The Hobbit: The Desolation of Tolkien - Daniel Larison is very unhappy with Peter Jackson. I pretty much agree with his points, though I am perhaps less vociferous in my articulation thereof.

Literary self-loathing: How Jonathan Franzen, Elizabeth Gilbert and more keep it at bay - Really? Yeah, maybe for them, but I’m with Scalzi on this one. ( Read more... )

Interview: Jay Lake - Ken Scholes interviews me for Lightspeed.

Hobbit's Gollum Lacked Precioussss Vitamins - An offbeat study, released on Sunday, which concludes that the evil characters in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" lost their battle against men, elves and dwarves because they suffered from vitamin deficiency. Uh… Rickets. Yeah. (Via David ( Read more... )

The most beautiful death - Aldous Huxley's "most beautiful death" was described by his wife in a moving letter.

The “Copenhagen left” - A bicycle maneuver I have used without ever knowing it had a name. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Heyday app is the anti-Facebook for the iPhone

Mercier 1937 Moto Chenille 350cc 1 cyl ohv - Wow is that weird. ( ( Read more... )

Like most white men of a certain height, class and educational standing, I wander through life in a cloud of largely invisible-to-me privilege. This privilege often expresses itself as good customer service. Sometimes it's earned (for some value of "earned") such as my frequent flyer status, sometimes it's situational. I do make a serious effort to ( Read more... )

Cars, Cards & Carbines - Multi-Genre Fiction Anthology - A Kickstarter for a project in which I have a story.

The Lord of the Rings personality type chart - Snerk.

When I Finally Realized What I Was Seeing, This Was The Coolest Thing Ever. Look Closer. - Mmm. Cars. (Via ( Read more... )

I was being very grumpy about CarMax on Twitter this past Thursday. A lot of people wondered what was going on. As we were finally able to resolve the issue yesterday, I’ll lay it out now.

Lisa Costello and I are back in Maryland helping settle her parents’ affairs. Her 83-year-old father had a stroke about three weeks ago, and her 80-year-old ( Read more... )

If Game of Thrones Were A Children’s Book Series - Hahahaha. Via Reynardo the Red.)

The Perfect Car - 911-DS. Um… Wow… (Via ( Read more... )

As long time readers may know, I like automobiles a lot. I like weird machinery a lot. I enjoy folk art. I admire field-expedient ingenuity as well.

Sometimes these threads come together…

Spotted this past Saturday night in Klamath Falls, OR, the Fierocycle:


( Read more... )

Bi-Biplane: 1917 - I love this photo.

These Cars Are The Same Size - Our brains lie to us all the time. (Thanks to ( Read more... )

44 out of 72 of the world's tallest buildings are cheating - Vanity height? Really? (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

11 Terrific Online Video Sites That Aren't Netflix, Hulu, or iTunes - (Thanks to ( Read more... )