Mike Fahey of Kotaku reports that Strata Miniatures now offers a line of 3D printed Dungeons & Dragons miniatures for tabletop fun. They depict fantastic combat wheelchairs and their users who are fully prepared for the challenges of any quest. Fahey, a role-player who uses a wheelchair, is delighted:

My personal favorite, and the one I’ve purchased, is the elf rogue. She looks nothing like me, but her sly little grin is all me. I love playing the sneaky rogue in RPGs. I bet her chair has a silence spell of some sort cast on it. Look at those dagger-lined wheels! That is one badass wheelchair user.

Image: Strata Miniatures

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Tokyo has taken public toilet cleanliness and safety to the next level. Transparent toilets made from coloured glass have been installed in public parks across Japan's capital. But don't be alarmed - once the cubicles are occupied the glass turns opaque to secure privacy. Apart from adding colour to the parks, there are two reasons why the new designs have been a success: people can see how clean they are before going in and they can also see if anyone is secretly waiting inside.

A post shared by The Guardian (@guardian) on Aug 18, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

Shigeru Ban, the architect, says that the new restrooms in a park in Tokyo have "smart glass" that turns opaque when someone is inside.

Do you see someone inside that stall? I do.

Anyway, The Guardian explains that the purpose of using transparent walls, aside from inducing anxiety, is so permit people to know if a stall is unoccupied before attempting to enter:

“There are two concerns with public toilets, especially those located in parks,” it said. “The first is whether it is clean inside, and the second is that no one is secretly waiting inside.”

The glass allegedly becomes opaque after you lock the door. So don't forget to do that.

-via Dave Barry

In 1587, England planted a colony of 117 people on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. Three years later, when an English vessel checked in on the colony, the entire population had vanished and the settlement lay in ruins. The only clue left behind was the word "CROATOAN" carved into a wooden palisade.

What happened to the colony? One of the earliest hypotheses was that it had moved into and joined a Native American community.

After eleven years of research, a team of archaeologists (both amateur and professional) has concluded that this hypothesis is probably correct. They found evidence of a mixed community of Europeans and Native Americans on Hatteras Island. The Virginian-Pilot reports:

Teams have found thousands of artifacts 4-6 feet below the surface that show a mix of English and Indian life. Parts of swords and guns are in the same layer of soil as Indian pottery and arrowheads.

The evidence shows the colony left Roanoke Island with the friendly Croatoans to settle on Hatteras Island. They thrived, ate well, had mixed families and endured for generations. More than a century later, explorer John Lawson found natives with blue eyes who recounted they had ancestors who could “speak out of a book,” Lawson wrote.

The two cultures adapted English earrings into fishhooks and gun barrels into sharp-ended tubes to tap tar from trees.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: PunkToad

Having some guests over for a long stay? Then this home in Fayette, Missouri is perfect for you and 9 of your friends (or 18 if they double up). That's because this house, which was built in 1875, was originally the home and office of the county sheriff.

A door off the kitchen leads down to the restored 9-cell facility, which is appropriately painted grey.

There's also a booking room, so you can process your guests for their indefinite stay. Each cell lock, the realtor confirms, still works. You can, though, still prank your brother-in-law by pretending that you've lost the key after he's stepped inside one of the cells.

-via Dave Barry | Photos: Travis Kempf

A work of art.... pic.twitter.com/bnj8fTwIMj

— Holy Cross W. Hockey (@HCrossWHockey) August 15, 2020

The anonymous artist goes to work, preparing the rink for the women's hockey team at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He uses no machines--only his skill, sharpened like the edge of a razor. It is a wonder to behold.

-via Super Punch

Archaeologists in South Africa have determined that a grass and ash bed in a cave dates back 200,000 years. Why did early humans choose materials for their bedding? One of the archaeologists quoted by UPI explained that the ash may have been an insect repellent:

"We speculate that laying grass bedding on ash was a deliberate strategy, not only to create a dirt-free, insulated base for the bedding, but also to repel crawling insects," lead study author Lyn Wadley, professor of archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said in a news release. [...]

Because insects have trouble moving through fine powder, ash helped protect slumbering humans from the bites of insects. Atop the ash and grass bedding, researchers also found remnants of camphor bush, a plant that's still used as an insect repellant.

-via Instapundit | Photo: MADe

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Marge is here to cheer ya up

A post shared by Rudy Willingham (@rudy_willingham) on Jul 12, 2020 at 1:10pm PDT

Rudy Willingham likes to amuse the good people of Seattle. He does so by leaving around the city paper cut-outs that, when viewed from the right angle, turn an everyday object into something much more. Last year, he described his approach to King 5 News:

"Using the paper and the hand, as we opposed to just Photoshopping things, gives it a human element that I think people really respond to. It's a little more childlike and not as digital or forced."

Hester Ford was born in 1904 in Lancaster, South Carolina. She lived and worked on a farm, growing and picking cotton, among other chores. She later married and had 12 children. Those 12 children eventually led to an estimated 120 great-grandchildren. On Saturday afternoon, many of those great-grand children were among the celebrants who drove by her home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

WCNC News talked with Mary Hill, one of Ford's grandchildren:

“It’s so important if you do have loved ones, no matter what their age, cherish them especially when they get older. and don’t forget to celebrate them,” Harris said. “Because life is so short. 

