Ten Sites for Finding Wonderful Things
Ten years ago today Jason Kottke launched his influential blog Kottke.org. The site is a fascinating collection of...whatever Kottke cares to post there.
So prescient was his vision of the future of publishing though that today he's married to the co-founder of Blogger.com and can be counted among the earliest pioneers in the present era of online bricolage - the art of assembling diverse found objects.
Bricolage has become one of the most dominant themes of the new online world. The word may be French and unfamiliar, but you see the concept in action every time you read BoingBoing, for example. There are few blogs more widely read than BoingBoing - but it's in tribute to Kottke's 10 year anniversary that we offer the following collection of some our favorite places to discover marvelous things online. All are curated by the careful eyes and hands of one or a few editors, making these sites a different experience than places like Digg, Del.icio.us Popular, PopURLs or elsewhere.
Not only are these types of sites widely read, they are also inspiring a cultural renaissance of bricolage on sites like Tumblr and FFFFound.
Great Sites to Find Fantastic Things
Note: If you are reading this story by RSS, you may not be able to see the dynamic list of recent popular stories from each source. You can click through to the live site to see them. Speaking of RSS, reader Víctor Hernández created a spliced feed of all the blogs below into one at this URL.
BoingBoing
BoingBoing is the biggest mover and shaker here. It's a group blog with an art and politics slant. It's a great place to discover "wonderful things" in large quantities. You probably already knew that, though, because you probably already read BoingBoing.
| Feb 9 | Phone texts in Nigeria urged mass murder "War, war, war. Stand up and defend yourselves. Kill before they kill you. Slaughter before they slaughter you. Dump them in a pit before they dump you." — One of many mass-text-messages sent last week in Nigeria, inciting people to murder . A.. |
| Feb 9 | Teaching Shakespeare to a toddler Video link . Actor Brian Cox attempts to teach Shakespeare's most famous soliloquy to Theo, age 2 1/2. (Thanks, Lisa Mumbach !) |
| Feb 9 | Video podcast infinite regression Look what happens on this podcast when the host clicks the button to play the podcast. |
| Feb 9 | The Lost Lizard People of Los Angeles (1934) Snip from 1934 Los Angeles Times article about lizard people who lived in tunnels under the city 5,000 years ago. This legend is a long-lived chestnut . A hi-rez scan , more at Strange Maps , and: Reptoids ! The Flickr uploader, vokoban , has lots o.. |
Waxy Links
Waxy Links is the link blog that rides beside Upcoming.org co-founder Andy Baio's blog Waxy.org. Baio has taken to doing investigative blogging on various topics on his main site, but his link blog is a widely loved river of weird. When your link blog is hot enough to have an ad from the uber-boutique ad network The Deck on it, then you know you're a monster.
| Feb 9 | Chatroulette, videochat with a random person like Omegle with a webcam, randomly NSFW; YouTube has some great video captures [ via ] |
| Jan 27 | Apple iPad demo video starts at $499, unlimited AT&T 3G for $30/month; see Gizmodo's roundup and hands-on |
| Jan 26 | Roman Cortes' 3D coke can in pure CSS view the source and the can label |
| Jan 22 | YouTube's Music Discovery Project Pandora-style playlists based around an artist |
Neatorama
Neatorama is a lot like BoingBoing, but a lot less high-brow and a little more fun. Regular games of "What Is It?" challenge readers to identify photographs of old and unusual objects. The whole site is almost a clearinghouse of weird and it's a much quicker read than BoingBoing. The long list of authors is lead by Biochemist Alex Santoso, who started the blog as a hobby in 2005.
| Feb 10 | Greatest Possible Food: A Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burrito Stuffed.. Today is a sad day for enterprising cooks, for the greatest possible food has now been invented. What could possibly surpass this invention by Smoking Meat Forums user Fire it up? Link via Geekologie |
| Feb 9 | Codependency Suit It’s often cute when couples dress in matching outfits. Artist Nonaine took this practice a step further with her Codependency Suit. It can be two separate outfits, or it can join together into one. At the link, you can see similar shirts and .. |
| Feb 9 | Pajama Jeans Remember all the hullabaloo about a grocery store banning customers who shopped in pajamas ? Well, your cries of outrage were heard, dear readers … Behold, the PajamaJeans : The Pajama Jeans sports a bevy of details that make it look like a re.. |
| Feb 9 | The Autobot of Odessa This statue of a guardian type robot near Odessa in Ukraine is made from old, junked cars, among other things. Apparently it was constructed by a logistics company called TIS (Transinvestservice) in order to serve as a signpost of sorts . Now, ins.. |
Laughing Squid
Laughing Squid is a great place to find cool art, projects and photography from San Francisco and elsewhere. It's the work of web-hosting company owner and aficionado of cool Scott Beale.
