3D Blobular View of US Air Traffic 

Farecast et al

Not sure when to buy your airline tickets? Farecast (still in beta mode) expanded its database to over fifty cities last week. Enter the relevant cities and dates and it will predict when the fares will be cheapest (for RSS junkies it can even deliver a realtime ticker of fare predictions). Farecast claims an average 75% (and improving) accuracy level. While currently I use Orbitz, next time I may also try dohop.com which searches 660 traditional and low cost airlines worldwide. Can't decide between ORD or MDW? Get more airport info than you'll ever need at AirNav. Just need to pick someone up? FlightAware has the best (or at least, the most elaborate) flight tracker. Lastly, become convinced to always take the redeye by viewing some of the visualizations at Flight Patterns.

Airfare Predictions - Farecast

dohop.com

AirNav

FlightAware

Flight Patterns

Last week it was Head On remixes
 

Viral Video

This week it's Ghost Ride Da Whip.

I was surprised last week that a friend hadn't heard of YouTube. Made famous by their posting of a SNL Lazy Sunday sketch and having passed fifty million hits this month YouTube is the consummation of viral video on the web. The latest internet meme to be recognized by the main stream media. Early viral videos like Crazy Frog, the exploding whale, and the Star Wars kid were posted on various lesser websites; but today, there's YouTube, Google Video, iFilm. Anyone can post, search, view, and rank. For casual surfing there's top ranked pages for each and the WorldTV Charts. In addition to predictable narcissism, jackass stunts, spoofs, and remixes; there's shorts, old movie and television clips, documentaries, and parodies. Even more predictably there's viral marketing with ads, promos, and even astroturfing like "Al Gore's Penguin Army" (traced to Exxon Mobil's pr and lobbying firm).

The WorldTV Internet TV Charts

YouTube - Top Ranked

YouTube - Ghost Ride Da Whip

YouTube - Wizard Of Oz Jitterbug (deleted scene)

Google Video - Top 100

Google Video - Bush Pilot (with English subtitles)

Google Video - Cab Calloway and Nicholas Brothers

IFILM Viral Video

But does Snowball do the Chicken Dance?
 

Cute Overload! ;)

So saccharine all the way down to the smiley in the page title. Makes my teeth hurt just to touch the keyboard. It has categories like Birds, Bunnies, Kittens, Pups, Pocket Pets, Cute or Sad?, and The Coveted Cuteness Trifecta. Somehow it made Time Magazine's 50 coolest websites and Flickr did not. To me, it brought to mind the legendary classic Flame War between the newsgroups alt.tasteless and rec.pets.cats.

Cute Overload! ;)

TIME 50 Coolest Websites

The War Between alt.tasteless and rec.pets.cats

Catch Up of the Day
 

Personalized Condiments

When I first tried to link to this today I got "HTTP/1.1 Server Too Busy", typically a good sign. Heinz is offering custom labels for two of their 57 varieties (ketchup and mustard). For those at a loss for words you can choose one of their "everyday messages", "Welcome New Baby" is my favorite. After something less acidic, try personalized M&M'S.

Talking Heinz Labels

Custom Printed M&M'S

Langill after Manetas
 

after Pollock

Tap into your own Jungian archetypes and jack your own "Jack the Dripper". Use your mouse to pour and right click to change your palette. After pouring, press Print Screen, open Paint; then Paste and Save to virtually immortalize your action painting. This website is the creation of Greek artist Miltos Manetas, you can see his other work at manetas.com.

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas

this is manetas.com_30 July