It’s the holidays once again, and it’s the time of the year where we think about what we should gift to our friends and our family. “Should I give him another phone?”, “Should I buy her a new tablet?” These may be some of the thoughts that we might be thinking and the thoughts that keep us awake at night. But it might be best that we don’t gift our loved ones more technology. After all, we already spend most of the day just sitting down and doing nothing, so maybe it’s time to give something that will force us to at least do something.

Check out some things you might consider giving as gift over at Fast Company. You can also gift these things to yourself!

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Pexels/ Pixabay)

This is Northern China’s Salt Lake, the third largest sodium sulfate inland lake in the world. It is China’s most important historical sources of salt. Many wars have been fought over it, and gods have guarded its waters, while its contents “fill plates and tombs”. Aside from being rich in history, the salt lake is also rich in color.

In summer, it colors the landscape blood crimson, glossy green, and glassy indigo. In winter, it becomes crystalline, ice-white, and sculptural.

For thousands of years, the salt lake, which is found in Northern China’s Shanxi Province, have provided salt to locals.

Historians date the first salt mining to at least 4,000 years ago, and human remains from around the lake hint at even earlier salt harvesting. The lake accounted for a quarter of China’s total salt production from the seventh to 10th century, making Yuncheng City an important administrative center, and inspiring a series of wars for control of the lake and its lucrative, salty haul. Locals traditionally worshipped a range of salt deities in nearby temples.

Why do the water’s colors change? Find out the answer over at Atlas Obscura.

(Video Credit: National Geographic/ YouTube)

When you were a kid, it was always fun to play Operation, a game in which you fished parts out of a patient named Cavity Sam, and you had be precise or you'd complete an electric circuit and a buzzer would sound. It was not the first game based on an electric circuit- Ben Franklin actually developed one! And the idea behind Operation was originally based on believe it or not, desert survival.

John Spinello created the initial concept for what became Operation in the early 1960s, when he was an industrial design student at the University of Illinois. Spinello’s game, called Death Valley, didn’t feature a patient, but rather a character lost in the desert. His canteen drained by a bullet hole, he wanders through ridiculous hazards in search of water. Players moved around the board, inserting their game piece—a metal probe—into holes of various sizes. The probe had to go in cleanly without touching the sides; otherwise it would complete a circuit and sound a buzzer. Spinello’s professor gave him an A.

Spinello sold the idea to Marvin Glass and Associates, a Chicago-based toy design company, for US $500, his name on the U.S. patent (3,333,846), and the promise of a job, which never materialized.

Read the story of how Operation came about, and how it charmed several generations of players at IEEE Spectrum. -via Boing Boing

You'd recognize what "vomit art" is, even if you've never heard those words together before. The term arose from social media quite recently to refer to a certain style of vintage kitsch. According to Urban Dictionary, it's

“A mid-century trend where it was fashionable to suspend pieces of rocks and glass in color resin, often made into mantlepiece clocks. The result looks like regurgitated gelatin salad full of fruit bits. The term ‘vomit clock’ came into popularity on a thrift store Facebook page. Any other object made this way can be called ‘vomit.'”

But it's not just rocks and glass. You also see examples with shells, insects, or bits of food such as corn enshrined in resin. An article at Par To Perfect looks at the resurgence in popularity of such objects, but it's not clear whether people want them because they honestly like them, or they just want to make everything else they own look better by comparison. It could be that no one is actually buying vomit art; they could be just taking pictures in thrift shops to share on the internet. -via Metafilter

As he has in years past, Clark Zhu has taken the biggest movies of the year and compiled them into an emotional three-minute video. Relive the memories of 2019, at least those memories made in a theater. You'll find a list of the movies used, with timestamps, at Zhou's website. He hints that this will be his last year-end compilation.

For years, anti-vaxx activists have used Facebook and other social platforms to spread misinformation about the alleged “dangers” of vaccines. But they won’t have it smoothly now, as they are those who decided to fight against them — a new brand of pro-vaccination parents.

They’re heading to Facebook to do battle with these ideas at their source, refuting myths and sharing scientific facts in online “echo chambers.”

It’s not a fair fight, however. While most parents move on after vaccinating their kids, anti-vaxxers tend to broadcast their decision on social media platforms.

“You don’t come home and post on social media, ‘My kid got his shots today and cried for four hours, woo hoo,’” said Leah Russin, 45. “But the people who don’t vaccinate, they’ll tell you.”

Learn more details about this story over at Vice.

(Video Credit: VICE News/ YouTube)

An industrial dairy company in Victoria, Australia, has started selling glass milk bottles, with some predicting a return to the practice of friendly neighborhood milkmen making door-to-door deliveries --a business that was once replaced (at least in south-west Victoria) by local supermarkets and stores as a more viable option for milk-consumers. 

Local parliament has likewise raised environmental concerns in response to an alarming recycling crisis by suggesting a reintroduction to washable and reusable milk bottles to reduce one-time plastic usage. 

Still, others, like Ian Olmstead from Daily Australia, believe that more research is needed to assess the impact and costs of reusing glass bottles to the environmental, manufacturing, and economic operations involved. 

Olmstead comments,

"reusable milk bottle systems certainly have a place in the market, particularly for smaller boutique processors."

But he said shifting the mass milk market to reusable bottles is "a very different proposition."

-via ABC News

Image Credit: Pixabay / Pexels

Have you ordered your Christmas cards yet? If you've been waiting to see what artist PJ McQuade has new this year, you're in for a treat. New pop culture Christmas cards include the cast of Dune, The Neverending Story, and the Thicc Thanos card you've been clamoring for.



These designs join old favorites such as the Star Wars collection, which has expanded to 15 images with new designs and updates to give old favorites more holiday flavor.

