An Illustrated History of Trepanation traces the practice of making holes in people’s heads from prehistory to some quirky recent stories.

The procedure, which is called a craniotomy in medical terminology, involves the removal of a piece of bone from the skull. It has been performed since prehistoric times: the oldest trepanned skull, found at a neolithic burial site of Ensisheim in France, is more than 7,000 years old, and trepanation was practised by the Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Romans, Greeks and the early Mesoamerican civilizations. The procedure is still performed today, for both medical and non-medical reasons.

Link -via the Presurfer

Tim Noble and Sue Webster create art with a twist. These sculptures are designed to throw shadows of something completely different from what they appear to be! http://www.pantherhouse.com/newshelton/freeze-frame-screen-the-shadow-hot-heads-under-silent-wigs/ -via Reddit

If you like to see things blown to pieces safely, Cynical-C has nine videos of hotel implosions in Las Vegas. Nine? Yes, pretty soon you won’t recognize the old city at all. Link

Eight classic thought experiments explained simply. If you’ve heard the terms Schrödinger's cat, Borel's monkeys, or Maxwell's demon, but you didn’t quite understand them, Wired has the short course. Link

A short film by music video and commercial director Evan Bernard. Push play or go to YouTube.

Now you can have your very own Marie Antionette action figure. Her head comes off! Link -via the Presurfer

A spaceship battles a giant robot dinosaur inside a volcano in this CGI animation by Marco Spitoni, who also did C.O.D.E Guardian. Push play or go to YouTube. -via PAgent’s Video Picks

Looking for the perfect vacation getaway that incorporates your thirst for technology or your obsession with science fiction? eWeek.com has 15 possibilities, with information on each. The 15 Geekiest Vacations can be viewed as a slideshow. I must admit, I’ve done three of these. Link -via BBspot

The Detroit Free Press has published a multimedia tribute to Aretha Franklin’s recording of "Respect," which was the number one song 40 years ago. It’s a fascinating story. Link -via Metafilter

The Box Doodle Project challenges you to make something out of a box. The object is to make the most out of the least material. The site includes a box doodle tool, so you can doodle a box online! Link -via Everlasting Blort

Music store proprietor Steve Baker sent a guitar to his stepson in Iraq in 2004. His stepson’s friend wanted one, too, so he sent another. When more requests came in, Operation Happy Note was born. As of now, Baker and his wife have sent over 300 musical instruments to soldiers overseas. Link -via Exploding Aardvark

Paul Potts sells phones for a living, but he's always wanted to be an opera singer. He entered the competition for the UK show Britain's Got Talent and performed Nessun Dorma, to the delight of the judges and the audience. Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer

The World Monuments Watch is keeping track of the world’s most endangered cultural landmarks. The sites may be imperiled by politics, war, environmental degradation, financial straits, or a combination of factors. Click on the interactive map to get the story on each of the top 100 endangered sites. Link -via Cynical-C

85% of the 1.3 billion citizens of China share only about 100 family names. There are 93 million people with the surname Wang! To alleviate the confusion, the Chinese government is considering new naming rules.

Under a new draft regulation released by the ministry of public security, parents will be able to combine their surnames for their children, a move that could open up 1.28 million new possibilities, the China Daily reported.

For instance, a father named Zhou and mother named Zhu could choose to call their child either Zhou, Zhu, Zhouzhu or Zhuzhou, the report added.

And then if this child married George Bailey’s daughter, her name would become... oh never mind. Link -via Fark

Here’s a webpage where you can learn what is the largest island, the largest lake, the largest lake on an island, the largest island in a lake, the largest island in a lake on an island, the largest lake on an island in a lake, the largest lake on an island in a lake on an island, the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake, and the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. Which is Vulcan point in Crater Lake on Vulcano Island in Lake Taal on Luzon. Link -via Fark