The bright ball that hovers over Times Square on New Year’s Eve is special this year. Sure, it’s iconic and colorful and mesmerizing as it always is. This year, however, the ball will captivate us all with a brand new crystal coating. And, boy, is it pretty.
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Who needs Christmas lights when you have glowing mammalian cells? This wreath, assembled from cells with proteins and structured stained different colors, was made by Dr. Donna Beer Stolz at the University of Pittsburgh. It won 19th place in the 2011 Nikon Photomicrography Competition—but top honors for holiday cheer. [Nikon]
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Have you ever felt like making boozy eggnog is a total crapshoot? Half the time you get a smooth and delicious cocktail, and half the time it’s a lumpy, curdled mess. What gives?
Holiday family gatherings are the ripest events of year for photo-documentation. Rather than leaving the task to Aunt Edna, take those reins yourself. You can capture the finest damn pictures this family has ever seen!
We’re at the peak of the busiest delivery season of the year. To prove how mad it is, Animal New York recorded this insane 24-hour time-lapse of a UPS parking lot packed with truck trailers behind its office in Hell’s Kitchen—"Due to space constraints, this plays out like an real life game of Tetris."
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We collectively use about a million plastic bags a minute, a figure that will peak during next week’s holiday rush. As you’re sitting around in a post-Christmas funk next week, consider following the lead of Japanese artist Yuken Teruya, who carves tiny, perfect trees out of the flimsy walls of old shopping bags.
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Some people are so rich, that it seems like they have everything. Others may have just enough in terms of finances, but they can be so happy and content with life, that it would still seem like they have everything they need.
What can you get for those people this Christmas? What gift would they want, when they can either buy it easily themselves, or when they have no want for anything else because they’re perfectly content with what they already have?
The Gift of Nothing might be appropriate for those people. It’s basically a round, plastic sphere that has nothing inside. In short, it is the gift of nothing.
It was probably created as a gag gift (imagine how a kid would react if they got this!) But if you’re giving it to one of the two types of people described above, here’s an idea: give them the gift of laughter with this present, and add a little something you made (be it a poem, a letter, or a drawing) with a special message that will warm their hearts for sure.
[via The Green Head]
In south Japan, Mie prefecture is rocking 7 million LED Christmas lights. Hence the awesome light tunnel above. "Illuminations" or Christmas light displays have been a big deal in Japan since the 1980s. But there’s something a lot more contemplative about these lights compared to some of the spectacles
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Imagine you’re waiting around in a train station, munching on some Cinnabon, when all of a sudden the ornamental baby grand piano just starts playing music all by itself. Magic? Not quite, but definitely pure whimsy. See for yourself.
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Everything is bigger in Texas, so it’s no surprise the state is now home to the Guinness World Record-approved largest gingerbread house. This sweet spot is made from a whopping 7,200 pounds of flour, 7,200 eggs, 3,000 pounds of brown sugar, 1,800 pounds of butter, and 22,304 pieces of candy, clocking in at a gut-busting 35,823,400 calories. It looks a little terrifying, but it probably tastes delicious. [Gizmag]
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