Links for Fun

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day. It’s OK that you missed it, since you can always go back.

Jason wanted to stage a memorable proposal to his girlfriend Maui. He pulled it off, with the help of their favorite author, Nail Gainman when he autographed one of his books for her. See the video here.

Movie Poster Preview 2008. Get a first look at posters from movies coming out next year.

Cello trio Melo-M and the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra (of Latvia) perform The Final Countdown. That’s some head-banging cello music there, boys!

Souvlaki Tetris is a game in Chinese, but man, once you figure out what they want, you can’t stop! (via b3ta)

Thin Ice. In this game, you try to skate loops around the monsters and make them fall into the water. It’s a lot harder than it looks! (via Dump Trumpet)

John answers questions in comic form. (via Metafilter)

Crazy Golf Balls. Play a prank on your golfer friends! One ball explodes, one won’t roll straight, one dissolves into water, and one shoots a stream of ribbons on impact. I wouldn’t recommend using more than one per golfer or outing. (via J-Walk Blog)

Jellio has a list of Dos and Don’ts for those of you attending Santacon. Find out when Santacon is happening in your area.

Family Survival Kit

(via Neatorama)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

From Wikipedia:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an animated special directed by Chuck Jones. It is based on the popular children's book by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk below. The short is now considered by most to be a timeless classic today.

Psyché Rock

By Pierre Henry, from 1967. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

The 12 Days of Christmas

You might remember the Mathematical Long Song by the Klein Four Group. From the same performance, here’s their imaginative arrangement of The 12 Days of Christmas.

December 7th

From Google Video:
Aka "December 7, 1941". "The film begins with the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, nicknamed "the Navy's hundred million dollar fist." Authentic footage of the invasion is mixed with reenactments to provide a complete portrait of the events of that fateful day. An extended sequence pays tribute to the American soldiers killed in the attack, many of whom are individually profiled, complete with testimonials offered by surviving family members." Directed by John Ford, 1943. (34 minutes)

Fun Links

Here Comes Another Bubble, a new video from The Richter Scales on the inflated value of Web 2.0. Its catchy, clever, and possibly a spot-on prediction for the internet.

Put a little twist in your Christmas music with remixes and mashups at Santastic III. It will take me a while to listen to all of the songs, but being an oldie myself, I’m partial to Yuletide Zeppelin. Previous year’s music available here and here.

The Legend of the Christmas Pickle. (via J-Walk Blog)

You owe me a cat!

The 12 Greatest Video Game Toilets of All Time. (Thanks, Bill!)

The 20 Ugliest College Campuses in the USA. It’s a followup to the 20 Most Beautiful Colleges.

A Guide to Evel Knievel’s Injuries.

Mass Attack! Use weights to balance the scales. Sounds really simple, but its not. This is an addictive game! (via GeekAlerts)

What if Rupert Murdoch Had Never Been Born?

(via Milk and Cookies)

Secret Agent

Edgar Brodie, a novelist and soldier in WWI, is recruited by British Military Intelligence to kill a German spy in Switzerland in this adaptation of a W. Somerset Maugham novel. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1936. (via Metafilter)

Information Links

How to cat-proof your Christmas tree with jingle bells and Easter eggs. It looks nicely festive, too!

Mark your calendar for the Geminid Metor Shower! From Thursday evening December 13th at about 10PM to dawn Friday, the 14th, enjoy the best meteor shower of the year.

Consumerist has links to landlord-tenant laws in every state. This may be worth bookmarking in case you ever need it in the future.

Christmas Wasn't Always Like This: It Used to Be Much Worse.

The difference in New York City’s population during the day and night.

How to score a Wii this Christmas.

Bizarre items scanned from SkyMall’s Amercan Airlines Christmas catalog. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide for a Son.

Writer and photographer Shreve Stockton who took in a baby coyote when his parents were shot for killing sheep in Wyoming. She is documenting Charlie’s life with her and Eli the cat on the blog The Daily Coyote. (Thanks, Bill!)

How to track down anyone online. And conversely, why you should use a pseudonym if you don’t want to be found.

The latest scheme to save the planet: Baking Soda.

What’s the difference between Physics and Chemistry?

The 12 Days of Christmas

By Boymongoose. My kids can sing this version perfectly.

Whoops!

