You may have heard Cheech and Chong telling about a freak who lived in the projects, hired midgets, and used magic dust. Recently, Stephen Larsen, PhD, Psychology Professor Emeritus at SUNY Ulster, talked to Thom Hartmann as he had before about myths from northern Europe which parallel Clement Moore's narrative of a jolly old elf.
[... a]Norwegian and Scandinavian [sic] shaman had figured out [...] there was a certain type of mushroom [...] a deadly, deadly mushroom. But reindeer can eat it and their livers metabolize the toxin, break it down, and render it harmless without changing the hallucinogen. And so the shaman would cultivate areas where these particular mushrooms grew, [and] these mushrooms have little red caps with white spots all over them, and encourage the reindeer to go eat them. And then they would follow the reindeer around, and wherever they found yellow snow they would gather up the snow and make that into a magic brew and drink that stuff and suddenly they're seeing little guys and flying reindeer.
So, that's how he can make it around the globe in 24 hours and how he can see you while you're sleeping (which is kinda creepy if you think about it).
Symbolic Studies has more on this.
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AlterNet reports:
We've been getting Rudolph completely wrong.
For a start, Rudolph and team are probably female. All the images I've seen of Rudolph clearly show a reindeer proudly sporting antlers. Reindeer are the only deer where both sexes grow antlers, but the males lose them around Christmas time and regrow them in the spring, ready for the mating season. The only way a male reindeer can hang on to his magnificent headgear through the festive season is to be castrated. Losing the source of the sex hormones upsets the antler cycle--and probably the reindeer too.
We need to talk about that nose as well. The red glow from Rudolph's most famous attribute is probably caused by something more serious than a bad cold. Reindeer noses are a brilliant product of evolutionary adaptation to a harsh environment. The nasal passages contain many elaborate folds covered in blood vessels. When a reindeer breathes in, the abundant blood vessels warm up the air keeping the inside of the reindeer nice and warm even when the air around it is sub-zero. On the way out, the same blood vessels cool the air, minimising heat loss and retaining as much water vapour as possible.
The unfortunate downside of such an intricate nasal arrangement is that it is a very comfortable spot for parasites to lurk. There are 20 parasites unique to mainland reindeer, and many others that are just as happy in reindeer or other ruminants. That red nose is therefore probably due to parasitic infection and increased blood flow to the area where the body is doing its best to fight off invaders.
The article also addresses flying and mentions magic mushrooms, which we discussed during a previous Yule: How Santa Flies, Fits Down Chimneys, and Does Stuff You Can't Do
(Score: 4, Interesting) by cellocgw on Wednesday December 24 2014, @06:15PM
For the 1% who haven't seen it yet, http://xkcd.com/1464/ [xkcd.com]
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 24 2014, @06:48PM
This claims the mushroom story is wrong...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria#Christmas_decorations_and_Santa_Claus [wikipedia.org]
Too bad, it was a fun story! Thanks for running it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by francois.barbier on Wednesday December 24 2014, @07:17PM
Merry Christmas Everyone !
And a Happy New Year!
I wish you all the best for 2015.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 24 2014, @08:11PM
I just tried playing an MP3 and noticed it....
How does that happen? Does it have an 'activate only on Dec 25' built-in easter egg?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by slash2phar on Wednesday December 24 2014, @08:19PM
Yeah saw that too. But it's not new [techie-buzz.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 24 2014, @08:27PM
No, it is active more than a day. It has been going on for years. There is not an easy way to disable it for those that do not have fond memories of this time of year.
(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Thursday December 25 2014, @06:25AM
Toolks->preferences->show settings:All
Then Interface->mainInterfaces->Qt. Uncheck Allow Automatic Icon Changes at the bottom of the window.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday December 25 2014, @06:39AM
I believe it starts on the 18th or so. It's been a feature for years.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 24 2014, @08:27PM
And here I always thought it was just Cernunnos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos [wikipedia.org] who in Celtic religion may have been a sort of Keeper of the souls of Animals. There are similar deities in Native American religion, and part of the story is that when an animal is killed, its spirit returns to the longhouse of the Keeper, and after a time the animal souls are reincarnated. But if people treat animals badly, not being properly respectful of the sacrifice they make to feed humans, especially by wasting parts of the animal, the animal spirits would complain to the Keeper, and he would hold them back from reincarnation, which means a shortage of game for the people.
So you see, orginally, the reindeer were the presents, and none for you if you are a bad person!