Sky Elements Drone Shows launched almost 1500 drones to present the story of The Nutcracker in a series of 3D vignettes over North Richland Hills, Texas, a week ago Sunday. Unlike the ballet, the drone show took only seven minutes. It included 700-foot-tall images, the biggest ever created with flying drones. They included Santa Claus, who does not appear in the story of The Nutcracker, but it's hard to have a Christmas show of any kind in Texas without St. Nick. The drone show set two Guinness World records, for the largest aerial display of a fictional character and the largest aerial image. A good time was had by all.

There are people in this world who are as nice and friendly as can be most of the year, but who get so tired of the hype around Christmas that they become Scrooges, and dismiss Christmas with a "Bah! Humbug!" There are also people who love Christmas, but know the only parts worth telling someone about are the disasters. Thank to the fading art of sending letters, we have a glimpse into Christmases past from some well-known people who didn't always have a merry Christmas. Virginia Woolf wrote in a 1964 letter:

Do not expect wit or sense in this letter, only the affection of a drugged and torpid mind. Oh an English Christmas! We are not Christians; we are not social; we have no part in the fabric of the world, but all the same, Christmas flattens us out like a steam roller; turkey, pudding, tips, waits, holly, good ·wishes, presents, sweets; so here we sit, on Boxing day, at Rodmell, over a wood fire, and I can only rouse myself by thinking of you.

Letters of Note has a collection of excerpts from 13 such letters, many of them filled with vinegar. But the very last one from 1940 is a reminder that no matter how bad your Christmas turns out to be, it could be much worse.  -via Nag on the Lake

Claire Lamman is a graduate student in astronomy at Harvard University. So, in a short, she's a genius. But she's also humble enough to describe herself as a "procrastibaker" -- someone who bakes in order to avoid assigned work. Lamman's portfolio of culinary work is astonishing.

Each Christmas, Lamman composes a gingerbread masterpiece of an astronomical survey instrument, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and an assortment of her favorite space probes. This year, Lamman made the above model of the Very Large Array, a radio telescope consisting of 28 dishes in the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico.

I'm impressed with how smooth the domes turned out.

Harry Hill of New York City is a writer, podcaster and "vibe curator" who is in a Christmas mood. Since Thanksgiving, Hill, his father, and his brother have labored over this set of giant Christmas lights. The construction required 20 plastic bottles, spay paint, glue, and a generator. The plug, you can see, is just decorative.

They illuminate very well, creating just the right ambiance, as well as entertaining people as he drives them around town.

Experience should tell us that just because someone works in a bakery, that doesn't mean they know how to create a reindeer in icing. Especially when that someone worked in the women's lingerie department yesterday. Or maybe in the butcher shop, because these cakes are certainly butchered. They were told it doesn't have to look exactly like a reindeer; it's a symbol, so you just have to convey the idea of a reindeer. Some of these cakes fall short of even that. Jen Yates at Cake Wrecks gave all these reindeer their own names:

Now, Droopy! Now, Poopy! Now, Boner! ...and Pancake!
On, Slappy! On, Psycho! On, Peanut! And Lunch Break!
To the top of the shelf! To the stores at the mall!
Now wreck away, wreck away, WRECK AWAY, ALL!

See eight not-so-tiny reindeer and Santa Claus, too, ready to wreck the halls at Cake Wrecks. And if that's not enough Christmas chaos, see more Christmas wrecks and even more here.

My dogs were enthusiastic about opening presents this morning. The smarter one seemed to actually understand that some of the objects beneath the Tree Inside the House That Must Not Be Peed Upon were to become her property.

The cat has been through enough Christmases to know that it's worthwhile hanging out with the humans and dogs on this day--at least long enough to receive the obligatory offering to the feline overlord. The boxes are a plus, too, as the cat in Jimmy Craig's They Can Talk comic for today demonstrates. Perhaps both received what they asked for from Santa Claus.

Chefs Perfect, an Instagram account that highlights the masterpieces of the modern culinary arts, showcases a recent work by Sicilian pastry wizard Guiseppe Lombardo. In this Instagram post, we see a time lapse video of Lombardo's sorcery at work, weaving together dough so that after it is shaped, cut, baked, and decorated, it presents a perfect Christmas treat.

