Cory Doctorow writes about giving away his books for free.

Here's a great essay exploring the connections between comics, games, and world-building.

Perhaps when we find ourselves disturbed or bewildered by the popularity of a new genre or medium, it’s precisely by giving it that "serious consideration" that we will begin to get to grips with what it is and how it works. But how do we do this, when the new work often seems to have so little to do with our existing aesthetic criteria?

Scanned images from Astrology: A New and Complete Illustration of the Occult Sciences, by Ebenezer Sibly, 1806.

Lisa Carver on the current batch of chick lit: I'd like to take all these books, pile them up and throw gasoline and a lit match onto them. [via bookslut]

"Open most days about 9 or 10. Occasionally as early as 7. But some days as late as 12 or 1."

"With the deceptive, exciting, children-friendly packaging of witchcraft in the Harry Potter series, our youth today view witchcraft not only as good and fun, but also as harmless fantasy." Myth versus truth in the Harry Potter case–at least she's persistent. [via librarycrunch]

There's a Flickr group for headcrushing photos.

They've decided to take it down this year, after decades of faithful service. It's just getting too old to be safe. What a downer.

Here's some clever comment spam, the bastards:

I got the same tramadol attack… well, not the same, because it was only about 20 comments instead of 90, and i t have any filtering set up, and I just deleted them one at a time… hmm.. the only thing really in common was that it was about tramadol… what filter do you have set up that caught them all?

[thanks, akismet]

Austin Kleon has drawn up a cool mind map about comics and information design. Apparently he'll be working on a thesis on some aspect of the relationship between the two. Cool.

Interesting commentary on photo essays that appear on government websites.

Just by folding paper correctly, you can have your own Desktop Necromancer.

A bevy of fake Apple i-products. My favorite of the bunch so far are iPuffs, for the tech-savvy smoker.

A downloadable flyer explaining your rights when stopped or confronted for photography.

Christian outreach for adult film stars begins with these Bibles featuring custom marketing covers. [via daniel simmons]

Star Trek vs. Batman, a fan film in one, two, three parts.

If you liked Flatland the book, you'll be glad to know there will soon be an animated movie for it. Alan Nelson links to several places you can read the book online (or get the gist of it anyway). [via seat 1a]

After receiving 21 text messages from the victim, a thief was persuaded to return the cellphone and other stolen goods.

Heavy Water, a collection of crisp, detailed illustrations about water and architecture and stuff.

FedEx doesn't want to ship contents labeled as "rocket fuel". The containers–among them Rocket Fuel, Neon, Nitrogen, and even Certainty–were phony package design samples for the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company, but still too borderline to get shipped.