Informative Links

The US government spends billions of dollars each year on dialysis for those who need it. But even as we spend more money than other countries, American patients are more likely to die from kidney failure or other complications than patients elsewhere.

Graveyards at Disneyland, and other weird secrets of “the happiest place on earth.” The smallest details are deliberately placed for those who are more observant.

He Inspired Jerry Springer (Plus 9 Other Stories About RFK). Little more than Robert Kennedy’s assassination made it into history textbooks, but there was so much more to him than that.

The Need for Double-Strength Placebos.

Houses of the Holy: The backstory to the famous Led Zeppelin album cover. The real story is nothing like the rumors of the time, but is quite interesting all these years later.

The Once and Future Brain. Predicting the future of science and technology is problematic because every breakthrough reveals a world of things yet to be learned.

Krampus: The Darker Side of Christmas. I love these vintage images, but I’m glad my childhood Christmas memories are different! (via Everlasting Blort)

7 of America’s Quirkiest Food Festivals. Whatever they’re named after, they’ll still sell get funnel cakes and blooming onions.

Optical Illusions

Yep, these are good.

Links for Fun and Enjoyment

Things Not to Name Your Pet. Get your weirdest pet names ever right here, and in the comments.

Look what's on TV!

How to give a cat a pill. (via b3ta)

Penn State sends their students a birthday card when they turn 21. Do they really care about your welfare or are they trying to creep you out with the chattering squirrels? (via reddit)

The 22 Dumbest Things People Do on Facebook. Most have links to egregious real examples.

I don’t know what this press conference was about, but the best part came at the end. President Obama knows how to make a grand exit!

Osama bin Laden gets the last laugh.

Jonathan Coulton's Typographic Video for "Shop Vac".

Lost, Lonely, and Vicious

The trailer for the 1958 movie. (via Everlasting Blort)

Strangely Specific: A Roundup of Niche Blogs

When you want to read about a wide variety of interesting topics, you check out my link dump or go to mental_floss or Neatorama or any number of general interest blogs. If you have the time, you might also be interested in seeing some highly-specific blogs that may amuse you for a while. You just might find one with a topic that speaks to your heart in this list I posted at mental_floss!

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Informational Links

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the US into World War II occurred 69 years ago today. You might not know about the one person who caused it to be so devastating (a two-part story).

NASA announced a new kind of microbe that uses arsenic as a chemical building block instead of phosphorus, previously thought to be one of the essential elements of life. The bacterium throws a wrench into the entire discipline of organic chemistry, and maybe even the definition of life.

The 10 Most Spectacular Ways the World as We Know It Could End. And, as you probably guessed, there are book and movie analogies to help explain each catastrophe.

The US government spends billions of dollars each year on dialysis for those who need it. But even as we spend more money than other countries, American patients are more likely to die from kidney failure or other complications than patients in other countries.

Harry Kislevitz invented the plastic shapes that stuck to just about everything, but his company Colorforms manufactured many other playthings. Toymaker Mel Birnkrant worked for Colorforms for 20 years and tells of toys you may remember, toys that were never mass produced, and toys that flopped (and are now collector’s items). (via Metafilter)

Wikileaks may change history -and not necessarily for the worse. TIME looks at the concept of classified information and why so many mundane documents are labeled as secret. (via Boing Boing)

The Liljenquist family donated 400 Civil War photographs to the Library of Congress for a collection called The Last Full Measure. Then as now, many who did the fighting and dying seem to be too young to shave, much less fight.

7 Works of Art That Are Taking a Beating. Vandalism strikes even the most precious masterpieces.

Join Me in a Bath!

Kitty says NO!

Links for Fun

Take part in a poll at Ironic Sans -it will make you seriously consider what you are all about.

Everett Hiller and his wife throw a holiday party ever year. Then they sent out photographs featuring celebrities who weren’t there, but should have been. (via Metafilter)

A camouflaged cat fools a compatriot that should have known better. Pay close attention to the first ten seconds of this video -then you can laugh.

Wiley vs. Rhodes is a live action film that you soon realize is a fan film based on the Roadrunner cartoons. There's no mistaking the plot, sound effects, and mayhem.

Penn State sends their students a birthday card when they turn 21. Touching or terrifying? (via reddit)

Things Not to Name Your Pet. Get your weirdest pet names ever right here, and in the comments.

Ducks in the Wind. A mother gets her ducklings in a row despite the interference of nature, with and without music.

The United States of Autocomplete. This map was made with the help of Google’s autocomplete suggestions for each state. (via The Daily What)

The Utah Baby Namer. Be sure to click on "The Cream of the Crop".

Jumping Spider

A jumping spider confronts his/her image in a mirror. (via Everlasting Blort)

Chinese National Anthem

Sung by paul Robeson while on tour in Europe in 1949.

Bend and Snap

(via The Daily What)

Good Reads and Information

Statistics tells us that 200 countries have improved in both health and wealth over 200 years. What is amazing is how this data can be made so interesting with the right graphics and storyteller.

If you enjoyed Deconstructing Gimme Shelter, you'll love this look at the separate Beatles tracks in Deconstructing Helter Skelter.

