Dubbed as being ultra-portable, these speakers come in two magnetized halves and connect to PCs via USB. I wonder if they'd also double up as one of those fake eggs to convince chickens to lay? [S&J via Coolest-Gadgets]

The cabinet, a creation of Alex Vessels and Katherine Keane for NYU's ITP Winter Show, features several compartments to store your potables. Each of these is outfitted with a switch, so that when you remove a bottle, the Swig & Jig lights up and plays a song. The best part: it's fully programmable, meaning that each drink gets its own unique accompaniment. That means, in this case, the Pogues for Jameson, Etta James for a bottle of white wine, MGMT for PBR, and so on.

It almost makes me sad, knowing that when I take my cheap drinkin' scotch off the shelf tonight, it could be playing the sad trombone I deserve. [ITP Winter Show]

Stoss is also the only Scotsman ever to invite me out for booze the next time I'm in Scotland, an offer I intend to accept if I could ever figure out where Scotland is. I keep turning right at the sign but somehow always end up in Greenland. If you know how to get to Scotland please write in.

***

SPOT RECALLED their latest SPOT SATELLITE PERSONAL TRACKER—or the "SPOT 2" as it was unofficially-yet-now-quasi-officially dubbed—because of a repeatable wonkiness in the low battery flashing indicator, which might lead one to replacing the batteries too soon. NOT A BIG DEAL except for a few wasted batteries, but for a device on which one might rely for one's rescue from sex-crazed miracle bears, it is probably best to get yours exchanged.

I have been thinking a lot about these sorts of devices as I prepare to purchase a mobile camping vehicle from which I will stage my research into miracle bears and their reproductive predation patterns, marking a tight spiral from their last reported location which is typically a Flying J.

***

I WILL ATTEND CES and I am vaguely even looking forward to it.

***

THE FAMILY OF JAMES KIM, who were trapped on a mountain pass for ten days in the winter of 2006, made a surprise appearance at the Christmas party of the Josephine County, Oregon, SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM.

"When Kati Kim and her girls, Sabine, now 4, and Penelope, 7, surprised the Josephine County rescuers at their Sunday party, 'It was a jaw-dropping moment,"'said Kate O'Connor, one of the team's volunteers. O'Connor wrote in her blog, '... there was a collective gasp, a split-second of stunned silence and then a standing ovation for them all. There were choked throats, laughs and tears ....'" reported Oregon Live.

***

THE OPENING SCENE OF "COMING TO AMERICA" is the ultimate expression of man's desire.

***

WHY IS IT SUPER DOUCHEY when a hygiene company like Axe advertises its products as an ENTICEMENT TO WOMEN but it is classy when an electronics company does the same? Dummy, it is because it was the '70s and because of scotch.

***

WHY AM I WRITING this column this way instead of just putting up little posts? Because Gizmodo is a strange, multi-headed beast now, visible postcounts make blogging feel like a videogame, and sometimes I just need a place to speak in public without having to swing the hammer hard enough to ring the bell.

I will write this column AS DEEMED NECESSARY BY MY SUPEREGO, which you may collectively weave and warp your way into by using the email address or the toots. But do not contact me now because I am going to Crossfit to try and not be a monster.

YOU MAY expect to see one of these columns a day unless it is not here.

***

KING JAMES CAMERON'S ORIGINAL AVATAR treatment in 1998 began the movie on a dilapidated Earth, described, "The walls are gray, the sky is gray... the people are gray. They shuffle past each other in dense crowds, shoulder to shoulder, unwashed because of the water shortages, and sickly looking from the bankrupt diet of cheap carbohydrates and synthetic proteins. It looks like a cross between THX-1138 and a Calcutta train station." BORING! But it might have made the humans of the final movie seem slightly less wantonly rapacious if we knew that Earth itself had been turned into a DIRTY TRAIN STATION.

***

WHISKY TOOTHPASTE is my selection for Best of CES 2010, even if we have to make it ourselves.

***

NUDE CHILDREN is one thing most Xmas cards don't include, unless you are Robert X. Cringely. Cris Cringely. Putting the cringe back in Cringemas. This is the future of all tech punditry.

