Cool stuff on the Internet
Posted by Thomas Nephew on September 25th, 2007
- Web Trendmap 2007 — The developers describe it as “the 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.” It’s laid out like a subway map, with weather reports for the major sites. Jeff Jarvis and Michelle Malkin are on the map, too, but inexplicably, Talking Points Memo and “newsrack blog” are not.
- The Vertical Farm Project — “By the year 2050…
…nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?”These guys say skyscraper greenhouses, that’s what. And whether or not you’re convinced by their arguments — year-round growing, less energy spent getting produce to market, reducing agricultural runoff — there are some really cool architectural and urban planning design drawings straight off the cover of Astounding Science Fiction that make me hope it pans out. I assume they’ve got a handle on the key “plants really need a lot of light,” “moving tons of water straight up,” and “who’ll pay for it” issues.
- Edward Hopper at the National Gallery of Art — In addition to being about the painter of some of the classics of American art — Nighthawks, Chop Suey, Light at Two Lights– this is a nice web site in its own right, featuring what seems to be the same film (narrated by Steve Martin) that is screened at the exhibition, as well as a very well done online tour of Hopper’s work. The physical exhibition runs through January 21 of next year.
- Clock widgets brought to you by Poodwaddle.com show stuff like world population and remaining oil reserves; sources are provided on a second page.
- WorldChanging — “Tools, Models, and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future.” Interesting site; tabs include Stuff, Shelter, Cities, Community, Business, Politics, and Planet. That pretty much covers it.
- Farecast.com — Via Ian Ayres, occasional “Balkinization” blogger:
Do you ever wonder if you could save money on airfare by buying today or waiting a day or two for a price drop? We predict where fares are going and show where they’ve been—now for more than 75 home airports (indicated in green within the search form).
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UPDATE, 9/26: CNN “Business 2.0″’s Hillary Woolley covers vertical farming; proponent Dickson Despommieres claims an $84M skyscraper-style farm could clear $13M per year in New York City, based on deli produce prices and demand.
UPDATE, 10/1: I took the clock widget down; I think it was slowing down the site too much.
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September 26th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Good god. They may as well call that the Suicide Clock. You couldn’t find one that noted puppies put to sleep or children beaten?
Hopper site - AWESOME!!
September 26th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
puppies put to sleep — good idea, I’ll pass it along.
It is kind of a bummer. Let’s watch TV instead! 
I was actually thinking about taking it down, because of the pallid little global warming skepticism comment via the “?” button — didn’t notice that until today. But… eh. Whatever.