Miscellaneous sites of the BigList

is hard to describe but I keep going back to it. A great collection of very imaginative and entertaining sites.

Digg.com - links to Web articles appear on the list when they get enough votes from the public.

Digg.com Software has freeware finds. You can bump into some good stuff here.

Popurls aggregates the most popular stories on several aggregator sites like digg, Metafilter, and Slashdot.

Teamdroid has a nice list of bloggy sites.

Techcrunch - tech blog.

CNET Blogs - is a collection of blogs related to a wide variety of topics, mostly technological, electronic, or gadget oriented.

LifeHacker is a blog about dealing with life. It has a lot of gadgets and leading edge toys, also.

RealSimple - recipes, household tips, advice, etc. Help for simplifying life.

DayTipper is a collection of tips on how to do a whole bunch of things. Tips are submitted by the public, reviewed by the site managers, and then published.

BGR Boy Genius Report is a blog with tech news and other interesting things.

BoingBoing - "A directory of wonderful things." New gadgets and designs.

Technorati searches blogs to find the hotest stuff making the rounds on the Web circuit.

Technorati's Most Popular

Techmeme Leader Board - shows a list of sources of news sorted by how many times the reference showed up in the postings of the day. Good source of aggregator news sites.

DonationCoder Blog

is a daily blog of interesting software and Web sites.

How to Geek is a troubleshooting blog that has evolved into reviews of just about everything interesting.

The Windows Club news and new stuff in the Windows world.

gHacks is a blog about new software including games and freeware.

ILoveFreeSoftware is a nice freeware blog.

Freeware Genius - reviews of free software.

Huffington Post is a blog for discussions of software and tech news.

CNN Download Blog has daily reviews of free downloads.

Online Tech Tips Free Software - short reviews of free software in a blog style.

Cybernet News is a daily blog of interesting software and Web sites - similar to Donation Coder.

MakeUseOf is a blog about cool Web sites, software, and technology.

AppScout - reviews of mostly free software.

Addictive Tips - software blog.

Download This - PC World software blog.

dottech.org is another software blog. Freeware, software reviews, and other stuff.

Crowd Spirit - This site is a public forum where folks ask for software solutions and others recommend software or help in other ways. Interesting.

Softpedia - news on freeware - shows a list of newly updated programs.

The Cheapskate is a blog from CNet that discusses new free software and other cheap stuff.

Gizmos Freeware has freeware and reviews, how-to's, support forums, etc. Nice comparative style shows top 3 or four programs in a category with brief but useful reviews.

DistroWatch - tracks the open source community, reports news, and reviews new software.

Appaholic - reviews of free software. Has not been updated recently.

del.icio.us

about.com

That's How It Happened is a wacky blog - interesting.

MetaFilter - nice general blog.

Random Good Stuff - blog.

Gadgetell - a blog with tech news and other interesting things.

Walyou is a gadget blog. Very cool stuff.

The Cool Hunter - a blog that finds the cool stuff in many areas including tech, entertainment, fashion, etc.

The Cleverest - blog full of clever stuff.

Fark - weird, unusual, and funny sites.

TED

This site is like YouTube for smart folks. It is a collection of ideas, lectures, performances, etc.

CNet Blogs is a collection of blogs about technology mostly.

Web Talk is a tech blog with very short postings. Good stuff.

Webware reviews sites and has a weekly recap in digest form.

CyberNet News finds interesting sites and applications.

Listverse is a collection of 'top ten' lists.

10 x 10 Interesting and strange site. A 10 by 10 cube of pictures taken from world-wide media is presented as a snapshot of the times. Each picture has a word associated with it so you also get a list of the top 100 words in the news. You can click on the picture to get the source. In case you don't know what is happening.

WMFU's Beware of the Blog - and now for something different. Very different.

43 Folders is a blog aimed at increasing productivity and making life a little easier

Emailaddresses - collection of free Web-based services including email, reminders, calendars, to-do lists, etc.

Listible is a great collection of best-of type lists of sites.

The New Quarter is the US Mint site about the new quarter.

Science for the Millennium is very visual with large multimedia files that take a great deal of time to download.

Science Frontiers is the bimonthly newsletter providing digests of reports that describe scientific anomalies; that is, those observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific paradigms.

