In 1588, Italian engineer Agustino Ramelli published a book that included an illustration for an invention that he had in mind. He wanted to be able to easily consult multiple books at a time, so Ramelli thought it would be possible to build a geared wheel that would let him easily flip between eight books.

Ramelli never built his bookwheel, but Matt Nygren and Maher Abdelkawi, students at the Rochester Institute of Technology did. Atlas Obscura describes their project:

Today, one wheel resides at the Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection at RIT’s Wallace Library, and the other at the University of Rochester’s Rossell Hope Robbins Library. Each weighs about 600 pounds and has room for eight books; users can take a seat and spin the wooden cases, which are carefully weighted to avoid unintended movements. It’s also worth getting close to observe the core mechanism: a complex, epicyclic gearing system that consists of outer gears rotating around a central gear, much like planets moving around the sun.

-via Bookshelf | Photo: Mireya Salinas

Let us grant that Griffin the African grey parrot did not crush his competition (after all, he's just a Texas A&M graduate), but he did as well or better than Harvard University undergraduate students in memory tests. And he did much better than 6-8 year old children. The Harvard Gazette describes the research led by Dr. Irene Pepperberg:

It worked like this: Tiny colored pom-poms were covered with cups and then shuffled, so participants had to track which object was under which cup. The experimenter then showed them a pom-pom that matched one of the same color hidden under one of the cups and asked them to point at the cup. (Griffin, of course, used his beak to point.) The participants were tested on tracking two, three, and four different-colored pom-poms. The position of the cups were swapped zero to four times for each of those combinations. Griffin and the students did 120 trials; the children did 36.

The game tests the brain’s ability to retain memory of items that are no longer in view, and then updating when faced with new information, like a change in location. This cognitive system is known as visual working memory and is the one of the foundations for intelligent behavior.

So how did the parrot fare? Griffin outperformed the 6- to 8-year-olds across all levels on average, and he performed either as well as or slightly better than the 21 Harvard undergraduates on 12 of the 14 of trial types.

-via Marginal Revolution | Image: Harvard University

Redditor jimmythecraftguy calls his creation the "Spin Cycle." Hack-A-Day describes this remarkable machine that can reach 68 MPH:

The drive train of this bicycle starts with a brushless DC motor from a washing machine. It has been slightly modified to run on 48 volts, and is installed inside the triangle of the bike’s frame. It has a chain driving the bike’s crank, retaining the original chain and gearing setup [...]The crank has also been specially modified to include a freewheel, a necessary feature so that the motor can operate without spinning the pedals. Everything except the motor has been custom fabricated including the mounts and the electronics.

Here's Jimmy riding the Spin Cycle at a leisurely 40 MPH.

A woman in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil has spotted this particular snake on her farm three times. It's actually the snake's farm and he's raising humans, who are apparently now ripe for harvest.

-via Born in Space

It is a sad, mournful tale of a young Irish lad named Will who was taken from the land of his birth during the Great Potato Famine to a faraway land where he could begin anew. This is The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as sung by Stefan Murphy. Listen, drink a pint, and mourn a bygone age.

-via Born in Space

新しいコントローラー拾った pic.twitter.com/POwx1eyCK6

— ミッシ@ER34 (@cbr6w) June 27, 2020

Twitter user @cbr6w found the perfect controller for when you're so frustrated with a game that you want to just throw something at the screen. Although it won't vibrate, it is wireless.

-via Super Punch

When nature calls, respond in this most natural of environments. This restroom in rural southern Norway projects over the river, offering an unmatched view of a fast-moving stream. As you do your business in this scenic delight, let us hope that no kayakers passing by encounter a less pleasant sight.

-via Boing Boing

You want a set of new whitewalls? That'll come up as four Mr. Potato Heads.

This was the experience of customers at five Canadian Tire stores in Ontario this week. Every time an employee scanned a product--any product in the store--the computers said it was a Mr. Potato Head toy. My Kawartha reports:

Five stores in Lindsay and Whitby were impacted in the bizarre computer system fritz that started around 7 a.m. Monday (June 29). A staff member from Lindsay Canadian Tire who wished to remain anonymous said any item the team scanned showed the same product number and information as the popular toy.

Cathy Kurzbock, manager of external communications for the Canadian Tire Corporation, clarified the glitch only made the names of products appear the same, not the prices or the item numbers. She said the anomaly didn't effect stores outside of Lindsay or Whitby. 

