Living in the future

There are plenty of “wow”-inducing web sites/pages, but the New York Times Lens page takes today’s cake.

On screen, you’ll see an interactive image of Earth. Click and hold down on any part of the planet and you can spin it. Hovering over the globe are stacks (and stacks) of photos taken by thousands of people around the world.

This is the result of the Times “Moment In Time” project. The paper asked readers to take a photo – any kind of photo – at 3:PM GMT on May 2nd.

There are more than 10,000 pictures on the page, which makes this the coolest photo album ever.

Spinning the globe and looking at some of the photos reminds me of the promises made in all those news-reel type short films showing angular cars and kitchen gadgets that make toast and mop floors. You know the kind of film I mean, with  stentorian announcers saying things like, “This is how we’ll all be living in the future.”

With just a click or two of your mouse, you can spin the planet and see dusk deepening over the mountains surrounding a brilliantly colorful Indian temple or an American couple sitting with their dog on the porch on a lazy afternoon.

Click here to go the Lens page on the Times‘ site. A warning, though, you may spend the better part of your day doing nothing but spinning around the globe and seeing what everyone else is doing.