Dear friends, the unknown is vast. Yea, I say to you there are things on our world, in our universe, and within our minds which we have not even begun to understand. There are things forgotten deep in humanity’s past. There are phenomena and objects and events in the present day of which we are quite simply ignorant. Yea, good readers, there are mysteries to be sure. Things unexplained, and in as much, things fascinating. Unfortunately, “Crystal Skulls,” like the one pictured above from the collection of the British Museum are not among them. These are items whose story have a beginning and end. If you are of the mind to you may coax it out from the following:

Origin of the Crystal Skulls. Unmuseum. British Museum’s Skull. Wikipedia. Mitchell-Hedges story. A Crystal Skull. World Mysteries. Smithsonian’s research. Empire Museum. Skepdic.com. A Crystal Skull?. Messengers of light. Seraphim Institute. Crane Cristal (vids). Everything2. Skepticwiki. How Crystal Skulls Work. Crystal’s Skull. Joky’s 9 Crystal Skulls. Odd and Unusual. Prismatic Skull. 13 crystal Maya skulls will save the world. The amazing Crystal Skulls. Cult and fringe archeology. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Skeptical Inguirer.

History of Poison. Poisoning in Ancient Times. Poisoning in the Middle Ages. Poisons in the Renaisance. Poisoning in the 16th, 17th and 18th Century. Poisoning in the Victorian Times. Poisoning in the 20th Century. Don’t Chew the Wallpaper: A History of Poison. A Brief History of Poison. Folklore Poisons. List of Poisonings. A Brief History of Poisoning. The Elements of Murder. The Fine Art of Poisoning.

The one conclusive argument that has at all times discouraged people from drinking a poison is not that it kills but rather that it tastes bad. -Nietzsche.

What is the Most Deadly Poison in the World? A Poison Tree. Illustrated Index of Poisionous Plants. Poisonous Plants Database. Poison Apple. Wild Inedible and Poisonous Mushrooms. Mushroom Poisoning. Poisonous Plants, Animals, and Arthropods. Poison Harpooned Cone Snail. Poison in a Cone. Poison Frogs. Poison Dart Frogs. Poison Powder. Poison Cups. Drink Me. Poison Jewelry. Poison Arrow. Arnesic in the Eye. Antique Poison Bottles. Collecting Poison Bottles. Antique Poison labels. Mr. Yuk. About Mr. Yuk. And Finally…

• “It’s there in every aspect of life. You can’t stop looking at things through your designer eyes. Everything you do is clouded by this thing that lives inside you.” The Design Disease from Noisy Decent Graphics.

• Details and vid for Natetrue’s kick-ass Time Fountain. (Thanks Rich.)

• On October 24, 1946 a group of soldiers and scientists in the New Mexico desert saw something new and wonderful—the first pictures of Earth as seen from space.

• Art Lozzi muses on and explains some background painting techniques. (Via.)

• Video for Black Refuge by José González side project Junip.

• Behold and quial before Oded Ezer’s Typosperma project. (Via.)

• Greatest song in the history of music? You decide. (Thank you kempa.)

• A four and a half minute compliation of every Ray Harryhausen animated creature in feature films, presented in chronological order. (Via.)

• Behold The Surface Of The Sun and ponder your tiny and piddling insignificance! 

Greetings from urban heat island

• The Delhi Metro authorities say they have employed a large black-faced langur monkey to frighten away other monkeys who were worrying passengers.

• Death Row Art Star A Documentary by Aron Ranen. Parts 1 and 2.

• Two nice lengthy pieces on Sam Beckett who would have been 100 this year: Millennium Poet Laureate (The Chronicle), and Sam I Am (The New Yorker).

• Spinoza argued that no group or religion could rightly claim infallible knowledge of the creator’s partiality to its beliefs and ways. Last week marked the 350th anniversary of his excommunication for such ideas: Faith In Reason.

• Sean from Cosmic Variance on Boltzmann’s Anthropic Brain.

• On Werner Herzog’s new film, The Wild Blue Yonder, the world’s first “undersea outer-space sci-fi documentary.” Sounds wonderful. Can’t wait to see it.

• Meme Therapy asks Do you think it likely that the first discovery of extraterrestrial life will be made by a rover? I say no, unless by fortunate accident.

• Philip Cola is an award winning nature photographer and natural history writer whose work centers mainly on the water-dwellers among us. Have a browse though about 16,000 of his photos at Ocean Light.

• Space cadets: check out Sven Grahn’s site full of space history, space radio, and space tracking. Everyone else: listen to his fine collection of space sounds.

• Jennifer Ouellette talks Jack Chick at 3 Quarks Daily: Heart of Darkness.

• The search is on for the original high-quality, unbroadcast, Apollo 11 Footage which was only beamed to three tracking stations in 1969.

• Enjoy the 1999 pilot of Heat Vision and Jack, Starring Jack Black as a super intelligent Astronaut. A show with too much potential to be allowed on the air.

• Did you know only four Shakers are left in the world, all living in southern Maine?

• The Angry Astronomer on some common misconceptions about the Big Bang .

• Enjoy Perry Farrell’s long video interview with Shepard Fairey: Parts 1, 2 and 3.