My goodness, there's a lot of clipart in the world. A thousand things to think about today, such as: why does this page look horrific in Netscape? Why are we incapable of clawing back three vital, alignment-defining pixels from our new comments box? (thanks to Enetation). And whatever happened to our Sonic Catering sound project? The absence of creative thoughts from newthings is largely due to the imminent appearance of things 16, due in mid-July (subscribe here, via our enduringly old technology subscription service). Print and web each bring their own complications...

Collections from Japan: K-car toys, 'the Most Famous Softdrink's Homepage in Japan!', and, apparently, batteries.posted by things at 11:01 / 0 comments

You might have noticed our obsession with all things small and wheeled. If money was no object, we'd probably get along to Christie's tomorrow for this.posted by things at 10:10 / 0 comments

We’ve mentioned Nicholson Baker’s American Newspaper Repository before. Their site is now going to some way to fulfilling Baker’s original objectives - to preserve original publications in all their polychromatic glory in the face of official philistinism: visit the excellent gallery to see exactly what’s being preserved (via Portage).

Also, travel through America using vintage postcards, or re-visit the brightly coloured concerns and expectations of an earlier age, with the collected covers of Popular Mechanics magazine.posted by things at 10:02 / 0 comments

The urge to archive, label, store and present visual material on the web is strong. Visit the archives of PM and AD Magazines, inter-war graphics art publications, with cover art by Paul Rand, spreads on the Bauhaus, Alex Steinweiss, and gorgeous covers like this one by Leo Rackow.


things has finally moved up to broadband as well, although it’s unlikely we’ll be making the site too image-heavy in the future. That said, we have unceasing respect for people like Mark and his site 317x - an online collection of (hi-res!) scans of his extensive record collection (as well as weird music links to die for). Thrill to the cover images such as Leroy Holmes’s ‘New Provocative Films’, 'Stereo Action', Les Baxter’s ‘Space Escapade' or the stunning 'Music from Mathematics'.

More pictures: toy hotrods.posted by things at 12:02 / 0 comments

Snowed under today, so pointers to two sites that offer more interesting links than we could ever hope to dredge up. Spitting Image will take you all over the world, from suburbs to steelworks, while Excitementmachine's links page is a compact collection of things to read and do. And that's all. (thanks to David for the first one). posted by things at 11:27 / 0 comments

Philadelphia's Daily Jive, which has a nice line in links to the unexplained and plain unusual, points us to the eternally fascinating conundrum of the numbers stations, the eerie but strangely soothing radio broadcasts of unfathomable lists of numerals. In this age of spyware, listening posts and world-wide email snooping devices, the numbers stations are an almost retro slice of Cold War paranoia. Plus, the recordings crackle and fizz in a suitably clandestine way.

Some internet archaeology of our own – explore this forgotten backwater from the early days of homepage building. Also, inside the mind of scientist and Vitamin C enthusiast Linus Pauling.posted by things at 08:28 / 0 comments

Very us – Mc.Clintock is a ‘structured, visual record of everything inside my house’ (via metafilter), brimming full of obsessively detailed minutae. This, for example, is how to catalogue a drawer. The detail is first rate: these are little things - how could we resist?

The way the site is laid out makes brings to mind a visual version of Infocom's celebrated text-based adventure games (especially Hitchhiker’s Guide - one can imagine that the type of things that lurked in bathroom cabinets would come in handy here). And yes, the picture to the left are shelves stolen from the site - apologies. They’re almost as nice as ours.

Elsewhere, a few things that make us wish our digital camera would just hurry up and arrive. Jay Boucher’s photos of the vans of New York is effortlessly elegant (again, a topic we’ve touched on before). And these are two gorgeous galleries: ericalba and elasticspace (the latter has some fine architectural montages, including this one of Centre Point). What’s with the cinematic picture format adopted by most photologs?posted by things at 00:56 / 0 comments

The guy from Lego called today, sounding sheepish. ‘You know those Lego sets you were supposed to receive?’ he asked cautiously. ‘Well, you were only supposed to get 50. I think you got 1,500.’ We’re off to make movies. Big, epic movies. Think Laurence of Arabia, in highly machined plastic (or anything with big robots, gladiators or spaceships).

Inevitably, someone else has beaten us to it (someone also needs to investigate the links between Lego and religion). posted by things at 00:47 / 0 comments

A mention on dollarshort led us to this: psychic pets. The mind reels. It seems almost unfair that this program is unavailable in the UK. Chatty pregnant giraffes? They got 'em. Head psychic website here. Keep an eye on it, because the store opens in two weeks time, and psychic pet apparel is bound to be fabulous.

