Blog Heap of Links for the day 17 May 2009

NBC has finalized a deal to bring Chuck back for a third season, multiple sources confirm. That's the good news. Here's the bad news: The 13-episode pickup came after Warner Bros. agreed to make significant budget concessions, including scaling back the number of episodes several members of the show's stellar supporting cast will appear in and, per one insider, possibly eliminating one actor altogether (R.I.P. Anna Wu?).

"Star Trek" really is going to the final frontier. NASA astronaut Michael Barratt will watch the film while aboard the International Space Station, 220 miles above Earth, NASA said in a statement to Access Hollywood.

Our first list on Historical Oddities was very popular, so we are now presenting you with a second list! Here are 20 strange facts of history that you are probably not aware of.

Rodrigo Rosenberg shot two days after recording YouTube video at friend's offices in Guatemala City.... "If you are hearing this message," Rosenberg begins, "unfortunately, it is because I have been murdered by the president's private secretary, Gustavo Alejos, and his partner, Gregorio Valdez, with the approval of Álvaro Colom and Sandra de Colom [Guatemala's president and first lady]...."

A sex theme park in southwest China that featured giant genitals and a sex-technique workshop has been torn down after officials said it had an "evil influence" on society....