The reason we have two eyes is so that we can judge distance by stereo vision. The reason we have two ears is that the difference between the sound they pick up tells us what direction that sound is coming from. You can argue that these aren't really reasons, but advantages that ensure that we kept those dual systems. So why do we have two nostrils? Is it a side effect of a symmetrically-split face? Not really- since we have one nose at the center of our faces, it could easily have evolved to have one big hole. 

You might be surprised to learn that two nostrils do give us a slight stereo effect in smelling things, so that we can detect which direction a smell comes from. But the real reason two nostrils are an advantage to us is that they don't work together. One nostril carries a bigger load in breathing while the other rests- and then they switch. Read how this happens and why its an advantage for animals that have two nostrils at Popular Science. -via kottke 

(Image credit: Karabinkrok) 

Radiohead's famous single "Creep" is spoken from the point of view of a man who's a bit creepy because the object of his love does not return it. He's watching his subject very carefully. He's making a list and he's checking it twice.

Or is that Santa Claus from the 1934 Christmas classic "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"? It's easy to get the two songs confused because they tell a similar story, especially after Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It gets to work mashing them together.

This song is from Ballard's Christmas album, which includes the previously shared "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" sung by Creed.

Hanukkak begins at sundown on Sunday, December 14th, and runs through sundown on Monday the 22nd. Every year, we get a new crop of Hanukkah songs that are set to the tunes of pop songs we all know. Some of the groups have been doing this so long they have used up all their favorites, and therefore go with whatever the big pop culture thing of the year was, which means they can end up doing the same thing. It happened in 2016, when both the Maccabeats and Six13 used songs from Hamilton, and again in 2024 when they both used songs from Wicked. It has happened again this year. Above you have Six13 presenting a medley they call "Golden: A KPop Demon Hunters Chanukah." Below is the new Hanukkah medley from the Maccabeats called "HanuKpop Demon Hunters." 



Both videos feature tunes from the movie KPop Demon Hunters, both feature clever lyrics that reflect the story of Hanukkah, but the Maccabeats went so far as to animate theirs. Meanwhile, the third Jewish a cappella group, Y-Studs, made their 2025 Hanukah song with a medley of Jonas Brothers songs. 

Enjoy previous songs from Six 13 and the Maccabeats at Neatorama. And a song from Y-Studs, too. 

Eric Coquin Poirier is a Québécois musician and inventor of musical instruments. He's especially fond of modifying accordions, guitars, and harmonicas to create one-man bands or instruments for people with disabilities.

With the harp reactor, Poirier is going far beyond modifying pre-existing instruments into devising an original invention. This instrument, much of which appears to be 3D printed, combines several harmonicas with a bellows similar to what you might find on a concertina.

In this video, Poirier puts his invention to the test by performing Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

-via The Awesomer

Austin Dirks was hiking in Arches National Park in Utah this past Sunday, and became trapped in quicksand. Now, we've addressed the cinematic reputation of quicksand before, and know that you're not going to drown in it. But you can get stuck, and that's a serious danger in coastal areas when a tide is coming in. Dirks was nowhere near the coast, but he was alone, and it gets pretty cold in December.  

In a reddit post, Dirks explained the incident and how he contacted Grand County Search and Rescue, but it would be hours before they could reach him. Meanwhile, his trapped knee was bent at a painful angle and his fingers were freezing. He was located by drone, so rescuers could find him. After a complicated rescue, Dirks was treated with a heated blanket and was able to walk out once feeling returned to his leg. Read the story of the hiker's scary ordeal in quicksand. -via Metafilter 

(Image credit: Austin Dirks) 

Tom BetGeorge has spent years trying to outdo himself with his computerized Halloween and Christmas light shows (so much that he's built a light show business out of his success). He's choreographed them to Star Wars, rock songs, rap songs, and various movie themes. For 2025, BetGeorge has raised the visual "wow" factor, as always, but the music is less pop culture and more Christmas. Three singing Christmas trees lip-sync Phil Wickham's high energy remix of "Angels We Have Heard on High" that he calls "Angels (Glory to God)." Meanwhile, lights dance across the house, augmented with lasers, spotlights, and projections, while fireworks explode in the night. It took a large team to pull this one off, and they are credited at the YouTube page. 

