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Animated Humor Just about everything looks better when it is moving: beautiful women, studly men, cute little kittens and...yes, even humor looks better when it moves. If the words "still life" are not in your vocabulary, see if your eyeballs are connected to your funnybone: check out some examples of animated humor where action and humor come together to form a perfect blend of...well, action and humor. Web:
Bill Gates' Wealth Have you ever wondered how much money Bill Gates has and what it really means? The real answer is that no one, not even Billy the Silly himself, actually knows how much he is worth, and very few people can comprehend the extent of his wealth. Here is an interesting statistic, based on Rajah of Redmond's holdings of Microsoft stock, its current price, and the population of the United States. If the Supreme Exalted Nerd were to liquidate all of his Microsoft stock, at the current price, and share it equally with everyone in the country, each person would get about $220.07 (at the time I am writing this). Let's put it another way. If everyone in America were to send me the measly sum of $220.07, our country could have two humungously rich billionaires instead of only one. This would serve to increase the competition and be generally better for everyone, a consummation (as Shakespeare pointed out) devoutly to be wished. Web:
Brunching Shuttlecocks Toys When you've got exactly one minute to waste before your favorite Seinfeld rerun comes on, what can you do? Visit the Brunching Shuttlecocks toy page. You'll find quick, silly Web toys. Just the thing to get you through those sixty-second waits. Web:
Bubblewrap I love popping bubblewrap, the plastic wrapping that is used to package and protect delicate items. It's such a satisfying way to spend a few minutes of the day: pressing those small plastic bubbles with ever-increasing force until they suddenly surrender and self-destruct with a soul-satisfying pop. In the olden days, I would have to wait until I got a package in the mail with some bubblewrap in it. Not anymore. Now I can use the Net to pop bubblewrap whenever I want, and you can too. Thank goodness for modern technology. Web:
Burma-Shave Signs From 1925 to 1963, the Burma-Shave Company used road signs to advertise their shaving cream on highways, mostly within the United States. The company used a series of signs, spaced a few hundred yards apart. The signs would show a short message, one line per sign, urging men to use Burma-Shave cream rather than the old-fashioned brush and lather. As a person drove past the signs, he would read each line of the message in sequence. At first, the messages were straight advertising, but it wasn't long before the company started to use short, humorous poems. Here is an example, used in 1933: The answer to / A maiden's prayer / Is not a chin / Of stubby hair / Burma-Shave. Want to see more? Here are some collections. Web:
Constructor Toy Imagine a tiny world in which you can create a something-or-other made out of real imaginary forces, springy things and pieces of whatnot. You can turn gravity on and off, and play with your something-or-other until it's time to get back to work or go to sleep, whichever comes first. Imagine no more. Web: Create a Barcode Have you ever wished you could create your own barcode patterns? Now you can. Just specify a number, and you will be presented with the corresponding barcode. There are lots of cool ways to have fun with barcodes. For example, if you have a kid, use these services to generate a barcode for a unique identification number (such as the kid's Social Security number). Then have the pattern tattooed on the kid's forehead. Cool, huh? As they say on TV when they are trying to sell you something expensive that you don't need, you are limited only by your imagination. Web: Faces Imagine that you are a great plastic surgeon. You have spent years and years in medical training, and now you are ready: to go to L.A. and experience the thrills of modifying the faces of rich Hollywood stars. But why go through all that training and hard work when you have the Net? You can mix and match parts of well-known faces or, alternatively, check out what happens when a computer program does the work for you. Recreate all the excitement experienced by Dr. Frankenstein without running up a huge electric bill. Web:
File Not Found Errors You are using the Web, and for one reason or another, your browser tries to link to a Web page that does not exist. In most cases, this causes the remote Web server to send back a page showing error code 404. (There is nothing cosmic about 404. It just happens to be the standard error code for "file not found".) Most 404 error pages are pretty dull, but some people have programmed their Web servers to show something flashy instead. This Web site will show you the most interesting 404 error code pages on the Web. Web: Human Clock What is the most inefficient, difficult-to-use, ridiculous clock in the world? What is the most interesting, intriguing, stimulating clock in the world? The answers to both these questions is "Human Clock", an analogue or digital clock (take your choice) in which the time is shown to you in the form of photos of people and things. Take a look, browse through some of the photos, wait a minute and watch the current photo change, email the address to a friend, then go do something else. Web: Internet Dancing Baby Have you seen the famous Internet Dancing Baby? It's a wonderful animation of a virtual dancing baby that has been floating around the Net for some time. In fact, I once made my own version of it by combining the dancing baby with Latin Music ("Seņor Burns", played by Tito Puente & His Latin Jazz Ensemble). So, here, for your delectation, are all the versions of the dancing baby you will ever need to rich and fulfilling life. Web:
