Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works — sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

NASA hopes we enjoy J-Track 3-D.

Clicking on the thumbnail below or here or there will activate JTrack3D and it will appear in its own window and begin loading a database of over 900 satellites.

What you will see (presuming the system you’re on supports Java) is a plot in 3-dimensions showing the position of these satellites. Choose them all from the pull-down menu.

If your system isn’t currently supporting Java, skip the conniption, there are also some satellites that can be viewed without it:

cheers to @drwave for turning me onto this:

was turned onto this today via @edtechleader:

surely most of you have seen this before but i still watch it from time-to-time:

From Wikipedia:

Metaplace provides user-generated virtual worlds. As Metaplace is browser based, worlds made with Metaplace can connect to each other through hyperlinks. Every object in Metaplace has a unique URL. This character of Metaplace allows advanced users to use these URLs in setting up and reading RSS feeds, set up ad services within worlds, and access and show content from the web within their worlds. According to founder Raph Koster, Metaplace seeks to “make online world elements… part of the standard code which drives the web”

Metaplace uses a Lua variant called Metascript. Metaplace users can use Metascript to add functionality to any object in their world. These functionalities can be included in Animals and pets, doors, enemies with the ability to fight and attack, puzzles and games, artsy effects, vehicles.

Metaplace is currently in open beta testing and has created some nifty tools to embed these virtual worlds most anywhere, such as the demo I’ve been playing with below: