"Rechristens." Get it? This is "A" material, people.
Anyway. Just in time for the holidays, Darwin's Rottweiler, aka Richard Dawkins, has written an essay in which he tots up all the Biblical/historical inconsistencies regarding the birth of Jesus. (Was this published in the Annals of the Galactically Obvious or even Preaching to the Choir Monthly? No, just The New Statesman.)
All by way of proposing instead that we honor December 25th for its real, Brights-approved significance: being the birthday of Isaac Newton.
So, this being the last day I'm posting before the holiday break, I wanted to wish everyone "a Happy Newton Day." Hope you get everything you wished for!
I even found a science-boosting carol to go along with it (courtesy of the nerdily-awesome physics video game Portal). Listen after the jump.
Today's Giftology item is guaranteed to make you the most popular person ever at your local cafe, bookstore or street corner: The Wi-Fi Detector Shirt features an animated design on front with signal bars that actually glow blue as the signal strength increases. You'll be like the infallible Johnny Depp/Scarlett Johansson of horn-rimmed glassed-chicks/dudes everywhere you go!
The $29.99 shirt runs "for hours" on 3 AAA batteries and is machine washable, though you'll have to disassemble the glowing, animated decal, battery pack and all the other glitchy components. If you're contemplating wearing a Wi-Fi shirt, I think you can handle it.
Oh, Japan. Oh, dear, sweet Japan. You're making me swoon with your awesomeness. Ferrofluids and giant jellyfish rule my face, sure — but you've really outdone yourself this time by powering a Christmas tree with an electric eel:
Electric eels can generate 1 ampere (500 watts) of current, plenty to keep the lights on your tree blazing and the angel at the top twirling.
This holiday season, while you’re waiting for Atlantis to launch, why not drop a line to the astronauts who will be decking the halls of the International Space Station? There’s a link at the right-hand side of this web page, where you can select, write and “stamp” one of four postcards to send to the crew members, who will literally be celebrating all over the world.
(Look carefully at this one – what do YOU see in the reflection off the astronaut’s mirrored helmet?)
To really personalize your greeting, choose someone to address your postcard to; you can read about some of them here.
Scroll down a little further on the page to watch Expedition 16’s official holiday message, just for you.
And in case you’re wondering, here’s how will they be celebrating the holidays:
Christmas. Kwanzaa. Hannukah. The holiday pressure is on, but this season, you can boost your cool-factor with Giftology. What's Giftology? It's a scientifically proven method to cut through all that religious ceremony and cultural hoo-dee-hoo to go directly toward what the holiday spirit really means: getting all sorts of sweet loot.
But we here at 60 Second Science realize you might be new to Giftology, which is why everyday from now until oh, say, the arbitrary date of Dec. 25th, we'll present a new item for your ultimate Giftology gift guide. Items range from unattainable tech awesomeness (personal hovercrafts, for instance) to nerdy tchotchkes with only a tenuous connection to the world of science (brain jello molds, anyone?). The point is, you'll have every gift idea you could possibly need for the particle physicist, amateur evo-devo enthusiast, nerd, geek or violent criminal genius in your family.
Today's 
Christmas. Kwanzaa. Hannukah. The holiday pressure is on, but this season, you can boost your cool-factor with Giftology. What's Giftology? It's a scientifically proven method to cut through all that religious ceremony and cultural hoo-dee-hoo to go directly toward what the holiday spirit really means: getting all sorts of sweet loot.
