Sheila Wallis is a British artist noted for her highly realistic yet also imaginative paintins and drawings that include portraits, nude figure studies, and watercolors.
She came to my attention on Instagram for her illuminated illustrations that include the use of gilding.
Victoria Dauberville is a French ballerina and choreographer who performed professionally for many years in Belgium and France. Last year, while on a cruise to the Antarctic on Le Boréal, she had the opportunity to perform on an unusual stage: the bulbous bow of the ship.
Unlike the theater on the fourth deck of this cruise ship, the bulbous bow is only accessible with a zodiac boat. Dauberville wore a classical dancing costume and slippers to dance with grace on the slippery surface while surrounded by ice-filled waters and frozen air. The video recording of this event promptly went viral.
-via NEXTA
San Francisco figures prominently in the Star Trek universe. The city's first appearance in the science fiction franchise was in 1893 in The Next Generation episode "Time's Arrow." Kirk and companions borrowed a couple humpback whales there in 1986 in Star Trek IV.
By 2024, though, this fictional San Francisco had become a complete dump as it was consumed by crime and poverty.
After World War III ended in 2053, San Francisco experienced a great revival as it became the capital of the United Earth and the headquarters of Starfleet. When the Federation formed, San Francisco became the de facto capital of the Federation government, as well as the Starfleet which served as the military arm of that government.
To commemorate the great role of the city in Star Trek, the public library system is offering user cards that show a starship flying over the Golden Gate Bridge.
-via Henry Wu
Redditor /u/CornishShaman shares this photo of their library's beautiful new storytime chair. It's a custom sculpture commissioned specifically for Penzance, a town in Cornwall.
Free Range Designs, a Welsh furniture workshop created by Paul Bullen, composed it. Although the craftsmen there produce other pieces of furniture, their unique storytelling chairs have attracted the most attention.
The Penzance Library is in Cornwall, so its chair reflects the deep well that is Cornish folklore. Featured prominently are the Mermaid of Zennor, the Giant of Marazion, local pixies, and, of course, the Pirates of Penzance. The fish are pilchards (Sardinia pilchardus), a herring species that has been fished in Cornwall for centuries.
Lord Vinheteiro is a Brazilian musician who originally trained on the piano but is now must famous for his performances on rubber chickens.
In the past, we've seen him play a piano with a typewriter and perform "Flight of the Bumblebees" while using only one finger. After his rubber chicken performances rose to popular acclaim, we highlighted his rubbery renditions of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
In this funny video, his lordship explains how he goes about turning rubber chickens to be musically prcise instruments. He says, "True music does not depend on the instrument, but on the seriousness with which we approach it."
-via The Awesomer
Southeastern Texas is alligator country. They are both numerous and bitey. Gator Country is the name of a wildlife rescue organization that specializes in protecting these modern-day dinosaurs and showing them to adventurous tourists.
KHOU 11 News reports that an employee named Kat recently graduated from McNeese State University across the border in Louisiana. She arranged for a photoshoot with Laura Obelsbee Photography which showed the happy graduate snuggling with her favorite animals.
-via Jonathan Kentrick
BagelFest is an annual competition of bagel baking. The Wall Street Journal reports that 2,000 competitors converged at Citi Field in New York City to see which bakery produced the best example of this iconic bread of New Yorker cuisine.
A Texan bakery won, of course.
Starship Bagel is a small chain of bagel-centered restaurants in the Dallas area. The bagel pictured above is dubbed the Millennium Falcon. It has tomato, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, pickled red onions, red pepper, and your choice of schmear.
The WSJ article examines in depth how a bagel can be defined and how that definition has changed over time. There is a great deal of innovation in bagel development in recent years, of which the Millennium Falcon is only one example.
-via Instapundit | Photo: Starship Bagel
Ulla-Stina Wikander is a Swedish fabric artist who images a world filled with vibrant colors and delightful textures brought about by embroidery.
When I taught my kids how to drive, I made then watch The Dukes of Hazzard so that they would know how to locate suitable topography for car jumps.
Why? Well, this is why.
Fox 11 News reports that sheriff's deputies in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin chased a suspect who was out on bond for car theft. During his automotive flight, he departed the bounds of the earth as he hit an embankment and passed over another car perpendicular to his path of travel.
You can see the full video here.
The car, lacking the structural integrity of the fictional 1969 Dodge Charger of fame, did not do well upon its descent from the heavens. The suspect proceeded on foot until tased and subdued.
-via ABC News
One redditor jokes that it's the "I wasn't asking" version of the toilet plunger.
Redditor /u/brewstah saw this plunger at a hardware store in Osterville, Massachussets. Why was it made this way? There's speculation that it's to prevent a customer from walking off with it, although I think that a used plunger is an item unlikely to be stolen.
My guess is that the employees had to assemble a plunger on short notice and grabbed an available handle. In this case, it was a broom handle.
-via David Thompson
Kate, an artist in Odesa, Ukraine, creates marvels of stained glass which she sells on her Etsy store called Sea Stained Glass. She has not yet said if she will sell her latest creation: a functional cap made of stained glass.
As you can see from this video, it's quite wearable. Although a bit heavy, it's comfortable--in large part because Kate shaped it for her head specifically. She mentions that the visor is good alternative to sunglasses (which she doesn't like) because it shades her eyes without resting on her face.
Zillow Gone Wild introduces us to this lovely old firehouse that is now on the market for a large family that wants a lot of open space. It has four bedrooms and four bathrooms spread over 3,105 square feet.
Here's a scene from the Fairfield Branch of the Henrico Public Library system in Virginia. A 2022 issue of American Libraries (the flagship publication of the American Library Association) describes this clever computer station created to help caregivers of young children tend to their computer needs while keeping their kids out of trouble.
Library Director Barbara Weedman saw the need for furniture like a child's computer station, but adult sized. Shannon Wray designed the desk, which debuted when this branch library opened in 2019. A mother with a child promptly sat down at this station, intuitively understanding what the playpen was for.
-via @WolfofX | Photo: Chris Cunningham
That win was because I was a row behind the popes seat pic.twitter.com/4JTS2PwkFK
— Julian (@Its_Apache) May 13, 2026
Pope Leo XIV, born as American citizen* Robert Francis Prevost, grew up in the Chicago area and therefore is a devoted fan of the White Sox baseball team--even performing the traditional chant while in full papal regalia.
In 2005, Prevost attended Game 1 of the World Series. He was recorded on camera doing so, thus we can know precisely which seat at Rate Field he sat in. The venue has marked the location.
-via Mallory Palmeri
*Whether he is now is apparently a fascinatingly complex legal question.
Ray Bradbury, a lifelong advocate for free speech, published his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 out of material he had developed for a couple of years prior. It depicts a society in which books are illegal and "firemen" are not people who put out fires, but people who burn books. The novel was an enormous success at its outset and remains popular to this day.
That prompt success at publication led Bradbury to issue a 200-copy special edition made with asbestos covers--thus making them resistant to burning--and autographed.
Copies are quite rare. This one on eBay is priced at $45,000.
-via reddit
