Peek into Marqius de Sade’s Very NSFW Mind with a New Book of Illustrations

The namesake of "sadism" wrote and commissioned prolific amounts of erotica that still pushes the boundaries of taste over 200 years later.

Depending on who you ask, Marquis de Sade is either the embodiment of human depravity, a Larry Flynt-like martyr for free speech, or something in between. Legendary Italian filmmaker Pier Pasolini found him interesting enough to adapt his long-unpublished opus 120 Days of Sodom into one of the most disturbing films of all time, and he's entranced artists and psychologists for centuries.

- Vice

Black Humor Retro Illustrations by Steven Rhodes

Australian artist, illustrator, and graphic designer Steven Rhodes has an original illustrative style that’s spiced up by a dark sense of humor. Featured below are some of his best works.

- Eat Liver

The Art of Being Completely Alone

Society thinks it’s time I partner up. I think it’s time to retreat into the woods.

It’s really not the weirdest thing in the world, taking a break from New York, trading my small apartment and subway traumas for a farmhouse with mountain views at less than half the rent. But for a single, 36-year-old woman, leaving the city to be completely alone for months seems distinctly strange to people. My aloneness, at an age when people expect me to be settling down, when — according to popular studies and nagging mothers everywhere — these next few years may be my last chance to have kids, makes people uncomfortable. They expect me to assure them that I don’t want children or don’t believe in marriage, to give them permission not to worry for me.

- Medium

If you want to have a good time, ask a Buddhist

Buddhism argues that happiness comes from how deeply or mindfully you’re absorbed in an experience. 

What with positive emotions being, shall we say, thin on the ground these days – in public life, anyway – I was pleased to encounter this wise insight into how to generate more of them, courtesy of the German-born Buddhist nun Ayya Khema: “We may believe that it’s the quality of the sunset that gives us such pleasure, but in fact it is the quality of our own immersion in the sunset that brings the delight.” That seems like a technical distinction and, to be fair, Buddhist teachers do love making technical distinctions. But this isn’t one. It’s a crucial point about human happiness that might make us all more cheerful if we grasped it.

- The Guardian

Cannabis, bière, livres et bouffe de rue à Portland, Oregon

Portland, la plus grande ville de l’Oregon, possède une personnalité unique et attachante. Contrairement à San Francisco ou à Seattle, elle n’a pas — encore — vendu son âme aux grandes entreprises et est restée fidèle à ses valeurs écologiques et progressistes. Plongée au coeur de la plus weird des villes américaines.

- Le Devoir

A Look Inside Hotel & Motel Rooms of the 1950s-70s

Let’s have a look inside the rooms of 38 U.S. hotels and motels from the late fifties through the seventies. Whether it’s a cheap roadside motel in Tennessee or a chic Hawaiian resort – the “handsomely decorated” retro interiors  are a wonder to behold. Be prepared for a plentiful supply of wood paneling, tiny televisions, and gaudy wallpaper. The images come from vintage postcards, and I’ve included the postcard text when available.  Enjoy.

- Flashbak

OOB: LA PRÉFÉRÉE DES GRANDS ENFANTS

Maîtres nageurs au maillot de bain rouge et au bronzage impeccable juchés sur leur haute chaise blanche, boutiques souvenirs aux camisoles aux couleurs d'OOB, jeux d'arcade et manèges... Oui, Old Orchard Beach déborde de clichés, mais c'est principalement pour ça que la population de la petite ville de 8000 habitants frôle les 75 000 personnes, dont bien des fidèles, l'été venu. Vous cherchez de l'action, une ambiance festive et de quoi occuper vos enfants? Il y a tout ça ici!

- La Presse

'I was kidnapped in London and trafficked for sex'

Anna came to London from Romania intending to study, but first she needed to earn some money. She took temporary jobs - waitressing, cleaning, maths tutoring. Then one day in March 2011 she was snatched off the street, flown to Ireland and put through nine months of hell.

Anna was nearly home. There was just enough time to nip inside and eat lunch before leaving for her next cleaning job. She was wearing headphones and listening to Beyoncé singing I Was Here as she walked down the street in Wood Green, north London. She was just a few doors away.

She reached into her bag to pull out her keys when suddenly someone grabbed her by the neck from behind, covered her mouth, and dragged into the back of a dark red car.

- BBC

Inside the Poisoning of a Russian Double Agent

How a hit on a retired spy named Sergei Skripal became the latest—and most terrifying—front in Vladimir Putin’s war with the West.

As a Russian double agent working for the British, he'd been code-named “Forthwith”—quickly—but this afternoon the poison in Sergei Skripal's system went unhurried, making its way around his body over a period of hours. Skripal was 66, comfortably heavy in retirement, an ex-colonel who'd been cast out of the intelligence services in Russia and now lived in exile in the English city of Salisbury. Neighbors knew the place as “Smalls-bury” and said that nothing too dramatic ever happened here, which would stay true for another couple of hours yet.

- GQ

The Hidden Town of Monemvasia

Monemvasia is a Gibraltar-like rocky island off the east coast of the Peloponnese, in Greece, and linked to the mainland by a short causeway. The island is about 300 meters wide and a kilometer long, and rises in a plateau, a hundred metres above sea level. On the slope of this plateau, on the seaward side and hidden from the mainland, lies a small town. This remarkably romantic walled town, nestled under the shadow of the towering rock is a living museum of Byzantine, Ottoman, and Venetian history dating back to the 13th century.

- Amusing Planet