Pine Trail was officially let out of the bag today, and comes in four flavors: the N450, D410, D510, and NM10 Express chipset. The two new Wind netbooks use the N450 chip, which is designed specifically for those smaller-sized laptops, giving 15 per cent extra battery life.

Both the U130 and U135 have 10-inch LED backlit screens with 1,024 x 600 pixels. The first model has a 160GB HDD, the latter 250GB. 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3.5G WiMax are listed, along with stereo speakers and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

On sale in January, the price for the UK market is £229 and £279 for the two models (approximately $368 and $448), with the U130 coming in "snow white" and "brilliant black," the U135 in "sterling silver," "brilliant black," "midnight blue," and "cherry red." [MSI]

By Mexican ad agency Diagonal, this new series of posters are part of Sony's latest, slightly less esoteric branding initiative for the PS3 in which the console actually does things rather than, I dunno, whatever we call this (NSFW) or even this.

I'm not sure the ads are completely clear to those who don't know the PS3's function set to begin with, and frankly, I prefer watching 30 seconds of art to a spokesperson listing a product's merits. But then again, I'm not a Sony shareholder. [Ads of the World via PS3 Maven]

The n450 clocks in at 1.66GHz, and is about 60% smaller and 20% more efficient than its predecessor. Despite the new chip under the hood, the new Mini 10s will have largely the same standard specs as the current model: 160GB hard drive, 1GB memory, built-in 802.11 b/g Bluetooth support, and a 10.1" display.

Dell's also offering several HD-oriented features as add-ons. The refresh includes the same HD display option as the the Mini 10 does now, but you can also upgrade to a built-in HDTV tuner (the current only offers standard def). Dell also claims up to 9.5 hours of battery life with a six-cell battery running Windows Starter 7. But the best update may be the price cut: the new Mini 10s will start at $299 in January, fifty bucks cheaper than the current version.

DELL MAKES INSPIRON MINI 10 EVEN BETTER WITH NEW DESIGN AND LONG BATTERY LIFE

Entertainment Netbook Offers Go-Anywhere Fun for Everyone
Great Battery Life Keeps People Online for Hours
Optional High Definition Display, Surround Sound Enrich Media Experience

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Dec. 21, 2009 - Dell's hot-selling Inspiron Mini 10
netbook is getting better with a fresh new look and longer battery
life to go along with technology enhancements and easy connectivity
capabilities that make it a fashionable and functional must-have for
on-the-go people. Updates to the Mini 10 include optional high
definition entertainment bundles that deliver rich, smooth playback of
streaming HD video in addition to Web surfing, email, listening to
music and sharing user-generated content in real time. Dell expects
the redesigned Inspiron Mini 10 to be available the first part of
January 2010.

The new design with 10.1-inch display includes a textured,
smudge-resistant palm rest, sculpted keys and, for the Inspiron Mini
10 mobility bundle, extended-life battery offering up to 9.5 hours of
operation. The Mini 10 can be personalized with a broad range of
optional colors or hundreds of optional custom artwork designs
available in the Dell Design Studio.

The Inspiron Mini 10 will be offered in the coming weeks in a
selection of bundles with distinct features like an HD display,
Broadcom Crystal HD media accelerator, surround sound capability,
built in HDTV tuner for over-the-air local HD broadcasts, or built-in
Wi-Fi location enabled GPS that provides people with real time
information to nearby restaurants, landmarks, maps and entertainment.

Built-in wireless connectivity Connectivity: Where wireless access is
available. Additional access charges apply in some locations. provides
easy, quick access to the Internet and e-mail. Some models feature
Bluetooth and Mobile Broadband communications Mobile Broadband:
Subject to wireless provider's broadband subscription and coverage
area; additional charges apply., too.

