A "body farm" is a facility for research on decomposing bodies. It can also be a training ground for criminal investigators. The fifth body farm in the US is preparing to open in Pennsylvania, which will give researchers a new environment to study.

"It's so environment specific," said Dr. Richard L. Jantz, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee. "In east Tennessee, it's not humid in the summer and it doesn't get that cold, but in the southwest, it's hot and dry all the time and things proceed differently."

Cold weather generally slows the rate of decomposition, while heat, direct sunlight, and high humidity all accelerate it. A buried body, exposed to fewer elements, will decompose more slowly than one on the surface, but acidic soil and high soil moisture can work to speed up the process. The California University of Pennsylvania body farm, to be located in the southwestern corner of the state in a humid continental climate, will be subject to hot, humid summers (with an occasional heatwave); cold, snowy winters; and regular precipitation throughout the year. These climatic conditions, distinct from those in Texas, North Carolina and Tennessee, will likely affect corpses in undocumented ways and provide ample opportunity for new research.

Over 100 people each year donate their bodies for research on the farms. Read more about body farms at The Atlantic. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science

At first it looks as if the Tetris L block has messed up your game in this Czech building. However, upon further investigation, the block was planned to fall this way in order to keep the bottom floors of the building from being wiped out. See more views with Google Street View. Link -via reddit

I Can Has Cheezburger has a collection of snowmen that resemble cats you may know. This one, of course, is Simon's Cat. There are also snow replicas of Garfield, Longcat, and a reasonable facsimile of Maneki Neko (without the raised hand), among others. Link

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A mother duck and twelve ducklings deal with a strong wind. This will have you on the edge of your seat, so be sure to watch through to the end. If you think this video would be better with music, there's always this. Or this. -via Metafilter

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Kazuhiko Minawa of the Enoshima Aquarium in Japan developed a method of powering Christmas tree lights using an electric eel. Since at least 2007, his idea has been put to use in a local shopping center. Link -via Boing Boing

Just this evening, I found myself explaining to my kids how relatively short the Beatles career as group was, compared to, say, The Rolling Stones. Seeing this only reinforces how fleeting those years were.  Artist Maxim Dalton is selling a limited edition (500) of this giclée print. Link -via The Daily What

It's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy with boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad! What is he saying in this empty speech bubble? Tell us and you might win any T-shirt available in the NeatoShop -take a look around, pick one out and tell us what shirt you’d like with your submission in the comments. If you don't specify a t-shirt with your entry, you forfeit the prize. Enter as many times as you like (text only, please), but leave only one entry per comment. For inspiration, check out Mal and Chad’s comic strip adventures by Stephen McCranie at malandchad.com. Good luck!

Update: The winning text was contributed by Mark Wrede, with "Sort of makes you feel huge and significant, doesn't it?" However, he did not select a t-shirt prize.

Dark Roasted Blend has an awesome post featuring motorcycles, from early antiques to the modern designs available today to the concept bikes of the future. You'll see bikes equipped for war, all-terrain cycles, strange mods, and movie motorcycles. The sleek concept motorcycle shown here is called Swordfish. Link

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Remember Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus? The sequel is going to be even sillier! Bonus: starring Jaleel White, whom you may remember as Steve Urkel. -via Geeks Are Sexy

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Youngsters needs something to hug on, you know. -via Arbroath

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It's a social networking Christmas! This parody of "My Favorite Things" contains a bit of rude language, just in case you are watching at work. -Thanks, Paul!

Cartoonist Adam Watson took two of our favorite fantasy worlds and melded them in drawings of Star Wars characters as imagined by Dr. Seuss! In addition to Jabba here, see Yoda, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and more at his site. Link

Mandy J. Watson took text from ten classic novels and generated word clouds in fonts and colors that portray the feeling of the novel. The results are pictures that are quite familiar to those who have read these works. In addition to The Wizard of Oz shown here, see Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, The Time Machine, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, and others. Link

Colorforms is not only the toy, it was also the company that made the toy. Harry Kislevitz invented the plastic forms that stuck to just about everything, but his company manufactured many other playthings. Toymaker Mel Birnkrant worked for Colorforms for 20 years beginning in 1964.

Later that day the phone rang.  I lifted the receiver to hear for the first time, the mesmerizing voice that would dominate my Destiny for the next 20 years. It was the voice of Harry Kislevitz, a Wizard of the highest order.  I immediately fell under his spell.

His voice alone was captivating, kind, exuberant, and resonating.  It was the voice of Santa Claus, calling, from just across the river in New Jersey, to offer me the possibility of making toys, happily ever after.

In the days and years that followed I spoke to Harry, hour after hour, nearly every day, and found him to be the most complex and amazing person I had ever known.

Birnkrant tells of toys you may remember, toys that were never mass produced, and toys that flopped (and are now collector's items). He also tells of the 15 years he worked on Colorforms Stick-ons, the company's flagship toy. Link -via Metafilter

A Klingon Christmas play? Yes! After a run in St. Paul, A Klingon Christmas Carol is on the marquee at the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago until December 19th. Scrooge, the ghosts, and even Tiny Tim are there, albeit underneath Klingon makeup. The play, produced by the theater company Commedia Beauregard, is presented entirely in the Klingon language. See more pictures and watch a promotional video at Kuriositas. Link