The Netty is quite small--just two rooms. But those rooms are luxurious and comfortable. This is what you would expect from an underground Victoria Era public toilet in the UK.

According to The Independent, the restroom in central Oxford was built in 1895 and closed in 2008. Up to two guests can stay in each of the two suites. You can see floor plans and photos here. Although there is no room service, there are restaurants on both sides of the street. Tourists have immediate access to the Ashmolean Museum of art and archaeology literally a few yards away.

-via Oddity Central

The keyboard? How quaint.

Personally, I'd rather go old school with this peripheral device inspired by rotary phones. Even the backspace key on the Gboard has been replaced with a rotating indicator!

Google's Japan division offers this innovative design. You can download the 3D files and firmware here and make your own. Everything rotates, including the users in the video promoting the product. Google is convinced that everything can rotate and should be rotated for maximum efficiency.

I'm 90% sure this is a joke but 100% sure it is an awesome development that could be useful under unusual or extreme conditions.

-via The Awesomer

I mean, technically, a regular clothes washing machine or even a dishwasher can be a human washing machine if it's suffiiently large and the bather is really committed to the project.

But this product concept by the blandly-named firm Science Co. Ltd. is designed to wash and dry a human in 15 minutes without risking the bather's life. Spoon & Tamago photographed it at a recent tech show in Osaka.

This product concept isn't just a vision of the future, but also a reflection of the past. It harkens viewers back to a similar product on display at a world's fair in 1970 in Osaka.

Like flying cars, we never got this retrofuturistic visions to become reality. We did get X, though.

-via Nag on the Lake

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is, in our time, found most commonly in Central Asia. But as recently as 70 to 130 years ago, the species could be found in southern Spain. These birds' nests in isolated, mountainous locations include man-made objects that the vultures found. They function as unintended time capsules. Smithsonian magazine reports that archaeologists have studied these materials in long-abandoned vulture nests.

Among the 200 human artifacts are a sandal that dates back 650 years, a crossbow bolt, a slingshot, and horse tack. Radiocarbon dating permits scientists to establish when these organic materials were produced.

-via David Thompson | Photos: David Ruh and Ecology, respectively

Jörg Hillebrand is the greatest living Star Trek scholar. We've previously noted how he's proven that Patrick Stewart exists within the Star Trek universe. This conclusion is the work of Hillebrand's meticulous research of encyclopedic scope and perfect organization. To us Trekkies, Hillebrand is a colossus bestriding Ten Forward.

So I follow him on X for the connections that he draws. Today, Hillebrand noted that Captain Picard's dress uniform tunic gets shorter as the series progresses. The uniform fortunately includes pants, so we fortunately don't see anything improper. But viewers should remember to look Picard in the eyes and not cast their vision downward.

When Optimus Prime orders his Autobots to transform, he comes across as bold and commanding. He speaks like a leader decisively addressing challenges that they face. But he's actually being conflict avoidant. It's a form of escape, not engagement.

This is true especially when Optimus is in couples' counseling. Here, he is more vulnerable than in combat and more fearful than in a duel with Megatron. On the couch, Optimus must face who he has not been in this relationship. New Yorker cartoonist Adam Sacks illustrates our hero's failure.

No, you haven't stepped inside a cartoonist's notebook. This is Shirokuro, a high-end sushi restaurant in New York City. The unique facility bills itself as the opportunity to "dine in 2D."

The New York Post reports that Denver is preparing for an especially brutal endurance race. The Taco Bell 50K is a demanding test of not only cardiovascular fitness but also intestinal fortitude. Participants are required to stop at at least 9 of the 10 Taco Bells along the route and consume food. This is the eighth such competition and the rules (including banning the use of performance-enhancing drugs) make this race into the ultimate test of athleticism:

3. By the 4th stop, all entrants must have consumed at least one (1) Chalupa Supreme or one Crunchwrap Supreme (dietary restrictions will be allowed within reason).

4. By the 8th stop, all entrants must have consumed at least one (1) Burrito Supreme or one Nachos Bell Grande (dietary restrictions will be allowed within reason).

