Creative and Cool Stuff on the Web: Issue Four
A screenshot from the intro page of The Pudding’s Photo History project. November 13, 2020.
Just when I thought this project would stop after three entries, I had enough posts for a fourth issue. (Hurrah!)
As mentioned in my previous “Creative and Cool Stuff on the Web” articles, this effort stems from my nostalgia for the good ol’ days of the Internet, when it opened wide for the first time to average folks. Once the wide world could access the web, people started to populate corners of it with blogs and other types of creative projects unfettered from purely business interests or the demands of social media. (To read my article on how search engines and social media have reshaped the web, you can find it here.)
Without further explanation, I share my bulleted list of creative and cool stuff discovered on the web since my last issue:
Though we all—or at least me—wish all the U.S. 2020 election drama had ended already, it continues as of this post. Therefore, why not continue to take advantage of The New York Times’s lovely and creative Election Stress Relief site?
I can’t say I loved learning that the terms “acquaintance rape” and “gulag” first appeared on the scene the year of my birth. (The appearance of “nanotechnology” and “exotic shorthair” redeem the year a bit, though, even if the latter probably refers to a cat and not to awesome humans with short hair.) Either way, I enjoyed looking through other years in Mirriam-Webster’s Time Traveler site and receiving a flood of memories about current events from past eras.
See how you do with The Pudding’s photo quiz assessing how color in photography shifts our dating (and perception) of images. My guesses came in far more accurate than many others’ attempts in some sections—and far worse than many in others.
And finally, a suggestion from a friend: WindowSwap, where people have submitted short videos of the views looking out from their windows. If you’d value a break from looking out your own home’s windows for a bit—a common problem in the coronavirus era, but perhaps always a nice change of pace, no matter the time or place—click through and find one or two views to relax or excite you and to bring you just a bit into the world of someone else on this globe we share.
Have you found anything fun on the web recently (that didn’t exist on social media alone)? I need suggestions for my next issue! Send them my way via the Observing Leslie contact form.
To read the other issues in this collection of creative and cool stuff on the web and to see previous lists of fun finds, you can find them via this link to the collected posts.