This story, about a girl whose eye was glued shut must be the stuff of nightmares for anyone who uses eyedrops.

In police news, "Police say they have few leads as the woman used a false name but are relying on a photograph and her unusually large bra size to find her, a newspaper reported on Thursday."

Barbie and Ken are splitting up. We're all shocked. They seemed like such a good couple together. They say they'll still be friends, but you know how that goes. (And then there's all those nasty rumors about Ken. But I'm sure that's just talk.)

In an effort to fight creeping creationism, atheists and humanists are pushing for the recognition of 'Darwin Day' on Feb. 12. And a quick search on Google shows The Darwin Day Program page.

Seals are being killed and mutilated in New England states, possibly to sell their skins and sex organs. The latest case, however, doesn't seem to be connected to the others. Someone decapitated a seal and left the letters "M A L" carved into its hide.
UPDATE: Turns out the "M A L" covered seal was not a mutilation. It was written in grease pencil and stands for "Marine Animal Lifeline."

The 2003 Nebula Awards ballot is up. There's links to online short stories, excerpts from novels, and to the Amazon listing for the novels. I'm surprised, and sad, to say that I've read very few of the works that are listed. However, "The Empire of Ice Cream" by Jeffrey Ford is nominated under novelettes and that was a fantastic story. So that's where I'll be rooting.
(Link found at Return of the Reluctant.)

Following some blog rolls around, I found Ptarmigan, written by Alan Deniro. I immediately fell in love with it for this entry:

"National Dungeons and Dragons Meetup Day falls on the 14th of every month. Valentine's Day. Never has there been a more succinct, yet apt, description of myself at 17."

I wish I had written that line.

Lucius Shepard, a great writer and reviewer, will apparently have a Web site at that link soon. In the meantime, there's an odd picture there. Bookmark it now!

Here's a new Web site for the 2004 remake of Dark Shadows. Why are they making this again? They tried it in the early '90s and it didn't fly. (although I thought the show was pretty good at the time. Haven't seen it since.) While I'm at it, "Battlestar Galactica" was picked up by the SciFi Channel. Production is about to start on 13 one-hour episodes.

Shark attack! But, you know, a rather silly one: "Luke Tresoglavic swam 1,000 feet to shore, walked to his car and drove to the local surf club with the 23-inch shark biting his leg and refusing to let go."

Technology in revolt!

Ninja granny.

World's oldest insect found, in a drawer. Here's the first couple paragraphs of the New York Times story: "Scientists say they have discovered the world's oldest known insect fossil a 400 million-year-old set of minuscule jaws that lay unrecognized for nearly a century in a lonely drawer at the Natural History Museum in London.
The findings, being published on Thursday in the journal Nature, pushes the date for the appearance of insects, one of the most successful life forms on earth, some 10 million to 20 million years back in the fossil record. And they suggest that insects were among the first animals to live on land."

The Chesapeake Bay monster, called Chessie, has been identified as a manatee during the '90s. However, some of the earlier sitings have yet to be dismissed.

Now here is a fine, fine gift for your loved one at Valentine's Day.

Three Wise Men were neither wise, nor men. Discuss.

Space Station crew see unidentified "20-centimetre long strip of soft material." They say they may never know what it is. (Although people suspect insulation or something similar.)

Woman marries her dead husband. Isn't that a sweet story for Valentine's Day?

Update on that sea lion from yesterday. Apparently, it was suffering from a bullet in head. Enough to screw up anyone's sense of direction, I'm sure. (This link has pictures and video too.)

Richard Linklater is going to be filming a version of Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly." Dick's work has been filmed again and again lately and few people have done anything worthwhile with it. (The one's who did either ignored the source material ("Blade Runner") or created a movie that was Dick-like ("The Matrix") but not a direct adaptation.) The good thing about this news, Linklater has expressed an interest in Dick before. He has a small part in his movie "Waking Life" where he talks about Dick and his understanding of reality. The only problem I see is that Linklater has a tendency to be wordy. His characters like to go off on long speeches at the drop of a hat.
(Link found at Website @ the End of the Universe.)