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Google Maps

Do you have what it takes to excite buyers without scaring them off while communicating clearly and following complex regulations? Then you might have the chops to make it as an auctioneer.

Mike "McGravel" Jones of America's Auctioneer Academy in Dallas, Texas teaches week-long class in the vocal techniques -- known as "the chant" -- and the procedures of a successful auctioneer. Katy Vine of Texas Monthly attended the course. She writes:

Live bid-calling is like a series of contracts, and when an auctioneer says “Sold,” accepting the bid, the highest bidder is on the hook. Therefore, each part of the chant is crucial. “A chant is made of three components: a statement, a question, and a suggestion,” Jones began. The jumbles of syllables between the numbers are called filler words. The class scribbled. The basic chant Jones proposed—the one we would employ for the remainder of the class and that would provide a soundtrack for all our dreams and nightmares—was “One dollar bid, now two, now two, will you give me two?”

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Drew Anthony Smith

Still looking for a Jim for your Pam? Instead, you should look for a Tuxedo Mask for your Sailor Moon. Sora News 24 tells us that Japanese bridal wear company Mariarosa now offers a line of six dresses and two tuxedos modeled from the anime and manga franchise Sailor Moon. For now they can only be rented, not purchased, so they're not available for everyday cosplay.

I bet he thought it was stick to throw for the dog. 😳🐍🐕#viralhog #unexpected #snakes pic.twitter.com/uXLjzPItm2

— ViralHog (@ViralHog) June 29, 2020

The baby, who I gather is named Asher, and the dog, who is named Raven, were having fun with a game of fetch. When a stick wasn't handy for Asher to throw, he found a convenient snake lying nearby.

Content warning: foul language. But I think it's okay to drop an F-bomb or two if your kid picks up a snake.

Irene Suarez-Martinez, a scientist at Curtain University in Perth, Australia, studies "atomistic modelling of carbon nanoforms, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, using ab-initio and semi-empirical methods."

Got that? Me neither. Fortunately, I'm just barely intelligent enough to grasp what she's made here. This skirt is a model of the structure of the Earth, with the hemline representing the crust and the waist representing the core. It's appropriately labeled with distances from the surface.

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⚔️👸🏻 Xena Warrior Princess Princess- @msbernadetteb Photo by @ronz_photography XenaArmor by @toddscostumes Ballgown by @chadhatter Corset by @castlecorsetry Tiara and mini chakrums by @mrpinskiprops Wig by @outfitterswig #xenawarriorprincessprincess #xenacosplay #xenawarriorprincess #xenawarriorprincesscosplay #bernadettebentley

A post shared by Bernadette Bentley (@msbernadetteb) on Jan 14, 2020 at 1:32pm PST

Cosplayer Bernadette Bentley has played various creative versions of Xena for years. Her latest is one of her best: Xena as a warrior princess ready for the ball. The dress is hard to wear, so don't expect her to jump and flip like Lucy Lawless does:

First time I wore this I had 1 plastic hoop skirt and 2 giant crinolines to hold the weight of the skirt(it’s reeeeeally heavy!) and still have the princess poof ... the updated version has a much stronger and larger hoop skirt with only 1 crinoline that had to have 1 layer cut out and now it actually doesn’t touch the ground which makes it easy not to trip on 😂😂. It’s much easier to maneuver but still really heavy— but dang do the chains look amazing! .

When cartography enthusiast Cameron Bennett went into quarantine in March, he needed something to keep him busy. His solution was to build an accurate topographical map of Idaho using accurate data and cartographic software. To acquire the necessary blocks, Bennett used LEGO's precise purchasing system:

If you run out of pieces in one or more colors (as I did) and are too stubborn to downsize and start over (as I am), Lego offers the ability to order exact pieces using their Pick-a-Brick service. Be warned, shipping times were especially slow under COVID restrictions. Through some quick searches, I found a handful of Ebay vendors peddling pieces at slightly more competitive prices, with less control over piece and quantity selection.

-via Flowing Data

Everyone, meet the 'ravioli' starfish pic.twitter.com/EOSYr5aiyc

— Mashable (@mashable) June 22, 2020

The Plinthaster dentatus looks like a raviolo (I looked up the singular form of ravioli because I care about you, dear reader), but it's actually a starfish that lives in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It presumably goes well with marinara sauce and a good Moscato.

I imagine that a good chef has probably already looked at this video and reproduced the starfish in pasta form.

-via The Mary Sue