5. Finish under 11 hours.

6. Drinks do not count as food.

7. Entrants must keep all receipts and wrappers for confirmation of stupidity at the end of the run. [...]

11. No on-course Pepto, Alka Seltzer, Pepcid A/C, Mylanta will be allowed!

12. Additional "rules" may be added, amended, or changed to promote the intent of this run, which is to do something completely stupid.

What would be the optimal meal plan at Taco Bell to power through this run?

-via Jarvis Best

Århus, the second largest city in Denmark, lies on eastern side of the Jutland peninsula. Dating back to the Eighth Century AD, it is one of the oldest continuous settlements in the country.

The city leans into its Viking Era history. Atlas Obscura informs us that since 2019, some of the traffic lights in the city show axe and shield-bearing Norse warriors walking or standing still.

Photo: Atlas Obscura user Johan SWE

Kat Slota is an artist in New Brunswick. She specializes in pyrography, which is selectively and precisely burning wood with a hot point to create intricate designs. She does lot of portraits, still lives, and Christian images reminiscent of Baroque art.

Sometimes, though, her choice of material is delightfully novel. Above and below, for example, is an antique ironing board that is now made into a museum-quality art piece with a hunting scene.

Antonio Stradivari (1644?-1737) of Cremona in what is now northern Italy perfected the art of violin making, but did not limit himself to that instrument. As a master luthier, he also made guitars. The Sabionari guitar, which Stradivari made in 1679, is one of five such guitars that survive to the present time and the only one that remains playable.

In this video, Norwegian musician Rolf Lislevand draws forth musical perfection from this perfect instrument. As a specialist in Baroque instruments, he is uniquely qualified to play the Sabionari. He performs a piece by Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739), a Spanish composer.

-via Nag on the Lake

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, like other world-class rare book libraries, has treasures that could sell for vast amounts of money if auctioned. But it also has an item that does not have to be sold to collect cash value.

In 1624, the Dutch city of Utrecht needed to raise cash to build a dike, so it sold bonds. These are perpetual bonds--ones that never mature. The owners can collect interest indefinitely. It's also a bearer bond, so whoever possesses it can claim the interest.

In 2003, NPR reported that Yale acquired such a bond dating to 1648 from the Utrecht water authority. Geert Rouwenorst, a finance professor at the university, took the bond to the Netherlands and collected 26 years of back interest. When the library curator went to the Netherlands in 2015 to collect the next payment, it amounted to the equivalent of $153 USD.

-via Austin Patrick Bishop

Francesco Feliziani, a furniture designer in Australia, departed from his designs using wood to compose a chair from a basketball hoop and backboard. The rope from the net provides cushioning for the seat consisting of the hoop. The backboard, when twisted and reshaped, serves as a suitable frame. He calls it the "AIR Chair."

As a conscientious hunter uses all parts of an animal that he slays, Feliziani used the entire structure, leaving nothing to waste. He needed only a few 3D printed connectors to make the chair function.

-via Toxel

Renato Casaro died yesterday at the ago of 89. This Italian artist became famous for composing movie posters that inspired film-goers. His works include the above heroic image for Conan the Barbarian, arguably one of the greatest films of the Twentieth Century. Similarly, he captured stories in single images for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, David Lynch's Dune, and Wolfgang Peterson's The NeverEnding Story.

Deadline informs us that he retired in 1998 as digital composition replaced his hand-painted style, but Quentin Tarantino convinced him to take up his brush once again for the 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Casaro retired to his hometown of Treviso for his final years. Five years ago, a documentary was made about his life.

-via Daddy Warpig | Photo: Alessio Sbarbaro

Tiramisu, which means "pick me up" in Italian, may seem like an ancient treasure bestowed upon humanity in Promethean fashion. But acccording to the Academia Del Tiramisu, it dates back to the Nineteenth Century and originates in the city of Treviso in northeastern Italy. Allegedly it was served to the patrons of a bordello who used the dessert to invigorate their energies after exerting themselves.

Much can be done with the main ingredients of tiramisu--ladyfingers, whipped eggs, mascarpone, and powdered cocoa. There are enough options and so many world-class chefs passionate about tiramisu that there will be a Tiramisu World Cup from October 10 through 12 of this year in Treviso. Competitors are given the base ingredients and can prepare original or creative responses to this dessert.

-via My Modern Met | Photo: Tiramisu World Cup