Books, Politics, Apps, Legos and More

Dark Horse Gives Fifty Comics Away For Free – With A Buy-All Button

2013-04-24T07:40:00.001-07:00

Dark Horse Gives Fifty Comics Away For Free – With A Buy-All Button:
One of the problems with the ComiXology 700 #1 Marvel giveaway when announced was that thousands of people then started clicking seven hundred buttons on their Marvel app to download them all.
On the Dark Horse Digital app, they’re doing the same – but with only fifty issue ones. And one button to get them all downloaded for free, worth over $160.
And launching it when most of America is sleeping so it will roll out gradually from coast to coast…

Looks like Free Comic Book Day has come early.

The post Dark Horse Gives Fifty Comics Away For Free – With A Buy-All Button appeared first on Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors.

The Ramen Rater Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2013 Edition

2013-04-23T14:23:00.001-07:00

The Ramen Rater Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2013 Edition:

It’s been over a year since the last Top Ten List came out and it’s time for a new one. You’ll see some from the old list and some new ones! With that, Welcome to the new Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time – 2013 Edition!

#10 Mama Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum Flavour Oriental Style Instant Noodles – Thailand

I had tried this ages back and wasn’t very fond of it. At the request of readers, I gave it another try and found it to be the best Thai variety I’ve had thus far. The strong bite of the heat and the crisp citrus flavors are of authentic Tom Yum. The noodles are thin and almost crumble when chewed – the texture is different from any others on the list. The creaminess is not of dairy but a cream-like color from boiling shrimp. Full review

#9: Paldo Kokomen Spicy Chicken Flavor – South Korea

It all started with a South Korean comedian in a TV show cooking contest – the resit is history. Kokomen Is a South Korean ‘white broth’ instant ramyun. It has a great jalapeno chicken kind of flavor which took South Korea by storm. Full review

#8: Nongshim Shin Ramyun Black Premium Noodle Soup – United States

Everyone’s had Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun once. It’s spicy and full of noodles. Shin Ramyun Black is Nongshim’s premium version of Shin Ramyun – containing nice big pieces of mushroom and free-dried beef that springs to life. Truly excellent ramyun. Made in the United States. Full review

#7: Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein – United States

This has always held a spot on my Top Ten Instant Noodles lists. Why? First off, it’s got some great noodles. They suck up all the water as they cook and once you open the seasoning packet and stir in the flavor, the smell is tantalizing. The best bonus here is the little packet of seaweed powder. It’s just right. Made in the United States. Full review

#6: Myojo Ippei-chan Yakisoba Japanese Style Noodles – Japan

Yakisoba, delivered wonderfully. The tray is filled with boiling water and also acts as a strainer! Great noodles, top-notch veggies – and a bonus: mayonnaise! Makes for a meal of pure deliciousness. Full review

#5: Indomie Curly Noodle With Grilled Chicken Flavour Special Quality Instant Noodles – Indonesia

They got it right when they said these noodles are special. They’re broad and thin with such an enjoyable texture. The flavor is sweet, spicy and perfect. Full review

#4: Nongshim Jinjja Jinjja Flamin’ Hot & Nutty Noodle Soup – United States

I ate a lot of instant noodles in my time. Within the last year or so, I’ve enjoyed this one multiple times. Jinjja Jinjja’s quality noodles, strong heat and unique pork, peanut and black sesame notes make this a real stand-out in the South Korean ramyun market and now here in the United States. Full review

#3: Indomie Mi Instan Mi Goreng Rendang – Indonesia

A deep and rich curry flavor with just the right amount of spiciness. These noodles have a great texture and consistency and taste so good. This ‘stir noodle’ variety is superb. Full review

#2: Prima Taste Simgapore Curry La Mian – Singapore

Curry is one of my favorite all time flavors. Here you’ll find the same high quality lamian noodles and a pair of packets – one of coconut powder and one of curry paste. So simple and so perfect. Truly exceptional. Full review

#1: Prima Taste Singapore Laksa La Mian – Simgapore

Pair steamed lamian noodles with a packet of coconut powder and a packet of paste and you’ve got a real game changer here. The noodles are high quality and the broth is luxuriant; light in color with beads of chili oil float in a ballet of splendor. Full review

