For nearly a year now, Doritos has been subjecting us to flavor experiments.

The last Doritos “flavor experiment” I tried tasted like David Hasselhoff’s mouth.

But now they’re getting cool about it. To promote their newest experimental flavor, they have unleashed “Doritos the Quest” - an online game that has I.Q. test/problem-solving puzzles akin to Myst or Riven.

The game will be released in four parts (part 2 will come out in a week) - the grand prize winner will receive “$100,000 in treasure.” It appears that the finalists will actually have to physically compete for the grand prize - a la obstacle course, etc. - as stated in the game rules.

I really hope the grand prize isn’t a $100,000 golden corn chip.

(via notcot)

Bonus Round: Triangle Mystery

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Instead of just 1 mashup this month, you instead get 7. That’s right, seven. I present to you The Shoot Back Mixtape - a collaboration with troublmedia.com.

Three police officers shot Sean Bell 50 times, killing him on the eve of his wedding night, and wounding his two passengers, later determining that all 3 men were unarmed. From the night of this social atrocity to the not guilty verdict 10 days ago, emotions have been fierce. Sadness. Anger. Frustration. Disgust. Fear.

Download The Shoot Back Mixtape, a collection of voices and speeches that convey the public discontent following the not guilty verdict awarded to the police officers who killed Bell.

Here’s the first track to whet your appetite. In the words of a protester speaking for Sean Bell: “It’s not about what you do today, but what you do tomorrow.”

 

 Not Guilty - Johnny Haze: Play Now | Play in Popup

(more…)

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If you spend more than 10 minutes a week on your computer, you probably give a sh!t about your wallpaper.
And vacation photos are both lame and get old quick.

Here’s a list of some of the more spectacular (free) wallpapers (from left to right, top row first):

• You can’t spell ‘mahogany’ without ‘Mmmmm.’ Japanese design firm 9031’s free wood wallpapers (via WeAreTheMarket.com).

• [adult swim] has tons of their own awesome trademark wallpapers, and wallpapers of their many shows and cartoons.

•Goopymart’s wide array of often insane artworks make great wallpapers.

•Unazukin wallpapers can be simultaneously cheery and creepy.

•City Shrinker’s (monthly) urban miniature wallpapers (via Notcot).

•Kjetiljul.com’s paintings of comfortable art studios and interior spaces make for tranquil wallpapers.

•Mr. Toast wallpapers - breakfast foods with personality.

•I’ve had background cell art for the Venture Bros. cartoon series as wallpaper on my laptop for almost a year. Can’t beat it.

•Wallpapers of the new Indiana Jones movie.

•Wallpapers of the winners of the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.

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My three favorite words: FREE CONE DAY

No, it’s not a joke - today is ‘Free Cone Day’ at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Stores, to celebrate their 30th anniversary of dairy loving.

(via Isabel - thanks!)

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Goopymart.
Rhymes with “art” and “smart.”
And “fart.”

Goopymart’s photostream contains hundreds and hundreds of his awesome poop-your-pants-laughing illustrations. All free (CC Noncommercial Share-Alike 2.0) . . .

. . . and perfect for cellphone wallpapers (and shirts and mugs).

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Over the last several months, I’ve been in the habit of collecting odd ice creams: any time I pass a Dairy Queen or a Foster’s Freeze and there is a poster in the window advertising something new and colorful and hideous, I’ll buy it and photograph it and eat it (if it is palatable).

Here’s the collection so far (click on the photos for a nice downloadable wallpaper of each):

Santa Cruz Boardwalk: Vanilla soft-serve with cotton candy blue syrup ribbon.

Foster’s Freeze: Vanilla soft-serve with grape waxy ‘dip’ coating on the outside (smelled like grape, tasted like crayon).

Baskin and Robbins: Apple and grape sherbet with PopRocks mixed-in, on top of pink and blue cotton candy ice cream.

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Yesterday Adobe released their Adobe Media Player (AMP).

It has a nice iTunes Store feel to it, but without having to buy anything - TV shows, podcasts, movie shorts, all free and all playing smoothly. I recommend you download it (it’s free!).

Also, this is perhaps the smoothest-running 1.0 version of anything I’ve ever used (apparently bug-free).

Suck it, Windows Media Player!

