When nine kings get together for a photo opportunity, is it a summit meeting or a family reunion? It's a family reunion, of course, because kings send representatives to summit meetings. In this case, the occasion was the funeral for Britain's King Edward VII in May of 1910, to whom each of these monarchs was related. Standing, from left: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire, King George I of Greece, and King Albert I of Belgium. Seated, from left, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King-Emperor George V of the United Kingdom, and King Frederick VIII of Denmark. Many of them were first cousins of George V as his grandmother, Queen Victoria, married off most of her ten children to royalty across Europe, although some kings were only related to the British monarchy by marriage.

Tsar Nicholas II was also George's first cousin, but did not attend the funeral. Russia was represented at the funeral by the Tsar's brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, also a cousin, and their mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. However, you may recall another occasion we saw the British King and the Russian Tsar together. Only a few years after this picture was taken, most of Europe was at war, empires were shattered, and monarchies overthrown. Such a photo will never be possible again. That's not a bad thing. -via reddit

(Image credit: W. & D. Downey)

Imagine finding this under the Christmas tree! Redditor trevorda92 took this picture at his office Christmas party where they exchanged secret Santa gifts. The "body bag" contained a Christmas sweater. In this case, the joy of giving and/or receiving a gift is incidental to the drama of the gift wrap. Creative gift wrapping is an art form, as many people go above and beyond to make the concealment extra clever or even deceptive. Sometimes the presentation overshadows the gift itself.

Redditor mowa111 tells us about some gifts his friend wrapped for his wife. The "lamp" on the left is actually a bottle of perfume, and the "chair" hides a sweater. The joke is definitely worth the effort. See a roundup of the strange ways people have wrapped Christmas gifts at Bored Panda. The 30 projects might give you soime inspiration for next year.

I suppose it could have been worse. A group of men dressed as Santa Claus went on their annual pub crawl in Angarrack, Cornwall, UK, Thursday evening. They were riding around in an armored military vehicle somewhat resembling a tank. A complicating factor was that Angarrack is famous for its Christmas lights, and many people were parked along Marsh Lane entering the village, making the road even more narrow than usual. Too narrow for the armored vehicle? Apparently, as the jolly old elves drove into a hedge and became stuck. The entrance to the village was blocked for about two hours before the vehicle was moved. Police were present, but no one was arrested.  -via Metafilter

(screenshot via Ian Jepson)

Noah is a young antelope who dreams of being a truck driver just like his dad. Then he grows up and becomes one, yet it can be a grind at times. But a chance encounter brings those memories back. Luke Bouhuis (FattyDragonite) has been working on the cartoon "Horns" since last summer in his spare time. He says,

Doing this makes me happy. And that I get to share it with an audience that will remember it means more to me that you know.

Check out more of Bouhuis' animation work at YouTube.

The last soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev emerges out of a Soyuz capsule after spending time on the Mir Space Station, March 1992 pic.twitter.com/ISOCnlWGb5

— USSR Pictures (@PicturesUssr) June 20, 2022

There have been some horrible mishaps in space, but we aren't talking about those things right now. Rather, this is about small episodes that ended up funny, sometimes only in hindsight. Like the time cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Aleksandr Volkov manned the Mir Space Station for the glory of the Soviet Union, which collapsed while they were up there. The chaos meant mission control was suddenly in Kazakhstan instead of the USSR, with all the confusion that caused. Russia didn't have the money to bring them home. Well, they are no longer there, so you know that turned out okay eventually. Read that story and four others about goofy shenanigans in space, including two pranks that involved people who shouldn't even be up there. Yeah, there's one about farts, too.   

When the kids get excited about a Christmas visit from Santa Claus, they have a lot of questions. How can Santa visit the whole world in one night? Well, he's not everywhere at the same time. He starts at the International Date Line and works his way westward as the earth rotates. At least we assume as much. You can keep your kids busy today with several sites that track where Santa is at any time from now until he completes his rounds. Keep in mind that he won't visit until all the good little boys and girls in the house are asleep in their beds.

Google has a Santa Tracker online, as they have every Christmas Eve since 2004. The tracker also has links for kids to learn more about the places he visits. The screenshot above was taken in the early morning, so he's no doubt moved on quite a bit by now.

