Sometimes, the best bits of the web are the most retro and the 'On This Day' site is about as old school as they come. You guys know the drill: you type in a date and the site spits back a list of famous people who were born on that day, historical events that occurred on that day, et cetera. We all fired up Prodigy back in 1996 and visited these sites.But, 1996 is a long time ago and no one remembers what Prodigy was (besides a one hit wonder British electronica group) and so I thought to myself "wouldn't it be cool to visit the 'On This Day' sites that exist today and see how, if at all, they've changed, improved, and grown in the depth of their coverage?" Yes, that's a pretty articulate thought to just have to yourself. So what?
After the break, enjoy my foray into the world of 'On This Day' sites.
To focus this adventure, I thought it might be fun to learn all about what happened on my birthday throughout history. So, I headed over to on-this-day.com, the granddaddy of the 'On This Day' sites, and typed in August 24. Either my birthday is a really depressing day, or on-this-day.com likes to focus on disasters:
Yeeesh. I mean, okay, sure, I get that history is full of horrific tragedies, but I would have preferred to hear about how the guy who invented peanut butter was born on my birthday or something.
To clear the air, I went looking for some 'On This Day' sites focused on art and I found a couple of good ones. IMDB runs a cool 'On This Day' site focused all around movies and there's also a site all about Billboard's number one songs. What did they they turn up for me?
Oh man! Dave Chappelle! Who doesn't love Dave Chappelle? But yoooowza...wow..The Black Eyed Peas...Rihanna...and Sean Kingston? All right, I'm sorry everyone. My birthday has been responsible for some terrible music.
I figured I needed to class things up a bit, so I tried out The New York Times' 'On This Day' site. The Times' site was kind of disappointing: it's essentially identical to on-this-day.com. They did have one nifty feature, though, in which you could buy a reproduction of any front page going all the way back to 1851. I didn't buy the front page of August 24, 1851, but I was tempted, let me tell you.
The more I poked around, the more I realized just what a variety of 'On This Day' sites exist these days. Reference.com has a really neat one. Although it's similar to others, it stands out because it provides tons of quick links for all of the events it describes. If you're particularly interested in famous birthdays, I recommend the 'On This Day' site that biography.com runs. If you're only interested in your birth year, definitely try dmarie.com's time capsule generator. I'm particularly partial to the 'On This Day' site run by Finding Dulcinea. It turns up much more in-depth information than the other sites, although, if you're just looking for something to skim, it may not be the best choice.
Finally, there are even state and country specific 'On This Day' sites. Here's one for Oregon, one for Wisconsin, and one for Britain. I'm sure, with a little poking around, you'll be able to find one specific to whatever region in which you're interested.
These were all surprisingly fun to skim. If you're looking for a good way to while away some time, I definitely recommend checking them out. Now, if only someone would start doing those animated 'Choose Your Own Adventure' games that Prodigy used to have...
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Ewe have goat to see the blog colt Bad Animal Puns.
As the mooniker implies (impalas?), the porpoise of the site is to fawnction as an aggregator (alligator?) of ratty animal-based bird play(typus) from newt papers and producks.
I've ocelot of time fishing through their puns. I skink mule like them too.
You'll laugh yourself horse (or maybe just weasel little bit) and I ain't lion. No kitten. Chick th'iguanas after the beak.
Gopher yourself and seal the puns at: Bad Animal Puns
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Are you tired of hearing about Chatroulette yet? I hope not, because despite the site's propensity for NSFWness (and occasional softer side), the anonymous, randomized video chatting site has taken a sharp turn to the cute. Forget people simply acting like cats on the service, because the new single-topic blog, Catroulette, shows that our fur-covered friends have already taken to the service for themselves.
- link:// Catroulette
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Here at Urlesque we have an ongoing love affair with everything zany and offbeat. So when we stumbled upon online retailer Great Big Stuff, the go-to place for giant replicas of everyday items, it was a match made in online heaven. After we perused the website inside and out (and even received our own oversized items!) we were left wanting more, so we sent Urlbot Kelly to check out Great Big Stuff's worldwide headquarters. She chatted with Jeff Bruette (GBS Founder and CEO) and Brian Kuehn (President) about the operation, toured their facility, and clearly had way too much fun in the process. Thankfully, she brought along the cameras to give you all a sneak peek behind the scenes of one of our favorite sites on the web.
Want us to go behind the scenes of one of your favorite websites? Tell us where in the comments below or shoot us an e-mail.
