Weekend Links: Journalism, in so Many Words

On April 1, The New York Times announced a new spinoff website called Times Haiku, featuring “serendipitous poetry” pulled from real articles published in the paper. There were suspicions the algorithm used to translate journalism into poetry was a joke, but certain lines apparently just lend themselves to Japanese-style verse: “To many, the Mets/ appear destined for a fifth/ straight losing season” and “For reasons he is/ not sure of, he also adds/ scallions at the end” are some good ones.

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Sounds Just Like is a website that provides side-by-side comparisons of clips from songs that, well, sound just like each other. The comments section is rife with disagreement, naturally, but have a listen to a few and decide for yourself: for a start, ABBA’s “Waterloo” sounds just like The Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup.”

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If you’re traveling anytime soon, sites like TripAdvisor can be a great resource to scope out potential hotels, restaurants, and sights to see, with ratings from users who’ve been there before. If you’ve ever traveled in the past, you’ll be able to appreciate the compilation of terrible travel reviews compiled on TripAdvisaargh. If you’re interested, I know this place that has a “Recomendsble Hamburger very nice treatment and proper cleaning area very old but well chvjvghhnchxgvvnfjfvb.”

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This list of 10 Hidden Places Around the World will restore the travel fever that the previous link may previously have snuffed out in you. Understandably, a lot of these lesser-known places are literally underground.

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Even celebrities have to take their shoes off at airport security.

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The articles on Discovery.com feature some surprisingly urgent-sounding questions; here’s hoping they at least try to provide some answers.

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Speaking of urgent-sounding questions: if you’re the kind of person who carefully considers your survival rate from moment to moment based on such arbitrary factors as where you’re sitting on a plane, your odds are better in the back.

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There’s a new trailer out for Baz Luhrmann’s screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby. It features lavish parties, tense facial expressions, period dress, and Leonardo DiCaprio trying very, very hard.