1) Flickr–explore–interestingness: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/
Flickr is a photo site where people can put up photos they’ve taken to store online, share with friends and family, and/or share with strangers. A lot of people just post photos of their vacations and the like, but there are many amateur and professional photographers who put up really cool photo sets on Flickr. “Interestingness” compiles the most viewed, commented upon, and, of course, interesting photos on the site. You can find all kinds of things there: beautiful landscapes, weird digitally altered pictures, portraits, and everything else. They even have a feature that allows you to pick a month and a day (say, your birthday) and see the five most interesting photos of that day. And if you find something you like, you can always check out more of that person’s work. It’s all really cool. You have to have an account to use interestingness, but it’s totally free.
2) Best of Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/
For anyone who doesn’t know, craigslist is kind of like a website of classified ads: they have job posts, roommate/housing posts, all kinds of things for sale, activities/classes, personal ads, and message boards. There are specific craigslist websites for all major cities in the U.S. and many smaller ones, and throughout many other countries as well. Best of craigslist compiles the funniest, strangest, and most interesting posts from all over. Many of the Best of Craigslist posts are rants (they have a “Rants and Raves” section), weird personal ads, and hilarious ads for things for sale. You don’t have to sign up for craigslist and it’s totally free to check out. Make sure you have plenty of time, though, because you could get drawn in!
3) Ebay–weird stuff: http://everythingelse.shop.ebay.com/items/Weird-Stuff__W0QQ_armrsZ1QQ_mdoZEverythingQ2dElseQQ_msppZQQ_pcatsZ99QQ_sacatZ1466
Ebay, being an online auction site, gets plenty of weird auctions. This is the section of the website devoted entirely to them. Some are bizarre objects like a handcrafted bobble head bust of John McCain (I’m not making this up). Others are less tangible things, as people sell their ideas for money or themselves in one way or another (for example, there is a hairy guy who is offering to get his whole body waxed for the highest bidder–I’m not making this up either). I can’t describe or explain all this strangeness, so check it out yourself. Who knows, you may find something you want!
4) Join Me: http://www.join-me.co.uk/
“It’s not a cult, it’s a collective!” Join me is a collective, started unwittingly by a guy named Danny who casually put a vague ad in a local British paper that simply said “Join me” and asked for potential joinees to send copies of their passport photos. It became huge quickly, and since then, Danny has been featured in all kinds of news media and has written a (hilarious) memoir about it all. It’s been a crazy ride. To find out more about it, or join, check out the website.
5) Wikipedia–drinking game: http://wikipediadrinkinggame.blogspot.com/
If you like wikipedia, and you like drinking, then this is the page for you. It details the creation and rules of the wikipedia drinking game, which was made up by a couple college kids from Florida. I’m not going to give away anything about it, you’ll have to go to the website for that, but I will say that it is incredibly fun to play.
6) Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/
Snopes is a cool website that confirms or exposes various rumors, scams, and urban legends. They have a huge database that pretty much covers everythign, so they’re a good place to go if you’re questioning something you’ve heard. It’s also a good place to explore and waste time. Some of their categories include: toxins, quotes, humor, language, legal, military, pregnancy, crime, and fraud & scams. And if you’re interested in that, check out…
7) Mythbusters–quizzes: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/quiz/quiz.html
So for anyone who doesn’t know, Mythbusters is a popular television show where they do a series of experiments to prove or disprove various popular myths. On this section of the website, you can a bunch of quizzes and see if you can tell the myths from the facts. It’s harder than you’d think, check it out!
8) OkCupid–IQ Adventure Test: http://www.okcupid.com/iq-adventure-test
Don’t worry, you don’t have to join OkCupid to take this test. It’s a fun, unique version of the typical IQ test. You get to pick which puzzles you’d prefer to do throughout the test, and it tests you on 4 forms of intelligence: social, verbal, spatial, and mathematical. It’s lighthearted and entertaining, but it’s still credible and accurate.
9) How Many of Me: http://howmanyofme.com/
This one doesn’t take up too much time, but it’s really cool. You just type in your name, first and last, and find out how many people there are in the U.S. with the same name as you. It will also break it down into first and last name–you can find out how many people have your first name, how popular it is compared to other first names, and the percentage of males vs. females that have that name. It will also give you statistics about the last name. They’re data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, so it’s fairly accurate.
10) Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/
Hulu allows you to watch movies, full episodes of TV shows, and various clips online. They usually load pretty quickly, although some have minor commercial breaks (still much shorter than those you’d have watching actual TV). There are a bunch of sites like this online, but Hulu is a pretty good one. It’s fast, big, and reputable, with a pleasant and easy-to-use interface. It’s not one of those sites with a lot pop-ups and clutter, which makes it preferable over some of the others.
