You don't really believe the world will end tomorrow -after all, it's already December 21st in parts of the world. But if it did, some people will be ready in style! There is no dearth of state-of-the-art survival bunkers for those who want and can afford one, and some of those are built for the life of post-apocalyptic luxury, like the Vivos Underground Shelter Network.

Each shelter is within 200 miles of a major American city, and is outfitted with refrigerated storage for DNA samples and enough food, water, and fuel for an entire year. What’s more, the shelters are co-owned by their hopeful (is that the right word?) future inhabitants, so getting in on this little slice of heaven is actually quite possible for even novice doomsday preppers. You don’t even have to worry about packing -- each shelter contains a tasteful wardrobe collection, so you can rebuild civilization in style.  

Read more about this network, and other fancy shelters, at the new Atlas Obscura, just relaunched with a new fast-loading interface. Link

On December 20th, 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's first book was published. All over the world, book lovers are marking the 200th anniversary of Die Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales), a collection of 86 traditional fairy tales the brothers had reworked and written down. The German brothers would go down in history for stories like Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White. A year of events is planned in Germany to celebrate the anniversary, although the Brothers Grimm are more popular outside their native land than in it. And why is that?

The theory that the Grimms' tales, particularly the more brutal ones such as How Children Played Butcher With Each Other, in which a whole family massacres itself, had an adverse effect on the German character was expressed frequently after the second world war.

In his 1978 book Roots of German Nationalism, Louis Snyder argued that the brothers helped to shape certain deleterious traits, such as discipline, obedience, authoritarianism, glorification of violence and nationalism, which became part of the national character. That was the reason allied commanders banned the book in schools after the war, arguing that they had found the roots of Nazism in the Grimms' world.

A British major, TJ Leonard, even said the fairytales had helped Germans teach their children "all the varieties of barbarousness", making it easy for them to fit into the "role of the hangman".

The German author Günther Birkenfeld saw in the fairytales the answer to "how the German people were able to perpetrate the atrocities of Belsen and Auschwitz".

The book was therefore largely banned from the German nursery – which was simultaneously undergoing its own anti-authoritarian, pro-modernisation reaction to Nazism – for decades. At the same time though, it was becoming increasingly hijacked outside Germany by Disney and Hollywood.

However, the Brothers Grimm have been good for tourism, from the towns of Hamelin and Bremen to the fairy tale castles of Germany. Academics are planning events throughout 2013 in honor of the Grimms' works. And foreigners as well as Germans are invited. Link

The Cassini spacecraft took this picture of Saturn from the planet's backside in October. NASA has only now released its awesomeness on the public.

On Oct. 17, 2012, during its 174th orbit around the gas giant, Cassini was deliberately positioned within Saturn's shadow, a perfect location from which to look in the direction of the sun and take a backlit view of the rings and the dark side of the planet. Looking back towards the sun is a geometry referred to by planetary scientists as "high solar phase;" near the center of your target's shadow is the highest phase possible. This is a very scientifically advantageous and coveted viewing position, as it can reveal details about both the rings and atmosphere that cannot be seen in lower solar phase.

See a much larger image at NASA's website. Link  -via The Week

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

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The cameras are shooting, the video is rolling, and a cat decides he wants whatever it is the bride is throwing. Maybe fish? The description is in Russian, so that's all I know. -via Buzzfeed

Ranker pulled in extra help to sift through the memes of 2012 and put them in order for the convenience of anyone who wants to relive them. It wasn't easy!

I think I'm just gonna be frank here: I am, right now, insane. I shouldn't be. I should be the picture of mental health, like I was yesterday. But that was before I agreed to catalogue the best memes of 2012 for Ranker. Before I agreed to comb through an entire year's worth of internet, find the stuff it found interesting and then (this is the part that made me insane) explain why that stuff is interesting to you.

Bonus: it starts with #1, so you can read as far as you are interested. Link

If you want a breakfast burrito and you don't have a tortilla, what do you do? Drive to a fast food restaurant! But even better, weave a tortilla out of some tasty bacon and wrap your breakfast in that! The guys at DudeFoods will tell you how. Link -via FoodBeast

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Recently deceased British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, here sporting a serious case of bedhead, speaks to a man who claims to speak languages of other planets. The film is from the 1960s.  -via the Presurfer

Russia has a lot of miles that are covered in snow for a large part of the year. Find a way to travel through it more efficiently, and you'll be a hero! English Russia has collected many photographs of different contraptions built specifically for snow travel over the course of the past century. Some are silly-looking; others are tough tank-type vehicles. Shown here is the first snowmobile Igor Sikorsky designed. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Dr. Phil Plait wrote a book called Death From The Skies, in which he details the many ways the Earth could be destroyed by astronomical events. But even he isn't worried about the world ending anytime soon, because he knows the odds -they're "astronomical." So why are people still talking about the December 21st apocalypse? Because they misunderstand what the Mayan calendar actually says.

