Lucid Dreaming

A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. In a lucid dream, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment.^[2] Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid.

-HighExsistence

Simply having a wonderfully awkward Christmas time! Festive family photos that’ll make even the worst scrooge laugh out loud

Childhood friends Mike and Doug started the blog after Mike noticed an awkward vacation photo hanging in his parents’ house, according to the site’s about page.

The two friends then decided to create a site where people could come together and share their uncomfortable family moments.

-Mail Online

Censored and "Recalled" Album Covers

Despite being awarded with the enviable Best Album Cover award from Playboy magazine, this cover was considered too sticky for American eyes.

-Houston Press

The Children Who Went Up In Smoke

For nearly four decades, anyone driving down Route 16 near Fayetteville, West Virginia, could see a billboard bearing the grainy images of five children, all dark-haired and solemn-eyed, their names and ages—Maurice, 14; Martha 12; Louis, 9; Jennie, 8; Betty, 5—stenciled beneath, along with speculation about what happened to them.

-Smithsonian

Mind and Brain

Everything you wanted - or didn't want - to know about your mind. From how we make memories and how many friends we can cope with, to zombie brains and learning from psychopaths.

-The Browser

The Woes of an American Drone Operator

For more than five years, Brandon Bryant worked in an oblong, windowless container about the size of a trailer, where the air-conditioning was kept at 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for security reasons, the door couldn't be opened. Bryant and his coworkers sat in front of 14 computer monitors and four keyboards. When Bryant pressed a button in New Mexico, someone died on the other side of the world.

-Spiegel

The World of a Professional Naked Girl

About a month ago, I was daydreaming at work and a bunch of random memories flooded into my mind. One in particular was this flash of me and an ex-gf from long ago, hanging out in the living room of the apartment we shared. I remembered how this girl, who was a dancer of sorts, could just do these faces and body movements out of nowhere, just in passing, as something intended to be a joke, that would floor me. I've always wondered how some ladies can turn this fountain of sheer, gun blast sexy power on and off, aiming it at exactly who they want, when they want. I asked my new friend, well-known artist and professional sexy lady, Molly Crabapple, to try and make sense of the ramblings I wrote her one day, and this is what she came up with.

-Vice

Love's big secret? Play hard to get

That's the strategy used by both men and women to test a potential partner's commitment, claims new research.

Treat them mean, goes the adage, and keep them keen. Now it emerges that such power play – used by men and women – is a sound evolutionary strategy to get a good mate.

-The Independent

Four hours with John McAfee

Exclusive interview with multi-millionaire creator of antivirus software, who went on the run from his Belize home last month.

-FT Magazine

Bizarre Court Battle over Duff Beer Trademark

Germany's Duff Beer UG has long shown itself to be a formidable foe in the courtroom, taking on all comers in defending its right to brew Homer Simpson's favorite beer. On Thursday, however, the company lost a battle to gain the sole trademark to the name -- meaning Germany will continue to have two Duff beers.

-Spiegel

ANATOMY of a SAILOR (POPEYE)

Popeye the Sailor Man… Toot toot! Here's the story of how he was born and other cool Popeye stuff. Elzie Segar and told him to create a comic strip called "Thimble Theater." That's all the guidance he had; the rest was up to him. He came up with a weird bunch of characters. A gawky old maid named Olive Oyl, her boyfriend Ham Gravy, her loopy brother Castor Oyl, and her parents Cole and Nana Oyl.

-Goodstuff

Most Popular How-To Guides of 2012

Some of the best and most interesting topics we cover here at Lifehacker are our how-to guides: Those posts that take you through a project step by step and leave you at the end having completed something you've always wanted to do. Here's a look back at our most popular how-to features of 2012.

-Lifehacker

Toques from Underground, The rise of the secret supper club

For the past two years, in a loft apartment in downtown Los Angeles, Craig Thornton has been conducting an experiment in the conventions of high-end American dining. Several nights a week, a group of sixteen strangers gather around his dining-room table to eat delicacies he has handpicked and prepared for them, from a meticulously considered menu over which they have no say. It is the toughest reservation in the city: when he announces a dinner, hundreds of people typically respond.

-The New Yorker

A Complete History Of Gerbiling So Far

The act of gerbiling, according to the Internet, is simple. In most instances, it involves a tube up the ass, followed by a gerbil up that tube. Some accounts suggest that the gerbil should be declawed as a safety precaution, but the main gist is to have the gerbil burrowing around one's anus long enough to bring about sexual pleasure. One might lure the gerbil up the tube with a piece of cheese, or, inversely, light a flame under the funnel to send the gerbil scurrying.

-Readability/The AWL