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James Houston created a Christmas greeting for the Glasgow School of Art last year using obsolete equipment to generate old-school synthetic speech singing “The Carol of the Bells.” The idea is about  repurposing Christmas gifts of the past.

The ensemble: A collection of vintage Mac computers, a Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum + 1 and a SEGA Mega Drive perform a rendition of "Carol of the Bells" with lyrics re-written by Robert Florence & Philip Larkin in the Mackintosh Library at The Glasgow School of Art. Jacket by Ten30.co.uk (Alan Moore, GSA Textiles alumnus 2008).

We also get the appropriate 8-bit graphics on nearby screens. You won’t be able to understand the lyrics, but they are posted at the vimeo page- and they are hilariously geeky! -via Metafilter

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Bruce Farrer has been a high school teacher for decades. He gives every student an assignment to write a ten-page letter to the person they will be twenty years from now. It’s not an uncommon assignment, but Farrer goes the extra mile by keeping those letters for twenty years, and then he sends them! What a gift it is to receive ten pages that show what you were like twenty years ago. This profile of Farrer’s ongoing project not only illustrates his dedication, but is also a commentary on the lost art of letter-writing. -via Viral Viral Videos

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When anyone visits Iceland, they find the place so beautiful and surreal that they are compelled to make a travelogue. Alex Cornell wanted his to be a little different, so it is framed as an expedition to another planet, recalled twenty years after the fact. It works surprisingly well!

We visited the planet Iceland in August of 2014. This is what we remember. Scattered memories from a strange and beautiful place. Not soon to be forgotten.

-Thanks, Alex!

Melissa Tabor and Judd Doramus of Garden City, Idaho, were riding horses Saturday when their dog, a Jack Russell named Baby Dog, ran off. They searched for her, but it was Sunday before a neighbor found her with her head stuck in a pipe. The family disconnected the pipe section, but could not remove the pipe from the dog’s head.

Melissa brought the pipe and her dog to the WestVet Emergency Hospital on Sunday. Upon arrival, Dr. Andrea Oncken, Board Certified Veterinary Criticalist, determined that while the dog’s condition was stable, she was suffering from dehydration and shock. The ER team anesthetized Baby Dog, hoping that she would relax and enable the crew to gently remove her head from the pipe. When these attempts were unsuccessful, the Boise Fire Department was contacted.   

The Boise Fire Department cut through the pipe with a saw, in an operation that took the better part of an hour. The procedure was done outside the clinic, due to sparks from the saw.

This is not the first time that Baby Dog has made the local news. The Kuna Melba News reported in March 2013, that Baby Dog and her housemate “Little Dog” slipped Melissa’s truck into gear while attempting to get some doggie treats from the dashboard. Fortunately the pair of Doggie bandits only caused minimum property damage.

After being freed, Baby Dog stayed at the veterinary clinic for fluids and observation, but is now healthy and home with her family. See a video report here. -via Arbroath

The ancient architectural feature known as windcatchers, or Bâdgir, made living in the Middle East bearable. These towers are built with openings facing the wind above and direct the air down into the building. When the wind isn’t blowing, they can act as a chimney and funnel heat upward. It’s not air conditioning, but the moving air makes it possible to stay inside when the sun is baking the earth. The Persian design spread to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other parts of the Middle East where they are still in use today. Even new buildings take advantage of this ancient idea to beat the heat. Read more about windcatchers and see pictures of them from many places at Kuriositas. -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr user ninara)

Roger Baillon collected sports cars in the 1950s and ’60s. In the 1970s, a financial reversal led him to sell off about 50 cars, but the remaining 60 were left at his property in western France, where they sat untouched until earlier this year. Baillon died, and his son Jacques, who inherited the cars and did not know their value, died last year. The collector’s grandchildren have decided to sell cars. The Baillon Collection includes models like a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder and a 1956 Maserati A6G 2000. Matthieu Lamoure of Artcuriel Motorcars is excited about the upcoming auction.

Mr. Lamoure said the sale will be a no-reserve auction, adding that Artcurial has not yet announced presale estimates for most of the cars. He did, however, have estimates for two of them. The Ferrari California, which he said once belonged to Alain Delon, a French actor who had been photographed in the car with the actress Jane Fonda in 1964, was expected to sell for $11.7 million to $14.8 million. The Maserati A6G 2000, he said, was expected to sell for $985,000 to $1.5 million.

The cars will go up for sale from Artcuriel during Rétromobile 2015 in February. See more pictures at Laughing Squid

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Many of the most avid internet users grew up pin the ‘90s, and have fond memories of the decade. However, of you were young then, you might now know all these 90 facts in this week’s mental_floss List Show. Get ready for a wave of nostalgia! If you are older, the ‘90s might have skipped by while you weren’t paying close attention. That would be me- I was busy going through a mid-life crisis. But I well remember Miss Cleo! Once I was running a radio contest and picked up the phone to tell someone they were the sixth caller, and Miss Cleo started talking. The joke was, if she were really psychic, she would have been the winning caller number nine. John Green has some amazing trivia that you never thought of -like how ‘90s boy bands were named. I never had a clue. -via mental_floss

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Here’s a video that is enjoyable two ways. Leila Elkhalidy is playing a medley of tunes from the video game Mega Man 2. She’s really good, and it could have been just a nice music video. But her cat decides the sequence needs a visual element -oh, what am I saying? The cat decides she needs to pet him instead of fooling around on the piano! Who will win in the end? -via Daily Picks and Flicks  

In my neck of the woods, people occasionally talk about how lucky someone is to get a job at UPS. Sure, the pay is great, and the position is fairy secure compared to other private-sector jobs in an at-will state. However, UPS drivers earn every cent of their pay.

