A long time ago, back when the WWW was still learning how to toddle, a fellow by the name of Glenn Davis ran a simple Web site entitled "Cool Site of the Day". There he would provide every morning a different URL to a different Web site that had somehow distinguished itself to his eyes based on design, content, or just plain pizzazz.
It was ridiculously popular, and spawned an endless number of "X Site of the Y" imitators. Before long Mr. Davis didn't have to look for the sites himself; readers submitted dozens of them every day. The effect was like being Slashdotted, but webmasters didn't care. There was always something different, and a Web site that had received a CSOTD usually kept an icon on their site saying so for the next year.
After a couple of years, "Cool Site of the Day" was acquired for commercial use, and Glenn Davis moved on. CSOTD wasn't selective any longer, just trendy. So he founded Project Cool at www.projectcool.com to reclaim his original mission, and then some.
Project Cool today provides developer resources, "getting started" resources, and more for people who enjoy truly "Cool" Web sites and want to create their own. But the daily Sightings (which are also permanently archived) are still the most popular part of his site. As Vincent Flanders realized not too much later, the best way to learn good design is to see it in action.