Highlights:

New Intel Atom N450 processor at 1.66 GHz
10.1-inch display with standard (1024x600) or High Definition
(1366x768) display available in coming weeks
Built-in speakers with available SRS Surround sound
HDTV tuner and location-aware GPS configurations available in coming weeks
Bundles with Broadcom Crystal HD for smooth HD playback coming in Q1
Built-in 802.11 b/g wireless with available Bluetooth and Mobile Broadband
1GB Memory: Significant system memory may be used to support graphics,
depending on system memory size and other factors. DDR2 memory at
800MHz
160GB Hard Drive: GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion
bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating
environment and will be less. or 250GB hard disk drive storage
Choice of 3 or 6-cell integrated battery with up to 9.5 hours of
battery life (Inspiron Mini 10 mobility bundle only).
Choice of Windows 7 Starter or Windows XP Home, Ubuntu operating
system option available in the coming weeks
Lightweight: Starting at about 2.75 – 3.1 pounds Starting at Weight:
Weights vary depending on configuration and manufacturing variability.
with a 3-cell battery Battery Life: Based on preliminary lab testing.
Varies by configuration, operating conditions and other factors.
Maximum battery capacity decreases with time and use. Battery life of
9 hours and 34 minutes for the Mini 10 Mobility bundle is achieved
using Mobilemark2007 battery life testing benchmark with a system
configuration that includes 60WHr 6 cell battery, Windows 7 Starter
Operating system and 250GB Hard Drive.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is expected to be available in early January
from Dell and select configurations will be available in retail
outlets worldwide in the coming weeks. Prices start at $299.

Thankfully LG didn't compromise on diagonal size, with this prototype coming in at 42-inches. It's LED-backlit, with a 120Hz processor (for the US market, anyway) and apparently only weighs 4 kilograms.

Please excuse me while I fall over in shock. [I4U]

No word yet on exactly what drove Yelp to back down, but there are really just two main possibilities here:

• Yelp was uneasy with whatever Google's plans for their company were. Given that Google already has a Yelp-like service in Google Places, there was a good chance that their plans would've involved cannibalizing Yelp for review data, or at least subordinating the brand for something more Googly.

• Yelp got a better offer, or at least the sense that they could get a better offer. Not that many tech companies could offer more than $550m for something as ephemeral and low-revenue as Yelp, but of the ones that could, nearly all—Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Aol—are locked in one war or another with Google. Even if their plans were never firm, there are a lot of powerful companies with a vested interest in Google's local reviews staying somewhat lame.

So Yelp will keep Yelping, just as it has been Yelping for the history of Yelp, for the foreseeable Yelp. Let us know if you hear anything else. [TechCrunch]

We are working with our partners to learn more. The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. We believe that the camera might have difficulty "seeing" contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting.

[HP and Metafilter via The Daily What]

Yes, Verizon has responded to the FCC's inquiry with just what you'd expect: some pretty vague excuses. You see, they need to charge such a crazy ETF.

"The higher (early termination fee) associated with Advanced Devices reflects the higher costs associated with offering those devices to consumers at attractive prices, the costs and risks of investing in the broadband network to support these devices, and other costs and risks."

Costs and risks, costs and risks! What they don't address is why they're justified in charging a fee that ends up being far higher than the difference between the actual cost of a phone and the subsidized price, especially if the contract is cancelled many months in. Isn't that all the ETF is supposed to cover? I mean, if you're relying on contract cancellation fees to pay for your network, well, I don't think you need to have an MBA to figure out why that ain't good business. [WSJ via Silicon Alley Insider]

The Sync system will let you plug in your own USB mobile broadband modem, and that's it—no additional hardware or subscriptions needed from Ford. Ford uses the wirelss broadband to turn your car into a Wi-Fi hotspot on four wheels. It's also a secured (WPA2) wireless connection, requiring a password to safeguard against other drivers munching on your bandwidth. It should be available sometime next year, hopefully in time for me to stream "It's Always Sunny..." on my next road trip.

FORD SYNC GOES WIFI TURNING CAR INTO MOBILE INTERNET HOT SPOT FOR PASSENGERS WHILE ON THE GO

* Next-generation SYNC® system to incorporate in-car WiFi system powered by customer's USB mobile broadband modem, turning entire car into hot spot

* New capability will be standard on select SYNC-equipped vehicles with no additional hardware or subscriptions required beyond the user-supplied mobile broadband modem

* Standard WiFi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) security protocols will be in force, and only owner-permitted devices will be able to access the network, helping ensure secure, robust connectivity for in-car users

DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 21, 2009 – Ford Motor Company will turn vehicles into rolling
WiFi hot spots when it introduces the second generation of its popular SYNC® in-car connectivity system next year.

