You are used to seeing fake deer on lawns as Christmas decorations, but in Colorado Springs, you might see a real decorated deer! A TV news crew was there to capture video when a deer with Christmas lights tangled in his antlers roamed through a neighborhood.

"I guess it got some lights tangled up in its antlers," said Louis McIntire.

McIntire saw the decorated deer, with a tangle of lights on its antlers strung down to the ground. "Everyday they're around here," said McIntire.

The lights are usually reserved for the trees and fences, not the deer. "A deer with Christmas lights is like, what did Santa lose his reindeer," said Steve Cvanita.

A neighbor chased the buck and tried to get the lights off. "He'd get pretty close, but not close enough," said McIntire. "They jump the fence here once in a while."

Wildlife experts say the problem should resolve itself when the deer sheds the antlers. Link -via Arbroath

Product is a graphic tale by Jon Phillips. The dystopian sci-fi plot can get a bit depressing if you think that will bother you. If not, you'll be glad you stuck with it through to the end. Click the linked image to enlarge. Link -via Digg

The Science of Cooking is full of great information for curious chefs, children learning to cook, or anyone who ever wondered what was really happening when you turn sugar into candy.

When you cook up a batch of candy, you cook sugar, water, and various other ingredients to extremely high temperatures. At these high temperatures, the sugar remains in solution, even though much of the water has boiled away. But when the candy is through cooking and begins to cool, there is more sugar in solution than is normally possible. The solution is said to be supersaturated with sugar.

Supersaturation is an unstable state. The sugar molecules will begin to crystallize back into a solid at the least provocation. Stirring or jostling of any kind can cause the sugar to begin crystallizing.

Explore the science behind cooked eggs, rising bread, preserved pickles, and more. Recipes are included. Link -via the Presurfer

The Letter People was a literacy program that began in 1972 and grew into a TV show. In today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, we'll see how well you recall the individual Letter People of Letter Land. You'll be given the character, but can you remember their original alliterative "characteristic"? I couldn't! Link

Amy Rawson makes a needle felted Christmas Cthulhu every year, a couple of which you've seen previously at Neatorama. This year's version of Santa Cthulhu includes a Mrs. Cthulhu! Link

Some of the stranger awards of the world should be familiar to you because they've been featured here on Neatorama. Others may be completely new to you, such as the Shorty Awards for the best Twitter Tweets, or the Foot-in-Mouth Awards, given to a public figure for something dumb he or she said.

The Foot in Mouth Award is awarded each year by the British Plain English Campaign for "a baffling comment by a public figure". This is given, appropriately, to a public figure who has said something completely stupid. It's awarded every year by the British Plain English Campaign. Previous winners include: “I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think ‘No, actually I am a giraffe.'” (Richard Gere) and “I love England, especially the food. There's nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta.” (Naomi Campbell).

Link -via Unique Daily

First, there was the Yule Log to light long winter nights. Then candles illuminated Christmas tree. Thomas Edison hung the first electric Christmas lights in his laboratory in 1880, which replaced the dangers of candle-lit trees with the dangers of electrical fires. Even the Great Depression couldn't stop people from buying Christmas lights.

The tradition of stringing electric lights may have started as a Christmas thing in America, but now it's a global phenomenon used for all kinds winter festivuses (festivi?). It's a practice we take for granted—come December, they're everywhere. The evolution of the Christmas light parallels that of the light bulb, with some remarkably ornate—OK, tacky—variations. But regardless of how they look, one thing's for certain: They're a much better option than sticking a candle in a tree.

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Jerry Seinfeld introduced us to Festivus, "a holiday for the rest of us," in 1997. How much do you remember about the Seinfeld episode that started what became a well-known December holiday? That's the challenge in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I scored a miserable three out of ten. You will do better! Link

When several hungry but cash-challenged college students chip in for a pizza, cutting it into equal and fair slices become very important. So important that mathematicians Rick Mabry and Paul Deiermann looked into the problem that emerges when the pizza cutter does not slice exactly through the center of the pie. This is known as the complete pizza theorem.

Their quest started in 1994, when Deiermann showed Mabry a revised version of the pizza problem, again published in Mathematics Magazine (vol 67, p 304). Readers were invited to prove two specific cases of the pizza theorem. First, that if a pizza is cut three times (into six slices), the person who eats the slice containing the pizza's centre eats more. Second, that if the pizza is cut five times (making 10 slices), the opposite is true and the person who eats the centre eats less.

Only the first statement was proven. Deiermann and Mabry worked on proving the second off and on until their breakthrough in 2006. Now that they have proven the theorem, they are working on other problem, such as how to divide a calzone. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Flickr user zharth)

Joyce and Kaufman made this awesome Star Trek menorah, complete with LED lights! Link

You're familiar with historical re-enactment groups who get together to stage battles from history. Here's one with a twist: a group of woman who portray the German Red Cross, or Deutches Rotes Kreuz (DRK) of World War II. Aachen Stadt I does not endorse the politics of the Nazi party; in fact they say right up front that they will not tolerate racist ideology. They participate in WWII battle re-enactments and attend educational events to tell about the role of the Red Cross. And they have a 2010 calendar for sale as well! Link -Thanks, Erin!

In a three-part post. you'll see dozens of beautiful illustrations from Iranian children's books of the past few decades. These works of art were gleaned from the International Children's Digital Library. The illustration pictured is by Mohammadrezaa Daadgar from the book As the Sparrow Says by Qeysar Aminpour. Link (links to the other posts are at the bottom of the page) -Thanks, Will!

Denver, Colorado is home to tens of thousands of stray cats. They form colonies and breed uncontrollably. Destroying or relocating the cats only opens up space for more cats to move in. Local animal welfare groups are trying a different approach, but the job is overwhelming. Kristin Des Marais and Amy Angelilli of the Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance are among those battling the feral cat population problem.

Thirty thousand cats are euthanized every year in Colorado, double the rate of dogs. Many are homeless cats considered unsuitable for adoption. Working with RMACA, Des Marais and other volunteers are trying to reduce the kill rate by trapping ferals, spaying or neutering them, then returning them — in effect, transforming the entire colony from feral to sterile so that it will eventually die out on its own. But trap-neuter-return, or TNR, is a controversial solution, often unpopular with communities afflicted by the colonies.

"More often than not, people will call and say, 'Come pick up these cats,'" Angelilli explains. "They think we have a special vehicle we drive around and pick up stray cats and bring them to this utopia in the country. If people knew about TNR and why it works — but it needs to start before the population gets out of control. By the time people call us about the problem, they're usually so fed up that they just want the cats gone."

Link -via Digg

Can you get any more meta than a year end list that is a list of internet lists?

The internet is awash in lists. We're sure that somewhere there's a few billion government dollars being spent on why we humans have such a limitless appetite for all things numbered, but it's no wonder we adore them: they're fun, easily digested, often-trashy candy for the brain. But from the great swathes of pop-culture enumerations, some stand out like beacons in the foggy internet night.

Link -via Gorilla Mask

27-year-old Lin Rong re-entered Japan even though she had earlier been deported back to China. She wasn't caught until she was arrested on other charges, because her fingerprints were different. Lin had undergone surgery to have her left fingerprints moved to her right hand, and vice versa!

Local media reports said Ms Lin had undergone surgery to swap the fingerprints from her right and left hands.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin's fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man.

Lin reportedly paid around $15,000 for the surgery in China. Link -via Boing Boing

(image credit: Flicker user chadmiller)