Beale's posts regularly hit the front page of Digg and his excellent photos are regularly ripped off without attribution by mainstream media outlets.
| Feb 6 | Hello Kitty Chainsaw Hello Kitty Chainsaw featured on Hello Kitty Hell via Neatorama This is a blog post from Laughing Squid , subscribe via RSS , Email , Twitter & Facebook . |
| Jan 29 | San Francisco’s Answer to Westboro Baptist Church photo by EDW Lynch Westboro Baptist Church showed up to protest in front of Twitter’s San Francisco office on Thursday, but found themselves severely outnumbered by a crowd of absurdist pranksters, including guest blogger EDW Lynch above. WBC&.. |
| Jan 28 | J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) J.D. Salinger , author of The Catcher in the Rye and many other great novels, has passed away at age 91 . This is a blog post from Laughing Squid , subscribe via RSS , Email , Twitter & Facebook . |
| Jan 28 | How To Park a 57″ Wide Car In a 61″ Wide Garage Eugene Breynaert shows how he parks his 57″ wide car in his 61″ wide garage. via The Presurfer This is a blog post from Laughing Squid , subscribe via RSS , Email , Twitter & Facebook . |
JoshSpear.com
JoshSpear.com is run by "one of the youngest brand strategists in the world," Josh Spear, and has a long list of regular contributors. Spear and crew regularly find some of the coolest art, music, craft, design and marketing projects on the web. In addition to speaking and writing around the world, Spear runs SpearCollective, an artist management collective.
| Feb 8 | QR “Built Codes” For Frisk QR “Built Code” using Frisk mints in Japan. Check it out. SET is now promoting the use of what we call “built” codes. We believe that these codes offer brands a unique opportunity to connect the real world to the online worl.. |
| Jan 23 | Headed to Davos: 2010 I’m off first thing tomorrow morning for a few days in London before I head on to Davos . This year is the 40th year the World Economic Forum has been convening world leaders and interesting people under one very snowy Swiss roof. It will be .. |
| Jan 12 | Muji and Lego Collaboration The future has arrived. Muji and Lego . My friend Kohei talks about it here. Muji & Lego recently released a joint product that consists of a box of Lego pieces that also comes with sheets of paper — with a particular hole-punch (not included), the.. |
| Jan 5 | Parkour Motion Reel With films like Avatar demonstrating next-generation special effects, there is something so innately appealing and mesmerizing about using old (traditional) basic materials in new an innovative ways. Take this motion reel video which takes a simple .. |
Fresh Creation
FreshCreation is run by Dutch creative Martijn van Osch. The site collects oddly creative works from around the world and almost always includes a video for every post. FreshCreation was the inspiration for our recent post here on the future of interface design.
| Nov 12 | Trillions - Why The Future Needs New Ways Of Thinking The story This is a short film (a fast paced preview of a larger effort ) by MAYA Design created to put some perspective on the invisible but fast approaching challenges and opportunities in the pervasive computing age. Why this story inspired me Th.. |
| Oct 23 | Eye Gesture Recognition Move over voice and motion recognition. The new kid on the block is eye gesture recognition. Not with a camera either but an ear bud that detects nerve signals. |
| Oct 10 | Transcendent Man Trailer for a documentary about Ray Kurzweil called Transcendent Man . Ray is… strange. Depending on who you talk to, he is either a genius or a mad man. |
| Sep 23 | 4 Minutes Of Incredible Facts And Figures There a millions of ways to visualize information. Xplane’s latest video brings together incredible info and trends around the internet, social media and more, and tries to guess where we are headed. The computer in your bloodstream stuff is k.. |
PicoCool
PicoCool says it "is dedicated to bringing you tiny bytes and obscure content from the world of peer media, social networks and subcultures. Cool content from real people." Lots of great finds from Etsy and other beautiful, small things. The site is run by web designer Emily Chang, whose company did the new design for RWW.
