Four new-to-me websites that appear to be in their infancy look very promising. I really like the concept behind them. You may want to bookmark them and see how they are developing from time to time.
First (and second) up are two sites dedicated to giving old items away rather than trashing them. Introducing Freecycle and Yoink. I like the setup for Yoink better but Freecycle appears to have more stuff. Just type in what you are looking for and see if anyone is giving it away. This would be great for an end-of-yard-sale clearing house. It’s like leaving it at the curb with a “free” sign that the whole world can see. Sadly, neither have free dumbells or motorcycles. Besides getting something for free, you are cutting down on land fill usage and energy consumption. Want an entertaining lesson on the subject? Go here and see The Story of Stuff.
Third we have iFixit. I love the idea of this site! There are tons of how-to websites out there but this one uses a wiki system. If you are not familiar with this idea, imagine Wikipedia for how-to manuals. Someone sets up a guide. Someone else goes in and suggests a better way to do it or adds more information. If a lot of people got involved you’d have some highly polished user manuals and repair guides.
Fourth is Racevine. I’ve been looking for a new career. If I had thought of this site first, this would be a part of it. It is a streamlined Google-simple site for reading and posting reviews of various human-powered races. Do you want to know if the Disney Marathon is any good? How about if it has enough portapotties? You can find out in the blink of an eye now. I’ve been following this one for a couple of weeks as I think about races for next year and it seems that new reviews are getting added regularly. I think this one is going to succeed.
And as a reward for reading this entire post, a fifth link to a good junk candy website. This website seeks to answer the questions of every 10 yr old boy: Who would win? Superman or Mighty Mouse, my dad or your dad, etc. Basically they pit famous individuals or groups throughout history against each other to see who would win in a battle to the death. The website is not very well organized, but there are full episodes of the TV show if you poke around. You might start with the “Season 1” tab or use this link. If you are pressed for time, it seems you can jump to the last commercial and they recap the entire show then show the results (this is what I do so I’m not certain if I’m missing something). This way one hour of TV is distilled to ~15 min. The destructive power of the Claymore (sword not explosive) is legendary, but seeing it in action was stunning. The other thing that surprised me was the Viking axe. Good grief! BE FOREWARNED, THIS SITE HAS SOME GRAPHIC VIOLENCE.
Jason Patz 