NORAD Tracks Santa was launched by the North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1955, when the agency issued hourly press releases about the unidentified flying object that was eventually identified as Santa Claus. They later had a hotline that kids could call and reports that were aired on radio. I well recall the dispatches, featuring a NORAD radio operator relaying Santa's current location every hour or so. It always ended with a clip of Santa saying "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" The origin story of the program is pretty wild, and keeps changing. Now you can follow Santa Claus online on a map, although it was glitching when I checked it this morning.  

Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, a generous priest who came to figure prominently in the story of Santa Claus. He died in Myra in what is now Turkey in 343 AD. According to the Vatican, he was buried in Myra. So who is buried in the Tomb of St. Nicholas just outside the ruins of St Nicholas Church in Ireland? The church is now part of privately-owned Jerpoint Park near the town of Kilkenny, Ireland, and was a thriving village in the 12th century. Not only does local legend say that Nicholas is buried there, but a large gravestone with his image adorns that grave.   

It turns out that Nicholas is apparently buried in many places. Whether he was actually interred in Ireland or not matters little to the 10,000 or so annual visitors to Jerpoint Park. To determine the truth, the grave would need to be opened and DNA tests done to compare with that of known relatives of Nicholas, who was an orphan. That difficulty aside, the owners of the park aren't about to disturb the grave. Read about the mystery of St. Nicholas' Irish grave at BBC Travel.  -via Fark

(Image credit: Fiddawn)

It happens at this time every year, when you start to see lists of things that happened over the previous 12 months. As we say goodbye to 2022, it's tradition to look back and the best and the worst of everything of the year. The best of those lists give us a chance to laugh all over again.

If you are working on TV in the 21st century, no matter if it's live or not, there will be someone who records every mishap you encounter. If it's funny enough, those catastrophes will spread through the internet virally so that everyone can laugh. People who broadcast the news live every day have to be ready for what will eventually go wrong, and hope when it does they can recover and take it in stride. The compilation above brings back those funny moments when a news broadcast did not go as planned, and the result was comedy gold. Some of them you've seen on Neatorama and are well worth another look, but there are enough to guarantee you haven't seen them all! -via Digg

What your family eats for Christmas is always the right thing, because you've had the same celebratory meal for years and years, and you don't have those foods the rest of the year. For those same reasons, people around the world celebrate Christmas with foods that may be very different. In Texas, it's tamales. In Japan, It's Kentucky Fried Chicken. In eastern Europe, it's a fish that has been swimming in your bathtub for a few days. And the sweets that go along with the holiday vary, too. In Scandinavia, you have to placate a variety of mischievous legendary spirits, so children in Denmark leave out risengrød, a special rice pudding with cherry sauce, almonds, and whipped cream to please the nisse (elves) who may otherwise cause trouble for the household. Read about that and several other Christmas food traditions at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: cyclonebill)

Star Trek: The Next Generation aired from 1987 to 1994, with 187 episodes in all. The title of this compilation video is "3 Seconds of Every Star Trek: TNG Episode," which doesn't sound like much fun at all. But that is misleading. What Mason Grime (SentinelOfSomething) did was find the most outlandish line or scene in each episode, completely void of context. Alone, each one is pretty funny. Strung together, they are super weird and make you want to know how on earth they got to that point. Why does broccoli make Geordi nervous? What does Picard find romantic about horses? And while we aren't surprised to hear Worf make physical threats, it turns out that he is very often on the receiving end. -via Laughing Squid

A unique job opening for two people has been posted by East Brother Light Station in California. If you've dreamed about becoming a lighthouse keeper, this opportunity comes with living quarters overlooking both San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay, which is worth more than most jobs pay in itself. The salary is variable, but the last couple who held this position split $140,000 for a year. You also get health benefits and two weeks paid vacation. The downside is in the job description.

Innkeepers must assume the role of maid, boat captain, gift shop attendant, tour guide, host and chef with “high-quality culinary experience” to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner.

