It’s Monday. You’ve had a nice, long, idle weekend, and—what’s this? Someone who says they’re your boss wants you to do work?! Well, we’ll have none of that, will we? Of course not – this is the internet.
Frittering away hours in front of mental_floss’ Amazing Fact Generator is always an option. But here are 10 other easy ways to put off whatever you’re supposed to be doing while also getting your knowledge fix.
1. Learn how to write your name in Elvish
I wish I were better able to speak and read Spanish, but that takes a good bit of time to master — on the other hand, learning to write in Elvish takes all of ten minutes, according to this website. Granted, this is far less useful day-to-day than Spanish, but it’s awfully nerdy, and that’s a positive in my book. Elvish is a lot simpler than you’d think. Using the instructions on the site, I tried writing out “mental_floss”:
Did I get it right? Check out the site and try your hand at writing your name.
2. Learn how to do anything
You’ve probably heard about the man who delivered his baby son after watching a how-to on YouTube. But there are plenty of less daunting how-to videos out there, like how to spin a pencil, how to play the ukulele (y’know, in case you have a ukulele lying around the office), or how to waltz. But my favorite has got to be the instructional video for how to talk like a pirate:
Of course, you shouldn’t limit yourself to YouTube for these sorts of how-tos. The websites wikiHow and Instructables are also great resources. When I’m wasting time on the internet, I sometimes find myself reading articles on Instructables, even if I have no plans to follow them. I never played with Transformers as a kid, and I haven’t seen either of the movies, but this Optimus Prime Costume is too impressive not to read about.
3. Learn how stuff works
This one’s a no-brainer: HowStuffWorks is a great complement to mental_floss, covering pretty much every topic of inquiry you can think of. Just as with Instructables and wikiHow, you’ll find plenty of articles about stuff that will almost definitely never apply to you, like “How Can I Survive a Night in the Alaskan Wilderness?“ However, you’re better off safe than sorry — if Sarah Palin calls you up tomorrow and asks you to go hunting with her, wouldn’t you say yes? OK, me neither. But, reading about disaster scenarios is still more fun than filling out TPS reports.
4. Learn why a number is so important
This one’s for the math nerds: at this website, you can read what makes any number special, from 0 all the way up to 9999 (Spoiler alert! 9999 is a Kaprekar number, meaning that if you square it you get 99,980,001, and 9,998 + 0,001 = 9999). Reading about these seemingly random quirks of numbers is all well and good, but I find the site is best utilized when you put pencil to paper and work out the math behind the quirks. Plus, if someone’s watching over you at work, it looks like you’re very busy with some important calculations.
5. Learn why today is so important
Brad Williams, who runs Triviazoids.com, has hyperthymesia, which means his autobiographical memory is incredibly sharp. It’s fitting, then, that his blog is all about what happened on certain dates in the past. For example, take June 26 — did you know that June 26, 1870, was the day the first part of the Atlantic City Boardwalk opened? Or that June 26, 1963, was the day President Kennedy informed the world that he was a jelly donut by telling a German crowd “Ich bin ein Berliner”? I sure didn’t. Triviazoids is a treasure trove of little “Huh!” moments that’ll keep you going till 5 p.m.
6. Learn what’s in the stars
The Ancient Greeks looked to the sky at night and saw little blips of light. They couldn’t quite explain what they were looking at, so they gave the blips names and told stories about why they were placed the way they were. Those stories have endured for millennia; thank goodness we’re not under any pressure to be as creative as the Greeks were. The Neave Planetarium will explain the stars that are currently over your head, and you can give it any time or location to see what the night sky is like then and there. Even in full-screen mode, it can’t quite compare to looking at the real thing, but it’s a good substitute for those planetarium shows you probably sat through on field trips in elementary school.
7. Lean how to juggle
This one’s simple, but it’s perfect for anyone with too much time, and a few roundish objects, on their hands. Follow the instructions here to learn how to juggle three or four objects. Just don’t break anything!
8. Learn at the speed of random
Everyone loves Wikipedia, right? Well, maybe not the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica. But one of the niftiest features of the free online encyclopedia is the “random article“ link. There are nearly 3 million articles on the site, so for solitary procrastinators, clicking it is a great way to blow off some steam and to be exposed to new facts.
But if you have two or more people in the room, the random function gets really interesting: you can use it to play an intensely competitive game, called “The Wikipedia Game” (creative title, eh?). Here’s how it works: a player clicks the “random article” link once and gets a start page; then, he clicks it again and gets an end page. The players race to navigate from the start page to the end page, using only the links within the article (no category links, and no editing articles—that’s cheating!). The first person to reach the end page yells “Done!” and must read back their clicking history. If their history checks out, then they become the player who retrieves the starting and ending articles for the next round. If you’re organizing a few rounds of the Wikipedia Game, remember: the more people playing, the better.
9. Learn to count in binary on your hands
Speaking of hands, did you know it’s possible to count to 31 on one hand? It’s also nifty because you can covertly flip someone off while pretending that you’re counting to four.
