Only ten days remain before the opening of the movie we never thought we’d see, and then lost our minds over when we found out otherwise. The December issue of Rolling Stone magazine has an extensive look at everything they know about Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Everyone involved signed what Hamill calls "this massive, oppressive sword-of-Damocles NDA hanging over my head," so they can't say much about the plot without being thrown into the Burbank equivalent of the Sarlacc pit. But there was still plenty to talk about – memories to be probed, mysteries to be solved: Could Abrams recapture the magic that Lucas himself summoned only intermittently in his three digitized prequels, in between council-meeting scenes and wretched dialogue ("I don't like sand")? Did Boyega and Ridley understand they were about to send their lives, if not necessarily their careers, into hyperspace? How did the original trio feel about resuming roles that haunted them for decades? Could a Rolling Stone writer keep it together while hanging out with human editions of his childhood toys?

To find out, there were pilgrimages to be made to the homes of Hamill and Fisher, wisdom to be sought from Ford. Abrams' hidden base needed to be invaded. The new stars had to be interrogated. So passage was booked to that wretched hive of scum and villainy, Los Angeles, where the search would begin for signs of humanity, and of the Force itself, within a vast and corporate saga…

They did find out about JJ Abrams hashing out the storyline under the pressure of time. About Harrison Ford (“the best-looking 73-year-old man on this or any planet“) and his injuries, both on and off the set. About John Boyega and Adam Driver trying to put away their fandom long enough to do their jobs. About how eccentric Mark Hamill is and how funny Carrie Fisher is. It’s a long and satisfying read, and will no doubt get you pumped for The Force Awakens. -via Metafilter

The history of passports was already interesting, but with the plights of Syrian refugees in the news and the debate over immigration in the US, those official papers take on even more importance. Passports and visas are official permission for people to move from one place on earth to another, which is a strange custom when you look at it from an extraterrestrial’s point of view. The process for issuing those papers has never been totally egalitarian. Neil Kaplan has collected over 2,000 passports and runs the website Our Passports. He talks about the history of travel documents and their political ups and downs. During peacetime, they serve as a means of control for a nation’s borders, letting in desirables and excluding others, groups that change over time. During wartime, governments themselves would bypass passport and immigration laws for their own ends.

How did specific diplomats use their position to save lives during periods of conflict?

Kaplan: Toward the end of the ’30s and into the beginning of World War II, most countries were very strict with their visa-issuing. I think these regulations were implemented specifically to prevent Jews from arriving in those countries. Sometime in October 1941, the Germans decided not to permit any Jews to leave their territory. They were implementing the Final Solution, so they weren’t allowing Jews to escape.

But at the time, several diplomats had something in them most people don’t, and decided to do the right, honorable thing—not to follow the rules and orders given by their foreign ministry. Many people who are under pressure or in danger decide not to help others, or freeze up because they’re not accustomed to this type of situation. Yet these diplomats understood that people’s lives were involved, and because of their integrity, they decided to act.

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese vice-consul stationed in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1939 to supervise the German and Russian forces as part of the Axis powers, and report back to Tokyo. Sugihara was given a “no” from the foreign ministry in Tokyo, but he still decided to help. The Soviets would not allow Lithuanians to cross into Siberia without a final destination, so Sugihara worked together with the Dutch consul in Lithuania to issue a ridiculous visa for travel to Curaçao, which was a small Dutch colony in the Caribbean. Once that was inside the passport, it was easy for Sugihara to give them a transit visa to Japan, where they could catch the boat to Curaçao, though the majority stayed in Japan.

There are more passport, visa, and travel stories that Kaplan tells us in an article at Collectors Weekly. 

We saw the beautiful microphotography of the 2015 Nikon Small World Photography Competition only a couple of months ago. Today, Nikon has announced the winners of its other competition, called Small World in Motion. This contest brought entries from all over the world of the microscopic world in video form. Continue reading to see the best of them.

Drug users, and others who are down on their luck financially, will often turn to dealing drugs to make a quick buck. The markup on illegal drugs is enormous, reflecting the risk much more than the work involved. However, the neighborhood dealer isn’t getting rich. The people who are getting rich are those who build a network and control distribution from the source. To reach that level, one has to be willing to do more than just sell drugs, because operations of such size involve bribery, intimidation, corruption, and murder. These drug kingpins must be willing to cross any line to get to such heights. Take, for example, Griselda Blanco, estimated to have been worth $2 billion at one time.     

