Assorted Links that Should Render You Unproductive for a Little While

One of the items in this list: the difference between photos of food on packaging and the actual food that comes from those packages.

In order to bung up your productivity for the week, here are some links to interesting things I found on the web (or that readers found and emailed to me):

Everybody kills Hitler on their first trip: Wikihistory is a short story that takes place in an online discussion forum for time travelling history buffs.

Deep fried cheeseburger. Do I have to say any more?

Don’t food photos always set your expecations too high? The site pundo3000.com has a section titled “werbung gegen realität” that compares the photos on food packages with photos of what actually comes out of them.

Fake Plastic Rock is Jeff “Coding Horror” Atwood’s blog devoted to music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Salawikain is a collection of Filipino proverbs. One of my favourites in their list is Walang ligaya sa lupa na hindi dinilig ng luha, which translates as “There is no earthly bliss not watered by tears.”

Marry Him! is an article from the March 2008 edition of The Atlantic whose thesis is that at some point, you have to stop looking to marry Mr. Perfect and “settle” for Mr. Good Enough.

The Eligible-Bachelor Paradox might make good follow-up reader for Marry Him! (see above): its subtitle is “How economics and game theory explain the shortage of available, appealing men.”

These older versions of Monopoly “Community Chest” and “Chance” cards predate the use of the moustachioed “rich uncle” we see in current versions.

This episode of the animated series Terrifying Kyochan should probably not be viewed at work and will make you wonder if the Japanese take courses in advanced weirdness in what little spare time they have. (Warning: phalluses and a urine-soaked ending.)

If you could have conversations with your younger self, what would you say? Kate Beaton turned this idea into a series of interesting comics.

Darque Dungeon: A parody in which a Jack Chick tract warning about the dangers of playing Dungeons and Dragons gets turned into a warning about turning into…a goth! The bit with the lyrics to Front 242’s Headhunter 3.0 made me laugh out loud.

The Cat Stationmaster: Not only is “Tama”, the stationmaster of Japan’s Wakayama Electric Railway’s Kishi Station a cat, she’s also the only female in a managerial position.

A “Get Out of Sex and the City” Free Card. Yeah, I’m a little late with this one, but I’m glad that someone made such a thing.

The so-called “Terrorist Fist Bump”, debunked with pictures. Includes photos of George H.W. Bush and Joe Lieberman making the OMG ITS A TERRIST gesture.

Read It and Lacrimate. It’s really about how PR people love to use overly complex words when simple ones would’ve sufficed, but what got me reading it were its first lines: “From time to time, I am cruelly slandered by members of the public relations industry, who accuse me of writing unfairly about their profession. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love PR professionals. They’re a hoot, because they are such pathetic, desperate dillweeds.”

This guide to Accordion City patios could come in handy.

How does The Daily Show always dig up those file videos of someone saying the exact opposite of what they’re now saying? Credit goes to Adam Chodikoff, “the go-to researcher for the then-and-now footage that lends satirical punch” to Jon Stewart’s “fake news show”.