For the end of the 2012, instead of sharing with you my own top ten list of this blogs' most popular posts, I've rounded up interesting and informative Top 10 lists in various categories from reputable sites and journalists. Ranging from Pop Culture and Scientific Discoveries to Luxury cars and iPhone Apps, here are some great compilations.
Ten Great Top Ten Of 2012 Lists
1. The Top 10 Books of 2012 (New York Times Editors)
2. Top 10 Albums of 2012 (Rolling Stone)
3. Top 10 Art Auction Sales in 2012 (Bloomberg)
4. Top 10 Weirdest Stories of 2012 (National Geographic)
5. Top 10 TV Moments of 2012 (Art Info)
6. The Top 10 Science Stories of 2012 (CNN)
7. Top 10 Best Cars Over 80k of 2012 (Car and Driver)
8. The Top 10 Crowd-Funded Projects of 2012 (Engadget)
9. Apple's Top 10 Free and Paid For iPhone apps of 2012
10. The Top 10 Google searches in 12 categories in 2012
The Top Ten Top 10 Lists of 2012 Ranging From Pop Culture, Art and Music To Tech, Cars and Science.
Countdown to Christmas Eve With Google's New Santa Tracker, Chrome App and Interactive Website.
For the past few years I have been writing posts about Norad's Santa Tracker (once a partner of Google's) and how it works as a nice online activity to enjoy with your children and friends. Now that Microsoft's Bing has partnered with Norad, Google has gone all out and created their own Google Maps' Santa Tracker and until it launches on Christmas Eve, you can explore a fun interactive animated site with plenty of games and goodies or download a Google Chrome app for added entertainment.
above: screen grabs of the Village briefing and windtunnel
Santa’s many developer elves, who are hard at work in the North Pole helping Santa prepare for his big day, have combined their elf magic with the latest and greatest in Google Maps technology and sleigh engineering to allow you to follow his progress around the world, and also learn a little about some of his stops along the way. 
above: a sneak preview of the Google Santa Tracker which launches on Christmas Eve.
Even without using Google chrome as your browser, you can enjoy the following at the Google Santa Tracker Site:
•Create a Custom Phone Call from Santa in the form of an mp3 file you can send to your friends (This is really cool. It takes a few minutes to make the first one, but it's worth it.)
•You (or your kids) can play one of three games that operates with your keyboard.
Present Drop:
Village Racer:
Jetpack:
If you use Google Chrome, you can download the app and enjoy even more fun like a dashboard tracker, play around with Santa's blimp or elf bus and write messages on a frosty browser window.
•You can Follow Santa on Google+
The friendly elves have also invited you to explore Santa’s village while Santa gets ready for his journey. So go ahead and explore his village, you might just find some fun activities and meet some interesting elves.
The Google Maps Santa Tracker is created and developed by Google, with a little help from Santa’s elves. Need help or have another question? Visit their Help Center to learn more about Santa Tracker.
Related links:
Goodnight iPad, A Parody Of The Children's Classic For The Gadget Loving Generation.
The classic children's book, Goodnight Moon, has been more parodied a few times, one of my favorites being Goodnight Keith Moon. The latest to turn the illustrated children's tale "Goodnight Moon," written by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd and first published in 1947, into a version that resonates with our contemporary world, is Goodnight iPad. Written by Ann Droyd (a pseudonym) with charming illustrations by David Milgrim, the book is a version for today's generation, living modern-day lives filled with products we power up.
Modern life is abuzz. There are huge LCD WiFi HD TVs and Facebook requests and thumbs tapping texts and new viral clips of cats doing flips. Wouldn't it be nice to say goodnight to all that? Like the rest of us who cannot resist just a few more scrolls and clicks, you may find yourself ready for bed while still clinging to your electronics long after dark. 
This book, which is made of paper, is a reminder for the child in all of us to power down at the end of the day. This hilarious parody not only pokes loving fun at the bygone quiet of the original classic, but also at our modern plugged-in lives. It will make you laugh, and it will also help you put yourself and your machines to sleep. Don't worry, though. Your gadgets will be waiting for you, fully charged, in the morning.
The book has received excellent press by many reputable critics (see some here)
About the author:
Ann Droyd is the pseudonym for an IRA/CBC Children's Choice winner who has written and illustrated over twenty picture books for young readers. Droyd's work is known for its sense of narrative, humor, and visual playfulness. Ann Droyd, who studied graphic design at Parsons, lives in Massachusetts.
Product details:
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 30 pages
Publisher: Blue Rider Press (October 27, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399158561
ISBN-13: 978-0399158568
Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
The original Goodnight Moon:
Other parodies of the book available to purchase:
Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody
Goodnight Bush: A Parody
Goodnight Husband, Goodnight Wife
Goodnight Keith Moon: A Parody!
Adidas Launches Christmas Campaign With Snoop as Scrooge and An Interactive Facebook App That Lets You Un-Scrooge Yourself.
adidas has launched its pioneering Holiday Campaign for 2012, enlisting the help of some of the world’s finest sporting and cultural icons, to turn your social media content into a potentially timeline-changing classic Holiday Tale. At the heart of the campaign is ‘The Cautionary Tale of Ebenezer Snoop’ online film (shown in this post), offering you the opportunity to follow a digital journey to find and share your own Holiday Spirit. As the film closes, you are invited to find out if you are an Ebenezer, and if so, the chance to redeem yourself with an innovative Facebook app (screen grab shown below).
