Google Maps: Send a Gift to a Stranger

This beautifully simple idea: Gift a Stranger from Happiness Brussels is another great example of the digital world effecting physical. When we think of social networking it's almost exclusively considered as an online / virtual activity, but projects such as this show how the web can be used to create social networks with people in the real world.

It's also heartening to see that, when given the chance, we all quite like each other.

Try it out here

Thanks Ro for the link.

How Big Really

It's hard to comprehend the size and impact of natural disasters, or the distance traveled by explorers both on land and in space. Dimensions, a site by the BBC, helps us understand them by overlaying them relative to the size of somewhere we can all comprehend: our own country.
Built using google map's API, the site shows us for example, how much of England would have been affected by the floods in Pakistan:

How much of London would have been affected by the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill:

Or the depth of the deepest hole ever built: The Kola Superdeep Borehole (Russian: Кольская сверхглубокая скважина):

Thanks to Ronan for the link.