(College Humor link)

How different the classic Christmas tale of Rudolph would be if modern cosmetic surgery had been available to the reindeer of the North Pole! -via Gorilla Mask

Nick Brewer appeared as Robot Santa at SantaCon in New York City. It was his second year as a robot Kris Kringle, with an updated costume he calls Santabot 2.0.

Construction of Brewer’s Santabot outfit took about a month, not including the crash course in using an Arduino board for the electronics. Arcade-style buttons on his chest controlled various features, including lights, voice-changer (“Destroy! Destroy!”), sound system, LOL shield (scrolling, “What is love?” along with holiday messages) and the well-loved but short-lived candy dish that emerged from his 8-bit belly.

People got a little rough on the cardboard at times, but overall Santabot was mobbed with admirers, so much so that Brewer didn’t even make it to the main SantaCon convergence area at Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain.

“We got so bogged down with people and pictures it got to the point we couldn’t make it across the street,” Brewer said.

See several videos of Robot Santa in action at Underwire. Link

(Image credit: Jess Alford)

The National Air and Space Museum, a part of the Smithsonian Institution, keeps these very special jingle bells as a part of history.

These bells are part of the harmonica and bell set carried by astronauts Walter "Wally" Schirra and Tom Stafford aboard Gemini 6 in December of 1965. The mission was to test the docking and maneuvering capability of the Gemini spacecraft.

Approximately five hours after the successful maneuvering of the the two spacecraft to within six inches of each other, astronauts Schirra and Stafford played "Jingle Bells" with these instruments and pretended to see a UFO called Santa Claus.

Forty-five years later, they are on display in Washington as part of the "Apollo to the Moon" exhibition. If you can't go, you can see a lot of history at the Smithsonian Institution's website. Link

(Image credit: Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum)

Dr. Phil Plait has published his selections of the best astronomy pictures of 2010. Not only will you see awesome pictures, but each has an explanation, like the full version of the cropped picture you see here.

Whenever a new type of instrument is used to examine the skies, surprises are guaranteed. And when the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) started scanning the heavens in 2010, it returned one amazing view after another. My favorite by far is this one, showing NGC 1514, a dying star shedding material.

This image, in the far-infrared, is very different than optical shots of the nebula, which show it looking more like a disk. It's not certain just why this object has these two rings, but it's likely that dust ejected from the dying star is slamming into gas previously thrown off. That older gas is most likely in an hourglass shape, common in such objects. Perhaps the dust is hitting the inside of that hourglass figure, making the rings. Maybe it's a different reason entirely. We don't know!

See also 14 at Bad Astronomy Blog. Link -Thanks, Phil!

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Wikileaks knows what you're getting for Christmas, and they are going to spill the beans! A duet from Dan and Dan. -via mental_floss

I didn't know until just now, but December 14th is Monkey Day! {wiki} The day is set aside to raise awareness about monkey issues, monkeys in the news, and ways you can help monkeys (apes and other primates are included as well). In honor of the occasion, holiday founder Casey Sorrow put together a roundup of monkey news, links, and videos from the past year for your education and entertainment. Link

(Image credit: 123 Greetings)

In order to turn on the Christmas tree lights, you have to connect all the bulbs and wires by rotating them. Not an easy task, but if I can do it, certainly you can! You will be timed for points, which should only concern you if you are the competitive type. Link

(YouTube link)

A public service announcement from the Best Friends Animal Society. -via The Daily What

Hmm, this looks like someone doing a steampunk version of Star Wars, doesn't it? Wrong! These are real antiques.

This pair of early rescue masks, shown above, dates from between the mid-1800s and World War I. They look a bit familiar, right? Almost a 100 years before Darth Vader and 3-CPO hit the big screen in “Star Wars” in 1977, these two smoke helmets were worn by firefighters carrying our rescues in smoke-logged buildings. The buzz among collectors is that George Lucas’s designers must have found inspiration in these smoke helmets and other like them. In fact, one well-known 19th-century manufacturer was named Vajen-Bader—you could easily get the name Vader from that.

The mask on the left is German; the one on the right is French. Maybe the resemblance is coincidental, or maybe George Lucas and/or his designers saw these masks at one time or another. Link -Thanks, Ben Marks!

Ukrainian photographer Danil Polevoy changes vintages photographs into works of art by adding an anachronism -something that that doesn't belong in the time period of the photograph. In some pictures they are easy to overlook, but when you find them they make you smile. Link to pictures. Link to artist's site.

You'd think soup would completely dry up after a couple of thousand years, but a pot of still-liquid soup was found by a team of archaeologists in China. It was sealed inside a bronze cooking pot at a dig near Xian.

The soup and bones were discovered in a small, sealed bronze vessel in a tomb being excavated to make way for the extension of the airport in Xian, home to the country's famed ancient terracotta warriors, the report said.

The liquid and bones in the vessel had turned green due to the oxidation of the bronze, it said. Scientists were expected to conduct further tests to confirm the liquid was indeed soup and to identify the ingredients.

Another liquid discovery at the same site is believed to be wine. http://www.discoveryon.info/2010/12/china-uncovers-2400-year-old-soup.html -via Fortean Times

(Image credit: Xinhua)

If that six-inch blanket of snow outside didn't get me into the Christmas spirit, these photographs would! The Big Picture blog collected pictures from all over in a post named "Beginning to look a lot like Christmas". In this one, Santa Claus is wakeboarding on a German lake with flair. I mean, a flare. Link

(Image credit: REUTERS/Christian Charisius)

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This wooden roller coaster called the Reverse Cowgirl was built by Mike Nawrot and Romain Teil for Rush Week at MIT. I would find this totally terrifying. Link -via the Daily What

Your business knowledge will be tested in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental floss. You'll be given the names of two companies at a time, and you decide which is older. I scored 73%, or 8 of 11, because I am as old as some of the companies listed. Link

It is time for our giveaway collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Can you guess what this object is?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: The object is an old gambling die. shin knew what it is, and Sonnuvah had the funniest answer: a 35-pound dumbbell buried up to its neck! Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop.