I think Here's What's Awesome needs a catchphrase - something as catchy as Gomer Pyle's "Sha-zam!" but as down to earth as Daniel Schorr's "This is Daniel Schorr." Let's think on this as we explore another week of awesome links:

And next, three people and a piccolo
Two Brazilian musicians prove that a) you don't need two guitars to play a guitar duet, and b) you don't need to "beatbox" or sing about robots to become an internet musical sensation!

[via Neatorama]

I have to go - my planet needs me
Assertive types may not find Escape My Date to be their cup of tea, but passive-aggressives will love it. If you're out on a date or other social engagement and need to call an audible, you send a quick note via Twitter to Escape My Date, which then alerts your friends to call you. The only missing piece is the excuse you give your soon-to-be-ex-date - but I've got that covered: "I'm so sorry, but I forgot to set the Tivo for tonight's episode of Cheaters." It might work... [Programmable Web]

We're gonna need a bigger bar of soap
Among their many powers, sharks have textured skin that's designed to repel bacterial parasites. So a Florida company is taking this pandemic-ish occasion to see if a surface with microscopic bumps on it can repel germs for those of us who aren't sharks. Early tests are promising, meaning... more tests are coming. But there's optimism that the final version will be ready just when you think it's safe to go back in the water. [Gizmodo]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments. What? You forgot to set your Tivo? Oh gosh, well, maybe I'll call you next week.

Support for Here's What's Awesome comes from the Here's What's Awesome Foundation, helping awesome links help you, since 2008. On the web at... well, right here.

So what song is it y'all want to type in and have a computer sing?
I hope you didn't have big plans to start Monday morning, because you're probably going to spend it on Let Them Sing It For You. This groovy site takes word snippets from pop music and plays them back based on the phrase you type in. Type in "I love you" and you'll hear Chris Isaak, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC belt it out for you. We're rolling out a spinoff site, Let Virginia Prescott Sing That For You, but our site will only work with words used in the musical "Grease." [via TrendHunter]

...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and made a movie
Remember those crowdsourced zombie films that everybody was talking about a few months back, where willing hands filmed a scene or two and added them to the whole? Looks like there's a new project in the works - and the Force is with them:

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

At this rate, the auteur that is crowdsourcing will go through an existential crisis in a year or two, and then produce a crowdsourced version of Fellini's 8 1/2. [via Gizmodo]

RT Mustachioed villain calls hero poltroon, "base coward"
Tweets of Old shines the 140-character lens on the past, pulling choice quotes from old-timey newspapers for your tweety enjoyment. Twitter is just that much more interesting with posts like "Mrs.Stallings, from behind a bower of potted ferns, served delicious punch and sandwiches." I say, I like the cut of their jib. [via Mental Floss]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments. Bonus points if you SING!

It happened to Twitter, it happened to Pets.com, and now it's happened to us. Like so many sites that have grown almost overnight into internet institutions, Here's What's Awesome is facing a backlash - from jealous types, mostly, but we are nothing if not accommodating. So this week, I'll take you behind the scenes at our weekly compendium of awesome links. You'll get to see the template we use to build each week's column. And you'll see that the links we choose here are as awesome as they come. Because when it comes to awesome links, we have nothing to hide.

Template part 1: Intro! Share a funny story, anecdote or cultural reference that introduces the premise of the "Here's What's Awesome" brand. Be open, honest and FUN! Use a little irony to show you "get it" just like the audience.

Post the first awesome link with a brief but thoughtful explanation. Add a photo to give a visual cue for a more aesthetically pleasing display, and to provide a richer multimedia experience for readers.

No, it's not a band led by Jack and Meg Ice
Nature often makes the best art - right, leaf peepers? - and so places where nature's mostly left alone can really put on a show. That's what's happening in parts of Antarctica, where gorgeous photos of massive ice stripes are making the rounds. Just to reiterate, these aren't Photoshopped remixes - the stripes are caused by nature, which makes them that much cooler. (No pun intended.) [Inhabitat]

Now add two more awesome links and descriptions. Provide as wide a variety as possible, so there's something for everyone.