Next up is Griselda Blanco  (a.k.a. the Black Widow, a.k.a. the Cocaine Godmother) with an estimated net worth of $2 billion. Griselda was a member of the notorious Medellin Cartel, and was involved with the cartel during their most powerful years. During the 1970’s and the 1980’s. Griselda primarily worked in New York and Miami, helping with the cocaine shipments that ended up in the United States. It is estimated that her operations in the United States at their height brought in some $80 million dollars in revenue each month. However Griselda became increasingly violent and paranoid over the years, like many drug lords (drug lady?), and was eventually arrested, yet the case fell apart. She then fled to Columbia where she laid low, before she was eventually killed in a drive-by assassination in Medellin, Columbia in 2012.

And she’s only ranked at number nine! See the rest of the ten richest drug lords ever at Worthly.

A few decades ago, a family allowed their son and daughter to select their own names. The son, who was eight or nine years old at the time (accounts differ), chose the name Loki Skylizard. You have to admit that’s an awesome name, and many nine-year-olds would have done much worse. Skylizard kept that name ever since, all the way through medical school. Dr. Skylizard is now a prominent cardiac and thoracic surgeon in Missouri. He does not mention the origin of his name in his biography. 

Dr. Loki Skylizard was a #1 seed in the 2014 Name of the Year tournament, but he was defeated by Shamus Beaglehole. -via reddit

(Image credit: Webrbandz)

Mallory Ortberg asked her Twitter followers to share their stories about their dads’ music. People couldn’t wait to embarrass their fathers with silly memories.

@mallelis When I saw this in my dad's record collection, I realized I knew nothing about him. pic.twitter.com/1Vc4pIpHsu

— T2Va (@T2Va) December 6, 2015

Um, my parents had this one, too.

@mallelis also my dads ringtone (on a flip phone, of course). Ballad of the Green Berets.

— princesspotatomagic (@LacunaKale) December 6, 2015

What’s wrong with a flip phone?

@mallelis We had to buy my Dad a new Steely Dan Aja CD because he wore out the first one listening to it on repeat in his car.

— beegibs (@beegibs) December 6, 2015

Oh, I remember when that album came out. I wore the grooves down.

@mallelis The soundtrack to my childhood holidays to Scotland was Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, and only Tusk, for what seemed like years and years.

— Adam S. Leslie (@MrAdamSLeslie) December 6, 2015

You have to laugh, and wonder what your kids will say about your taste in music someday. But the winner winner chicken dinner was this Tweet:

@mallelis Um, well okay. Here goes. My dad wrote the lime in the coconut song.

— Kiefo Nilsson (@konilsson) December 6, 2015

There are a lot more. You can see the whole collection at Storify. -via Metafilter

Remember when Christine McConnell decorated her parents’ home with eyeballs for Halloween? her Christmas decorations are gentler, yet even more elaborate. The gingerbread and, uh, gingerbread are made of lightweight foam board, so she’s not really putting a ton of nail holes in the house. The final picture is a little Photoshopped to remove the neighbors and the utility wires, but those who have seen the house in person say it’s awesome. See an imgur album of the house and the process of decorating it.  -via reddit

Everywhere you go on the internet, there’s Star Wars. And there’s Donald Trump. Auralnauts couldn’t resist the opportunity to combine them.

(YouTube link)

In this video, sound bites from The Donald are married to video clips of Darth Vader. But the best sound bite isn’t from his campaign stump speeches. It’s the catchphrase from the TV show The Apprentice. Watch for it. I had to laugh out loud! But then, the scene where he reveals himself to Luke is pretty funny,too. -via Tastefully Offensive

Time has announced the results of its readers poll that accompanies the selection of their Person of the Year. The only person to garner a double-digit percentage of votes is presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He was followed in the poll by Malala Yousafzal, Pope Francis, and Barack Obama. You can see the full results here.

Time also revealed the shortlist of eight contenders for their Person of the Year, and Sanders is not among them. The only presidential candidate included is Donald Trump. Time will announce its Person of the Year on Wednesday. -via The Daily Dot

(Image credit: Flickr user Michael Vadon)

For the first time in three years, NASA will be accepting applications for its astronaut program beginning next week. Do you have the right stuff? The requirements are not exactly things you can throw together in your resume at the last minute.  

