Everyone needs a place that restores their faith. Not only in a religious sense -- a place that restores one's faith in humanity, in rightness and balance. A place that makes the unseen become momentarily visible. Some people find their place in church, nature, or fellowship. And some people's faith is restored when they stand in the presence of great art. There is something truly special when the place itself is art -- the art that grows from one pair of hands crafting a vision. Places like the Watt's Towers and Nitt Witt Ridge, where one person has painstakingly made their home a shrine, shard by broken shard. more ›

We're still kind of obsessed with the cooking videos over at imcooked, especially the oddly soothing clips of Thai street vendors cooking their wares: in the video above, check out a fried mussel dish prepared in less than four minutes. The LA Times heads north this week to seek out culinary finds in Ventura and Santa Barbara, respectively: first at new vegan restaurant, Mary's Secret Garden, and then at the Santa Barbara outpost of... more ›

A cross-country rivalry: MIT students have stolen a cannon from CalTech and set it up on their campus, 3,000 miles away, adorned with an enormous MIT class ring. The hackers (the LAT calls them "pranksters") came to LA and dressed as workers from Howe & Ser Moving Company to liberate the cannon. Luckily, administrators aren't pissed. more ›