Cracked.com put together a collection of fake news stories that fooled the media – number 7 on the list is the 13 year old kid who hired hookers to play Halo with him. (We posted it, without checking, back in May 2008.) Some of the other stories are hilarious. Thanks to Alekat for the heads-up.(Louis Wu 19:57:42 UTC)

Looseneck wrote to point out a relatively new Coca Cola Zero ad – the extraction team is carrying weapons that look distinctly Halo-like. (You can see a shot here.) Hmm…(Louis Wu 19:30:10 UTC)

The latest Tag and Release feature that Bungie’s put together looks at shots marked with the term ‘Laser’. And dang they found some pretty ones! Go look for yourself, and see if you can find others that are better.(Louis Wu 19:20:48 UTC)

HaloCharts received a boatload of submissions for their most recent Campaign Challenge – swing by Bungie.net for all the numbers. Don’t stop killing Covenant!(Louis Wu 19:17:21 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy let us know that there’s a new discussion going on her website, courtesy of RandomSauce – they want to know who you’d cast in the Halo movie, if it ever gets made. (This sort of discussion has happened in many places around the net already – including our own forum, more than once – but the presentation here is nice, and we’ve got more data now than we had the last time this came around.) Go contribute!(Louis Wu 15:00:41 UTC)

Only a couple of new comics that we know of – Bloogyo released Rat’s Nest Episode 12 1, and TTL Demag0gue is back with Reclaimer 181 (Sideways Retreat). If you missed the last couple of Reclaimer Guest strips, Episode 7 is here (from HolyJunkie), and Episode 8 is here (a second from xSOB a DooBy). In comic-RELATED news, it seems that Reclaimer has been used in a Graphic Novel course at Temple University. Neat! (Louis Wu 14:59:52 UTC)

nomis78 put together a video from Halo 3 cutscenes and Nena’s ’99 Red Balloons’ – it works surprisingly well. Check it out! (Louis Wu 14:57:36 UTC)

Duncan was the first to notice that in last night’s episode of The Simpsons, Homer was playing Halo… and teabagging his opponennt. You can watch it for yourself at Hulu.com. (Mirel grabbed a few screens, as well.) (Louis Wu 14:52:04 UTC)

It’s amazing what’s still being done with the Halo CE engine… The Custom Mapping Team is working on adding vehicle boarding to their SPV2 mod, and have released a preview movie showing off some cool Banshee boarding. Check it out! Thanks, AvatarAang.(Louis Wu 23:02:13 UTC)

There’s a new Arby ‘n’ the Chief up at YouTube – thanks, urk. Arbiter gets tired of being bossed around…(Louis Wu 21:07:51 UTC)

I guess it’s Halo Day in Narc’s house – Anger, Sadness, & Envy (the irregularly-produced Rampancy.net-based podcast) has a new episode out, this one focused on The Ark. 45 minutes long, 40 mb. Go listen!(Louis Wu 18:59:46 UTC)

Narcogen looks to be interested in starting a guide to partner-based multiplay; if this doesn’t mean anything to you, go read the Rough Draft of the idea at Rampancy.net.(Louis Wu 18:48:54 UTC)