For years, Hester Ford always thought she was born in 1905, but just last year the census bureau documents show she was born in 1904. Ford is now the oldest person in the country, and the seventh oldest person in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

-via Debby Witt | Photo: Ford Family

The marvelously surreal world of artist Hugh Hayden now includes cast iron skillets and pots that are cast to resemble masks. Hayden explains that in his exhibition titled "American Food," the masks speak of the African diaspora offering a hazy look into the past:

The function and form of both the skillets as early African cookware and the masks’ ancestral and ceremonial origins are merged in a technique called sand-casting; Hayden adopts this rudimentary means of manufacture to celebrate the imperfectness of the materials, their colonial histories, and the inherent loss of detail in the reproduction process. Hayden likens the abstraction of the original objects that occurs in the sand-casting process as a form of diaspora that transforms the skillets into something layered and culturally syncretic. 

-via Colossal | Photo: Lisson Gallery

Are you looking for a good place to Netflix and chill? Or would you like to have a movie night with friends? The last standing Blockbuster Video rental store, which is located in Bend, Oregon, is open for business as an AirBnB rental property. There's a living room and an air mattress set up in front of a big screen TV among the rows of VHS cases on shelves. According to the hosts, the experience is authentic to its origins:

Whether you want to stay up until sunrise or pass out on the couch, we’ve created the perfect space complete with a pull-out couch, bean bags and pillows for you to cozy up with “new releases” from the ‘90s. Crack open a two-liter of Pepsi before locking into a video game, charting your future in a game of MASH, or watching movie after movie. But be wary of reciting “Bloody Mary” in the staff bathroom off of the break room, as you just may summon the ghost rumored to haunt the store. And help yourself to some NERDS, Raisinets and popcorn (heavy on the butter), but make sure you save room for a couple slices.

-via The Mary Sue | Photo: AirBnB

Proposing to your girlfriend is a risky venture. She could say no. Riky Ash's proposal had additional risks, as he waited until he had been set on fire before popping the question. The New York Post describes his stunt:

Ash, who’s been stunting as a body double for 27 years, says he was able to stay relaxed while on fire thanks to his kung fu training and says the nerve-wracking part was making sure the surprise went off without a hitch. “This one, I’m more nervous about the actual proposal than being set on fire.”

Ash's girlfriend, Katrina Dobson, says that she didn't know he would propose at that moment. She thought that she was simply joining him for a romantic photoshoot.

-via Instapundit

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5년동안 그려왔음에도 매순간 고민하고 도전하게 해주는 특별한 #thestarrynight

A post shared by 이강빈 (@leekangbin91) on Sep 2, 2019 at 6:33pm PDT

Lee Kang Bin is a food artist in Korea. He focuses primarily on colorful lattes, but also works with pastries. I'm struck by his departure from the often monochromatic use of latte art into a world of color. He imitates great artists with works you will recognize, but also makes original images of flowers.

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Nach dem Revival der Autokinos in diesem Jahr gibt es nun auch ein erstes Freiluftkino auf dem Wasser. 38 Elektroboote mit Platz für bis zu sechs Personen dümpeln derzeit am Seine-Ufer in Paris. Während so auf dem Fluss Mindestabstandsregeln befolgt werden können, gibt es auf einer großen Leinwand die französische Komödie „Le Grand Bain“ zu sehen. Obwohl konventionelle Kinos in Frankreich mittlerweile wieder geöffnet haben, ist das Interesse am „Le Cinema Sur L’ Eau“ (Kino auf dem Wasser) hoch. Fotos: Reuters • • • #openairkino #freiluftkino #autkino #bootkino #seine #paris #parisplages #legrandbain #frankreich

A post shared by TRT Deutsch (@trtdeutsch) on Jul 22, 2020 at 11:15am PDT

Dornob tells us about a new movie theater arrangement in Paris designed to be a bit safer than getting packed into a crowded hall. The Bassin de la Villette, an artificial lake in Paris connected to the Seine by a canal, hosted an outdoor viewing of a movie on July 18.

Organizers conducted a raffle for the audience. Winners got to watch the movie from boats. Losers still got to watch the movie, but from deck chairs onshore. Together, they watched Le Grand Bain, a 2018 French dramedy about a men's synchronized swimming team.

Schools around the world, including my own, are searching for new ways to teach students in engaging and meaningful ways online. It's pretty neat to create educational games. But coding video games is hard.

Today, I learned about H5P, which offers a branching game model used to create multiple choice scenarios. It's like a high quality Choose Your Own Adventure story. In this particular one, which the above screenshot comes from, a Canadian nurse makes a home visit to a client who, it becomes clear, is in a dangerous home situation. The producers did an extraordinary job of designing a scenario that tests a nurse's social skills.

-Thanks, Katie!

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#keklapissarawak #sarawaklayercakerolls

A post shared by Karen (@kitchen_confidante) on Jun 12, 2020 at 9:25am PDT

Kek lapis Sarawak is a uniquely Malaysian approach to layer cake design that emerged in the 1970s. The colorful layers are carefully baked, then sliced and rearranged into complex patterns that are as much a feast for the eyes as the mouth. Atlas Obscura describes the creation process:

Building these cakes requires a vivid imagination, an almost mathematical mind for detail, and perhaps most importantly, a steady hand.

Making one cake can take anywhere from four to eight hours, depending on the complexity of the design. It’s a process that could go wrong at any point in time: bakers first must cook up cakes in deep pans, carefully adding even stripes of colorful batter with ten minutes in the oven between each layer.

But making the cake is only half the battle. Kek lapis Sarawak is unique because bakers must carefully cut up the cooled cakes and reassemble them using jam or condensed milk as glue. The end result is a complex, vibrant pattern that appears when the cake is sliced.