Smile (A Dental Drama) is as great as any comic about orthodontics can be. more inside

The Original Star Trek, Remastered for HDTV. It's! Fantastic and yet. Comforting! Familiar. via Retro Thing

British TV Adaptations. A little quiz about which/how British TV shows have been dumbed down adapted for a North American audience. Which shows should be adapted? Which ones should be banished forever from PBS Britcom nights? Which ones would be unadaptable? And which ones, if adapted, would be be simply fascinating, in a perverse post-9/11 sort of way?

The Little Girl Giant [youtube] On the morning of Sunday 7th May the little girl giant woke up at Horseguards Parade in London, took a shower from the time-traveling elephant and wandered off to play in the park...

You drilled into WHAT? Lake Peigneur, Louisianna, 1980: A drilling rig in the middle of a lake drills a hole 1500 feet down into a salt mine. "Hilarity" ensues. (youtube)

When the cat is away, the mice will play.... From the BBC site: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has declared a state of emergency in Bangkok amid reports of a coup attempt.

Drop yer salmagundi ye hearties Tis talk like a pirate day, scallywags! No, not THOSE Pirates, THESE be the scurvy bilge rats we be speakin' of here.

The book of frogs and mice

Two siblings separated by the holocaust are reunited after 65 years. more inside

The Polaris Music Prize has been announced and the Canadian music journalists' top honour for this year goes to Owen Pallet's ambitious solo violin-rich post-classical pop project Final Fantasy for the album He Poos Clouds. more inside

Vintage drugs adverts

The gay menace Greensboro, NC, 1957: Based on a police informant, 32 men were arrested and tried for "unnatural relationships". The investigation really took off until prominent men in the community started appearing on the list, then suddenly there was less interest in pursuing it. A brief, but interesting, article about this fun episode in history, found at Pandagon. more inside

R.E.M. reunites for their induction into Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and to push "I Feel Fine", the best of the I.R.S. years. It may be time to replace some vinyl... more inside

Rebuild Iraq With The Best and Brightest Loyal Neoconservatives! A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting. via more inside

Tranplanted penis rejected. By wife.

"Advanced Animation" by Preston Blair. When Blair put the book together in 1947, he used the characters he had animated at Disney and MGM to illustrate the various basic principles of animation. Apparently, the rights to use some of the characters were revoked after the book was already in the stores. Publication was halted for a time, and he was forced to redraw most of the MGM characters, replacing them with generic characters of his own design. The revised edition went on to become a classic, and this first edition was forgotten.

The Art of Kim Graham. Very lifelike faces, and great geekstuff. This one's my favorite.

Comic strip artists' kit more inside

Die Kunst des Fechtens I und II Gesehen bei BibliOdyssey

The Trades