upset in perspective, it’s worth noting that everyone Moot beat out actually has a job.”   Full Story

Yahoo to Close Geocities by Year’s End

“People with existing Geocities Web sites can still access and add content to their sites, but they will be shut down by the end of the year. “You don’t need to change a thing right now — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible,” Yahoo said in a FAQ on the Geocities site. ‘We’ll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.’ ”   More Information

Biggest Food Product Duds

“Thousands of new food products are introduced to American grocery shoppers every year, which makes us wonder: Which items are so wild that they’ve been removed from shelves permanently? We examined some of the biggest food flops over the last 40+ years. ”   Full List

Ed. – Which of your favs are gone or MIA? The McDLT, Tab, Zima?

Google Street View of Library

I don’t think the photography does us any justice, but at least we’re on the map (take a look).  How come England gets beautiful, high resolution, colorful views, but we get lo-res, muddied colors that look like photos taken in the 1970’s?

Bionic Penguins Swim and…Fly?

“Using their flippers, the mechanical penguins can paddle through water just like real ones, while larger helium-filled designs can “swim” through the air.  Each penguin carries 3D sonar developed by EvoLogics in Berlin, Germany, which is used to monitor its surroundings and avoid collisions with walls or other penguins.”     Story with Video

O3D – Open Source 3D for Browsers

“Google has released a new open source browser plugin that provides APIs for displaying rich 3D graphics in Web content. Google hopes that the plugin will help to advance a collaborative effort to create open standards for bringing 3D to the Web.”     Read about it   or  Install it

Most Challenged Books of 2008

 

ALA has released its list of the most challenged books and authors of 2008.  Check it out here