It had as its basic units a day (called a k’in) and a 360-day period called a tun. The Maya understood that a physical year was five days longer than a tun, and had other calendars to deal with that. They had longer units, too, like the ka’tun—just shy of 20 years—and most importantly for apocalypse aficionados, the b’ak’tun—roughly 394 of our years. The starting point for their calendar (Year Zero, if you like) is 3114 B.C., the date they figured the Earth was created.

Knowing all this, we can match their calendar to ours and convert any date they used to our more familiar system. If you do the math, you’ll find that we are nearing the end of the 13th b’ak’tun. In fact, it ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

That’s this Friday. Cue the spooky music.

The thing is, there is no suggestion, not even a hint, in Maya writing that they thought the end of this current b’ak’tun had any connection to doomsday. It’s entirely possible it may have even been thought of as a time of celebration (just like we celebrate New Year’s Eve).

The Maya also had bigger units of time, including the piktun (which was either 13 or 20 b’ak’tun), and the alautun, which was—get this—63 million years! So it doesn’t sound like they were predicting the end of the world ever, let alone by this weekend.

At Bad Astronomy, Plait goes on to explain how other doomsday theories came about and were debunked in the past -and present. And, of course, we'll see more in the future. But as Douglas Adams once said, "Don't Panic." Link

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

We've all heard the story of Rudolph, the reindeer that saved Christmas because of his bright red nose. But while a nose that shines like a beacon through the fog may be the stuff of fantasy, Rudolph is far from the only reindeer with a red nose.

Of course, the story was rooted in myth. But there’s actually more truth to it than most of us realize. A fraction of reindeer—the species of deer scientifically known as Rangifer tarandus, native to Arctic regions in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia—actually do have noses colored with a distinctive red hue.

Now, just in time for Christmas, a group of researchers from the Netherlands and Norway have systematically looked into the reason for this unusual coloration for the first time. Their study, published yesterday in the online medical journal BMJ, indicates that the color is due to an extremely dense array of blood vessels, packed into the nose in order to supply blood and regulate body temperature in extreme environments.

How did they determine this? The study involved infrared imaging, comparing reindeer and human noses, and putting reindeer on a treadmill! Who says science isn't fun? Read all about the study at Surprising Science. Link

(Image credit: Ince et. al.)

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Mashable brings us an internet carol, featuring lots of internet memes and appearances by some original meme characters, such as Scumbag Steve, Chuck Testa, and Tardar Sauce. See the entire list of participants at the YouTube page. -via Holy Kaw!

The public poorhouses that you read about in Dickens novels are gone, having been replaced with welfare hotels, housing projects, and homeless shelters. The Knox County Poorhouse in Ohio was once such an institution.

Constructed in 1875, Knox County Poorhouse sheltered the poor, homeless and orphaned. During a time when mental illness was still considered innately wrong, parents would often abandon children whose behaviour deviated from what was considered “normal”. Many of the rooms were occupied by the elderly who simply didn’t have the means to support themselves. Rooms were overrun with occupants, leaving staff unable to provide an acceptable standard of living.

Reused as a Bible college since then, the structure has been empty for decades. The delapidated building is rumored to be haunted by the tortured souls who lived and died there. And thanks to urban explorers, you can take a look inside in a series of photographs at Urban Ghosts. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Justin Masterson)

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Imagine you're just chillin' out, getting some video of a soaring golden eagle over Mount Royal Park in Montreal. Then the eagle swoops down for its prey -a toddler at the park! The videographer then sprang into action, so you'll have to watch the slo-mo replay to see what happened. The child appears to be okay, possibly bruised from the fall, but if he hadn't been wearing a bulky coat, his injuries could have been serious -or even fatal. -via Metafilter

Update: Neetzan Zimmerman explains this video is a hoax. Link

Update 2: The actual credits. Link

It's time for the latest edition of our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what this thing is? Or can you make up something silly?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. Pease do not post URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

See all this week's mystery objects at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: this previously-unknown object is a tie press. This week, H.Walter was the first person who knew the answer, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The award for the funniest answer goes to Kevin George, who said,

It's a prehistoric typewriter. Before language was developed, there was only one letter in the alphabet. You would type that letter by pressing the button on top. The knob on the side advanced the paper. You could type out your story: Oo oo ooooo!

He wins a t-shirt, too! Thanks to everyone who played along this week. You find the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.

Robots are big! You'll find robots standing 40, 50, even 60 feet tall in different parts of the world. Dark Roasted Blend shows us some you might see on your travels, from France to Azerbaijan to China. However, Japan, unsurprisingly, has more giant robots than any other place. That's where you'll find this three-story replica of Tetsujin 28 guarding the city of Kobe. See the rest at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

(Image credit: Motohiko Hasui)