Milk and Cookies has all kinds of fun stuff including short movies. Lots of weird and very funny stuff here.

CarTalk is two guys (Tom and Ray) having fun with car stuff. Includes RealAudio recordings of their radio show. The site also is home to the virtual "dope slap".

Brendan's Phone Anagram Generator generates words from a seven digit telephone number for those of us who have enough numbers in our lives.

PhoneSpell lets you enter a phone number and it will give you all of the combinations of equivalent letters for those of us who need that kind of thing.

The Awful Truth is the companion to the TV series by Michael Moore. He talks about things that big money and government are doing that you don't necessarily want to hear.

History Channel includes historical events that occurred 'on this date in the past'.

Black and Decker includes questions and answers about tools.

Coastal Tools sells tools at a discount. They also have a question and answer section where you can get your question answered within 24 hours.

What Happened on This Date will tell you the things that happened on the date that you select.

E! Online is the companion to the E! (Entertainment) TV channel.

Dead Runner's Society has a variety of information about running.

National Park Service ParkNet

The Complete Hamster Site has tips on feeding, breeding...feeding, breeding... I have to admit that it is pretty complete.

Ed's Internet Book Reviews are reviews of current books written by the general public.

Airline Disasters from all over the world, from 1920's to present day. The database shows the airline, airplane model, number of deaths, and synopsis of report, if any.

Ken Blackburn's Paper Airplanes - he holds the record for paper airplane flying.

Best Paper Airplane with detailed instructions on how to build it.

10 PaperAirplanes - has videos that show how to make paper airplanes.

Jacuzzi

Crayola

Putty World has all kinds of Silly Putty including stuff that changes colors with the temperature.

Temple University

CNN has news.

Department of Energy

Butterfly Website has a lot of very good quality photos from a variety of photographers.

The Jim Henson Company

Boeing Corporation has great pictures of the aircraft that they have produced and are planning to build.

Astrology Spot gathers astrology predictions from a number of sites and presents them here.

Grand Illusions - interesting optical illusions and visual effects.

Optical Delusions with some good explanations for what you think you see.

Optical Illusions Etc. - a blog of sorts, certainly a collection of graphics strange, unusual, and delusional.

Illusion Contest ia an annual contest of best optical illusions.

Patterns of Minimal Math glories in mathematical patterns in everyday objects.

Puzzle WorldMany puzzles including impossible objects like a Rubik's cube in a bottle.

Freak Tech is about technology beyond the cutting edge like the Virtual Retinal Display - "The VRD rapidly scans a low-power pinpoint beam of colored light onto the retina of the viewer's eye, creating a high resolution, full-motion image without the use of screens or externally projected images.

Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey

Cirque du Soleil is the fantastic "Sun Circus". Site includes very short clips of the various shows.

Money's The Best Places to Live has a great search engine. You enter the factors that are important and rate how important they are. The search engine comes back with any number of possible choices and gives you all of the stats. Very useful and informative.

Hammocks

Answering Machine Sound Files just in case you're low on imagination. But how do you get the sound from the computer into the answering machine?

Woody Woodpecker

Psych Tests are little tests to open up the inner self.

Colorgenics has a color preference test that is used to describe your current state of mind.

Ball Parks - everything you wanted do know about ball parks and stadiums in the US. Includes sections on basketball, hockey, football, and baseball.

Baseball America covering baseball in high school up through the major leagues.

Baseball Primer has baseball for the thinking fan.

Superbad OK, I'm not really sure what this site wants to be. The graphics are cryptic if not arty. But like a Laurie Anderson piece, you keep looking, not quite able to make sense out of what you see.

College Student

is aimed at college students. Has goofy news stories, surveys, bookstore, etc.

Family.com is the Disney site for families. Information about parenting, education, chat, food, crafts, e-cards, etc.

Parent.net is about parenting.

Stereograms

Stereogram Examples

Disney Magic Eye Pictures

Eye Tricks includes optical illusions, sight puzzles, and stereograms.

Tricks and Trinkets is a weekly newsletter that showcases useful Web tricks and interesting sites.

Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages

- visual illusions that will make you sick if you stare at them too long.

Text to Speech Demo You enter a sentence and this site translates the text into speech and plays it as a WAV file.

