The bizarre history and fiery end of Berlin’s iconic abandoned amusement park

Messing with telemarketers

An audio illusion

U-2 Icon Bob Bogash has some great stories from his working life, like Kelly Johnson and the U-2 Dragon Lady and he's keeping himself busy in his retirement with The Hunt for a Boeing B-314 Flying Boat.

The International Banana Club^® Museum (For Sale) – Via Gawker (sorry about that). more inside

Star Wars Made In France [SLYT] I have no words to describe this. It has to be seen and heard. [via]

Pictures from the International Space Station via Twitter user @Astro_Soichi (Soichi Noguchi).

Right now you can watch a live chat with Lawrence Lessig. You can interact via Twitter.

Trikewriter - a neat way of taking your message to the streets.

リワインド [SLYT] [via]

Death by lightning covers the likelihood of an animal being hit by lightning (in particular, giraffes). more inside

The Secret Garden of Mutabor [flash]. Hello Stranger, we need your help. The Secret Garden of Mutabor is in great danger. You just came in time to save us!

Single link YouTube advertisement for a beer product (that is bloody funny).

Mind-Melting Demo Disasters - Anonymous demos from an indie label. [via] more inside

Hasselblad Masters 2009 is open for voting. There are some incredible pictures in there. more inside

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.

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

Illuminated music manuscripts beautiful as they are, are a source of frustration. I came across this site that has a whole bunch of illuminated music and I don't know what it sounds like. I like the way it looks very much but I'd like to hear it. Can any of you help me out and play and upload it so that I can hear it (just a snippet or a link to an existing mp3 would do), or a pointer to a commercial download would be appreciated too.

The Internationale - originally a French song, is now a well known song available in most major languages. My favourite so far? Japanese [this link may break later].

The 'Altin Mikrofon' Contest (1965-68) "The musicians who wanted to attend the contest had to either compose songs in Turkish or arrange a traditional tune. Also they had to perform this in a western style with electric western instruments!". more inside