Miss Cellania's Links

The Deadly Temptation of the Oregon Trail Shortcut.

A Chain Just Cut Through A Capsized Cargo Ship Filled With Cars And The Process Is Fascinating. (via Damn Interesting)

Moms Are Sharing How Much Their Hospital Bill Was For Giving Birth, And It’s Crazy How Different The Numbers Are.

The 12 Days of Christmas: The story behind the holiday’s most annoying carol.

The DWR Champagne Chair Contest. A champagne chair is a dollhouse-sized chair made from the cap, cage, and/or cork from a champagne bottle. (via Nag on the Lake)

The Coming Resurrection of a Sleeping Art Nouveau Palace. Emmanuel Laurens had money, taste, and some unusual spiritual practices, but he couldn't keep any of it from the Nazis.

The Ripple Effect Of One Rural Colorado Doctor Catching The Coronavirus.

'This is not a lesson in forgiveness.' Why Frederick Douglass met with his former enslaver. (via Damn Interesting)

How Dinosaurs Thrived in the Snow. Discoveries made in the past decades help show how many species coped with cold temperatures near both poles.

A blast from the past (2017): 84 Years Ago Today: Goodbye Prohibition! (Update: 87 years ago tomorrow)

Oscar

Oscar may have been unsinkable, but it seems to me he was a jinx. (via Fark)

One Phrase Leads to Another

As much as Disco talks, it's a good thing he knows a lot of different phrases. He jumps from one pop culture reference to another, sometimes garbling them a little, just enough to make you laugh! (via Tastefully Offensive)

Tweet of the Day

What is Joe Biden’s plan to stop recipe bloggers from telling a long, unskippable, mostly unrelated childhood memory before sharing the damn recipe?

— Zuri Davis (@ProperlyZuri) November 25, 2020

(via Pleated-Jeans)

Choosing Your Competition

(via Bad Newspaper)

South of Christmas

For Christmas 2020, Bill McClintock mashed up Slayer's "South of Heaven" with Wham!'s "Last Christmas." There's also a cameo appearance by Rammstein and McClintock himself with a festive guitar solo. The best edit in the song comes at about 3:20. Try not to laugh.

Math Homework

(via reddit)

Little Angel

Simon's Cat gets into the Christmas decorations in the latest animation from Simon Tofield. Watch long enough to find out exactly why the cat is so fascinated with the angel.

The Impossible Goblet

If you watch this video and are on the edge of your seat waiting for the glass to break, I can tell you it isn't going to -at least not when we can see it. It really is glass. Glass artist Matt Eskuche makes a lot of beautiful glass objects, but the most astonishing is the "impossible goblet." The incredibly thin stem shows off just how much play borosilicate glass can have! While your first thought may be "When is it going to break?" the second thought is "How can you ever wash this glass?" I can relate. (via Boing Boing)

Dear Santa

You can take the batteries out of a lot of noisy toys, but not a drum set, because that's its sole purpose. One year, I asked my SIL what my nephew who was two or three at the time) would like for Christmas, and she said a drum. She was serious. She and my brother are very tolerant people. This comic is from Chris Grady at Lunarbaboon.

December

Matt Shirley's calendar is out, and it applies to most, if not all of us.

A Match Made In Hell

There's someone for everyone, and Satan finds his true love in this ad for Match.com. Not only is it grimly hilarious, it's full of easter eggs. Her profile pic is a murder hornet. The actress appears to have subtle fangs. They're from the same home town! Check out the end zone lettering in the empty stadium. The fine print on the treadmill sign. The asteroids. It's perfect. This ad was written and directed by Ryan Reynolds and features a newly-recorded version of Taylor Swift's 2008 hit "Love Story." (via Today)

Update! Here's part two.

Miss Cellania's Links

Release the Kraken! Huge methane lakes on Saturn's moon Titan run deep.

The No-Shave-November Gang 2020.

A Tale of Survival, Wrapped in a 19th-Century Reindeer-Skin Sleeping Bag. 

Lucky Ducky and the return of the Deficit Hawk! The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.

Why Everyone’s Suddenly Hoarding Mason Jars.

Thirty-five years ago, a Bouyei ethnic minority member was trafficked across China to a faraway village where nobody spoke her language. This year, she miraculously found her way home. (via Nag on the Lake)

A Roundup Of Surprising, Little-Known Die Hard Facts.

My Family Was In Shipping. An uncomfortable discussion of immigrant racism in America. (via Metafilter)

Four years of Melania Trump's White House Christmas decorations.

A blast from the past (2015): 8 Christmas Song Parodies to Sing This Holiday.

Self-Sufficiency

(via Fark)

Star Wars Downunder

Star Wars Downunder is a 30-minute Star Wars adventure, made by guys on their home computers.

The film tells the story of a lone Jedi: Merve Bushwacker (David Nicoll), returning home after a long absence. His mission? To partake in a refreshing beverage, known locally as amber fluid. On his arrival, he is dismayed to discover the planet has become as dry as a dead dingo′s donger, thanks to the tyrannical rule of Darth Drongo. Drongo has hoarded all the amber fluid in his impenetrable fortress “Dunny’s Deep” for reasons unknown. Can Merve, and a motley collection of unlikely allies band together to topple Drongo’s evil regime? Will liberty and amber fluid flow freely once more?

The production values are amazing, but you will probably have to keep the captions on, because this is all in Australian English, which is quite different from any other kind of English. (via Metafilter)

Tweet of the Day

Sufficient number of people have asked me if its real or what. pic.twitter.com/8G1b2mG0GP

— Sandwich Breathe (@TepidButterASMR) December 2, 2020

There's more from this thread here. (via Fark)

Unfortunate Juxtaposition

(via Bad Newspaper)

Overture of Overtures

You might not recognize all of the themes in this overture, hey, you might not recognize any of them (though you should), but you certainly know the fanfare style of the tune that opens the show. This medley was conducted and arranged by Alan Williams and performed by musicians from London's West End. (Thanks, Tim Spellman!)

Bidet Settings

You can see why the "stop" button has been worn away. (via reddit)

Walking The Most Dangerous Path In Britain

The Broomway is the notorious footpath to Foulness Island in Britain. It's narrow, unmarked, surrounded by sea, sticky mud, and quicksand, and sinks under the tide twice a day. Oh yeah, and there may be explosives. So of course, Tom Scott had to walk it to show us what we are missing.