It's time for change at coolstop. The best of the cool daily pick has been a strictly daily thing for over 8 of the 10 years we've been online. The web has changed considerably over the years and finding new "cool" sites on a daily basis has become increasingly difficult and time-consuming. I've decided it's time to discontinue the best of the cool daily pick while I consider some new directions I have in mind for coolstop.

In the meantime, there's a ton of site reviews in the database and the archives will continue to be maintained. Coolstop's main page currently features a randomly selected favorite from the database. I've started with a few of my faves and will be busy building up the list over the next few weeks. I'll also be considering those new directions I've been thinking about.

Stay tuned here for new developments and maybe even a new find now and then. And please remember – "cool" is a highly subjective thing...;~))

Conceptual artist Chris Barr, the character behind today's pick, says it "harnesses interruptive technology... to create invisible theatre that steals time from the realm of work and capital." The surprises created by the Bureau come as the result of interruption requests submitted by site visitors, but the idea is to request an interruption for oneself, thank you. As one of the archived interruptions states, it's "entirely possible for people to request interruptions for people other than themselves, which opens us up to some fairly serious embarassment, a moderate amount of annoyance from unsuspecting recipients, and a lot of potentially wasted interruptive material." So play nice, silly! And if you decide to invite the Bureau to "invigorate some of the time you spend at work," chances are you'll be pleasantly (and amusingly) surprised...  [Guerrilla-Innovation]

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What do you get when you combine the skills of a number of talented animation artists with the spoken poetry of a former Poet Laureate? You get an assortment of amazing creative works! The high-resolution movie files are huge, so the pages in which they're embedded take a few moments to load – hopefully, you'll find the unique content worth the wait... 

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There's something odd about Torsten Schubert's automated presentation of his picturebooks. The slideshow has no user controls, forcing the viewer to suffice with a 2-second glimpse of each photograph. The urge to pause and take in a photo is quickly replaced by a new one. Odd indeed to restrict the viewer like this. On the other hand, in the case of Torsten's outstanding works, the chosen way of presenting them is most effective, creating an unusual and enjoyable visual experience. 

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"It's really hard to say what makes a good photograph or not, but I always feel it in my stomach when it's a good one," said young Swedish photographer Jesper Ulvelius in a recent interview (note: that magazine's main page spawns a pop-up). "Everybody has a story only they can tell- you just have to think about what that story is." His photographs artfully reveal moments in his life – stark glimpses of one's reality. You might also enjoy his diary... 

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The Tattered project, which "investigates the desecration and misuse of the American flag in the context of the U.S. Flag Code," started five years ago as Seth Butler's senior thesis while studying photography. He still travels around the country taking photographs for Tattered, which currently consists of 50 images – a thought-provoking exploration of "the most ubiquitious, evocative, and complex symbol of America's self-image" and how widely it's misused and misrepresented in mainstream American culture. An outstanding documentary...

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We can use a little personality around here. "My mind can be a scary place sometimes, but every once in a while it redeems itself by generating a semi-decent idea or two." Currently finishing up her 4th year of college, Sara admits she has "a weakness for cute shoes" and from her writing, I'd never have guessed she was shy. Things overheard and odd encounters with road rage are a few examples of Sara's "finding humour in nearly everything." And whatever you do girls, please remember that spandex was meant to be worn for exercising! Period.

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"Apart from being a hobby, photography has become somewhat therapeutic for me," says Monica, who sees photography as a creative outlet, a way to express "feeling or emotion." Though based in Barcelona, she gets to travel a bit to places like "The City that never sleeps" (what an outstanding panorama!) and the Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya. Of course, when closer to home, Monica has her own beautiful critter to ham it up in front of the lens...;~))  [Barcelona Photobloggers]

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"Photography has always been attractive to me but I am really starting from scratch as I hadn't touched anything else than a small compact digital camera since 1982..." Living in Paris, Elaine has been out to capture the everyday in pictures since launching the photoblog at the beginning of the year. Look – another spiral to add to the collection, not to mention great shots of a one-man band and a beautiful blur...;~)) 

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Living in Toronto, 20-year-old artist Michael DeForge has a big imagination. His illustrations are free-spirited and colorful – amazing characters, some human but lots of playful monsters. I really enjoyed his collection of posters and there's also several Quicktime animations that rock (if you have trouble viewing them, make sure that "Enable playback of Flash tracks" is checked on the "Advanced" tab of QuickTime Preferences). Have fun!  [Poows]

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Maja Flink's Portraits are revealing, her Places interesting, especially the 2 shots from Bogota. But it's the Cosmetic Surgery series, a project in progress, I find to be most thought-provoking portraiture... 

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I like random. As in random cool for example (hope it lands you somewhere delightful). Or, as is the case for today's pick, random shots – might I suggest you use the Random link on the menu – it just might lead to something delightful... again and again.

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Similar to another artist, Meg Brown Payson, whose site I reviewed last Sunday, Reed Danziger seeks to bring order to "too much information" in her abstract paintings. "I'm always working towards that point of conflation in the painting where it provided over-information, but also perfect information." Payson had referred to "a moment of fit" at which time a painting emerges from its initially disordered state. As one reviewer of Reed's work puts it, "The ultimate satisfaction for Danziger comes in the final day or two of detailing the painting's surface, when the work begins to speak for itself." The intricate patterns and glorious colors found in Reed Danziger's works strike me as simply magical...

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I'll cite two reasons for featuring Francesco's, or should I say Photorama's photoblog. First, an absolutely phenomenal short-lens shot of Open Space. Second, a wonderful portrait, Tell Me More. And there's a number of other reasons in the archives...;~))

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When I hit Mieg's gallery, I was immediately reminded (quite pleasantly, thank you) of another spiral I'd encountered recently. Mieg's more abstract and colorful takes on a similar subject (all 12 of 'em) are superb – very cool in slideshow mode. Then there's this shot of a green bench in front of a barbed wire fence in a field, against a cloudy blue sky – a whole different mood at a whole new level – one of the most beautiful photographs I've ever seen... 

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