For many years, innovative public libraries have offered physical objects that patrons can check out. These include household tools, fishing gear, and toys. Such a collection is often called a "library of things."

The Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts has a variety of things available for checkout, including a ghost hunting kit. This particular kit is sold by Ghost Stop, a paranormal investigation supply firm in Virginia. I think it's the Spirit Box Ghost Hunting Kit, which is on sale for $219.95.

This addition to the library's collections is a prudent choice, given that the Barnstable area has a known ghost infestation problem.

-via reddit

Now the great lady's famously enigmatic smile is rendered in creamy peanut butter.

Artist Brock Davis--a long time Neatorama favorite--is widely known playing with his food with stunning results, such as a ruffled potato chip painted with a lenticular effect, candy corn (everyone's favorite Halloween candy) shaped like human teeth, and cereal that looks like a TIE Fighter.

Now he summons us to Leonardo's workshop and Mona Lisa's beauty.

Street Art Utopia brings to our attention cement mixer trucks painted to resemble matryoshka--Russian nesting dolls. This particular one is in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

In my mind, matryoshka are a traditional Russian handicraft. But according to a page maintained by the Russian Studies program at Macalester College, they date back to only 1892.

Gallaudet University is a school in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the educational needs of deaf students. The appropriately-named blog Library Shenanigans described a vicious and cruel prank played on the beleaguered library staff in January of 1940.

During the night, a cabal of hardened student criminals penetrated the library's security and turned every book around so that the spines faced inward. The above photo from the university's archives shows students examining the wreckage of their library before setting it to right by reversing the books.

Now, 85 years later, the criminals must have long since descended to their graves and to pay for transgressions in an eternal torrent of brimstone-scented shushings.

-via Weird Universe

Fun question from @Sam__Enright:

What’s the “anti-reading list” in your field of expertise? pic.twitter.com/vawry5SLok

— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) February 21, 2025

This is an interesting question by Alec Stapp. What books are widely popular but regarded by scholars or experts within their respective fields as bunk?

I have expertise in nothing, but the question reminds me of The Age of Arthur by John Morris. It's a history of early medieval Britain. The author, a highly respected historian, argues for the historicity of Arthur as an actual person. Although widely read, other historians regard it as preposterous and the work greatly damaged Morris's reputation.

Reading it, I could understand why. Morris describes historical records of various Celtic warlords in Fifth Century Britain and leaps to the conclusion these necessarily describe a real Arthur instead of, well, just various Celtic warlords.

More generally, I'm skeptical of general purpose public intellectuals. I think it's impossible to be an expert in more than one field, so I hesitate to give credence to scholars writing or speaking outside of their expertise. And we should not underestimate the capacity of experts to be wrong.

What books do you think should be on an anti-reading list as defined by Sam Enright?

(Not just books that you don't like.)

Storyful reports that Paul Eickhof recorded this video of three turkeys repeatedly circling a particular tombstone in a cemetery in North Dakota.

Why? Popular Science tells us that turkeys sometimes circle potential threats. Their circular motion on the ground reflects their practice of flying as flocks rather than individual.

But why this grave? What is it about the person buried here that the turkeys find so alarming?

-via Aelfred the Great, who understands the scope of the supernatural threat:

The ritual has begun.

Comes now the frostfire, the Unspeaking Men, the Scar in the Sky.

You will curse the day of your birth and yet be unable to look away.

Pray for cold iron. Pray for bones of stone. Pray.

The ritual has begun. https://t.co/GQPykOri0S

— Aelfred The Great (@aelfred_D) February 16, 2025

Mehdi Dakhli is a designer and art curator with a flair for creative furniture designs. His new Muravey Bench is designed to resemble a giant art scurrying through the home. It's an elegant form for a contemporary home that wants to attract the interest of guests without being gauche. Ants convey a sense of order and productivity to a society that cries out for bold new leadership.

And I for one welcome our insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted blogging personality, I can be helpful for rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

-via Toxel

There's a special kind of terror that a parent feels when they see their child in sudden mortal danger.

