La Ruetta, which Google Translate is rendering as "The Wheel" is a road in Civitella del Tronto, Teramo, Italy. Measuring under 16 inches across, it's the narrowest road in Italy.

DeviantArt member Alexey, a woodcarver in Kiev, Ukraine, seems to call forth his art from the web of narrative that lies beneath and links together ancient and modern cultures. That's why I'm choosing to describe his work as mythopoetic. This pipe depicts Veles, a central figure in Slavic mythology.

This photo isn't flipped. You are looking at it correctly. This fig tree is actually upside-down and it grew that way!

Atlas Obscura tells us that near the Italian coast town of Bacoli are ruins from the ancient Roman resort town of Baia. Throughout the centuries, several Roman emperors had vacation villas there, including Nero. This tree grows under an archway of a villa thought to be owned by Nero.

The origin of the tree is uncertain, but tourists flock to see it as it blooms and fades, each year. You can find it at the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia.

-via Oddity Central | Photo: /u/AsterUwu

No, I'm not referring to that gentle, romantic ballad by Aerosmith. This is an older and true story set during World War II. Paul Wilson shares the story of how he met the love of his life while she was working as an elevator operator in Wichita, Kansas. It's a sweet How I Met Your Mother story that he tells his daughter.

The recording is part of an interview conducted as part of NPR's StoryCorps project. This ongoing enterprise encourages people to interview each other, especially older friends and relatives, and share those stories. StoryCorps has excellent resources to help you participate so that we can document the lives of people dear to us.

-via Laughing Squid

The great J.K. Rowling is thoroughly English, having been born and raised in Glouchester and educated in western England. But let's imagine if she originated north of Hadrian's Wall. What would a Scottish Harry Potter sound like?

Voice actor Richard Crossman is actually Canadian, but can speak French, German, Italian, Russian, and Welsh and perform many English dialects. In his narration of Matthew Fitt's version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he speaks Scottish-accented English. Or a sort of English.

Soundcloud has a selection from the first chapter when Dumbledore appears. Crossman renders the great wizard as Albus Dumbydykes. Minerva McGonagall, though, keeps her proper name.

-via Kottke

Instagram user @di_vsn jokes, "What do you bring to the table?"

To this, model Sarah Dahll answers, "I am the table" and walks away.

The luxurious skirt that she wore to the dinner party in Copenhagen was sewn into the tablecloth on which food was served. When it was time to leave, she presented herself to the audience and then confidently strode out of the hall.

And that is how you make an exit.

-via Dave Barry

I mention that because Geert Chatrou says that although, "it's very difficult to be sad and whistle," he can do it.

That's a very good argument in favor of whistling as a practice. 

Geert Chatrou (warning: autoplay music) has thrice won the world championships (2004, 2005, 2008) for whistling. He's given solo performances, but has also accompanied jazz combos and classical orchestras. Lately, Chatrou has been performing with Cirque du Soleil.

Chatrou can also play the flute and recorder but, as you can see, the human mouth is his ideal instrument. With it, especially the throat, he can replicate masterpieces such as Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood and Debussy's Clair de Lune.

-via Laughing Squid

Sora News 24 encountered a rumor that a particular plot of land in the city of Nagasaki was Russian territory. It sent a reporter to investigate and found a clump of abandoned shacks. What was the purpose of this place?

It turns out that the imperial government of Japan gave it to, well, the imperial government of Russia in 1875, when the Russians wanted a consulate in Nagasaki to promote their business interests. Thirty years later, there was some unpleasantness between the two nations, but the block remained in use by Russia until the fall of the Tsar in 1917. Then it was abandoned.

In 1987, the Soviet Union wanted to make use of the area and Japan granted Moscow extraterritorial control of it. Nothing came of the grant, though, and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Japanese government recognized Russia as the legitimate successor of the Soviet Union and, in 1994, the Russian ambassador to Japan had a sign placed on a wall in the plot asserting Russian control.

Sora News 24, though, found only one inhabitant--a cat.

This new emergency service in Wales offers another way to quickly reach people in need of immediate medical attention. The Great North Air Ambulance Service, in addition to operating helicopters, now has a jet suit and paramedics trained in its use.

Would you call this "breaking the fourth wall"? This image definitely pops out to the audience in a novel way.

Andrew Scott, an artist in Rochester, New York, has a new series of images titled Breakthrough. They show the subjects literally breaking through the glass cover for the prints in which they reside. Scott accomplishes this with his finishing touch for each print: tapping on the glass with a steel point at the visual point of image. It's an amusing and fresh way to engage the audience.

Scott sells these prints, which are completely safe and durable: he covers the broken layer of glass with an additional layer.

-via How Things Work

Outsiders like to make fun of us Texans when harsh winter storms blow in. As much as it pains me to admit it, our reactions or overreactions to snow and ice can be embarrassing at times.

But getting out the fanboat and taking it out for the daily commute is nothing but a proud demonstration of Texans' ability to adapt to the ever-changing weather conditions. When northern Texas was hit with ice and sleet that froze over the roads, one Texan in the town of Princeton, which is northeast of Dallas, hit the road in his boat and skillfully navigated it through traffic.

-via Jalopnik

see you at fashion week pic.twitter.com/gwjtGzvhoA

— Pablo Rochat (@PabloRochat) January 31, 2023

Sometimes they're called ripped jeans and sometimes they're called distressed jeans. Either way, there's apparently money in tearing these clothes up. This aesthetic principle does not apply to other articles of clothing, such as overalls and suit jackets. To have ripped up jeans is a sign of refinement.

Artist and art director Pablo Rochat is offering a new way to tear your jeans. This will no doubt be the look for the new season. All you need is a cat and a laser pointer. You can actually do fairly precise work if your aim with the laser pointer is precise.

THE GRAY MAN: LA

Pre-drinks, anyone? 🍃🫖

📸 @Mr_Dadams00 pic.twitter.com/upQUXABhjY

— Regé-Jean Page (@regejean) July 14, 2022

Bridgerton is a British television series set in the Regency Era. Regé-Jean Page was one of the stars of that show and, apparently, the most handsome man in the world.

The New York Post reports that this is the finding of a British plastic surgeon named Dr. Julian De Silva. He calculated the handsomeness of famous men using the Golden Ratio, which establishes a proportion of facial features of 1 to 1.618. Page is within 93.65% of compliance with that standard.

Following him were actors Chris Hemsworth, who scored as 93.53%, and Michael B. Jordan with 93.46%. According to Dr. De Silvia, it was Page's perfect lips which secured him the #1 position.

-via Instapundit

The AP Stylebook's Twitter account, in addition to creating writing standards often used in journalism, spends its time telling people what they should and should not think and say. In a recent now-deleted tweet, it urged people to avoid a particular type of phrasing that it regards as dehumanizing--describing people with a label preceded by the definite article.

Do not, it emphasizes derisively describe any person as belonging to some unfortunate class of people, such as "the poor, the mentally, ill, the French...."

The Embassy of the...uh, I mean, the Embassy of France to the United States is taking it fairly well:

-via David Burge

Core 77 shares with us a fascinating development by NVIDIA, a graphics and artificial intelligence company.

Let's say that you're in a long virtual meeting with someone and would like to pretend to be paying attention to that person. Just occasionally nodding saying "uh huh" every 30 seconds isn't enough. People expect that you will maintain eye contact through the webcam in order to convincingly feign interest.

INVIDIA has developed an AI-based filter that will automatically present the eyes on display as directed at the camera. In addition to creating the appearance of attentiveness, it's useful when people are reading off of a script, such as a teleprompter, but wish to look their audiences directly in the eye.

Image: INVIDIA