Mad Martian Museum of Modern Madness This is a great place if you are worried you are getting a bit too normal, and you need a boost of weirdness. For example, wouldn't you love to investigate the "Interactive Toilet of Terror"? And how can you pass up the "Plastic Eyeball Exhibit" or the "Mad Martian Masks"? I don't think I need to say any more: the interactive toilet can speak for itself. Web: Magnetic Poetry Imagine you have a very large refrigerator and, sticking to the door, you have several hundred small magnetic thingies, each one having a word printed on it ("women", "urge", "pink", "ask", "you", "go", and on and on). Now imagine yourself being able to select and arrange the thingies so as to write poetry out of the words. Well, on the Net you do not have to imagine. Here is a virtual surface with lots and lots of thingies, each with its own word. Use your mouse to move the words around and create whatever poetry or messages your heart and mind desire. When you are finished, you can share the result with everyone by copying your poem onto a piece of paper and putting it on the door of your fridge. Web:
Money Tracker Some people think that a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to. Not true. Dollars travel thousands of miles, and you can prove it. Start by registering the serial numbers of some of your dollar bills. Then check back later to see if someone else has encountered any of the same bills. If so, you can see where the banknotes have gone and how long it took them to get there. Personally, my philosophy is don't be afraid to set your money free. If it is really yours, it will come back to you. If it doesn't, then it really wasn't yours in the first place. Web: Museum of Dirt There's more to dirt than what meets the eye and stimulates the hand. Dirt can have a story of its own, a passive but significant role to play in our appreciation of the world around us. To see what I mean, visit the Museum of Dirt, where you will find dirt samples taken from celebrity yards and interesting places like a Buddhist shrine and Alcatraz Island. You will also see rejection letters from celebrities who did not want to contribute dirt to the museum (boo!). Web:
Search Snoopers Do you like to eavesdrop? Of course you do. Well, here's a way to find out what people all over the Net are doing. These sites, maintained by the search engine companies, allow you to see what other people are looking for. You use a search engine to find resources on the Web. To do so, you specify one or more words or terms, and the search engine examines a vast database of information to suggest resources relating to what you specified. So, wanna eavesdrop? Connect to any of these sites and see a list of words that people are searching for right now. While I looked, I found that people were looking for resources about slot machines, audio components, incest, deer habitats, butts, sailing, teen-only chat, Bible, escape velocity, lottery and singles. Web:
Star Wars Kid The Internet is the largest connection of human beings, computers, and information in the history of mankind. As such, it is not surprising that, every now and then, the Net will give rise to a fad that seems to come out of nowhere and grows faster than anyone would have anticipated. In 1996, for example, the Dancing Baby (an animation of a baby doing the cha-cha) caught the fancy of people around the world. Seven years later, it was the Star Wars Kid. Who? In November 2002, a pudgy, nerd-like 15-year-old boy named Ghyslain Raza, from Trois-Rivičres, Quebec, made a video for his theater arts class. He taped himself imitating a Star Wars Jedi warrior, floundering around while using a long stick as a make-believe lightsaber. Five months later, four of Ghyslain's schoolmates accidentally found the video and, as a prank, decided to share it on the Internet. They digitized the video and, on April 19, 2003, made it available on Kazaa (an Internet file-sharing system). On April 24, a multimedia programmer named Bryan Dube released a remixed version of the video to which he had added Star Wars-like special effects. The combination of Raza's obvious enthusiasm and unintentional clumsiness caught on and, within two weeks, Dube's creation, became one of the most-downloaded files on the Net. Other people began to make their own remixes, of which there are now hundreds; Web sites were created; newsletters and fan clubs were launched; and within a short time -- and for a short time -- Ghyslain Raza, the Star Wars Kid, became one of the most famous people on the planet. Web:
Undressing Game You start by making a choice: do you want to date the man or the woman? Then you answer questions. Depending on your answers, your date will either warm up to you (and take off his or her clothes, a bit at a time) or cool off (and become more and more reserved). It's just like real life only faster, less expensive, and you can keep trying till you get it right. Web:
Useless Facts Sometimes, the most enjoyable facts are the most useless facts. Facts that are weird, funny, sometimes astounding, but are careful to never stray from the path of uselessness. For example, I bet you didn't know that: (1) The first product to ever have a UPC bar code on its package was Wrigley's gum; (2) No matter which way Mickey Mouse faces, his ears are always turned to the front; (3) In the Flintstones theme song, the line after "Let's ride with the family down the street" is "Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet." Get your fill of odd factual tidbits and amaze your friends to no end. I predict you will be the most popular person in your entire circle of friends. After all, there is no one more beloved than the purveyor of an endless supply of useless knowledge. Just ask any film studies teacher. Web:
Very Crazy Stuff What do all these women's names have in common? Ethel, Marcella, Wilma, Mildred, Phyllis, Thelma, Bertha, Doreen, Henrietta and Edna? They are all on the list of "Names That Guarantee Your Daughter Won't Find a Husband". There's a lot more crazy stuff at this site, and if you like thinking and reading about things that are a tad unusual, the stuff at this site will keep you rotating in your chair for hours. (By the way, it's not true that all women with these names can't find a husband, although, it is probably not just a coincidence that both Ethel Mertz and Wilma Flintstone had to marry guys named Fred.) Web: Virtual Pets Do you need to feel needed? Are you reluctant to commit yourself indefinitely to the care and feeding of an actual flesh and blood animal? You need a virtual pet: a make-believe thingy that seems alive and demands your constant care (until you get tired of it and let it die). Web:
Web Sites of Eclectic People Do you ever get an uncontrollable urge to waste time with extremely intelligent, creative people doing something useless, but entertaining? Web:
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