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.

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.

SPENT – Take the ultimate challenge of making it through the month with the little that you have left. SPENT is a compelling game (so to speak) on what it means to be one of the people Urban Ministries of Durham helps out. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that the experience is as real as it gets. Check it out and share with friends. I couldn’t last more than 10 days. What about you?

We’ve got a brand new Academics MiniFaves page I’d like to share with you, and you can find it on our Education page – simply click on the Academics faveline title. This new addition offers an expanded collection of academic-related resources, from universities admission info and college-level writing aids to citing how-to’s, video classes, scholarly journal resources, and lots of other useful sites in-between.

So now that we’ve studied hard, it’s time to take a break and do a 180 turn to celebrity gossip. Although this isn’t a newly added page, it’s possible you haven’t come across our Gossip MiniFaves page yet. Think People and Perez Hilton are the only sites worth checking out to keep up with the stars? Think again. In this MiniFaves page you will find more than 30 different top sites packed with celebrity photos, fashion trends and yes, hookup updates. In short, all the juicy details worth knowing about Hollywood’s young and beautiful people.

Google Art Project – See this video to get a behind the scenes look at the Google Art Project – Another amazing feature by Google, this Art Project by the communication giant brings art right into your face, in an experience no other technology has been able to produce until now. Pick out one of the many globally acclaimed museums from the list, and then choose between walking through the museum’s galleries or looking at specific masterpieces so close you can see each brush stroke in super high quality resolution.

The museum tour, as you will see for yourself, is a smart adaptation of Google’s Street View technology, and it feels as if you are right there in London, Berlin and NYC, admiring the art of famous virtuosos. Below is an image of the ‘museum stroll view’ at the National Gallery in London.

The next image is of an ultra-zoomed image of a famous piece by a well-known European painter. Guess who? Click the image to find out.

See this video to learn how Google’s Art Project came into being. It’s amazing.

Qwiki – What’s your usual research method online when you want to learn more about something or someone? Google? Wikipedia? These two and other Web search tools will most definitely direct you to relevant resources, but I would like to suggest an innovative website that goes about information consumption with an entirely different approach: Qwiki.

Typing a search word or phrase in Qwiki’s search box prompts a wonderland of visually presented information including photos, maps and data that are accompanied by both vocal narration and text. The end result is an engaging presentation on whatever you’d like to learn more about, be it historical figures, events, monuments, animals, even locations and businesses. Start by searching for your hometown on Qwiki and see what I mean. Another example is the one below of the famous philosopher Aristotle. Click the image below to see it.

EnergySavvy – What if there was an easy way for you to learn not only how to make your house more efficient in terms of energy and sustainability, but also how to save big bucks along the way? Now you can with EnergySavvy. This handsome website will guide you through the various aspects in your home that could be improved to save on energy and cash. No download is necessary. Simply insert your zip code and follow the questionnaire. Don’t worry. It’s not the boring questionnaire type you have in mind. This one’s colorful, interesting and over in a breeze.

Apart from making energy efficiency easier to homeowners, EnergySavvy exposes users to financial incentives that bring down energy use, provides additional tips, and offers listings of “the best energy efficiency contractors in the industry.” You can rely on EnergySavvy for speaking the truth; some of their partners include the US Department of Energy, the Energy Trust of Oregon, and other organizations.

Thrill of the Catch – This amazing game by Discovery Education and TakeMeFishing.Org lets you play on both sides of the fishing game; you can feed your fish of choice, choose its colurs, pick out a name for it, and feed it with its favorite food. Or, you could practice your fishing skills by trying to catch as many fish as possible. This is a lot of fun, and I’ve included two pics to lure you to sea. Don’t forget though: once you catch a fish, pat yourself on the back and throw it back to the water.