Inserting an owner's compatible USB mobile broadband modem – sometimes called an "air card" – into SYNC's USB port will produce a secure wireless connection that will be broadcast throughout the vehicle, allowing passengers with WiFi-enabled mobile devices to access the Internet anywhere the broadband modem receives connectivity.

"While you're driving to grandma's house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles," said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. "And you're not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have."

Studies by the Consumer Electronics Association show that as many as 77 million adults make up the so-called technology enthusiast drivers population, more than half of whom express the desire for a connected communications and information system in their vehicles. Even among the general population, more than one third of Americans would be interested in the ability to check email and access Web sites in their vehicles.

Upgradeable and secure
The USB port provided by SYNC lets owners leverage a variety of devices, including the mobile broadband modem. And through simple software updates, SYNC can be adapted to connect with the latest devices.

"The speeds with which technology is evolving, particularly on the wireless front, makes obsolescence a real problem," said Doug VanDagens, director of Ford's Connected Services Solutions Organization. "We've solved that problem by making SYNC work with just about any technology you plug into it. By leveraging a user's existing hardware, which can be upgraded independent of SYNC, we've helped ensure ‘forward compatibility' with whatever connectivity technology comes next."

The SYNC WiFi capability is a simple solution for bringing internet into the vehicle, versus competitive systems on the market. Being factory-installed, the hardware is seamlessly integrated into the vehicle, whereas competitor's systems are dealer-installed and require a bulky bolt-in receiver and transmitter that take up cabin space. Also, competitive systems cost approximately $500 for equipment and installation, not to mention the monthly subscription fee.

"Using SYNC with existing mobile devices helps Ford provide the most value, the most flexibility and the most convenience for owners," said Fields. "Constant connectivity is becoming a routine part of our customers' lives, and we're making existing technology more accessible without adding costs: That's the kind of value Ford drivers have learned to expect."

Using the SYNC WiFi system, a signal will be broadcast throughout the vehicle. Default security is set to WiFi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), requiring users to enter a randomly chosen password to connect to the Internet. When SYNC sees a new WiFi device for the first time, the driver must specifically allow that device to connect, preventing unauthorized users from "piggybacking" on the SYNC-provided signal.

[Ford via All Things D, Image via All Things D]

It's one of the first times a big brand like Stella Artois has used augmented reality in an app, with booze-rivals Guinness and Becks using just location-based services instead of AR in their apps.

Upon opening the Le Bar app and waving your iPhone in front of you, bars selling Stella pop up on the screen, giving directions and information. Once you're safely housed in a drinking establishment, a cold pint of the amber nectar in your hand, you can rate the bar and send it to your friends if you want them to meet you there.

It also works abroad, too—simply select the country, and find bars selling Stella in your area.

Ensuring your drinking doesn't lead to driving, you can also call a local taxi firm from within the app. How very responsible of the free app. [Stella Artois app via Recombu via Daily Mobile via MobileEnt]

$73m of that was from the US and Canada, and the remaining $159.2m from around the world was bulked up mostly by Russia, France and the UK. In case you're wondering, it didn't break the previous record held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, nor Modern Warfare 2's $310m opening weekend sales. Still—that's a major breakthrough for a 3D film, with Avatar limited by compatible cinemas and inflated ticket prices. [Reuters]

Ok, we made that last bit up, but it looks pretty neat with its quad-faces, right? Encased in stainless steel, the Navigator comes in either blue or silver options and is on sale now for £129.99, which is around $210. [Storm via Technabob]

The tablet was outed by Engadget's Joshua Topolsky on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and looked pretty responsive, even with that resistive touchscreen. ICD plans on updating it with a capacitive display option before it goes on sale next year, which is pleasing news to our ears, but it's bemusing as to why they don't just ditch the resistive model, unless it can be offered for much less than the far-superior capacitive.

An integrated 3G SIM will keep it perpetually connected, and also hints at the possibility of carriers subsidizing it to keep costs down. Measuring 186 x 158 x 18mm, the screen is 7-inches and will contain either 800 x 480 or 1024 x 600 pixels, dependent on the resistive or capacitive screen.

