Webupon

There are some things that are best avoided in the workplace and when that thing is work itself then the internet offers a multitude of distractions that will make those hours between nine and five disappear quickly and efficiently. Why, you may even forget that you are at you desk at all. OK, possibly not but you will certainly waste some time with these sites. Oh yes. Just click on the images to get to them.

1. Keyboard Whale Song

   
   all images are screenshots by the author

   You may need to turn your speakers off and don a pair of head phones in order that you do not give your colleagues a fright with this one. Simply use your keyboard to construct a love song to a whale. That’s all there is to it – but of course the added extra is that you get to have an orchestra play your song for you. The concept may be basic but the results are a great deal of – albeit pretty mindless – fun. In a similar way to those pesky Facebook games, this website will have you glancing at your watch and wondering where the time went.

2. Soap Box Racer

   

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   If there is – whatever your gender – a boy racer inside you just longing to get out but work just gets in the way of the real thing, then why not take a look at this site? You will be able to construct your own customized soap box racer here, and then pit it against opponents from all over the world. Then you can also design your own circuit on which to race and chart your progress from novice to expert. You may get to the top of the racing community but be warned – this will take some time. A lot of time. OK, all of your waking time. If the words obsessive and compulsive mean anything to you, perhaps you should avoid.

3. Water, Water Everywhere

   

   Do you know what is the largest source of drinking water available on the planet? The Great Lakes – and this interactive website covers – exhaustively – every aspect you can think of to do with them. If you want to know the history – it is there. If your mind is enquiring about invasive species then you can find extensive information here. Your green credentials can be improved by the information beautifully presented here about pollution. Put it this way, by the time you finish with website you may be sick of the sight and sounds of water but the day’s work time will have passed by peacefully enough. Quite simply, this is a stunning site by which you will be entertained for hours – if not days.

4. We Choose The Moon

   

   This site celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing – and boy does it do it in some style. If you are interested in space exploration then you will find this site both entertaining and educational. The whole mission is recreated in real time with the help of some stunning flash animation which makes it quite an experience. Each step along the way is covered and as the mission itself took several days, you know that work can be safely put on the back burner with this irresistible internet experience.

5. Join the Swedish Army

   

   Yes, Sweden does have an army and this recruitment website is aimed at getting those big blond boys and girls in to uniform. That said, it’s a lot of fun for those of us in no danger of being recruited in to the Nordic armed services. You enter a test environment and discover if you have what it takes to join the army. It is all very science fiction and huge fun – and should keep you away from that paperwork and filing for quite a while, thank you very much Sweden.

6. The Eternal Moonwalk

   

   The idea of this website is very simple but the end result is strangely compulsive. Web denizens are invited to submit their own right to left moonwalk in a tribute to the late Michael Jackson. These are then linked together in a continuous, often silly but hugely mindlessly entertaining way. As tributes to the late king of pop go this is one of the more inventive. There is no talking, just a continual and never ending stream of people doing the moonwalk to a Billy Jean type backing track. Thousands and thousands of people. And, if you taking a liking to any you can add them on to your Facebook or Twitter space.

7. Take a Virtual Tour of New York

   

   The name says it all really. Full screen, spectacular, dizzying – just wonderful.

8. M Night Shyamalan

   

   He may have gone somewhat off the boil in terms of his movies but the official Shyamalan website has certainly got what it takes in terms of intriguing content to keep your mind off work for a while. This is a genuinely creepy experience – you use your keyboard to navigate your house around the film maker’s creepy virtual mansion and discover his darkest secrets as you go along. Of course, if you know his films, you know you can anticipate a few surprises. Chilltastic.

9. Simple Machines

   

   Some of the best and most enjoyable sites on the internet were originally designed for children. So it is with this with this Museum of Science and Industry site which heightens the learning experience through interactivity and really, really cool graphics. Your helper is the delightfully cute Twitch who, if you feed him enough and use your keyboard in an intuitive way will help you build a variety of machines. Building machines equals a lot of time. Work can wait.

10. Energy Lab

    

    How much energy can be contained in a bottle? Who can say but it would be a really, really good idea if you didn’t touch it. No, really, don’t touch it. Too late! Although this particular website may be on the short side in terms of length of experience it really does show what can be done when the internet and associated media technologies are pushed to the limit.