The BMJ (British Medical Journal) has posted their annual Christmas research paper: "Zombie infections: epidemiology, treatment, and prevention." It is an exhaustive study of the current zombie outbreak, with plenty of references. 

The Solanum virus is the most extensively studied infectious cause of reanimated zombies.^{7 8 9} It has caused outbreaks around the world but does not have an identified reservoir in nature.⁸ It has a 100% mortality rate, and zombification is certain in anyone exposed to an infected person. Solanum infection is universally fatal in all animals tested or observed, indicating that zoonotic transfer to humans is an unlikely origin.⁸ One anecdotal report linked infection to the looting of underwater settlements in the Three Gorges Dam in China.⁹ A child emerged, bitten, but his fishing partner did not surface at all. The dam was created by relocating over 1.24 million residents and flooding their former villages.¹⁰ Zombie expert Max Brooks thinks that Solanum virus infection has occurred for thousands of years and is now emerging because of urbanisation and the interconnected nature of commerce and travel.⁸ Whether this virus is the cause of the current outbreak in the United States has not been tested.^{11 12}

The caption for the above picture is "2002 outbreak of rage zombies in the UK.¹⁵" You can read the entire paper at the BMJ. -via reddit science, where joke comments are forbidden. Commenters are having a hatrd time responding to this one. The BMJ publishes this kind of Christmas paper every year.  

Miracle on 34th Street (the 1947 version) has always been one of my favorite movies. It’s a great courtroom drama and a lovely Christmas story. But it’s also a feminist movie. We might not see it from the vantage point of 2015, but the character of Doris Walker was way ahead of her time. Played by the late Maureen O’Hara, she was a confident, professional, single mom -in 1947.   

Could another actress have played Doris Walker besides the Queen of Technicolor? Sure. But they might not have had the same power and presence as this tall, brassy dame. Maureen O’Hara brought serious confidence and grace to an atypical character in the Golden Age of Hollywood, one whose impression and influence will last long after her passing.

Uproxx breaks down the many ways that Doris was ahead of her time, and how Miracle on 34th Street was really about her. Of course, the other characters were perfect, too.

A couple of years ago, we showed you an illumination of Yoda found in a medieval manuscript. Then there was another one. It turns out that those aren't the only depictions of Star Wars characters in medieval literature. After all, it was a long time ago, even if it was in a galaxy far, far away. Here you see Princess Leia in her buns wielding two light sabers, from the 1320 CE French manuscript St. Omer Book of Hours. There have also been images found of a Jawa robe, Bib Fortuna in the nude, and several depictions of Chewbacca, Ewoks, and other alien races. See them at the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog. -via Everlasting Blort

In this webcomic, the brain is usually the smart one, but something tells me that the heart may have done a little quick thinking, and changed the recipient of the gift under the disclosed conditions. But no, the gift wouldn’t have been so expensive if it were planned to be given away from the start, right? Besides, it’s really hard to go Christmas shopping and see all the wonderful gifts and not buy one for yourself. Which is why I try to avoid shopping for anything other than groceries. This is the latest comic from The Awkward Yeti.

Frijoles & Frescas Grilled Tacos in Las Vegas was robbed last week. Much of the caper was caught by security cameras. While the perpetrators most likely didn’t get away with any money, they sure caused a lot of damage. But the restaurant made lemonade by using the security footage to make an ad!

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Making security footage into an entertaining story might get enough people to watch so that someone identifies the thieves. The ad includes the number for Crime Stoppers in Las Vegas, 702-385-5555, but the biggest impact of the video appears to be making people crave tacos. That’s all good, too. -via reddit

Lipton Onion Soup Mix is one of those things I always have in the kitchen, although I’ve never made soup with it. Well, I have thrown a packet into a homemade vegetable soup before, but I’ve never made the soup by itself. Those packets are instant flavor, good for casseroles, gravy, dip, stir fry, or any kind of cooked meat. The soup mix was introduced in 1952, and became an immediate hit with cooks.

