Molly reports on duck faces, space hotels and more. Story links: Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Historic Tale Construction Site, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, China plans for humanoid Olympics, MANOI GO やるならやらねば！真打バージョン, Scientists ’cause’ Beijing snow, China Causes Snow Storm to Fight Drought, To ease drought, Chinese scientists make snowfall, Thirty-eight people make reservations for space hotel, Galactic Suite, Intervention , sms ;-), Kunst Muss Nicht/Art Must Not, Roof, Institute, Berlin Wall, Anti Duck Face, Assets: Duck Faces 1, 2, 3, Tom Baker Photography Music by Podington Bear

Story links: Volunteers wanted for simulated 520-day Mars mission, Monorail Cat, Newsreader attacked by giant seagull, Howard Dean on Dr. Nancy - Giant bug crawls in background!, Internet, Twitter Blocked in China City After Ethnic Riot, Still No Internet or SMS Allowed in China’s Muslim Region, 1/4 of China’s territory has been cut off from Internet…, Youth ‘cannot live’ without web, The Battle Between the White House and Fox News, Reality Check: Turning a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame, Geraldo Rivera: Balloon Boy Dad Richard Heene Is A “Piece Of Crap”, Vanna Bonta quotation, Music: Invisible by I am Jen, Sunset in the Woods by Podington Bear, Neff Fountain by Genna Douglass, Snowflakes by Demerit 7

Pair with same first, last name to wed, How to Go to Mars–Right Now!, China and Russia to Mars, $18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov website, NYPD spends neary $1M on Typewriters, July eclipse is best chance to look for gravity anomaly , The Sims 3, Gundam 30th Anniversary, Gundam RX-78-2 in Odaiba, Gundam in Odaiba, io9: 3 Futuristic PSAs Remind Us Not To Speak To Robots

NASDAQ, the Dot Com Bubble, the 401keg Plan, YouTube ADDICT, COPS for Kids!, The Beatles, Popular Music and Society* (MA), The Beatles Last Concert, Blame Ringo - Garble Arch (A Day in the Life of Abbey Road), Welcome to the new gold mines

December 2008 Leap Second, Embloggery, 1,300 graduate students who struggle to sell the pork ashamed? (via China Smack), China Gets World of Warcraft Themed Restaurant, Pickle Sickle, Anyone?, Zoo animals need to slim down (via ScienceBlogs), Stars orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole at our Galactic Center (video), Scientists baffled by mysterious acorn shortage, Firebreathing Dog Robot Will Ruin Your Day, Chris Christmas Rodriguez Videos

WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me, Robot First Test, MechRC Humanoid Robot, 46 days left, Bush approval ratings climb, China’s .cn Now the Second Most Popular TLD, Live webcam in Inglewood, United States, Randy’s Donuts

Superpower, Cities With The Most Skyscrapers in the World, Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, Most Populated Countries in the World, CIA World Factbook - Rank Order of Internet users, Who Owns 2.2 Trillion of the US Debt?, Human Development Index, United Nations Development Program, Denmark ‘world’s happiest nation’, World Military Spending

Tim O’Reilly, Web 2.0 Expo New York, Conflux: Vertical Bed, Office for the development of Substitute Materials*, Artificial Time Travel, Astrophysicists weigh galaxy’s most massive star, China to snap four shuttles together to build a space station, Zhai Zhigang, China names new crew for space launch, China prepares for third manned space flight, Concrete jet printers to build houses, moonbases in hours, Pie I Have Eaten and Pie I Have Not Eaten, Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend hits 100M views, passes Evolution of Dance for alltime top spot on YouTube, Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend

Joanne speaks with James Powderly of Graffiti Research Lab upon his return to the United States after he was arrested and detained in Beijing last week while preparing to perform acts of civil disobedience by Students for a Free Tibet during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Related: Back from Beijing: Brian Conley

James Powderly of Graffiti Research Lab, Students for a Free Tibet, GRL L.A.S.E.R. Stencil, LED Throwies, LED Throwies II, L.A.S.E.R. Tag, Enter The Ghetto Matrix, A Timeline of Noel Hidalgo’s Arrest and Deportation from China, Journalist Deported after Filming Protest in Tiananmen Square , Alive in Baghdad, Brian Conley, Rocketboom Interview with Alive in Baghdad’s Brian Conley, 5 Americans Are Arrested for Protest in Beijing, China sentences 2 women to ‘re-education’ for seeking to protest, Beijing: Ethnic Park Protest - Aug. 13, 2008, Citizen Journalists, Videoblogger, Activists Detained, Beijing Police detain six foreigners for 10 days for upsetting public order