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
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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:
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Possibly no TV special in the history of the medium went up against so much opposition and counter-intention as the CBS Christmas classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. When one hears of all the problems, obstacles, and snags A Charlie Brown Christmas encountered during production, one wonders how it ever got made at all.
Written by Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, the original script dealt with the commercialization of the holiday and tried to reveal the true meaning of Christmas. Directed by Bill Melendez and produced by Melendez and his partner Lee Mendelson, the holiday special introduced several other "revolutionary" ingredients into the mix.
Instead of the usual Mel Blanc-type adults-doing-kids voices, the producers decided to actually use real kids. Peter Robbins took on the lead voice of Charlie Brown, Christopher Shea voiced the blanket-toting Linus sand Tracy Stratford did the voice of Charlie Brown's main nemesis, Lucy. These were the only child cast members with any experience at all. For the entire rest of the cast, A Charlie Brown Christmas was to be their television voiceover debut. (Director Melendez himself voiced the ever-popular Snoopy.) Chris Doran did the voice of the piano-playing Schroeder and Karen Mendelson (Bill's daughter) voiced Patty (not the now-familiar Peppermint Patti, but the character Patty, one of the four original Peanuts characters, who never really caught on and was phased out in the '70s).
Little Kathy Steinberg, who did the voice of Sally, was actually not even old enough to read. Her lines were fed to her aloud, one at a time, and she would merely parrot them back. All the children cast members were uncredited. The suits at CBS were against this casting decision from the word go. They disliked the novel "kids voicing kids" angle and preferred to get seasoned voiceover actors.
In addition to being a most delicious breakfast cereal, Puffins are aquatic birds of the genus Fratercula.
Yes, but how does one dress like these puffins? The Hairpin has that question covered.
There are also tips for dressing like swans and flamingos. Penguins you should be able to figure out on your own. Link -via Nag on the Lake
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