BBC: This image of a peppercorn and a grain of salt taken by David McCarthy is the overall winner (and close-up category winner) in this year's Visions of Science Photographic Awards. 10 winning photos. At the Visions site, more winners
Van Morrison's Contractual Obligation Album:

In order to fulfill his obligation to his early solo label Bang Records,Van Morrison sat down in 1967 or so and cranked out 31 songs on the spot, on topics ranging from ringworm to wanting a danish, to hating his record label and a guy named George. Make sure you get past the first few tunes - it takes him a few to get cooking.

You can hear them all. Want a Danish is better than Ring Worm. And Hang On Groovy has a familiar tune.

Fans interview Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson.

Why I Might Switch Back…: A Mac convert regrets his decision.

Blogger-photographer-programmer-author Shelley Powers (Burningbird) prepares to head South as a Red Cross volunteer.

The Grip of Gas: Why you'll pay through the nose to keep driving.

Grand Rounds #53: The weekly roundup of medical blog highlights marks its first year. (A different blog hosts it every week.)

Flower Mandalas: Where flowers mightily resemble kaleidoscope images.

Banned Books Week ends today.

The Big Fish: "Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website"

Foot note: I have the unique job (among bloggers) of using my blog headline on the cover of projo.com to get breaking national news out there when the AP auto-headline is focusing on something else. Yesterday I carried water for the Abu Ghraib photo release and Judith Miller leaving jail. ((How come Scooter Libby couldn't have made the call before she went to jail?))

Weighty, worthy stories. So...

The most-clicked headline on this blog yesterday? Artists erect giant pink bunny on mountain