Described as being from The Department of Cluelessness. (via Consumerist)

Links for Your Amusement

Join Captain Jon-Luc Picard this week for his annual Christmas party aboard the Enterprise. Almost all his blogger friends will be there!

Seven Strange Lucky Charms.

I Think I Kinda Want It.

Optical Illusion: Pass the Lunch Box. Count how many times the lunch box is handed off. Yeah, I knew you weren’t really paying attention.

Ten Reasons to Marry a Robot. That “off” switch trumps all other advantages. And disadvantages.

The 20 Most Intriguing Billionaire Heiresses.

Journalism 101. Everything you need to know about the news business, from Jon Swift.

On the importance of boobs.

Rudolph, and Santa’s 27 Other Reindeer.

Countertenor Nick Patera sings just like The Little Mermaid.

Imagine going in a restroom surrounded by an aquarium. You might never want to leave!

Check out this Tesla Christmas tree!

The folks at Metafilter took the opportunity to caption a real cat. (via Grow-A-Brain)

Back in 2002, Rob Malda, editor and founder of Slashdot, posted a marriage proposal to Kathleen Fent, on the front page. (Thanks, Scott!)

Miss Breed

Clara Estelle Breed, also known as "Miss Breed," was the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. Miss Breed was fond of all children, including the many Japanese American children and teenagers who used to frequent the East San Diego branch library where she worked. Before World War II, Miss Breed was a mentor to many Nisei children who visited the library.

As the United states entered the war, these young Nisei were removed from their homes and placed in concentration camps. Shocked and outraged, Miss Breed helped her young friends by becoming a lifeline to the outside world. She handed out stamped and addressed postcards at the railroad station on the day of their departure and encouraged them to write.

Miss Breed sent books, stationery, and gifts to her penpals in the internment camps. She also wrote professional articles questioning the policy of Japanese internment and racist politics. Miss Breed kept up her correspondence with her young readers after the war, and until her death in 1994. In 1992, she gave 300 letters from the camps to one of her correspondents, who donated then to the Japanese American National Museum. You can read the scanned letters online.

Joanne Oppenheim wrote a book entitled Dear Miss Breed.

As the child of a minister who had worked on Ellis Island at the turn of the century, Clara took to heart the struggles of immigrant Americans. Nor did she forget that during the Civil War her ancestors were abolitionists who fought the injustice of slavery. Clara Breed knew that she could not stop the incarceration, but that did not stop her from doing what she could do by speaking out on their behalf and sending them gifts of the heart that showed them they were not forgotten.



(via Metafilter)

Pretty Big Dig

Pretty Big Dig is an excavator ballet video by Anne Troake from 2002. This TV report is all that YouTube has. To watch the original video, go to Arts Alive. (via Metafilter)

Jamaica Inn

Alfred Hitchcock's 1939 movie about Cornwall smugglers, starring Charles Laughton. Based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier. (via Metafilter)

Tickle Me Emo

I LOLed. I have to show this to my kids. (via YesButNoButYes)

Ferris the 13th

(via Bits and Pieces)

Kitten vs. Ferret

Looks like they both have a few tricks up their sleeves! (via Arbroath)

Fun for the Weekend

Neatorama is in the process of determining the Top 5 Viral Videos of 2007. You can vote for up to five at the onsite poll, which has links to the 18 videos we thought were most popular. Just about all are family-friendly.

YouTube launched a Russian language edition just this month, and Peter Nalitch has become its first star. Funny, and the music is catchy.

Ted and Anna get engaged, on the Scrubs set. This is the kind of post that will make you go all verklempt.

In case you missed it, I built the kids a playhouse with my own two hands, some power tools, and a camera to record the process.

Is this a great name for a lawyer, or what?

After creating a comic on the concept, Randall Munroe of xkcd put a ball pit in his home. How cool is that? (via Grow-A-Brain)

There’s a new movie coming out about a woman with... I can’t even type it without giggling.

9 Telltale Signs You're Probably an Asshole.

Real-life Superheroes: 10 People with Incredible Abilities. The kind of abilities you once found in carnival sideshows.

Top Ten Useless Talents. Useless, maybe, but they still impress people, or at least make us laugh.

Feed this fish, and he will grow. How big, I do not know. I think I will name him Otto. (via Dump Trumpet)