Valerie Musser knows bearded dragons- she has five of them! She sometimes dresses them up and poses them in miniature kitchen scenes for fun, as you can see at Instagram.

Winny came as a rescue when she was abandoned in front of a pet shop. She may have been considered a defective dragon, as a veterinary workup determined she has muscular dystrophy. Not only that, but Winny was malnourished and full of eggs! Would she survive long enough to lay those eggs? Good food and loving care in her new home helped, but Musser still kept her fingers crossed. And Winny came through like a champ! 

Even though all the bearded dragons are treated like royalty, Musser has made extra accommodations for Winny's health. At Facebook, you can follow Winny's progress and see how a bath mat helps her walk without sliding, and an improvised vibrating device helps her digestion. Winny has found the perfect family and is living each day to the fullest. 

Black Death refers to a pandemic of bubonic plague that swept Europe in the mid 14th century, killing up to half the population. The disease, carried by fleas on rats, had been around for thousands of years, and the virulence of the pandemic of 1346-1353 is ascribed to high populations living in close confines during the medieval period. But how did it get to Europe? 

New research shows that it was likely related to a volcanic eruption in 1345. We don't have historical records of such an eruption, but written accounts from Europe and Asia in the years following report dark clouds and crop failures. We know this can be caused by volcanic ash circling the earth. Also, Arctic and Antarctic ice cores have dated a layer of sulphur to around 1345. Tree ring data also shows the ash clouds' effect on climate in those years. The result was that Italy had to import massive amounts of grain from Central Asia to keep the population from starving, and that's where the Black Death began to flourish. Read how a volcanic eruption somewhere in the world led to the resetting of Europe at LiveScience. -via Strange Company 

Actor, comedian, singer, and dancer Dick Van Dyke was born on December 13, 1925, which means he is turning 100 years old today. Van Dyke began his career in the military, then went on to radio and nightclubs, and became famous for his performance in the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie, for which he won a Tony Award. That got him the starring role in The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to '66 -and three Emmy Awards. He was cast as the male lead in the 1964 movie Mary Poppins, which garnered Van Dyke global fame and a Grammy Award for his performance on the movie's soundtrack album. Those roles were followed by a series of movies and TV shows, and more work on Broadway. Van Dyke spent eight years starring in the TV series Diagnosis: Murder. 

Other notable facts from Van Dyke's life include how he dropped out of high school to join the military as a pilot during World War II. He was rejected by the Army Air Force for being underweight until they accepted him as an entertainer. Van Dyke also wrote several books, including one for children based on his experience as a Sunday school teacher. There are other lesser-known facts about Dick Van Dyke's life and career you can read about here. 

Truck drivers spent a lot of time on US highways, and they have the opportunity to leave reviews of those roads with organizations that crunch the numbers. The Overdrive Highway Report Card keeps track of the worst roads as ranked by truckers, and Trucker Path publishes rankings from truckers to share information about things like parking availability, truck stops, and fuel prices. The four worst ranked highways include two in Louisiana! They are lambasted for bad pavement, minimal maintenance, number of accidents, and congestion. Those are features that are of concern to all drivers. 

The five best highway routes for truckers take into account industry-specific features like parking availability and truck stops, but they would not have been ranked so high if they didn't also have good pavement and fewer accidents. The number one best highway gets bonus points for also taking you to a string of famous monuments and attractions, which is a spoiler for those who have been there. Find out how the best and worst ranked highways in America got their reputations at Jalopnik. 

(Image credit: formulanone) 

Before you go to bed on Christmas Eve, don't forget to leave out milk and cookies as a treat for Santa Claus when he stops by! And maybe some carrots for his reindeer. You might get the idea that the jolly old elf will be so stuffed with cookies that he can't move by the time he ends his rounds, but no. Milk and cookies are pretty much an American custom. Families in other countries share their own traditional gifts for Santa.

In European countries, there's almost always an alcoholic drink left for Santa, as well as traditional sweets, except for a few places that leave letters for Santa instead. The further you go south, the heartier the food gets. Some countries in Africa leave a full filling meal of meat and seafood stew. Or barbecue. Remember, below the equator, Christmas comes in the middle of summer, and traditional treats often follow what's in season. Treats are left for livestock, too because Santa is pulled by animals that are not reindeer in many countries. See a roundup of traditional treats left for Santa Claus in nations around the world at Mental Floss. 