Cuts like a knife, or at least a scalpel
Scalpels are part of plenty of diagnostic procedures; now there's a scalpel that helps do the diagnosis itself. These electroscalpels analyze the byproduct of their, um, electroscalpeling to give real-time information on what's a tumor and what isn't. This gives the surgeon more accurate data than the pre-operative info normally used today. Human testing is set to begin soon. [Popular Science]

Game NOT Over
Everything is customizable these days, from my avatar to my eyeballs - so why is it that I can't find a video game that doesn't frustrate me and my limited hand-eye coordination after 30 seconds of play? Soon I might find one - researchers in Denmark want to start building adaptive games - that is, games that get easier if you're having trouble or challenge you more when you're doing well. Which means there's a chance I might actually be able to finish Super Mario Brothers after all these years. [NewScientist]

Let the reader know it's "your turn" to share links. This invites readers to become active participants in the "Here's What's Awesome" process. Come "full circle" by tying this last comment to the introduction.

Now that you know how it's all done, it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments.

Don't forget to provide credit for any Creative Commons photos. In the e-conomy, links are currency.

(Photo courtesy Rita Willaert via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Sometimes people ask me how it feels to write Here's What's Awesome, to share hundreds of awesome links with the world. And I tell them it makes me happy - as happy as a little piglet in a warm bath:

I can has borrow cup of sugar?
Online bartering is really coming into its own these days. You've heard about house swaps, and now there's NeighborGoods, a way for homeowners to share their stuff with the neighbors in pursuit of everybody having less stuff. So if you need that proverbial cup of sugar - or, more likely, a power tool for a project - you have a way to borrow it from someone nearby. (And if you don't send it back quickly, ReturnMyPants will send you a reminder e-mail!) [ReadWriteWeb]

Me and Your Nose, Remembering
If there's a word that's on the tip of your tongue, or an idea you had but you can't seem to bring it back up to the surface, maybe your nose can help. A German research team says the molecule interleukin-6 can help develop memories overnight when taken as a nasal spray. The researchers appear to be taking pains to qualify that they haven't proven it to be a memory-enhancer in other circumstances outside of nasal intake or nighttime memories, but if you'd like more vivid recollections of The Jay Leno Show, start spraying! [BoingBoing]

Nissan drives with the fishes
Whoever invents a way to end traffic jams is in line for a Nobel Peace Prize, given how much road rage will disappear overnight. Nissan says it's taken one step in that direction, by building robot cars that avoid each other the way fish do. It's not a perfect analogy, obviously - cars can't just go in any old direction, and fish don't have powertrain warranties - but the idea of building cars to essentially use the road in tandem instead of as individual entities might have legs - er, fins. The researchers also note that when cars aren't idling in traffic, they're wasting less gas, and reducing their carbon output. [AutoblogGreen]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments. And then we'll all take five in a hot tub like piglets do!

I don't have any hard data on this, but I'm pretty sure everyone in the universe (or maybe just my universe) spent the past week apple picking. And apple picking is a lot like the awesome link picking we do at Here's What's Awesome. You search and search from place to place to get just the right one. Then, ten minutes later, you've got eighteen pounds of the stuff and wonder how the heck you're going to use it all up in time.

Do people really loan out their pants?
If they do, the internet might just keep borrowed pants from wrecking a friendship. ReturnMyPants is a free lending tracker - meaning that when you loan out pants, or a book, or your copy of Virginia Prescott sings the Great American Songbook - the site can send you and/or the borrower e-mail reminders that he/she has something of yours, thus lessening the fear of a pantsless future. [Lifehacker]

The solar powered squire just came out to mow his lawn
Want to make lawn care a little greener, but without having to push your life away with a manual mower? Maybe this solar-powered lawnmower will do the trick. The one drawback, of course, is that some of us apparently live in places that get no sun, so we'll just have to keep pushing...
[Trendhunter]

From Astley to Zerg Rush
Some folks have stayed away from the whole YouTube universe, hoping that short-lived fads, video diaries and badly edited Heroes montages might have little staying power. If you're one of them, and you've decided it's time to get back into the groove after all, we've got just the thing for you: a four minute recap of pretty much every bit of YouTube cultural impact. Keyboard Cat, Obama Girl, Mentos and Diet Coke, and like 700 people falling over and hurting themselves. (Turn the sound down a bit before playing, it's a bit loud - just not all the way down)

[Presurfer]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments. Or share an apple.

