Luckily for your’s truly this week’s Geek-out Sunday falls on one of the most geektastic holidays of all time.  However, before I dive into today’s article, let’s have a quick look at some of the other weird and wonderful events that happened on this day in history (thank you Wikipedia):  

• 1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
• 1950 – The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.
• 1990 – The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.

In addition to these remarkable events, today is also Christmas Day during which many of the Christian faithful observe by celebrating the birth of Christ.  Many more observe the holiday by celebrating the arrival of and delivery of gifts by one rotund bearded man in a red and white suite – Santa Claus.  Little do the hundreds-of-millions of people who call themselves fans know that Mr. Claus is unfortunately one of the largest single polluters in the world.  The infographic below by Ethical Ocean details the magnitude of the toy magnate’s carbon footprint and while he’s a significant polluter, there’s hope for transformation.

Merry Christmas!

Related articles:

• Geek-out Sunday part XV: uncanny valley (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part XIV: geeks evolved (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part XIII: augmented reality (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part XII: Kilobot (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part XI: Anthropocene mapping (marshallstanton.com)