Interesting picture of the week.  I can’t remember where I found it.

A grant from the journal burn has allowed Irina Werning to continue her Back to the Future series!  Check it out at their website.  Check Irina’s website for the rest of the series.

A variety of links to entertain and educate:

The sculpture of Dan Webb

Some of these pieces are almost unbelievable.  Anyone that has ever tried to carve a chain link from a solid piece of wood knows what I’m talking about.

Kepler’s Tally of Planets from the New York Times

This interactive graphic shows all of the extra-solar planets NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered so far.  Check the very bottom of the page for the reference size of our solar system.

Shadow Biosphere Theory from The Raw Story

I found this article through an io9 story that featured this picture as an example of desert varnish:

Perhaps it’s just my Martian obsession, but it distinctly reminded me of these streaks, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

Fusion Driven Rocket article from The Register

Speaking of Mars, how about we get there a little faster?  This fusion rocket seems legit.  Here’s the NASA directorate page for it, and here’s the company pushing the theory into the experimental stage.

Vile Rat’s Kotaku Obituary

This fascinating memorial to Sean Smith, one of the State Department employees killed in the Benghazi attack, reveals that he was an online gamer of legendary status.  The piece thankfully leaves out politics and speculation, and is worth reading.

Time Crystals from the Simons Foundation

Ah, that old red herring: the perpetual motion machine.  Whether this experiment pans out or not, the notion of time crystals is too enticing to pass up.  I found this foundation through this io9 article.

Interesting picture of the week.  (from this great series of cathedral interiors by photographer Fabrice Fouillet)

via Gawker

Pi, unrolled.  From the Wikipedia entry on pi.

A curious development in brain study seems to reveal, as always, surprising plasticity.

This video by Sunita Williams on her last day as Commander of the ISS is the most charming and fascinating tour of the station that I’ve ever seen.  (via io9)