Tangible earth
The tangible earth project is an incredible demonstration of the power of innovation and user experience.
The project created an interactive globe unlike any other: It's a 10 million to 1 scale globe approximately 1.2 meters in diameter. Using this globe, people can explore all aspects of the environment of earth: atmosphere, day and night, light pollution, cloud cover and more. It's a fascinating example of a mashup of internet data sources, data visualization, and the user interface principle of natural mapping (no pun intended).