Travel around the world without leaving your computer--and hit the spots most armchair travelers will miss. Atlas Obscura's goal is to catalog "all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. If you're looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you'll find them...

In an age where everything seems to have been explored and there is nothing new to be found, the Atlas Obscura celebrates a different way of traveling, and a different lens through which to view the world." Search by location or by "category of wonders and curiosities"--categories include Medical Museums and Small Worlds and Model Towns. Or just click on "Take me to a random place" and you might land on America's Stonehenge, in New Hampshire, or Rome's Antique Doll Hospital. Atlas Obscura welcomes and depends on reader submissions, so if you've been someplace wacky and wonderful, you can add it for others to discover.

Make's motto is "technology on your time," and it's for "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things..." The blog celebrates bending technology to create exciting projects at home. To give you a few examples of what that means, there is an entire category of crafts you can make from Altoids tins, including this small electronics kit and a tacklebox. Learn to turn unsightly cables into design, or make iPhone home button earrings. And don't miss the many fun guides and roundups, including the "ischief Maker's Guide, which is full of "gift ideas for your favorite creative skeptic, guerrilla artist, or depressed teenager," and the gift guide for scientists and chemistry fans.

The classic radio shows you (or your grandparents) may remember from childhood are now in the public domain and reincarnated as MP3s, so a new generation can listen to these blasts from the past. We like two blogs that highlight old episodes. At new blog A Mind Forever Wandering Old Time Radio, author Jeff McAleer explains, "Today, in an era of mushrooming media variety, it is hard to grasp the fact that nearly 75 years ago, in a nation of 120 million, 90 million people tuned into The Eddie Cantor Show Sunday nights at 8. It was a time when movies had to end before 7 P.M. because Amos 'n' Andy was about to come on, and when followers of Gangbusters helped in the capture of more than 300 fugitive criminals....no matter what your poison might be you'll find it in OTR if you give it a chance...I encourage everyone to 'tune in' their favorite streaming mp3 player and spend some time listening to the magic of OTR and let it take hold of your imagination as it draws you in." Download episodes of "Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon" from 1938 and sports newsreels from the 40s. Meanwhile, Master of My Public Domain is "a Guide to all things Nostalgic available online; including Public Domain Movies, TV shows, and Old Time Radio shows." We love the 1940s horror films and the old episodes of Christmas show Cinnamon Bear.

Edutaining Kids is a fantastically useful database of reviews of kids' software, DVDs, video games, toys, and books. It's a great resource for anybody looking for holiday gift ideas or trying to decide which products to buy for their kids. This isn't one of those "banish the video games from your house" sites--it takes a tech-filled household for granted, reviewing favorite videos for babies and toddlers or collecting fun learning projects for getting creative with digital cameras. Don't miss the 2009 Holiday Gift Guide, which is broken down by age (baby through 10+) and features both good old-fashioned and modern electronic toys, and books, arts and crafts, and other great presents for kids.

As book review sections vanish from newspapers, it can be tough to decide what to read next (especially if you don't feel like relying on Amazon customer recommendations). One-Minute Book Reviews, "for people who like to read but dislike hype and review inflation," is written by former Glamour book columnist and Cleveland Plain Dealer book critic Janice Harayda. 

The blogosphere: Filled with information about great bands, movies, shows, and videos you've never heard of but would probably love? Yes. So crowded with said information that it's hard to know where to even start looking? Definitely. That's why Paste Magazine.com's List of the Day blog is so essential: It curates all those great bands and movies into easily digestible lists, one a day (hence the title). Lists range from the useful (16 Albums to Look Forward To This Fall, 25 Indie Films to Catch This Fall, The Decade's 25 Most-Essential Foreign Films) to the quirky (Songs for Sweater Weather) to the funny (Dead Celebrities Crazy People Insist Are Alive But Still in Hiding). Take just a few minutes to read the daily list, and you'll come away with a few great cocktail party conversation starters--and tons of albums to buy on iTunes and DVDs to add to your Netflix queue.