Deadspin:

Hello. My name is Chris Kluwe, and for eight years I was the punter for the Minnesota Vikings. In May 2013, the Vikings released me from the team.

I honestly don’t know if my activism was the reason I got fired.

However, I’m pretty confident it was.

Kluwe became famous off the football field back in September of 2012 when his letter to a politician went viral. It’s a sad end to his NFL career.

Vocativ:

The truffle. It’s the hallmark of haute cuisine. Sorry, caviar, but you’re no match for the truffle’s earthy-flavored tastiness, beloved by chefs and epicures alike. The specialty comes in several varieties, including black and burgundy, but Italian white truffles are the most revered, and in turn, the most valuable. Alba, a hilly area in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, is especially famous for its culinary gems, and it’s the place to look if you are hoping to find some.

I had never had real truffle (I thought it was a chocolate treat) until I went to Italy and was blown away by how even a little bit thinly shaved over a simple pasta dish could create such an explosion of flavour.

CBC News:

In terms of astonishing weather facts, it doesn’t get much more impressive than being as cold as a distant planet for a day.

The Manitoba Museum is reporting Winnipeg’s temperatures on Tuesday were actually as cold as the surface of Mars.

According to the Curiosity Rover, Mars reached a maximum temperature of -29 C on Tuesday, a temperature Winnipeg only reached shortly before 3 p.m.

If asked the question, “Why will you never live in Winnipeg?”, I will simply point to this.

Gizmodo:

Behold the first self-propelled ice sculpture ever—a truck made of ice that actually works! It’s a real truck, using 11,000 pounds of ice over a regular truck chassis complete with engine and electrical system. Check out the videos to see how they built it—and how it melted.

This commercial is in heavy rotation here in Canada.

Today I Found Out:

This tradition is mostly thanks to Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadian Band. While their work is largely unknown to those born in the last few decades, the band has sold over 300 million records to date. Guy Lombardo himself has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was once the “Dick Clark” of New Years before Clark and his “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” attempting to appeal to younger audiences, started supplanting “Mr. New Year’s Eve,” Guy Lombardo.

“Auld Lang Syne” is another one of those songs most of us don’t know the words to – like the Canadian National Anthem.

Death and Taxes:

A Reddit sleuth posted this list of movies and TV shows that will be purged from Netflix in January, 2014. If you have time off from work between now and January 1, it might not be a bad use of your time to binge-watch some blockbusters (“Braveheart,” “Top Gun,” “Platoon”), art house flicks (“Being John Malkovich”) and the entire series run of “The Kids in the Hall.”

I wonder if it’s less a “purge” as is being reported (it really doesn’t make any sense for Netflix to remove movies) or rather, Netflix’s contracts/agreements for those films are expiring.

Regardless, some of you may have some Netflix binge-watching to do New Year’s Day!

Bored Panda:

When the weather forecast announced unexpected cold from -9°C to -12°C last week, photographer Angela Kelly decided to take an advantage of it in one truly creative way. Together with her 7-year-old son, Kelly combined the home-based remedies – dish soap, karo syrup, and water – and went out to blow bubbles and take pictures as they freeze and melt.

-9°C is 15+°F. Or as we Canadians call it, “The month of May”.

BuzzFeed:

Like many casual fans, we assumed we could immediately pick it up and dominate. We were very wrong.

Check the article out if for no other reason that the GIFs.

And the “tip” at the end? Not gonna happen!

Bored Panda:

Nina and Gramps have been married for 61 years, however, all they’ve got from their wedding day is a single photograph. On one of the most important days of their life, the couple got stood up by their photographer. In order to fix this, their caring granddaughter, an event designer Lauren Wells, organized a beautiful anniversary photo session, inspired by the famous Pixar animation movie “Up“.

61 years of marriage. Most of us haven’t even been on the planet that long, let alone married. Congratulations to them!

TIME:

King Wenceslas didn’t start Boxing Day, but the Church of England might have.