When Lombardo slices open one, we see a blood-red filling inside, just like a real Christmas tree. Yummy!

-via Nag on the Lake

Keith Massey magister est et scholarium multarum linguarum, in quibus sunt Biblica Hebraice et moderno Arabico. Celebris factus est in YouTube propter videos de eo docens linguam Latinam in schola physica et in online publica. Haec posterior categoria includit translationes et cantus celeberrimas vitae The Beatles, ut "Yesterday." Sed hodie est Nativitatis, ita nos circum larem congregemus et prosapias Nativitatis decantemus quae homines in generationes susceperunt. Superius est, sane, "Jingle Bells."

A new sequel to Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been published this year and it's titled How the Grinch Lost Christmas. It was written by Alastair Heim, illustrated by Aristides Ruiz, and approved by the Dr. Seuss estate. 

I have only watched the 2000 film adaptation, which starred Jim Carrey, and I wasn't that big of a fan of the character, mostly because of how it was portrayed. Dan Kois, however, makes the case for the original 1966 animated film adaptation, the screenplay of which was written by Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss himself.

The appeal of Geisel's Grinch, according to Kois, was the very essence of the character. The Grinch was a miser who hated Christmas and the raucousness of the whole occasion. Although he couldn't actually help it as he was born that way.

Although we want children to enjoy the spirit of the occasion, sometimes we just feel it's just too much work and too much madness. At the end of the day, the moral of the Grinch's story is that the core of the holiday season is that we get to spend it together. It's not the presents or all the other decorative elements, it's the spirit of family and community.

The new Grinch book, on the other hand, picks up a year after the events of the original (spoilers will follow).

It involves a Christmas tree-decorating contest. The Grinch enters, loses, and sulks about it. Instead of the malevolent creature threatening the Whos and all the readers that Christmas will be lost forever, the Grinch turned into the sore loser. Then, the Whos invite him back and he regains his Christmas spirit.

It's a nice children's story, though Kois argues that it lost sight of who the Grinch is, in favor of teaching its readers the moral that Christmas isn't about the glitz and the glamor. But there is perhaps an expectation that this sequel will open the doors for the Grinch to become more relevant as he permeates through other aspects of culture.

(Image credit: Slate)

One person's return is another's bargain, or so the saying goes. People have various reasons why they would return products to Amazon, but where exactly do those go? According to a few reports, some of those returns unfortunately go to landfills.

However, there are other more entrepreneurial individuals at Amazon Return Stores who buy these returned products and sell them at cheaper prices. More than that, they don't only sell return items from Amazon, but also Target, Home Depot, and Walmart.

A simple Google search will give you the location of the nearest Amazon return store to your place. You may try other search terms as well such as Amazon liquidation store, Amazon bin store, and Amazon salvage store. You can also try searching on Facebook.

Depending on your local store's policy, they might give away the products from $1 to $12, just like the Bargain Bins store that Kyle James found. Since these are return items, products may be defective but typically, they will still be in decent condition.

(Image credit: Kyle James/Rather-Be-Shopping)

A classic Christmas tradition my extended family had when I was younger was watching the Home Alone films during the holiday season. As a child, I was simply fascinated by the precocious main protagonist who outsmarted two adults basically pulling a Grinch on the neighborhood. Unfortunately for them, they came face-to-face with the McCalisters' cheeky youngest, Kevin. And we all know what happened.

Many people have had lingering questions about that film, and one particular question has just found an answer with the help of economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. That question is, "How rich were the McCalisters?". And apparently, extremely.

By the Fed's estimates, the house that the McCalisters resided in the film would have required at least $305,000 annually to maintain and be able to live comfortably. In 2022 terms, that would be around $665,000. In fact, the house shown in the film, or the exterior anyways, has been estimated to cost $2.3 or 2.4 million, according to real estate experts.

With these financial requirements, the McCalisters would easily be in the top 1% of Chicago residents. Apparently, Kevin's parents worked as a businessman and a fashion designer, so it would make sense how they could afford all that, and how Kevin was able to book a penthouse suite at The Plaza Hotel in the second film.

(Image credit: ProGummy/Home Alone Fandom)

We often try to shield children from the vulgarities of life, so we have euphemisms for the most common swear words to replace them when we have that irresistible urge to just utter an expletive but we stop ourselves midway and come up with a softer alternative because children are present.