10. Learn what words mean (and give to charity while you’re at it)
It’s too bad not all charitable organizations can be as fun as FreeRice.com. It’s a game that quizzes you on the definitions of words, increasing in difficulty as you get more and more correct. For each right answer, the site’s administrators donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. And if words aren’t your thing, you can also tell the game to give you questions about famous paintings, chemical symbols, world capitals and more.
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Hunting with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin isn’t “braving the wilderness” persay, so much as good old fashioned flying around in a chopper while shooting stuff with automatic weapons. You wouldn’t fly around in a chopper while shooting stuff with automatic weapons? I know I sure would. And I’m a Democrat.
Now, Dick Cheney, on the other hand, would probably shoot me in the face.
posted by Joel on 6-29-2009 at 1:32 pm
this is Mensa’s game website:
http://www.us.mensa.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Games&Template=/customsource/game_amlgames.cfm
posted by Anne on 6-29-2009 at 1:34 pm
I love the site Instructibles.com!
It is full of user generated how-to’s on anything and everything. I posted two instructibles last year. One on how to make “cold press” iced coffee and one on how to reuse/recycle kitchen scraps to make homemade broth/stock/bullion. But they have much much more than just cooking how-to’s on the site.
posted by beki on 6-29-2009 at 2:17 pm
When I want to procrastinate, I visit mentalfloss.com :-).
posted by Eli on 6-29-2009 at 2:25 pm
Binary counting seems inefficient and bothersome. I much prefer the Sumerian (?) method. Use your thumb to count the spaces between joints of the fingers in your left hand (so that there are 3 per finger). This will get you 12 counts per cycle. Use your other hand to count multiples of 12. So, once you get through one cycle on your left hand, you lift up your thumb on your right hand. Start over with your left hand, rinse, repeat all the way to 60.
posted by Reechard on 6-29-2009 at 2:51 pm
Im all about the_floss.
Cybernations.com can be fun but it doesnt really waste much time
posted by Dayton on 6-29-2009 at 3:45 pm
http://www.freekibble.com – only one question per day though.
posted by julie on 6-29-2009 at 4:35 pm
Awesome! thanks
posted by patty cakes on 6-29-2009 at 4:44 pm
heh, I not only know how to write my name in elfish, but my girlfriend and I have our elfish initials tattooed on our wrists.
posted by Lisa on 6-29-2009 at 5:25 pm
There’s an actual online Wikipedia Game
Here’s the link: wikipediagame.org
posted by Hannah on 6-29-2009 at 9:36 pm
Thanks for the productive unproductivity tips!
Another: http://www.sporcle.com is full of user-contributed timed quizzes.
posted by Natalie on 6-29-2009 at 10:53 pm
In American Sign Language, all counting is done with one hand. And it’s only when you get to 16 that you do two distinct numbers 10 + 6.
20 and 21 are also done with one movement, as is 100.
Check it out as aslpro.com!
ASL ROCKS!!!
posted by Mare on 6-30-2009 at 1:33 am
The elvish isn’t quite right. There are two versions of the Tengwar (proper term for what what is generically referred to as elvish), Quenya and Sindarin. The phrase displayed looks like it’s based on Quenya, but even at that it isn’t quite correct. I’m a total Tolkien nerd and have been reading and writing Tengwar for years. Tolkien actually invented a number of script systems.
posted by Mags on 6-30-2009 at 11:24 am
If you like the first tip on the list and you happen to be on twitter (talk about procrastinating…) then you could follow @wikipediabot. This bot tweets a random link to the wikipedia every hour. There are a number of other bots out there, but I’m not going to make this comment a very large advertising effort (since I created those bots…).
Cheers!
posted by Willem Kossen on 7-1-2009 at 5:19 am
Hahaha, Wikipedia, of course! I’ve wasted too much time there without even trying. It’s probably more a source of procrastination for me than anything… Awesome tips though! Besides learning while procrastinating, I think another great thing you could do is help increase your website or small business’s popularity by doing simple things to boost exposure — for example, by using free services at AdWido.
posted by MattD on 7-12-2009 at 4:38 pm
The wikipedia game confuses me.
What is a start page and what is an end page?
In the anticipation that the answers to the questions above will not satisfactorily unveil to me the intricacies of the game, will someone please elaborate?
posted by joske on 7-20-2009 at 9:59 am
Ordinarily, teachers want to analyse the good term paper writing skills of their students, nevertheless not all good students can to write professionally just because of lack of writing skills and other reasons. Therefore, a essays online service can help to create the argumentative term paper professionally.
posted by YrEllie on 2-5-2010 at 1:37 am
I don’t know how to write in Elvish but I can write in Dwarven.
posted by Ben on 9-18-2010 at 12:44 pm
Learn how to remember just about any fact out there:
http://www.thinkalink.co.uk/
NOTE: Be careful when learning ANYTHING from Wikipedia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaADQTeZRCY
posted by gmsc on 9-18-2010 at 3:02 pm
Joske – Here’s a little more expanded explanation for the Wikipedia Game. Hope it helps!