The film features global music heavyweight Snoop Lion alongside skateboard OG Mark Gonzales escorting viewers into the illustrated world of legendary Beavis & Butthead artist JJ Sedelmaier. ‘The Cautionary Tale of Ebenezer Snoop’ follows the path of the classic Holiday story, seeing Ebenezer Snoop confronted by the Ghosts of Holiday Past (Stan Smith), Present (David Beckham) and Future (Derrick Rose & Rita Ora), as well as a host of other Global adidas stars that keeps viewers going back to find more. As you continue on your journey through the tale, you return to Facebook to create your own story.
The adidas Holiday Facebook application produces for you, the user, a personalized journey that mirrors the structure of the Ebenezer Snoop film content. Snoop might not be the only Ebenezer. By aggregating your user data around certain Facebook activities such as comments, birthday well-wishes, & event responses, adidas creates your own uniquely tailored Ebenezer film (they choose all the times you declined invites, didn't respond to posts or didn't acknowledge friends' brithdays to prove your 'scrooginess'). The app pulls in these features from your Facebook timeline, proposing what your digital life could look like if you don’t mend your ways. The level of your online interaction determines the film which your journey takes – the storyline and content directed by your digital life.
Examples from my own Facebook page:
At the end of your personal journey adidas offers you the opportunity to redeem yourself by sending a Facebook greeting card featuring JJ Sedelmaier’s campaign illustrations to friends.
You can choose any of the ghosts from the animated tale to deliver your customized card:
David Beckham:
Derrick Rose:
Rita Ora:
Stan Smith:
The gift which accompanies the card is dependent on your Ebenezer levels – one possibility is a 15% e-commerce discount.
A truly interactive online campaign working across social media, adidas recognises the importance of the digital world to its consumers and presents a complete Holiday gift-giving solution to its fans.
“The Ebenezer Snoop Holiday Campaign is the most user-specific app adidas has ever created, examining consumer behaviour to produce a truly personalised online experience. There is so much noise during the holidays, we’ve created a simple yet effective app to cut straight through. The Ebenezer Snoop Facebook app aggregates your personal Facebook information to produce a film entirely for you. Using the Timeline we are suggesting how your timeline could look if you don’t mend your ways!” -- Gabriel Jaffe, Senior Digital Communications Manager, AG.
Creative Credits:
Production Credits
Client: ADIDAS
Creative Agency: SID LEE
Production Agency: JIMMY LEE.TV
Post-Production:MASS MARKET/JIMMY LEE.TV/ VISION GLOBALE
Production houses: Live action – CAVIAR CONTENT / Animation - J.J. SEDELMAIER PRODUCTIONS
Director: Live action – Jake Szymanski / Animation – JJ Sedelmaier
Grading: MASS MARKET
Editors: JIMMY LEE.TV
Sound Design : MACHINE HEAD
Sound Mix: LA MAJEURE
About adidas
adidas is a global designer, developer and marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories with the mission to be the leading sports brand in the world. Brand adidas is part of the adidas Group, a corporation that includes brands such as Reebok, TaylorMade and Rockport.
About the adidas Group
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around the core brands adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 46,000 employees and generated sales of € 13.3 billion in 2011.
The Next Best Thing To Being Cloned. A Frighteningly Lifelike 3D Mask Of Your Face.
These realistic full sized face masks are truly incredible likenesses. So much so that they most likely will creep you out while simultaneously amazing you. Making full use of a technology called Three-Dimension Photo Form (3DPF), Real-f - short for REALFACE- of Japan will create an exact duplicate of your mug in the form of a hard plastic mask within a relatively short time and at an affordable price.
Below is a model holding the mask in front of her real face:
And the model holding the mask next to her own face:
Close-up details of the mask:
Osamu Kitagawa (shown below with his own mask), who established REAL-f in June of 2011, spent a couple of years developing the products after leaving Dainippon Screen Mfg.Co.,Ltd. ("Screen") in 2009. During the interviews of "Human Copy Machine" which was developed by himself at the former company, he desired "Not a flat copy like a poster but a three-dimensional copy to be realized -- " and decided to start REAL-f with technique called "Three-dimension Photo Form" 
The 3DPF technique makes it possible to duplicate pores, eye's blood vessels and iris exactly the same as the originals. Details like eyebrows, stubble and eyelashes are the impeccable.
In about two hours (one for photographing the subject and one for taking an impression of the face) the REALFACE mask will be complete. They keep the original mold for a period of time during which you can order more without the initial set-up cost. The original can then be sent to the customer or destroyed depending upon their preference. Delivery time of the mask is about two weeks.
Because the REALFACE mask is made of a hard plastic, the lips cannot move, therefore showing teeth is not possible. They can create holes where there eyes are so that you can see when wearing the mask. 
Basic rates includes taking photos and impressions of face, producing the original model and photo image correction. For the first one, they charge you for basic rates and production fee of the REALFACE mask. The cost is 300K JPY (about $3700 USD) for the basic rate + the first mask and 60K JPY ($740 USD) for the second one and upward.
Although they can ship anywhere, the process can only occur at their shop in Japan located at 25-17-513 6-chome, Shimo-Sakamoto, Otsu City, Shiga pref. Japan, 520-0105.
Real-F had intended to begin creating full heads with this process, but have ceased that project in order to pursue creating a 'soft' version of the mask, not yet available.
all images courtesy of REAL-f 
Real-F