Where the Toys Come From: Inside Hasbro’s Model Workshop

2013-04-22T10:45:00.001-07:00

Where the Toys Come From: Inside Hasbro’s Model Workshop:

Designing toys takes sketching and planning and imagining, sure. But what's even more impressive is the actual making—still a much more industrial and craftsmanlike process than you'd imagine. It requires, essentially, a whole factory condensed into a few rooms of Hasbro's headquarters outside of Providence, Rhode Island. More »

All Of Amazon’s Original Pilots Are Online – Including The Onion, Alpha House With Bill Murray And More

2013-04-19T08:58:00.001-07:00

All Of Amazon’s Original Pilots Are Online – Including The Onion, Alpha House With Bill Murray And More:
All fourteen of Amazon’s Originals are online now, through the Amazon website as well as Lovefilm. They can all be screened in full, and then given a star rating. The idea is that Amazon will commission full series for the most popular.
So far, Zombieland has garnered the most column inches but as I look at the roster of available shows, its a couple of the others that seem to twinkle the most.
There’s Alpha House, a political sitcom with John Goodman and a guest appearance from Bill Murray. And there’s another attempt at launching an Onion show, Onion News Empire with Jeffrey Tambor.
Six of the shows are aimed squarely at kids, and I’ll maybe skip those for now, though Teeny Tiny Dogs does come from the Henson people and… click…
…hey! This thing is hardly done at all. It’s almost all animatics. Swizz! I want puppets!
The post All Of Amazon’s Original Pilots Are Online – Including The Onion, Alpha House With Bill Murray And More appeared first on Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors.

Dungeon Dice Let You Roll an Imaginary Adventure

2013-04-18T10:56:00.001-07:00

Dungeon Dice Let You Roll an Imaginary Adventure:

Role-playing board games like Dungeons & Dragons are known for their overly complicated multi-sided die. But this particular set turns the dice into the actual dungeon, letting players discover a new random challenge every time they roll. More »

Clever Uses for Reverse Image Search

2013-04-16T07:36:00.001-07:00

Clever Uses for Reverse Image Search:

Reverse image search is one of those handy innovations that's often hard to come up with specific uses for. Sure, you can use it to track down the origin of a photo, but it's also useful for hunting down product names, apartments, and even recipes. Here are a few of our favorite uses.
Read more...

Victoria, BC City Guide

2013-04-16T07:21:00.001-07:00

Victoria, BC City Guide:

Today’s Victoria, BC City Guide comes to us from Bonnie Wilson, owner of vintage furnishings store Gild & Co (opening in Vancouver in 2013). After eight plus years working in the corporate world, Bonnie recently left her desk job to pursue her passion and open a vintage and new furniture and home décor boutique. She gives much of the credit and inspiration for her new venture to the gorgeous Victoria surroundings and today she shares some of her favorites from the region with us. Thank you, Bonnie, for taking us around this majestic Canadian city! –Stephanie
Read the full guide after the jump…
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Lovely Ladybug Decor

2013-04-09T13:03:00.001-07:00

Lovely Ladybug Decor:

Bold, graphic and colorful, the ladybug is one well-designed insect. Whether you go literal, or evoke them with colors and forms, the ladybug offers plenty of bright ideas for kids' decor. Here are a few possibilities:
More

World's largest tunnel boring machine lands in Seattle

2013-04-02T11:30:00.001-07:00

World's largest tunnel boring machine lands in Seattle:

Known affectionately as Bertha, this tunnel boring machine has the widest diameter of any boring machine ever built; 57.5 feet. It's being used to dig a highway tunnel under downtown Seattle and it just arrived there today after being shipped from Japan.
I feel this warrants your attention for two reasons:
1) If you live near Seattle, you can actually go get a look at this massive beast before it starts chewing its way through the city. If you like looking at giant machines (or know someone who does) now's your chance. She's coming into the Port of Seattle, Terminal 46, as you read this and there will be ample opportunities to get a look as the pieces are assembled and moved into the nearby launch pit. The Washington State Department of Transportation has suggestions on places to go to get a good view.
2) If, for some reason, you were looking for a new way to lose massive amounts of time on YouTube, Bertha (and boring machines, in general) can help with that. Here's a cutaway animation explaining how boring machines work. Here's a video of Big Becky, another boring machine, breaking through to the other side of a tunnel at Niagara Falls, Canada. (In fact, boring machine breakthrough videos are, in and of themselves, a mesmerizing genre.) And in this video, you can watch the massively long line of support equipment go by in the wake of a boring machine.

