When we visited the Arc de Triomphe, the most fascinating part was watching the cars circling below. From 165 feet up, they looked just like swarming insects. It was mesmerizing to watch the relentless torrent of near-death experiences repeated over and over again. This footage of traffic in India provides a very similar experience.

I saw a TV program that showed a picture from 1863 of samurai visiting the Sphinx in Egypt. That wasn't exactly a sightseeing trip, but it was interesting to consider the fact that international tourism is by no means a recent invention. For example, the ancient Seven Wonders saw a great deal of tourists. There were even "papyrus guidebooks to consult before departing and vendors with whom to haggle over souvenirs."

"What are the chances that you just inhaled a molecule that Caesar exhaled with his dying breath?" The probability is over 99%.

The Economist describes Ivar Kreuger as the Leonard of swindlers, the Raskolnikov of finance, and the Dennis the Menace of Sweden.

They also have a great article about the rise and fall of the shopping mall. It's easy to forget that the shopping mall is actually a brilliant invention - a shopping center completely different from anything else that existed at the time, incorporating tons of design innovations to encourage browsing and spending. It's amazing how much the inventor, Victor Gruen, got right on the first try. The mall he built at Southdale is so close to a modern mall, it's "as as though Orville and Wilbur Wright had not just discovered powered flight but had built a plane with tray tables and a duty-free service."

I think Tetris is a similar case of getting it all right on the first try. Even though it has spawned an immense tree of descendants, nothing that has come since can truly match up to the original. Some critics even leave Tetris off top ten lists, because they believe it transcends gaming. That doesn't mean other falling block games aren't a whole lot of fun, though. Gamasutra's best freeware of 2007 list let me to Chain Factor, the black hole into which my weekend has disappeared.