Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild - As well as establishing a private zoological museum at Tring, Rothschild also established the edible dormouse or Glis glis. He was a big fan of the cassowary and author of Birds of Laysan.

"I chose the potato to portray human faces because of the many striking parallels".

What's next for Willem Dafoe? After his role in Lars Von Trier's AntiChrist the edgy actor has again exerted his penchant for imponderables. The recent screening at Cannes evoked violent reactions from armchair aesthetes in response to disjunctions of sexuality. The weighing of losses? Could that be the message intended? I haven't seen this yet, but expect it will put me well outside my comfort zone. more inside

A Field Guide to Highway Interchanges: Part 1 and Part 2. Wow.

Curious George: Windows vs. Mac It's time for a new computer and I am seriously torn... If Windows, what kind of machine? Is Mac really worth the extra $$$? more inside

Transit duration: 0.8s Transit bandwidth on Earth: 5.6 km. Altitude: 600 km. Speed: 7 km/s (25000 km/h). Length of Atlantis : 35m, length of Hubble : 13m. via

Hopefully, nobody we know... It's the weekend, ok?

A GQ article on Donald Rumsfeld . The throw up in your mouth interesting bit is the dozen or so cover sheets for the daily Iraq War intelligence briefing. Each with its own passage from the bible. The slide show on the main link isn't working for me, but you can see them by incrementing the image numbers in the URL of the second link. more inside

There's a zombie on your lawn! Plants vs Zombies. It's a very cute, horribly addictive game. Download for an hour of free play, or create your zombified avatar on their website. If, like me, you are hooked after half an hour, you can get it for $10US from here. Hopefully in the demo version you get to see the Michael Jackson zombie.

Awkward. Awkwaaaard more inside

Unemployment got you down? If you already have a prescription for Viagra, and then lose your job, Pfizer will keep your head up high for a whole year, FREE!

Space Zen: Will Humans' Brains Change During Travel in Outer Space?

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus

Where are you on the Wolverine hair chart? Are you Side Puffs? Are you Classic Pointy? Or more Classic Mane? How about Puffy Balls? Perhaps you're somewhere on the road to Mustachery. I admit I'm Basic Flat Top. I'm so boring. On the other hand I'm glad I don't have Friendly Muttonchops.

Burial at sea [BBC video]: it's not just a roll of sailcloth and two roundshot any more. The latest thing is to have your ashes mixed with concrete to create part of an artificial reef. A few companies will make your remains into a fish-friendly little holey ball or there's this underwater sculpture garden you can become part of off the Florida Keys.

Artist Simon Schubert makes rooms by creasing paper

Early Comics & Cetera A website about picture stories and appertaining topics. more inside

Martha Mason, dead at 71. Ms. Mason died on Monday at her home in Lattimore, N.C. She was 71 and had lived for more than 60 years in an iron lung. In the centuries to come it is my firm belief that it is vaccination that will be seen as _the_ medical advance of our time.

Tir Nan Og A lovely little animation from YT more inside

Don't point and laugh! . Stole this direct from the Blue. Interesting theory, but the best part of the whole post was their comments. This is gen-U-wine spit-take material, so ah, whatever's in your mouth, swallow please. tips hat to hippybear From SciAm, but possibly NSFW if your boss isn't into penis theory