13 Space Things That Don't Make Sense

New Scientist has a detailed, but concise and readable list of 13 space-related phenomena that don't make sense. The list includes cosmic rays that shouldn't exist, inexplicable dark matter, and belching-martian life.

Art Face Off

Art Face Off take the infamous face-off format (a la Kitten Wars) and uses it to pit new artists against each other. Choose your medium and begin voting. The vote gallery contains some great stuff.

Power Trip?

100 Notable Books

NYTimes' 100 Notable Books of the year are posted. If you're looking for some reading material or good gift ideas, it's a list worth browsing.

Ted Talks

I heard a lot about the TED conference earlier this year, but never bothered to look at the lectures available on their webpage. Thanks to prompting from reader Oksana, I've been listening to them all weekend. There's an excellent mix of dynamic speakers and varied subject matter. Best of all, the video loads quickly and is available in a variety of formats to stream or to download for you iPod.

GameGoo Educational Games

Here's a collection of fun educational games for young learners. GameGoo characters such as "Squanky the Tooth Taker" and "Fearless Frieda: The Big Kahuna" take kids through lessons covering opposites, spelling, and more. The game interface and design is well-done and similar to other popular non-educational games.

Battery University

Battery University contains a tremendous amount of battery-related information. In addition to engineering concepts and diagrams, the site also provides practical information for everyday users, such as how to extend battery life.

Imagini Gift Finder

Imagini is the coolest gift-finding interface I'm yet to see. You are asked to match your giftee's personality to pictures under topics such as "a good time", "a typical meal", or "idea of fun". This is an english site, so although shipping my be untenable for many, you're sure to pick up some good ideas.

Real Numb3rs?

Anyone watching Charlie Epps solve murder mysteries week after week with a chalkboard starts to question the premise behind Numb3rs. However, Chris Budd at Bath University says it's more realistic than you might think. In an article for plus+ magazine, Chris discusses how the inverse method can determine whether a car accident was caused by speeding and to find the source of poison released into a water network.

Also on this topic, here's an NPR interview with math specialist Keith Devlin, also discussing the show's realism.

Monty Python International Philosophy Football

Top 10 Arguments Against DRM

Learn Out Loud presents ten arguments against DRM. It's a concise and powerful list, covering the hidden costs for consumers and providers and ramifications from future changes in technology. Also check out this video included in the LOL post and repasted here:

The Illuminated Middle Ages

A collection of French illuminated manuscript images from the middle ages. The high-resolutions jpegs are gorgeous (though they may take a bit of time to load). The animal images are particularly fun.

Computer Tools That Support Learners

Via SVSD Classroom Tech, here is a list of useful computer tools for students, neatly assembled by Rod Corbett at Mount Royal College in Calgary. The list ranges from notetaking to project management to studying for exams.

UCTV on Google Video

UCTV's great collection of educational videos are now on Google Video, organized by topic on their own page.

On the topic of revamped educational video pages, see also the Open University, Research Channel & MIT World.

Strange Maps

A new blog collecting weird historical and imaginary maps.

145 Academic Podcasts

Flashback to 2005 with Productive Stategies' updated list of academic podcasts. One of the original round-ups, Mark's updated the list to include 145 university courses.

Die, Mavis Beacon, Die

QWERTY is a violent alternative to the typing teaching classic. Spell word correctly to kill invading alien thing. Spell words wrong and expect some trouble. (P.S. Click on the word "Play" to start the game, click on the monkey and you go to an index of other games).

Library Blog Search Engine

Liszen is the latest site making good use of the Google customizable search function. The search engine looks through 500+ blogs within the library profession. Here's the list.

The Generator Blog

The Generator Blog collects all those miscellaneous generator sites you've seen around the web (i.e. church sign generator, text-image generator). Check it out.

Personalized Book Plates

Via Lifehacker, here is a cool collection of artistic bookplates to print and personalize. For people who like to print things, also see the OrganizedHome library of pdf calendars, agendas, and miscellaneous planners.

Amberjack & Neighboroo

Neighboroo is a GMaps mash-up listing key ethnographic, economic, and environmental data across the US. Very user friendly.

Amberjack lets you create and display website tours for free.

Façade is an "interactive one-act drama" videogame where you are thrown in between the rapidly dissolving marriage of two friends. Downloadable for free.

The Art of War

Sun Tzu's the Art of War is this month's free audiobook download from Learn Out Loud. Christy Lynn nicely narrates this 6th century B.C. classics so often quotes by business leaders and politicians. Remember, this is only free to download during the month of November (i.e., if you're busy now, download it anyway for later listening).

Librarian Chick

In this wiki, the Librarian Chick organises free educational resources in several different categories. This is one of the better lists out there and her free book search is excellent, too.

Research Beyond Google

A list of 119 valuable research aids spanning across economics, art, medicine and other areas. Some sites are well known, but many good specialty resources make the list such as FreeLunch.com for economic data or ScienceResearch.com.