- link:// Great Big Stuff
- previously:// Great Big Stuff on Urlesque
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Ohhh boy! You guys may have thought that you reached the apex of laser awesomeness after viewing animals shooting lasers or even the blog authored by one of our very own Urlbots, but you were wrong. Enter Babies With Laser Eyes, the newest single-topic photo blog that's sure to give you a good chuckle. We love babies at Urlesque but if there's one thing that we learned from seeing them in night vision, it's that their adorable faces can look pretty freaky in the right context.
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One of my earliest memories is looking into my grandmother's antique kaleidoscope when I was four, trippin' balls. As the psychedelic fractals swaddled my field of vision, I felt secure. Now, humanity has grown beyond its need for antique kaleidoscopes and grandmas because our instruments of rapidly fluctuating colors and shapes have turned virtual. Zefrank.com's "Drawtoy Vs. Byokal" creates infinite prismatic animations of various shapes and colors that you design yourself. The only thing the site is missing is a Radiohead soundtrack and a gravity bong.
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Let me tell it to you straight, Urlbots -- Urlesque wasn't even going to post about the following site because loads of other blogs have already covered it and made all the jokes that there are to make about it. But seriously, the web will not let go, and thus I feel obligated to tell you about it, because it's truly the one thing the web wants you to see today: Please Rob Me.
Developed by Forthehack, Please Rob Me lists people who are currently not at home based on their Twitter, status updates, and Foursquare check-ins. Despite what the title of the site suggests, the creators are actually out to bring awareness to the rapidly growing trend of broadcasting one's location at all times on social networking platforms and urging web denizens to rethink how they use location-based services. In other words, think before you update your Facebook status about the vacation you're on, dear readers, or else you might have someone other than the 15-year-old feeding your dog raiding your pantries while you're gone.
- link:// Please Rob Me
We get it -- you're busy. Only have time for one web bit a day? Here's The One thing that we think you cannot miss today. Subscribe to "The One" RSS Feed.
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It's a classic Gödelian dilemma*: You can't quit your job because you need health insurance to cover the self-inflicted wounds you could induce when your job makes you want to repeatedly punch yourself in your face. Quitting seems logical, but then you couldn't afford broadband. Without broadband, you'd have a harder time accessing Please Fire Me -- the malemployed's anonymous venting spot/self-esteem booster.
If your boss -- who makes you call him "Emperor," eats shrimp cocktail snacks, and requires 5 AM chauffeuring to his private jet -- sends out company-wide emails stating that budget cuts prevent any further supply of mixed nuts in meetings, even though there were never any mixed nuts to begin with, then this is the site to let the world know.
* Please fire me. I don't know what I'm talking about.
- link:// Please Fire Me
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Once the average human being has been fed, watered, and clothed, they typically satisfy the next most important human need: justification for who they are. People of Walmart, the photo-barrage blog that has been a complete runaway hit, has been providing such soul-soothing justification for some time now. You might have guessed that the theme would catch on. Lovers of diversity can now survey the derelict, marginal, and weird peoples from a variety of locations (not just Walmart). So if you love People of Walmart, but have always lamented the utter lack of snappy Scandinavian decor in the background of each photo, then cheer up: there's good news to come. Here are three other great 'people of' websites:1. People of IKEA
Perhaps the most surprising thing about People of IKEA -- at least as compared to People of Walmart -- is how little the demographic changes. This either reflects a dramatic shift in home decor among society's oddballs, or it seconds the whispering voice in Field of Dreams ("If you build it, they will come"). With this in mind, it is interesting to note that, given sofas and beds to flop on, there are people among us that have no qualms about taking a nap right in your face. If one thing can be said for Walmart, it's that they had the foresight to keep home furnishings in boxes.
2. People of Public Transit
If collective contributors to People of Public Transit had to be described with one word, it would be Courage. Or maybe Devious. In the end, it depends on whether the subway moles are blatantly snapping photos of their subjects, or just pretending to send a text at an oddly straight angle. The threat, whether implied or construed, seems clear enough: trapped on a bus, subway, or train within three feet of a hazardously strung out stranger, a decision to share the experience on twitter could have confusing or dangerous consequences. From a societal perspective the content is less frightening than that of People of Walmart. From a personal perspective, it is totally horrific.
3. People of the Gun
This site offers a continuation in theme, but diverges in attitude, from the previous two sites. People of the Gun highlights the 2nd Amendment adherents that walk in your midst. Its membership seems quite robust, and very well armed. Brady bill bashers can pick their favorite gun toter for a desktop photo sure to give a jolt in the morning; city-folk and pacifists can finally get a ground level view of the way things work down south. It goes without saying that these are our obvious shoe-ins for any materialization of the avatar science in the near future. I, for one, will be Calamity Jane.
