If you haven’t been already, you may enjoy a visit to the, fairly self-explanatory, Stuff White People Like.

Entries of note include Hating Corporations, Arts Degrees, Having Gay Friends, White People in the News and, mentioned here previously, Knowing What’s Best for Poor People. 

Floating hotel, shaped like a whale. // 6 things that resemble the Death Star. // At last, a knitted Princess Leia wig. (h/t, Coudal.) // Boomerangs in space. Will they return? // Martian avalanche. More. // The Abisko Aurora webcam. // Electronic contact lenses. // Jeff Han’s multi-touch media wall. More. And. // Chicago City Council proposes crackdown on “self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in height.” // Schweppes and balloons. // Attention proud parents – display your newborn baby on a sack of rice. // The mystery of smell. // Mythical causes of disease. // How the Yeti has been imagined through the ages. (h/t, 1+1=3.) // Hulk alert! // Gnome terrorises town. A Sun exclusive. // The Playmobil security checkpoint. (h/t, Chastity Darling.) // Airport terminals of note. // Heathrow’s electroluminescent wall. // Telescopic rotor blades inspired by toilet paper holder. // “She wasn’t glued to the toilet seat. She was just physically stuck by her body.” The mystery of the adhesive buttocks. // 1950s Sherlock Holmes episodes. Including The Case of the Texas Cowgirl and The Case of the Shy Ballerina. // And, via The Thin Man, Sticky Fingers.

Via Photoshop Disasters, I stumbled across a romance novel whose cover promises a little more than is delivered. Behold Christina Dodd’s historical yarn, Castles in the Air. From the blurb: What man would have her once he discovered her secret…?

Ms Dodd’s publishers have subsequently fashioned a corrected – and, alas, less intriguing – jacket.

A brief taste.

Busy today, but here’s a rather fine collection of condiment sachets.

There’s just about every possible formulation of ketchup, mustard and spicy relish, and several substances I can’t quite identify.

(Via Coudal.)

Chinese space race propaganda. Pandas, kittens, reindeer, all flying into space. (h/t, Coudal.) // Armour for cats and mice. Let battle commence. (h/t, Things.) // The wardrobe of Watchmen. // Welding masks we have known and loved. // Cloverfield green screen. The seams revealed. // BSG in 8 minutes. Roslin loves that airlock. // Brett Lock on pricey booze and social engineering. // Fabian Tassano on disaffection as illness. // Flemming Rose on the Vatican and al-Azhar, united in piety. // Michael Sheridan visits three of the Bali bombing jihadists. “Some try to make a link between al-Qaeda and us. The only link is faith.” // Iranian shoppers turn on Islamic modesty police. // High on Mount Sinai? The tripping Israelites. (h/t, Chastity Darling.) // 10 mental curios. // Mind reading machine will know what you’re looking at. // HAL’s display screens. // Snowflakes and bacteria. (h/t, Dark Roasted Blend.) // The Zenith music hall, Strasbourg. // Tree houses of note. // Eco-terrorists burn down three Seattle homes. For Gaia, of course. // The leather dachshund bag. £65. // Family Guy chicken fight, rounds 1, 2 and 3. // Pork Knox. // The periodic table of condiments. // My pepper heart. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra.

I think this is what’s referred to as weapon porn. Meet the FMG-9. It’s a flashlight and a firearm. And I’m terribly impressed.

Via Hot Air. More.

Located 250km north of the Arctic Circle, Sweden’s Abisko Ark Hotel has limited amenities – it’s a cluster of tiny huts on a frozen lake. But it does offer in-hut fishing and an excellent view.

Via BLDGBLOG. More. And. 

A 5-minute history of evil. (h/t, Coudal.) // Star Wars subtitles malfunction. “Dishevelled hair projection.” (h/t, Maggie’s Farm.) // Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. // Garfield minus Garfield. It gets quite strange. // The Einstein Archives. // The Large Hadron Collider. // The Stanford Linear Accelerator. // “That’s the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out.” // The silicon womb. // Cheeseburger in a can (mentioned here) finally gets a taste test. // Marijuana school. Higher education. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus.) // A brief history of aviation. (h/t, Stephen Hicks.) //Aurora Australis. // The power shirt. With nanogenerators. // Vivid Audio loudspeakers. These are rather fetching. // Cuddly Venereals™. // Barnacles and cocaine. // $2.6 million necklace. 1,290 diamonds. Only one ever made. // Circular communities. // Daniel Finkelstein on dictators and their groupies. // Caroline Fourest on Tariq Ramadan. “He is a professional when it comes to lying.” // Islam: What the West Needs to Know. September 11, 1683. // Tall buildings. // Even taller buildings. // Skyscraper made of wood. // Wind tunnels we have known and loved. // Kate Bush, Cloudbusting.       

Peter Callesen’s paper cuts. Each one made from a single sheet. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus.) // The Agbar Tower, Barcelona. More. // Zoudov. A Cold War thriller. (h/t, Coudal.) // 9 improbable weapons of war. Pigeons, rats, unspeakable lust. // Robo-fawn. // Robo-ferret. // Robot water strider. // Advanced prosthetic arm. // Deluxe finger painting. // Cutest. Thing. Ever. // A feline wake-up call. Scroll down. (h/t, Andy.) // Marvelous aquariums. (h/t, Things.) // The relative sizes of stars. Let it play. (h/t, Stephen Hicks.) // Methane detected on world 63 light years from Earth. // Is the Earth flat? A debate ensues. (h/t, Mick  Hartley.) // The People’s Quiz. Who said what. // Knowing what’s best for poor people. // Madsen Pirie on the pursuit of happiness. // Oliver Kamm on CND. // Fabian Tassano on Cornelia Parker’s politics-as-art. // Exploding flower arrangements. Frozen with liquid nitrogen, then shot. // Self-healing rubber. // Bubble gum drum machine. // Bubble gum alley. // Bubble gum sculptures. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s the Ohio Express.

Alas, no post today. I’m busy reviewing this. However, rest assured I am thinking about you.