Get your hankies ready as you watch this story from YTMND about the game Animal Crossing. Then call your mother. Link -via Metafilter

(The link was hijacked earlier; it's fixed now)

President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 (144 years ago today). But what if President Lincoln were a modern CEO? Then his Gettysburg Address would be given as a Powerpoint presentation. Peter Norvig shows us what it might have looked like. http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm -via Wired

Researchers in Belgium infiltrated cockroach colonies with robots in order to study their group behavior. The robots didn’t look much like cockroaches, but the roaches didn’t mind as long as they smelled right. Not only were the robots accepted as fellow cockroaches, but they became leaders and influenced the groups’ behavior! http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16328789&ps=bb1

In Terminus, a short movie by Trevor Cawood, a man tries to shake an annoying concrete creature who follows him around. Link [Quicktime] | Link [YouTube] -via I Am Bored

Santa Claus left a comment at my site today, reminding me about his personal blog. The latest post tells about the launch of his business blog, Corporate Responsibility @ The North Pole, where you can look up Santa’s stance on volunteerism, animal rights, environmental practices, and more. Link to personal blog. Link to corporate blog. -Thanks, Santa!

On the night and early morning of February 24 and 25, 1942, a singular event unfolded in the skies over Southern California – the continental United States was attacked by an enemy... or was it? The reports of this vary, from a squadron of Japanese bombers, a weather balloon, and even alien spacecraft, and the subsequent government conspiracies that followed. We do know that something happened; too many people witnessed the event to dispute that fact, but what really happened?

Was it an enemy attack, hysteria, or a UFO? Although the mystery has never been solved, the Fort MacArthur Museum is staging a recreation of the Great Los Angeles Air Raid on February 23rd, 2008. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

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This time-lapse video covers nine days of radishes growing from seed. The jumps in the video are the six-hour period every day when the grow light was turned off. Those little sprouts grow fast! -via Cynical-C

On November 16, 1904, British engineer John Ambrose Fleming patented the vacuum tube {wiki}. This ushered in the age of modern electronics, leading to the development of radio, TV, and other forms of electronic equipment. Vacuum tubes were standard until the advent of the transistor. The US Supreme Court eventually invalidated Fleming’s patent, but he is still known as the inventor of the vacuum tube. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/11/dayintech_1116

Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniels were seized in raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, Tennessee, and may be poured down the drain. Some of the bottles are nearly 100 years old!

Authorities are still determining how much of the liquor will be disposed of, and how much can be sold at auction.

Tennessee law requires officials to destroy whiskey that cannot be sold legally in the state, such as bottles designed for sale overseas and those with broken seals.

One of the sealed bottles is dated 1914, which makes it worth $10,000 by itself! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/11/15/national/a125256S24.DTL&tsp=1 ~via Fark

Deputy dog has a list of ten doghouses he’d live in if he were “slightly smaller.” Some of them are available to buy. This one is worth between 15 and 20 thousand dollars! http://deputy-dog.com/2007/11/10-doghouses-id-actually-live-in.html

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It appears as if Snoopy has been looking at too many LOLcat images, but this is how he asks for food, water, or a lost toy! ~via Arbroath

Every year, more and more men are taking over the job of cooking the traditional Thanksgiving turkey, so of course they’ve come up with improvements on the basic recipe. This mental_floss article has six manly methods of preparing a turkey. Fry it, stuff it, soak it in alcohol, and keep the number of the local fire department handy! Link

(disclaimer: I wrote this)

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The Tin Man got the heart he wanted, now what? This animation was created by Percy Kiyabu, a student at the Vancouver Film School. ~via Bonez

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A music video showing the day to day activities of astronauts in space. -via Metafilter

A five month old Northern fur seal pup wandered inland from the Pacific Ocean at Tracy, California. His destination? The Tracy Animal Shelter! Animal control officers corraled him on the front steps of the shelter and took him to his new home at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. Link (with video) -via Fark