Blue Moon Partial Eclipse

Every New Year's Eve I like to get out of Dublin, or at least out of the city centre. Usually it's just nice to be able to see the stars and the sky and be outside when you're ringing in the New Year. This year, however, there's an especially good reason to be outside looking up at the stars.

On December 31st 2009 there are a number of really cool things happening. Not only is it the end of the decade, not only is it New Year's Eve, but it will also be the night of a Blue Moon Partial Eclipse.

As the Lunar Calendar is shorter then the Gregorian Calendar (the standard calendar that we use), every 2.7 years there is an 'extra' full moon. There are 13 full moons during the year instead of 12. The exact timing of this changes and there is much debate as to which full moon during a year should be classed as the Blue Moon.

In this regard there may be those who would say that next week's full moon is not a Blue Moon but the romantic in me has made up his mind. Considering that it's such a rarity to get see a Blue Moon and a Partial Eclipse (it's happened just 4 times in 20th century), I will happily defend my position based on nothing other then my own ideas.

The Eclipse shadow will peak 7:22pm (Greenwich Mean Time) and will be visible in most of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia, as per the following rough guide:

• North and South America: Blue moon, but no visible eclipse.
• Europe, Africa and Middle East: Blue moon, visible eclipse
• Asia and Australasia: Full moon (not blue), visible eclipse

On one final point, if this rare lunar event wasn't special enough as it is, you may find it a little weird to that December 31st will be the final day of the International Year of Astronomy.

Check out this video of the 2007 Blue Moon Eclipse...

A Day In The Internet

This is a really cool visualisation by Søren over on RoBoilr.dk, showing a day in the internet and exactly how much data we move and create (via the always excellent Nick Burcher).

The Perfect Christmas Story

This year for Christmas Vodafone have launched a huge online campaign centred around Facebook and three cool apps: the Pressie Picker, the Selection Box and the Perfect Christmas Story. Basically they're just fun little apps that work out who you are from your Facebook profile and come up with some quirky insights into you and your friends. They work around Facebook Connect.

The Pressie Picker pretty much does what it says on the tin, and will analyse who you are and suggest the best pressie for you or a friend. Of course you have to let it know if you’re naughty or nice. The Selection Box is a fun collection of gadgets to help you count in Christmas and prepare for whatever may be in store ;) Finally then, there’s the Perfect Christmas Story. If you’ve seen the Vodafone Christmas ad then you’ll get this – no point in spoiling it though, pop over and have a quick gander.

This is a Cybercom campaign so if you have the time I'd love to hear what you think.

Augmented Reality: Adidas

The next few months will see Adidas release a new range of shoes. What sets this range apart is that Adidas has created a virtual 3-D world that is accessed through the line of five men’s shoes. On top of this, Adidas will also introduce three Augmented Reality games as part of the new virtual world. Each pair of shoes will give the owner access to the virtual world and act as the controller for interacting with it. All you have to do is go to the Adidas website and hold up a code embedded on the shoes tongue to your webcam. The virtual world then pops up on your screen as part of the shoe.

“The foundation of augmented reality lies in adding a layer to the real world,” says Chris Barbour, head of digital marketing for Adidas Originals. “That’s what we have done. We have taken a real world item and added a fantastic virtual world on top of that. We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach,” says Barbour. “The neighborhood is displayed on a two dimensional computer screen, but you can use your shoe to control the angle and depth of view and zoom in and out, giving a 3-D sense of perspective.”

The campaign will offer a skateboard game, played around the virtual city’s alleys, a Star Wars-like game and a music-based game. The games have been developed for Adidas by xForm.

LBi: Mobile Mobile

Mobile Mobile is described as "a joyous seasonal story of re-cycled phones, collaboration and derring do".

Basically, after LBi upgraded all the mobile phones in the agency, they decided something should be done with their old handsets. They came up with the idea to re-cycle, or “up-cycle” as they described it, the phones in the form of an interactive sculpture.

Each phone was assigned a tone and tied into a computer to each play a single note. The following video demonstrates their favourite but you can also create your own personalised version through the campaign microsite using your keyboard.