A Collection of Curiosities

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Phil Plait is an astronomer and major sci-fi geek. He writes the Bad Astronomy Blog for Discover Magazine and is also the host of the Discovery Channel’s science show “Phil Plait’s Bad Universe.” You can follow him on Twitter at @BadAstronomer.

My old friends know better than to go see movies with me. Sure, I always yell at the screen when a movie spaceship make a “whooshing” noise when it flies past, but at least I don’t throw popcorn: At a prorated 10 cents or so per kernel, it’s simply not cost-effective. But at my best I still mutter under my breath, and sometimes even take notes for my blog.

Such is the life of an evil-hearted nerd scientist critic of science fiction movies.

Still, it’s not all bad. As rare as good stuff in movies can be, maybe it’s time to recognize it. I love a challenge, so let’s take a look: What movies got their science right?

(insert cricket noise)

No, seriously, a lot of movies really do. Well, some do. OK, a few do. Let’s start off with an easy one, like…

2001: A Space Odyssey

Ask any astronomer what movie comes closest to getting it all right, and they won’t hesitate: 2001. The obvious anachronism may make this one a teensy bit harder — Pan Am went out of business decades before the titular date, and the Space Station is hardly a giant spinning wheel in orbit — but a lot of the actual science is good.

There’s no sound in space, for example. Without air, there’s nothing to transmit the sound waves, and the movie shows space as deadly silent.

A classic scene has astronaut Frank Poole jogging around the circular centrifuge, and that’s on the money. Without gravity astronauts have all sorts of trouble, including serious health issues, such as muscle and permanent bone density loss. A spinning centrifuge would simulate gravity and mitigate a lot of those issues.

My favorite bit in the movie is that lack of stars in the exterior shots. If you were out in space and looking at a bright object like a sunlit spaceship, your eyes would adapt to that brightness level. Stars are pretty faint, and would be very hard to see!

And here’s one you might not have thought of (and I’ll risk geek blasphemy for saying it): Interplanetary travel is boring. A trip even to the moon takes three days. Mars is six months, and Jupiter would take years. Space is big and empty, so for 99 percent of the time there would be nothing to do. 2001 shows that beautifully by being boring. I mean, by showing that boredom!

Deep Impact

In 1998, two blockbusters came out about impacts: Armageddon, and Deep Impact. Armageddon was one of the worst movies in the history of humanity, if the not the universe in its entirety, so I’ll leave it alone (it does have one thing right: It’s about asteroids, and asteroids exist. Other than that …).

Deep Impact, on the other hand, got a lot right. The comet was discovered by an amateur astronomer (which was still common in the ’90s, though less now, with robotic surveys scanning the heavens much more efficiently). In the flick, a nuke only managed to split the comet into two pieces; in reality that’s likely to be what would happen to a fragile comet nucleus. The impact scene (damn! I forgot to say “spoiler alert!”) is wonderfully accurate, with the actual moment of collision and subsequent tsunami beautifully detailed and terrifying. Even the scenes filmed at the comet itself were good; the lack of gravity makes it impossible to land a ship, for example, so they tether themselves to it.

It was attention to that kind of detail that made my geeky inner (OK, outer) astronomer sing.

Contact

I have my suspicions that when we make first contact with aliens, it won’t be when they land their flying saucers on the White House lawn. That whole “space is big” thing really is a problem, and it’s a whole lot worse when the distances are measured in quadrillions of miles.

In Contact we find aliens because they beam an intense radio signal to us (though points are taken off for Jodie Foster’s character using headphones; computers are a wee bit better at detection than humans). That makes sense: A radio wave is easy to send, it travels at light speed, and you can encode a lot of information into it. So right off the bat, the movie has it right.

Not only that, but it also shows astronomers as, y’know, people, instead of cardboard caricatures, as usually done. Foster’s character actually — gasp — has a sex life!

Even the depiction of faster-than-light travel is consistent and well done. But none of this is surprising: The script was penned by Carl Sagan himself, an astronomer and brilliant writer. If you haven’t seen this flick, then stop reading my dorky stuff and go get it! Also, read the book Contact. If the last page doesn’t give you chills, you’re not a bona fide nerd.

Star Trek

Yes, the 2009 Trek reboot that pissed off a bazillion fans, who were appalled that suddenly their franchise could be made appealing to a broad audience. Still, despite all the debauching of science usually performed by Trek, there was one sequence made of win: Early on, when the Kelvin is attacked, we see explosions and running crewmen and lots of yelling and screaming. Suddenly, amidst the hullabaloo, a hull breach opens up and a crewmember is blown into space. We follow her out the hole, and suddenly all the noise is cut off.

Like 2001, this is a good depiction of space. Without air, there’s no noise. And the movie wins a second kudo from me because it was used dramatically: The sudden cessation of noise punctuates that death scene for the poor, unnamed crewperson, making it that much more chilling. Of course, that saves her from the awful science later in the movie as Vulcan collapses into a black hole (and don’t even get me started on “red matter”).

The Fountain

This wasn’t a blockbuster, but it was still a beautifully told tale of love, life, death and rebirth. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that this is, to my knowledge, the only movie that has ever used supernovae correctly.

When a massive star explodes at the end of its life, all the heavy elements it’s created (like iron, calcium and so on) are blown out into space, where they can merge with gas clouds. These clouds then collapse to form other stars, planets … and you. The iron in your blood and the calcium in your bones were literally forged in the hearts of ancient supernovae. When a star dies, it gives life to others … and that theme is used perfectly in the movie. It’s a metaphor for rebirth, but it’s also used in that way by the movie quite literally. Astrophysics as poetry! Awesome.

Once Time magazine’s super-sexy art critic, Hughes, now in his seventies, plays the eloquent but curmudgeonly polemicist in his tightly orchestrated film-essay. With footage of the critic in his 1960s prime sprinkled throughout, the documentary takes us on a journey through art scenes past and present, visiting museums, galleries, art collectors, dealers and “art advisers.” Some of these our narrator clearly despises—his thesis being that the art world is shaped by the world’s largest unregulated market, and not by the quality or content of the art itself. In general, Hughes’s critiques are well posed and thoughtful, and though he doesn’t have many answers, it is nice to know there’s someone on the inside who doesn’t get it either.

Produced by StoryCorps, a nonprofit that goes around the country, in distinctive aluminum trailers, recording the stories of anyone who wants to talk, the film features recordings by Danny and Annie Perasa, who had been married for 27 years. These two tell, over animated scenes, how they met, how he proposed, how he’s a prolific love-letter writer and eventually how he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Though the animation can be a bit campy, the recordings are amazing: They’re genuine but poetic, with humor, sadness and plenty of wisdom. There’s probably more to learn about love in this little movie than in the entire canon of romantic movies.

If you are searching for free stock photo databases, there are quite a few sites on the web that do that, and even at high quality: there are sites that are made by artists or designers for other artists and promote sharing their creations, there are also others which have a double policy, offering both photos for sale and for free, in distinct sections, and there are also sites which offer exposure to new talented photographers who are willing to collaborate.

In any case, there are huge resources of free stock photos on the internet and this article means to help you get to some of the best sources available online at the moment.

So check them out- among all these links you are bound to find what you are looking for!

1. Stock Xchng – The Leading Free Stock Photography Site

A famous and very reliable free stock photo site, with a huge gallery containing over 350.000 quality stock photos by more than 30.000 photographers! You can find any picture you need: wallpapers for your desktop, illustration for your blog, pictures for website design and so on. It is also a place where you can share your photos and get exposure. It also has a forum where you exchange ideas with other photographers or artists! You have to register in order to download pictures but it is a very quick and safe procedure.

2. Dreamstime – Free Stock Images Section

Another huge stock photo database, where you can search among more than 9 million images is Dreamstime. Here the policy is different, as the site offers photos both free and for sale – in different packages. You have several options: you can take photos from the free section just by registering or you can buy high-resolution stock images with very low prices. If you are a photographer you can sell your stock images and get 30-60% from each sale you make.

