For those of you who enjoyed phone salesman/opera singer Paul Potts' audition for Britain's Got Talent (but don't have access to ITV 1), here's his performance in the semi-finals last night. The voting is now open to the public. See Paulâ's MySpace page, too. Push play or go to YouTube. Link to the show's website.

Weave your bacon into a delicious placemat! Step-by-step instructions are at Instructables. Link -via Cynical-C

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