Man Made DIY

Artist Bob Staake snagged a collection of vintage children's books, then scanned the artwork, fired up Photoshop, and gave them plenty of new, but very, very not child-friendly covers and… read more

As I type this, it's 12:07p where I live. Which means, according to this blogger body, it's time to stand up, stretch, walk around a bit, and grab a snack. If there's one thing I've learned from working at home, it's that I won't remember to eat an actual lunch until it's too late, so I've gotten into this groove where I eat breakfast as early as I can, then have little mini-meals thoroughout the day. It actually helps me to eat smaller portions at dinner time, and I find I'll choose healthier munchies in general. Win… read more

So, last week, in my epic marathon of singleguyness, and in an attempt to replenish my to-be-read pile, and the Twitterverse exploding about the final film, I decided something, pretty revolutionary for me.

I'm gonna read all the Harry Potter books. For the first time. In order, and fast, so I can then watch the movies, and be up to date with the rest of the Western world. My sweetheart had them all (but the third one, I discovered yesterday), andI was able to score the audiobooks from my local library, and have been reading while home, and listening while doing some long bike rides. (Trail only, one earphone in, just talk, no music. Be safe… read more

I mean, I guess it makes sense: The kind of person who violently claws and maims one's way to evil autocracy is likely the kind of person who can get themselves published.

And by "published," I mean, write a really terrible book and get it printed. Name a despot, and dude's got a book. A bad one.

• Muammar al-Gaddafi - Hallucinogenic stream of consciousness
• Saddam Hussein - erotic allegorical fiction
• Kim Jong Il - revolutionary film criticism
• Joseph Stalin - Georgian pastoral odes
• Ayatollah Khomeini - Persian mystical poetry

And the… read more

Malcom Gladwell, The New Yorker staff writer, has written a wildly successful series of books (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw) that deal with, more-or-less, a super fascinating premise: explaining why seemingly unexplainable things happen.