| Feb 5 | Elegantly modular La Bande furniture! Designed by Sarah Lovgren, the modular “la bande" lounge is here to take your interior designing to a new level for it mere presence in any room is simply mesmerizing. Mold it to be used as a seat or a recliner. Choice is entirely yours! Its flexibi.. |
| Jan 30 | Helvetica Cookie Cutters When Beverly Hsu's love for design and love for baking crossed paths... Helvetica Cookie Cutters! 3 Vote(s) |
| Jan 29 | Adidas STAR WARS Collection The 2010 ADIDAS Star Wars Collection. From $300 kicks to a caped Darth Vader hoodie, here's a gallery, prices and links of all the long awaited collaboration between adidas and the over 30 year old Lucas Film STAR WARS. 2 Vote(s) |
| Jan 29 | Pitchfork Coathanger A coathanger made of pitchforks by David Olschewski from Germany. 2 Vote(s) |
Swiss Miss
SwissMiss is a widely read design blog written by Swiss transplant to NY Tina Roth Eisenberg. Lots of physical objects here but not exclusively. Eisenberg's discoveries are regularly reblogged by other cool-hunting blogs.
| Feb 9 | Dr.Brendan Back in June, I cracked my iPhone screen and all this time I just couldn’t get myself to pay $200 for a new glass. (Sorry, Apple) A lovely lady at an AT&T store pointed me to Dr.Brendan , the iPhone Doc here in Manhattan. Last week, I fin.. |
| Feb 9 | MIH Watch Kevin Blanc , a fellow swiss designer here in NYC, who will be renting my desk for the time I am on maternity leave starting next week, is the proud owner of this amazing MIH Watch . I had me gasp. It’s *such* a beauty. It is the official watc.. |
| Feb 9 | your favorite tee could be a laptop sleeve HelloRewind.com allows you to recycle your favorite old tee into cozy computer sleeve! Great gift idea, no? |
| Feb 8 | Delivered in Beta “ Delivered in Beta “, a wonderful documentary about Open Design & Innovation. How are social media changing design? What is the value of a prototype? How are work and play merging? Where is design headed in the 21st century? “.. |
NotCot
NotCot is a beautiful site that collects image-based links to projects around the web. The site was founded by UX designer Jean Aw and Web 2.0 loving Cognitive Scientist Danial Frysinger. The site's organization is remarkable as well. Entries are navigable by time, popularity or by random selection.
We Make Money Not Art
we make money not art is a phenomenon that simply must be seen to be believed. Run by an international trio of curators, the site's aesthetic is oddly fascinating. When the word "bricolage" comes up, we make money not art is the first blog that many people think of.
| Jan 28 | Manipulating Reality - How Images Redefine the World In today's mass-media society, only what becomes image is considered real. In a process of reversal, the representation of the world comes to replace the world itself, a world in which the user operates digitally continue |
| Jan 26 | Craftwerk 2.0: New Household Tactics for the Popular Crafts The exhibition explores the new "updated" textile crafts that are developed by a new generation of serious amateurs, innovative craftsmen, engaged entrepreneurs and political practitioners. Once again the home is the workshop where economic and ecol.. |
| Jan 22 | Book Review - Chroma: Design, Architecture and Art in Color Designers and architects have to make decisions regarding color every day. But how does one find the necessary inspiration? The appropriate color? How do other designers and artists deal with the issue? With "Chroma," the Greek word for color, as it.. |
| Jan 18 | Playlist - the physical dimension Music take center stage in the exhibition but Playlist has also a very physical dimension that deals with the pleasure of manipulating and tweaking the devices and the aesthetic delectation in the vintage look of the game arcades and handheld consol.. |
Those are some of our favorites. What are yours?
We'd love to know.
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uncrate.com has been a consistent favorite of mine.
Brian, that is a very manly site to suggest. :) I hadn't seen Uncrate before this weekend at SXSW when I found out that one of my friends writes there! Small world. Thanks for adding the link.
I don't know how you missed http://freshome.com/, a great website that amazes me every time I visit.
M!hai, we "missed" probably hundreds of great blogs that do this kind of thing. That's what comments are for and thanks for yours, that site does look interesting.
Take a look at Veerle's blog on webdesign, she's well known within that community and delivers great tutorials etc on a very beautifully designed blog: http://veerle.duoh.com/
I am often pleasantly surprised by http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/
Kris, thanks for mentioning Veerle! I've worked for an organization whose website she did design for and agree that she's awesome.
Marshall please edit my comment, because I've posted the link with a "," at the end. Yes ..there are a lot of websites where you can find interesting things, and for a topic like this you would need a very good research that would take months, to ovserve what are the best website. Personally I love Freshome, and that's why I wanted to recommend it.
I like INQdrop.com. It's a online community for people who want to share their stories and opinions. It' a great distraction from life!
*suckingup*
One of the best sites for finding cool things? AreDubDub ( http://www.readwriteweb.com ) of course!! i guess it depends on what's "cool" to you.... ;)
*/suckingup*
I'm a fan of browsing LFSTYL (www.lfstyl.com).