Airliners You probably don't know how much you don't know about airplanes. This place has pictures of every mechanical flying machine, paint schemes, accident reports, cabin layouts, seating charts for commercial aircraft, a forum, and news.

Get The Phone has information on just about every telephony device.

The Kiss teaches you how to kiss. Also has stories and tips about kissing.

Earthquakes has information on very recent earthquakes. This site is not meant for the casual surfer; terminology and graphics are presented without explanation.

Lionel is about toy trains. It has a lot of their product online so you can look (but don't touch).

The History of M&Ms tells you all about M&Ms like why the red ones were taken out.

Did You Know has very interesting trivia.

The Tower of Pisa has a 360 degree view plus information on its history and preservation.

Grimm Fairy Tales unvarnished, from the National Geographic folks.

SurLaLune is a serious fairy tale site.

The Admissions Office is a great site for information on getting into college including on line admissions forms.

Bizarre Stuff You Can Do in the Kitchen is about experimenting with everyday materials.

eHow

is another how-to collection. Large variety of subjects including relationships, gardening, finance, auto, etc. - some how-to articles have links to additional material such as books.

New York Guerilla Kids' Childrens Film Festival

California State Railroad Museum

Eddy's Thimble SIB Pier - That's 'ship in a bottle' for the uninitiated. These are incredibly small model ships in very small containers. Check out the one in a movie projector bulb.

Ant Colony is the definitive site on rearing ants in those plastic, see-through cases.

The Great Outdoors is the companion site to the Great Outdoor Network on cable TV.

Experimental Balloon and Airship Association is about airships and blimps, including homemade jobs.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter II is a standard in psychological testing. You may find out something about yourself.

Personality and IQ Tests is a collection of links to all sorts of psychological tests as well as IQ tests.

Mike's Electric Stuff has some very dangerous and very cool things that are powered by electricity. Also includes other wacky stuff related to assorted electrical devices.

Time Capsule You enter your birthday and it tells you what happened on that date: news, politics, prices, songs, etc.

I Should Be Working is full of diversions from work. Entertaining.

Web Dancers is a site with some great art.

Rocket Guy

Things to do Instead of Sleep is just what it says it is.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Christmas is the text from the 1897 editorial by Francis Church to a girl named Virginia O'Hanlon regarding the existence of Santa Claus.

The All Gauge Page is for weekend train modelers. Simple stuff for the occasional hobbyist.

Handspeak is all about sign language.

Bowling Zone has everything you wanted to know about bowling.

International Collection of Tongue Twisters

PCGS is all about rare coins and their evaluation.

The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs, and Body Language Cues is pretty much what it says it is. Check out what folks say nonverbally.

Submarines is sponsored by the Navy and is all about submarines.

Fall in Pennsylvania is a collection of cams that you can access to view the changing leaves throughout the state.

The Brick Testament are old testament stories told with Lego characters and scenery. Hard to tell sometimes if they are serious.

Firehouse has all sorts of info on fire fighting and emergency helpers - news, forums, commercial products, gifts, etc.

SoundPortraits- is a collection of sound recordings of various people in various stages of life.

Skeptic's Dictionary is a collection of material associated with dubious ideas such as Yeti, unicorns, questionable therapies, etc.

Grand Illusions is a collection of illusions that you can play with and purchase, if so moved.

The Great Seal certainly has more information than you knew about the Great Seal of the USA.

The Memory Hole is a repository of government documents. It includes a collection of mostly declassified stuff that is interesting reading as long as you don't get upset.

Soda vs. Pop is a research site showing regional variations in how folks refer to flavored, carbonated water.

History Wired is a Smithsonian site that is perfect for browsing. The site shows various objects that are more or less indicative of their times.

American Folklore covers a wide variety of folks tales.

Moon Trees This site tracks the trees grown from seeds taken on a moon mission.

Mill's Mess is a juggling trick.

The Big Cartoon Database has episode guides and synopses.

The Best Inventions of 2002

Prairie Home Companion

Coverups - for the paranoid among us.

Alice in Wonderland

World Mysteries

TerraFly unbelievable detail about neighborhoods along with an aerial view. Kind of cumbersome to use but only because of its wealth of data..