The digital age has brought us numerous life-enhancing benefits. Some of the most obvious include super fast communication regardless of geographic location, social networks and virtual communities, and online shopping, just to name a few. But in terms of information consumption, there’s an interesting shift worth noting. I am referring to the infographic, the visually pleasing crossbreed between information and graphics that makes complex concepts, statistics and processes much easier to digest when compared to plain text-and-number info. Here at All My Faves we’ve already featured a few infographic sources, and we also have a special Infographics Mini Faves page for it.

So what makes infographics so different from charts and graphs, you might ask. These, too, serve as visual aids that facilitate data analysis and comprehension, right? Well, as Cool Infographics creator and Inforgraphic Designer Randy Krum explains, “Charts and graphs can communicate data; infographics turn data into information.”  The bottom line characteristic of infographics distinguishing it from conventional data information is this: readers of infographics not merely acknowledge changes of statistics and data; they get the bigger picture fast and understand why these changes occurred in the first place.

Let’s dive right into the visuals and you will see why inforgraphics are making a steadfast appearance all over the Web (not to mention in major news websites and newspapers’ printed editions such as the NY Times). The first example is “The 10 Most Expensive Cities to Live In 2010” infographic by the Australian brokerage company, HomeLoanFinder.

Another great infographic example is this one below, showing the Rise of Walking and Biking, from 1990 to 2009 (source: Department of Transportation, appeared in GOOD Magazine, Jun 24, 2010). Click the image to launch the interactive infographic.

This third one is a knock-out, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality. Created by the talented team over at Information is Beautiful, Visualizing Bloodtests is the ultimate data-into-info example, and there’s no wonder why this visualization scored the 1st place in Wired Mag’s re-envisioning medical data design competition.

A standard bloodtest data document. Almost impossible to fully comprehend what’s going on there. and this is crucial to someones’ life!

Now see the magic of infographics (thanks to Information is Beautiful), turning the uncomprehensible document from above to an easy to digest content:

To wrap things up, see this interesting video talking about the use of infographics in the New York Times (via GestaltenTV).

Makes Me Think – This FMyLife alternative is “an online community where people share daily life stories that provoke deep thought and inspire positive change,” hence the ‘Makes Me Think’ or MMT motto. What looks like a list of random notes is, once you read it, a collection of compelling revelations that will challenge whatever prejudices and life axioms you were living by up until now.

MMT is a world of inspiring and thought-provoking stories submitted anonymously, and presented in bite-size paragraphs. Here’s one of my favorites (found it under Top MMT Stories):

“Today in downtown San Diego, I watched a blue collar Mexican man get harassed for being Mexican. It was a blatant act of discrimination. And the man actually began crying. As he left the office building, he took off his jacket. His t-shirt underneath read, “I love the USA!” MMT

Have a compelling story of your own to share? Click the Submit button on the top and inspire others.

NFB/Interative: Crash Course – Brought to us by the National Film Board of Canada, Crash Course is the creative project of Nobu Adilman and The Secret Location, exploring innovative perspectives on the US recession, in Argentina. Sounds crazy? Wait till you find out the connection between Tango lessons and a slow economy. Prepare yourself for an amazing interactive experience. This is simply a must.

ShopWell – ShopWell “is a free food information site that scores products on how well they meet your unique needs.” Get a personalized list of food product recommendation, based on your health state (lactose intolerance, athletic training, osteoporosis, high cholesterol and many others) while fully understanding food products’ nutritional info. Once you’ve signed up you can set your personal parameters (including age, weight , sex and age and the health state driving your nutrition, stated above).

Next, you can check ingredients you wish to include in your diet such as folic acid, saturated fat, whole grain, and ingredients you don’t want (such as corn syrup, added sugar, preservatives, etc.), and even state any allergies you may have so ShopWell will know what to avoid. See the image below.

The end result of ShopWell is a customized list of recommended products, each with a nutritional value score from 0-100, based on its suitability to your set of parameters. Getting your profile ready for smarter shopping in the supermarket is easy; ShopWell’s interface is appealing and user-friendly, and it’s free! (a free iPhone app is available). Why not make use of this healthy tool?