Friday, December 19, 2014
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Yes, this is the one you wanted to watch. From Wikipedia:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass Productions and currently distributed by DreamWorks Classics. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The special was based on the Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the 1939 poem Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May.
Miss Cellania's Links
College tuition goes up and up and up, but one thing the schools are really skimping on is …teachers. Most of your classes will probably be taught by part-time, starving professors and grad students.
The Deviant History of the Snowman.
Rich Americans Are Getting Richer, While Everyone Else Falls Behind.
8 Changes In The Hobbit Movies You Didn't Know Were A Huge Deal. This doesn’t include the fact that it takes longer to watch the three movies than to read the book they’re based on.
Like It Or Not, The Interview Is a Battle Worth Fighting. It’s not about “a dumb Seth Rogen movie,” but about whether we let threats control our actions.
How Food Tasters Work. Do you have what it takes to get paid to eat?
16 Hilarious Cat Stories That Prove Cats Are The Weirdest. What’s the weirdest thing your cat has ever done?
5 delicious twists on latkes. Even if your regular recipe is just fine, this gives you five more excuses to make latkes!
11 Things You Might Not Know About Reindeer. This includes wild herds and Santa’s livestock.
The All-Star Musical Finale From The Final Episode Of The Colbert Report
The Colbert Report is no more. The final episode ended with a singalong to “We’ll Meet Again,” including everyone who is anyone, whether they were there or not. There’s Patrick Stewart, George Lucas, Gloria Steinhem, Henry Kissinger, Alan Alda, Ken Burns, Neul DeGrasse Tyson, Willie Nelson, Cookie Monster, and a whole lot of other folks you may recognize. (via Uproxx)
Thursday, December 18, 2014
The Judy Garland Christmas Special
Presented as it was broadcast in 1963, commercials and all. Have yourself a merry little Christmas! (Thanks, Mike Flores!)
13 Wonderful Homemade Christmas Cards
A year ago, I collected a dozen great homemade Christmas cards.
There are plenty more out there! Christmas cards are so easy to make in
the 21st century, thanks to digital cameras, email, and Photoshop.
You’re only limited by your imagination -and plenty of people have great
imaginations, which they are willing to share. See a new crop of these great cards in a list I posted at mental_floss.
Cannon Shot from a Moving Truck
What happens when you shoot a cannon out of the back of a moving truck going the same speed as the projectile? Mythbusters did it a few years ago with a soccer ball, and the results in slow motion look like something from a Warner Bros. cartoon. See the video here. (via Boing Boing)
CGP Grey Explains The Lord of the Rings Mythology
You bet I snagged this video for you as soon as I saw who did it. CGP Grey takes an entire library of Tolkien writings about Middle-Earth and explains that universe in four minutes, or at least where the different types of characters come from. All this happened in that universe long before the rings appeared, which also happened before the events of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so Grey plans to tackle that part in an upcoming video. There’s a discussion thread about the video here. (via Viral Viral Videos)
16 Innovative Origins of Holiday Traditions
Who opened the first roadside Christmas tree stand? Where did that Christmas pickle thing come from? Who was the real-life inspiration for the character of the Grinch? In this week’s mental_floss List Show, John Green gets to the bottom of how some of our Christmas traditions began. I was surprised to find that mistletoe isn’t even a native plant in America! But nothing compares to the very last bit of trivia -how our artificial Christmas trees got their particular form.
Miss Cellania's Links
25 Brutally Honest Peer Review Comments From Scientists. And to think someone’s PhD is hanging on those papers.
Behold: the Star Wars Christmas Light Show. Tom BetGeorge's house is a magnificent extravaganza with all the different themes you know so well.
The final episode of the first season of the podcast Serial is due today. Funny or Die predicts how it will all end.
The 10 Best 80's Montages Ever. Movies used it as a gimmick to denote the passage of time, but we’ll remember them as pieces of art.
Celebrate cautiously when you get an acceptance letter from your first choice college. It may be part of The Long, Sad Tradition of College Admissions Mistakes.
What Gives the Morpho Butterfly Its Magnificent Blue? With no blue pigment, it must be magic, or a trick of light.
The song “Let It Go” belonged in a totally different movie. See how well it works for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
Curiosity catches a whiff of methane on Mars — and a possibility of past life. There are, however, a couple of other explanations.
6 Horrifying Modern Cannibals and 6 More Cannibal Killers. That’s a dozen people you don’t want to have dinner with.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration
A Claymation Christmas Celebration was first broadcast in 1987, starring Will Vinton’s claymation dinosaurs Rex and Herb, plus the California Raisins channeling The Temptations as they perform “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The show won an Emmy in 1988 for Outstanding Animated Program. (via Metafilter)
Stephen Colbert is Raffling Off His Set
The final episode of The Colbert Report will air Thursday on Comedy Central. Stephen Colbert will resurface in 2015 as he replaces the retiring David Letterman at CBS, but The Colbert Report will be no more. As a goodbye gift, Colbert is raffling off his set for charity. First prize is his desk, and second prize is his fireplace and leather chair. Proceeds will go to support The Yellow Ribbon Fund (for injured veterans) and DonorsChoose.org (for classrooms). You can enter for the next few hours at Omaze. (via Stephen Colbert)
Our New Budget
Before recessing for Christmas, Congress passed a budget to avoid another government shutdown. They were in a hurry, so there’s all kinds of stuff in the budget that may surprise you.
Miss Cellania's Links
30 Books That Changed The Course Of History. They sound pretty interesting, although I won’t be curling up with a dictionary.
Shishmaref, Alaska: a Village Looking for a Home. Climate change is destroying the island, but where will the residents go?
9 Surprising Facts About Flatulence.
Why U.S. Women Are Leaving Jobs Behind. Hint: lack of benefits.
The ultimate B-movie guide to life on other planets.
Could You Possibly Get A High School Diploma Now? Take the quiz!
The Origins of 10 Popular Christmas Songs. With videos.
Stephen Colbert Is Dead. Long Live Stephen Colbert.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)