During Advent, Anglican parishes displayed a box into which churchgoers put their monetary donations. On the day after Christmas, the boxes were broken open and their contents distributed among the poor, thus giving rise to the term Boxing Day.

Maybe.

Even though TIME doesn’t answer its own headline question, the article still might be instructive to our American friends who have heard about “this weird Canadian Holiday”.

BuzzFeed:

My advice to TV shoppers has evolved: Consider the off-brands. Are you building the ultimate home entertainment system to show off to your friends? Then sure, shell out for the Samsung. But if you’re not…perhaps it’s time to take a look at one of those sub-$350, 40-plus-inch TVs.

Purists will scoff but he’s not wrong. And with “good enough” TVs coming down in price, it makes it less and less likely Apple will be interested in trying to sell their own high margin sets.

BBC News:

Erwin Perzy III knows a thing or two about making it snow – it’s the family business.

The 57-year-old Austrian is the grandson of the man widely acknowledged as the inventor of the snow globe. His grandfather, the first Erwin Perzy, came up with the idea by accident in 1900.

Mass production started in Vienna in 1905, and 108 years later, the company – Original Vienna Snow Globes – is still going strong.

There’s something a little bit magical about a well done, well made snow globe.

NBC World News:

Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission and local authorities to abandon a highway project building a direct route from the Alftanes peninsula, where the president has a home, to the Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer. They fear disturbing elf habitat and claim the area is particularly important because it contains an elf church.

It’s easy for some of us to dismiss this as silly but the story has a great quote in it from an Icelander. He says, “I got married in a church with a god just as invisible as the elves, so what might seem irrational is actually quite common.” So who are we to say Icelandic Elves don’t deserve protections?

Nasa:

In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space. But as crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered was Earth.

It can be argued the picture, “Earthrise”, was the one photo that changed the earth the most. It expanded our understanding and concern for the planet we live on.

Looking Up:

There’s something special about the quality of sound when it snows. Those who live in parts of the world that experience snowfall know it well — an eerie, muted stillness that you hear from your bed, which betrays the season’s first snowflakes before you fling open the curtains in excitement.

Thos of us lucky enough to live where it snows are familiar with this phenomenon. Knowing why it happens doesn’t detract from the wonder of it. Thanks to Jeff Carlson for the link.

The Verge:

“At Target we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, and when a new album is available digitally before it is available physically, it impacts demand and sales projections.” a spokesperson said to Billboard.

Waah…

Buzzfeed:

In early 2014, a series of devastating catastrophes bring about Armageddon. Papers of record like the New York Times soberly report this news.

Utterly hilarious. Thanks to Ian Betteridge for the link.

Monday Note:

Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO, predicts the end of subsidies because “wireless operators can no longer afford to suck up the costs of customers’ devices”.

I don’t know if Stephenson is speaking out of cultural deafness or cynicism, but he’s obscuring the point: There is no subsidy. Carriers extend a loan that users pay back as part of the monthly service payment. Like any loan shark, the carrier likes its subscriber to stay indefinitely in debt, to always come back for more, for a new phone and its ever-revolving payments stream.

Lots of interesting tidbits in this piece and it’s interesting to see how many media outlets unquestioningly repeated Stephenson stupid “end of subsidies” comment.

Mental Floss:

“Yes, Sir, this is Colonel Shoup,” he barked.

Nothing but silence in response.

“Sir? This is Colonel Shoup,” he said.

Silence again.

“Sir? Can you read me alright?”

Finally, a soft voice on the other end.

“Are you really Santa Claus?” a little girl asked.

I love this story and delighted in telling it to my “new” 12 year old. She knew NORAD tracked Santa but she didn’t know why.

Macworld:

I left Facebook nearly four years ago because of its casual attitude toward its users’ privacy and nothing I’ve seen since has convinced me that this was a mistake. So, I sympathise. Fortunately, it’s easy to leave.