For Ashkenazi Jews in America, onion soup mix was both familiar and new. Rather than slicing or browning onions for noodle kugel, blintzes, and brisket, busy housewives could obtain the same onion flavor in a fraction of the time. When I asked my grandmother—an avid home cook who makes nearly everything from scratch—why she used a packaged food in brisket, she matter-of-factly said that it’s because her mother used it. “I actually do really like the taste of it too,” she said. “It’s also one less thing that I have to do while cooking. You never just make brisket. You also make a lot of other things to go with it, so if I can just take a package and throw it in there then it’ll save me some time and some pots and pans.”

I agree. Why use your time cutting and caramelizing onions when you can open a packet? Read more about the wonder that is Lipton onion soup mix at Lucky Peach. -via Digg

What we have here is a classic animated Western story -featuring Santa Claus! Directed by Jeff Hale in 1963, The Great Toy Robbery is brought to you by the Film Board of Canada.

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This movie has everything. A beautiful idiot who inadvertently saves the day. Toughened gangsters whose hearts are melted by teeny bears. A horse who listens to nobody. Funny sound effects. If you are in search of a Christmas tradition, I highly recommend this one.

-via The Toast

As Darth Vader gets to know his potential proteges, they brag about the evil in their hearts. But one is so evil that the others turn on him. Can you blame them? I have yet to see The Force Awakens, due to work pressures, Christmas events, and preparations for the family celebration. That means I have to be careful about which articles I read on the internet, and that’s my job! This frightening comic is from Is It Canon? which bills itself as “comics that ruin everything.” Well, this one stopped before it ruined The Force Awakens. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Boston Dynamics has a Christmas greeting for us, using three multimillion-dollar robots with antlers stuck on top to pull Santa’s sleigh! They have the prance down pat.

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You can’t help but laugh, and then you think about how these machines will soon take over the world and either kill or replace everything you love. -via Tastefully Offensive

Robot Chicken gave us a lot of Star Wars silliness over the past few years. One of the funniest characters is Gary the Stormtrooper, voiced by Donald Faison of Scrubs. This compilation gives us his best scenes. I had only seen the first one, and now my sides hurt. Gary tried to drive the Death Star, but not because he wanted to. We find out what really happened to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. And Gary meets an Ewok, which does not go well.  

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Adult Swim UK made several of these compilations in honor of the new movie The Force Awakens. See the best of Darth Vader, The Emperor, Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett, the Droids, and Han Solo. -via Tastefully Offensive

The Fine Brothers have teamed up with POYKPAC Comedy to bring us a drug deal. In the same style as the Movie Title Breakup last year, the entire story is told using only movie titles. There are plenty to choose from. Hook me up!

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Still, when the drug deal is over, the story is just beginning. -Thanks, Benny! And Ryan!

Check out the price difference between these two scooters at Target! It may be a particularly egregious example, but the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found an average 7% average cost difference in products labeled for men and for women when they surveyed nearly 800  gendered consumer products. The pink version will cost you more, even when controlled for quality. Now, about those scooters…

A Target spokesperson said the company lowered the price of the pink scooter after the report was released Friday, calling the discrepancy a "system error." (The retailer blamed the same kind of glitch last year after catching heat for selling black Barbies at more than double the price of white Barbies.)

When asked about the price differences of other gendered toys — like the Raskullz shark helmet ($14.99) and the Raskullz unicorn helmet ($27.99) or the Playmobil pirate ship ($24.99) and the Playmobil fairy queen ship ($37.99) —  the representative pointed to a company statement, declining to elaborate: "Our competitive shop process ensures that we are competitively priced in local markets. A difference in price can be related to production costs or other factors."  

