(YouTube link)
A grandmother dies and goes to heaven, where she discovers a way to keep an eye on her family. Animation by Maya Weksler, music by Assaf Rinde. -Thanks, corinne!

The Mars Phoenix Lander has been guest blogging at Gizmodo. Today, it sent its last post.

This final entry is one that I asked be posted after my mission team announces they’ve lost contact with me. Today is that day and I must say good-bye, but I do it in triumph and not in grief.

As I’ve said before, there’s no other place I’d rather be than here. My mission lasted five months instead of three, and I’m content knowing that I worked hard and accomplished great things during that time. My work here is done, but I leave behind a legacy of images and data.

The Martian winter produces insufficient sunlight to recharge the lander's solar batteries. NASA will continue to update the Phoenix Twitter feed as the data sent from Mars is interpreted. Link -via Digg

See some suggested epitaphs for Mars Phoenix at Wired. http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/marsphoenixs-tw.html

Also worth noting is the Twitter message from October 30th:

Take care of that beautiful blue marble out there in space, our home planet. I’ll be keeping an eye from here. Space exploration FTW!

(YouTube link)
Did you ever think you'd be able to see an immolation from the victim's point of view? Tim Ireland built a "guy" (named Bob) for Guy Fawkes Night with a wireless CCTV camera in his head! Friday night, he was ceremoniously burned in effigy while Tim recorded the video at a safe distance. Link -Thanks, Tim!

Some of the things you've always heard about recycling may have been true at one time, but times change. Other things may be partially true, but you'll get the whole explanation at Popular Mechanics, in the post Recycling Myths: PM Debunks 5 Half Truths about Recycling. Altogether, recycling is becoming easier and more cost-effective every year! http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4290631.html -Thanks, Geekazoid!

(YouTube link)
How neat to discover a portable hole you can take anywhere! Just be careful how you choose to use it. -via Digg

You may have heard these quotes all your life, but can you identify the source? Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will give you a phrase, and you decide whether it's from the Bible or the works of Shakespeare. I scored 70%. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20033

(YouTube link)
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs? Everyone knows it's Slinky Cat! -via Cynical-C

A contractor finds a stash of cash inside a wall. Who gets the money, the person who found it, the homeowner, or the descendants of the person who left it there? The fight over just such a case has left all three parties with little money. Bob Kitts found $182,000 in the wall of Amanda Reece's bathroom. When the two couldn't agree on how to split the money, the resulting publicity alerted the family of Patrick Dunne, who hid the money when he owned the house decades ago.

Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to Hawaii and had sold some of the rare late 1920s bills. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in her closet but testified that she never reported the theft to police.

Kitts said Reece accused him of stealing the money and began leaving him threatening phone messages. Marcinkevicius doesn't believe the money was stolen but said he couldn't prove otherwise.

A court has divided the remaining money, but the exact details were not published. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHJNCy_68fJtiIPaltzwBwynBdkAD94AUVCO0 -Thanks, Em!

(image credit: AP/Bob Kitts)

Check out this large collection of interesting bus stops all over the world, Some have whimsical touches, some are covered with art, some are designed to surprise you, and some are interesting in their decline. The bus stop shown is in Curitiba, Brazil. Passengers pay when entering the bus stop, then go directly from the tube into the bus! http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/worlds-most-bizarre-and-intriguing-bus-stops/offbeat-news -Thanks, Jon Jason!

We knew octopuses were intelligent, but this one is telling us something! Otto lives in at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany. The staff was baffled by mysterious short circuits in the night, and posted guards overnight to see what was causing the problem. One the third night, they found out it was all Otto's fault.

"We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water."

Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: "We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

Link -Thanks, Johnny Cat!

Traditional Japanese garments (kimono and kosode robes) had no pockets, so personal belongings were kept in a small container called an inro. This was suspended from the obi (the sash worn around the waist) and kept fastened to it by a miniature sculpture called a netsuke. Most often carved from ivory or wood, netsuke came into use in the early 17th century, and later on were made for ornamental purposes.

See a Flickr set of elaborate and sometimes symbolic netsuke from the Victoria & Albert Museum. Link -Thanks, Mo!

(image credit: mcost)

What's a holiday without a little fun! Mushy Gushy lets you personalize free ecards with your face. Link -Thanks, Javier Perez!

(Vimeo link)
Lego minifigs model designs by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. More information at design:related. http://www.designrelated.com/inspiration/view/Karen/page/1/entry/2762 -via Buzzfeed

"Church" and "brawl" are not words you'd normally think of in the same sentence. However, confrontations between Christian sects are fairly common at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre {wiki} in Jerusalem, where six different denominations claim rights. One confrontation turned to violence this weekend.

Shocked pilgrims looked on as decorations and tapestries were toppled during Sunday's clash.

Dressed in the vestments of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations, rival monks threw punches and anything they could lay their hands on.

The Greeks blamed the Armenians for not recognising their rights inside the holy site, while the Armenians said the Greeks had violated one of their traditional ceremonies.

Israeli policemen scuffle with an Armenian altar boy during a fight at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on 9 November2008
Clashes between Christian sects in the ancient church are not uncommon

An Armenian clergyman said the Greek clergy had tried to place one of their monks inside the Edicule, an ancient structure which is said to encase the tomb of Jesus.

"What is happening here is a violation of status quo. The Greeks have tried so many times to put their monk inside the tomb but they don't have the right to when the Armenians are celebrating the feast," he said.

Link (with video of actual monk violence) -Thanks, JeffFsS!

11-year-old Brenden Foster is dying of Leukemia. He has already surpassed the two weeks doctors estimated he had left. Too weak to leave his bed, Brenden confided his last wish to a crew from a local TV station.

In the last days of his life, it was a homeless camp, namely Nickelsville, that captured the boy's heart.

"I was coming back from one of my clinic appoints and I saw this big thing of homeless people, and then I thought I should just get them something," he said.

Brenden is too ill to leave his bed and feed the homeless. He walked into an emergency room last December and hasn't walked since.

But Brenden's wish will not go unfulfilled. A group planned to gather in his honor on Friday night to make sandwiches and deliver them to the homeless.

http://www.komonews.com/news/34127439.html (with video) -via reddit