Via theinferior4+1, the results of the 2007 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

Also at theinferior4+1, Paul Di Filippo has been posting excellent short short stories based on the surrealist art of Todd Schorr.

The Red Shirt Phenomenon Analysed

Via Talking Squid.

Disguise your copy of Harry Potter to look like something more grown-up. (Somewhat NSFW.)

(I thought that's what the dour "adult" covers were for.)

Via theinferior4+1.

The LOLCat Bible

Artist's rendition of LOLCat Bible

Technosphere is back on-line.

TechnoSphere is a 3D model world inhabited by artificial lifeforms created by WWW users. There are thousands of creatures in the world all competing to survive. They eat, fight, mate and create offspring which evolve and adapt to their environment.

Not quite as interesting as it sounds.

14.08.07: Hmm, just at the moment it seems to have gone down. Here's their Wikipedia entry.

Fungiphoto.com
The larger sizes are all watermarked but the thumbnails are still lovely.

Nonstick Plans

QTVR finally finds a purpose: The Giant Merino

The antipodes

Jamstec Papercraft

Deep-sea creature papercraft from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

Via Lady Insignificant.

The Animated Version of Lenny Bruce's "Thank You, Masked Man" Bit

Audio probably not safe for work.

Fun at the Creationism Museum

Via Whiskey Fire.

Zoomquilt II

The frequently infuriating Hoshi Saga. Find a star. Or not.

I Can Hath Cheezburger at Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog.

Via The Language Log.

Animals on the Underground

Via Strange Maps.

Water Buffaloes vs Lions vs Crocodile

Keep watching 'til the end, probably better without the sound.

Snowclones

Bound for Glory: America in Colour, 1939 - 1943

Via Talking Squid.

Heather Jansch's Driftwood Sculptures

The Bayeaux Tapestry, animated.

Via Byzantium's Shore.

Care of this post and thread on Pharyngula (mostly thanks to commenter Coluga), and a cursory google from me, a selection of links to octopus-themed political propaganda:

William Jennings Bryan poster (scroll down)

Harper's Weekly cartoon

Nazi depiction of Churchill as octopus

Crude representation of three-headed octopus representing British political parties with commentary at TONMO†

Bill Gates as octopus

Various Arabic anti-terrorism cartoons, including some octopus related

WTO octopus (scroll down)

Globalization octopus

British imperialism octopus

Scientology octopus

Standard Oil octopus

Standard Oil octopus II (scroll down)

Anti-Chinese cartoon from the Bulletin, 1886

The liquor octopus

Octopus Dei

WW2 anti-Japanese cartoon from the US

Japanese cartoon depicting Russia as octopus, 1904

Another WW2 Japan-as-octopus poster, this time Dutch

French WW2 cartoon of octopus Hitler

"England and the Octopus" 1926, book about urban sprawl

The Railroad Monopoly octopus

1870s greenbacker cartoon (scroll down)

Another Oil trust cartoon

Well, you get the drift. Apart from the obvious use of the tentacles as a motif depicting influence or covetousness, and the strangeness of the beast adding an extra layer of demonisation (perhaps we should say octopusation) of racial or national targets, there's also, as the commenter at TONMO mentions, the diagrammatic value of a creature with eight arms that can be labelled with component features of the great evil depicted, generally a set of nefarious isms. Occasionally a drafter will run out of tentacles and have to add another octopus - apparently no-one ever thinks to use a squid or jellyfish. Perhaps there's a memo I'm not familiar with.

† There's a few others in that thread, including some of those above which I thought I'd been terribly clever digging out of the 'net. Ah well.

Some Youtube Stop Motion:
My Animated Life
Retro Games
Stop Motion from TheLastLaugh
Tony vs. Paul
Shirts
Space Invaders
Mike Jittlov's The Wizard

At least one of these was via the boings.

Cats Can Has Grammar
Anil Dash writes about the Pidgin English of lolcats.

I was also amused by the side issue raised in this bit:

Unfortunately, the evolution of these grammars online can be very difficult to track down; This kind of nascent web culture is generally frowned upon by Wikipedia (witness the deletion of the I'm in ur base article since the Ask MetaFilter thread just a few months ago)...

Memo to Wikipedia: tracking nascent web culture is what you are good for. It's about the only thing you're good for, and certainly the thing you're best at. As someone once remarked: Wikipedia's great if you want to know how frequently the f-word is used in Reservoir Dogs; not so useful if you want to understand the causes of the English Civil War. I suspect it's because Wikipedia's shortcomings as a credible and comprehensive source are so blindingly obvious that its editors go around deepsixing articles on trivia, in a doomed attempt to pretend you can take them as seriously as you would the information people hide in books.

Mr Dash via The Language Log.

Thinking Machine 4
Chessplaying java app. Its thinking process sure is purty.