You might be surprised at how far back some of our modern conveniences originate -and they don't look their age at all!

(Image credit: Flickr user thirtyfootscrew)

1. ROBOTS

Robots seem futuristic, but they’re really old news. The Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum invented the first air-powered bot sometime around 400 to 350 BCE. His design? A pigeon. The wooden robo-bird helped Archytas conduct the world’s first research on the mechanics of flight. When suspended from wire, it flew about 650 feet before literally running out of steam!

2. TOOTHPASTE

Dental hygiene was not high on most ancient people’s priority list, but the Egyptians bucked the trend by developing early toothpastes, toothbrushes, and even breath mints. In 2003, scholars leafing through papyrus documents at the Austrian National Library in Vienna found a 1,500-year-old recipe for iris flower toothpaste. The paste was likely paired with early toothbrushes (made from frayed twigs) called miswaks. These were invented by Babylonians 5,500 years ago and later popularized by the prophet Muhammad.

3. CHEESE GRATERS

#TWDStarWars From Robert Kirkman and George Lucas comes the next chapter in Nerd-Rections... pic.twitter.com/CJVGEmRP7F

— Vincent Marshall (@vincentmarshall) December 16, 2015

Everyone is getting into the Star Wars frenzy, including fans of The Walking Dead. That isn’t all that surprising, considering there are plenty of people who like both. They’ve been busy with mashups posted to the Twitter hashtag #TWDStarWars.

May the force zombie with you #TWDStarWars pic.twitter.com/DycgW36WRL

— HollyJollyXMas (@Hollyorange8) December 16, 2015

Clearly, the addition of lightsabers to the zombie apocalypse would be a boon to the survivors. Those things will cut heads off in no time! But it raises the question: how long do the batteries last?

#TWDStarWars storm-walkers pic.twitter.com/azQDL4QjlS

— gothams_batgirl (@G0thams_batgirl) December 16, 2015

Yeah, there are plenty of jokes, too, about the things the two franchises have in common: parentage, amputations, being eaten by strange creatures, etc. See a roundup of the best at the Walking Dead site. -via Uproxx

Greensboro, North Carolina has a unique Christmas tradition. The Sunset Hills neighborhood hangs large balls made of chicken wire and Christmas lights hanging high in the trees. It all started with one family in 1996, spread throughout the neighborhood, and in 2007 it became a project to collect food for the local food bank, called Shine A Light on Hunger. Learn more about it at the Christmas Balls blog.   

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Greensboro also has an annual race called the Running of the Balls, which raises funds for the Second Harvest Food Bank. In the video from this year’s run, you can see drone footage of the Greensboro Christmas Balls from various distances. In a video from 2009, Jonathan Smith tells the story of how it all began. And how do they get the balls so high up in the trees? With a potato gun! -via Metafilter

A Festivus for the rest of us!

Festivus is a winter holiday that was popularized the TV series Seinfeld. It was so goofy that it became a sensation -and people follow the rites and rituals as laid down by Frank Costanza in the episode “The Strike.” But, believe it or not, Seinfeld wasn’t actually the birthplace of Festivus.

Today, you can buy Festivus T-shirts and ugly sweaters, and you can decorate your desk with a miniature pole, or just order the real thing for your home, all while praying that Ben & Jerry’s brings back Festivus ice cream. You can even piss your co-workers off by donating to an actual Human Fund in their honor, and they’ll have to act like they’re appreciative because the money goes to supporting arts-education programs in Cleveland. And what makes it all so remarkable isn’t just that the writer responsible for the Festivus story didn’t think it would even make it into the episode, but that he really hoped that no one would ever find out that it was a holiday that his own father invented.

The origin of the holiday goes back to an embarrassing family ritual which began in 1966. Read the entire story of Festivus, as told by the writers who brought it to Seinfeld, at Uproxx.

New Zealand artist Scott Kelly is a true Star Wars fan (not to be confused with astronaut Scott Kelly, who is also a Star Wars fan). He created flags that represent the planets of the Star Wars universe, using information gleaned from Wookieepedia and traditional flag design principles. Kelly says,

As a child the two most important posters on my wall were my Flags of the World poster and my map of the Star Wars Galaxy.