How much you want to bet we find out at some point in the future Facebook hasn’t actually deleted your account – they’ve just made it so you can’t see it any more?

Pacific Standard:

If you were a fan watching at home, here’s what you saw:

After a 52-yard drive in the fourth quarter, Army quarterback Carl “Rollie” Stichweh faked a handoff and raced into the end zone at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia. Army fans erupted with cheers. The Midshipmen hung their heads. Then, seconds later, bewildered fans at home watched as Stichweh did exactly the same thing. Again, the cheers. Again, the downtrodden Midshipmen.

“This is not live! Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!” CBS announcer Lindsay Hunter hollered to television audiences as the handoff replayed. But still, confused viewers called stations to ask whether Army just tied the game.

Imagine you were watching the 1963 Army vs Navy game. Imagine how confusing instant replay would have been. All sports fans owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tony Verna.

Delaware Online:

While shooting football in the snow makes for fantastic photos, it’s also the most challenging scenario a modern photojournalist can find themselves in. Cameras today rely so heavily on autofocus for sports that snow renders them functionally useless.

Imagine trying to photograph someone standing behind a waterfall. Even if you can see them clearly, no matter what you do your camera focuses only the water. The same went for every thick snowflake between me and the players on the field, and when you consider there were thousands falling every second the challenge was daunting.

This was a fun game to watch and this guy got some spectacular shots in amazingly difficult photographic conditions.

New York Times:

SantaCons of years past have been distinguished by sexism, drunkenness, xenophobia, homophobia and enough incidents of public vomiting and urination to fill an infinite dunk tank. Despite these rampant violations, the departing police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, recently praised SantaCon, claiming that it “makes New York New York.”

So “sexism, drunkenness, xenophobia, homophobia” are what make New York be New York? Bull.

Star Trek:

The Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 was the first fictional spacecraft to carry on the name of many vessels in English and U.S. history. There were actually two ships in the English Navy called the HMS Enterprize (and that’s not a typo). The first was from 1743 and the second sailed in 1775. Fast forward to the U.S. Pacific Fleet during WWII and the USS Enterprise CV6 was our first Aircraft Carrier to carry the name Enterprise. In 1955, the second USS Enterprise CV65 took to sea. She was a massive aircraft carrier and the first of our nuclear-powered fleet. Fast forward again to 1967, and a new USS Enterprise would to take us into space… with Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek.

But every true Star Trek fan knew all of this already, didn’t they?

These videos are always amazing. It’s basically a short movie made out of clips from movies released in 2013. Nick Bosworth is an editing genius.

Here’s video of a Christmas tree harvest using a helicopter at the Noble Mountain Tree Farm outside of Salem, OR. I had to check with a helicopter pilot friend of mine to make sure this wasn’t fake! Here’s another video showing the process from the pilot’s point of view. Amazing piloting skills.

Mashable:

Airports are perhaps the least jolly of locales during the holiday season, generally filled with disgruntled people facing delays, lost luggage and other mishaps. But, thanks to WestJet, one gaggle of weary travelers was treated to a Christmas miracle that turned an airport into Santa’s workshop.

Sniff. Excuse me, I have to go. I’ve got something in my eyes.

Bored Panda:

Advertising doesn’t try very hard to conform to moral standards, but after looking back at some offensive, racist and sexist vintage ads – today’s ads are as good as gold.

I hate the vast majority of today’s advertising as much as the next person but ads like “Is It Always Illegal To Kill A Woman?” just make me shake my head in wonderment.

Hypervocal:

2012 was a tough year to top in the unintentionally amusing world of live local news. Between the lady who flashed her boobs at the vacuum cleaner man, Jay Z’s sister interrupting a live newscast and the weatherman aroused by “moisture from John,” you wouldn’t be wrong to think we’d peaked.

You would be wrong. Live local news brought the goods this year.

We all know that, for the most part, our local news sucks. I’ve watched it for years all over Canada and the US and generally, the quality is pretty awful But luckily, it delvers some gems like these.