3. Stockvault.Net Free Stock Photos And Free Images

Here you can download free stock images without any registration necessary. They have a very big collection of high quality stock photos both free and for sale, in separate sections again.

4. PhotoXpress – Royalty Free Subscription Images and Pictures

It’s a site with a huge collection of stock photos, either free or for sale. You can download for free 1 photo per day if you sign up, 5 photos per day if you join PhotoXpress on Facebook and 10 photos per day if you offer your personal information. It could be a continuing resource if you agree to these terms!

5. Everystockphoto – Free Stock Photos From Different Sites

This site checks out at the same time several other free stock photo sites and offers you the results for your search coming from all of them combined. It is a huge resource and you will save a lot of time by using it!

6. Free Stock Photos Bank

Similar to Stock Xchng, here graphic designers can choose from a huge collection of high quality photos which are completely free. No registration needed! Just hit download and you’ll get the high resolution image that you need!

7. Free Digital Photos – Free Stock Photos

In this case there is a different policy: you can download for free the pictures from the huge stock photo collection available here, at a medium resolution, on the condition that you promote them on your site (by providing a link to the source of the picture you choose to publish) It seems like a fair trade to me! If you want a very high resolution you can buy them at a very affordable price.

8. Morguefile – Free Photos For Creatives By Creatives

It is a site where creatives can share and exchange their work. You can easily download any picture you wish without any authentification needed. If you wish, you can add to the collection of photos as well! They are generally photos provided by very talented photographers!

9. 5000 Free Stock Photos

Here you can choose from a collection of 5000 free stock photos and 8000 cliparts that are completely free to download without registration. It’s quick and simple!

10. Unprofound – A Public Domain Stock Photo Collaboration

This site was created by a graphic designer and other collaborating creatives who were bothered by the fact that it was very difficult to find quality, free to use photos on the internet for using in their graphic creations. So they took their cameras and made their own high quality collection of photos and then they generously decided to offer it for free to any other designer out there who might happen to need it. If you wish, you can make a donation to the site – it would be a nice way of saying thanks!

11. Freerangestock – Totally Free Stock Photography And Textures!

It is another site that has a huge collection of high quality stock photos. Here you just need to sign up, and then you can download as many pictures as you want, at a very high resolution. If you wish, you can contribute with your own photos as well!

12. Lomography – Free Photos

In this case, you will find a site that specializes in art photography, with a retro look, and using old cameras that give a special color effect to all the pictures. You can search the database and you’ll also get information about the type of camera or film that was used! Unfortunately, the pictures are not at a very high resolution, but you can contact the artist that created them and discuss with him/her if you need a high quality picture. Of course, you are free to join the club too, if you are fond of creating such pictures and if you wish, you can even order yourself a very good old camera from the site!

13. Imagebase – Free Images Public Domain

It is a site with a very big collection of free downloadable pictures sorted on different sections.(No registration is needed).They are high quality pictures created by a graphic designer who has traveled a lot with his camera by his side. You can check his portfolio too.

14. PixelPerfect – Free Stock Photos Section

This is a site where you ca download photos and digital art for free with no registration needed. The site also promotes the creators of the photos and offers you the possibility to communicate with them, if you wish, or comment on their art.

15. Cepolina Photos – Free Photo

On this site you will find a wonderful collection of high resolution pictures on nature, geography and traveling mostly, but not only. Again, no registration needed but you should credit the site on your website.

16. PhotoRack – Stock Photos and Free Images

Another site with a very big collection of pictures that you can download for free without any registration. The images are very well structured on subjects so it’s easy to find what you need.

17. Abstract Influence – Image Portal

A huge collection of photos available for download for free- at medium and high resolution! Quick and easy: no registration necessary!

18. FreeMediaGoo – Free Stock Photos, Background and Web Images

Here you will find not only free stock photos but also free audio or free flash but unfortunately you don’t have a big range of choice. You could give it a try, though.

19. FreePixels – Free Stock Photos

This is a collection of 4000 stock photos at high resolution and very high quality that you can download for free and without login.

