The nutcracker is just hanging out on the tree, eagerly waiting for Christmas morning (or rather, Christmas Eve, when us Germans open their presents). I like nutcrackers (even the bigger kind whose mouth actually opens) — though ironically, they are completely useless for their actual job, and I have yet to see one that wouldn’t break if you tried cracking a hazelnut or walnut with it…

This year, Time magazine named “The Protester” its “Person of the Year”. Inside, they cover several key people in the 2011 protests around the world, among them linguistics teacher and blogger Lina Ben Mhenni (“A Tunisian Girl”). In the picture, she’s carrying her “sword” — the laptop she uses to write her influential blog. To my delight, she decorated it with a Firefox sticker, along with various others about privacy and political activism.

Hat-tip to Lina: Thank you for standing up for civil rights in your country and everywhere in the world.

One of our servers greets me like this on login: OMG BRONIES!!! Bronies, as you may be eager to know, are obviously the favorite means of transportation for Brogrammers, the cavalry of software engineering.

These are only some of the labels attached to an IBM/Lenovo laptop power supply. I am always impressed just how much paper they manage to stick onto these. The labels range from “this is a power supply, may contain traces of electricity” over “by the way this item has inventory number 1234ABC and we want to remember this for all eternity” to, well, “by the way Saudi Arabia’s outlets have 2 more volts than the ones in the US”. Besides, these power bricks are usually the size of an average midsize car (and equally as heavy). It can only be a matter of time until those (like baseball bats) are not allowed on planes anymore.

Sometimes I look at a Mac power supply and take it for granted — until I see one of these again, and realize that good industrial design is not the rule, but the exception. It makes me sad.

Looks at this set of wine glasses, sadly misappropriated to hold champagne (actual champagne, too, not sparkling wine). Do I hear a “first world problems”?

Take a look at our recently-acquired half a pig, wrapped in subtle white paper packaging, spending its days in subzero (Celsius, anyway) darkness until it is consumed. There are various fine things in there that I am eager to eat: Bacon, obviously, but also various different roasts and cuts that are just waiting to be turned into Schnitzel.

Nom nom nom.

Today’s science experience was: Does a Christmas stocking holder survive unharmed when dropped off the mantle? Sad answer: It does not. Despite the state-of-the-art glue and toxic lead paint holding it in place, the “gift” on the top broke off and had to be fixed. Quality made in China just isn’t what it used to be anymore

Say hi to Mozilla’s new Firefox costume! I think it turned out great! Our old costume served us well, but this one will looks much friendlier and even has a fiery tail (that Thunder has clearly taken a liking in).

I am looking forward to hearing more about the design process that made this happen!