Cartoonist Kate Beaton illustrated the story of how she spent Christmas in 2005, working the night shift by herself in the tool crib at a mine, a long way from home. I've spent a few holidays like that myself. Only a small portion is shown here; go read the rest at Hark! A Vagrant. Link
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Sure, you can sing along, even if you don't know the words …because there aren't any! A Christmas treat from Glove and Boots. -via Tastefully Offensive
This squirrel is either insanely brave or just insane. Or maybe he realizes that squirrel meat is not nearly as tempting to an eagle as the human with a camera sitting high in a tree. -via Daily of the Day
Update: this is from a webcam trained on the eagle's nest. -Thanks, Monitorhead!
The Arizona Humane Society sent its emergency team to respond to a report of a cat stuck in a cactus in north Phoenix. They found the cat had escaped the cactus, but took parts of it with him as he became stuck in a fence!
The vet techs rushed the unfortunate feline, now dubbed “Prickly Pete”, to the Humane Society’s Second Chance Animal Hospital. Vets spent two long hours, painstakingly removing cactus spines, one by one, from Pete’s muzzle, eyelids and mouth.
Now recovering in Second Chance, Pete will remain on pain medication and antibiotics to prevent infection.
If Pete's owner is not found before he recovers, he may go up for adoption. Link -via Arbroath
Jib Jab's annual year-end wrap-up is one for the records, just like 2012 was.
It's almost 2013, and once again, Rhe DeVille has updated my favorite New Year song, this time as a club mix and a story in the video. When the credits roll, the song is not over. Let's hope your new year is this happy! -Thanks, Rhe!
Canadian astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield is spending his Christmas holiday aboard the ISS. He recorded the original Christmas song "Jewel in the Night" at the space station yesterday and uploaded it to SoundCloud. Link -via reddit
Although Santa Claus supposedly lives at the North Pole, many nations would love to claim him. Scandinavia and the World (SATW) is a webcomic that helps explain the dynamics of the different nations of Scandinavia, and often other European nations, to English speakers. A couple of years ago, it laid the question of Santa's ethnic origin to rest. Sort of.
Everybody knows Santa’s sledge is pulled by reindeer, lives somewhere cold and even the Finns say he lives in Lapland.
In other words, Santa is a Sami. Just look at this [link] and deal with it.
The Sami people are the “Indians” of the North and they belong in the same group as Native Americans and Aboriginals. They live in Lapland, an area that stretches from north Norway over Sweden and Finland to Russia.
Of all the stories that came out of World War I, the one about the Christmas truce is the one we most enjoy retelling. It wasn't an official truce -in fact, officers on both sides were appalled and took steps to make sure it never happened again. After all, we can't have soldiers from enemy sides drinking and singing together! But it happened on that magical Christmas Eve in 1914, in several areas of the front lines between British and German soldiers.
The first signs that something strange was happening occurred on Christmas Eve. At 8:30 p.m. an officer of the Royal Irish Rifles reported to headquarters: “Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs and wishing us a Happy Xmas. Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions.” Further along the line, the two sides serenaded each other with carols—the German “Silent Night” being met with a British chorus of “The First Noel“—and scouts met, cautiously, in no man’s land, the shell-blasted waste between the trenches. The war diary of the Scots Guards records that a certain Private Murker “met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn’t fire at them, they would not fire at us.”
Some of the German soldiers spoke enough English to communicate, and whiskey and Christmas carols were understood by both sides. Another thing the soldiers had in common was soccer, and there are several reports of Christmas games. Alas, by Christmas evening all had returned to their respective trenches, and the war resumed on the 26th. Read the entire story of the Christmas truce at Past Imperfect. Link
The people of Micronesia live on small, isolated islands, with little traffic and few modern amenities. The U.S. Air Force has delivered Christmas through Operation Christmas Drop for 60 years now. It's an assignment every Airman wants.
This large-scale humanitarian mission had relatively humble beginnings. According to the 36th Wing historian, the exact origin of the operation is unknown, but legend has it that the first supplies were dropped around Christmas in 1952. An aircrew, assigned to the 54th Weather Squadron at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, flew a WB-29 aircraft over a tiny island and saw the villagers below. The crew then packed a box and sent it down on a parachute used for weather buoys. This became tradition and continued each year until Operation Christmas Drop was officially named and organized in 1958.
Read more about the mission at Airman magazine. Link -via Buzzfeed
Chatty doesn't want these gifts to be wrapped! This is another reason why it's hard to get anything done during the holidays. -via Daily PIcks and Flicks
You've seen the world's most useless machine (previously), but now it's new and improved! The openly thing a useless machine does is turn itself off. However, this one goes the extra mile. It came about when a printer was rendered useless by a broken printhead. But the mechanics of the machine still worked, so why not turn it into something entertaining? Get the specs at Stuff. Link -via Viral Viral Videos
Jeremiah Gorman built his son Finn a spaceship for the fifth birthday! Surplus electronics from a TV station became the cockpit controls, set under his bunk bed with proper lighting that looks like stars. See pictures of the build at Makezine. Link
The Cromwell Wall family of England had a wax cylinder phonograph on which they recorded family events, including Christmas celebrations, from 1902 to 1917. The Museum of London obtained the cylinders in 2008, and now they are digitized for all to hear.
The sound is thought to be the oldest Christmas recordings on record, as they date back to 1902. There’s even one from Christmas Day that year of the family singing Angels from the Realms of Glory and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
It was an unusual find at the time, not only because of the age and good condition, but because the phonograph and cylinders were so expensive in 1902. To record so much, let alone own one in the first place, required considerable wealth.
A video at Geek.com tells how the sound was recovered digitally, and has sample sound clips. Link to story. Link to recordings. -via Fark
In the mycology lab at the J. Craig Venter Institute, Stephanie Mounaud and her fellow fungus folk put a little bit of holiday spirit in their work. This Christmas tree is made of different kinds of growing fungus!
Fungal Christmas tree. Top: Talaromyces stipitatus; Tree: Aspergillus nidulans; Ornaments: Penicillium marneffei; Trunk: Aspergillus terreus.
Also see a snowman and a white tree at their website. Link-via Nag on the Lake
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