This weekend's links presented for your viewing pleasure.

Amorality Tales: Elric
No matter how many of my remaining brain cells are eaten up by song lyrics or “Simpsons” catchphrases, there is one scene from a fantasy novel I shall never forget: Our hero has fallen in with a horde of savages as they ransack a town. To keep himself from getting caught up in their bloodshed, he takes refuge in a house that has so far avoided the “slaughter-madness,” only to have his sanctuary violated by a barbarian dragging a helpless female villager by her hair.

Rather than immediately leaping to the woman’s rescue, our protagonist tells the intruder to find a safe haven of his own. It is only when the barbarian refuses to leave that our hero draws his sword, attacking with such swiftness and ferocity that the would-be rapist is cleaved in two. Who said chivalry is dead?

DNA Tests Reveal Who Was Having Sex with Neanderthals 40,000 Years Ago
Are modern humans the hybrid children of early humans and Neanderthals? For over a decade, scientists have wondered what exactly happened to the Neanderthals, low-tech hominids who populated Western Europe, when homo sapiens arrived on the scene from Africa and Asia with sophisticated weaponry and the rudiments of symbolic art.

The New Hottest Spot in the Milky Way
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope revealed an image of what could be the brightest star in our galaxy: Wolf-Rayet star WR 102ka or, more fondly, the "Peony nebula" star. Astronomers say that it burns with the light intensity of 3.2 million suns — but that's a rough estimate, and one that might even stretch to 4 or 5 million suns.

The History of Science Fiction: 1900-1909
…probably even more significant was Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity which he published in 1905. As well as giving us the only equation most people know (E=mc2), Special Relativity gave us the concepts of Time dilation, Length contraction and relativity of simultaneity. These are things that science fiction writers still use in stories today.

You, too, could be a superhero but don't plan on a long career
The dream of almost everyone who has flipped open a Batman comic book, to don the cape and to fight crime, is humanly possible, says a University of Victoria professor who has written a book about it. But the stress it would put on the body, similar to an Olympic athlete or champion boxer, would make a career as the caped crusader short-lived.

The Earth-Bashers
Mars isn't the only planet with awe-inspiring craters. Here on Earth, we've been pummeled by space rocks in the not-so-distant past, and our planet has the scars to prove it.

Authors Guild Warns on S&S e-Book Royalty Proposal
The Authors Guild has sent out an advisory to its members suggesting that they carefully review a letter from Simon & Schuster that looks to add an amendment to their contracts that will set the standard royalty for e-books at 15% of the catalog retail price for e-books.

The Frozen Waterfalls of Mars
This deep gorge known as the Echus Chasma was ripped into the Martian soil by gushing water, and scientists speculate that it may once have boasted giant, 4000-meter-high waterfalls.

Book Sales May be Much Greater than Previously Thought
In a report whose findings are sure to be questioned by many in the industry, the Book Industry Study Group has issued a report that says book sales have been seriously underreported.