axi! You can step into the world's most amazing cab virtually at the Ultimate Taxi. Once you get past the retro look and the piles of ads on this site, you can have some real fun getting to know Jon Barnes, your driver. Since 1984, Barnes has been ferrying tourists and celebrities around Aspen, Colorado, in his 1978 yellow Checker cab. Through the years, he's has added a dizzying collection of electronic keyboards, drums, lasers, light and fog machines until, by the early 1990s, the taxi became a celebrity itself and Barnes began focusing more on entertaining that getting people from place to place. On the site, you can learn about the cab's sound and light systems and see photos of famous and regular folks who've ridden in it. Barnes even transmits directly to the Internet from the taxi. So, please, step right inside ....

eady, set, analyze! That's what you can do at Kaggle. The folks behind the site realized that most companies, governments and researchers aren't able to get the most value from their data. Meanwhile, there are apparently a lot of scientists who crave real data to develop their techniques. Kaggle has figured out how to match up thousands of PhDs from fields including computer science, statistics, econometrics, math and physics from more than 100 countries with the organizations with the data. The scientists also meet, network, collaborate, compete with other scientists - and they get prize money from the data sources. According to the site, Kaggle has always outperformed pre-existing accuracy benchmarks. On the site you can read case studies, start your own competition, see existing ones, and contribute to the site's wiki. Now go!

ool! In fact, every thing you find on The Cool Hunter is just that. Indeed, since 2004, founder Bill Tikos and his team from the ACCESS Agency, the multi-disciplinary creative ideas agency and one-of-a-kind resource hub, has been committed to "roaming the UK and the globe so you're in the know." What you'll know about, in brilliantly colored photographs and videos, is, well, a little bit about everything, including Ads, Architecture, Art, Design, Events, Fashion, Food, Gadgets, House, Kids, Lifestyle, Music, News, Offices, Transportation, Travel and treehouses. Monthly, more than 1.8 million readers enjoy such delights as a Star Wars GPS system, Spanish leather purses, a treehouse with a swirling ramp, a German architectural playground, stylish running sneakers, and a retro speedboat. Now that's cool!

hey come from the future. That's the promise of io9, and the folks who run the site keep their word. Editor-in-Chief Annalee Newitz describes the site as a "lifestyle magazine for the future," that blurs the line between science and science fiction, providing, if you will, the "entertainment side of science." And they do a good job of it, updating the stories daily. When I visited, there was news about a caterpillar that looks like it's made of clear plastic, the best comic book movies of all time, a millionaire determined to defy gravity, and the way the world just might end, among many, many articles. There are top stories, the most popular ones and an active forum area, which is not a surprise, since 10,000 other people were visiting the site the same time as I was. io9 is fresh, fun and full of news you won't find anywhere else - at least not in the present.

ome on in and sit a while.... That's just what you'll want to do at The Lettered Cottage. Southerners Kevin and Layla Palmer have treated this lovely blog as their playground, and, as they say, passion pushes their swing. That means the site is full of the things they love, and you are likely to love them, too. It doesn't hurt that TLC is graphically gorgeous, but that's no surprise from two people who care about their surroundings. Their style is evident everywhere from their own house to the lucious photographs that illustrate their posts. You can read favorite and other posts as well as HGTV articles, watch their videos, learn from how-to articles, submit your own problem room for Layla to make over, enjoy their Guest My Nest projects, or buy books, tutorials and photographs in their shop. All in all, it's almost like visiting your auntie in Albama ....