15 years on, now as an art director, I begun the process of putting those two worlds together. I started designing a flag for every planet in the Star Wars universe. This not only included those featured in the films, but comic books, animated series and video games. As of writing this, I have completed 103 flag designs - those who know Star Wars well, will know I have a good few more planets to finish.

See all the flags at at Kelly’s website dedicated to the project and read how some of them were designed here. -via Wired

The Star Wars “week of frenzy” would not be complete without every video series trying their hand at the original trilogy. That includes the folks who bring us those hilarious Bad Lip reading videos. This one features the guest voices of Jack Black, Maya Rudolph, and Bill Hader.

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It was easy to make C-3PO say anything, because his lips don’t move! R2-D2 and Chewbacca both speak English in this version. Everyone else is spouting nonsense in a believable manner that matches their lips. Han even sings! And he’s not the only one. Truly satisfying. -via Uproxx
 
 

Iron-fortified cereal is just that: manufacturers add the metal element to many cereals as a dietary supplement. I bet you thought that was a microscopic amount. Not quite. Food artist Henry Hargreaves decided to find out how much iron was added to his cereal.

A few weeks ago, a friend informed me that many of our everyday breakfast cereals contain so much physical iron—in other words, actual metal—that the individual flakes could be magnetized. Refusing to believe this could be correct, I did a little research and found quite a few heated discussions on the topic online. As an uneducated consumer, I’d always assumed iron, which helps create oxygen-carrying red blood cells, was a naturally occurring protein that shared the same name as a rock-hard mineral purely by coincidence. Curiosity piqued, I conducted an experiment on my own using cereals found at my local supermarket.

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Continue reading to see some familiar cereals and how much iron can be extracted from them.

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

Who doesn't love Christmas? The presents, the Christmas cards, the egg nog, the Christmas trees, Santa Claus, the mistletoe, the Christmas movies and TV shows. And, of course, those wonderful Christmas songs.

Ironically, few people realize that many of the classic Christmas "standards" we all sing and hear on the radio and TV and in the movies were actually written or sung by Jews. The following are a list of 8 popular Christmas songs written or sung by Jews.

1. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)”

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The song was co-written by Mel Torme and Robert “Bob" Wells in 1946. Torme is also the singer of the song on the classic record. Both Torme and wells were Jewish. Oddly, this hugely popular Christmas song, which so clearly evokes visions of Christmas time, was written on a hot July day, in the middle of a desert.

2. “Santa Baby"

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Without a doubt, the sexiest of all popular Christmas songs- as sung by Eartha Kitt, in her 1953 recording. Madonna later also recorded a version in 1987. No, Madonna is not Jewish ...and neither is Eartha Kitt. “Santa Baby" was mainly written by a Jewish lady named Joan Ellen Javits.

3. “Silver Bells"

Yes, we do have world maps from the time Jesus was born. That’s mainly thanks to a geographer named Strabo, who was born at the edge of the Roman Empire, in what is now Turkey, about 64 BC. He was educated far beyond most men of the time, and left us a 17-volume description of the world as they knew it.

Here is what the world looked like to Strabo and his contemporaries: the globe was divided into five sections, with two cold bands on either end, two temperate bands, and one hot and "torrid" band at the very center. The inhabited world, a large island, was confined to a northern quarter of the globe and was surrounded by oceans. Or at least, that’s what was assumed: no one had ever circumnavigated the known world.

Strabo was pretty much correct in what was known, although that still left a lot of unknowns. In his world, Israel was a small and politically insignificant place that was nonetheless a crossroads between three continents. Read about Strabo’s view of the world at Atlas Obscura. 

(Image credit: Flickr user Paolo Porsia)

This past year has sure been eventful! The US Supreme Court ruled on marriage equality, Syrian refugees streamed across Europe, everyone and his brother decided to run for president, and we couldn’t agree what color that dress was.

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The biggest events of the year were reflected in internet searches. Google brings us their annual montage of the things that happened, that we talked about, that we wanted to know more about, in 2015.  

