So, to set the scene, I was doing some design research and ended up going down a pretty interesting rabbit hole, exploring some really creative and unique sites on the internet.

A good few of these come from Reddit and the “Useless Web”. I’d recommend taking a look for yourself if you want to find more later.

Also, thanks to Evgeni Tcherkasski for the Lin-Manuel Miranda doppelganger stock image, appreciate it man.

Rotate Your Mattress.

Starting off with two actually helpful sites: first this sleep calculator that I really like. It takes sleep cycles into account and I love how minimalistic yet well-designed it is.

Personally, when I organise myself to “lock in” before college starts, I basically do the math that the calculator does by hand. Also from my experience, when you get less than like five hours of sleep, planning around sleep cycles can be the difference between waking up practically deceased and waking up drained, but able to face the day, so I definitely appreciate it.

Practical Betterments is also a lovely read, I’m sure everyone could find something even slightly helpful by skimming through it. For me rotating my mattress was that special something. In the past few days I’ve had some of the best sleep in my entire life and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner.

Terrifying Tokyo Toilets

Tokyo Toilet Map is a website mapping clean and dirty toilets in Tokyo, along with some….questionable graffiti. It hasn’t been updated since 1997 and quite frankly it’s a miracle it’s still up.

Below is my favourite review, minus the picture of course.

Sophisticated Scientific Study

Fun with Grapes is a very very serious scientific case study on putting grapes into a microwave by Patrick R. Michaud. This site also hasn’t been updated in a long time, since 1994 to be exact.

I find it especially interesting because the operators of Internet Relay Chat (basically the Nintendo DS chat rooms of the 90’s) and the users of “channel #root” are acknowledged at the end, serving almost like a museum exhibit of early internet culture.

S/o to Neal

It would be practically criminal if I listed out a bunch of unique websites without mentioning Neal.fun. Neal is incredibly talented and definitely already fairly high profile. For example, as of writing he’s got 11,762 supporters on Buy Me a Coffee, and if my math is right, at minimum he’s made $35K just off support for his silly web projects.

His newest game stimulation clicker is a prime example of how genuinely good he is at designing interactive experiences.

Although, if you’re looking for something that won’t leave you with a brain rot induced headache, I’d recommend absurd trolley problems, earth reviews and infinite craft.

M👁️👁️N

This extremely well done article on the moon by Bartosz Ciechanowski is a very long read (at minimum 1 hour) and dives into a depth well beyond the average person’s technical appetite, but it’s so impressive I had to share it. The simulations are very well done and make it very approachable for anyone that tapped out of maths and/or science early. He also has a bunch of articles of similar scope on different topics, from bikes, cameras, and even 4D Cubes. You can take a peek at his archive here.

Don’t look at Rotating Sandwiches at 3am.

These speak for themselves quite frankly.

Deliberate Discovery

Watch something wonderful and favoree are sites I really like focused on discovery of Youtube videos and channels respectively.

Watch something wonderful is my favourite, it’s simple and has room for improvement but random youtube videos untethered by an engagement algorithm is such a lovely and refreshing way to discover videos, I love the idea.

Favoree is more of a community-driven review platform for Youtube channels. In theory the more people that use it the more useful it would be, I do think the idea has great potential.

While I talk about Youtube, here is a video I’d recommend that’s been on my mind recently.

Trump Tracker

POTUS Tracker is pretty much what it says on the tin. This site was apparently running since the Biden administration but I’ve only heard of it recently as I’ve become a fair bit more invested in politics in general within the last few months.

It’s made by Luke Wines and essentially consolidates public information about the President’s schedule and legislation extremely efficiently from primary sources. It’s very well done and as unbiased as it realistically can be. He also self-hosts the website and his own portfolio, a technical feat I personally respect.

Mountain Chickens & Sand Theft

Unusual Articles is actually just from Wikipedia, but it lives up to the name if you go deep enough, I’d recommend having a quick look especially in fields that interest you the most.

If you’re not convinced maybe this image of a cow with antlers atop a power line pole might sway you.

One more thing…

As a bonus while I was making this I stumbled on this article about getting really good at spot the difference that I find really interesting.

It’s a cool party trick at best and your eyes might hurt a tad bit trying it but hear him out.

Thank you for your time, even if you just skimmed through everything. I hope you found something you like.

— Kingsley