We are often warned not to take health advice from just anyone on the internet, because there a lot of folks out there trying to make money from telling you how you are doing something wrong. That goes for sleep positions as much as anything else, and there is no shortage of "experts" who will tell you how to do it, whether they are really experts or not. So which is really the optimal position to sleep in? And can you train yourself to do it the "right" way?

First off, remember that humanity has managed to survive for hundreds of thousands of years without worrying about sleep positions. But according to science, the most optimal sleep position depends on who you are and the state of your current health. Even then, it's most likely only going to make a small difference. Dr. Rachel Salas, a neurologist who specializes in sleep medicine, explains the differences in sleep positions.    

I ran into this "fun fact," and found it so absurd I just had to look it up. Far from debunking a funny meme, I found that the story of the 1901 book Makt myrkranna, or Powers of Darkness, was even stranger and more complicated than this. The Wikipedia entry on the book details how it differs from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, despite its reputation as the direct translation. It was only in 2014 that a Dutch scholar noticed how different the two novels were. 

But after Makt myrkranna was translated into English just a few years ago, it came to light that the source of the story wasn't Bram Stoker, or at least not directly. It was a Swedish story titled Mörkrets makter (Powers of Darkness) that was first published as a magazine serial in 1899-1900. The Swedish Powers of Darkness was somewhat closer to Dracula, and had been assumed to be based on Stoker's unpublished notes and early drafts. The story had been changed considerably from that of Dracula, and had a political slant. Still, the Icelandic "translation" by Valdimar Ásmundsson was much shorter, stylistically different, and had more emphasis on action and sex. 

Scholars are still translating and studying each version to determine what the sources were, how Dracula changed so much, and why it took a hundred years for anyone to realize that the books told a different story.  

Eight of the best mechanical minds in Japan collaborated to assemble the Great Ball Contraption at the 2025 Japan Brickfest. The goal is to design the most elegant and mesmerizing methods of moving tiny basketballs and soccer balls a few inches further down the line. The result is 49 LEGO modules that, when strung together, created a circle of the room more than 31 meters long!

The elements of this contraption include elevators using genius handoffs; robots that resemble birds, dinosaurs, and, uh, robots; and gear assemblies that look like some kind of voodoo is going on. There's even one sequence in which a ball must be thrown through a basketball basket to proceed. Don't miss the colorful valley, designed to be pretty and move impressively. You might also notice a domino machine that doesn't seem to have anything to do with moving the balls, but it's pretty clever anyway.  -via The Awesomer 

Neal Agarwal has given us plenty of games and web toys at Neal.Fun (previously at Neatorama), but this one takes a left turn into just plain fascinating. Size of Life is a slideshow that compares the size of living things on a scale from strands of DNA to to largest living thing on earth (you might already know what that is). Of course, not every living thing can be included, but there are some surprises along the way, like a jellyfish with tentacles that can grow 100 feet long, an extinct armadillo that was bigger than a bear, and an entire animal that's smaller than our white blood cells. Although I would argue if that orangutan stood up, it wouldn't fit between a crab and a penguin. 

At the bottom right, there is a button that lets you compare the size of any two creatures in the show. However, if the difference is really big, you'll have to use an arrow button to see them both, and you may have to look really hard to see the smaller organism. -via kottke 

 

In this story, trooper TK‑42Greg has been assigned to Hoth to make sure the holiday is festive. It's a losing battle. While there, he is sent on a mission to deliver socks to an outpost while a blizzard rages. Not fun at all. This is the way to spend Life Day on a bitterly cold planet, with Kevin the tauntaun and cynical troopers, under orders to be festive (or else!) while you lose your way, face a wampa, and pull a sledge full of socks and regret. 

It appears that Disney has taken down the original video, possibly because of the references to a holiday they'd just as soon forget. So instead, we will share a video in which Commander Dave and trooper TK42Greg first arrive on the ice planet Hoth for their rotation. 