Unrelated, almost (depending on your definition of 'lost') - Whygodwhy has launched Twelve Times Lost - UK readers must pay $1 in candy to get a copy of this print only publication (they might just accept the $0.99 Botan Rice Candy if you're lucky...)posted by things at 11:34 / 0 comments

Three decades ago today, five people were caught burgling this building. Today, simply add 'gate' to a word and you have an instant scandal designation.

Happier things. iamcal has some Post-it note paper plane designs - just the thing for slow, hot days in the office. Our instructions seem a bit lofty in comparison.posted by things at 23:40 / 0 comments

What's happened to the Franklin Mint? Time was when you couldn't open a colour supplement in the UK without finding their latest catalogue of garish collectables. Then the catalogues vanished (or maybe we stopped buying the right newspapers). Happily, it appears the company is alive and well: 'sharing your passion for collecting.' The categories of gifts are glorious - 'Collectible Knives & Weapons' (with a sub-category of 'Animals & Conservation' - Ted Nugent eat your heart out), 'Collector Eggs' (such as this 'Wizard of Oz' one...) and that old standard, 'Dragons, Myths & Fantasies' (where just $5,400 will buy you the lavish 'Kingdom of the Unicorn Imperial Jeweled Egg').

We got thinking about the Mint thanks to an item in Christie's upcoming Concept Car sale: Lot 4. An 'official Ford Centennial commemorative', this pewter reproduction of the original Ford Model T production line is your chance to own a little slice of Scientific Management. posted by things at 09:06 / 0 comments

Arndale Britain is an elegiac look at the buildings behind the Boring Postcards, with the ultimate intention of comparing and contrasting old and new. See here for our thoughts on Martin Parr's collections

tmn linked to these tiny envelopes, so we counter with Sukie, Brighton-based suppliers to the nation's stationery fetishists.posted by things at 13:27 / 0 comments

There seems to come a time when a website decides that simply adding to the global link cycle is just a little too introspective. There’s no way that newthings has reached saturation point just yet, but the desire to get fresh visuals up on a website means that original imagery is becoming ever-more seductive. That’s why we go weak at the knees when someone posts things like these crumbling piers, this overgrown car, or the perfectly pixellated compositions produced by the pencam.(And there's more. Look! vintage car brochures!, a virtual stapler!, stadiums in iceland!, still life painting! - you get the picture).posted by things at 12:30 / 0 comments

A slight aside. You can now download our fantastic shelf instructions - a little late for extended bank holiday DIY, perhaps, but a must-have for all dedicated collectors of things. We scarcely need remind you that another free gift - the things temporary tattoos - is still available: all you need to do is send us an SAE or IRC. Of course, you'll still have to purchase things 15 if you want to get hold of the Sonic Catering Band's CD...posted by things at 08:28 / 0 comments

Two illustrations of the sheer complexity of the universe. Firstly, a contemporary take on the famous Charles and Ray Eames film, 'Powers of Ten' (note: this link is odd in the extreme and seemingly nothing to do with the Eames Office). The imagery is taken from Molecular Expressions, which 'explores the world of optics and microscopy'. Their special galleries on computers, crime, fatty acids, watches and Ben and Jerry's ice cream are well worth checking out. Finally, Bad Scrabble, a site that focuses on 'real, unmanipulated examples of Scrabble-tile-chooosing ineptitude'. True proof of the universe's random nature.posted by things at 11:50 / 0 comments

Public Lettering is a beautifully conceived site that ties in very neatly with yesterday's musings on found alphabets and random typography. A photographic tour of London's sign-writing, old, and new, this is the first site we've seen that looks at the subject of architectural lettering. Other sites that might be of interest include the Kindersley Workshop and SPA, an irreverent publication aimed at small architectural practices. Their contemporary lexicon includes 'islingtundra':


The latter came via the Dezain blog. Also noticed, Magnetbox, a site that muses on design matters, and makes the odd practical suggestion:

posted by things at 08:28 / 0 comments

The UK is coming down from the long weekend, and the surprisingly successful Jubilee celebrations: 50,000 empty champagne bottles were cleared from the Mall and Green Park last night. A few totally unrelated links. A day in the life is a new photo weblog worth keeping an eye on. Itchy Robot has some found typography. And here is a found alphabet.

The web is awash with small discoveries, whether it be blogs that catch the eye (Travelers Diagram and Exploding Fist), dramatic, visual representations of a website and its links, or even daft stuff like the Bible rendered in Lego. Talking of toys - Game and Watch were all the rage when things was young. Remember this?posted by things at 15:06 / 0 comments