***

Additionally, at least one of the innkeepers must have a Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Credential boat operator’s license, in order to safely ferry guests

You see, East Brother Light Station became a bed & breakfast (with supper) in order to pay for its own maintenance and preservation. Guests pay $475 to $525 a night to stay in one of the tiny island's five guest rooms. So you can see that the job comes with none of the solitude that the title of lighthouse keeper normally implies. After all expenses are paid for both the lighthouse maintenance and the business, the two keepers split what is left. So if you thought board would come with the room, keep in mind yours will come out of the profits. The job application is online. The position is for a two-year term, so be sure you can get along with your partner that long before applying.  -via Fark

What could be more festive than watching the family pets gather 'round the Christmas tree? Having them complete the tree trimming, of course! Your dogs might work collaboratively, but they would more likely take the ornaments off than to put them on a Christmas tree like this group of Spot robots. They are all good boys, and deserve all the head scritches and lithium grease treats you can give them. Until they turn on us. Yeah, yeah, I know- that would violate Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but a robot is only as good as its programmer. Let's not think about that too much right now.

This is the new Christmas greeting from Boston Dynamics. Be sure to keep watching for the blooper at the end, which is bit comforting to see because we're not really ready for robots to be perfectly programmed all the time. However, I'm slightly disappointed that they didn't include a clip of Spot lifting its leg to relieve itself on the tree. -via Reddit

The town of Tallinn in Estonia claims to be the first town to ever put up a public Christmas tree, in the year 1441. Riga, Latvia, disputes that and claims to have been the first. But in Estonia, public Christmas trees are made into soda, specially produced to mix with gin. Estonian couple Maarit Pöör and Tarmo Virki established Lahhentagge Distillery in Saaremaa, and in 2019 began producing Estonic Soda, which comes in spruce, fir, and juniper flavors that come from the branches and needles of town square Christmas trees after the holiday is over. Unlike Christmas trees in a home, these massive municipal  trees stay fairly moist and fresh over the holiday by standing outside in freezing weather. The 56-foot tree in Kuressaare will produce enough infusion for 40,000 bottles of soda, and trees from other towns will be used as well. Read about turning Christmas trees into Estonic Soda at Atlas Obscura.

Redditor Bloodlustftw is visiting Enterprise, Alabama, for the holidays. He took this picture of a statue in front of the McDonald's outlet there. That's about the strangest Ronald statue we've ever seen, and we've seen some weird ones. It may remind you of Scrat from the Ice Age movies, or maybe Gonzo from the Muppets. Commenters who know Alabama instantly recognized it as a boll weevil. But why would a fast food mascot be turned into a boll weevil? The answer lies in Enterprise's history. The town has a permanent monument to the boll weevil, and its Wikipedia entry gives us a bit of history.   

The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis), sometimes referred to as the "Mexican cotton boll weevil"^[3] was indigenous to Mexico, but appeared in Alabama in 1915. By 1918 farmers were losing whole crops of cotton. H. M. Sessions saw this as an opportunity to convert the area to peanut farming. In 1916 he convinced C. W. Baston, an indebted farmer, to back his venture. The first crop paid off their debts and was bought by farmers seeking to change to peanut farming. Cotton was grown again, but farmers learned to diversify their crops, a practice which brought new money to Coffee County.

In 2019, Enterprise launched a community art project to honor the 100th anniversary of the conversion to peanut farming, in which fiberglass boll weevil statues would be sponsored and decorated, the way Chicago did with cows and Cincinnati did with pigs some years ago. The result is Weevil Way, with dozens of 6-foot-tall insects with long proboscises, dressed for different occupations. This particular statue is named Ronald McWeevil, and his restaurant is at 652 Boll Weevil Circle. And now you know why Ronald McDonald looks funny in Enterprise.   

Spanish band Broken Peach has impressed us with some Halloween videos to accompany their rockin' cover songs. They go all out for Christmas, too! The video above sets the stage for a Christmas challenge, as Broken Peach investigates the evil that may creep into the holiday season. To save Christmas, the band must perform the world's most perfect Christmas song. And despite the title Noche de Paz, it will not be a "Silent Night." Instead, they give us a rockin' yet festive rendition of  "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas."



This is the song you play when you want to hear some rock 'n' roll, but your family wants to listen to Christmas classics. Or vice versa. Oh, there's plenty more where that came from. The YouTube page for the top video has links to their Christmas playlist.