This Guide to Cuts of Beef Makes Sure You’re Never Confused at the Meat Counter Again

2013-04-02T07:05:00.001-07:00

This Guide to Cuts of Beef Makes Sure You’re Never Confused at the Meat Counter Again:

It can be pretty challenging to shop for beef if you don't know the difference between a shoulder blade steak and a center ranch steak. The difference in cost, size, and preferred cooking method can throw off even the best home cook. Thankfully this handy chart makes sure you're always prepared when buying and cooking beef. More »

This Man Crafts Some of the Most Intricate Ship-In-a-Bottle Dioramas You've Ever Seen

2013-03-27T11:04:00.001-07:00

This Man Crafts Some of the Most Intricate Ship-In-a-Bottle Dioramas You've Ever Seen:

Throughout his entire life, Ray Gascoigne had a connection with the sea. He's worked as a shipwright, a sailor, and now that he's retired he still spends his days working on boats—just on a smaller scale. When it comes to the ship-in-a-bottle, Ray is a master craftsman who makes designing tiny boats that can slip through the neck of a bottle look like child's play. More »

Use Outlook as a Google Reader Replacement

2013-03-27T10:51:00.001-07:00

Use Outlook as a Google Reader Replacement:

If you live inside Outlook, you might not know that you're already using a pretty good Google Reader replacement. Outlook can import and process a Google Reader feed export, and handle your items like a slightly different kind of message.[More] More »

DIY Pressed Flower iPhone Case Tutorial

2013-03-27T10:15:00.001-07:00

DIY Pressed Flower iPhone Case Tutorial:

Just saw this great tutorial for making your own pressed flower iphone case, over on the Etsy Blog.

Awesome Accountant Made an Entire RPG Game Inside Microsoft Excel

2013-03-27T09:49:00.001-07:00

Awesome Accountant Made an Entire RPG Game Inside Microsoft Excel:

Every accountant I know swears by the powers of Excel. But not every accountant can harness that power as beautifully as Cary Walkin, an accountant from Canada. Walkin made a full RPG game inside Excel. As in you can use Excel to actually have fun. More »

Bookbinding 101: Accordion Book

2013-03-20T13:40:00.001-07:00

Bookbinding 101: Accordion Book:
Over the past few weeks, we’ve dipped our toes into the world of bookbinding. After mastering a five-hole pamphlet stitch and Japanese four-hole binding, it’s time to tackle the final introductory process. This week, we’ll put aside the needle and thread and explore a book constructed without a single stitch. The accordion book is a folded structure; the book block is made by simply folding a sheet of paper back and forth in page-width increments. This project is, perhaps, a bit more involved than those of weeks past, but it allows me to introduce a few additional basic materials found in every book artist’s studio and a handy technique or two. I hope you’ll enjoy the project! — Pooja
Photos and styling by Claire Dalgliesh

The full how-to continues after the jump . . .
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How to install AdBlock Plus 1.1 for Android and bypass Google’s ban

2013-03-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

How to install AdBlock Plus 1.1 for Android and bypass Google’s ban:
AdBlock 1.1 for Android has been released, but you won’t find it in Google Play. Just last week, Google decided that the time had come to give ad blocking apps the boot because they modified the behavior of other apps. Fortunately for Android users who want to install ABP, it’s really not that hard to [...]

Recreate Original McDonald's Menu Items at Home

2013-03-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

Recreate Original McDonald's Menu Items at Home:

We've shown you a few copycat McDonald's recipes over the years (from the McRib to those addictive french fries) and even cooking videos from McDonald's itself. But if you'd like to try out classic McDonald's foods from menus going back to the 50's to 70's, this 32-page recipe and cooking guide is for you. More »

Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives

2013-03-14T07:48:00.001-07:00

Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives:

Google announced today that it'll be closing Google Reader's doors on July 1st of this year, meaning you'll need to find a new way to get your news fix. Here's how to export all your feeds and put them into a new reader. More »

What Colored Food Does to Your Poop

2013-03-14T07:22:00.001-07:00

What Colored Food Does to Your Poop:

