'Ringside Seat' To Total Lunar Eclipse

From Elizabeth Weise, USA Today

If you step outside late tonight into early Tuesday morning, you may notice the moon looks like a luminous rotten orange. It's a total lunar eclipse that will be visible to everyone in North and Central America, including Alaska and Hawaii.

"We've all got a ringside seat to this one," says Alan MacRobert, editor of Sky & Telescope magazine.
"We'll be watching it together."

During a lunar eclipse, the Earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon, so there is no direct sunlight to hit and reflect off the moon's surface. The only light that reaches it is "filtered and bending through our atmosphere," MacRobert says. That gives it the color of "all of the world's sunrises and sunsets" together.

The total eclipse will last for 72 minutes, a deeper "night within a night," as he puts it. The moon will be partially eclipsed for about an hour as it goes into and out of the Earth's shadow. The total eclipse will last from 2:41 to 3:53 a.m. ET.

"It's going to take a long time to watch the whole eclipse, about 3½ hours," says Rebecca Johnson, editor of StarDate magazine.

The color the moon takes on during the eclipse depends on what's in Earth's upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, says Fred Espenak, a scientist emeritus with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and eclipse specialist.

Read more here.

A Frozen Lighthouse

On the shores of Ohio, near Lake Erie, there stands a lighthouse that is literally frozen. Waves crashed onto the Harbor West Pierhead Lighthouse and the subzero air temperature quickly turned the lighthouse, covered in water, into an ice castle.

The unusual and oddly beautiful sight caused a huge bump in Web searches for "frozen lighthouse" and "lighthouse frozen solid." During the week, lookups for both terms surged over 1,000%. You can check out some video of the lighthouse here. If anyone deserves a Hawaiian vacation it's that lighthouse keeper...

Anonymous Donor Gives $40K To Food Bank

NEW HOPE, Minn. (WCCO) — Christmas came early for a Twin Cities food bank struggling to keep up with the growing number of hungry families this holiday season.

The Emergency Foodshelf Network in New Hope stocks and serves more than 230 food pantries in Minnesota.

“We are running leaner than we have probably run in years,” said Executive Director Lori Kratchmer, who says this year donations are down at least 20 percent. “Across all suburbs around the metro area so, it’s really broad, the need, and it continues to be greater and greater.”

But Wednesday, a Christmas miracle arrived in a plain white envelope. Up front, administrative assistant Carol Deters opens up the mail. She just had a hunch.

“I said, I just love these mysterious envelopes because you never know what little goody you are going to find on the inside. And we opened it up and it was a check for $40,000,” Deters said.

Deters says $40,000 can purchase 37,600 meals.

“I was just so excited and we were running around and yelling, needed it,” she said.

There was no note, and when the staff tried to call the person whose name was on the check, the number was unlisted. The donor wanted to remain anonymous.

Read more here.

'Santa Claus’ Donates $100,000 to Joplin Salvation Army

The Joplin. MO Salvation Army has once again gotten an early Christmas gift from “Santa Claus.”

Five checks totaling $100,000 were dropped into the Salvation Army’s red kettle at Walgreens, 20th and Main streets, sometime between 5 and 9 p.m. Monday, Capt. Jason Poff said.

“They were folded and hidden within dollar bills,” he said. “Really, it feels surprising, shocking, amazing all at the same time when you open up a bucket and $20,000 checks start falling out.”

This is at least the fifth consecutive year in which the local organization has received a substantial anonymous donation, in the form of Commerce Bank cashier’s checks with the remitter identified as “Santa Claus.” Over the past five Christmas seasons, the local Salvation Army has reaped $350,000 in checks from the anonymous Santa.

Secret Santa Drops Thousands in Salvation Army Kettle

Somewhere out there, a secret Santa just saved Christmas for a lot of Tennessee Valley families.  And they did it with the biggest gift ever to a Salvation Army red kettle in our area.

Most of us are familiar with the ringing bells outside of stores this time of year.  And many of us even drop in our spare coins.  But Tuesday night, somebody threw down a few bills instead.  "I just kept screaming and digging in and looking for more," says Salvation Army donations coordinator Jennifer Fisher.  Every morning, Fisher helps count the kettles from the day before.  But nothing prepared her for the seemingly never-ending stack of Benjamin's.  Co-workers even grabbed their cameras and caught the moment.  In the end, 55 fresh $100 bills.  That's $5,500!  "I was just sorting through and kept finding different little piles of hundreds!" laughs Fisher.

Salvation Army spokesperson Kimberly George says the money came from a kettle at the K-Mart in Fort Oglethorpe.

Disney to close Toontown Fair

Walt Disney World will close Mickey's Toontown Fair in February to make way for the under-construction expansion of Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom.

The final day of operation for Toontown Fair, home to meet-and-greets with animated characters such as Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell and a Goofy-themed children's roller coaster, will be Feb. 11.

Disney says it will move characters in the area to new locations. Mickey, Minnie Mouse and Disney's stable of animated princesses will continue to meet guests at various locations in the Magic Kingdom before moving into a new permanent home this spring in the building currently known as Town Square Exposition Hall along Main Street, USA.

Tinker Bell, meanwhile, will be shipped to Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Read more here.

Man Implants TV Camera

Reuters photo

NYU photography professor Wafaa Bilal displays the digital camera mount, which he has had implanted in the back of his head as part of a year-long art project, at his apartment in New York December 7, 2010. The concept of the project, titled "The 3rd I", is based on the idea of capturing things subjectively, without the interference of a viewfinder, according to Bilal. For the next year, images from the camera will be streamed over the internet and at a museum in Qatar which commissioned this project.

Tom's Take:  Tell me the world isn't becoming a huge freak show!

Warning: Electronic Pickpocketing

Time-Lapse Of The White House Christmas Tree

Watch a behind-the-scenes time lapse of the official White House Christmas Tree in the Blue Room of the White House, showing the work and energy that goes into decorating the White House for the holidays.