Rosemary Marco is an artist and writer who communicates information about the natural world and the importance of preserving it. She's especially passionate about birds and would like to have their powers.

A gular pouch could be especially helpful during harsh winter months when food becomes scarce or during workplace meetings that drag on into my lunchbreak. Perhaps I could create an artificial one and wear it around my neck.

Mateo Zielonka is a world-renowned pasta chef who recently published a cookbook teaching his craft.

He's made astonishingly realistic pasta versions of household objects, such as cookpots, and logos, such as the shield of the Arsenal soccer team.

"Is it cake?" is the old question. "Is it pasta?" is an update by Zielonka.

In the case of the above video, our master chef used molds to create LEGO minifigs and blocks out of flour. Then he carefully cooked the delicate objects to buttery perfection.

Instagram user @nao2748 is a food artist who crafts amazing treats that delight all of the senses. Her projects include focaccia loaves with crab-shaped tomatoes, cake sandwiches with Santa Claus, and cheesecakes shaped like foxes.

She's also made pizzas shaped like frogs. The frogs are ready for the winter, as they have their mittens on and wear beanie caps to shield themselves from the cold weather.

They bake well and still look like cozy frogs warmed by the heat of a fireplace (or oven). Hop over to her kitchen and try one.

In the Star Wars universe, "Life Day" was invented just so that the franchise could have a promotional Holiday Special back in 1978. But it's a convenient way to link Star Wars with Christmas, so the idea endures. Still, life isn't easy when you're a storm trooper for the Empire. You are regarded as a cog in the machinery, controlled by fear and bureaucracy, and always expendable. Besides that, you may be assigned to some of the worst places in the galaxy, like the ice planet Hoth. 

In this story, trooper TK‑42Greg has been assigned to Hoth to make sure the holiday is festive. It's a losing battle. While there, he is sent on a mission to deliver socks to an outpost while a blizzard rages. Not fun at all. This is the way to spend Life Day on a bitterly cold planet, with Kevin the tauntaun and cynical troopers, under orders to be festive (or else!) while you lose your way, face a wampa, and pull a sledge full of socks and regret. 

The Franco-Prussian War lasted less than a year, but it was a particularly hard time for Paris. The Germans surrounded the city and began a siege. No one could get out, nor could supplies be brought in, for five months. As winter approached, food was running out. Restaurants stayed open, although they had no agricultural products. One waiter snapped at a woman who wanted a salad, “Madame, this is a restaurant, not a meadow!” So what was on the menu? Meat. First they ate the horses, then the cats and dogs, and then rats. And the animals of the city zoo. 

The restaurant Christmas menus from 1870 reflect what was available, and how eateries did their best to make it sound palatable. At the restaurant Voisin, you might have elephant soup, fried camel nuggets, kangaroo stew, or bear chops, among other ghastly offerings. But the most common food was from cats, dogs, and rats. Butchers began to specialize in slaughtering household pets. We don't know how long Parisians would have held out eating such food, because Otto von Bismarck lost patience and shelled the city into submission. Read about the dreadful Parisian diet of 1870-1871 at Messy Nessy Chic. 

You probably travel with just carry-on luggage if you have to fly (I do), because not only does checked baggage cost extra, there's a chance you may never see that suitcase again in one piece. What do airlines do to cause all that damage? One commenter told of the time he received his clothing in a garbage bag at baggage claim. The explanation was that an airplane had run over his suitcase. Your mileage may vary, one would hope. 

To show us what happens in the airport baggage conveyor system, Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines (previously at Neatorama) recreated the path that your suitcase takes through an airport. It's a bit scary in places, but somehow, his suitcase beats the odds and makes it out okay. What inspired this madness? It looks like he has a luggage company for a sponsor, but they make that nicely subtle. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

British-American actor Roddy McDowall appeared in all three of the original Planet of the Apes films in the role of Dr. Cornelius. In the third film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, he finds himself in contemporary human-ruled Earth.

Enter Jameson Montgomery, a fashion writer for the New York Times. Reader Nina says that she loves a robe that Cornelius wore during the film. She would like to own and wear one like it. Can Montgomery help her? Montgomery then goes on a quest to locate this robe or a copy of it. The hero's journey takes him to fashion history experts and vintage clothing collectors in search of the lost totem.

-via Marginal Revolution

YouTuber Builda Dad Garage builds extraordinary vehicles in his workshop, mostly extreme vehicles designed to tackle the roughest environments. These include tracked wheelchairs, dually go-karts, minibikes with mower attachments, a bike that rolls on barrels, and amphibious trikes.

One of his recent inventions is a mechanized ladder that can push through snow and over obstacles thanks to rear-mounted tracks. It's an ideal machine for, say, clearing gutters. This way, you don't have to climb down and reposition the ladder every few feet. Just stay at the top and drive.

He also made a wheeled variant for, presumably, transportation over roads.

-via David Thompson

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.

Hanukkah 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.