Redditor /u/tylerthecreativemode shares photos of a little free library in Berkeley, California. Most little free libraries are single boxes, often shaped like buildings. But this is an entire little free library system with multiple branches. I count eight boxes with books. Some redditors are dubbing it the Little Free Library of Congress or the Little Free Great Library of Alexandria.

The official LFL map shows numerous locations in Berkeley--apparently a city with a love for this community practice. The cozy, goblincore style is offers a welcoming ambiance.

Some ideas, such as Leonardo da Vinci's helicopter, are ahead of their time in that it would not be possible for da Vinci to construct a functional model. But what ideas are behind their time? This is to ask: which technologies could have arrived earlier because their prerequisites were already present?

Brian Potter, an engineer, asserts that the Wright brothers' flyer could have been constructed the late 1880s instead of 1903. The constituent technologies for the turbojet, which first appeared in 1937, were known in the 1920s.

Much depends on how one defines "plausible" and the risks that inventors are willing to take. Japanese physician Hanaoka Seishū (1760-1935) was the first surgeon in the world to use general anesthesia in 1804--four decades before it was used in the West--but blinded his wife and crippled his mother while trying to get the dosage right.

-via Marginal Revolution

Mike Matthews founded Grandma Stand in 2012 to honor is grandmother, Eileen Wilkinson, who had a lot of wisdom to share. He built an outdoor stand and set it up in public places in New York City. There, Grandma Eileen listened and chatted with passersby.

Grandma Eileen passed away in 2018 at 101 years old. Matthews took down the stand. But in 2024, he decided to re-establish the stand new new grandmas staffing it.

Matthews now has 20 volunteer grandmothers participating in New York City, as well as 20 other locations around the United States.

The Grandma Stand project is the subject of a new documentary that you can watch on PBS.

-via Kottke

Is there a talent or swimsuit competition? I'm not sure, but we know that the competition is stiff from a hard calcium carbonate shell.

CU Boulder Today, a publication of the University of Colorado at Boulder, reports that the Senckenberg Institutes in Germany holds an annual competition which declares one mollusc to be "the coolest."

There are over 86,000 identified species in the phylum Mollusca, but only one can claim this annual honor.

Among the top contenders is the moon clam (Ephippodonta lunata), which can be found off the coast of southwestern Australia. The moon clam was nominated by CU Boulder researchers, so the campus is abuzz with excitement that the moon clam has made it to the final five possible winners.

-via David Thompson | Photos: Western Australia Museum

Redditor /u/Candid-Acadia-2301 made these impressive dumplings that look just like goldfish. These beautiful treats are filled with minced chicken and molded by hand. They added orange food coloring to one batch of dough, then dotted white dough with that color so that, when rolled out, the visual effect is a mixture of orange and white.

Tusken Raiders in Tuscany, my acrylic painting pic.twitter.com/ooIWp1fjRF

— Travis Chapman (@Travispaints) May 8, 2026

Here at Neatorama, we love the works of Travis Chapman, a traditionally-trained painter who composes realistic images of pop culture. He usually plays with the source concepts as puns. Here, for example, are a pair of Tusken Raiders, a species from the Star Wars planet of Tatooine.

I've always referred to them as Sand People, but my teenagers say that's no longer acceptable terminology. They're just "Tuskens" (calling them raiders is derogatory).

Anyway, these Tuskens have acquired through their labors sufficient funding for a journey to sunny Tuscany on Earth, where they can sample the local wines.

Closer look at our Masters of the Universe merch coming soon to theatres! ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/FArmxHb5vd

— Cinemark Theatres (@Cinemark) May 8, 2026

Masters of the Universe, the latest film in the He-Man franchise, premiers on June 5.

Movie theaters have been getting creative lately in their efforts to draw people to brick-and-mortar theaters. We've seen them offer moviegoers inventive popcorn buckets, notably for Dune 2, Despicable Me 4, Gladiator 2, Jaws, and Mr. Fantastic.