Redditor Live_Wallaby9683 shared this map, created by Atlasova, of different euphemistic swear words that each European language has. It's not a complete list for each language. They only give one word for each country, but several redditors chimed in with some of their own.

Some examples include "mercredi" or Wednesday in French, and the Spanish equivalent "miércoles" which means the same thing, both a euphemism of the same expletive.

The Portuguese say "fogo" meaning fire, Danes say "for hulen" which translate to "by the cave", and the Germans say "Gopfridstutz" or Gottfried Stutz.

Many of the euphemisms have references to food like how Croatians say "piska" and the Polish say "kurcze" both meaning chicken. Italians say "cavolo" meaning cabbage, the Dutch say "chips" which are chips, and the Finns say "persikka" meaning peach.

Perhaps, the most interesting euphemism is that from Lithuania "kasyk sliekui pazastis" which roughly translates to "go scratch the armpits of an earthworm".

(Image credit: Live_Wallaby9683/Reddit)

Just as Nicolas Cage and Chuck Norris have become the quintessential celebrity memes in Western culture, Chinese Gen Zs have also found their celebrity memes in these two literary giants.

Yu Hua has recently grown in popularity online, along with his former classmate and fellow author, Mo Yan. Famous for his 1993 novel To Live, Yu has been considered one of China's forerunners of avant-garde fiction.

On the other hand, his peer Mo, has been dubbed the Chinese counterpart of Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller, and has also been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. In particular, his 1986 novel Red Sorghum has received international critical acclaim, and was also adapted into a 1988 film of the same name, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

As to how these two Chinese authors became memes attest to their relevance in modern Chinese culture, in particular to China's youth. Although most of the memes feature the two in their most candid moments, what truly brought them so much internet attention was their empathy for young people. And so, the way their ideas and works resonate with the youth served as the fuel for the memes.

Further, a newspaper poll looking into the reasons for their rise in Chinese internet culture showed that 40% of people attribute this popularity to the writers' personal charisma while 27% believe it is because Chinese youth find solace in their works.

As a result of this, Mo has now accumulated more than 4 million followers on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Meanwhile, Yu, though having no social media accounts, has seen a spike in search results of more than 50 times since 2021.

(Image credit: Weibo/Sixth Tone)

Dubbed astrocartography, this branch of astrology practice uses the locations of the sun, moon, and planets on your birth date to determine which would be your next best travel destinations. But not just that, it also tells you what kind of experiences you might expect in certain locations or which places are great for relocation, relationships, career goals, and other milestones or life events.

Apparently, according to the guidelines prescribed in astrocartography, there are various lines that traverse the globe based on the alignments of different planets on your birth date. Each planet gives off certain energies related to things like romance, communication, curiosity, discipline, luck, wealth, spirituality, and more.

By tracing where those lines cross and which places they pass through, you might feel a certain pull toward those locations. But it's not limited just to the desire to visit those places. It may explain why you feel a connection or have particular interest in the culture of that place.

Though some people may use their astrocartography chart as a means of finding the best place to relocate or travel, astrology experts add that it still depends on how you act on the energies emanating from such intersections.

It's not an all-encompassing motivating factor to make your decisions but it can help give an idea on what to expect on your next travel destination. For believers, this may provide direction toward the achievement of certain goals or objectives in life. For others, it may be a fun thing to try out.

(Image credit: A.n.n 654/Wikimedia Commons)

The image above shows us a star cluster officially designated NGC 2264, which is informally called the Christmas Tree Cluster. It's about 2,500 light years away, and features young stars between one and five million years old -give or take the 2,500 years it took the light to reach earth. The stars range from a tenth the size of our sun to seven times its size.

This is a composite picture, taken by three kinds of telescope cameras. The green is the gas among the nebula, taken by an optical camera from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope. Foreground and background stars in white were revealed by infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. The blue and white blinking lights are from X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Did I say they blinked? They do, like twinkling tree lights, shown in an animation in the NASA article about the image. The twinkling effect was added for the video, but the stars really do twinkle, just not in sync with each other. That, and the choice to render the gas image in green, is NASA's Christmas gift to all of us. -via Bored Panda

(Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major)