Internally, there's 4GB of flash storage, but a microSD card slot will allow for expansion. The 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI-out, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, 3.5mm jack and 1.3-megapixel camera all sound fairly average, and if it's offered at around the same price-point as the Notion Ink tablet we saw last week, ICD might have a battle on their hands. Engadget's pointing at a $249 price-tag, with more details expected at CES in early January. [Engadget via SlashGear]

Over 20 million downloads have been recorded, with over 600 million games played. To say that Tapulous, with just 20 employees, has been buying in the luxury three-ply toilet paper for their office loo in recent months would be a total understatement. [Reuters]

The Android 2.1 firmware update doesn't bring much to the Droid plate, apart from added speed (the video below shows one modder unenthusiastically exclaiming "I'm amazed by how fast it is"), three new homepage screens, and Google news and weather. There's no multitouch, but then, you already know how to do that. [AllDroid via Engadget]

It's apparently the 30th birthday of Stussy, and to celebrate they've splashed it with a day-glo blue, though little else has changed. The GR Digital III went on sale in August this year, and has a 28mm/F1.9 lens, 10-megapixel 1/1.7-inch CCD sensor with 4x digital zoom and ISO of 64-1,600. It takes video, though only manages 640 x 480 at 15/30fps.

On the outside, the LCD screen measures 3-inches, and there's an SD card slot for saving those valuable pics. The main attraction to this limited edition model is of course that day-glo blue, and the Stussy logo...though I can't imagine that being much of an incentive to anyone past 1995, if I'm honest.

On sale in Japan in February, only 500 of the 99,750 Yen ($1,100) cameras have been created so you better get your Japanese chums to act quickly on the exporting front. [Akihabara News]

As a college student in 2000, I spent many a morning babysitting the daughter of New York Times reporter Penelope Green. When Penelope got a Modo, I was jeeeealous. The egg-sized device spewed information that was fed to it over a pager network by arbiters of urban coolness. Information about local restaurants or shops or events would show up on the screen (although i don't think it was location-based, or even searchable). It was there, take it or leave it. It was like TimeOut magazine, but more exclusive and wireless.

To get into this elite club, you needed to pick up one of these palm-sized devices at tony places like Fred Segal. They cost $99, which was quite a lot in babysitting currency, though there was no monthly or annual fee. Its creators—who hoped to fund the project ultimately with ad revenues—were prescient in encouraging retailers to create fancy cases for the gadgets long before people started to dress their music players like they were chihuahuas.

As one of the youngest non-diaper wearing people in Penelope's life, I made the case that she should really let me take her Modo for a test drive. Alas, the timing didn't work out. But Christmas was coming! What's more, she hinted that I maybe could maybe keep hers after the story came out. (This was in the pre-Jayson Blair days when newspaper reporters were allowed to keep things. See, newspapers were these printed things that...ugh, never mind.)

The company's founder basically bragged to Penelope about how little the Modo could do. "This is not a personal productivity tool," he said. "We'll never make anything like that.'' Low productivity? Clearly this was a college kid's dream machine. What's more, it was a thing of beauty. Penelope's story said that to use it you had "to engage with it in a physical way, stretching the rubber tongue toggle thing into place or sliding it back out again with your thumb." Hot!

iPods at this point were monochromatic, but these babies came in different colors. The article even suggested buying them in multiples and keeping one in the packaging as an investment, a la a Swatch watch or a Beanie Baby.

Just weeks after the article came out, Modo went belly up. Needless to say, my Christmas sucked. [Vintage Modo stories: Forbes; NY Times; Models.com; Useit.com]

Anna Jane Grossman will be with us for the next few weeks, documenting life in the early aughts, and how it differs from today. The author of Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By (Abrams Image) and the creator of ObsoleteTheBook.com, she has also written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Salon.com, the Associated Press, Elle and the Huffington Post, as well as Gizmodo. She has a complicated relationship with technology, but she does have an eponymous website: AnnaJane.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnaJane.

Failing evil plots aside, the Shredder hoodie actually looks rather cozy with all those crazy "blades" and it's yours for only $60. I just wish I had come across it before I'd finished all my Christmas shopping. [80s Tees via You Bent My Wookie via Geekologie]

It's unclear what the exact details of the argument which led to these lost lives were, but we do know that it was over an iPod. Supposedly David Mapu, the victim, was attempting to run away from the fight when John Chinh Vu shot him in the back. Vu was later fatally wounded by police officers and died after being rushed to a hospital.

