Redditor poptimist works at a culinary school, and tells of a gingerbread house competition they held for employees. She snapped a photo of her favorite entry. Oh, and here's the eventual winner. Now, which one are you more likely to remember in the coming years? Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
The following is an article from Uncle John's Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.
He could've gone down in movie history as more than just another character in the Star Wars saga, because he really was a pioneer in digital filmmaking. In the end, Jar Jar did become a cultural phenomenon, though for all the wrong reasons. Here's his fascinating -and tragic- story.
WE WAITED FOR THIS?
May 19, 1999, was a pop culture milestone: Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, the first Star Wars movie in 16 years, opened in the United States. It set a single-day box office record, bringing in $28 million. More than two million people took the day off of work to see it. And what did those fans get after all the hype? A movie that drew mixed reviews at best.
And as the summer rolled on, one name kept popping upon news reports and on Internet message boards: Jar Jar Binks. While there was some disagreement as to whether the rest of the film worked, the alien sidekick character was almost universally reviled. A typical review came from the Village Voice: "Jar Jar sucks the oxygen out of every scene he's in." So what went wrong?
SUPPORTING CAST
While outlining The Phantom Menace in the mid-1990s, Star Wars creator George Lucas wanted a character that served the same purpose as R2-D2 and C-3PO had in the original trilogy -someone who had no special abilities but could comment on the proceedings, provide comic relief, and even help out in the end.
So he created Jar Jar Binks, member of a race of amphibian-like creatures called the Gungans who live on the planet Naboo. In the movie, we learn that Jar Jar's people banished him from their underwater city because he's clumsy. While living on the surface, Jar Jar meets two Jedi knights who are on a mission to warn the planet's human population of an imminent invasion. Jar Jar joins forces with the good guys, gets in all sorts of trouble, makes a lot of wisecracks, provides plot exposition for the younger viewers, and ends up an unwitting hero in the final battle.
The blogger at Cake Time made these adorably tiny gingerbread houses for a competition last week. I hope she won! The recipe is in Polish, but you can translate it into English at the top of the page. That will not help American bakers figure out how much 120 grams of caster sugar is in measuring cups. Link -via Buzzfeed
You know it's true, because you've been to more than one holiday party and you know these things happen at every one of them. THe only question is whether you or one of your friends will hit bingo first, because there are four different cards in this Bingo set created by Jennifer Lewis for Flavorwire. Link
A rare white kiwi was recently hatched at the Pahuka Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center in New Zealand. Despite the rarity, this is the third white kiwi born at the center!
The chick hatched just prior to Department of Conservation (DOC) staff arriving on Monday in the centre’s kiwi nursery. You can see footage of the newly hatched white kiwi chick being transferred from the incubator to the ‘dryer’ here. This is the same nursery where Manukura, the first white kiwi and Mauriora, our second white kiwi was hatched in December last year.
DOC staff knew that the eggs had come from Manukura’s father, so knew there was a 25% possibility of another white kiwi, but it still came as a surprise.
It is rare enough that two brown kiwi carrying the rare recessive white gene mate in the first place, that they would go on to produce three white kiwi is really something very special.
This puppy is really into his dinner. In fact, he throws his entire being into it! -via Arbroath
Rochester Christian Church Ministries (RCCM) Daycare put on a Christmas show. During this performance of "The Twelve days of Christmas" a few years ago, children do what they do, and are all the more adorable for it. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
This is so manly -except for the instant noodles part. But since it's an ad for instant ramen, you have to include the product. Starring Ryoo Seung-ryong with music by Leonard Cohen. -via Metafilter
Dozens of contestants showed up for a Walter White Lookalike Contest in Albuquerque.
Last week dozens of wannabes showed up in Albuquerque for the event hosted by Steven Michael Quezada, who plays DEA agent Steven Gomez on the show. Fittingly held in the city that serves as the series’ backdrop and Quezada’s hometown, the contestants came clad in everything from those now-famous opening-scene underpants to the ubiquitous yellow hazmat suit that has taken over later seasons.
