Famous Objects From Classic Movies – This film trivia/guessing game is a dangerous time waster – it’ll waste too much of it! You need to guess which movie is the object shown from.

There will be some dead giveaway objects (not telling), but also more challenging things like the two pics below. Think you are up to it? Play!

Vandalog – This beautiful street art blog celebrates urban creativity and street artists all over the world and in fact, it was a Weekly Blog here at All My Faves back in November.

There’s no better way to discover the wonders of Vandalog than by simply diving right in. Here are a couple of photos I found interesting, showing the art of Ian Francis (the post: Ian Francis at Joshua Liner Gallery).

Photos by Lois Stavsky

Sufferrosa – Described as “a non-linear, interactive Web-based movie,” Sufferrosa is a most artistic and creative neo-noir film created by Dawid Marcinkowski that will blow your mind and senses. You start off as a detective investigating the disappearance of a young woman, but the case’s details soon become bizarre and surprising. It is up to you to investigate and get any bit of information you can to solve the case.

Sufferrosa is a first of its kind Web-based film; it has over 110 scenes, three alternative endings, and takes place in 20 different locations. Dive right into it and soon you will come across the lady with the shotgun while on a quest to find out what happened to Rosa Von Braun (see below). Enjoy.

HotDog Hotshot – You are the proud owner of a hot dog joint and the hungry customers just keep on showing up. Prepare the buns, cook up the dogs till they’re ready, serve the crown and collect your money. It starts off easy, but wait till you have seven people waiting for their meal!

For more cooking & serving games and many other cool updates on the online games world, check out our I ♥ GAMES page.

This is an engaging guest post by the lovely Dan Fonseca, creator of the blog Synapses. In this intriguing post Dan talks about the speed at which we retrieve information online, and how this affects the Knowledge Gap theory.

When I think about my favorite characteristic about the Internet, I immediately think of its incredible ability to flatten the information/knowledge gap. Not to get critical and ideological too soon, but before the Internet was easily available, knowledge was often controlled one way or another. This by no means implies that there was no knowledge accessibility before the Internet, that would simply be silly. What I am trying to communicate is that one had to jump through a few more hoops to get it, and it required a little more effort on our part. Knowledge is power and it should not be a surprise that those with power often go out of their way to hold on to it and keep it exclusive. Those with knowledge use its power to mold society and often take advantage of those who simply do not know any better or have the means to combat the hegemony. This has always been the case until some force came around to challenge it, thus shifting power.

Throughout history we have seen technology disrupt power dynamics. Technological Determinism has always helped democratized information and with it power. Just think back to the Gutenberg press and its effects on the Catholic Church. The printing press helped to publish information quickly, helping diffuse new ideas across modern Europe. The rest is history you can find in textbooks or, actually better yet, Google.

What I am trying to communicate is that the advent of the Internet has done exactly what the printing press did back then, but to an enormous extent that we are still trying to comprehend. Think about it for a quick second. What is stopping you right now from searching whatever you wanted? From learning anything that interested you? Not much, maybe a poor Internet connection or questionable battery life, but apart from that absolutely nothing! That’s a pretty wild and empowering situation to be in, huh?

Though we have come a long way in our history, society is still one comprised of the “haves and the have-nots.” Dependent on socioeconomic factors, one’s life can play out very differently. Factors like: What neighborhood did you grow up in? What school did you go to? Are you attending college? These variables can have a huge impact on a life’s outcome, there is no questioning that. Sure, there is the “American Dream” but many say that is a myth. We are often given the cards and have to deal with them the best way we can. Though this remains true to some extent today, the Internet is challenging that situation.

With the Internet, anything is possible. Knowledge is everywhere, oozing from every crevice of the web. You can’t go to a single website without coming across incredible showcases of the meta-data that’s put to work. There are countless communities online looking to share and grow together and they only become stronger in numbers. Between YouTube and Wikipedia, one has the information to learn just about anything! We are now unbound by the previous constrains of other institutions on our intellectual betterment; we are rather held by our curiosity.

We live in a time that favors experience and ideas over backgrounds and test scores. It is time we all capitalize on that. That’s not to say we are all in an equal playing field (far from it), but the game has become more reasonable and fair.

The Internet, with all its beauty, has done something incredible to our age. We have the ability to share, connect, and learn without any ceiling built in. We are the only ones holding us back and if we take advantage of this, we -collectively, as a society- can become better, more equal, and ultimately happier. Long live the Internet!

“I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious” – Albert Einstein

*Dan Fonseca is currently a Communications student at Northeastern University in Boston and writes his very own blog Synapses. He enjoys thinking about the bigger picture and looks to bring people together in anyway he can. Dan loves his brie and sushi too. Oh yeah, he’s also proud to be from New Jersey so watch what you say 🙂

Room 77 – Reserving hotel rooms seems like a no-brainer. You look at some pictures, check out the rates, maybe even read a few reviews and make the reservation. But more often than not, once you get to your hotel room, you realize your scenic view is the neighboring building, a parking lot, or worse, a brick wall. Room 77 is here to make sure your next hotel room suits all your preferences but remains within budget limits.

Room 77 uses the forefront of technology to deliver the best room options for you in hundreds of different hotels across the country. Using the Google Maps 3D platform, Room 77 shows you the actual view of different rooms in each listed hotel so you can see for yourself which rooms to avoid, and which to request for when making the reservation.

To see an example, click the image below, the screen shot of the Churchill Hotel in Washington DC page, showing maps, street view and including tips and expert advice.