20. ImageAfter – 25k+ Free Textures And Images

You’re completely free to use the 25 000 stock photos and textures available on this site for personal or commercial use. No identification needed.

21. FreeImages – Free Stock Photos

Another collection of free stock photos of medium or high resolution that you can download as long as you provide a link to the site when you use them.

22. InterArtCenter – Free Clip Art Gallery and Images

A special feature of this site is that beside high quality stock photos it also has 3D cliparts, 3D wallpapers, 3Dmodels, and Flash animations to download for free. No registration is needed again!

23. Openphoto – More Than 14K Images

A site with a huge collection of 15 000 free stock photos

24. Photorogue – Original Photos by Request

This is a site based on a very creative idea- but only at its beginning at the moment. We’ll mention it for the cool idea: the creators of of the site considered the situation when a graphic designer searches desperately for a certain picture and doesn’t manage to find it and they thought about reversing the process. This time it is the designer who requests the exact picture that he/she needs and a volunteer photographer will try to obtain it. After that, the picture will be available for everyone to see and download for free.

25. Woophy – Free Photos

A site with a huge collection of high quality stock photos that also shows you the place on the world map where the picture was taken! You are free to download them for personal use but they are copyrighted by photographer and cannot be used for commercial purposes unless he/she agrees with that.

from Fast Company by Dan Nosowitz

There were few surprises during today's Apple event, many of the new products--including the touchscreen Nano, a social network, a cheaper Netflix-toting Apple TV, and front-facing-camera-toting iPod Touch--were rumored with surprising accuracy. But put together, these announcements reveal a lot about where Apple is pushing its entertainment division.

The Fourth Leg: Apple TV

At the 2008 World Wide Developer Conference, CEO Steve Jobs showed a three-legged stool during his presentation. Each leg represented one part of Apple's business: Music, iPhone and Mac. After the event, many people wondered where Apple TV fit in--where was the fourth leg? Today, we found out.

The new Apple TV is streamlined to a fault, and forgoes two major elements that just about every other competing media streamer offers: internal and external storage. Apple TV has no internal storage, like a hard drive or flash storage for you to store the movies you own.

"People don’t want to think about managing storage, they just want to watch their shows," Jobs said during the event. "They don’t want to sync to a computer, most don’t even know what that is. And they want whatever the hardware is to be silent, cool, and small."

Removing that hard drive is one way Apple is able to reduce the cost of the device, but the in-sourced A4 chip--which is now used in the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Apple TV--likely provides the biggest cost benefit for the company.

Until now, Apple TV was a hobby for Jobs. With the second generation of the device, Apple aims to become truly competitive in the TV and movie market. While only ABC and FOX signed on as pilot partners, Jobs said: "We think the rest of the studios will see the light." He could have said the same thing when Apple first began selling music.

Up Into The Cloud

All the TV shows and movies come from the cloud. You to rent TV shows and movies from iTunes, or watch streaming video from Netflix. None of it is downloaded, none of it is permanent--unlike the music on your iPod, or even the apps on your iPhone. The Apple TV is the latest in a line of new Apple products that sees the tech world this way, with the first being perhaps the MacBook Air, which eliminated the optical (DVD) drive.

iOS 4.1, the next iteration of the iPhone operating system, and iOS 4.2, which is aimed at iPad, also add to the theme of simple, cloud-based computing. Apple's latest iPhone app, Game Center, is a wireless multiplayer gaming powerhouse.

The iPad has been a huge hit, but some find it an inadequate laptop replacement for a couple simple reasons: It can't print, and it can't multitask. The next version of iOS 4 fixes all that, and those little tweaks may make the difference for a lot of buyers.

iTunes 10, along with the new "Ping" social network, is another example of Apple's movement into the cloud. The new iTunes apes ideas from streaming and social music pioneers like MOG and Spotify, combining them with traditional social networking services like Facebook and Twitter. And it will work not only on your computer, but also on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Whether it takes off or sits ignored will largely depend on execution. Apple has a huge built-in audience--160 million users in 23 countries. But remember, Google Buzz had a similarly huge audience, and we all know how that's turned out.

