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NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Cady Coleman along with Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency send a holiday message from the International Space Station (ISS). -via Metafilter

Great Moments in Shutting Your Piehole

QUIET BREW

The Roman Catholic monks most renowned for their tight lips are the Trappists, a sect that grew out of the Cistercian Order in the 17th century. At the time, monks at the abbey of LaTrappe in Normandy felt that the Cistercians had become too lax in their pursuit of the "desert solitude" needed for a close relationship with God, so they bolted. Today, there are about 175 Trappist monasteries worldwide, populated by about 2,500 monks and 1,800 nuns. Contrary to popular belief, these monastics don't have to take a vow of silence; they're merely encouraged to maintain "an atmosphere of silence" -meaning they can speak when it's functional, when it's part of a "spiritual exchange", or on special social occasions. Trappists aren't completely shut off from the rest of the world, either. In fact, they're well known for making a mean ale. Chimay, a favorite beer brand among moneyed hipsters, is brewed by Trappists in Belgium. (Image credit: Flickr user Michael Verhoef)

LONGEST VOW, JERSEY EDITION

Apparently, phoning Guinness World Records is something monks don't think to do. How do we know this? Because the first person to set the "official" world record for Longest Vow of Silence was a college freshman from Haddonfield, N.J. Yes, Brett Banfe bit his tongue from August 31, 2000 to to September 5, 2001, in order to become a better listener and raise money for the child development program Head Start. You'll be glad to know that he broke his silence in a setting strictly adherent to the monastic impulse -in front of a scrum of TV cameras at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Times Square. He opened with a nice Shakespeare/Wink Martindale one-two punch: "'To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.' How's everybody doing today?"

SILENCE: NOT ALWAYS GOLDEN

Whether the story is apocryphal or true, it's worth retelling: During a 1956 speech for his campaign of de-Stalinization, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was asked by an unseen audience member why, as an advisor to the dictator, he had never stopped Stalin from committing his atrocities.  Khrushchev immediately lashed out, "Who said that?" The room grew quiet. Khrushchev repeated his query to more silence, waited a beat,. and then said, "Well, now you understand why."

SILENCE: NOT ALWAYS VOLUNTARY

In March 1986, the last place Romual Piecyk wanted to be was on the witness stand. Eighteen month prior, he'd been assaulted by two members of the Gambino mob family, including its boss, John Gotti. Piecyk knew that if he fingered the Teflon Don during testimony, his life -or whatever would've been left of it- wasn't going to be pleasant. (Threatening phone calls and mysteriously broken brakes served as helpful pre-trial hints.) So on the day he was to testify, Piecyk went AWOL. Where'd he turn up? At a Long Island hospital, undergoing elective shoulder surgery. When he was finally forced to take the stand four days later, he clung to ignorance. "To be perfectly honest," he said, "it was so long ago, I don't remember." The next morning, the front page of the New York Daily News screamed, "I FORGOTTI". Poor Piecyk even went beyond silence to later advocate on Gotti's behalf, saying that the media had unjustly painted the mob boss as a "human monster." In a show of deep appreciation, Gotti didn't have Piecyk whacked. And in a show of deep pity, the Queens district attorney's office declined to file perjury charges.

YOUR 4 MINUTES AND 33 SECONDS OF FAME

In 1952, legendary avant-garde composer John Cage wrote "4'33"," the most famous work of music to feature no music at all. The piece is precisely what it sounds like: four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. All you're supposed to hear are the clicks and shuffles that naturally occur within a song's duration. Since it's release, the silent composition has inspired a cover version by Frank Zappa, a tribute by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, and a scene in the film "Pootie Tang." But not until after Cage's death did his music publishing house, Edison Peters, decide to cash in on the royalties. Mike Batt of The Planets credited their 2003 track "A One Minute Silence" to Batt/Cage in what he called "a tongue-in-cheek dig at the John Cage piece." Edition Peters apparently didn't see the humor and sued for copyright infringement, demanding royalties for their late client. Ultimately, they reached a settlement, but future silence artists beware: Batt fought back by getting in on the game. He's now registered several other silent composition times, including four minutes and 32 seconds and four minutes and 34 seconds.

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The article above appeared in the Jan - Feb 2007 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Don't forget to feed your brain, subscribe to the magazine and visit mental_floss' extremely entertaining website and blog!

These are ten-sided fuzzy dice for geeks to hang in their car. Each is a decahedron known as a pentagonal trapezohedron. And you can make them yourself, with instructions from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Link

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Videogum put together their annual retrospective of the best viral videos of the year. The edit is a delight in itself, as you see big memes and their spinoffs as well, all sewn together by the catchiest video soundtracks found on those videos. See a list of the clips used at Videogum, with links to the originals. Link -Thanks, Gabriel!

