Posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 by Shachar Pessis
Cookstr – Great, succulent food is a big issue in our life and on the web, but the cooking that’s involved in producing such food can often be a challenge. Most of the cooking sites that I’m aware of (some of the best are listed on our own homepage – scroll all the way down) offer recipes and tutorials – usually the production of small cooking specialist teams or community users. Cookstr offers something new; it provides users with great recipes from the best chefs and cookbook authors. The site features individual profile pages for each of the renowned participating chefs and cookbook authors. These profile pages offer great information about the chefs and cooks, their restaurants and a selection of their great cookbooks. In addition, you can search for recipes by either ingredients or themes such as holidays. Thanksgiving is already behind us but hey, there’s another one, a really big one, just around the corner: check the latest Christmas and Chanukkah recipes and I guarantee you will be the praised cooking star of your friends and family!
Life Magazine Archive – I couldn’t let go of this site for hours on end. The Life Magazine photo archive is an addicting collection that will make one hour seem like 5 minutes… Ninety-seven percent of the collection, which stretches from 1860 to today, has never been seen by the public. This joint venture of Life and Google is, I believe, one of the greatest online collections of photos throughout history. I have taken the liberty of sharing my searches with you. My Faves consist of Queen Victoria, Salvador Dali, Henry Ford, Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy. This amazing creation shouldn’t be treated only as a curiosity-quenching tool. Its true significance lies in the impact it will have on the digitization and indexing of the world’s content. Let’s say you are a student searching for WWII photos. With the Life and Google photo archive, you will be able to obtain ‘credentialed’ photos you wouldn’t have been able to find anywhere else. This is HUGE. I call for all major publicists to release their archives and render them available online – for the sake of human kind and education. Thank You!
Today’s BIG Thing – This site is quite simple; every day, a small team from Connected Ventures find the best thing on the Internet and put it on the site. One thing per day. Just to let you in on the site’s backstage, the creators of Connected Ventures are the same people behind CollegeHumor, Vimeo and BustedTees, sites which are known for their top quality content, each in its own specific niche. They do the work for you and provide users with only the best. Sounds familiar? I love this concept myself and, above all, I found their daily picks exquisite. Almost all videos kept me hooked till the end because they were funny and interesting. My Fave one is Chicken Head-Stabilization. Go Chicken!
FanIQ – If you are a true sports fan you should consider FanIQ as your best interactive sports community hub. FanIQ transforms the online sports fan experience from passively browsing news and stats to actively engaging with sports and other fans in fun new ways. At FanIQ, sports fans compete against others to prove their sports knowledge; they can broadcast their takes on news and rumors to other fans and create groups with like-minded peers to cheer their teams and root against their rivals. Should FanIQ receive a permanent place on our Sports Fave Line? if the answer is yes, drop a comment and we shall consider it.
Lotsa Helping Hands – Most of us have experienced the crisis of a friend or loved one suddenly becoming disabled or in need of caregiving assistance. What we seldomly take into account is how difficult it is for the person in need and/or family caregivers to ask for help. That’s where Lotsa Helping Hands steps in. Lotsa Helping Hands is a simple, immediate way for friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to assist loved ones in need. It’s an easy-to-use, private group calendar that is specifically designed for organizing helpers: where everyone can pitch in with meal deliveries, rides and other activities necessary for life to run smoothly during times of medical crisis, end-of-life caring, or family caregiver exhaustion. It’s also a place to keep these ‘circles of community’ informed with status updates, photo galleries, message boards and more.
The Daily Aphorism – The word aphorism denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form. The Daily Aphorism is a place that gathers many aphorisms (famous and non-famous) and gives them a ‘webby’ platform. The site is divided into 2 parts: The first consists of a daily aphorism that is actually a quote of famous personalities such as Michel de Montaigne, Anton Chekhov, Mae West and many more notable persons. The daily aphorism is published on the site using nice bolded typography – you can’t miss it. And if you don’t want to miss a piece of wisdom, you can always subscribe to the site. The other part consists of an open platform, giving the people the stage to contribute their personal aphorism. This part is just as remarkable as the previous one. I have added one of my own – “It isn’t Simple being Simple,” and adopted one – “I blog, therefore I am.” BTW: the site was created by The School of Life and St. Luke’s that seem to be an intimate and creative place. I don’t know what about you, but I will sure try and visit them during my next London visit.
What A Lovely Name – What A Lovely Name is a website that helps you find the perfect name for your baby. You can browse by tradition, personality trait, or even check out what celebrities are naming their children (these can be names to choose or to avoid as you see fit). Once you’ve found your fave names you can share these with friends and family. You can even create custom logos (and you know how much we love logos) for each name you like and order products featuring the baby’s name and logo as gifts. So if you are feeling French (don’t worry – the site also has American Names), will it be Aimee, Adelia or Aliz for your next baby girl?
PhotoFunia – Don’t you simply love it when a site that looks complicated turns out to be simple? With PhotoFunia you just need to choose the requested photo effect and upload a desired photo – that’s it. In a matter of seconds you shall receive something special, something you will want to send to others and brag about. “What is it?” you’re probably asking yourself… Come on, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Try It – Satisfaction guaranteed.
The Monty Python Channel – Only a page that is dedicated solely to Monty Python could make the following introduction: “For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It’s time for us to take matters into our own hands. We know who you are, we know where you live and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we’ve figured a better way to get our own back: We’ve launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.” If you like Monty Python then this page will produce big smiles on your end. If you’re not a big fan, well, then you probably won’t click here. Enjoy!
Turkey-Fling – The objective of the game is to keep flying for as long as possible. Corn power-ups are essential to quickly build up your stamina and for you to flap your wings. Adjust your flaps so you can catch the corn and keep flying. You can find more Weekly Games on our new Games Page – updated every Wednesday.
