Man Made DIY

If you go to any high-end kitchen shop and general goods discount store, you'll find any number of dedicated popcorn popping devices. Handle-cranked special pans, air poppers, campfire shakers, motorized stirrers, microwave options, and even tiny versions of carnival/movie theater style hopper poppers. (Isn't that fun to say?)

Turns out, their all unnecessary, and a waste of money and storage space. Cause the best way to pop corn at home, avoiding burning and popping every kernel, is likely already in your kitchen.   … read more

It's not that often that I'm wowed by a TV commercial, but today I am. This ad for Lurpak, a Danish brand of butter (margarine?), is really great. The narrator's voice is a little strange, but I guarantee after watching this you'll be singing "Chop chop chop chopping!"   … read more

You sit down. Read a magazine. Have some tea. Chat up that cute bookseller with the glasses.

And then, you go home, and the bookstore closes, and that, my friends, is when the real fun begins.

Watch the video below to see what really happens. (Trust me, you'll love it.)   … read more

I'm not a big zombie movie person. I like Night of the Living Dead, and that's about it. So I was surprised when I found myself really liking walking dead, a lot. One thing that hooked me was how well they pulled off shots of a post zombie-pocalypse Atlanta.

This is the demo reel from Stargate Studios, the company behind The Walking Dead effects, highlighting how they composite in graphics and animation to make The Walking Dead look so good. It's awesome, and it gives a good sense of how much time goes into making those shots.

The video is a little long, but try and stick with it at least to 1:28, when they show how they did the now iconi… read more

The world has Peanuts, the Muppets, and any number of 3D computer-animated movie characters, but those of us who were kids in the late 80s and 90s, we have Calvin & Hobbes.

Fans and filmmakers Jim Frommeyer and Teague Chrystie created this stop-motion tribute to Bill Watterson's amazing contribution to pop culture and art, recreating 3D models of some of the strip's most notable recurring themes - Calvin's joyfully demented snow creations.

Click play to watch this awesome video:  … read more

CGP Grey, the clever guy who brought us "What Are Continents and How Many Are There?" and "What is Daylight Savings Time and Why Do We Observe It?' sets his sights on St. Nick, exploring a brief history of Santa Claus, or rather Father Christmas and St. Nicholas, and the amalgamation they begat.

Click play to watch this fascinating video. It's three minutes very well spent:   … read more

"The Ultimate Hamburger," from the Modernist Cuisine project by Nathan Myhrvold and Maxime Bilet, took stock of what most people crave in a burger - a perfectly fluffy and toasty bun, crunchy-but-not-too-crunchy veggies, gooey but flavorful cheese, loads of umami notes from ketchup and other sauces, and the perfect, beef-y patty, and used some serious cooking science to make it a possibilit… read more

To show support for "everyone's (except those with Nielsen boxes) favorite show," James Montalbano reworked the introductory credits of Community, which is struggling to stay on the air, in the style of two other great NBC comedies, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation.

The quality of work here is really quite stunning. Watch these video… read more

You'll likely see this all over the art and design blogosphere in the next few days, but it's too cool not to share. Apparently, before becoming an emcee and actor, Ice Cube studied architectural drafting, and it turns out, he's a big fan of mid-century super couple Ray and Charles Eames.

You simply gotta check out the video below:

   … read more