Digg?
fun blot where scammers get toyed with.
http://emailscamsarefun.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the mention! YAY! Waving from NYC!
Thanks for adding Fresh Creation to the list!
Good to see that I achieved my goal: inspiring others.
Grtz from Holland ;-)
www.FindLikeMinds.com for the things that influence people.
These sites can be a great help when I want to create videos or design graphics.. sometimes new ideas comes just from readig. and new content that are interesting is one of the best input!
Thanks for sharing this post! I love it
someone should give me an invite to ffffound. :(
loveless@ gmail.com
http://gemssty.com has some interesting 'tidbits' (as it says) from time to time too~
awesome post! I've always wanted animal superpowers. Or maybe I just hoped that someone would randomly come pet me and scratch my belly as I was walking down the street, i always get those two confused...
really nice list ^^
haha.nu has some really fun stuff. a lot of vids. They showed an artists work, Nanami Cowdroy, who was so talented, I hired her to design a tattoo for me.
Aw, you guys are sweet. Thanks for the linky love, Marshall.
roaming the US and the world for cool stuff. my new fav site for beauty/art/and ads. please visit my site and email me to say hi! http://www.gavinwassung.com
thecoolhunter.net
We cover one amazingly cool thing every day at http://fresharrival.com
I think that http://amomentofawesome.com is a great (although newer) site for finding awesome stuff!
I am going to suggest Open Culture (www.oculture.com) where you can find podcasts and videos that will make you smarter. It includes free audiobooks, free foreign language lessons, free online courses, and smart YouTube video collections.
Here are some links to good pages:
http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html
http://www.oculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html
http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag.html
http://www.oculture.com/2008/03/youtubesmartvideos.html
http://www.bestsnippets.com has nice collection of cool, funny stuff too.
I have a mashup of digg, reddit, delicious and a bunch of other sites at http://www.jimmyr.com/
www.bulentongun.com looks promising
Thanks for including us!
http://www.subbmitt.com
For my weird/wonderful things, I read:
Neatorama
Boing Boing
Ectomo
Nothing to Do With Arbroath
Dave Barry's Blog
Dark Roasted Blend
Mental Floss
Brass Goggles
Cynical-C
Dethroner
Infosthetics
MAKEblog
Making Light (the Nielsen Haydens' blog)
Neil Gaiman's blog
Warren Ellis's blog
It's strange that you don't have FFFound.com on your list.
inspire me now! (http://szymon.tumblr.com/)
have you seen this?! (http://ohhaveyouseenthis.blogspot.com)
bevel and boss (http://bevelandboss.blogspot.com/)
are all pretty wonderful. :)
josh spear?
maybe if you're into reading a steady stream of shilling for overpriced, corny-ass crap nobody needs. oooo, new colorways for some wack ass sneakers!
its like reading the ads in a magazine and not the articles.
Here is a mashup if you can't get to your favorite feed reader.
186kps
Thanks for the great list!
I'm not sure HOW you could have missed the truly wonderful'Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society' http://www.kirchersociety.org/ and, for Japanese strangeness, 'Pink Tentacle'http://www.pinktentacle.com -- these are my 2 most go-to blogs...but perhaps I just have minority tastes....
In itself, this page is a wonderful thing! I really appreciate the inline, live RSS feeds — great idea. Only thing, I wish there were more visuals to catch my eyes! Thanx for this compilation. :)
Thank you all so much for all these suggestions! Really great to discover these sites in comments that I didn't know about before.
www.damninteresting.com
It's only updated every week or so, but I have never been disappointed with a post. Articles from obscure science and history topics that provide some of the most fascinating reading I've ever seen on the net.
I'm a fan of albotas.com. Stands for 'a little bit on the awesome side'. They have news on random stuff like art, toys, movies, comics, japan, video games, gadgets. It's pretty much every site on the internet (that isn't porn) smushed together.
Shameless beg for ffffound.com invite. God I've been regularly using this site for over a year and CAN NOT find anyone with an invite -it kills me! (that should say something about how great it is)
pees oh pees
[/crying]
cellardoor504@gmail.com
If you're interested in anything French you're going to love www.frogsmoke.com
I try to highlight cool stuff on my site here:
www.CONTEMPOZINE.com - men clothing stores
U forgot about http://growabrain.typepad.com
http://bornrich.org
Metafilter. Perfect....
www.blather.net
A Welsh View (xo.typepad.com) is really good, together with "Blame it on the Voices"(http://blameitonthevoices.blogspot.com/) but my favourite is "aboutcolonblank"(www.aboutcolonblank.com).
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