Rob Cockerham seems to have a lot of spare time, which is great for the rest of us, because he investigates all those things we simply don’t have the time for, and then posts the results on his Web site (“The sixth-best website in the world”).

Today’s highlight is a pair of investigations he performed some time ago which seem to show two sides of one industry.

• In The Gold Kit Surprise, he sprays some worthless junk with gold paint and sends it in. Just writing that sentence made me laugh with anticipation and I haven’t even gotten to the punch line yet. Read it through.
• In Cash4Gold Will Offer One-Third of the Actual Value for your Gold, he sends actual gold to Cash4Gold to see how much they offer for it. Well, the title gives away the punch line, but it’s still worth reading.

That Web site is a sinkhole of time-wastage. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself clicking around from story to story, like the How much is inside? adventures, in which he investigates things like how many threads per inch are there in 360-thread count pillowcases? Or his gallery of costumes (for Hallowe’en or other events), including my favorite: Paparazzi.