Hawty McBloggy found a pic of a Canadian-branded Master Chief in Vancouver… they’re everywhere!(Louis Wu 10:57:36 UTC)

The Bungie Dev Blog got a new update last night – a photo of some pretty happy-looking devs watching… something. Something cool, apparently. Thanks, ElusiveEagle519. (Louis Wu 10:56:47 UTC)

Harking back to the old days of crack-pipe speculation, Cortana 5 stopped in to our forum to lay down a theory about the origins of Bungie’s storytelling. Man… I feel like I’m back in Hamish’s domain! (If you’re a really, really, REALLY old-timer, this stuff might not be new to you… but for most Bungie/Halo fans, it’s a nice summary of some of the early inspirations.) (Louis Wu 10:55:48 UTC)

arbitersaids is selling an Assault Rifle prop – looks like a painted Plasma Blaster – to make money for school. If you want one of these but don’t feel like painting it yourself, here’s a chance to buy one!(Louis Wu 10:54:07 UTC)

Dwood dropped us a line about an Ivory Tower remake for Halo CE; at the moment, it’s for multiplayer, but a single player version is planned. (He’s hoping for feedback to see whether the added features are worth the effort.) Check it out, and let him know! He also mentioned something pretty cool – swing by YouTube to view a Zombie Test from CtrlAltDestr0y. It’s… go watch it. Update: apparently there’s a link to a public alpha of the single player version of the Ivory Tower map in this thread on Halomaps.(Louis Wu 21:27:37 UTC)

Today’s Tag and Release feature at Bungie.net looks at screenshots on Sandbox – they range from clever to gorgeous. Go look!(Louis Wu 17:56:30 UTC)

odious T (gotta love that gamertag) sent word of a video he’d found on YouTube – it’s a fan playing the Halo theme. Starts slow… but MAN is it great. Take the 3 minutes and check it out; you won’t be disappointed. It’s incredible what 40 fingers can do!(Louis Wu 15:46:21 UTC)

NeoGAF’s Dani, pining for the loss of a Halo site devoted to getting underneath the skin of the universe, has created his own. Swing by Forward Unto Dawn, and check out his first article, Winter Contingency – it’s a look at Reach, and the importance it plays in Human history (as defined by Halo, of course). It draws info from many sources, and brings together most of what we know about this planet, up to now. Give it a read – and be sure to leave your comments! (Louis Wu 15:45:40 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found some pretty cool hand-painted Master Chief cookies – that you can actually buy! Check ’em out – then design your own, and get ’em printed for that special someone. (Warning: they ain’t cheap.) While you’re there, check out her other Halo offerings this morning – there’s been an Oonsk sighting in Halo 3, and Grin + Bear It recycles an old joke (somehow, that didn’t seem like a bad thing when Stuntmutt was doing it).(Louis Wu 15:44:33 UTC)

DarkReign2021 whipped up a new Halo music video – it’s called Ode to the Lost, and it’s a tribute to the men and women who lost their lives in the fight against the Covenant. (“Whipped up” is probably the wrong term; it suggests he slapped this together between episodes of Adult Swim, while eating a peanut butter sandwich with one hand. Clearly some serious love has been put into this – watch it, it’s pretty cool.) (Louis Wu 15:42:29 UTC)

Minime637 found a Top 10 list at PlanetXbox360 – it’s counting down the most badass videogame aliens Two of the Halo universe’s enemies make the list. Not bad! (Louis Wu 15:41:55 UTC)

Congrats to CRASH JENN, who cleared out our lingering Kikowani Station entry in the Hide, Seek, Snap contest. We’re nearing the finish line – we’ve got three more codes! The last three images are up – but there’s a twist. For pictures 21 and 22, it’s not enough to simply GET to a location – you have to do it with stuff. Go look! (Louis Wu 15:41:12 UTC)