The Best of "Dark Roasted Blend" in 2008

"QUANTUM SHOT" #517
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Dark Roasted Blend: Weird & Wonderful Things in 2008

Many great things happened for us and our readers in 2008: our site received a redesign, the DRB gift store has opened, new subcategories and more popular series were introduced, and a whole lot of interviews and other media attention brought DRB content into the web spotlight.

During that year DRB has achieved Technorati status as one of the Top 100 sites on the internet; we enjoyed working with new writers, editors and fans, who also helped us with the DRB Science Fiction section.

As a sort of overview, but mostly trying to highlight the themes and articles of 2008 that you might have missed, here is a roundup of the most popular and interesting posts on DRB (arranged by months)

January - Most Popular:

	Painting with Light Mystery and Melancholy of a Street
	Abandoned Amusement Parks Overgrown into the next dimension Ghost Rides: Abandoned Parks in South Korea Final Destination, Asian Style

January - Hidden Gems:

	Miniature Spy Guns The smaller, the deadlier Miniature Spy Guns, Part 2 Do not move while I destroy you, Mr Bond
	Power Enforcers: Anti-Riot Police Vehicles Absolute power corrupts absolutely

February - Most Popular:

	Nightmare Playgrounds, Part 1 Seriously disturbing sculptures, meant for kids Nightmare Playgrounds, Part 2 Manic-Depressive Creativity
	Robots in Arts Compelling Art from Found Objects

February - Hidden Gems:

	The New Motor, or The Steam-Powered Messiah A locomotive "god" from the Victorian times
	Discovering Iran, Part 2 Outside of politics, this is simply a fascinating land

March - Most Popular:

	Time Machine: World's Biggest Collider Have a loophole in time, will travel
	The Deadliest Creatures (Most Easy to Miss) The Real Terror Lurks in Quiet Darkness

March - Hidden Gems:

	Russian Nuclear Icebreakers: To the North Pole! Odyssey in the Arctic with Russian Icebreaker Fleet
	The Geekiest LEGOs and Rubik's Cubes The world of twisted dimensions

April - Most Popular:

	Japanese Creative Barcodes Cut out your UPC label and... frame it!
	Out-of-This-World Fishing, Part 2 Big Fish Extravaganza Out-of-This-World Fishing, Part 1 What lurked in the depths, now is here to haunt you

April - Hidden Gems:

	You Know You Want This... Steampunk Gear Masterpieces plus interview with "Aaron Adding Machines"
	Extreme Exploration: Russian Nuclear Research Facilities Deep under the mountain, or in the world's deepest lake

May - Most Popular:

	Shipwrecks & Sea Disasters The Beauty & the mystery of the wrecked ships
	Extravagant Designs by Luigi Colani Love them, or hate them, there is no middle ground

May - Hidden Gems:

	Anteater Coolness Life with two anteaters in the house
	Extraordinary Art from Metal Made from "found" and military scrap objects

June - Most Popular:

	Largest Human-Made Art on Earth Made by a single person... gone the next week
	Geoducks Are Strange Nothing can prepare you for seeing them for the first time

June - Hidden Gems:

	Amazing Submarine Concepts Every kind, except the Yellow One
	Unexpected Creativity (found in unusual places) Wild designs lurking in everyday world

July - Most Popular:

	Cool Computer Case Mods, Part 2 Pure Geek Awesomeness Cool Computer Case Mods, Part 1 Outfit your humble PC for world domination
	Shocking & Creative Ads from the Urban Jungle These marketers would use anything!

July - Hidden Gems:

	Dismantling the World's Largest Gantry Crane The Gathering of Steel Giants
	The Biggest Guns in Human History It's not the size that matters... or is it?

August - Most Popular:

	Sublime & Sensual Smoke Art Smoke meets Electricity
	Psychedelic Furniture, Part 2 When designers go around the bend Psychedelic Furniture Showcase Furniture does not have to be boring

August - Hidden Gems:

	Spider Webs Glamour & Architecture Mother Nature's Jewelry
	Toy Robots to Have and to Hold Vintage collector toy robot beauties

September - Most Popular:

	Stunningly Intricate: Curta Mechanical Calculators Perfected in a concentration camp, as a gift to Hitler!
	The Most Alien-looking Place on Earth Socotra Island: you have to see it to believe it!

September - Hidden Gems:

	Darien Gap: The Most Dangerous (Absence of a) Road The most intense 90 km on Earth
	Monstrous Aviation: World's Biggest Airplanes Grand dream realized

October - Most Popular:

	Caves: The World Beneath the World Fairyland Cave Formations
	Strange Knits & Yarn Monsters When Art and Knitting Needles Collide

October - Hidden Gems:

	Project "Orion": Powered by an Atomic Bomb Machine Gun NASA's most radical killer asteroid defense
	Castles That Will Inspire And Haunt You When fairy tale jumps from a landscape and hits you between the eyes

November - Most Popular:

	Travel Distant Worlds! Vintage Space Travel Posters, and more.
	The Mimicry of Spiders Sensational acts of cuteness and camouflage

November - Hidden Gems:

	Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines Slightly Mad Concepts of Early Aviation
	Humongous Tunnel Boring Machines Tremors! They're getting closer!

December - Most Popular:

	The Ghosts of Antarctica: Abandoned Stations & Huts In "The Thing" and "The Mountains of Madness" territory...
	Astounding Japanese Highways, Bridges and Interchanges Farewell Horizontal!

December - Hidden Gems:

	Punch Hole Clouds & Other Rarely Seen Cloud Formations Crop Circles in the Sky
	Dieselpunk: Love Affair with a Machine Surreal industrial art & culture