It gets really cold in Hokkaido, and it snows more than you might think. Go ahead, look it up on a map. THe island of Hokkaido is further north than Vladivostok and sits just below Sakhalin Island. Yet it's possible to get pizza delivered through the deepest snow, or will be, once the reindeer delivery program is in full swing. Yes, Domino's Pizza in Japan is rolling out delivery by reindeer. The animals and their drivers are in training on the grounds of a driver's school in the city of Ishikari. They seem to be learning the ropes pretty well.   

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I didn't see a red nose anywhere, did you? The program will launch in Hokkaido when the weather demands. You'll be able to track your reindeer pizza delivery by GPS. After a test period, reindeer delivery may go nationwide for Domino's Japan. -Thanks, John Farrier!  

(Image credit: Domino's Japan)

The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Uncanny Bathroom Reader.

A somewhat random collection of interesting facts and statistics about prisons and jails. Just in case you ever need to know…

(Image credit: Flickr user Matthias Müller)

JAIL vs. PRISON

The terms jail and prison are commonly used interchangeably, but they actually have different meanings. The major differences are the length of the term and the reasons for imprisonment. Jails are temporary holding facilities for people who have been recently arrested and are awaiting a court date, or for people who have been convicted of a crime but were given a relatively short sentence—usually less than a year. Prisons are for people who’ve been convicted of crimes and received sentences of more than one year. Jails are run by local governments —usually by county sheriff’s departments— while prisons are run by state or federal governments. People convicted of state laws go to state prison; those convicted of federal laws go to federal prison. There are currently about 120 federal prisons, more than 400 state prisons, and more than 3,800 jails in the United States today.

LEVELS OF SECURITY

Federal prisons in the United States are run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They have five different security designations: minimum, low, medium, high, and administrative.

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

It was the autumn of 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. The young, fledgling group who had recently changed their name, officially, to The Beatles were playing at a local club called the Kaiserkeller.

Hamburg was a vice-ridden city, a 24-hour-a-day unofficial red light district in itself. Hookers, pimps, thugs, gangsters, drug dealers, and other various and sundry "characters" and habitués roamed the streets during the day, and came to the clubs to hear the raucous music and bands a night. At the time, the Beatles consisted of five members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, plus their then-drummer Pete Best and their pretty mediocre bass player, Stu Sutcliffe.

During this time, the Beatles were playing 8-hour shifts at the club, alternating with another band that had come over from Liverpool called "Rory Storm and the Hurricanes." Each band would play five or six 90-minute sets every night, shifting back and forth. Although the Beatles had arrived in Hamburg first, the Hurricanes were the higher paid of the two groups, being the bigger name band at this point in time.

When toilets went from outside somewhere to having its own room in the house, it brought a lot of changes. The actual design of such a room was first considered as luxurious and comforting, but an easy-to-clean and sanitize design won out. Then there's the medicine cabinet. Medicines were previously kept in the kitchen, where Mom could keep up with them. Then the medicine cabinet was invented, which was at first just a medicine box on the wall. What to keep in this cabinet was a question enthusiastically answered by those who sold such products, and it was Mom's duty to keep it well-stocked, as we learn in an interview with historian Deanna Day.

Right, there’s the familiar image of the snoopy houseguest who goes into the bathroom and starts poking around in the medicine cabinet to see what sort of pills you have or what kind of lotion you use, only to be discovered when things start falling out and crashing to the floor. You write about a James Thurber short story that plays on this.

Yes, “Nine Needles.” It plays on the idea that the medicine cabinet holds tools that you use to take care of your very private bodily needs, and they’re sort of hidden away. But at the same time that the medicine cabinet is a private space, it also has a public dimension; it’s a hideaway but—unlike perhaps other closed-off spaces in the home—it’s in a room that guests are actually invited into. Then it becomes a private space that guests are actually given a private opportunity to explore, if they want to. It feels like a minor transgression to open the cabinet and see what kinds of things your hosts are using on their bodies, a relatively low-stakes form of gaining secret knowledge about them.

I believe that's a little naive, as there are friends, acquaintances, and even family members who will look in there to see what they can take. But all that aside, the story of the development, expectations, and curation of the medicine cabinet can be found at (appropriately) Cabinet Magazine. -via Metafilter

Studio C presents a warning against succumbing to any of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, greed, lust, and sloth). Each are illustrated in this sumptuous video.

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They obviously have their favorite of the seven. Can you guess which one it is? -via Viral Viral Videos

Do you live your life on social media? Then you probably get informed about every fake holiday there is. These weird holidays have been around forever, because the National Broccoli Association said that National Broccoli Day should fall on such-and-such date, etc. etc. College Humor tells us about them in this video that contains NSFW language.  

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Yes, there are more of those holidays now than ever before. Yes, they used to be only of interest to radio disc jockeys looking for a joke. And they had to buy books to keep up with those weird obscure holidays. But now we have Twitter! And millions of people who have nothing to say except for passing along the knowledge that today is National Sweater Day or whatever.

What would you guess is the most re-run television show ever? No, not Gilligan's Island, nor I Love Lucy, although those might be good guesses …for the U.S. And those are series, after all. Worldwide, a TV sketch called "Dinner For One" (previously at Neatorama) has been played more than any other, with a Guinness World Record to prove it. It was produced in Germany in 1962, but the language is English. And now it is beloved New Year tradition in quite a few countries. Read the history of "Dinner For One" at mental_floss.
 

