Michael Grooms: Ron Perlman should be cloned so no human society in the future has to be without him.

The sport, invented under the original name of Ultimate Tazer Ball by Leif Kellenberger, Eric Prum and Erik Wunsch, was first played in California. Two teams compete to get a large (24-inch diameter) ball into goal at either end of the 200 x 85-foot field. Players on both teams are all armed with stun gun devices. Under the rules of the game players are allowed to use the stun guns on opposing players who are in possession of the ball. The devices used emit a current of three to five milliamps, sufficient to cause a localized muscle spasm but no permanent damage to any of the body's vital organs.

FLoating Instrument Platform (FLIP) is one-of-a-kind open ocean research vessel owned by the Office of Naval Research and operated by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography that can go from horizontal to vertical in about 30 minutes, serving as “as a stable platform for oceanographic research.” At 355 feet long, this manned spar buoy is designed to stay afloat vertically, even in heavy seas. It was first launched on June 22, 1962 and is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

- In the German version, the action takes place beneath the workshop of the inventor Doc (played by Hans-Helmut Dickow).

- In France, the wraparound segments take place in a bakery with its version of Doc (played by Michel Robin) and a French alter-ego for Sprocket called Croquette. Doc inherited the home from his eccentric Uncle Georges (who was a noted inventor). Thus, when the frame story required the use of a mechanical device, Doc would merely find yet another of Uncle George's machines. Plotlines also frequently involved the elegant but unseen Madame Pontaven (who Doc repeatedly attempted to impress and invite to dinner with no success).

The producers made the series with the intention of it airing in various forms internationally. That concept grew out of Duncan Kenworthy's experience adapting Sesame Street to the requirements of foreign markets. The human "wraparound" segments were produced separately in several countries, with the intention that the child viewer would always be able to relate to the world of the program. The series has appeared now in over ten countries and languages. Head producer was Wesley James Tomlinson.
The main version that was filmed in Canada features an inventor named Doc (played by Gerard Parkes) and his dog Sprocket. This wraparound was also used in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain and Eastern European shows. Dutch, Scandinavian, Spanish and Eastern European shows were dubbed in their respective languages.
The British inserts were filmed at the TVS Television Theatre in Gillingham, Kent (since closed) and presents Fraggle Rock as a rocky sea-island with a lighthouse. It used as an actual shown location St. Anthony's Lighthouse located near Falmouth in Cornwall. The lighthouse keeper is The Captain (played by Fulton Mackay), a retired sailor who lives with his faithful dog Sprocket. In the third season the role was filled by John Gordon Sinclair as P.K. (the captain's nephew) and in the fourth Simon O'Brien as B.J. (the captain's son). 84 of these British wraparounds are now missing believed wiped. Only 12 are known to remain.
In the German version, the action takes place beneath the workshop of the inventor Doc (played by Hans-Helmut Dickow).
In France, the wraparound segments take place in a bakery with its version of Doc (played by Michel Robin) and a French alter-ego for Sprocket called Croquette. Doc inherited the home from his eccentric Uncle Georges (who was a noted inventor). Thus, when the frame story required the use of a mechanical device, Doc would merely find yet another of Uncle George's machines. Plotlines also frequently involved the elegant but unseen Madame Pontaven (who Doc repeatedly attempted to impress and invite to dinner with no success).

TNG Season 8 ?@TNG_S8
Wesley's dino experiment mistakenly mixes with Riker's beard DNA, creating the sexy-but-dangerous Velociriker. Troi's mom tries to marry it.

TNG Season 8 ?@TNG_S8
Picard and Worf find themselves trapped in a cave. Data and Riker are stuck in a DIFFERENT cave. Troi and Wesley? Cave.

Batman, the bad-ass billionaire who inherited his wealth, takes on bad boy Bane and the anarchist masses. Mitt Romney would be thrilled

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".
Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.
Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

In November of 1966, two months after the first Star Trek series premièred in the U.S., science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote an article for TV Guide in which he complained about the numerous scientific inaccuracies found in science fiction TV shows of the day — Star Trek included. That show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, didn't take kindly to the jab, and immediately wrote to Asimov with a polite but stern response that also went some way to explaining the difficulties of bringing such a show to the screen.

Asimov apologised, and in fact became a good friend of Roddenberry's and an advisor to the show.... a fascinating exchange of theirs took place some months later, just as a problem arose relating to the relationship between Captain Kirk and Spock — a potentially damaging problem that Asimov helped to solve.

Spider Jerusalem LEGO Cube Dude
Spider Jerusalem rendered in the Cube Dude style.
(Created by Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson
from the DC/Vertigo series TRANSMETROPOLITAN)
I think there's something troubling about seeing anything Warren Ellis had a hand in creating presented in a standard developed by a man from Disney/Pixar.
But I just had to build him anyway.

A mass bell-ringing is due to take place to mark the official start of the Olympic Games.
Conceived by Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed, All The Bells encourages everyone across the UK to ring a bell for three minutes from 08:12 BST.
Thousands of bells are expected to be rung including church bells, hand bells, bicycle bells and doorbells.
Big Ben will also chime 40 times during the period which Creed wants bells rung "as quickly and as loudly as possible".
Organisers hope it will set a world record for the largest number of bells rung simultaneously.