Room 77 changes the entire concept and experience of hotel room reservation. Thanks to this terrific free service, you can make sure your stay at the hotel is as enjoyable as possible.

Tasting Table – I am usually weary of sites that work on an email newsletter-only basis rather than offering open, surfable pages. Tasting Table is an exception to this rule of thumb of mine. This food savvy hot spot offers a daily serve of “one delicious idea about dining, wine, cocktails, cooking or restaurant personalities. We feed you only first-hand recommendations that we have tested thoroughly ourselves—one bite at a time.”

Tasting Table is a refreshing take on gastronomic and recipes recommendations online, and it currently covers the culinary arenas of NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC and San Francisco. Hopefully with time Tasting Table will offer the same superb food & wine content for other cities as well. Either way, I am subscribed. Here’s an example of one of the daily emails I received from Tasting Table (my apologies for the incomplete image, the full recipe is below):

Turnip and Rutabaga Gratin

Recipe adapted from Steven Satterfield, Miller Union, Atlanta

Yield: 6 side-dish servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium rutabaga (about ¾ pound), peeled and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

1 medium purple turnip (about ¾ pound), peeled and thinly sliced

2 cups bread crumbs, preferably homemade

1 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 450˚ and lightly butter an 8-by-8-by-2-inch baking dish.

2. Arrange a thin, even layer of the rutabaga slices across the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with a pinch of thyme, salt and pepper, then dot with tiny pats of the butter. Arrange a thin, even layer of turnip slices over the rutabaga. Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper and dot with more butter. Continue the layering process, alternating between the rutabaga and turnip, until the dish is approximately two-thirds full and all the vegetables have been included.

3. Season the bread crumbs with salt and black pepper and spread over the vegetables. Pour the chicken stock and cream over the bread crumbs; press down on the bread crumbs gently to absorb the liquids. Drizzle with the olive oil.

4. Bake until the gratin is golden brown and the vegetables in the center of the dish are tender when poked with a paring knife, about 35 minutes. Remove the gratin from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes, then serve.

Long Bets – On a mission to “improve long–term thinking,” The Long Now Foundations‘ Long Bets is “a public arena for enjoyably competitive predictions, of interest to society, with philanthropic money at stake.” Long Bets is all about taking responsibility and standing behind your own truth.

How does it work? First you must distinguish between ‘predictions’ and ‘bets.’ Making a prediction means stating a situation that would take place at least two years from now, followed by a supporting argument. You must include your name right next to it. This will be set in stone, meaning once you’ve stated your prediction or bet, you won’t be able to edit it at a later time. See a few examples below.

Betting (or the Long Bet) is counter-arguing an existing Prediction. Specifically, when a member challenges a predictor to a wager over their Prediction. It’s kind of like presenting a scientific theory to the academic community, and opposing individuals then attempt to refute it – only Long Bets concerns social and scientific predictions and bets.

Long Bets’ mind competition is thought-provoking, creative and stirs a much needed conversation between participants online. Any one can join in, but you will have to register first to do so. A big thumbs up for this intelligent website.

PostPost – Stay on top your network of Facebook friends by exploring the news feeds through a unique, newspaper-like medium, PostPost. Instead of going to facebook each time and scrolling down to see what your friends have posted, see the entire collection of real-time posts in a much more conformable way to digest all of that info.

This is what my personal Facebook newspaper looks like, using PostPost’s interface. As you can see, you can interact with, comment on and share each post.

I must say, it was a refreshing experience to be part of Facebook without actually going to the Facebook site. I honestly hope PostPost will catch on, but I doubt the vast majority of Facebook users would use an external site to keep track with Facebook posts, especially those created within their network of friends. It certainly is a nice try though. To learn more about PostPost, here’s an intro video.

Advanced Riskology – Tyler Tervooren is an ambitious and creative young man who writes about taking smart risks in the pursuit for a better, more fulfilled life and mind. As Tyler claims, “Life’s most important lessons are learned from the risks we take, but we only learn when we actually take them.” Tyler might seem too ambitious to some (see his quest for being included in the top 1% of the world club). Either way, this blog is his canvas for sharing his own risks and decision making, and his tips on ‘smart risk taking’ (yes, there is such a thing).

As Tyler suggests, start with this post, which is a nice introduction to what this blog is about, and who Tyler is. My personal favorite is The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Inception.

Cowboom – Deal grabbers, this one’s for you. Cowboom (a Best Buy brand) offers deals on brand-name new, pre-owned and refurbished consumer electronics and more. You can find anything here from Apple notebooks and home theater systems to cameras and portable music players, all part of a huge variety of brands, and all offered at great discounts.

Each product category on Cowboom offers lots of tempting deals via both regular and auction purchases. To stay on top of all the great deals available on Cowboom, it would be worth while subscribing to the site via email (homepage, form on the right hand side).

Here’s an image from the camera section on Cowboom for you to explore. Enjoy!

DECOmyplace – By showcasing real living places tastefully designed by ‘regular people,’ DECOmyplace is an interior design hub dedicated to presenting and sharing design ideas.

While this exquisite site is very popular in Taiwan, the interior design ideas you will find here are universally appreciated. Browse by room type (kitchen, bedroom, office and more), by furnishing (lighting, painting, plants, tableware, etc.) or styles (before/after, retro, vintage and so on). In short, DECOmyplace is a wonderful celebration of interior design, and everyone’s invited to contribute. Want to share your living space? Sign in and upload. Here are a couple of my favorites.