The Franco-Prussian War lasted less than a year, but it was a particularly hard time for Paris. The Germans surrounded the city and began a siege. No one could get out, nor could supplies be brought in, for five months. As winter approached, food was running out. Restaurants stayed open, although they had no agricultural products. One waiter snapped at a woman who wanted a salad, “Madame, this is a restaurant, not a meadow!” So what was on the menu? Meat. First they ate the horses, then the cats and dogs, and then rats. And the animals of the city zoo. 

The restaurant Christmas menus from 1870 reflect what was available, and how eateries did their best to make it sound palatable. At the restaurant Voisin, you might have elephant soup, fried camel nuggets, kangaroo stew, or bear chops, among other ghastly offerings. But the most common food was from cats, dogs, and rats. Butchers began to specialize in slaughtering household pets. We don't know how long Parisians would have held out eating such food, because Otto von Bismarck lost patience and shelled the city into submission. Read about the dreadful Parisian diet of 1870-1871 at Messy Nessy Chic. 

You probably travel with just carry-on luggage if you have to fly (I do), because not only does checked baggage cost extra, there's a chance you may never see that suitcase again in one piece. What do airlines do to cause all that damage? One commenter told of the time he received his clothing in a garbage bag at baggage claim. The explanation was that an airplane had run over his suitcase. Your mileage may vary, one would hope. 

To show us what happens in the airport baggage conveyor system, Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines (previously at Neatorama) recreated the path that your suitcase takes through an airport. It's a bit scary in places, but somehow, his suitcase beats the odds and makes it out okay. What inspired this madness? It looks like he has a luggage company for a sponsor, but they make that nicely subtle. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

The reason we have two eyes is so that we can judge distance by stereo vision. The reason we have two ears is that the difference between the sound they pick up tells us what direction that sound is coming from. You can argue that these aren't really reasons, but advantages that ensure that we kept those dual systems. So why do we have two nostrils? Is it a side effect of a symmetrically-split face? Not really- since we have one nose at the center of our faces, it could easily have evolved to have one big hole. 

You might be surprised to learn that two nostrils do give us a slight stereo effect in smelling things, so that we can detect which direction a smell comes from. But the real reason two nostrils are an advantage to us is that they don't work together. One nostril carries a bigger load in breathing while the other rests- and then they switch. Read how this happens and why its an advantage for animals that have two nostrils at Popular Science. -via kottke 

(Image credit: Karabinkrok) 

Hanukkah begins at sundown on Sunday, December 14th, and runs through sundown on Monday the 22nd. Every year, we get a new crop of Hanukkah songs that are set to the tunes of pop songs we all know. Some of the groups have been doing this so long they have used up all their favorites, and therefore go with whatever the big pop culture thing of the year was, which means they can end up doing the same thing. It happened in 2016, when both the Maccabeats and Six13 used songs from Hamilton, and again in 2024 when they both used songs from Wicked. It has happened again this year. Above you have Six13 presenting a medley they call "Golden: A KPop Demon Hunters Chanukah." Below is the new Hanukkah medley from the Maccabeats called "HanuKpop Demon Hunters." 



Both videos feature tunes from the movie KPop Demon Hunters, both feature clever lyrics that reflect the story of Hanukkah, but the Maccabeats went so far as to animate theirs. Meanwhile, the third Jewish a cappella group, Y-Studs, made their 2025 Hanukah song with a medley of Jonas Brothers songs. 

Enjoy previous songs from Six 13 and the Maccabeats at Neatorama. And a song from Y-Studs, too. 

Austin Dirks was hiking in Arches National Park in Utah this past Sunday, and became trapped in quicksand. Now, we've addressed the cinematic reputation of quicksand before, and know that you're not going to drown in it. But you can get stuck, and that's a serious danger in coastal areas when a tide is coming in. Dirks was nowhere near the coast, but he was alone, and it gets pretty cold in December.  

In a reddit post, Dirks explained the incident and how he contacted Grand County Search and Rescue, but it would be hours before they could reach him. Meanwhile, his trapped knee was bent at a painful angle and his fingers were freezing. He was located by drone, so rescuers could find him. After a complicated rescue, Dirks was treated with a heated blanket and was able to walk out once feeling returned to his leg. Read the story of the hiker's scary ordeal in quicksand. -via Metafilter 

(Image credit: Austin Dirks)