Quick bytes - Sound of silence edition

Yikes. All the news, such as there is, is depressing. Time for a little distraction factor linkfest. Song in my head is soothing. Those were simpler times.

Google tells me it's Rene Magritte's birthday and happy tenth to the space station. It still knocks me out how far the space program has come in my lifetime.

Your good deed for the day is to go vote for JT Duffy's The Garlic as best humor blog in the Weblogs competition.

A love letter to social conservatives. She had me at Dear motherf*ckers...

The Prime Minister of Vleeptron, in recognition of the losing team of 08, is now to be addressed as Vleeptron Dude. Rumor has it he briefly considered taking on the title That One but instead issued a really fine commemorative stamp in honor of the winning team.

You probably have seen this by now, but if you haven't and you value your free time, under no circumstances should you click this link to the live puppy cam.

When I was a young lass, some DFHs I knew built a house of recycled bottles, but it was no where near as glamorous as this Buddhist temple.

And finally, the ultimate in recycling, Carbon Copies, pencils made from the carbon of human cremains.

240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash - a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind. Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the person. Only one pencil can be removed at a time, it is then sharpened back into the box causing the sharpenings to occupy the space of the used pencils. Over time the pencil box fills with sharpenings - a new ash, transforming it into an urn. The window acts as a timeline, showing you the amount of pencils left as time goes by.

Comes in a very attractive wooden box. [hat tip]