Saudi Arabia is hell. Yes, you heard me.

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Whereas this is direct from heaven. World's smallest snake discovered

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Row clouds Belfast gay parade. Prepare to enjoy the cultie politician-spouse opening mouth and inserting both feet.

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Child matador is banned from performing in France... the reasons cited being child labour laws and health and safety, not cruelty to animals, of course. Featuring interview with the lovely little brat saying he loves bulls like his brother loves football and it's so unfair.

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Pint and prayer for pub regulars. Not in my local, thanks.

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Zoo celebrates new giraffe calves

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Audio slideshow: Inside influential Indian madrassa

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Costumed impersonators on Hollywood Boulevard. Kinda cool, definitely creepy.

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Study of IMs revives that hoary old "six degrees of separation" theory.

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PIX PLZ!

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Science news now.

Smart contact lenses dispense medication. This is awesome because they're using bits of silver to measure the pressure of an eyeball. You'd think that'd itch...

Plant parasite 'wiretaps' host. This is awesome because it's intercepting tiny chemical messages in order to synchronise its flowering with its host just before it kills the thing. Harsh, nature!

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ABBA Gold tops UK chart again. There isn't a song on there of which I'm not heartily sick. More ABBA Gold has some good ones, including ABBA Does The Iliad (which could not possibly win any more coolness points... OK, well, not unless they'd sneaked a mention of a net in there).

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Yay medical ethics, from the only guy the BBC ever seems to get to write on the subject.

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Farmer has double arm transplant

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In pictures: Tackling Ethiopia's HIV stigma

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Aaaaaand finally. Pot Noodle - The Musical, helpfully bringing corporate values to the Fringe.

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edit: Le Crash sends this: No, wait, I didn't mean henbane! Oh sh—

Simply Noise: this is very cool. A coworker clued me onto this site, which generates static noise to help block out ambient noise (eg hugely loud air conditioning!!) or block distractions.

I can't stand the white noise setting, but the brown is lovely. Even when cranked to a comfortable level, though, it doesn't block out the Radiohead* stuck in my head. (I could turn it up further, but I'm always worried about damaging my hearing.) Bass frequencies still get through, too, so I can hear one half of my boss's conversation with an older gentleman.

*Airbag. Dammit, I'm at the mercy of whatever I listened to last.