Get Cynical

Here is the latest craze spreading across the blogosphere. I found it first from Incoming Signals but it seems to be everywhere right now.

1. Open the book you are currently reading.
2. Turn to page 23.
3. Type the 5th sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Ok I am currently reading Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut. Here goes the sentence:

It was bankrupt, and so could no longer buy food from countries with plenty of topsoil, so the seaport of Guayaquil was idle, and the people were beginning to starve to death.

That was sort of anticlimactic.

Neat. Are these supposed to be scary? You kids of the 50s and 60s were wimps! (Except for the Korean and Vietnam conflicts of course)

An amazing site with hundreds of penny postcards from around the US. Yep, they really did once cost just a penny. The postcard pictured above is undated but is supposed to be Boston in the future. Not too far off!!

Here is a fairly big collection of old album covers. By the way, nobody could nail a xylophone solo like Peter Appleyard.
(via Bloggerheads)

The top 40 baseball rule myths. Here are some of the more interesting ones:

The batter-runner must turn to his right after over-running first base.

A pitch that bounces to the plate cannot be hit.

A runner is out if he runs out of the baseline to avoid a fielder who is fielding a batted ball.(I would swear this was true)

Tie goes to the runner.

(via Information Junk)

The Great Mirror is a collection of about five thousand photographs taken over the last 30 years by Bret Wallach, a geography professor at the University of Oklahoma. With few exceptions, the photos show cultural rather than physical landscapes and are intended to illuminate the people who have shaped these landscapes and are reflected in it.

The picture above is:

This is the Faiyum Depression, which lies below sea level in the desert southwest of Cairo. The name “Faiyum” comes from a Coptic word for “lake,” and there is a natural lake here, once fed by an ancient branch of the Nile. The lake is small now, and most of the depression has been reclaimed by a canal from the Nile. The canal is an ancient one, though modernized. The canal’s name hasn’t changed, though: it’s still the Bahr Yusef, or “River of Joseph.” That’s the Biblical Joseph.

Watch out Ikea.

In the past, we have often been confused with a certain Swedish furniture company. However whilst we both offer furniture at competitive prices, we at IKAKA appreciate that there are occasions where quantity over quality is a desirable. As a result we pride ourselves on being able to deliver tenant-quality, token furniture for use in “furnished” properties.

303 front pages from 39 different countries presented alphabetically. What more could you ask?