a person with a game controller such as a light rifle could engage in a game whereby targets are simultaneously or sequentially displayed on the ornament displays and the user attempts to shoot the targets thereby displayed. When the user has properly aimed and fired at a target so displayed, the game controller sensor, in this case a light sensor, can register a successful action and product notification thereof, such as by changing the display to indicate the successful action and/or produce one or more sounds via the ornament's, or ornaments', sound generator(s).
Researchers at the University of Michigan have been studying people shaking boxes in order to shed light on "epistemic action understanding." Or rather, "Can one person tell, just by observing another person’s movements, what they are trying to learn?"
In other words, as you watch someone shake a box, can you figure out what information they're trying to gather about the contents of the box (i.e. the shape or quantity of things in it)?
Ian Allison of Santa Rosa received a design patent in 2002 for his "Santa Claus Foot." I assume the foot is supposed to be hung inside a fireplace — the patent description doesn't specify. Though having Santa's severed leg hung beside the tree might add some Christmas cheer.
Back in the 19th century, people often sent each other postcards of dead birds during the Christmas season. Collectors Weekly explains:
"The Victorians had some really strange ideas about what served as an appropriate Christmas greeting," says Bo Wreden, who recently organized an exhibition of holiday cards for the Book Club of California. "They liked to send out cards with dead birds on them, robins in particular, which related to ancient customs and legends. There's a famous quotation from the Venerable Bede about a sparrow flying through the hall of a castle while the nobility is celebrating Christmas: The moment from when it enters until it flies out is very brief, a metaphor for how quickly our lives pass." Apparently, killing a wren or robin was once a good-luck ritual performed in late December, and during the late 19th century, cards featuring the bodies of these birds were sent to offer good luck in the New Year.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.