(Photo by jo-h via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Time once again for Here's What's Awesome, the moment when the Internet's brightest links come out to shine! Think of us like the Emmys of the Internet, only I'm not showing up in a white tuxedo like Neil Patrick Harris. That's for the best, trust me.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a milk crate... no, it's a LEGO figure...
Australia's newest superhero/street art project is Crate Man! So far his only superpower is that he can show up in unexpected places in Melbourne, but while having a dude made out of recycled milk crates hang out on top of a building may not qualify as a super power, it's still pretty fun. Will Crate Man find his way to the States? Keep watching the rooftops. [RXFresh]

And a whole new Scooby Doo plot device is born
Researchers in Tokyo take the next great step for holographic technology: interactive holograms. The hologram responds to ultrasonic waves and movemenets with a Nintendo Wii controller, so that when the real person, say, puts her/his hand out, the hologram person shakes it. Aside from freaking people out, there are practical potential uses for the technology - you could, for example, set up a virtual lightswitch for a bedridding patient and give him/her a little more control over the surroundings. [Trendhunter]

And the best of the 70's, 80's and today is IN RANGE!
So you're out driving some afternoon, and you're hearing the wise 'n' witty banter that comes from this program, maybe with a certain Internet Sherpa as a guest, and then: no! Static! Soon you'll be out of broadcast range! You try to find the local frequency but you're on the highway, and it's dangerous, and... well, let's say that you make it out of the situation without exploding. This time. IBM is working on a way to keep you safe for next time, teaming satellite navigation with the car radio so you can more easily switch to the stronger frequency while driving. [NewScientist]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments. When you do, you'll be nominated for a special award at next year's Awesomeies.

(Photo by SplaTT via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Something odd happened as I was putting together this week's compendium of awesome links: Kanye West wandered into my living room and said, "I'll let you finish this column in a minute, but Beyonce had some of the best awesome links EVER!" Then my cat booed him.

Tweet my contacts
And you thought your iPhone or Blackberry crammed an impossibly huge amount of processing power and data into a tiny device! A team at the University of Washington has found a way to send data to your contact lens using LED and radio waves. They're hoping that, with some improvements, the lenses can send you a range of information, from personal data about the individual you're looking at to your own vital signs. There's still a lot of questions to answer - for one, is sending messages to the eye really safe, given that most of us can't walk and talk on a cellphone at the same time? - but it's likely you'll soon be able to have your vision sensors to tell you when you've located Sarah Connor. [Wired]

I yield back the balance of my keywords
Want to keep up on Congress but don't have time to watch C-SPAN? There are some cool data visuals coming out that might help. I like Capitol Words, which makes word clouds for each member of Congress so you can see what he or she's been talking about. In the spirit of this week's news, I looked up the word cloud for South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson. No, "you lie" doesn't show up, but health care does. [via 10000Words.net]

It's not just a bike - it's a transformer!
YikeBike is a lightweight electric urban bicycle that you can fold up and carry with you. Mind you, this isn't a bike you'd take out into the woods, but on the other hand, your mountain bike can't fight Decepticons. [Likecool]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments. Taylor Swift, you're exempt if you want.

(Photo by Roberto Rizzato via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Not that this is a surprise to Here's What's Awesome readers, but I think we're on the cusp of the animal prosthetics trend. Last week we wrote about an elephant with a new prosthetic leg; this week Presurfer introduces Lucky the turtle, who has a new set of front legs that help him in "chasing his girlfriend around." Who am I to stand in the way of a trend? I said to myself. So I had Lucky the turtle pick out this week's awesome links.