Robot Chicken had so many claymation action figure parodies, it's hard to recall all of them. Adult Swim makes it easier, with occasional compilation videos. Here are some clips from their most popular Superman sketches.  

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In this video, Superman discovers a new superpower, gets a newspaper headline, and finds out the truth about his parents. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Dear 2016: I made you this ornament. It is a Dumpster fire. pic.twitter.com/XjbM18bC9i

— Jennifer Brooks (@stribrooks) November 20, 2016

The term we've used to describe the year 2016 more than any other is "dumpster fire." Jennifer Brooks made herself a commemorative Christmas ornament illustrating just that. It was so popular that she was asked to make more for people to buy, but she doesn't want to do that. Instead, she has a tutorial so you can make your own. But it's really not so much a tutorial as it is the illustrated story of how Brooks made hers. Here's an excerpt.

Step 10: Obtain needle and thread. Oh my God, this is going to take forever. Which reminds you that 2016 gave us more than two dozen presidential candidates. Thanks for that, 2016.

Step 11: Get stitching! (Or gluing. Get some fabric glue and some glitter. Don’t be like me.) I stitched the 2016 and seam on the front of the dumpster first.

Step 12: Put the front of the dumpster on the back of the dumpster. Stitch the sides and bottom together like a wee wallet. Belatedly realize you forgot to stitch the top decorative seams on the front of the dumpster. Awkwardly do so now, stabbing yourself repeatedly with the needle.

Step 13: Peek inside your dumpster. Whisper into the void: “You killed Prince, David Bowie and Lemmy Kilmister, 2016. This is on you.”

So even if you have no interest in making your own Christmas tree ornament, you'll want to read the whole thing. Or go ahead and make the ornament so you can always remember how special 2016 was. -via Metafilter

When a curious cat gets his head stuck in something, his first instinct is to walk backwards away from it. That doesn't help a bit, as the thing just goes with the cat. Lucky for these cats, there's someone right there with a camera to help out -after they get a bit of footage first.

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What's even funnier is when a cat finally gets unstuck and the first thing they do is go right back to that object again to satisfy their curiosity! -via Tastefully Offensive

The characters at the webcomic Megacynics got married with lots of love but no clue what to do next. So they did what anyone their age would do- ask Google search! Turns out that you really have to think about how you ask that kind of a question. A better wording might be "What do married people do in their spare time?" (Yeah, the top results would still be porn.) If you really have spare time, the answer is that married people do the same things as unmarried people, except they do many of those things together.

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Give him a minute; this kid will figure it out. Or two minutes. When he finally does, he has no embarrassment at all, he's just glad he found them! Funny, but it can happen to anyone. Redditor machalllewis is proof of that.

I once went to the supermarket a few miles from me, picked up some food for dinner that night, put it in my backpack and then walked back home. It wasn't until I got home that I remembered that I had biked there.

The difference here is that I was 22 when I did this.

Have you ever looked for your car keys while you were driving? Or used the light on your phone to look for your phone? I don't think you can beat GreenHatSam's story.

On moving day (years ago) I lost my 1 year old son.

Lots of people moving boxes and vehicles. It was chaotic. I went looking for my kid. He Wasn't in the yard, not in the house. I called out for him. He said, "Mom!"

Ok. Good. He's within ear shot, I just don't see him. I called out for him again. Again, he answered me. He sounded close.

I just stood still and looked around.

Found him on my hip. I was holding him the entire time.

You'll find more of these stories at reddit.

Tye Lombardi is a writer for the SyFy channel zombie show Z Nation. She also shows that wicked sense of humor as she blogs about food "from the Devil's Kitchen" at The Necro Nom-Nom-Nomicon. For Thanksgiving this year, Lombardi prepared a dinner that you'll be glad you didn't see before you feasted with the family. It's a turkey with a chestburster! The Alien critter is a pork loin wrapped in prosciutto with spaghetti teeth. She finished it off with a wash of cranberry sauce for the blood, and served it with green gravy. Relatives assured Lombardi that it was delicious, and that she'd never host the family Thanksgiving feast again. See the step-by-step process of making this turkey at her site. -via io9

Bad Newspaper has been on a roll lately. That's where you'll see the best newspaper clippings and ads from all over. Many of them are misspellings, typos, and puns that will make you smile.

Some items highlight the weird small town happenings that make the police blotter.

And every once in a while you get a glimpse into the human condition in all its bizarreness (or is that bizarity?), like this interviewee.

Check out Bad Newspaper anytime you need a laugh!  

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In a very 21st-century story, a Roomba was working all alone in a home wired with security cameras. A stray plastic bag somehow became draped over the Roomba's sensors. It ran into a wall, but that action neither freed it of the obstruction nor put it out of his misery. One commenter filled in the story:

While being trapped in the bag, it gained sentience and grasped the purpose of its existence. Thus it threw itself to oblivion.

But look! The Roomba wasn't alone after all. Could it have been a case of murder? After all, who is most likely to leave a plastic bag on the floor -a cat, of course! Let's hope the authorities crack the case and bring the perpetrator to justice. -via Laughing Squid