Summer may be in full swing, but at Here's What's Awesome we don't slow down in the summer. If anything, we speed up, because when the weather's awesome, we're awesome too.

Don't just clean up oil spills, EAT them
We've been keeping an eye on technology related to the big Gulf oil spill, and this latest link is particularly interesting, especially to anyone who played with Transformers as a kid. The Bottsand oil recovery ship does something unusual when it reaches an oil spill: its hull splits almost in half, opening wide like a crocodile mouth, and eats the spill, taking in large amounts of water and cleaning out the oil I don't know if having a ship that sees an oil spill and says "Mmm, lunch" is cool or a little terrifying, but there it is. [Gizmodo]

Tommy, can you see me? Well, then hit the button on your glasses
Of course they'd invent these after I switch to contacts: electronic eyeglasses can adjust themselves on command, changing their strength as needed. They're supposed to be more flexible than bifocals, which are limited to "near" and "far" settings. They're made by a company called PixelOptics; if they'd been made by Apple they would've been called iGlasses. Get it? I-Glasses? Best pun ever, right? [Presurfer]

It's the buzz of the sculpture world
Last week we heard about artistic photos of bees; this week the bees are making the art. Well, mostly - a designer called Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny made a mold, and the bees filled it in with honey and, then, wax:

[via Neatorama]

Now it's your turn: share your favorite awesome summer link in the comments.

I didn't intend for Here's What's Awesome to become a weekly column on oil spill cleanup ideas, but here's the latest: while hair booms are apparently out, cotton sheets may be in. University of Pittsburgh researchers say cotton sheets, soaked in a certain polymer (they're not saying which one, for now), appear to attract water and repel oil Will this new cleanup idea make it to the Gulf, or will it end up on the sidelines like the hair booms? If the last few editions of this column are any indication, we'll find out next weekend!

Sorry I'm late, I was stuck in what will eventually become traffic
Sick of stop-and-go, slow-and-go on the morning interstate? Join the club - or, better yet, join these IBM researchers who are working on a system that will predict traffic jams before they happen. The system uses road sensor data, GPS data from taxis, historical traffic data, weather data and more, and analyzes it all to see where the roads might slow down. And that's just the beginning - if a jam is likely, the system can send out alerts to in-car map systems and cell phones to steer you away from the slowdown. It's still in the testing phase, but I'm pretty sure every commuter in the universe is rooting for this thing to be a success. [Scientific American]

The Fresh Prince of... Zion?
This is too clever by half: movie posters reworked to show the original casting choices. So the poster for "The Matrix" has Will Smith working the black trenchcoat instead of Keanu Reeves. Tom Hanks is laughing it up as Jerry Maguire instead of Tom Cruise, and... is that seriously O.J. Simpson as the Terminator?
[via Neatorama]

Why Pink Floyd light shows are as safe as they are trippy
Lasers can detect explosives, apparently - physicists at the University of St. Andrews have figured out that a certain kind of laser, pointed at a certain kind of plastic, can illuminate "explosive molecules" that hover around most kinds of explosive devices. Imagine being able to laser-identify landmines in a battlefield - or a bomb at a psychedelic classic rock show, man. [Gizmodo]

Full disclosure: they were originally going to have David Hidalgo of Los Lobos write this column, but he was unavailable. But you can share a link to your David Hidalgo/Here's What's Awesome mashup, or any other awesome link you'd like to share, by posting in the comments.

Photo courtesy Roadside Pictures via Flickr/Creative Commons

We at Here's What's Awesome hope you're having a good Memorial Day weekend. Whether you're honoring veterans for their service, getting your plants ready for the garden or enjoying time with loved ones, we've got some awesome links that bring on the unofficial start of summer with a get-up-and-go attitude that just can't be contained. (I don't exactly know what the previous sentence meant, but it sounded good and I'm going with it!)

Keep left, for art's sake
The Rosenthaler Platz project in Berlin is proof that even a traffic pattern can become art! The artists dropped (non-permanent) paint onto the intersection; the cars became the brushes as they drove through. Give the video a little time; at first it doesn't seem like much is happening, but as you continue on, you start to see a cool mix of colors develop.

[Neatorama]

Where do we go, daddy-o, where do we go now
Another big win for remix culture: someone at a "Music Hack Day" in California realized that sound mixing software could track the rhythm of a song and identify the beats. And if the software could identify the beats, it could also modify them... so that most any rock and roll song could be instantly transformed into a swing song, with just a tiny modification to its beat. Dig this groovy remix of Guns 'n' Roses "Sweet Child O Mine:

[Urlesque]

Turn left at Captain Picard
Fun toy alert: Doodle Track lets you draw your own racetrack on any old piece of paper; your Doodle Track car will then follow (I hesitate to say "race" at this speed) the lines you've drawn. Simple idea, but a fun one - of course, lining the track with action figures is a nice touch, too:

[TrendHunter]

Now it's your turn: post a link in the comments. And enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day weekend!

Submitted for your approval: a weekly column of links. Only these links aren't ordinary. They're awesome. And the awesomeness they spread... may change the very building blocks of the world in which we live. They reside on a blog known as... Here's What's Awesome.

It was like a flash of green light.. and that was it
Green light is no friend to drummers for the band Spinal Tap, but it may be a very good friend to soldiers wounded in battle. The Air Force is testing something called photochemical tissue bonding, that might be an easier way of treating wounds than stitches and surgery. You apply a special pink dye on the skin wound, and then shine it with some green light. The dye absorbs the light and creates "nanosutures," which hold the skin together without further irritation or scarring. There's also hope that this process can be used to repair injured blood vessels or nerves. And if it works, super-hero fans will undoubtedly call the techs who perform this bonding Green Lanterns. [Popular Science]

A new job for Olivia Artsy?
Finally cat owners can rejoice that their feline companions shed fur all over the darn place! There's a nonprofit in San Francisco that's collecting dog and cat fur and turning the fur into oil-absorbing mats, which are being sent to the Gulf coast to help with oil cleanup. Though I'm pretty sure my cat sheds enough fur to clean up most of the spill himself. [Inhabitat]

There is no remix art project I know like a world of pure imagination
This is just plain fun. A guy named Rob Matthews has recreated a kid's drawings as photographs. I particularly liked the dog wearing eyeglasses standing on a towel, but they're all pretty great. This is a trend I hope to see a lot more often. [TechEBlog]

Now it's your turn: post a link in the comments. I will shine some green light on it, and it will quickly become awesome!

Photo by tristanf via Flickr/Creative Commons