But wait, there's more! BetGeorge always has several songs in his Christmas light show, which will appear one at a time over the next few days at his YouTube channel. 

The end of 2025 is coming, and we're starting to see year-end recaps about anything and everything. The lists are interesting, but the videos make you feel what the year gone past was like. Google's Year in Search video addresses what the world was doing on the internet in 2025, from record-breaking achievements to K-Pop Demon Hunters to artificial intelligence to big news stories you may have forgotten since the beginning of the year. Overall, the video is rather positive.  

On the other hand, Google's 2025 Year in Search statistical report presents some questions. In the stats for the United States, the overall most common search term in 2025 was Charlie Kirk. Meanwhile, under their most-searched people list, Zohran Mamdani is at the top. Excuse me, wasn't Charlie Kirk a person? Where there was once a button to learn more, we have buttons that say "Catch Me Up in AI Mode." No thanks. There are plenty of categories to explore so that you can see if your interests match up with the rest of your nation's interests, or the world as a whole. 

Look! It's Princess Groot, and she's a Christmas tree! Montreal Comiccon is so popular they do it twice a year, once in July and again in December for their Holiday Edition. The Holiday Edition was this weekend, to give cosplayers a chance to for some Christmas decorating, or set up photo opportunities in the bitter cold outside. Seriously, if you think you're cold, look up the weather in Quebec. 

Not everyone was dressed in holiday style, but the cosplayers went all out for detail and authenticity. Above is Altaïr from the game Assassin's Creed, and below is the Monkey King from many ancient Chinese legends. 

Geeks Are Sexy was there to document the festivities, as always. Their gallery of cosplayers is a little different- there are more pictures than usual, and each character is identified in the main post when possible. You can click on any image to bring up a full-size version.   
 

In 1952, French biologist Alain Bombard set sail all alone in a 15-foot inflatable boat from the Canary Islands. His aim was to sail alone across the Atlantic. That was a crazy idea in itself, but what was even more remarkable was what he didn't take with him. Bombard had no engine, no food, and no fresh water. That was no mistake- Bombard had deliberately equipped himself like a shipwreck survivor to prove a point. 

Bombard had witnessed the toll of shipwrecks as a young doctor, and as he studied marine biology, he became convinced that castaways on the high seas could survive if they had enough knowledge about sea creatures and their nutritional content. It's not the kind of experiment you can round up university students for, so he took it on himself. After practice runs on the Mediterranean, Bombard spent two months alone on the Atlantic ocean, eating raw fish and other creatures and drinking seawater. He was "rescued" once, but after one meal, took to the sea again. He lost more than 55 pounds on his journey. But what about drinking seawater? Isn't its salt content supposed to be deadly? Bombard explained his theory and how drinking seawater worked for him during his 65 days as a castaway in an article at Amusing Planet. 

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was in the USSR when it was the site of the worst nuclear accident in history in 1986. Now it is in Pripyat, Ukraine. No, it wasn't blown across the border; the map changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. Reactor number four melted down and exploded, killing dozens of people from injuries and/or radiation and contaminating a huge area. More than 68,000 people were evacuated, and the area is still under restrictions almost 40 years later. Well, officially; the Russian Army doesn't pay attention to Ukraine's restrictions. 

The Soviet Union couldn't hide the event, but they weren't exactly forthcoming about the evacuation, cleanup attempts, and later expeditions to the site. Lack of information from authorities confused and enraged the former residents of Pripyat and the surrounding villages, as well as the rest of the world. Some people didn't believe the place was a dangerous as they said, while others spread rumors about what the real truth of Chernobyl could be. After Ukraine became an independent nation, more and more of these stories came to light. Weird History takes a look at the fallout (pun intended) of the Chernobyl disaster and its aftermath. Some of those tales include creepy supernatural elements, as if the real story isn't scary enough. 