Seen any other "People Of" websites that we missed? Tell us about them in the comments below.
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That's why Tom Scott's Star Wars Weather is such a great thing. Instead of confusing us with jargon, awkward comments and animated graphics, it gives the weather in terms we can relate to: The planets from Star Wars.
- link:// Star Wars Weather
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THIS JUST IN! The best Google adaptation of all has just been invented and no it's not pink or purple (indeed, those do exist) but actually adds more cuteness to your search than ever imagined. Ready?]>
Selleck Waterfall Sandwich is the latest single topic blog making the web rounds. It's a visual combo of three of the world's greatest treasures: Tom Selleck, waterfalls and sandwiches. I'm not gonna front -- I'm not sure that I get it. But I do love the theme song... and sandwiches. And Tom's mustache.
- link:// Selleck Waterfall Sandwich
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So this dude named Jacob is 29 years old, and was a smoker for 14 years. Recently, he decided it was time to "knock that sh*t off," and, at the suggestion of his brother, he replaced his pack of ciggies with a pack of crayons.Newly freed of his addiction to cancer sticks, Jacob decided to swap out a cigarette for a crayon drawing every time a nicotine craving crawled into his body. Some of the work, documented at his blog, Black Lung Crayola, is related to the withdrawal, while others are about beautiful nonsense like, y'know, pterodactyls bowling.
Consider it art from the heart, but for the lungs. Keep up the good work, Jacob!
- link and pics:// Black Lung Crayola
- via:// Metafilter
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- link:// Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
- via:// Time
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We don't particularly care for the [over]use of the term "random." In an age when the internet's cup runneth over with kooky goodness (have you heard of this site, Urlesque?), calling something "random" just because it's odd or unexpected or weird (all of which usually point to its probably being awesome) is just too easy.Frail Blog, however, manages to get away with the semantic victory. Basically a Tumblr devoted to, well, "random" pictures of kooky-looking old people, we could easily write it off as baiting and pointless.
But we won't because not only are the pictures of our elders pure desktop fodder, but the good-hearted ribbing is a welcome tribute to them crazy ol' coots! For example, these people are the best:
- link and pics:// Frail Blog
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- link:// Tweet Museum
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Yes, your parents were awesome, but consider this wig scrambler -- maybe your grandparents were PARTY LEGENDS. Maybe that chick on Gramp's lap isn't Nana, and maybe she was a freak, too. As unsettling as that may be to grasp, photoblog Keggers of Yore confirms you're not alone. It's kind of like the Life magazine photo archives, but with 100% more goats drinking Schlitz at the bar.
Word to the wise -- make sure you're visiting Keggers of Yore, not Preggers of Yore (NSFW). I've made that mistake dozens of times.
- related:// Sorry I Missed Your Party
- related:// See Other Vintage Photography Sites
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It's pretty phenomenal how the artistic mingling of precise lighting, sound, scenery, and performance can be so profound as to move a bystander to tears. Even the most stoic of viewers' heartstrings have been yanked by films like 'Steel Magnolias,' 'Sophie's Choice,' and 'Terms of Endearment.'
There are some people, though, who can nearly drown in their own blubbering waterworks by watching the most upbeat of adventure movies such as 'Star Wars,' 'Back to the Future,' and 'Lord of the Rings.'
By "some people," I specifically mean some guy's wife, now dubbed Crying Wife, who cries after any movie no matter how sad or how happy.
Here, she's just seen 'Star Wars':
And 'Back to the Future':
- See all her unintelligible, tear-soaked movie reviews at The Official Wife Crying at Movies Site.
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- Nic Cage as Dexter
- Nic Cage as Sarah Palin
- Nic Cage as Heidi Montag
- Nic Cage as Abraham Lincoln
- link:// Nic Cage As Everyone
- via:// The Daily What
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At Urlesque HQ, ask anyone what they wanted to be when they grew up, and you'll get a range of professions, from baking to forensics to "bus driving and food service" (::raises hand sheepishly::). But the one thing everyone wanted, across the board, was to become a superhero, saving people from bad guys or whatever -- BUT MOSTLY GETTING TO WEAR THE COSTUME!Growing Up Heroes fondly rekindles the memories of yesteryear, when we were mere little people dressed up as almighty fictional superheroes.
- link:// Growing Up Heroes
- via:// Kottke (thanks for the tip, Emily!)
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