Father Tim Jones of the St. Lawrence Church in York, England is getting some flack for advice he preached after his Nativity sermon on Sunday, in which he advocated shoplifting for those in desperate straits.

Delivering his festive lesson, Father Jones told the congregation: 'My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

'I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

'I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need.

'I offer the advice with a heavy heart and wish society would recognise that bureaucratic ineptitude and systematic delay has created an invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope.'

He added that he felt society had failed the needy, and said it was far better they shoplift than turn to more degrading or violent options such as prostitution, mugging or burglary.

Both the North Yorkshire police department and local MP Anne McIntosh hav publicly denounced Father Jones' sermon. Link -via Fark

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The Kenosha, Wisconsin Police Department recorded their own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas using gifts they are accustomed to.

About 20 members of the Police Department were involved in the making of the video, which was directed by Crime Prevention Officer Jeff Wamboldt and edited by Safety Officer Dennis Walsh. Work on the video began in September with filming throughout the month of October; the video was finished before Thanksgiving.

Members of the department hope it helps people laugh amid the stressful holiday season.

http://www.kenoshanews.com/home/kenosha_police_share_their_comical_version_of_twelve_days_of_christmas_6977689.html -via Arbroath

What happens on Facebook doesn't always stay on Facebook, and sometimes those misadventures make the national news. Remember the groom who posted to Facebook during his wedding? Have you heard about the woman who lost her disability benefits over her Facebook pictures? And then there's Rodney Bradford, who was posting to his page at the exact time of a robbery he was accused of.

His defense lawyer, Robert Reuland, told a Brooklyn assistant district attorney, Lindsay Gerdes, about the Facebook entry, which was made at the time of the robbery. The district attorney subpoenaed Facebook to verify that the status update had actually been typed from acomputer located at 71 West 118th Street in Harlem, as Mr. Bradford said. When that was confirmed, the charges were dropped.

Read more stories of how Facebook is affecting the lives of people outside the internet. Link -via Unique Daily

The Toy Zone has a list of historical desks on which the owner helped shape the world. Pictured is the desk Charles Dickens used to write such classics as Great Expectations. Also see the work spaces of Shakespeare, Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and others. Link -via the Presurfer

High school seniors Kenny, Martina, Ray, and Carol Crouch, quadruplets from Danbury, Connecticut were all ecstatic when they found that all four were accepted into Yale University.

The Crouches’ perfect batting average represents a first for Yale — the first time in anyone’s memory that it has offered admission to quadruplets. It is also, of course, no small milestone for the siblings, who were born more than two months premature. (Ray was the last to be released from the neonatal unit, more than four months later.)

They made up for that rough start. Their class rankings range from 13 out of a class of 632 (Kenny) to 46 (Martina) — and they have sky-high SAT scores (including Carol’s perfect 800 on the verbal part of that exam).

The siblings have until May first to decide whether to accept Yale's invitation. They say their decision will depend on financial aid. Link

(image credit: Christopher Capozziello/The New York Times)

Those of us of a certain age may do better than others on the Rocky Horror Picture Show quiz at mental_floss. How well do you remember not only the movie, but trivia about the stars and the making of the film? You are also invited to leave your RHPS memories in the comments. I scored 100%, although I'm not sure whether that's something to be proud of! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/43177

Weather is explained in Star Wars terms on this site. Enter a city and get the current conditions, whether it's like Hoth, Endor, Tatooine, Naboo, or some other planet in the Star Wars universe. Enter a city it doesn't have listed, and the result will be Alderaan, meaning not there. Link -via b3ta

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Shorewood High School made a lip dub video to Hall and Oates' song "You Make My Dreams Come True". That's quite an accomplishment in itself, and might remind you of the "I Gotta Feeling" video (seen here) ...but wait, there's something not quite right about this video. It won't take you long to figure it out! -via reddit

It's beginning to look a lot like winter in some areas, and run-of-the-mill snowmen are popping up here and there. Bad Astronomer Phil Plait got geekily creative and made a Dalek out of snow! Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

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Just another way I can prove to my kids that I am, in fact, a genius. -via reddit

75-year-old Stanley Dudek found a book entitled "Facts I Ought to Know about the Government of My Country" among his mother's possessions when she died in 1998. He didn't know it was a library book at the time. Last year, he noticed the book was due back on May 2, 1910. On Monday, he finally returned the book to the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts.

"I didn't feel I should keep it any longer. It belongs to the people and city of New Bedford, the government. felt it was my duty to get it back to the library," he said.

Fortunately for Dudek, the fine on the book -- about $360, he said, or a penny for each day overdue, which was the charge way back when -- was waived.

"My blood pressure will probably go down now," Dudek said.

The book, which was printed in 1894, was given to Dudek's mother in 1922 when she arrived in the US from her native Poland. The library has no record as to who originally checked it out. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/12/book_overdue_fo.html -via Unique Daily

(image credit: Peter Pereira/The Standard Times)

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Well I'm a polar bear and my name is Bjorn
and I've been a polar bear since the day I was born.
Welcome to my kingdom and the world that I roam
the circumpolar arctic, the place that I call home.

Written by science teacher Tom Rugg. Complete lyrics are available at the YouTube link. This video is part of the BBC Wales' series Green Season. Link -via Arbroath

We've seen space wars fought in movies and TV shows for almost a hundred years now, but what would a real-life space battle be like? It wouldn't be like the movies, that's for sure!

In principle, yes, your enemy could come at you from any direction at all. In practice, though, the Buggers are going to do no such thing. At least, not until someone invents an FTL drive, and we can actually pop our battle fleets into existence anywhere near our enemies. The marauding space fleets are going to be governed by orbit dynamics – not just of their own ships in orbit around planets and suns, but those planets' orbits. For the same reason that we have Space Shuttle launch delays, we'll be able to tell exactly what trajectories our enemies could take between planets: the launch window. At any given point in time, there are only so many routes from here to Mars that will leave our imperialist forces enough fuel and energy to put down the colonists' revolt.

That's just the beginning of the difference we would see between a movie battle and what would happen in the outer space we have. Read more at Gizmodo. Link -via Digg

Astronomers are identifying more and more exoplanets, planets that exist in other star systems besides ours. Of the hundreds of exoplanets we know of, the one that most resembles earth is called GJ 1214b. It can be studied because it is only 42 light years away.

Based on its radius and mass — about 2.7 and 6.6 times that of Earth’s — Charbonneau and the other astronomers have calculated GJ 1214b’s density. It appears to be composed of extraordinarily deep oceans, surrounding a rocky core.

The planet’s atmosphere and precise composition remain a mystery, but it’s likely composed of many of the same elements found elsewhere at sites of planetary formation, in swirling disks of dust and gas that have yet to accrete: hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, magnesium, oxygen, carbon.

That list of ingredients raises at least the possibility of life. With an estimated temperature of 370 degrees Fahrenheit, GJ 1214b is an unlikely incubator (Earth’s toughest extremophile, a microbe that lives in deep-sea volcanic vents, maxes out at 284 degrees) but it’s not impossible.

The folks at Wired believe that GJ 1214b deserves a better name, and is taking suggestions and votes for a new name. Of course, Stephen Colbert is high on the list. I voted for Sagan. Link to story. Link to poll. -via Metafilter

We are being inundated with not only end-of-the-year lists, but also end-of-the-decade lists. It's nice to look back at the biggest news stories, sports highlights, and the best photographs, but I prefer the offbeat lists, like these memorable mug shots. Pictured is Phil Spector. Link