An announcement: this Friday, television networks will air (commercial-free!) the Stand Up To Cancer special. Not only should you watch because it's for a good cause, but there's another reason: if you look carefully, you may be able to spot the Sparkle Queen in the audience, in the guise of her mild-mannered alter ego who works at the National Brain Tumor Society. (Why Sparkle Queen is not listed among the celebrities is beyond me.)

Other happenings this weekend include the Watermelon Speed Eating & Seed Spitting Championship and the first Canadian National Bodypainting Championships. Also, La Machine has arrived in Liverpool - a huge mechanical spider has appeared on the side of a building and soon will start moving! (Many thanks to Julie for sending this update.)

The intersection of religion and science fiction is totally fascinating to me, and the SF Gospel weblog examines just that. Highly recommended!

Another fascinating conundrum was the life of Jack Parsons. Now there's a web comic out which details his wild life (the first page is here).