USB Heating Slippers

These very sophisticated slippers offer deep Far Infared Heat. Just plug them into a USB port and feel your tootsies be warmed by holiday cheer.

Oscar Wilde's lipstick-covered Paris tomb to be protected

"A kiss may ruin a human life," Oscar Wilde once wrote. It can also ruin the stonework of a tomb, judging by the extraordinary graffiti – kisses in lipstick left by admirers – that for years have been defacing and even eroding the massive memorial to the Irish dramatist and wit in Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery. Wilde died in the city in 1900, aged 46. His restored tomb will finally be unveiled this week, newly protected from his devotees.

  via guardian.co.uk /more

Room for two more little ones?

Struggling to stay warm as temperatures plummet below zero, they clamour together to try and conserve heat in a battle for survival along the banks of the Yukon River in Whitehorse, Canada. 

 The scene was caught by photographer Keith Williams.
 

The Color of Danger in Nature

Animals and plants use color to warn off predators and to let us know they are toxic. 

See how they do it

Does life have a purpose?

"Let's begin by getting clear about what's being asked. The question isn't about whether people can lead purposeful lives. Of course they can, if they are sufficiently fortunate. Anyone who has enough to eat, who lives in a society that tolerates a modicum of personal freedom, who has educational and employment opportunities, who is not condemned to a life of soul-destroying labor, and so on, is in a position to lead a purposeful life. That's a no-brainer. The question on the table is much deeper than this. It is about whether life itself has a purpose. To answer it, we need to consider the conditions under which anything at all has a purpose, and then determine whether life can satisfy these conditions."
  By David Livingstone Smith, Psychology Today/more

Please Don't Destroy My Home

Poignant picture of a polar bear encountering an Icebreaker ship in Norway.

  via BuzzFeed

Imagination.

reddit

Wall Street Protester

BigFun.be

Only in America

 "Only in America do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. If they keep smoking, they won't be "healthy" for long.

Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Only in America do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

more here

'RoboCop' guards to patrol South Korean prisons

 "Robot guards with sensors to detect abnormal behaviour will soon begin patrolling South Korean prisons to ease the burden on their human counterparts, researchers said on Thursday."
via Telegraph / more

Cyanide & Happiness

Explosm.net

Why nothing matters

"Shakespeare had it right, even in ways he couldn't have imagined.

 For centuries, scientists have indeed been making much ado about nothing - and with good reason. Nothing, or rather what we've long taken to be nothing, may be the key to understanding everything from why particles have mass to the expansion of the universe. "

By Brian Greene/ New Scientist/more

Turkey Cartoon

By Dan Piraro

Freddie Mercury - Too Much Love Will Kill You

Bad Boy

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What's she got that I haven't got?

Dafna Ben Nun, from Israel, travelled for seven hours by truck to reach the whales at the White Sea in north-west Russia - and it was worth every minute of her journey as she captured them at their most playful. In this series of images the white whales - which weigh around 3,000 lbs and measure up to 12 foot long - can be seen amazingly blowing water jets from their mouths.
 

Loyal to the end

In a tear-jerking display of loyalty, this faithful Chinese dog refuses to leave his late master's graveside even after going seven days without food. Just like Edinburgh's legendary Greyfriars Bobby, the little Scottish terrier who visited his master's grave every day for 14 years, the faithful yellow dog simply cannot bear to be parted from his friend. His owner Lao Pan, who died aged 68 earlier this month, lived alone in a little house in the village of Panjiatun with just the dog for company.

Woman trains robin to feed from her mouth

When this bird lover persuaded a hungry robin to take food from her hand, she thought it could hardly get any tamer. Until she placed a sultana between her lips – and the bold bird swooped to snap it up. Now the mouth-to-mouth transfer has become a daily routine for legal secretary Teresa Karasavvas.

Water's Ultimate Freezing Point

"How low can you go? For water, the answer is -55 degrees Fahrenheit (-48 degrees C; 225 Kelvin). University of Utah researchers found that is the lowest temperature liquid water can reach before it becomes ice. Back in grade school, we all learned that water under normal atmospheric pressure freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 C), but that rule only holds for water with tiny impurities. "If you have liquid water and you want to form ice, then you have to first form a small nucleus or seed of ice from the liquid. The liquid has to give birth to ice," said chemist and co-author of the study Valeria Molinero in a press release. Impurities in water serve as those seeds. But in very pure water, "the only way you can form a nucleus is by spontaneously changing the structure of the liquid," Molinero explains. She and co-author Emily Moore published their study today in the journal Nature."
  via Discovery News /more

Zlatko Salaj decorates property with 1.2 million light bulbs

"A farmer in Bjelovar-Bilogora county has decorated his four hectares, 800-tree property with 1.2 million light bulbs ahead of the Christmas holidays. Zlatko Salaj from Grabovnica says the tradition started 10 years ago with 70,000 bulbs, when he was for the first time able to fulfill his childhood dream. His family was too poor to be able to give Christmas presents, Salaj said. Now he gives his all to make the Christmas holidays special, not just for his family but also some 50,000 visitors who saw his property last year. Salaj said he paid 70,000 kunas (9,350 Euros) in electricity bills, Croatian Radio Television (HRT) reports." Croatian Times Online News

Forest emergency

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Things to tell our grandchildren

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Bob Ross Feeding A Baby Squirrel

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PEPPER SPRAYING COP

“Hey doorman! Do ya think we could come in for just a second? We’ve been marching all day and all of us REALLY need to take a leak. I know its annoying, but you gotta understand that we’re out here in the cold and wet to stand up for everybody’s rights, including yours! Is it really that much of a hassle to let us use your baño? None of us needs to do #2! I promiseAUUAHAGHAGHGGGAHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
  more here

Stanislaw Lem: 60th anniversary of first book celebrated with giant robot Google Doodle

 "The 60th anniversary of the first book published by Stanislaw Lem, the Polish science fiction author, has been marked with one of the most sophisticated and impressive Google doodles to date."
via Telegraph /more

We all know what it's like to hug someone and not feel the same love in return.

Awkward family pet photos: celebrating the special bond between people and their pets - more here

Oskar the Blind Kitten and His First Toys

An Afghan National Army observation post

Photograph: Szilard Koszticsak/EPA

  guardian.co.uk