1. A picture worth well over 1000 words
Let me start off by saying I’m terrified of open water. For some reason, I thought it would be a great idea to wake up at 4am, drive to the Dead Sea, and swim out to this salt island before sunrise. The distance from the beach was intimidating, so I started my swim/float journey panicked. I realized the buoyancy from the salt content made it much more difficult to navigate through, so the swim ended up taking longer than I imagined, about 15 minutes. The entire time I constantly reassured myself that there was no life in the Dead Sea, and no underwater alien creature was going to eat me as I pathetically floated further and further away from the safety of the beach. I made it to the tree island, watched the sunrise from Jordan, exfoliated my body in the salt and awkwardly wandered around as the drone did its thing. It would have been nice to have spent more time here, but suddenly, I got concentrated salt water in my eye. Let me tell you, my eye was in nothing short of being in agony and it wasn’t going away without being rinsed by fresh water. I started swimming back, then just because my life likes to be hilarious, I got water in my other eye. Each time I opened my eyes to see if I was dog paddling in the right direction, I would be headed the wrong way, disoriented, and the pain would be reinitiated during my second long glances of the shore. Eventually, help was on the way and I was dragged back to a pier. I got sunburnt, I was exhausted, dehydrated, covered in what felt like oil from the concentrated salt water, and my eyes felt like they were burning inside my head. I swore up and down that this is the last time I ever visit the Dead Sea, but I did get this photo so it’s all good in the hood.
bee.explores
Found on this Instagram account.
2. Just in Case
Found on Art of Manliness.
3. Jakarta built a Surburban Village on Top of a Mall
Neighbourhood kids pedal their bikes under frangipani trees and peach-coloured bougainvillea to the pool and tennis court…
Quiet and orderly, it feels like any other suburban idyll – but there is one difference. Cosmo Park is a village in the sky, perched 10 storeys up on top of a shopping centre and car park, a world away from the heaving megalopolis below.
Read the full story on The Guardian. We’ve also found some of the Cosmo Park apartments up for rent if you’re curious.
4. German Tourists wonder why there are no sidewalks in an American Town
5. Loong Swim Club, Suzhou, China
Found on Decor Hardcore.
6. A 19th Century Indian royal palace-mausoleum of the late 19th century
Mohabbat Maqabara, Junagadh, Gujarat, India, a mixture of Indo-Islamic and Gothic architecture.
Found here.
7. Sumerian star map from Ninive 3000 BCE
Found on Ancient Pages.
8. The Scarab bracelet of king Tutankhamun
Kept at the Cairo museum, Egypt. Found on Ancient Origins.
9. Pre-Botox
Prof. Mack’s Chin Reducer and Beautifier found on Live Journal.
10. How a robotic singing fish made $100m in one year
Novelty toys are a notoriously fickle industry: Consumer tastes ebb and flow, and marketing experts say it’s virtually impossible to predict what causes a viral hit.
Read the story on The Hustle.
11. A Beautiful Collection of French Sign Designs for Inspiration
Available to download from Gallica.
12. This 1969 Music Festival Has Been Called ‘Black Woodstock’ but quickly faded into obscurity
The Harlem Cultural Festival attracted everyone from Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone to Jesse Jackson and Marcus Garvey Jr., but why doesn’t anyone remember? Fifty years later, a rediscovery is finally underway…
Read the article on The Rolling Stones.
13. Laurence Fishburne everyone
Somewhere between Apocalypse Now and The Matrix, don’t forget Laurence Fishburne was Cowboy Curtis on Pee Wee’s Playhouse in the 80s.
Found on Tumblr.