Wired's Raw File has a gallery of the best contestants, and scrolling through, I stopped at one that was particularly good. He was Bryan Cranston, who portrays the character Walter White on the TV series Breaking Bad, and was not a contestant, but a judge. Link -via Laughing Squid
(Image credit: Jakob Schiller)
Here's a math quiz that starts out deceptively simple and slow, but gradually becomes more difficult while you're telling yourself how well you're doing. Before you know it, you're scrambling to keep up! I got to one point where I didn't even recognize the symbols, but figured it out somehow. I cannot tell you what happens when you get an answer wrong, because I didn't, but still ran out of time on level 8. Don't scroll down to check the high scores; they will just make you feel bad. Link -via mental_floss
In Baltimore, Maryland, a speeding ticket was issued to Daniel Doty based on a camera trap that noted he was traveling at 38 mph in a 25 mph zone. However, the pictures taken by the camera clearly showed that the car was idling at a stop light, and never moved during the sequence of evidence.
Doty, a lawyer who lives in Lauraville, said he and his wife were amazed that the ticket was issued, calling it "shockingly obvious" from the images that the car was stopped. He has challenged the ticket and is scheduled to appear in District Court on Friday.
"It was like someone was so obviously asleep at the switch," he said Wednesday. "I thought that was not supposed to happen."
The city's speed camera contractor, Xerox State and Local Solutions, says each potential citation goes through two layers of review to weed out any that have a deficiency, such as an illegible license plate.
Then a Baltimore police officer must review the citation before approving it for issuance to the vehicle owner. Each citation says the officer swears or affirms that the car was going at least 12 mph over the speed limit "based on inspection of the recorded images." The officer's signature is also printed.
The speed camera program has generated $48 million in the past three years. Baltimore and some other areas pay the camera company contractors based on the number of tickets issued, which is prohibited by state law. Link -via Breakfast Links
A Baltimore District Court judge dismissed the case Friday. Link
This is a great idea: a hall tree for your desk! The Spruce Clamp, made by Layer X Layer, clamps on the edge of your desk where you can hang wires, jewelry, glasses, reminders, and other clutter to keep it off the surface. A Christmas ornament or two would look good on it, too! Each is made to order of 100% wood and costs $135, but I bet you can fashion your own if you want to. Link -via The Wirecutter
It has been 5 days since I posted the last "Gangnam Style" parody, as I promised not to unless it's awesome, which this one is! Produced by the students of NASA's Johnson Space Center, the video is full of rocket scientists, astronauts, and astrophysicists doing what they do. The guy in the background at 1:55 might best express your feelings about the song, but stay with it as this one is out-of-this-world -literally, with footage of the ISS included. The reworked lyrics are at the YouTube page. -via Wired
The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.
(Image credit: Flickr user Mark Giles)
(Part 1: 1981)
During the 1970s and 1980s the US military conducted a series of tests on fruitcake, the long-lasting holiday comestible. They issued at least two reports. Here’s a look at the first report:
“Nutritionally Fortified Fruitcake (Thermoprocessed, Flexibly Packaged) Developed for Shuttle Flight Use,” T. Branagan, NATICK/TR-82/004, June 1981. (AD A129 878).
The report features these lyrical passages:
NASA asked Natick Laboratories to develop a contingency ration that would meet and retain 100 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) and maintain consumer acceptability under ambient storage conditions for three years. NASA chose flexibly packaged fruitcake, a single food, as the approach to this ration. The desired fruitcake was to be nutritionally complete, meeting the 1968 RDA for males 22-35 years of age (700 grams supplying 2800 calories, 65 grams protein, nine vitamins and at least four minerals). The fruitcake was fortified with vitamins (A, C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and B 1 ), calcium and magnesium….
Each acceptance test consisted of 36 untrained consumers selected at random from the 400-member NLABS Food Acceptance Panel. Samples of both fruitcakes were rated on a nine-point hedonic scale…
CONCLUSIONS:
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