Craig's List is a mish-mash of stuff for sale, job postings, services offered, etc. Separate listings for a small number of metro areas.

Memory Improvement has exercises designed to improve memory.

Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things discusses ways to use ordinary things in uncommon ways. Includes the story of a guy who dug through a wall with a squeegee handle to escape the collapse of the World Trade Center.

The Card Stacker - Bryan Berg, the card stacker. Saying this guy stacks cards is like saying that DaVinci invents - what an understatement.

Cloud Appreciation Society has everything that you would want to know, and some things you would never imagine knowing about clouds.

If You Could Tell the World One Thing is the result of a survey of intelligent folks asking the age old question, "If you could tell the world one thing, what would it be?".

Creative Commons - 'flexible copyright' - 'some rights reserved' (mostly free) material including audio, photos, art, movies, educational material, etc..

Dreamies - Bill Holt's very short movies - good stuff.

The Sith Sense

- twenty questions hosted by Darth Vader.

Internet Archive is a nonprofit endeavor to archive text, images, video, software, etc. and allow free access to the material. You can spend a lot of time here.

Google Answers - Google staff will answer your questions (about life, relationships, car mechanics, atomic mechanics, etc., for about $2.50 an hour. You can review some of the answers that have been offered up by browsing this part of the site. Good browsing.

Screenhead - very large collection of funny and unusual stuff - pictures, movie slips, cartoons, etc.

LivePlasma You enter the name of an artist or band and the search engine gives you a visual map of related groups and artists.

Worth1000 is a collection of photos, many of which have been creatively altered using Photoshop or other imaging software.

Twink Music Composed primarily on little toy pianos, these are samples from CD's available for purchase. The songs are early funk (real early - like five year old).

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools - a collection of tools and art or tools that are art - not sure which.

MagicBunny shows you how to do magic tricks.

50 Outrage Reducers or how to handle someone when you have to give them bad news.

Sheepfilms is a guy who does very creative, short, flash animation films.

I Want To Set Up an Online Calendar has a collection of online calendar sites - some for free.

Google Text Messaging - send a text message to any SMS enabled cellular phone (for free - of course, the receiver has to pay the 10 cents).

Rube Goldberg Machines

YouTube - videos from the public - similar to flickr but with moving pictures

Ian's Shoelace Knots

X-Treme Geek - has reviews of leading edge stuff, mostly techie, but some interesting tools.

Hidden Passageway

- get a hidden passage built in your home or do it yourself with a kit from these folks.

The Most Important Thing My Father Taught Me is a collection of 'most important things' from ordinary folks.

Ant Simulation is an ant simulation

Gyro - a Spirograph for the digital age.

Take5 - 5 minute lecture videos on a variety of subjects from the University of Texas faculty.

DonationCoder Humor This is a collection of sites that are strange, funny, or unusual as submitted by the public. Great time waster.

IP-Address - enter an IP address and get a map of where the address is geographically located.

PaperToys.com has a variety of projects that show you how to make toys out of paper.

Reviewing the Evidence - thoughtful and thorough reviews of the evidence in various mysteries, strange stuff, etc.

Kako Ueda - cut paper art. The more you see of this stuff, the more you are amazed.

Ian's Shoelace Site - shows you how to tie shoelaces 'correctly'. The site has an amazing amount of detail about simple knots.

How to Memorize Anything from the Wired magazine folks.

eBaum's World - has all of the viral videos that you could want.

Top 100 Blogs as determined by PCMagazine.

SimplyNoise is just that - white noise - like the kind in the doctor's office. It drowns out other noise so you can meditate or concentrate.

MindHacks is a blog on psychology and neuroscience. Some interesting stuff.

Hack a Day is a blog about serious hacks.

PsyBlog is a pretty intense blog about psychology and the workings of the mind.

BubbleWrap This is a Flash simulation of bubble wrap (the stuff that protects mailed packages) and it lets you burst the bubbles. No fun without sound on.

Rules of Thumb is a collection of rules of thumb. Like how to build a museum, how to choose a pineapple, etc.

Top 10 of Everything is a very large collection of top ten lists from Time Magazine 2008.

5 Sites to Recharge Your Mind is a collection of Web sites that collect design submissions for logos, business cards, letterhead, Web banners, etc. Something might strike a nerve and generate a new idea.