Touchscreen Everything

What about the existing, and most profitable leg of Apple's stool? Jobs said the latest line of iPods represented the most important upgrade since they were introduced in 2001. But in truth, the iPods were perhaps the least thrilling piece of today's news. The new iPod Shuffle is, you know, a Shuffle. It does what it does. The new Nano is a really peculiar little toy--but will a touchscreen that small (1.54 inches!) be usable? It's certainly an advance, but it doesn't revolutionize the device in any unexpected way. 

Maybe the most noteworthy piece of today's announcement is that the clickwheel, one of Apple's most iconic design features, is officially dead. The iPod Classic was nowhere to be found today. It's all touch from here on out.

But as with the optical drive, internal storage, and expandable USB storage, Apple is sacrificing the clickwheel to move forward. Apple's new lineup is sleeker than ever and more connected than ever--sometimes to its detriment. But, once again, Apple is living just a little bit in the future. If it didn't deliver a signature element of risk in its new product launches, well, it'd be Sony.

Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in Brooklyn (no link for that one--you'll have to do the legwork yourself).

[Disclaimer: I am a fan of Social Security and of eliminating any cap on contributions to it, flat rate or increased. And no, I don't qualify for Social Security yet - you know who your are.]

This is a guest post from Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the adviser for The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service. He contributes one new article to Get Rich Slowly every two weeks.

We hear a lot about the doubts over the future of Social Security. Here are a few I’ve come across:

• “Three-fourths of those 18 to 34 don’t expect to get a Social Security check when they retire.” — USA Today
• “My husband and I are both 28, and we laugh every time we hear [‘yes, you’ll receive Social Security’]. No, we won’t receive Social Security, even though we’ve both been paying into it since we were teenagers…I can’t think of one of my peers who expects Social Security to still be around when we’re retirement age. Call us bitter.” — A comment to my last column (“When Will You Be Able to Retire?”)
• “Six in 10 Americans who have not yet retired believe they will get no Social Security benefits when they retire, more pessimistic than at any time since Gallup began asking this question in 1989.” — Gallup
• “According to one survey, 100% of people married to Robert Brokamp wish he would shave his head rather than try to pull off a comb-over.” — My wife

If you’re among the doubters (of Social Security, not my hairdo), then listen up: The following paragraph is the most important group of words you’ll ever hear regarding Social Security. It’s key to understanding how the program works, and whether you’ll get anything. Here it is:

Social Security is predominantly a pay-as-you-go program. Most of the payroll taxes that are collected from today’s workers go into the checks of today’s beneficiaries. Thus, as long as there are people working and paying payroll taxes, there will be money to pay Social Security benefits.

According to the most recent Social Security Trustees report, from 2037 to 2084 payroll taxes will be enough to cover 75% of projected benefits. That’s not great, but that’s not nothing, either.

People who think that they won’t receive any Social Security benefits must believe one or all of the following three things:

1. In the future, people won’t work.
2. In the future, the government won’t collect payroll — a.k.a. FICA (Federal Insurance Contribution Act) — taxes. Currently, workers “contribute” 6.2% of their paychecks to the Social Security system, and their employers match with another 6.2%; the self-employed pay the whole 12.4%. Another 2.9% goes toward Medicare. As you know if you’ve looked at your paycheck, it’s a separate withholding from income taxes. In fact, the majority of Americans pay more in FICA taxes than they do in income taxes.
3. In the future, Social Security will be means-tested to such a degree that the “wealthy” (an arbitrary designation, to be sure) won’t receive any benefits. Those who don’t think they’ll receive Social Security assume they’ll be among these “wealthy.”

I don’t think Nos. 1 and 2 are likely. No. 3 is possible. The program is already means-tested to a degree, since the percentage of income that is replaced by Social Security decreases as lifetime earnings increase. However, I think that if changes to the means-testing formula result in a group losing their benefits completely, it will be a small group — certainly not 60% to 75%, as the aforementioned surveys suggest. I find it very unlikely that a future Congress — elected by future citizens — will change the program in a way that the majority of people who pay FICA taxes won’t get at least some benefits.

