Jesse sez, ""Growing up in Idaho Falls, Idaho was strange enough but I always wondered what was up with this collection of futuristic hippy homes in my neighborhood above I.F. (called Rimrock Estates, in Ammon, ID). The place is overrun with starter castles today, yet these architectural anomalies built sometime in the early 80's, presumably by the same developer continue to amaze. — Read the rest

Joel Johnson delivers a blistering smackdown to the trolls, miscreants and entitled creeps who infest comment threads at Gizmodo.

There's the McRib and then there's this—a barbecue pork belly sandwich on brioche, with homemade pickles and sauce. Saveur reinterprets a fast-food favorite for the foodie crowd.

Pascalvanhecke sez, "California Dreaming is a documentary broadcast on Dutch TV November 8. It portrays the consequences of a the subprime crisis and crumbling local government. You can download the doc in HD format with a CC license and reuse for your own purposes." — Read the rest

Many jazz-fans in New Orleans were distraught to learn, back in July, that an incompetent contractor had botched the refurbishment of Louis Armstrong Park, including damaging the iconic statue of Satchmo. Construction on the park has stalled since then, and the site is fenced off. — Read the rest

Remember the contest from a while back, where the winner got to spend a month living in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry? Awesome as the idea is, I'll admit it kind of fell off my radar. Today, I discovered that the winner of that contest, Kate McGroarty, moved into the museum on October 20th and is down to her last few days. — Read the rest

Here's a sweet little animation spelling out 23 years' worth of the complex interpersonal relationships on The Bold and the Beautiful, a soap-opera, visualized with artists' maquettes and liberal use of connecting lines and narration.

Beautiful LAB – EPISODE 0 in English: The Bold and the Beautiful in 6 minutes

Bay Area BB readers, drop what you're doing tonight and check this out!

Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, an animated music film produced by Flux and Hornet with the Decemberists, is the opening night presentation of the 5th Annual San Francisco International Animation Festival. — Read the rest

I just disappeared into a sweet and fully rocking memory for 45 minutes, and I'm still bopping. I recently discovered that Jerome Godboo, former frontman for 1980s Canadian blues/rock band The Phantoms has put much of his back catalog online as free MP3 downloads (and as commercial CDs that he'll ship to your front door). — Read the rest

Artist Gwenn Seemel's post, "How I make sure my art doesn't get ripped off on the Internet" is a wonderfully calm, sensible and practical approach to living as a 21st century artist in an age where reproduction is a given. Seemel starts from six simple points:

1) Be original.

In Alaska, the election isn't quite over. Votes must be manually examined due to the success of write-in candidate Lisa Murkowsky, who may well have defeated Tea Party-supported Republican Joe Miller. But write-in candidates — where the name must be spelled out rather than simply checked — face particular difficulties. — Read the rest

Retired Navy veteran Charlie Kested of Johnstown, NY carved every word of the Declaration of Independence out of dark walnut wood over about 10 years, in his basement. It is beautiful.

(via Submitterator, thanks eaphelps)

This is what happens when your kitchen meets a nuée ardente.

Literally a "burning cloud", the name is French for pyroclastic flow—a mass of hot gas, ash and rock released in some volcanic eruptions. Basically, it's an avalanche that happens to be hot enough to sear flesh. — Read the rest

My pal Souris just alerted me to this super cool story: Hip dad Michael Cobra's three year old son really wanted to be Deadmau5 for Hallowe'en, after they saw him play at the Treasure Island Music Festival— so dad obliged. — Read the rest

I just ordered this flimsy-looking 60X microscope that attaches to an iPhone. Naturally, it's from Brando, that notorious purveyor of irresistible craptucular geekery that no one needs. It was $17.50 with free shipping to the U.S. I can't wait to try it! — Read the rest

The Serbian translation of my novel Little Brother has just been published by Profil Knjiga!

Field and Stream has published a slide show of photos by Alex Wypyszinski that show a grizzly bear chasing an injured bison in Yellowstone National Park. Mr. Wypyszinski is retired professor and amateur photographer, and works at a post office in the park during the summers. — Read the rest

Core 77 reviews Fiskars' amazing Cuts+More multi-scissors that can be used as an awl, rope-cutter, wire-cutter, twine-cutter, tape-cutter, sharpener, bottle opener, and titanium knife. Fiskars has a deserved reputation as one of the world's finest scissor vendors, and is part of the same company that owns Gerber, who make some of my favorite multitools. — Read the rest

Brian Krebs reports on "bulletproof hosting" providers that offer malware/spyware creeps, spammers, rip-off artists and other Mos Eisley cantina-dwellers a place to park a website where takedown notices, search warrants, and the law can't reach.

Of course, just how insulated this particular provider's services are and how much illicit activity you can get away with while using them depends largely on how much you're willing to shell out each month.

Cracked.com member AceJustice is featured in the site's photoshopping contest that asks members to imagine, "If Other Industries Were As Evil as the RIAA." I love AceJustice's entry, as it illustrates one of my favorite DRM metaphors, useful when people ask why I think it's important that we be allowed to run "unapproved" software on our phones and tablets: "Would you buy a toaster that limited you to buying your bread from a single vendor?" — Read the rest