Those without a strong stomach should look away now. When Gabriel Morais set to wondering what different foods do to his body, he naturally wondered how different items affect the color of his poop. Here are the results. More »

Bookbinding 101: Japanese Four-Hole Binding

2013-03-13T13:16:00.001-07:00

Bookbinding 101: Japanese Four-Hole Binding:

Welcome back to Bookbinding 101! Last week, we made a pamphlet-stitched book, and this week we’ll be experimenting with a stab binding.
Here, the book block, or the body of the book, is a stack of single sheets rather than a signature. Therefore, stab bindings allow you to make books that are not possible with other bindings. For instance, in a pamphlet-stitch book, each leaf, or page, cannot have a different color. But in a stab-bound book, you can use scraps of different weights, textures and colors as long as they are the same size or can be cut to the same size. This is the perfect project for someone looking to try a scrapbook or family memento book — just in time for this month’s theme. Enjoy! — Pooja
Photos and styling by Claire Dalgliesh

The full how-to continues after the jump . . .
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Bookbinding 101: Five-Hole Pamphlet Stitch

2013-03-06T10:27:00.001-08:00

Bookbinding 101: Five-Hole Pamphlet Stitch:
Today I’m thrilled to introduce a guest DIY mini-series on bookbinding! This month’s family theme lends itself so nicely to scrapbook, photo album and memory book projects, so I thought this series would be perfect for anyone wanting to make their own. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Take it away, Pooja! — Grace
Hi, everyone! My name is Pooja Makhijani, and I’m a writer, editor, teacher and New Yorker living in Singapore. I first learned basic bookbinding at the Center for the Book Arts in Chelsea, New York City, and continued my studies as a creative writing graduate student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.
My avocation became a vocation in 2010 when my partner and I left our beloved New York City for adventure in Singapore. I left behind a strong book arts community in the States and was eager to find or create one in my new home in Asia. So, in 2011, I launched a series of classes via my blog. Soon after, I was featured in The Straits Times, the national broadsheet, and became the go-to gal for book arts on this tiny island. Most recently, I’ve entered a long-term partnership with the National Arts Council to bring the book arts to as many as possible.

In my classes, I encourage students to look at the book or book-like structure as an art object and not merely as a vessel for their content. I remind them that all the elements of an artist’s book — from the paper to the text and/or images — are deliberately interconnected and work in concert. I’ve worked with children and senior citizens, and I relish the challenge of sharing my love of this quirky art with those who may not have the access or the means to procure expensive tools and materials. Now I’ve partnered with my friend Claire Dalgliesh — blogger, crafter, artist and fellow Singapore resident — to bring to you three easy bookbinding techniques. This series of posts by no means encompasses everything there is to know about book making, but I hope that it will inspire you to explore more! — Pooja

The full instructions (and additional resources for bookbinding) continue after the jump . . .
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The Mother of All Wall Warts Can Handle 11 Devices at Once

2013-03-06T10:21:00.001-08:00

The Mother of All Wall Warts Can Handle 11 Devices at Once:

Like a regular Joe transformed into a superhero through some freak accident, this giant power adapter turns a single outlet into an all-encompassing charging station for all of your gear. Technically, it requires two outlets since the second gets completely blocked, but that's ok since the Bestek charging station more than makes up for that loss with six new AC outlets, four USB ports, and a dock for your pre-Lightning iOS devices. More »

Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker

2013-03-04T10:08:00.001-08:00

Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker

Round Up: 15+ Things You Can Make/Do Using Your Waffle Iron (That isn't Waffles)

2013-03-01T07:13:00.001-08:00

Round Up: 15+ Things You Can Make/Do Using Your Waffle Iron (That isn't Waffles):
My Sweetie Pie has been hinting at getting a waffle iron. Since I dislike one-job appliances, I've been nixing the idea. However (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) after finding these saliva-producing recipes for tasty treats all made using a waffle iron, I think I just might be on board… Continue reading on Curbly.com

Put an End to Spoiled, Wasted Food with This Handy Chart

2013-02-28T07:30:00.001-08:00

Put an End to Spoiled, Wasted Food with This Handy Chart:

The costs of wasted food go far beyond the money you may have wasted buying something and letting it spoil. We've talked about ways to stop wasting food before, but if all you really need to know is "How long will this stay fresh and how should I store it," this helpful chart will help. More »