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

• Penny Arcade offers one possible explanation for the recent behavior of one Jack Thompson, Esquire.
• This Phillyist just recently finished reading Warren Ellis' mind-blowingly excellent graphic novel Ocean, and now comes word that it's going to be turned into a movie. Woo hoo!
• If you care, The Movie Blog has set pics from Transformers 2.
• What if, instead of helping invent rock and roll, Marty McFly had helped invent HEAVY METAL??!!
• Deadwood villain Stephen Tobolowsky is set to star in Death Keeps Coming, a new supernatural western from Tarantino Productions and KarlAdam Entertainment. The film is set in the 1880s and tells of a mysterious lone gunfighter who rides out of the desert to save Sara, an innocent victim of a horrific and terrifying gypsy curse. Woo hoo! Sounds awesome.
• New pic of the Joker from Dark Knight.
• Ladies and gentlemen, we present the stripper candle. Yes, it's a candle that smells like a stripper. Why you would want that, we're not sure, but there you go.
• Game|Life's review of the hot new MMO, Age of Conan, is generally positive with a few caveats.

• "Fox announced that J.J. Abrams' highly anticipated SF series Fringe will debut with a two-hour premiere at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Sept. 9."
• Josh Zetumer is in negotiations to write the latest movie incarnation of Dune. Zetumer's only credit on IMDB is for a thriller called Villain that's still in production, so it's hard to know if this is good news or not.
• A rhythm game called Aero Guitar is on its way to WiiWare, and will sell for 800 Wii Points ($8). And we're all for a cheaper way to feed our addiction to music and rhythm games, so bring it on!
• A hacker turns Roomba into Pac-Man. Brilliant!
• This Japanese video gives our first look at the gameplay and controls for Mario Super Sluggers, a Wii baseball game coming to the US later this year.
• A series of photos demonstrating weird new uses for your laptop. (Via)
• You can read J.K. Rowling's Harvard University commencement address online. And it's pretty darn good, so if you have a few minutes to spare... (Via)
• The Access Controller is a one-handed peripheral for use with PCs, PS2 and PS3. Looks a bit large, but it's a cool idea.
• Behold! The Microwave PC.
• In response to the smoking ban in the Marvel Universe, artist Chris Schweizer has illustrated various famous Marvel heroes and villains lighting up. Fantastic stuff. (Via)
• Both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Soul Calibur IV will feature Darth Vader's secret apprentice from LucasArt's forthcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as a playable character.
• Joystiq's metareview for LEGO Indiana Jones seems encouraging.
• Cinematical presents the seven least annoying Jack Black roles.
• Adam Sandler intends to jump-start a new sub-division of his Happy Madison production company called Scary Madison, which will focus on horror movies.
• Okay, when even chimps start joining Facebook, things have gone too far.
• We'll admit it: Hotel for Dogs looks cute.

Image Credit: Flickr user locusolus