Those crazy trust funds
For many years, the payroll taxes collected were more than needed to pay current benefits. The surplus went into the Social Security trust fund, which invested the money in special-issue U.S. Treasury bonds. However, this year — thanks to the stinky economy — benefits will exceed revenues. That’s projected to temporarily reverse, but at some point in the middle of the next decade, the retirement of the baby boomers will cause benefits to exceed taxes. This is where the trust funds come in. They’ll be sold to cover the shortfall.

In my opinion, this is the essence of questions about the future of Social Security: What, exactly, are we to make of these trust funds? Are they truly assets? Here are the two arguments:

• Those who think that the Social Security system is essentially sound will point out that of course the trust funds are real assets. They’re full of U.S. Treasuries, which are considered the safest investments in the world.
• Those who think otherwise point out that since Treasuries are federal government debt, the trust funds contain just worthless pieces of paper with a note written on them that says, “Dear Uncle Sam: I owe you lots of money. Love, Uncle Sam.”

I have to admit, I haven’t quite decided to which camp I belong. I’m inclined to go with the latter. After all, when, say, 2020 rolls around, and the Social Security Administration needs some money from the trust fund, it will take one of these special-issue Treasuries to Uncle Sam and want to exchange it for cash to be sent to retirees. Where will that cash come from? I almost think I need to see a spreadsheet or detailed flowchart or something to fully understand how all that will work. If you have suggestions for how to accurately think about the trust funds, I’m all ears.

For now, plan on getting less
That’s enough talk about Social Security for now (assuming you’re still reading). From a financial-planning perspective, I’ll reiterate my advice from my last post. If you are in or near retirement, plan on getting your benefit. If you’re younger, play it safe and plan on getting 25% to 75% of your projected benefit. But plan on getting something.

I’m sure you have your own thoughts and opinions about Social Security, and I encourage you to share them below. However, let me say this: Often, discussions following articles about Social Security turn into political brawls that degenerate into name-calling and general silliness. So please, all you right-wing nutjobs and left-wing commies, let’s keep it civil. Stick to the topic of Social Security and the facts. And maybe advice for creating a sweet comb-over.

Does your business have a Facebook page? Have you ever wondered what successful Facebook page owners are doing right? Well, look no further.

This article examines 10 of the top Facebook pages from brands you’ll likely recognize. Regardless of the size of your business, you’ll discover great ideas that will help you take your Facebook experience to the next level.

Each of these pages has incorporated unique features that have attracted hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions!) of fans and attracted the notice of major media publications. That’s a pretty big feat, considering there are thousands of new pages popping up on Facebook daily!

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, check out what others are doing and tweak these strategies to make them your own!

#1: Red Bull

The team behind the Red Bull page is extremely in tune with their target audience. This is evidenced in their custom apps and unique content throughout their page.

Red Bull knows what their audience will respond to best and they deliver it. For example, they’ve created a series of online games for their fans, aptly called the “Procrastination Station.” The games are geared toward sports and high-impact competitions.

In addition, Red Bull created a web TV program that’s highlighted on their Facebook page. There are multiple segments, many spotlighting the lives of their sponsored athletes. Not only is the web TV show a great way to align with celebrity athletes, but it is also a way to incorporate video into the page, thereby giving the audience another way to interact.

Another smart feature of Red Bull’s page is their welcome tab. When a non-fan lands on their page, he or she sees the image below. Red Bull creatively encourages fans to “Like” their page with an attention-grabbing image. Also, they only put one thing on their welcome tab, making it very clear what they want to happen. When you add too much to your welcome tab, your fans will get confused and likely not take any action. Less is more. Stick to one call to action.

Tip: One area you might want to consider spending a little money on is creative design for your page. Design, when done right, makes a great first impression for non-fans. Also, when you design your Facebook page, pay close attention to your call to action, specifically for the “Like” button. What can you do to grab the attention of your new viewer and encourage him or her to click on your “Like” button quickly? Red Bull’s creative design on their welcome tab does just that!

