This list of 25 Unlikely Animal Friendships is a particularly pleasant way to properly warm up to the undeniable holiday season. Granted, there are two "friendships" in there that are questionable in their legitimacy at best but the rest, heart warming gold.

Via Daniel.

I often use the Smithsonian Flickr as a source of inspiration and fodder for my design pieces but I'm officially adding the National Library of Wales to that list as well. With gems like this, how could you not?

While my feelings on Facebook itself may be torn there is no denying the appeal of their Holiday Gift, sent out to favored advertisers and other clients. They went absolutely nuts designing a 19 x 19 print, embossed and foiled with loads of intricate details. It even comes with a custom printed woodcut chip for donating a fixed sum to the public school of the receivers choice. Check the details and try to tell me that's not impressive!

Via Chad.

Being curator of We Own This Town means I get to hear a lot of local music throughout the year and keep myself keen on what's going on around town. It also means that I feel obligated to filter that intake into a somewhat more wrangled list of Best Of when the time comes around. Well, that time has come and I finished my wrangling over the weekend. I am sure I missed a few things (and maybe might even regret a few inclusions) but it's a pretty solid take on the Year of 2009 in terms of local Nashville rock. It is a fine listen and it's rather long as well (hour and forty minutes); so it should help you relive the year or introduce you to a year of good stuff that you missed out on.

→ Download M4A Version
→ Download MP3 Version

The past few years here in town Nashville has had a festival called Next Big Nashville - sort of our cities take on SXSW focusing on bands from the Nashville area and southern regions. It's still growing but gets better every year. This past year, NBN 2009, the guys at Lake Fever Sessions sponsored one of the better shows of the event and recorded the results. The Live at Next Big Nashville 2009 session is up and available for viewing now. It looks and sounds incredibly good; possibly better than it looked / sounded at the actual event. Please head over and take a look!

• Badcop - Daylight
• Elle Macho - Glow in the Dark
• Tristen - Eager for your Love
• The Non-Commissioned Officers - Turn Me Down and Fade Me Out

BERG London has a great article about a proposed Mag+ device, sort of a next generation Kindle for magazines. There is an accompanying video that goes into some detail about how the device would work and what the interface might look like. It looks pretty fantastic on the whole. I also love that they make this point in regards to distribution of the proposed digital magazines:

Magazines still arrive in issues: people like the sense of completion at the end of each.

This is a great point to make - a "sense of completion" really is a satisfying feeling when reading any piece; even if you don't realize it's there.

There's a great set of photos that have popped up on Flickr showing some of the behind the scenes workings of the filming of The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Love images like this that show the filming in action. Be sure to view the entire set.

Fav Save seems to work along the same lines as FFFFound does - find something worthwhile online, save it into your FavSave repository. The difference between the two being that FFFFound is restricted to images, FavSave documents videos (and possibly more) as well. It's worth a try out if you're interesting in a place to store your web finds and want to stumble upon some similar content while you do so.

There are some bonus goods below the list, don't forget to check those out after watching the usual stream.

• Bullying - no clue what the context of this is but it's so crazy I've watched it a dozen times at least.
• Visions of Sugar Plums - sort of Christmas-y, very weird and features the Little Superstar song.. approved.
• The Web for Beginners - A recut / amazing edit of BBC documentary footage about the Internet that was created for this competition about how the web is changing the world. "The web is bigger than a balloon."
• The Known Universe - not exactly a wacky or funny video but pretty awesomely intense. Apparently this is the "most complete four-dimensional map of the universe." I won't act like I understand how it's four dimensions but it's a captivating piece of work; particularly when you know it's based on real data.
• Top Ten Quirky Science Tricks for Christmas Parties - some great little tips and tricks for your upcoming holiday adventures.
• The Christmas Tree - an Internet classic but 110% rewatchable.. over and over. The best.

Bonus:

• DEA Recruits Lil Wayne To Use Up All Drugs In Mexico - a week old video from The Onion but new to me. Hilarious.
• OK To Go - video from various sources depicting "Hyperspace." I think I could put this on loop on my TV and be set for a week. Via WAXY.
• Blu Dot Real Good Experiment - Real Good Chairs puts together a fun short about what happens when you leave a fancy chair on the streets of New York and equip it with GPS tracking. Via Kate.