(via James King, Adobe’s PDF Architect)

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Feast your ears on this: Muxtape.

And this: my Muxtape demo.

The up sides to Muxtape:
• You can make a virtual mixtape, to let everyone know that you have better musical taste than they do.
• It’s free.
• It is elegantly simple, super-user-friendly, and setting up an account is free of ass-pain.

The down sides:
• To create a Muxtape, uploaded music must be in mp3 format.
• I miss putting stickers and homemade artwork all over mixtape cassettes.
• If you were born after 1980, you won’t truly understand the nostalgia of mixtapes.

Bonus Round: The book “Mix Tape” by Thurston Moore.

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From the brilliant minds at [adult swim] - the awesomely awesome free Shockwave game “Candy Mountain Massacre”.

Something has gone terribly wrong with the denizens of Candy Mountain. Clad as a Japanese cosplay schoolgirl, your mission: free cupcake hostages while exterminating the explosive cookie-lobbing Keebler Elves Baker Leprechauns, bazooka-toting Hello Kitties Salutations Kittens, and the thumping Energizer Bunny Blue Rabbit.

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Some might consider this bad taste, but if you’re able to find any semblance of humor in the absolutely ridiculous video of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer being tazered after asking some pointed questions at a John Kerry speech back in September of this year, or if you own one of the millions of “Don’t Taze Me, Bro” t-shirts for sale on the Web, the “Don’t Taze Me Bro - Rap Remix” will come as enjoyable entertainment for you. Don’t get me wrong, this all was terrible and in my opinion completely unjustifiable, but at least this well-done rap song gets my head knocking…

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Lots of fun generators on the web. But this one may actually be useful?

Well probably not, but heck FU in barcode just looks cool!

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I regret not getting my hands on any of the d.j. DC “Beastles” mash-ups (The Beatles + Beastie Boys) before he took them off his site.

Alas, CCC / Ill Chemist offer forth their sweet, sweet Beatles mash-ups: “Cracked Pepper” (Beatles + everyone).

(via Notcot.org)

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Great site with lots of free content from old radio shows, some of the best parts are the commercials before the show starts!

Where else can you start a story about discovering something horrible about some old ladies cat, with a commercial about yeast!

This site rocks!

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Behold! The Super-Awesome Action Hero Name Generator!!! Push the button for non-stop crime-fighting Action Hero names!!! You can’t fight zombies with a name like “Scooter.” Push the button and get ready for ACTION!!! [Does not work well with Internet Explorer - the browser of the feeble].

©2007 Blogadilla
Concept (and names): Timbotron
Actual Labor and Creation: Steve B
Machete Photograph: Y. Trottier.

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Ferry Halim offers a line of flash games that combine the aesthetic of Japanese stationery with simplistic one-touch gameplay.
The upshot: 59 different games.
The other upshot: the games are very kid-friendly.
The other other upshot: they’re free.
I recommend “Bugs,” “Cranky Crabs,” and “The Three Monkeys.”

(via Notcot)

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Free games:

•Plasma Pong: real-time fluid dynamics combined with Pong. Multiple color options. (via Sachs Report)



•Feed The Head: a web-based game where the goal is to . . . uh . . . something. [challenge: try to get the head to walk, try to get the feet to juggle 3 balls (plus the eyeball)]. (via Neatorama)



•flOw: the MFA thesis project of Jenova Chen, an awesome game (downloadable or web-based) of planktonic proportions - as a tiny plankton you swim about, eat and grow/evolve, take-on larger predators, and work your way to the bottom of the ocean (red plankton makes you sink, blue makes you rise) to fight a plankton boss. Awesome music and sounds. [challenge: try to reach the "yellow level" where you are a jellyfish].



•Mario Adventure: the ultimate Mario hack - an entirely new Mario game based on Mario game code. (via Sachs Report)

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Summer is here and the sound of ice cream trucks is in the air. For the last two Summers, WFMU has been posting ice cream truck music mp3s on their blog. They make great ringtones (I currently have “Hello” on my phone playlist).

Here are a few of my favorites from their site:

•Mr. Softee
•Hello
•Pink Panther Pops
•And something that sounds like a crippled version of “Popeye the Sailor”

Here’s a nice article on how and why ice cream truck music sounds the way it does.

(via WFMU; awesome CC photo by Brodie Shade Tree)

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