We all knew it was just a matter of time until the zombies rose up from their graves, the sickly-sweet smell of confectioners sugar still clinging to their rotting forms, and attacked the neighborhood gingerbread church. Or at least, we should have.

This gingerbread diorama features a gingerbread church surrounded by the newly risen undead, and a handful of survivors. It cheats a bit -- the zombies and survivors aren't made from candy (unlike, say, the spectacle of Helm's Deep) but I'll forgive them that indiscretion given that they included a classic Jeep CJ-5. It looks like they used confectioners sugar and icing for the snowscape, and I have no idea what the trees are made of. All in all, it looks great ... and makes me think I really need to ramp up my own gingerbread efforts next year... 

Clearly I've only just begun to explore the frontiers of gingerbread construction, especially geeky gingerbread construction.

This gingerbread TARDIS (pictured at left) is just too darn cool; I love the attention to detail, especially the window panes AND K-9 the robodog. I'm also impressed that it stayed together long enough to take the picture (especially after last years less-than-successful icing glue experiment). Hats off to Anna Marie for a most excellent project.

"What Earth Would Look Like with Saturn's Rings" is a YouTube video that gives Earth its own ring system. It provides views of the planet and rings from space ... but then takes it a step further and shows what the rings would look like from the planet's surface (a thin edge rising through the sky on the equator, a wide band near the poles). Very, very cool.

Forget the cheerleader; Heroes needs to save itself. Defying all logic, the television series about everyday people with superpowers has succeeded in getting second chance after second chance, winning back audiences with each new season only to lose them again by season's end. Here's what Heroes needs to do to save itself.