To be more precise, Madeleine Ravier referred to her invention as a "bicycle for animals." She did not restrict the design in her 1907 patent to horses.

Ravier concluded that, as human locomotion is more efficient on a bicycle, animals likewise benefit by an appropriately adapted vehicle. Weird Universe quotes a translation of her patent:

What man did for himself he can do it for animals, or at least for some of them; There is a way to increase the efficiency of their limbs by the intercalation, between these limbs and the field of motion, of mechanical devices receiving the reciprocating motion of the limbs, transforming it into continuous rotary motion, and ending in rotating parts; and the result obtained can be used to make animals move man faster and farther than has hitherto been done by using them.

Redditor UNHOLYpuppetboy shares this photo of the book stacks of his local public library. It's the Merchants' Square location of the Carmel Clay Public Library in Carmel, Indiana. The main library of that system is under renovation, so the collection and its services were moved into a closed grocery store last October. The local NBC News affiliate described the changes last year:

That's right, the library is now in the old Marsh in Merchants' Square while the main library undergoes renovations. The library expects construction could take up to two years, with a focus on expanding the "teen" area. [...]

"Our books in the freezer section. That's a popular area," said Director Bob Swanay. "The children's area is in what was formerly the winery section of the store."

-via TYWKIWDBI

Hawaii is a popular tourist destination. This is advantageous for locals, as it provides them a livelihood. However, because of tourists not sticking to the rules set by locals, they tend to damage popular sites. Social media posts that show visitors touching endangered Hawaiian monk seals, hiking on forbidden trails or going off designated paths are just few of the several instances of foreigners’ faux pass against locals: 

Some residents are taking matters into their own hands, using social media as a tool to try to divert tourists away from sensitive areas as well as to educate people how to responsibly visit and interact with the wildlife and other natural wonders in the islands.

“When tourists come to visit these places, leave the geotag unavailable,” advises Melissa Akoni, who has become well known for her efforts to promote the responsible use of Hawaii’s resources.

[...]

The Honolulu Police Department said it issued more than 70 citations and made five arrests related to trespassers on the trail in the second half of June alone, Hawaii News Now reported.

“When it comes to Haiku Stairs, there is no middle ground,” Nathan Serota, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said in a telephone interview. “It’s illegal to go on the stairs. Period.”

Image credit: Civil Beat/2021

Get your shit turned into gold! A South Korean researcher has created a toilet that turns human waste into power. Where does the money come in, you ask? Well, it’s the bonus incentive. Every use of the special toilet scores you the currency developed by Urban and environmental engineering professor Cho Jae-weon. The virtual currency, called Ggool (‘honey”), can be used to buy items within Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST): 

The toilet first pumps your excrement into an underground tank, which means it uses less water right off the bat when compared to a traditional toilet. Microorganisms then break down the waste into methane, a usable source of energy.

In short, it’s a delightful new method of turning sewage into power.

“If we think out of the box, feces has precious value to make energy and manure,” inventor Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), told Reuters. “I have put this value into ecological circulation.”

The toilet could turn roughly a pound of solid human waste, the average amount a human poops in a day, into an impressive 50 liters of methane gas, according to Cho. That means it can generate half a kilowatt hour of electricity, enough to drive an electric car for three quarters of a mile.

Image Credit: Google Images|The Byte

He looks so happy! Animals, like humans, deserve to be spoiled on their birthdays, right? Especially if they reached a milestone in their life! Cornish Seal Sanctuary’s rescue seal Yulelogs celebrated his 32nd birthday with a giant ice cake filled with fish. Yulelogs’ birthday is a milestone for him, as male grey seals tend to only live around 25 years: 

Yulelogs was rescued back in 1989 as a tiny pup. The marine park that saved him eventually closed, and Yulelogs was released back into the wild.

"However, after such a long time in captivity, he had no idea how to feed himself and had become too used to humans," says the Cornish Seal Sanctuary on their website. "Three months after his release, Yulelogs was rescued by the RSPCA after receiving calls from concerned members of the public saying he had been chasing people with buckets on the beach, believing they contained fish."

Image credit: Cornish Seal Sanctuary 

If I got a private concert just outside my home, I too would be amazed! Violinist Big Lux played some fin-shaking music in front of two belugas at Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium. The two whales appeared to be entranced as they paid attention to the violinist’s beautiful playing, as they sway their flippers to the beat: 

"We recently had a private performance for Juno, Kela, and Natasha! This type of enrichment is great for animals and humans alike!" the aquarium wrote in the caption.

It actually wasn't the first beluga concert at Mystic Aquarium. Back in July 2011, Juno was filmed "dancing" alongside a mariachi band during a wedding. At the time, a representative from the aquarium, Lindsey Nelson, told a reporter Juno was likely mimicking the band's guitar player—not dancing.

Image screenshot via mysticaquarium

Officially released in 2011, it doesn’t come as a surprise that people keep inventing new ways to enjoy Minecraft. YouTuber GrayStillPlays has dedicated an entire series to break the game in different ways. His latest attempt is to raise a horde of axolotls in the game and use them to kill the final boss, the ender dragon:  

A Minecraft axolotl joins his army every 30 seconds, and each one eventually levels up and gains new abilities, they quickly go from being adorable walking fish to frightening monsters, capable of shooting arrows and causing massive explosions with a mere chomp of their tiny teeth. Things get rough when Gray tries to trade with some Piglins for ender pearls, with the axolotls seemingly so thirsty for blood that they start killing everything in sight. But he manages it, and it's genuinely quite awe-inspiring watching how quickly the ender dragon goes down at the end of it all.