And just like that, Gallagher becomes our new energy czar
We already live in a world where sunlight, algae and chicken manure are being used or investigated as energy sources, so why not add watermelons too? The melon sugars are well-designed to ferment and make ethanol, and there's a ready supply, since a large number of watermelons are tossed out each year on purely aesthetic grounds. It's likely Sledge-o-Matic will control your town's energy supply now, but that's a small price to pay for a cleaner, greener world... right? [CleanTechnica]

This great!
That phrase above is the new name of this column, according to Translation Party, a fun little site that takes an English phrase and converts it to Japanese... and then converts that phrase back to English, and then back to Japanese, etc. Since each translation modifies the original a tiny bit, you end up with a really unusual phrase after a while, making the site a little like a self-contained game of Telephone. Given this week's headlines, I chose my test phrase from Ted Kennedy's famous eulogy for his brother, Robert: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." Translation Party gave me the following: "Man, I do not know why I continue. Why Please Please. Dream." Well said. [via DarkRoastedBlend]

Skate or Live
Daniel Pelletier is a skateboarder who happens to be paralyzed from the waist down. Absolutely ingenious.

[Neatorama]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments, preferably one submitted by an animal with a cool new prosthetic. Or not.

With Hurricane Bill sending torrents of rain down upon us, I wanted to start this week's column by reassuring you, dear reader, that no amount of rain can keep your weekly complement of awesome links from being delivered. Here's What's Awesome: we're like the Post Office, except we don't actually go out in the rain, we just work at a desk like we do when it's not raining. Forget I brought this up.

@god pls help me out kthx
Another sign that Twitter has arrived: you can tweet prayers to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, via direct messages to an account set up by Israeli student Alon Nir. [Mashable]

Long memories and prosthetic legs
Behold the world's first prosthetic elephant leg! Motola the elephant lost part of her front leg thanks to a landmine, but is apparently enjoying her regained mobility - too much, perhaps, as she tried to lay down on the prosthetic and bent it. Oops! A quick repair and she was back to never forgetting. [Make]

"an ATM for pancakes"
I'm going to be attending a couple weddings in the next few weeks, and know this, happy couples: if I were a man of means, I would buy each of you the ChefStack, a $3500 self-contained device that, once filled with batter, makes two hundred pancakes an hour. It's intended for commercial use, but let's be honest: we could all use a super-colossal pancake machine sitting on the kitchen counter, right? [Popular Science]

Now it's your turn: share an awesome link in the comments, before the next storm hits. Or the next pancake flips.

(Photo by cromacom via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Well-rested and restored after our week off. Let's dive right into Here's What's Awesome: Year Two:

Put on the (3-D) glasses!
Etch-a-Sketch goes three dimensional! Sketch3D adds a third design wheel to the up-down and left-right controls, and tops it off with a monitor that renders your drawing with depth. If we're going to be adding new features to classic toys, surely it won't be long, then, before someone adds a hidden compost bin to Hungry Hungry Hippos? [About:Blank]

Mine, all mine
Soon-to-close mine shafts may have a second life ahead of them as geothermal boilers, thanks to a plan by engineering students in Spain. Once the mining is about to wrap up, scientists gather data on the setup of the shaft, and then, potentially, use it to produce eco-friendly heat for nearby homes. [MNN]

"See you Friday, and let's hear '99 Red Balloons'"
We've all counted on friends to bring a dish to pass or help with decorations at parties gone by, so why not have friends help with the party music, too? FlavorTunes is part electronic RSVP service and part playlist builder, so your neighbor can tells you he/she can make the birthday bash on Saturday, AND you should totally rock your copy of Love At First Sting by Scorpions. [Lifehacker]

Now it's your turn: add your first awesome link of Year Two in the comments. Suggest a song for our (imaginary) playlist while you do.

Photo by Spirit635 via Flickr/Creative Commons