1. Go to Wikipedia’s home page
2. Click the link on the left that says “Random Article”
3. This will pull up a completely random page in Wikipedia (for example: it pulled up for me “Phrixocomes” which are apparently a genus of moth in the Geometridae family)
4. Click the “Random Article” link on the left again to pull up another article (this time it gave me “Zuby Nehty”, an all female underground rock group from the Czech Republic)
5. Go back to the first article (Phrixocomes) and, by only clicking links in the article that take you to other articles, somehow find a way to get to the second article (Zuby Nehty).
So, in the moth article, I click a link to the “Geometridae” article. This article tells me Geometridae are sometimes found in the British Isles. I click the link “British Isles” to go to an article about them. The article says the British Isles contain plants and animals similar to those on the European continent. I click “European continent” to go to an article about that. From there I find a link to “Czech Republic”. I proceed to click links in each article taking me to “Music of the Czech Republic” then to “Uz Jsme Dorma” (a progressive rock group) then to “Zuby Nehty”. If I’m the first person to reach the finish page, I win.
I find it helpful to open the link to the finish page in another window so that I can frequently look back at it. You might get some hints. For example, when I went to the “Music of the Czech Republic” page, I couldn’t find Zuby Nehty on it. But on Zuby Nehty’s page, I saw that they were connected with Uz Jsme Dorma, who I was able to find on the “Music of…” page.
This game is best understood just by trying it, but I hope this helps and that it wasn’t TOO wordy :)
posted by Moth on 9-18-2010 at 3:54 pm
OMG, I just bought a ukulele (I live in HI, so it’s not that crazy) and have been looking for sites to help my learn how to play. Thanks for posting this!
posted by Erin on 9-18-2010 at 4:12 pm
Hey, Elvish vowelling is just like Arabic! I knew there was a place where my geekiness and my language studies intersected.
posted by Stel on 9-18-2010 at 4:29 pm
Our site is pretty good for learning while you procrastinate. How about a few of these?
http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/what_is_the_oldest_swimming_stroke
http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/spies_who_studied_at_the_university_of_st_andrews
http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/list_romance_languages
posted by Beth on 9-18-2010 at 5:56 pm
I am now ready for Talk Like A Pirate Day :D
posted by Keona on 9-18-2010 at 7:15 pm
Kennedy didn’t say he was a jelly doughnut. See Canoo Engineering AG. “Gebrauch des unbestimmten Artikels (German, “Use of the indefinite article”)”. And German wikipedia article on the speech in question
posted by Cliff on 9-18-2010 at 8:39 pm
The numbers page doesn’t actually include every number from 0 to 9,999- it skips numbers here and there.
posted by Tdl on 9-19-2010 at 11:26 am
I learned binary counting when I was quite young – less than 10 years old, I believe. Still use it. (Both my parents are math people).
And, I’ve long been a fan of Free Rice – I must have donated close to a million grains already!
posted by Kathye on 9-19-2010 at 4:07 pm
Triviazoids doesn’t work. And I am a big fan of freerice- I don’t know how many grains I’ve donated! Not trying to brag, though.
posted by Sara in Al on 9-19-2010 at 11:48 pm
Sara in Al: It appears Triviazoids is no longer updated, but you can still peruse the archives at http://triviazoids.wordpress.com/
posted by Andréa Fernandes on 9-20-2010 at 12:48 am
Someone translated Kennedy’s statement as, “I am an onion bagel” in that speech. (but) anyhow, everyone knew what he meant.
posted by Tdave on 9-20-2010 at 8:32 am
In last month’s Fortune Magazine, that was an article aptly named “Bill’s Gates Favorite Teacher.”
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm
Sal Kahn, seeing that his children needed some help with theiry schoolwork, statrted a youtube channel called Kahn Academy. on the Channel, the former Hedge fund manager has simple lectures that he makes himself. Bill Gates himself found it on youtube, and he loves it.
Kahn Academy is now a non-profit organization providing educatonal addendums on MANY subjects.
Check it out!
http://www.khanacademy.org/
posted by Kirkland on 9-20-2010 at 8:55 am
I have spent many hours at work passing time on Free Rice!!!
thank you for this great post
posted by Jennifer on 9-20-2010 at 1:56 pm
At the risk of being labeled a nerd supreme, the elvish used in the sample above is based on Quenya. Sindarin elvish is different in the way it uses diacritics. I spent over a year learning to read and write Sindarin at speed. It’s great for journaling and keeping Christmas gift lists secret!
posted by Maggie on 9-21-2010 at 2:51 pm
I used the elvish website, what I got was the same but then I found
http://tengwar.art.pl/tengwar/ott/start.php?l=en
That was a lot easier
P.S. make sure the output format is on PNG
posted by Elijah on 9-21-2010 at 4:41 pm