I'll be back next week for a short bit but have a great weekend!

Every year around this time Jeremy Ferguson, the man behind the greatness of BattleTapes, releases a podcast consisting of varying levels of weirdness and greatness. The fourth installment of this podcast series, Battle Pod #4, is now available and it's easily the best yet. He was able to wrangle up unique performances from six different bands and intercut their recordings with ridiculous banter between himself and their studio chatter. It's not easy to explain but it's a great thing to listen to. Go get it.

Articulate Matter is a daily web comic comprised of hand made sculptures; usually of the sea faring variety. It's also an Etsy Shop and a Flickr photostream but, most of all, it's adorable. Things in miniature are almost always entertaining but squids in miniature doing humanlike things? Sign me up.

• Drunk 4-Year-Old Crossdressers Gone Wild - Real Headline. Real Event. It's actually a teensy bit sad when they interview the mother and a bit of a letdown that there is no footage of the child but the concept.. the concept is strong.
• Third and Delaware - single serving website chronicling the fashion of the Roseanne show. Obviously a one trick pony but I openly embrace my enjoyment of said TV show, so I found it entertaining.

I'm still browsing through Neither Fish Nor Fowl - the portfolio of Jim Datz - and it's just one impressive piece after another. He has a wide range of styles and has done a ton of stuff for Urban Outfitters (which, like them or not, you've probably seen his great layouts). Be sure to check the Type and Soft Goods portions of work.. lovely stuff in there.

We just launched a new blog to the KNI site. The plan is to use it to talk a little more about some of our bigger projects and shed some light on our smaller projects that don't make it into the main portfolio. It's not likely to be a random smattering of various links about the web but, rather, a bit of exposition about what we've been up to as a company. Sure, some might call that "News" but that's too formal for what we're putting out there.

It's odd to me that aside from the occasion unlicensed inappropriate sticker, you don't really see a lot of art dedicated to Calvin and Hobbes. Maybe the body of work is so massive, well executed and respected that people would rather not pay homage to it. So it's refreshing to see this sketchbook from a variety of artists doing their interpretation of the duo. This one by Paul Hornschemeier is undeniable but there are loads in there that I enjoy. See the set.

What is wrong with me?! How did I miss that Invisible Creature launched an entirely new site that is 110% phenomenal? I've been a fan of Don and Ryan's work since they were part of the now defunct Asterik Studios. The site itself is very clean and functionality (though not without personality) and contains a ton of their work. There's a lot to take in but I've yet to click on a piece that didn't have something about it that I enjoyed.

Related: You need to bookmark their blog and follow them on Twitter. Your online life will be improved ten fold.

I've been giving the development software Espresso a spin and, thus far, have really been enjoying it. The application looks extremely nice, creates a sensible workflow, seems to have a small memory footprint and has just enough bells and whistles to not be overwhelming. I think I can safely say when the trial period expires I'll be purchasing this and making the switch from my Textmate / Dreamweaver prone ways and sticking with Espresso.

Heads up via Arlo and Chris.

Enjoying a good mugshot is a tried and true past time that I'm sure everyone enjoys. With that in mind, be sure to take in the 30 Most Memorable Mugshots of 2009 in its entirety. Sure there are some sad stories mixed in with the hilarity but it's worth it in the end. The man shown here was busted for sniffing spray cans, got tasered and caught on fire. You can't make that up.

The Big Picture has posted Part 1 and Part 2 of their three part series reviewing the year of 2009 in photos. It's nice to be reminded of the global perspective on the past year. Looking forward to part 3 but it's going to be hard to top Putin riding a horse.

The ultra clean design and overall UI/UX of Teux Deux is absolutely perfect for the simple cause of keeping up with To Do lists. They've boiled it down to the essentials and made the act of keeping up with desired goals something pleasant to look at. Even if you're not into having an online list of goals I suggest trying it out, it's just that well done.