Roslyn, North Dakota has only 181 residents, but those happy few can claim to reside in the shadow of the International Vinegar Museum.

It was founded by Lawrence "The Vinegar Man" Diggs, who is also the founder of Vinegar Connoisseurs International. You can think of him as the world's foremost expert on and devoted fan of vinegar. In 1999, he converted the old 1930s-era auditorium of Roslyn into a museum dedicated to this liquid. Visitors can learn about hundreds of different uses for vinegar, as well as taste many that Diggs has collected.

Rosyln has learned into its vinegary identity. It now has an annual vinegar festival which includes a parade hosted by a pickle mascot. It occurs on the third Saturday of every June

-via Atlas Obscura | Photos: International Vinegar Museum

The Bayeux Museum in France is actually three museums: one dedicated to art and history, one to commemorate the D-Day invasion of 1945 that took place just a few miles away, and one to house the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry museum is closed for two years for renovation and will open again in 2027. So where is the tapestry? In an undisclosed location, being readied for a trip to the UK. 

The British Museum will acquire the tapestry in the summer of 2026 for an exhibition that will run from September 2026 to July 2027, when the Bayeux Musem will reopen and regain the priceless tapestry. But the transfer of the 230-foot-long, nearly thousand-year-old artifact is a matter of great care. One of the stipulations in the contract is that the tapestry "does not experience more than 2 millimetres of vibration per second." That pretty much rules out an airplane flight. It may end up being transported by sedan chair through the Chunnel. Read more about the upcoming trip at ianVisits. -via Nag on the Lake 

Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink in the world. It's sweet, fizzy, a little tart and usually cold. The drink was developed in the 19th century as a medicinal product due to the coca leaves. But that was only half the story- there were also the kola nuts that contributed half the drink's name. Kola nuts have twice the caffeine found in coffee beans. Combine them with cocaine, and you have products like "forced march tablets" that serve as nature's speed. 

The kola nut has an interesting history of its own. Considered sacred in many West African cultures since ancient times, it figured in some of the darker parts of our history. Does Coca-Cola still use kola nuts in their signature drink? No one knows for sure, because unlike cocaine, the kola nut isn't illegal. This TED-Ed video explains the lesser-known side of Coca-Cola's original recipe. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Several generations have grown up with the Star Wars movies, but that first movie has undergone many changes. It was renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It was re-edited into the Special Edition, with many changes, mostly to add CGI details and make the movie mesh with the later films. What fans lament are the addition of Jabba the Hutt and a reframing of Han's gunfight with Greedo. Since 1997, the Special Edition has been the only version available.  

In 2027, the Star Wars franchise will turn 50 years old. What will Lucasfilm do to mark the occasion? They're going to re-release Star Wars in theaters. No, not the entire series, and not Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but Star Wars, the original theatrical version of the first movie. A painstakingly restored original version will have a limited run in theaters beginning February 17, 2027, including IMAX theaters. Expect theaters full of gray-haired fans and their harder-to-impress grandchildren. 

The February run will begin a year of celebration and hype with the main event to be the release of the new film Star Wars: Starfighter, on May 28, 2027.  -via Fark 

The Pantone Color Institute had announced its annual Color of the Year for 2026, and it's what they call PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer. Most of us would call it white. They explain that this shade of white was selected because it "signifies our desire for a fresh start" and "serves as a symbol of calming influence in a frenetic society rediscovering the value of measured consideration and quiet reflection." I might add, it also shows stains easily. The choice is surprising, considering that three paint companies selected different shades of green as their color of the year for 2026. Pantone has helpfully paired Cloud Dancer with other pastels for your decorating inspiration. 

The backlash started the moment Pantone made the announcement. There can be all kinds of implications in choosing white, but the most basic is that white is not a color. Some call the choice lazy, while others have coined the term "Pantonedeaf." What do you think of their choice?