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There are a raft of custom shirt websites, but few as cool as Threadless. Their design philosophy is rather different, in that they accept submissions for new shirts and decide what to produce in some quasi-democratic fashion. Every seven days new shirts are chosen and rotated into stock, in limited runs that often sell out quickly to people of intelligent or eclectic fashion sense. Well, in t-shirts, anyway.

Anybody with a graphics program can make a design, and anyone with a web browser can vote on it, and anybody with money can buy it on a shirt.

They also sell gift certificates.

Forget Army-Navy surplus tents and machetes. Tanks for Sale is a British and Croatian company that sells decommissioned military vehicles (including tanks) and transports them worldwide. Rentals for movie sets, parties and the occasional angry commute are also available, though no prices are given on the site.

A great number of the cool watches sold in America come from Japan. Even more cooler watches never make it across the Pacific, at least not to Bloomingdale’s. Tokyo Flash is an importer of interesting watches from Japan, ranging from wacky Spoons and DJ Honda classics to even stranger and high tech (like one that did six language translations of about 8000 words). The prices seem pretty reasonable for such unique watches, and the selection is fantastic.

The idea of making money based on potential future events is not a new one, but the Futures exchange has somewhat of a unique take on the idea. Previously covered on this blog was Longbets, which connected a bettor for both eventualities of a given future outcome with something like an escrow account until said even happens (or fails thereto). Futures exhange removes the waiting part of that equation, allowing members to buy, sell and trade their shares of something that is or isn’t going to happen. There, “safe” bets definitely cashable many years from now stand shoulder to shoulder with unlikely thoughts of bloody coups, upheavals, wild inventions and sea changes the likes of science fiction or worse. It’s not real money, but someday it might be worth something.

Romeo What the heck was that big scene all about?
Juliet Who knows? I just passed out for a second
and everybody’s losing it. Luckily the dagger wasn’t sharp.
Romeo And the apothecary screwed up big-time!
What do you say we head home?
Juliet Sounds like a plan, my medieval man!

And so ends the “happy ending” edition of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, only one of a number of modifications available to customers of CustomizedClassics. In addition to being able to switch Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet to Joe Sixpack and Jane Doe, book buyers can also choose from a number of Sherlock Holmes classics, Tarzan and The Jungle book and more, having their names and other details substituted. A version of Moby Dick starring a corpulent enemy or mother in law is even possible. Literary subversives could role-reverse Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, or even Watson and the Hound. It’s a far cry from the customized kids’ books of a decade ago, and remains to be seen where this could end up: Stephen King’s IT, starring you and your friends?

Utilikilts is a Seattle-based company producing high-quality kilts. They make ones with cargo pockets, some out of leather, others in wild prints and tie-dye, and a whole slew of great merchandise. No mention of what to wear thereunder is made, though.

Though bumper stickers are as omnipresent as the cars that they mar, the sheer number masks the true message they convey: “BAAA!!” Every parent proudly proclaiming an exceptional knee-biter is merely following the herd of other sheep with smart sons and daughters, dating back to the first meeting of chrome, adhesive and high grades. The “My kid beat up your honor student” stickers are starting to become tiresome and cliche. Even the once-clever Darwin fish is now passe, soon to follow the fate of the 80s staple “Baby On Board” signs.

So where then to find original thoughts to plaster on one’s bumpers? Subversive slogans and quintessential quotes can be found on the stickers produced by !!!srini of Unamerican Activities. A self-made man running a self-publishing business, !!!srini has created (and appropriated) a number of great sayings, bitter quips, and all around radical stuff for buttons, posters, stickers and more. Nothing says “I’m not one of the herd” like a “Nature is Pissed” t-shirt.

He adds his comments to every slogan, and offers ideas and stories as well as products at the site. Definitely slanted away from the humdrum banality of normalcy, !!!srini’s writings and ideas are articulate if not quite anarchistic, and one is hard pressed to leave the site a little more open-minded and free-thinking. It may be propaganda, but it’s really cool propaganda.