The basic qualifications to be an 21st century astronaut are actually quite democratic. You need a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution (which covers about 2,500 American universities) in engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics. You must be between five feet, two inches and six feet, three inches tall, which includes about 95% of American men and 75% of American women.

Experience is required, but that qualification also leaves the door open for many; NASA defines “experience” as either a thousand hours of pilot-in-command time, or (more relevant for most) three years of professional experience–which ranges from getting a Ph.D. to being a K–12 teacher (of which there are over three million in the country).

You also have to be an American citizen and pass a physical. Notice that while the education requirements preclude very young applicants, there is no upper age limit. The last call for applicants in 2012 brought in 6,000 applications, and this time they expect even more. Why? Because this class of astronauts just may go to Mars. Read more about the astronaut program at Atlas Obscura.  
 
(Image credit: Flickr user NASA on The Commons)

The Information is Beautiful Awards exist to recognize outstanding achievement in data visualization. The awards for 2015 have been announced. The Gold Awards goes to Dov Friedman and Tynan Debold for a series of charts at the Wall Street Journal called Vaccines and Infectious Diseases. They strikingly show the effect of vaccines on the number of cases for several different diseases. The chart for measles is shown here. Other awards go to data visualizations about languages, politics, climate change, education, and more. See them all at the awards page, and since many of the winners are interactive, you’ll want to go to their sources to explore them. -via Metafilter

A little girl goes to see Santa at the Cleveland Centre in Middlesbrough, UK. That’s a good-looking Santa Claus. The child’s mother mother explains she’s hearing impaired, but yes, she does know a little sign language.

(YouTube link)

And so does Santa! It’s almost like a scene from a movie. That’s got to be the real Santa Claus. -via Viral Viral Videos

The concept of “Hey, y’all, watch this!” has been elevated to an art form. Luc Bergeron (Zapatou) gives us a 21-minute compilation of the best internet videos from 2015. It’s absolutely beautiful, and breathtaking.

(YouTube link)

The first seven minutes are extreme human stunts that may leave you dizzy. Starting at about seven minutes in, you may become verklempt. At 8:15, it become adorably cute. Then animals jump in. We also see some great special effects. At 12 minutes in, the stunts start again, with a fast-moving sequence of vehicle videos. At 15 minutes, we see the art of video. At 16:30, the dancing begins. At 18 minutes, we see the beauty of places. And more stunts. These videos would not be possible -or be as good- without GoPros, drones, high definition, and video stabilizing technology. And a bunch of fearless people.  -via Viral Viral Videos

See more of Zapatou's videos. 

The Jerk is one of those movies that seem entirely made of catchphrases, like Airplane! and The Princess Bride. “You mean I’m going to stay this color?” Fans know that those catchphrases are just shorthand for an entire funny scene that other fans will recall and laugh. “There are snails on her plate!” But even the most avid fan of The Jerk can learn a few things about what went on behind the production. “See a doctor and get rid of it.”  

1. STEVE MARTIN BASED THE FILM OFF A LINE FROM HIS STAND-UP.

The film proposal was based on Martin’s “It wasn’t always easy for me; I was born a poor black child” routine. Navin saying he doesn’t need anything, then picking up different items he does need, is also from his act.

5. THE JERK CAME FROM DOSTOYEVSKY.

"It needs to be something short, yet have the feeling of an epic tale," Martin said to his director, Carl Reiner, one day. "Like Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, but not that. Like The Jerk."

6. THE ROLE OF MARIE WAS WRITTEN FOR BERNADETTE PETERS.

Martin and Peters were an item by the time filming began. They met in 1977, when they were both on the Kenny Rogers celebrity softball team. A few months later, Martin asked her out after they taped an episode of Hollywood Squares together.

Read more trivia about the 1979 film The Jerk at mental_floss. “The new phonebook's here!”

Priorities, people. If you’re going to worry, worry about the truly awful things you shouldn’t even be thinking about. And there’s nothing like being alone with your thoughts, without distraction, to make you realize that there’s always something worse to obsess on. Bills and deadlines? Ha! They pale against the terror of illness, pain, loneliness, a wasted life, and death. This is the latest comic from Chaos Life. Sweet dreams!