Promoters for Masters of the Universe are going even further. Yes, there's a popcorn bucket. It's shaped like Castle Greyskull. But I'm enraptured by the 1:1 scale Sword of Power. Remove the hilt and you can fill the probably not-battle ready sword with soda.

-via Rob Province

The Takeout has compiled a list of 11 tiny eateries in these United States, including the famous Squeeze-In in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

This hot dog joint has been in continous operation since 1945. You might want to order your dog for takeout because it measure sonly 8 by 16 feet. If you insist on dining indoors, you'll have to squeeze in next to other customers at the handful of stools available. You can browse the menu here.

After 81 years, the Squeeze In is a cherished local institution with a devoted local fan base.

Photo: The Sqeeze-In

Boxers and other hand-to-hand fighters sometimes get "cauliflower ear", which is referred, medically speaking, as "auricular hematoma." It's a deformity that results most commonly from getting punched in the ear.

So a guy with cauliflower ears looks like someone who's been in some hard fights and is ready for more. From a particular point of view, it contributes to an aesthetically appealing appearance.

Oddity Central reports that some men in Russia are getting cauliflower ears not the hard way, but through cosmetic surgery. When matched with a muscular physique and a confident demeanor, they convey an overall impression of physical dominance.

Perhaps women find this look attractive.

A rat king is an entanglement of rats by their tails. It refers to a rare but real phenomenon among rodents but also a symbol of social and political disorder as outlined by Lucas Reilly in Mental Floss.

In this case, it's a dumpling dish prepared by the girlfriend of redditor /u/Curious_Psychonaut.

The latest food hack going viral online is to combine potato chips and chocolate by pouring molten chocolate into cans of Pringles. After it cools, cut the cans off. Then slice the cylinders into chunks of salty chocolate potato chips about an inch think.

There are different ways to improve upon the concept, such as adding marshmallow to the mixture. But as a Southern boy, I know the right ingredient: pickled pigs' feet. Anyway, I now have plans for the weekend.

-via Sora News 24

Pacific Counter is a chain of tropical-themed Asian cuisine restaurants in the Tampa Bay area. Among their treats are aloha whip, which is pineapple-flavored soft serve ice cream, and hot dogs.

On April Fools' Day, the business promoted the Aloha Hipdog, which is a hot dog inverted and stuffed inside an ice cream cone and then wrapped with aloha whip.

It's a joke, of course. But I suspect that the mixture of sweet ice cream and savory meat would actually be tasty and worth a try. Perhaps it could prove even tastier with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

-via Born in Space

Most of us, I expect, have used electric irons. I've seen in antiques displays "sad irons", which are slabs of metal that are heated in fireplaces and stoves. There were, though, many alternative designs between these two extremes. Among them is this gasoline-powered iron patented in 1936 and sold through the Montgomery Ward mail order catalog.

YouTuber Gilles Messier traces the technological history of the iron before addressing in detail this particular design. The video begins with him pulling on a starter cord like it's a lawnmower with an internal combustion engine, but that's now how gasoline functioned in this iron.

Rather, gasoline (or, in some similar models, naphtha or kerosene) was slowly burned to heat the bottom. These designs had a tendency to start fires and thus came with certain risks attached. But they remained popular in regions where electrification was limited.

-via Hack-A-Day

Or, if you're a bit older, think of the Mikiphone as the world's first Walkman. This invention by Miklós and Étienne Vadász manufactured in Switzerland in 1924 was one of the first means of providing portable music. It's powered by a hand-cranked spring turned a few dozen times.

It would not have occurred to me that the landlocked Idaho has access to the sea for oceanic transport, but it does. The Snake River touches the Port of Lewiston on the western border of the state. That river connects to the Columbia River and thence the Pacific Ocean.

The US Department of Transportation refers to this route as Maritime Highway M-84. Note that this route does not provide sea access for the US Navy's submarine base in Idaho.

I should mention that Lewiston is not the most inland port of the United States. That would be Duluth, which can dock oceangoing vessels traveling along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

-via Battle Beagle