A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.

• Amazon is holding a cool Harry Potter-themed writing contest, and the prize is to get some (almost) alone time with one of the only seven existing copies of J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which she personally hand-wrote and illustrated. (Via Sarah)
• Want to know what a Whopper looks like with 15 extra orders of bacon on it?
• Those annoyed by Netflix's poor recommendations fight back with more exceedingly wrong recommendations at Dyslexflix. (Via Stephanie)
• Oh no! Now America's economic woes are really going to start hurting: prepare for a movie funding drought!
• The son of William Wyler, who directed the famous 1959 film version of Ben Hur, is producing a new TV miniseries version.
• Bond on a bus!
• Geekadelphia has classic photos and Star Wars humor done up with LEGOs.
• The official site for the upcoming Street Fighter movie is up, and lists the official cast. (Via)

• Hey, we created another new fundamental form of matter! Go us!
• Was there another universe like ours that existed before the Big Bang? Creepy.
• AICN took a look at the script for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and apparently it's quite awful. But c'mon, was anybody expecting anything else?
• MGM has bought Bobism, a comedy/sci-fi script about a shy collegian who discovers that life in 1,000 years will be based on his blog. Heh. Well, we have to admit, it's a fun premise.
• Apparently there was talk that the studio might cut a scene from Dark Knight featuring Heath Ledger, which was rather upsetting in the light of Ledger's recent death. But now the latest news is that nothing of Ledger's performance will be cut from the movie.
• The world of Homestar Runner is coming to WiiWare, in the form of a game called Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Sweet.
• Sony is investigating the motives of PSP hackers with an amusing survey.
• Super Mario Sluggers, a Mario-themed baseball title, just got announced for the Wii. Game|Life saw a demo and claim it's looking pretty good.
• A handy character guide to Prince Caspian. (Via)
• The first character photos from The Spirit.
• A sequel to Sword and the Sorcerer?! Wow, they're really getting desperate now.
• The top 100 best selling games of the past year. (Via)
• Bask in the glow of the PlayStation 3 Laptop.
• Look out! It's Tinker Bell and friends from her new movie!
• Cinematical has a new official photo from Hancock to add to their gallery.
• Cinematical was complaining yesterday about having to watch a projected DVD at the Philly Film Festival. They should have read our review of In the Arms of My Enemy; they would have known what to expect! In this case, the festival got sent the wrong format, and they did offer everyone refunds, but still, we understand what Cinematical is complaining about. It is a film festival, after all, not a DVD festival.

Image Credit: Flickr user kurtxio