Book Cover Archive Great collection of interesting and beautiful book cover designs. On a similar note, check out these terrific redesigns of the Harry Potter series in classic Penguin style (also Lemony Snicket and The Spiderwick Chronicles).

Obama's Playlist It's been confirmed that President-Elect Obama's first foreign trip as President Obama will be to Canada, reinstating a long tradition. While visiting Presidents have often given speeches to the Canadian public (tv and radio clips), this time we're going to give the President a little musical education, and you can help by voting for the top 49 songs to showcase Canada. more inside

New-look Archie Comics A more 'contemporary, realistic' style for Archie comics - including longer storylines - is in the works. A sample page shows the lack of checkerboard hair for our protagonist; no word yet on what will happen to Jughead's hat. more inside

Spread the Net A Canadian comedian/actor and a Canadian politician went to Africa with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs. They discovered that 3,000 children a day die of malaria, and a $10 mosquito net can protect 2-3 kids for up to 5 years. As Rick says, we can all get behind the war on mosquitos, and Spread the Net aims to do just that.

The Highest Scrabble Scores Ever Doubters and haters say: good players wouldn't have given Michael Cresta the chance to make quixotry for 365 points, and good players wouldn't have shot the moon for it. Scrabble fans say 830 points by one player? Hot damn!

Snakes On Your Phone! "This is Samuel L. Jackson...and I know everything about you." Yes, it's viral marketing, but this time it's brilliant: enter a friend's name, some details about them, and have Mr. Jackson place a phone call encouraging them to go see Snakes on a Plane. Best if the intended victim has no idea they're about to get a call. shamelessly stolen from MeFi

First World AIDS Day: CBC archive A short clip from December 1st, 1988, the first World AIDS Day (with a Canadian focus). Also of interest from the CBC archives are two pages of radio and video clips (21 in all) on the early years of the disease. x-posted to MeFi

The World Challenge An interesting BBC World & Newsweek competition aimed at "finding individuals or groups from around the world who have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level" with a focus on environmental responsibility and community development. The 12 final projects are interesting in their own right, and also for a look into the communities being helped by the innovation. Highlights include coconets in the Philippines, rechargeable batteries in Vanuatu, and cooking fat as diesel substitute in Malta. more inside

Same-sex marriage legislation passes! Pure newsfilter, already posted everywhere else online by now, and I'm too drunk from celebrating to flesh this out. But Canada is now the third country in the world to recognize same-sex marriages! more inside

The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by Georges Polti.

The Adventures of Biggles. Major James Bigglesworth, generally known as Biggles, was a fictional character created by Captain W.E. Johns in the 1930s. Chronicling his own WWI experiences, Johns went on to write almost 100 stories about Biggles, including WWII and peace time adventures as well. If you're interested in learning more about Biggles, why not try the International Biggles Association, or a complete illustrated list of all stories, including plot summaries? Or perhaps Monty Python's take on Biggles is more your style. more inside

The Time Traveler Convention. Just because it needs as much publicity as it can get (and is extraordinarily funny). Be there, or be square! more inside

Frog Hospital Croaks Australia's frog hospital is closing. Possibly the only frog hospital in the world, it played an important role as frogs are indicators of environmental health. Of course, some of those chazzwazzers aren't very welcome in Australia anyway... So we're left wondering: Who Will Run the Frog Hospital now?

Ottawa Meetup Pics Here are the Ottawa photos, as promised - only a few, unfortunately. If you follow the tags marked Metafilter, you'll see more photos from the other attendees (including marginally better photos of myself - I love you, tracicle, to put such a crappy one of myself up there in your shoutout!). We had a good turnout, 11 in total, with two dual citizens (myself, bonehead) and one outright Monkey (StoryBored). We missed mare and wished Rorschach had shown up with his mohawk.

Reminder: Ottawa Meetup Ottawa Meetup: the date is upon us. We meet tomorrow at Pub Italia at 7pm. Hope some of you Ottawans can make it! And bring implements for shoutouts. Possibly also a banana, so we'll recognize each other. ;)

Curious, George: Ottawa Meetup! An Ottawa meetup is finally being planned! Along with MeFites, we're planning on Friday the 18th at Pub Italia. If that's no good, we can discuss alternatives [inside].

Elevator Moods Wonderful, atmospheric mini-films (or "moods") that all take place inside elevators, captured on security cameras. The music never sounded so right.

One Word, 60 Seconds, Go Got writer's block? No time to write? Don't think you can be a writer? Let the muse run wild in a flat sixty seconds. And then post it for the rest of the world to see. Sounds scary, but in fact strangely liberating. (Also has links to poetry and photo caption challenges - you have to register with TypeKey for those, however, while the writing challenge is noreg.)

The Italian Campaign The Globe and Mail has been running an excellent series on the Italian Campaign during WWII by Canadian troops. There are photos, artifacts, and articles, including one by Farley Mowat. (x-posted to MeFi)

The World's Smallest Public Cinema Nottingham (yes, that Nottingham) is the home of the Screen Room Cinema, which with 21 seats (plus 1 for the attendant) is likely the coziest public movie-watching experience you'll ever enjoy. You can tour the facility with the 360 view tool on the BBC site linked above. If you prefer live entertainment, however, why not try the Theatre of Small Convenience, a 12-seat performance space converted out of a Victorian-era gentlemen's loo. Them whacky Brits!