Zoomdoggle: More fun than work!

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Yes Men’s INCREDIBLE New York Times prank. (For those of you living under a rock, I give you the video.)

That’s just how it happened too. On Wednesday 12th, on my way to work, a guy walked up and asked if I wanted a paper. He asked just outside the L stop, but not in a way as to imply that he was distributing them, more like he’d just read his on the train and didn’t want to throw it away. I took it, but it wasn’t until almost an hour later that I realized what I had. Amazing right?

Now for the weird bit: Last night at 9PM, on my way home, a guy comes up and asks the same question and gives me the same paper. On the 13th. I’m not sure what to make of it. Did they Yes Men have a few left over, or is one of their own lost in Brooklyn?

If you haven’t seen the paper yet, check it out online. Still though, the mystery remains, is this groundhog day?

LINK: Theyesmen.

“Take a regular Whiteboard, regular Whiteboard markers and play PONG irregularly. What you are seeing is a real live demonstration of our physics based engine responding to it’s real life surroundings, the computer sees and recognizes the black shapes on the whiteboard and the virtual ball behaves accordingly,” explains ENESS, the Australia-based design collective that dreamed up this little bit of awesome. I can honestly say I have no idea what physics based engine is, but holy-crapsticks I want one now. I knew I should’ve nerded out with the nerds in high school instead of skipping out with with goofballs. Oh wells.

LINK: Electronicmiracles via Gizmodo.

Fact: If you’ve got a skin chandelier, a coin-purse, or pants biscuits, you’re not going to get it. Feel free to give it a try though…

Step 1: Open your throat as if trying to chug a beer. It might actually help if you have just chugged a beer. A slight buzz often strips away the kind of inhibitions that make experiments like this fail.

Step 2: Part your lips – enough to let the sound out – but don’t allow them to move.
Note: Making the “OK” sign with one hand, then pressing it into your lips is a good idea to keep your lips from moving while allowing enough space for the sound to escape. It also shows that you’re really trying though, which, if you’re a guy, is only going to make you look sillier when you fail.

Step 3: Now shout the word “girl” as loud as possible. Sounds weird right. Like a duck call. The words “toy boat” also work quite well for a bit of up-and-down, siren-ish thing. But here’s the weirdest bit of all: ONLY GIRLS CAN DO IT.

An early morning call to a maxillofacial surgeon lead to speculation that it has something to do with slight variations in the shape of the female larynx. Go figure. And go try. How fun is that?

There’s a reason I love Jason Kottke; the man knows how to make smart stuff fun and fun stuff smart. His latest creation “When Obama Wins” pulls tweets from Twitter that start with the phrase. Just keep clicking the phrase to see what people are saying. So far, so good, right? It gets even better. Google the phrase “When Obama Wins” and guess what comes up first. You guessed it. Well played Jason. How fun is that?

I wonder how many of these will prove to be right by days end… I wonder how many of you have done your part. The time is now people.

LINK: Whenobamawins.

Some of you may have noticed that certain people who comment on Zoomdoggle have special icons next to their names. While they ARE special, they’re not SPECIAL. I mean, you can be special too. When you get a chance go to http://gravatar.com and sign up to make your own gravatar. Then when you post here, and a bunch of other sites, your mega comments will come with your likeness (kind of). How fun is that?

LINK: Gravatar.

Use the pieces to make the shapes. Click the image for the game. Simple. Or is it?

Read the rest of this entry »

And the award for the funnest photo viewer on Flickr, without a doubt, goes to the Flickr Panda. Watch him vomit and endless stream of fun pictures and rainbows. As best as I can tell, it’s a Zen riddle, wrapped inside a fun mystery, and shoved onto the web to kill productivity. Been watching for almost 20 minutes now…

LINK: Flickr via Lifehacker.

Nakedfunny.com, a site dedicated to naked hijinks, stunts, and pranks. I know what your thinking, how many different ways can a bra pop open unexpectedly? The answer? More than you would believe. Don’t get me wrong, the site is laughably bad. And yet, utterly watchable.

NOTE: Completely NSFW, unless you work for Benny Hill, Bob Barker, or certain members of Congress.

LINK: Nakedfunny.

Every day I got tons of questions, comments, and suggestions in my in-box. Some of them are pretty interesting:

Sarah Joyce asks: “What’s the funnest color? Surely there’s one that proven scientifically to be the one most often associated with fun.”

Josh Spear asks: “What are some fun things I can do on a flight?”

Katrina Brown wonders: “How do I smile in pictures in a way that looks like I’m having fun, but without over doing it?”

The list goes on and on.

You’ll be happy to know that in addition to responding to as many as I can, I’ve also taken to forwarding each and every one to Nasa’s astronauts. Really. Word is, they’ll begin answering them soon via Youtube. Got a question requiring a space-age answer? Post it on the video above, or send it to the link below. Astronaut Greg Chamitoff, aboard the International Space Station 220 miles above Earth, is ready to take your questions. Fun.

LINK: Nasa.

Remember flip books? So much fun. Like unicorns, basketball, and sex all rolled into one. Thecurio.us has a complete how-to for making one of your own. All it takes is a video, a printer, and, well, some other bits and pieces. I can’t vouch for how simple or hard actually doing it is… yet. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

LINK: Thecurio.