1. They’re always being watched.

UPS knows time is money, and it is obsessed with using data to increase productivity. Jack Levis, UPS's director of process management, told NPR that “one minute per driver per day over the course of a year adds up to $14.5 million,” and “one minute of idle per driver per day is worth $500,000 of fuel at the end of the year.” The hand-held computer drivers carry around, called a DIAD (short for Delivery Information Acquisition Device), tracks their every move. Ever wondered why your UPS man can’t stick around to hear your life story? He probably has between 150 and 200 stops to make before the end of the day, and he’s being timed. “You’re trained to have a sense of urgency,” says Wendy Widmann, who drove for 14 years. “Be polite, but you gotta go.” Sensors inside the truck monitor everything from whether the driver’s seat belt is buckled to how hard they’re braking, and if the truck’s doors are open or closed. All this data is compiled for UPS analysts who use it to come up with time-saving tactics.

And of course they are in a hurry: The trucks have no heat, A/C, or radios. But if you do a good job and stick around, there are rewards. Those are just a few of the things you’ll learn about UPS drivers in a list at mental_floss.

(Image credit: Flickr user Paul L Dineen)

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

What can you say about the great comedic genius Mel Brooks? He has given us some of the funniest movies in history. Which of Mel's wonderful films made you laugh the most? Was it The Producers? Blazing Saddles? Young Frankenstein?

A brilliant writer, director and performer, Mel is a true comedy immortal. Here's a few facts you may not have known about Mr. Mel Brooks.

* Mel is one of the rare performers who have won an Emmy, an Oscar, a Grammy and a Tony award.

* He has three films in AFIs list of Funniest Movies of All-time: Blazing Saddles (1973) is #6, The Producers (1968) is #11, and Young Frankenstein (1974) is #13.

* Although Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are thought of as his most popular films, his biggest video sales come from Spaceballs (1987) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).

* Mel was a small, sickly child who was often picked on by his classmates.

* He was a combat soldier in World War II. Mel was a corporal in the U.S. Army stationed in North Africa. One of his duties was defusing land mines before the infantry moved in.

* As a soldier, Mel took part in the Battle of the Bulge.

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YouTube stars got together, like they do every year, to mashup the music and memes of the year before we turn out calendars. The music is pretty good, but it’s a couple minutes into the video before we see any recognizable memes- and then they are overwhelmed by TV stars. Maybe 2014 on the internet won’t be as memorable as some other years. Maybe we’re all just a little too jaded. A list of all the folks who contributed can be found at the YouTube page. -via Uproxx 

See also: YouTube Rewind 2012 and 2013.

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Physics Girl shows us what happens when you are lucky enough to have your own pool, a plate, and a sunny, windless day. All that would be nice even if you didn’t try this physics experiment! She keeps saying “This is really cool!” but she’s absolutely right. I had no idea fluids would move that way, and when she added food coloring, my mind was blown. In the comments, she expressed surprise that it worked out as well as it did, even though she already knew the physics involved. Physics Girl has quite a few other really neat videos at her YouTube channel. -via Metafilter

This is a Canada Lynx, a species that has been re-introduced to Colorado over the past 15 years after being almost wiped out in the U.S. Look at those big feet! They act as snowshoes, as the cat evolved to hunt in snow. The picture was taken at the Frisco Creek Wildlife Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Colorado, formerly the Dieterich Native Species Treatment Center. You can read about the center at Mud ’N Feathers.

The center's founder Susan Dieterich commented on the post and assures us the lynx in the picture was fine, just sedated for a health check. A lynx can look amazingly cuddly when asleep, but dangerous when alert, because they prefer to avoid human contact. -via reddit

Vi Hart partnered with game designer Nicky Case to create Parable of the Polygons, a game that illustrates how human nature (and math) makes diversification difficult, whether it’s a neighborhood, school, work place, or even a circle of friends. Your goal is to make everyone happy by moving the unhappy polygons into a group that makes them happy. They all prefer a diverse group, but are unhappy if less than a third of the others in the group resemble themselves. Sounds easy, right? It’s not.   

What's up with that? These are good shapes, nice shapes. And yet, though every individual only has a slight bias, the entire shape society cracks and splits.

Small individual bias can lead to large collective bias.

There are several playing boards, in which you can adjust the polygons’ bias or happiness standards. Try out all the different scenarios to see how flexibility makes all the difference -but only if you can get everyone on board. In the real world, there will always be those who are never happy, even if we somehow achieved a shared standard of happiness. -via Metafilter

Maika Keuben, who made the awesome Cthulhu Christmas trees in years past, Just finished a festive Cthulhumas Wreath Creature for the holidays! It’s one of several Cthulhu holiday projects she’s working on -I can’t wait to see what else she comes up with. The details are in this imgur album. Don’t miss the captions- they are delicious!



You can see more of Keuben’s Cthulhumas projects in this Flickr set.

(Image credit: Flickr user (OvO))