According to a translation of the YouTube description, this terrifying earthquake protection bed was developed by a 66-year-old Chinese inventor named Wang Wenxi. If an earthquake hits, the bed folds up and transforms into a safe deposit vault. There are emergency supplies (water, fire extinguisher, first aid supplies, etc) stored inside in case you are trapped for some time. It seems to be a genius idea, until you start to think of the practical implications…

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First off, what if you sleep with an arm or leg hanging off the side of the bed? You’d be instantly mangled! How are you going to access the supplies if you’re sleeping on a mattress? And what, exactly, trips the folding process? A little bit of shaking? That could be dangerous, considering the second most common thing people do in beds. And God forbid your children ever jump on the bed! -via Metafilter

The reviews are in, and so far everyone thinks The Force Awakens is pretty good. In case you are trying to avoid any spoilers at all, here is a spoiler-free roundup of blurbs. However, if you go read an entire critique, you won’t learn so much that it ruins the movie for you.

The A.V. Club:

There’s a very good chance that most diehard Star Wars fans are going to love The Force Awakens. They’re going to love it because it’s been made to their exact specifications, relayed through years of constructive criticism and very vocal bellyaching.

Uproxx:

…The Force Awakens is almost a Han Solo movie unto itself.

But, not quite, because Daisy Ridley as a lonely desert scavenger named Rey; John Boyega as a former First Order Stormtrooper, now wanted deserter, Finn; and Oscar Issac as Resistance pilot Poe (I would have liked to have seen a little more Poe) are all so fantastic and they bring to The Force Awakens what the prequels were so desperately missing: a sense of humor. There are actual laughs to be had in The Force Awakens! The original Star Wars had laughs. It’s this, more than anything, that makes The Force Awakens feel like a direct sequel to the original trilogy.

Screen Rant:

In summation, it would seem that for the most part, J.J Abrams has done a good job at capturing the original Star Wars magic; in particular, the characterization.

Den of Geek:

The good news is that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a terrific and at times purely wonderful movie. It has its faults for sure – every Star Wars movie has at least some – and while I wouldn’t call it a truly great motion picture, it is a worthy follow-up to the original trilogy. It captures so much of those movies’ warmth, sense of fun, and entertaining tone that it leaves the prequels quickly behind as a bad, distant memory. It has a sweep and grandeur all its own, and while it may just miss the mythic power of the series at its very best – i.e. A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and most of the third act of Return of the Jedi – it sets up the sequels to do that.

Rotten Tomatoes:

Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.

The New York Times:

The big news about “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is — spoiler alert — that it’s good!

At the top is the latest comic from Lunarbaboon.

Okay, the premiere of The Force Awakens was yesterday in Hollywood, and it’s all anyone can talk about. You can see 90 minutes of premiere coverage here. But if you want to get a Star Wars fix that will also help you keep your expectations in check, watch this Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies.   

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It starts out by declaring that Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels. Talk about damning with faint praise! Seriously, this movie would have been okay if Anakin Skywalker hadn’t been such a whiner and a simpleton. Can you believe this kid became Darth Vader? -via Tastefully Offensive

The latest in Mode’s 100 Years series is a look at the hot toys for Christmas. While the oldest toys are indeed classic, they were all new and innovative at one time. Even though I was a child in the 1960s, I remember getting Tinker Toys, and a doll house, and a top, and the Mr. Potato Head features that you used on your own vegetables.

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One thing I wanted, but never got, was a Barbie doll. That’s possibly because I never came out and asked for one. Oh well. Which of these toys do you recall from your childhood? -via Viral Viral Videos   

My, how things have changed since 1983. That was the year Return of the Jedi hit theaters, and the year that Larry Dewayne Riddick, Jr. decided to make a fortune by stealing the film and selling it to bootleggers who would copy it to newly-popular VHS tapes for profit.  

Riddick, 18, stood in the parking lot of the Glenwood Theaters in Overland Park, Kans. and watched as John J. Smith exited the building. Smith was the projectionist; Jedi was finishing its sixth week as the most popular film attraction in the country. It was after midnight. As Smith walked to his car, Riddick came up beside him and flashed a gun. He had come for the movie.

Smith told him roughly 20 people were still inside the theater. Riddick stewed in Smith’s car for 20 minutes, waiting for the last patron to leave. Once inside, he forced Smith to unspool the 70mm film print from the large metal canisters and into a series of portable containers. It took over an hour.

Riddick was far from the only one with the idea of stealing Return of the Jedi from a theater. Read how that case, and others, turned out at mental_floss.