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Once again the sun sets on yet another exciting month here at the Zone. Thrills, chills, spills – and that’s just what happened at MY desk! Just imagine what else has been going on out there…

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen – the time has come for another exciting edition of… OOB!
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Dept. of Wildlife Management

Surely you’ve heard (yes, I know – don’t call you Shirley!) some ring tones that just drive you up the wall, right? Whether it’s a short clip from whatever song happens to be popular to assorted sound effects, it is absolutely ridiculous the things you hear popping up in elevators, shopping malls and church sermons. Especially those irritating animal sounds; dogs barking, cats meowing, eagles screeching … ugh! I don’t know about you, but it’s enough to make me want to get out the BIG hammer.

Well, great news! Those goofy, idiotic, and downright stupid-sounding ring tones might just have some useful applications in the real world after all! In Ahmedabad, India, they’re using cell phones programmed with the sound of goats bleating and cows mooing to lure, uh, leopards into traps! All they have to do is strap a cell phone inside a cage, play the sounds, and pretty soon a leopard walks in, looking for an easy meal. Not bad!

In fact, lots of animals respond to certain sounds. Who hasn’t tried to call a cat by opening a tin of cat food, or a dog by shaking a bag of dog food? Luckily people are wired differently, don’t you think? Uh, sorry I gotta go. I can hear a tub of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream being opened in the kitchen…

Miscellaneous Dept.

The other day I accidentally stumbled upon this intriguing website called One Word. The concept is pretty simple. When you push the button, you get one (1) randomly-selected word and sixty (60) seconds to write something – anything – you care to write; there’s a handy form to put the words in. So what’s the point, you ask? Hey, we don’t really need no stinkin’ point, do we?

Okay, okay; if you’re one of those people who must know more, you can read the help page.

To be honest, I’m not sure just what the purpose of this site is. You can, however, check out what others have written, which makes an interesting read. One thing it does illustrate is the vast number of different directions you can go from a single starting point. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Go ahead, try it at least once.

Dept. of Unusually Normal Months

Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be as many strange things going on this month (which is pretty strange in itself!) so I’ll just close here. (But it does make me wonder: was I just not as observant this month? Hmmm…)

But don’t worry, folks, just tune in next month for the next exciting edition of OOB!

(Note: Interested in previous editions of OOB? Just click on the OOB category over there on the left!)

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