#2: Burt’s Bees

One of the best features on the Burt’s Bees page is their use of photos and video. They use the photos and videos to give a behind-the-scenes view of their company and products.

In the image below, notice how Burt’s Bees not only mentions the type of ingredients used, but they also suggest their ingredients are safe and they welcome all visitors into their lab. This is a great example of a way to promote your company and products, while adding value in the form of interesting details.

Tip: We all have something unique about our products or services and Facebook is one of the best places to highlight this. How can you incorporate video or images to help you stand out from your competition?

#3: Uno Chicago Grill

Uno Chicago Grill has taken full advantage of the Facebook app FBML to highlight their menu options in an extremely appealing way. They have many tabs dedicated to specific areas of their menu and use imagery to entice their fans. In addition, on their welcome tab they link to the most important areas of their website, including locations and online ordering options. When non-fans come to their page for the first time, they get an instant snapshot of Uno’s offerings.

In addition, Uno has incorporated a Fan of the Week contest on their Facebook page. Fans get their photo posted directly on the profile image of the restaurant’s wall.

This is great exposure for the fan, making it a fun activity to participate in.

To take it one step further, Uno does something unique with their Fan of the Week contest—they ask fans to post photos of themselves while at an Uno restaurant, thereby encouraging fans to come in and dine.

This is a great way to bring their online fans into their brick-and-mortar establishment!

Tip: If you have a brick-and-mortar establishment, think of creative ways to entice your fans to visit in person. Contests, promotions and special offers are all great ways to invite new fans to come in and check things out!

#4: LiveScribe

LiveScribe has incorporated two features into their page to help them sell more products and cut back on support calls.

First, they’ve created a savvy storefront as one of their tabs. Not only can you buy directly from the Facebook page, but you can also tweet about their products and post about them on your Facebook wall. These two options help create greater exposure for LiveScribe’s products. When your friends see that you’re posting about a new product, it’s natural for them to want to know more.

In addition, LiveScribe has incorporated a support desk directly into their Facebook page. As you can see below, you can ask a question, share an idea, report a problem or even give praise directly from their Facebook page. What’s even more important is that others can see these posts. Fans and potential buyers can then go to this tab to get answers or see what others are saying about the products.

It’s another great way to educate fans about your products and services. In addition, this tool can cut down service calls when executed correctly, saving your company time and money.

Tip: If you’re providing a product or service, consider incorporating a support feature to your page. It’s common for customers to use social media sites to post questions or complaints. If you provide a designated place for support, you’re likely to keep your customers happy and turn them into repeat buyers!

#5: Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 has done an exceptional job of making their page both fun and functional. The fun factor is expressed in their new application, Toy Creator, where you can turn yourself into an animated toy. Both kids and adults can get in on the action and then share their new creation on their Facebook wall (yet another viral exposure opportunity!).

To make their page functional, they’ve built a tab where you can purchase movie tickets without ever leaving Facebook. This makes ticket buying easy and fast for their fans.

Tip: Keep your fans inside Facebook as much as possible. Bring your content, unique experiences and buying opportunities to them instead of making fans leave the site to interact with your business. Your chances for greater interactions and a bigger return on investment will dramatically increase the longer you keep them on your page.

#6: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has secured their spot at the top of many best-of-the-best Facebook page lists due to their innovative promotions and fun, interactive features.

Their latest promotion is the Summer Snapshot contest, where they encourage their fans to take photos with the summer Coca-Cola cans. Not only does this get fans involved with their page, but the contest also incorporates photos of their products with fans.

Photos are viewed more than anything else on Facebook. They go viral quickly because when a fan posts a photo, that photo is then sent out to the news feeds of all of their friends. Hundreds of thousands of potentially new fans will see these photos.

Here’s an example of a photo a fan posted for the Coca-Cola contest. Notice how others can vote on the photos? This allows everyone to get in on the fun.

