The Discovery Channel is at it again with another compelling application built by the extremely talented team at EffectiveUI. This one is a 3-d application called Earth Live that allows visitors to interact with a 3-d model of earth and scientific data.

Users can "mashup" the scientific data and add them in layers onto the earth model, watching how storms are forming, ocean temperatures are changing and a whole lot more. You really have to experience the application to understand what I'm trying to describe here.

There are also featured stories in the application, allowing you to go back in time and see how disasters like Hurricane Katrina formed, or how the Gulf Stream affects weather in Europe.

More information is available at Computer World.

As part of Shark Week, the Discover Channel has created a Flash application for creating your own version of Jaws. Similar to the Flex based Premiere Express tool (used by YouTube among others), the Shark Video Mixer allows anyone to create shark videos, using videos, transitions, sound effects and music. A number of videos have already been created, and can be viewed online. Check them out. (From Read / Write Web).

The Discovery Channel must really love Flash, because they've also created a Flash based video game called Sharkrunners. The coolest part about this game is that it incorporates actual shark information, from those that have been tagged with a GPS receiver. (From O'Reilly).

Of course, with over 2.3 billion installs of Flash Player 9, why wouldn't they love Flash?