The Nicest Place on the Internet

Here's a site called "The Nicest Place on the Internet". People from around the world post short videos on themselves hugging their webcams. Some even write up little messages or use stuffed toys. You can even submit your own video using their contact form. Click here to view the site.

Earth Wind Map

Here's an interesting real-time map that shows you the locations, directions, and severity of winds across the world. The severity levels are low, medium, and high, indicated with green, yellow, and red, respectively. You can watch the wind currents as they move across the earth. Click and drag to turn the planet to a different area. Click here to go to the wind map.

The Scale of the Universe

This is an impressive interactive graphic that let's you zoom far down to see parts of the universe on a quantum level or out to see the universe on a cosmic scale. You can see things like subatomic particles and electromagnetic waves if you zoom in far enough, and planets and nebulae if you zoom out. In between are bacteria, animals, monuments, and more. You can click on every object to read a short description. Click here to view the graphic.

The Hobbit Middle Earth Interactive Map

This is a great interactive map of Middle Earth with places from The Hobbit. Currently, you can learn about three different places: Rivendell, Dol Guldur, and Trollshaw. There are also three other places, namely Thranduil's Court, Lake-town and Erebor, but those are not available yet. At each place, you can see scenes from the movie and learn about some of the places and characters. Then, you can play a brief game. I'm sure after the next movie comes out, the other three locations will be available, so be sure to check back. Click here to go to the map.

WikiSky Interactive Sky Map

This is an amazing sky map. You can change the surveying mode, like Ultraviolet, Hydrogen Alpha, and Infrared, in the top left corner. Sky Map mode lets you see the stars like you typically would in a photo. You can zoom in and out and drag the map around to see different parts of space. It's very easy to get caught up in looking at all the star clusters and nebulae, and I spent over an hour doing just that. It is quite addictive! Click here to go to WikiSky.

Comet ISON Interactive Map

Here's an interactive 3D model of comet ISON, which is scheduled to be visible to the naked eye from late November to mid-January. This map will show you the comet's path day-by-day from early September, when it was first visible through telescopes, to mid-January, when it may still be visible with the naked eye in certain areas of the world. Click here to go to the interactive map.

Castle, Forest, Island, Sea

This interactive story, called "Castle, Forest, Island, Sea", is by Hide&Seek and was created for "The Open University". It is based on various fields of philosophy. As you read through the story, coloured text will appear. You click on this text to advance in the story. Green means that a certain point will be expanded upon, but you will not progress in the story. Gold text is your speech and you can click on it until it shows your desired response. Blue text progresses in the story, so be sure you are ready before you click it. There are time when there will be two or more areas with blue text; you must decide which you agree with more. You do not always get a second chance, so choose wisely. This game has 9 chapters, which took me about 2 hours to complete, though I did move through rather slowly. At the end, you get an evaluation of your point of view and have the option to read about philosophers that had similar points of views to your own. This game is still interesting to play, even if you are not all that in to philosophy. Click here to play the game.