Each Urban Collectable car is completely unique and has been individually hand burnt. The range includes The Joy ridden 2-door Hatchback, The Mini Van/Insurance Scam and The Petrol Bombed Jeep.

$49.95 each. http://www.chinnychinchin.net/eshop/chinnychinchinsj.html -via J-Walk Blog

Jason wanted to stage a memorable proposal to his girlfriend Maui. He pulled it off, with the help of their favorite author, Neil Gaiman (previously on Neatorama), when he autographed one of his books for her. It took extra prompting to get her to stop and read the dedication! Link to story. Link to video. -via Grow-A-Brain

From 1923 to 1986, American automobiles ran on ethyl, a gasoline that prevented engine knock due to its lead content. Within days of its introduction, refinery workers began dying. However, the oil industry managed to explain away the deaths and quash investigations into lead’s effect on people and the environment. A scientist named Dr. Clair Patterson noticed how lead contamination affected his research, and waged a decades-long campaign against ethyl which finally led to the Clean Air Act of 1970. Read the entire fascinating story at Damn Interesting. Link

Santa Claus keeps his office in Santa Claus Village near Rovaniemi, Finland (a part of Lapland, inside the Arctic Circle). He welcomes visitors year round, but if you can’t go, you can watch via webcam! There are two office webcams, inside and outside. Santa doesn’t work 24 hours a day, so mind the time difference in Finland. You cannot judge when it’s night by the outside webcam, since the sun will not rise in the Arctic Circle for weeks. Link

New Christmas Cards from Cara Scissoria this year include Fred and Ginger, as well as seven other designs that made me giggle! Be sure to check out "Poe Ho Ho". http://www.carascissoria.com/sept07/index.htm -via Everlasting Blort

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Psychologist Mitchell Spero trained his pet turtle to do dog tricks! Florida can sit, stay, and roll over (turtles in the wild do their best to avoid the rollover). Spero uses his turtle as an example of overcoming obstacles, to encourage the children he works with. Link -via Arbroath

The Movida nightclub in London has launched a new cocktail that will sell for £35,000. That’s roughly equivalent to $71,000 US dollars. They call this drink the Flawless, and it will be mixed and served under the supervision of security guards.

The cocktail consists of a large measure of Louis XII cognac, half a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne, some brown sugar, angostura bitters and a few flakes of 24-carat edible gold leaf. The drink is described as warming and refreshing, but that is not the main reason for the exorbitant cost: at the bottom of the crystal glass is an 11-carat white diamond ring.

The nightclub has already taken several orders. Link -via Fark

Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University has a gallery of art made from the patterns bacteria form with they grow in petri dishes. This one reminds me of a Yes album cover! Link -via Dump Trumpet

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Yes, we do. -via b3ta

Skarabej is an “online museum of old family photographs” from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, the Czech Republic, and Croatia. Many were found in anonymous collections at flea markets or in attics, although some are contributed.

Although we collect we are not collectors. We would like to create an archive of memmories of unknown people and events and make them available to everyone. No doubt, we are all going to be in forgotten, old family photographs.

The wedding photo above is from the Marenãiç family of Croatia. Link -via Metafilter

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December 7, 1941 is “a date which will live in infamy.” The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii led to the United States entering World War II. Wired has the short course on what happened that day. Link

Make your own Sierpinski triangle {wiki} out of clay! You don’t have to be a mathematician to appreciate the beauty in this project. Instructions are at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Link

Bizarre Records has a gallery of the most bizarre Christmas albums ever. Link -via Gorilla Mask

Over 16 years of performing, stuntman Evel Knievel was injured numerous times and had the scars to prove it. Various accounts chronicle a range from 37 broken bones over his career to 431 breaks in one season! Steve Mandich has a look back at the different reports on Knievel's various injuries. Link -via Reddit

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Wilford left a comment under the Show Off Your Smarts contest for today that said:

The very first Christmas movie was "The Night Before Christmas" released in 1906. It was a silent adaptation of the poem of the same name by Clement C. Moore .

Of course, I immediately looked that up. It’s an Edison film! IMDb Link. -Thanks, Wilford!