He also has Christmas cards from Star Trek, Alien, The Karate Kid, Die Hard, Godzilla, The Office, Breaking Bad, Twin Peaks, It, and more. Check them all out at McQuade's new online store Castle McQuade. Pull down the "categories" menu to find something from your favorite pop culture world. Many of these designs are available as Christmas tree ornaments, refrigerator magnets and stickers as well.   

A woman who was briefly arrested and fined a total of $420 for civil offenses back in 2009 has been granted $20,000 by the Supreme Court of Canada. According to reports, Bela Kosoian was at the Montmorency Metro station when a police officer instructed her to “hold the [escalator] handrail” to which she then “refused to comply and declined to identify herself when asked.”

Several years after being acquitted, filing a $45,000 lawsuit, and having her appeals rejected twice, Kosoian was served the Court verdict that she was not at fault because it was her right to refuse to comply to an unlawful order. 

Half of the cost is to be shouldered each by The Société de transport de Montréal, which operates the Metro station, and by the police officer, according to the Court order. 

For the full story, read the full article over at CBC.

 Image Credit: Nikolas Kysela / Pexels

For one-night only, Three Shining Swords took the stage at the Meguro Persimmon Hall in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on November 28 for an unforgettable night of cultural storytelling. A unique adaptation of George Lucas’s 1977 brainchild, this Star Wars kabuki play focused on the franchise’s latest episodes, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and stars one of Japan’s most renowned kabuki actors, Ichikawa Ebizo, as Kylo Ren. 

While it caters to Japanese audiences by employing the traditional good-vs-evil theme and kabuki instrumental accompaniment, this play also assigns Japanese variants to the original character names, such as Kairennosuke 魁連之助 (Kylo Ren), Ruku 琉空 (Luke), Reian 澪殷 (Leia), Hanzo 半蔵 (Han Solo), Reina 麗那 (Rey), and Sunokaku 敷能角 (Snoke). 

You can watch the full video of the play below:

Image Credit: Casey Baseel / SoraNews24

View the full story over at SoraNews24

Ah, nature’s call... it happens to the best of us, even the blue whale, the world’s largest animal! From an aerial view, a blue whale can be seen leaving a trail of green-tinged defecation across the stark blue ocean. Such unique documentation can help researchers better understand what little is known about these magnificent mammals, including their migratory behavior and food supply, as well as the health of the marine habitat.

Ian Weisse and Rodney Peterson used drones to capture different instances of defecating blue whales migrating southward along the West Australian coastline.

“A blue whale can excrete up to 200 litres of poo in one bowel movement,” according to West Australian Centre for Whale Research researcher Curt Jenner. As for the poo itself, its smell is compared to that of a dog, with the texture of bread crumbs and the appearance of ping pong balls.

Original link

Image Credit: Ian Weisse / ABC News

Because we live in a fallen and sinful world, totally depraved people insist on using the apostrophe incorrectly, usually to form a plural. Sometimes, this evil gets even worse. For example, I recently saw a truck with a rear window vinyl sign that included the gibberish "ALWAY'S".

I considered ramming it.

In 2001, superhero John Richards formed the Apostrophe Protection Society to resist the degradation of the English language with misused apostrophes. But now, at the age of 96, he is hanging up his cape and giving up the fight. BBC News reports:

The 96-year-old said: "We have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won."

His website contains a list of rules on where to place apostrophes, as well as a photo gallery detailing dozens of examples of misuse.

The former newspaper reporter and sub editor from Boston, Lincolnshire, said although he was closing it down, it would remain open for a limited time for "reference and interest".

"When I first set it up I would get about 40 emails or letters a week from people all over the world. Many were saying how it was about time that we had something like this," he said.

"But then two years ago it started to tail off and nowadays I hardly get anything."

"It seems that fewer organisations and individuals care about the correct use," he added.

The website of the Apostrophe Protection Society, however, provides conflicting information on its status. I can only hope that it will hold the line so that we can all remember how to correctly use apostrophe's.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Jeremy Noble

Fans of “Finding Nemo” might be anticipating yet another sequel, but a recent study by an international team of researchers revealed the real-life drama surrounding the future of anemones and their resident clownfishes. The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and colleagues published their study in the journal Ecology Letters on Nov. 27, 2019, suggesting that anemone fish “don’t have the genetic capacity to adapt to rapid changes in their environment.”

More than a decade ago, the researchers began studying clownfish in the biodiversity-rich Kimbe Bay lagoons in Papua New Guinea, and through a genetic analysis of the population’s DNA, they were able to measure the fishes’ potential to adapt and reproduce in the midst of a changing habitat. What they found was a link between high-quality habits and the longevity of large clownfish families, instead of shared genes. 

According to WHOI biologist Simon Thorrold, a coauthor of the paper,

The biggest surprise to us was also the most troubling: conservation efforts cannot rely on genetic adaptation to protect clownfish from the effects of climate change. It seems that Nemo won't be able to save himself.

Read the full story at Eureka Alert.

Image credit: George Becker / Pexels

Godzilla wishes not only the people of Tokyo, but you and your family, a merry Christmas. You can welcome him into your home with this custom 6-foot tall Christmas tree, complete with legs, claws, and a fog machine. It's currently up for auction at TradeMe until he is purchased or escapes from owner and builder Steven Newland of New Zealand.

Presumably, you'll need to put someone inside to move it around.

-via Geekologie

Honey, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of honey in the morning.

We all do, once we begin our final journey up the river. Here is a remastered version of Apocalypse Pooh, a treasure of a film mashup published in 1987, long before the World Wide Web made viral media possible.

In it, our favorite stuffed bear searches for his Christopher Robin at the center of the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

-via Nag on the Lake