To be more precise, Madeleine Ravier referred to her invention as a "bicycle for animals." She did not restrict the design in her 1907 patent to horses.

Ravier concluded that, as human locomotion is more efficient on a bicycle, animals likewise benefit by an appropriately adapted vehicle. Weird Universe quotes a translation of her patent:

What man did for himself he can do it for animals, or at least for some of them; There is a way to increase the efficiency of their limbs by the intercalation, between these limbs and the field of motion, of mechanical devices receiving the reciprocating motion of the limbs, transforming it into continuous rotary motion, and ending in rotating parts; and the result obtained can be used to make animals move man faster and farther than has hitherto been done by using them.

With a wingspan up to 11 inches, the appropriately named Atlas Moth can attract unwelcome attention from predators. Fortunately, one of its evolutionary advantages is that the tips of its wings look like snake heads. The Natural History Museum in London describes how this feature helps:

The moth's Cantonese name translates as snake's head moth, because the tips of its wings look similar to the head of a deadly cobra.

When threatened, the moth will drop to the floor and writhe around, slowing flapping its wings to imitate snake head and neck movements and scare away predators.

-via The Fabulous Weird Trotters | Photo: Pixabay

Redditor UNHOLYpuppetboy shares this photo of the book stacks of his local public library. It's the Merchants' Square location of the Carmel Clay Public Library in Carmel, Indiana. The main library of that system is under renovation, so the collection and its services were moved into a closed grocery store last October. The local NBC News affiliate described the changes last year:

That's right, the library is now in the old Marsh in Merchants' Square while the main library undergoes renovations. The library expects construction could take up to two years, with a focus on expanding the "teen" area. [...]

"Our books in the freezer section. That's a popular area," said Director Bob Swanay. "The children's area is in what was formerly the winery section of the store."

-via TYWKIWDBI

Custom dicemaker RitualCast of Ketchikan, Alaska says that this ominous street art recently appeared downtown. And there's evidence that the situation has become even more dangerous: packets of googly eyes have been mysteriously appearing around the city.

-via Super Punch

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A post shared by Capuchino Cosplay (@capuchinocosplay)

Capuchino Cosplay offers this fresh take on Marvel cosplay. Here is a Rococo-style rendition of Captain America and Iron Man. The pair of heroes are ready for the masquerade ball.

This unique blown glass piece designed by Jim Rokos and made by glass artist Jochen Holz is called My Other Half. The glass with the lowest level will fill up, so it's necessary to coordinate your drinking with a partner. Rokos designed it as part of a project that he calls Blindspot, which is about how people work together (or don't) as couples.

-via Toxel

How shall we protect our property from people stealing packages away from our front doors? Stage magician and science educator Jason Latimer reasoned that the best way is to convince thieves that there are no packages to steal. He built a box with a mirror that reflects the side wall of his house. As a result, when viewed from the front, the box appears to be a transparent table.

-via The Awesomer

When surfboards have ceased to be useful on the waves, Claire Marie, an artist in Western Australia, gives them new life. She reinvigorates the boards with vibrant seascapes harkening to past adventures on the water.

Marie explained to My Modern Met that each painting is personalized to the past of the board:

“It’s the small details in the artwork that makes each commissioned surfboard unique and personal but the surfboard itself also holds its own memories from the time it has spent out in the waves,” she continues. “On the back of each board is a small handwritten note which gives a little insight into the story of the board and the artwork.”

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Oleg Chernyshenko's feat is so extraordinary that I was inclined to think that the video was fake until I discovered similar accomplishments on his Instagram page. According to the Daily Mail, Chernyshenko completed this series of backflips at Cape Kiwanda, Oregon while his brother ran down the hill recording it.

-via The Awesomer

How would you remove tree stumps before internal combustion engines created automated options? One way is with a stump puller, like the one owned by the family of Guy Temple. He donated his old fashioned tool to the Pasto Agricultural Museum at Pennsylvania State University. In this video, Mr. Temple explains how a team of horses is able to gradually lever a stump out of the ground using a tool anchored to another tree.

-via reddit

Captain Montgomery Scott, a Starfleet officer of great renown, will be born in the town of Linlithgow, Scotland about two centuries from now. Civic minded citizens of that town are justly proud of their native son and so marked the local museum with a commemorative plaque. Atlas Obscura has photos of it.

Feel like this might help fr 👀
(via handinyofacehoops/TikTok) pic.twitter.com/wJqWIqac8P

— Overtime (@overtime) July 26, 2021

This is a clever invention. The HandInYoFace places a hand-shaped obstruction in front of a player's eyes to simulate the obscured vision of a player trying to shoot and pass while blocked.

I'm struggling to find the origin of this product and video, the latter of which appears to be a TikTok account. Hopefully we can see the training aid in sporting goods stores soon.

-via Super Punch

For more than three centuries, Lock & Co. Hatters in London has produced the finest hats for the most prestigious people, including Lord Nelson, Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, and Charlie Chaplin. And although some its hatmaking methods have changed over the years, many have not. They even use head measuring devices from past times, such as this 150-year old conformer to precisely measure the customer's head.

Lock & Co. has been open since 1676, with the exception of the recent pandemic. Not even getting bombed during the Blitz stopped it. This video by Business Insider traces the long history of the shop and explores its methods for making the world's most sought-after hats.

-via Core77

Redditor dilettantetaun is no dilettante at woodworking. He's a master of his craft. Inspired by the wooden whale automaton made by another redditor, dilettantetaun rendered this extraordinarily refined and fully functional music box. It's made of walnut, oak, maple, basswood, and magic.

Rocking chairs are nice, but what if you want to move in different directions? That's an option, thanks to Nicholas Gardner and Saša Štucin, artists who operate a furniture design studio called Soft Baroque. Their collection includes elegantly crafted pieces that move as you do, such as the chair pictured above.