Tip: When creating a contest, keep it simple. The less your fans need do to enter, the better. Make it easy, fun and make sure to incorporate a sharing component so your contest spreads virally.

#7: Oreo

Oreo does a fantastic job of creating unique experiences for their fans. Oreo knows that their cookies have been part of many people’s lives since childhood and they use this angle to create nostalgia with their fans. And it’s working for them because they have over 8 million fans to date!

One of their latest campaigns is their “Back to School Memories” campaign where they ask their fans to share their memories and photos directly on their Facebook page. By offering unique experiences like Oreo has done with their back to school campaign, brands create a connection to the fans, who become loyal followers and keep coming back for more.

Tip: You’ll get a much greater response when you ask your fans to share something about themselves. Ask them their thoughts, opinions and feedback and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly they start talking!

#8: Jones Soda

Jones Soda does a great job of incorporating many different ways for their fans to interact with their page. Not everyone communicates the same way, so providing multiple options is a smart strategy.

Specifically, Jones Soda does a weekly poll directly from their welcome tab. Polls are a great way to learn more about your audience as well as a fun strategy to get them to interact with your page.

Tip: Think of different ways to get your fans to engage with you. Polls, contests, questions, iPhone apps and videos are just a few different ways to reach your fans. All fans are different; make sure to provide options.

#9: The Twilight Saga

No matter if you have seen the movies or not, you can’t deny that the Twilight Saga is hot. There are two strategies they’ve launched on their Facebook page that you can model for your own page.

First, they’ve created a “Tweet Sweeps,” where they encourage fans to tweet about the movies for a chance to win movie tickets. The best strategy with this type of contest is to tell fans specifically what to tweet so there is no confusion and they can take action quickly. Check out how they’ve done this in the image below:

In addition, the Twilight Saga page has taken advantage of the “Discussion” tab where fans can post topics of discussion and all fans can join in and comment. The discussion tab creates a great sense of community and dramatically increases the engagement on the page.

Tip: To encourage more conversation among fans on your page, start a few discussion streams to get people talking. Once this takes off, your fans will continue to post discussion topics on their own and the page engagement will grow organically.

#10: Travel Channel

The Travel Channel has done something unique on their page that’s worth checking out. They’ve created a space for their fans to share how Facebook has played a part in their travel experiences. You can post your own story or just read what others have posted. It’s a creative way to get people with similar interests to engage with your page.

Tip: Facebook Stories can be incorporated on your page as well. Go here to see how it works and check out the different story themes offered.

Southern India sets the stage for this epic showdown between an Indian gray mongoose and king cobra. The snake has the ability to kill a human in 30 minutes, according to National Geographic.

Who will survive -- the hungry mammal or the venomous snake?

For better or worse, it looks like 3-D video is going to be the next big thing in home entertainment.

A new standard for 3-D video compression called Multiview Video Coding (MVC) has been announced, and it significantly reduces the amount of data required to project 3-D images, while keeping the high-resolution quality.

Until now, the massive data rate requirement has been the main obstacle blocking 3-D video from making its way into the home theater experience. Data flows to televisions like it does to your Internet browser or your smart phone. Most satellite and Internet hookups can't handle the huge amount of data 3-D movies require. Try it and you could have problems with buffering, which would make the movie pause or stutter.

But the MVC standard, which was developed by researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications and Heinrich-Hertz-Institut in Germany, reduces the data dump by 40 percent, making it more manageable.

Thomas Schierl is one of the researchers who worked to develop the MVC standard. He says, "New TV sets will start off by only playing 3-D movies from the Blu-Ray disc...The next step to bring 3-D into living rooms will be made possible via broadcast or IPTV channels running via DSL or cable."

And just like a system Microsoft is working on, you don't need to wear 3-D glasses with a MVC system.

For those of us who haven't bought a new TV since the '90s, 3-D movies are still possible with MVC. Essentially, the third dimension would be hidden inside the same stream of data that brings the first two dimensions to your TV.

You will need a special 3-D receiver though, and maybe a bowl of popcorn.