The “gender tax” holds up across product categories. Women pay more for clothing, razors, deodorant, automobiles, and services like haircuts and dry cleaning. Read more about the “gender tax” at the Washington Post. -via Metafilter

Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, opened nationwide 15 years ago today. It was a simple premise: a FedEx employee survives for four years alone on a deserted island when his plane crashes. For much of the movie, Hanks is totally by himself, with only a volleyball to talk to. There are no bad guys, no chase scenes, no character transformation, and little dialogue. You might have heard that Hanks lost 50 pounds for the role. But there are some other fascinating stories behind the production.

2. THE SCREENWRITER STRANDED HIMSELF ON AN ISLAND, FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES.

William Broyles Jr. spent several days alone in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez trying to fend for himself. He speared and ate stingrays, learned how to open a coconut, befriended a washed-up Wilson-brand volleyball, and tried to make fire, which ended up in the movie. His experiences led to an epiphany regarding the Chuck character: “That's when I realized it wasn’t just a physical challenge,” Broyles told The Austin Chronicle. “It was going to be an emotional, spiritual one as well.”

9. THE MOVIE LED TO THE CREATION OF LOST.

Lloyd Braun, who was the chairman of ABC Entertainment in the early aughts, wanted a writer to come up with a pitch based on his favorite film from 2000, Cast Away. According to Chicago magazine, in 2003 Chicagoan Jeffrey Lieber was picked to write the pilot for Cast Away-the Series, which centered around eight to 10 characters stranded on a Pacific island. Lieber named the pilot Nowhere, but Braun passed on Lieber’s script and gave the project to J. J. Abrams, who added the supernatural element to the plot. However, Lieber, the WGA, and the studio went to arbitration in order for Lieber to receive partial credit for creating the show, and he eventually won 60 percent of the “created by” credit. In 2005, his pilot received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and for the entire run of the show Lieber was listed in the credits.

Read the rest of the 13 facts about Cast Away at mental_floss. 

Brian Kelly, The Points Guy, runs a travel blog. He paid $32,058 for a one-way ticket from New York to Abu Dhabi on the inaugural flight of the A380 Residence flight from Etihad Airways. What do you get for what would be a year’s salary for many Americans? A three-room suite on the plane, custom meals made by a top chef, and a personal butler for the flight, among other perks.  

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Yeah, you’d expect a luxury experience for that price, especially for a travel blogger who would eventually write a review. And it was quite fancy, except for the part where they forgot to load his luggage onto the plane! That’s like catering to a food critic at your restaurant and letting him leave hungry. To be fair, Etihad made up for the mistake by buying Kelly new clothes for his stay, and threw in a ticket to Africa for an event Kelly was going to attend.  -via Digg

The Monaco Yacht Show is like your everyday average boat show, except it caters to the richest of the rich who can afford to spend millions on a luxury craft that requires a full-time staff. Designers and manufacturers pull out all the stops to impress those folks with the biggest, newest, and most luxurious yachts ever created. These are concept yachts, as building them would be foolish without a buyer in place, as many features will be customized for the owner. For example,

5. The Hessen Project Nova Hybrid 

Hessen is a name that’s quite respected within the yacht industry, and their Project Nova Hybrid was one of the more eloquent superyacht concepts seen at the 2015 Monaco Yacht Show. This shipbuilder from the Netherlands has produced some of the more interesting yacht designs within the last decade, and the Project Nova Hybrid is no exception. It is a 164-foot vessel that is poised to be one of the more environmentally friendly superyachts, as it uses a hybrid propulsion system. Hessen boasts that the yacht will only consume just 22 gallons of fuel each hour while its operating. Compared to other yachts in this class, it is extremely efficient. The vessel will have six-staterooms in total, and the interiors are extremely luxurious and comfortable. The Project Nova Hybrid will be able to hit speeds of 16.3 knots and can travel some 3,750 nautical miles in total. Hessen has already confirmed that they are producing this yacht, and it should launch sometime in 2017.

See the rest of the boats at Worthly.