Original transcripts from NASA missions are online at Spacelog. So far you can follow Apollo 13 and Mercury 6 (John Glenn’s first orbital flight in 1962), and more are in the works.

Four-year-old conjoined twins Tatiana and Krista Hogan share parts of their brains. One can perceive what the other one sees and feels, and they are believed to read each other’s thoughts.

Capt. Robert Falcon Scott led a team to the South Pole in 1912, but didn’t make it back. He wrote a letter to his widow on the return trip, knowing it would be their last communication.

7 Silly Civic Wagers on Sports. Sometimes you pay dearly for the inevitable publicity.

Boner in a Bottle. How the pharmaceutical companies made ED medicine an integral part of middle-class life. (via Breakfast Links)

Many people say they'd love to write, if they only had the time. John Scalzi says if you can't find the time, then you don't love it.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat

YouTube member trudbol sings his own four-part harmony in this song from the Disney film The Aristocats. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

11 Clever and Creative Gingerbread Structures

There are so many great gingerbread creations on the 'net, I had to post about them a second time this week! A gingerbread house is a delightful combination of food and art. Some bakers go way beyond the call of duty in their holiday creations and deserve to be seen even years after the gingerbread is dismantled (or eaten). In this list I posted at mental_floss, you’ll see houses, mansions, skyscrapers, pop culture recreations, and even math!

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Fun and Funny Links

Happy Hanukkah! The Maccabeats explain the holiday in the song “I Flip My Latkes In The Air Sometimes”.

Cats Celebrating Hanukkah.

Cracked reveals who is really pulling the strings in the movie The Wizard of Oz. It was all an evil plot to consolidate power over Oz into the hands of one person. NSFW text

Nordics like fish. I don’t, so this doesn’t affect me. Much. Of course, we Americans have our strange eating habits as well.

5 Cults We Feel OK With. Because there’s no religion involved (and we hope no suicides).

This clock is made of little nude cartoon men. Click on it to change from analog to digital and back. (via the Presurfer)

Jen made little pizzas that resemble the flags of some of the countries she’s visited. (via Everlasting Blort)

The Krewe of Grateful Gluttons presents the 4th annual Gingerbread Trailer Park competition.

Quantum Tunneling Observed in Cats.

Beau

Jimmy Stewart reads a poem about his dog on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1981. (via Metafilter)

Good Reads and Info

The Forgotten Pearl Harbor Spy. Takeo Yoshikawa found all the information Japan needed to destroy our Pacific fleet.

A woman in Spain claims ownership of the sun, apparently because no one else has. But there are international treaties and laws covering space issues, which prevent her from being the Sol owner.

Deconstructing ‘Gimme Shelter’. You can hear so much more of the classic song when you separate the voices and instruments from each other.

Molly was developmentally disabled and was institutionalized just before her third birthday. After their parents died 47 years later, Molly’s brother Jeff found her and filled in the gaps of the family’s history. (via Boing Boing)

Harry Potter and the Incredibly Conservative Aristocratic Children’s Club. Do kids internalize this “chosen one” mentality or is the author completely overthinking a kid’s story? (via Metafilter)

Swimming Without Legs: 3 Inspiring Athletes. Some people won’t let a setback like an amputation stop them from pursuing their dreams.

Phrases that announce that someone is about to put you down or lie to you. I've told my kids this over and over and they believe me when I have backup from the Boston Globe.

The world’s largest aquarium is in Atlanta, Georgia. From the looks of this video, it may be the prettiest as well.

Like They Do It In Harlem

A remix of "Give Me Some Skin" by The Andrews Sisters from the 1941 movie In the Navy.

13 Weird and Wonderful Gingerbread Houses

Traditional alpine chalets, woodland cottages, and Victorian mansions made of gingerbread are impressive, to say the least. I know from experience that they are not easy to make. Yet some folks go the extra mile to make their gingerbread constructions stand out from the crowd by building them bigger, adding clever details, or redesigning them altogether. Some aren’t even houses! See 13 creative holiday displays in this list I posted at mental_floss.

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Fun and Funny Links

Conan O’Brien’s return to TV was the subject of a Taiwanese Next Media animation, so he parodied them, which led to an even sillier backlash. (via Metafilter)

Don’t Touch My Junk. Clever editing has president Obama delivering a musical sermon on the TSA.

The only thing better than cats playing pat-a-cake is cats arguing about how to play pat-a-cake. After insults and violence, they settle down and get to work.

The sci-fi Nazi film Iron Sky has been in development for years. Filming is finally in progress!

It might take a genius to find the way through the Albert Einstein maze! Print out a full size copy and give it your best shot. (via Nag on the Lake)

When Congressmen Attack! Read 14 accounts of our representatives in Washington wreaking violence upon their opponents, cohorts, and constituents. (via Everlasting Blort)

Life cannot be all that bad when you can watch a dog doing a salsa dance.

Leslie Nielsen, who appeared in over 200 movies and TV shows over six decades, died Sunday at age 84. Filmdrunk posted a collection of videos as a tribute. (via Gorilla Mask)