In 1989, a shipwreck from about 130 B.C. was discovered. Divers retrieved dishes and other artifacts. One surprising discovery was a chest of vials and containers with tablets in them, some still dry! Evolutionary geneticist Robert Fleischer said they were made of compressed vegetation.

"It was assumed the pills were medicines that the physicians were using. There were things associated with this chest that led them to believe it was a physician's chest," said Fleischer.

Using DNA sequencing, Fleischer has identified some of the plant components in the tablets: carrot, radish, parsley, celery, wild onion, cabbage, alfalfa, oak and hibiscus.

Researchers are looking into the ingredients to determine what they were for. Speculation is that the tablets were used to treat dysentery, which was common among ancient sailors. Link

(Image credit: Harry A. Alden)

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Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like bouncing baby goats! -via Arbroath

Who wouldn't love a coffee mug with a cephalopod handle? Etsy seller skybirdarts makes them in all colors, as well as cookie jars, teapots, and other ceramic vessels featuring squid and octopuses. Link -Thanks, Magill!

Calvin Wright of Athens, Georgia went to a hospital for bronchitis and received a thorough examination. A nurse found something stuck in his ear. It was removed and found to be a pearl that Wright didn't know was there!

The pearl got stuck in his right ear when Wright was 5 and roughhousing with his sister, Regina. The family lived in Chicago at the time.

"She had broken my mother's pearl necklace," Wright said. "I can remember (our baby sitter) picking them up off the floor - except for two, of course."

Regina stuck those two missing pearls - either by accident or because kids do weird things - into her older brother's ear.

A doctor retrieved one of the pearls from the child's ear, but missed the other. Wright has undergone ear exams in the years since, but the pearl was never discovered until the nurse at St. Mary's Hospital found it. http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/121810/new_758269052.shtml -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Merritt Melancon)

They look like a floating Christmas trees! These are mobiles: tree ornaments suspended from above by invisible filament. So easy to put gifts underneath! Link to pictures. Link to instructions. -via Laughing Squid

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The Engineer Guy, Bill Hammack (previously at Neatorama) explains why standing in line at the checkout counter is so frustrating, especially during Christmas shopping season. He also tells of a better idea, if we will only accept it. -Thank, Bill!

A naked mole rat named Old Man was found dead last Thursday at his home at the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies in San Antonio, Texas. He was believed to be 32 years old. Old Man spent three decades assisting researchers in studying the process of aging. University of Texas at San Antonio physiology professor Rochelle Buffenstein knew him best.

Old Man was thought to be 11/2 to 2 years old in 1980 when he and 75 of his naked mole rat brethren were captured in a Kenyan sweet potato field — sweet potatoes being one of the mole rat's favorite dishes.

Buffenstein brought him first to Cape Town University in South Africa, and then to City College of New York in Harlem. The pair arrived in San Antonio in 2007.

Naked mole rats are noted for their longevity with an average lifespan of 26 years. Other rodents live for two to four years. This makes them particularly useful for aging studies. Naked mole rats do not develop cancer. They develop plaque in their brains as they age like Alzheimer's patients, but they do not display cognitive decline like humans do. Scientists are trying to find out why. Among the long-lived research subjects at the institute, Old Man stood out from the rest.

Even in his old age, Old Man remained an alpha male in his colony. Come feeding time, Old Man was served a special cereal that he loved and that Buffenstein imported from South Africa.

“He'd wrap his body around the bowl and eat until he was full,” she said. “The other rats would wait until he was finished before they ate.”

He also continued to mate with the colony's breeding female right to the end. About the only outward sign of his advancing age was the sarcopenia, or loss of muscle mass, he developed about five years ago.

Tissue samples will be studied to determine the cause of death. Buffenstein is sure of one thing -it wasn't cancer. Link -Thanks, Richard Marini!

(Image credit: Helen L. Montoya)

It's time for the Name That Weird Invention! contest. Steven M. Johnson comes up with all sorts of crazy ideas in his weekly Museum of Possibilities posts. Can you come up with a name for this one? The commenter suggesting the funniest and wittiest name will win a free T-shirt from the NeatoShop. Have fun, and good luck!

Update: Congratulations to Madam Atom, who named the boots Ankle Biters, and Carolyn Bahm, who called them Moc Martens. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

Allie at Hyperbole and a Half tells about the time she decided to rewrite the story of Jesus' birth to give it more pizzazz. The production included a flying baby Jesus, two drunk wise men, and Kenny Loggins. And although it was supposed to be serious drama, her family rolled on the floor, as you can see here. Link

Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has us pegged. A series of comics details how celebrations differ by age and family composition. Since I am always 20 years behind, I fit exactly in the "30-somethings with kids" category, which is "pretty damn awesome". Link -via Digg

This monster art project situated in the city square of Ljubljana, Slovenia (with tentacles trailing down the streets) was created from 40,000 plastic bags and 7,500 discarded plastic cups collected from the local schools. It's a statement about consumerism and waste. Pretty scary! Link -via RightBrainTerrain