In a bid to bring in tourists, people from Gyoda, Japan create massive artworks in their rice fields every year. The tradition started in 2008, and they also managed to earn a Guinness World Record for creating the world's largest rice field artwork in 2015! The process in creating these beautiful images is a long and arduous process, as Roya News details: 

A design is selected early in the year, with planting happening around May. In 2019, the theme honoured the Rugby World Cup, hosted by Japan.

This year's image was intended to highlight Japan's cultural heritage, on the assumption that crowds of foreign visitors would be in the country for the Games.

"We wanted to show the Japanese arts of Ukiyoe (woodblock prints) and Kabuki (theatre) in a rice paddy field, which itself is also an important part of Japan's culture," Gyoda city official Shuhei Tagashira told AFP.

"We wanted to present Japan to the world."

It hasn't worked out that way, with foreign spectators barred and most Games events happening without even domestic fans allowed in the stands.

But on Friday, there were still people taking in the view from an observatory 50 metres up that offers a bird's eye view of the piece.

Image screenshot via Flipboard

The usual tourist destinations for reliving the wonders of the ancient world are Petra, Angkor Wat, and the Coliseum. God knows there’s a lot more areas to explore that could provide more and varying contexts to the ancient world! BBC’s Husna Haq dove deep in the question-and-answer site Quora to look for opinions on some of the most impressive ancient structures in the world. Check Haq’s list of some unknown wonders here! 

Image credit: Thinkstock

The Tower Bridge in London is a tourist attraction, and it carries tons of traffic over the River Thames -more than 20,000 vehicles a day. It is also a drawbridge that lifts up when a tall boat goes beneath, due to an old law that says river traffic has the right-of-way. Recently, Tom Scott had the opportunity to participate in lifting the bridge for a boat. I don't know how long ago that was, but on the day he uploaded the video, Tower Bridge became stuck open in its upright position and traffic is currently a mess.

honestly, you let @tomscott press a couple of buttons and all hell let's loose.

— Hair Bear (@hair_bear_18) August 9, 2021

Thanks a lot, Tom.

Ayhan Tomak, a Turkish sculptor who specializes in wood, has many fascinating pieces on his website, his Instagram page, and his DeviantArt page. But I'm particularly struck by his mirror backings. They exhibit incredible fluidity--like they encapsulate shimmering pools of water in constant motion.

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Capuchino Cosplay offers this fresh take on Marvel cosplay. Here is a Rococo-style rendition of Captain America and Iron Man. The pair of heroes are ready for the masquerade ball.

Custom dicemaker RitualCast of Ketchikan, Alaska says that this ominous street art recently appeared downtown. And there's evidence that the situation has become even more dangerous: packets of googly eyes have been mysteriously appearing around the city.

-via Super Punch

Plaincourault Chapel is a medieval church in France. It holds a 13th-century fresco depicting Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Between them is what we generally recognize as the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which Eve ate from and convinced Adam to do so as well. But in this fresco, it looks more like a bunch of mushrooms. Could it have been a hallucinogenic mushroom? After all, a "mind-expanding drug" fits in neatly with an enlightenment we call the knowledge of good and evil.

It’s this tree that has attracted visitors from around the world to the sleepy village of Mérigny, some 200 miles south of Paris. Tourists, scholars, and influencers come to see the tree that, according to some enthusiasts, depicts the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. Not everyone agrees, however, and controversy over the fresco has polarized researchers, helped ruin at least one career, and inspired an idea—unproven but wildly popular, in some circles—that early Christians used hallucinogenic mushrooms.

There are quite a few possibilities attached to this idea. Least likely is that, while the Bible definitely calls it a tree, the oral tradition that the Bible drew from may have included mushrooms in the story. More likely, the 13th-century artist may have surmised that possibility. Or did the early Christians use mushrooms themselves? But does the fresco even depict a mushroom, since the entire painting is stylized? Maybe it was just a poor attempt at a tree. There are plenty of academics who have argued about the fresco, which you can read about at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Aranthama)

A hundred years later, movie fans are aware of Rudolph Valentino as the biggest male sex symbol of his era. They may not be as familiar with his second wife Natacha Rambova.

Many considered the Hollywood couple to be “lavender lovers,” a name given to a male-female pair who marry for convenience and to conceal the true nature of their stigmatized sexual orientation. Whether it was a marriage of convenience or a romantic affair, Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova became one of Hollywood’s power couples of the 1920s. He was Hollywood’s first sex symbol. She was a spiritualist costume designer who dabbled in acting but would later abandon her career to become an Egyptologist. Both talented performers, the couple starred in films and toured the world in dance troupes. Rambova even became Valentino’s manager during the height of his film career. Yet, despite their success in Hollywood, the pair could never seem to escape controversy or scandal. One thing is sure, Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova’s relationship was never conventional.

Valentino and Rambova set themselves up for gossip and scandal from the beginning, as he was still married to his first wife when they wed in Mexico. But considering the way Hollywood engineered what was known about their stars in those days, rumor is most of what we have. Read about this lives of the reluctant Hollywood sex symbol and the talented woman who fought misogyny her whole life at Messy Messy Chic.