Shooting someone over an iPod. That's the sort of thing that make me lose just a bit more of my faith in our crazy society. [King 5]

The new chips include the N450 for netbooks and the D410 and D510 for nettops (or, as Intel kept calling them, "entry-level desktops"). The big news is that they've integrated the graphics and memory controller into the processor, which results in a much smaller footprint (and in turn, could mean smaller devices). They've also made the usual improvements in efficiency and size—the N450 is 60% smaller and 20% more efficient than its predecessor, while the D410 and D510 are 70% smaller and 50% more efficient.

But there hasn't been much change in the base power of the chips; the N450 is clocked at 1.66GHz, single-core, with a 512kb cache and supports only DDR2 memory. Besides that, the 2GB memory ceiling is still in effect—and the Nvidia Ion configuration will give you better graphics performance. Intel will announce final pricing and availability information at CES. [Intel]

Designed by Elizabeth Fuller for the NYU's ITP Winter Show, the Life Dress is fully programmable, meaning that you can step out to your fancy parties with the pattern or message of your choice writ large by the LEDs embedded in your clothing. The unlit squares are also a bit translucent, which in the right (or wrong) places could send the strongest message of all. [ITP Winter Show]

Ok, maybe the part about this commercial being catchy isn't such a great thing. Excuse me while I crawl back under a rock where I'm safe from things like this seasonal torture. [Thanks, OMG! Ponies!]

At least that's what I understand from this commercial. Truth be told, my attention span is no longer very good, so I'm not sure if my comprehension is really all that. This commercial goes on and on. Forever. It's like a minute. Couldn't they have said all that with a more Tweet-able word count? I don't have the time for this. My time is valuable and I have important stuff to... I wonder whatever happened to Vanessa from The Cosby Show.

Anna Jane Grossman will be with us for the next few weeks, documenting life in the early aughts, and how it differs from today. The author of Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By (Abrams Image) and the creator of ObsoleteTheBook.com, she has also written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Salon.com, the Associated Press, Elle and the Huffington Post, as well as Gizmodo. She has a complicated relationship with technology, but she does have an eponymous website: AnnaJane.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnaJane.

Now, if we're to accept that the head massage functionality as the goal, here's what Brookstone says this $200 piece of kit will deliver:

Air pressure masage
Vibration massage
Magnetic therapy
"Gentle" heat
Built-in speakers

The NES gray color scheme was surely included to give your noggin a healthy "nostalgia massage." Surely. [Brookstone via Coolest Gadgets via DVICE]

The Dark Pasts of Our Geekiest Treasures

There's that old expression about those who forget their history being doomed to repeat it. So it's good that there are so many chroniclers of the great achievements in tech, and in geek culture. [History Books]

Back to the Drawing Board

Why are we so enamored with certain images or objects? Though an explanation on the inner workings of the soul is always just out of reach, there are books that help us understand our art and design fetishes, what informs our gear lust as well as our definition of beauty. [Art & Design Books]

Tales of Science and Technology, Told With Feeling

Science is about a passionate, single-minded pursuit of an uncertain goal, but you wouldn't know it from reading most news coverage of great discoveries. Each year, though, a few brilliant writers dip into the details, and string together a story that is as beautiful as it is mind-blowing. [Science & Tech Lit Books]

What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?

We certainly try to hone our culinary skills on occasion, so it's a given that we've been reading up on tasty treats and crazy concoctions. Naturally we've got some cookbooks that we can't stop raving about, but since we're dedicated nerds about food, there's a lot more going on here, too. [Food & Cooking Books]

Doing It For Ourselves

Maybe we're not quite as prone to making nearly everything ourselves like our counterparts at Lifehacker, but we certainly love to tinker and enjoy DIY projects. Albeit it's the ones that could cause major damage which we seem to go particularly crazy for, but I promise that there are innocent projects lurking in these books, too. [DIY Books]

The Art of Escape: Our Favorite Fiction

Even the craziest DIYer, chef, historian, gadget lover or designer needs a break at some point. Here are the departures from reality that kept us sane, especially after long, busy weeks of telling the truth. [Novels and Other Fiction]