It is never far from your thoughts.

The Guardian reports that Adrián Simancas and his father, Dell, were kayaking in the Bahía El Águila in the Strait of Magellan in southernmost Chile. Dell was recording their trip at the moment when a humpback whale swallowed his son. After a brief moment, the whale spat out the young man and his kayak.

Hypothermia was a serious danger in these frigid waters, so the two went to shore immediately. Adrián was, thankfully, unharmed.

-via Nag on the Lake

This watch is an example of of anti-theft pocket watch designs from the Victorian Era. Antique watch expert Dan Coatsworth explains that watches were so expensive at the time and so easy to steal that the spring-loaded spikes remain in place if the chain is pulled slowly, but project if the loop is pulled quickly. As in Dune, the slow blade penetrates the shield.

Some of the inventors took advantage of the cylindrical shape to craft charming acorn shapes. They all attempted to do harm or at least alarm to the would-be thieves.

-via Steampunk Tendencies

Karel Čapek (1890-1938) was a Czech writer and early developer of the science fiction genre. He is credited with introducing the word "robot" into popular usage in his 1920 play R.U.R., which stands for Rossum's Universal Robots. It depicts a company that manufactures synthetic workers known as robots. These robots eventually develop self-awareness, then rise up and slaughter their human masters.

In 1938, BBC Television, which launched just six years previously, aired a 35-minute adaptation of the play. Only stills from the film survive to this day, but the film is regarded as the first science fiction television program in history.

-via Pulp Librarian

YouTuber Craven In Outer Space is having fun with the theme songs and introductions to various Star Trek series. He's adjusting the audio so that it sounds like the Enterprise is the speaker for the Alexander Courage's famous theme music. Craven's use of the Doppler Effect is particularly effective.

Volkswagen is most well known for manufacturing cars. But part number 00010 ZDK-259-101 is a bottle of ketchup. For a brief time, during last fall, this part was available to American customers.

The Takeout informs us that Volkwsagen has made its own ketchup for the past 30 years. The ketchup is made to go with Volkswagen-brand currywurst, which is identified by part number 199 398 500 A. The company made the currywurst starting in 1973 to serve to factory workers and then the ketchup in 1996 to season the sausage. The combination is popular enough that the firm is willing to occasionally offer it to non-employees.

Photo: Volkswagen

Government bureaucracies are stereotypically wasteful of both time and money. The Dodo reports that a community of beavers in the Czech Republic apparently became frustrated with governmental delays in the construction of a dam the Brdy wetland region and built one themselves.

The government had planned for seven years to build the dam which advocates hope would restore the damaged wetland. But after seven years and the equivalent of $1.2 million spent, there was still no dam. Then officials found that, in just mere days, local beavers had erected dams in the spots tentatively selected by the humans.

-via Oddity Central | Photo: Klaudiusz Muchowski

Spoon & Tamago, a design blog that informs English-speaking audiences about design developments in Japan, introduces us to the ZZZN Sleep Apparel System. Yes, it's a futon that you wear. But it's even more than just the fabric and stuffing.

The coat/bed electronically monitors the user's sleep state and has a built-in hood with noise-cancelling earphones. The design goal is to promote polyphasic sleep, which is a sleeping pattern in which a person occasionally naps throughout the day. The ZZZN Sleep Apparel System is thus optimal for taking an immediate nap anytime, anywhere.

The Japanese government is promoting the device in response to a study which reveals that the Japanese get the least amount of sleep among all nations in the 38-member Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

🎭 Dramatic Monologue: Anti-Hero by @taylorswift pic.twitter.com/QDqetQ8qsK

— James McNicholas (@jamesmcnicholas) October 23, 2024

James McNicholas is an accomplished professional actor who is in high demand on television productions. He's getting a lot of social media acclaim for doing emotionally heavy interpretations of song lyrics, often as older or broken men. In the above video, he reflects upon Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero."