Arcangelo Ambrosi is an Italian woodworker who specializes in handcrafted smoking pipes. Each one is a whimsical work of art. Simple pieces of wood become fantastic beasts at play and work. For Ambrosi, the pipe "is an object that I’ve always loved and I’ve found it to be a wonderful means of expression."

Then & Now Movie Locations is an amazing blog consisting of the travels of Paul, cinema fan, to the locations of famous movie scenes. Most recently, the blogger visited locations for the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi.

Paul's photos include the locations R2-D2 and C-3PO's journey to Jabba's palace and, most impressively, the speeder bike chase on Endor.

What we saw as Endor in the films was Cheatham Grove in Grizzy Creek Redwoods State Park. What's amazing is that the very same fallen tree formations remain intact 37 years later.

This rankles my librarian soul. On the other hand, a newly-minted library school graduate struggling to find work could hustle his/her way into a job like this.

In 2001, actress Gwyneth Paltrow decided that the bookshelves in her home needed to present a particular look. Instagram didn't exist at the time, but you could say that she wanted her home library to have an Instagram-worthy appearance. So she hired a "personal book curator" to decorate her shelves with books that were appropriate for the task. The photo above shows the results.

It's the work of Juniper Books, a firm that provides this service. The founder, Thatcher Wine, thoughtfully selects and arranges book in a visually appealing manner. Yahoo News explains:

“I looked at books she already owned, which focused on fashion, art, culture, photography, and architecture, as well as books that her kids liked,” he told the publication. “We expanded on those topics, and for the kids, we included a selection of classics that we thought they might like as they got older.” [...]

Over in the dining room, Wine made sure to organise the books in a more minimal fashion in keeping with a “rigid colour palette of black, white, and grey since it was less of a space where one might hang out and read”.

Upon closer inspection, heavyweight coffee table books take price of place with shelves dedicated to artists including Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali and Leonardo Da Vinci.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Juniper Books

Have you ever used an e-scooter? They're a popular form of transportation in many urban environments. If you've ridden one recently, you may have noticed a message in Braille.

Don't worry: it isn't a set of instructions and there's no expectation that visually impaired people should be able to ride the scooters. The messages provide contact information for the scooter company. Luz Lazo explains at the Washington Post:

No, blind people aren’t riding scooters. They do, however, need to know how to contact the scooter companies when they encounter the devices, which present a hazard when left lying around.

“We may not ride it, but if we trip over it, we can read the Braille on it and find out who to report it to,” said Shawn Callaway, president of the D.C. Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. “We want the Braille on them to identify the company and their contact information.”

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Luz Lazo/Washington Post

Tropical Storm Falcon hit Iloilo City, the Philippines on July 16. Some high school students were stranded at school, unable to cross the water, which appears to be about a foot and a half deep.

This clever fellow was an exception. He staged two chairs across the flooded street, moving gradually across without getting into the water.

-via Geekologie

The premise of Dishmantled is a compelling one. It summons the heroic spirit within the human psyche and thus makes for must-watch TV.

In it, cook contestants are shot in the face with a dish by a food cannon. From what they can feel, smell, and taste on their face, they must then recreate that dish faster and more accurately than their competitors. Deadline reports that Tituss Burgess, one of the stars of Unbreakable Kelly Schmidt, will host the show.

-via Dave Barry, who quips, "We live in a golden age." | Photo: Seth Lemmons

When breakfast cereal was invented in the Nineteenth Century as a masturbation preventative (among other reasons), it proved difficult to physically chew. Some people would let their cereal rest in water or milk during the night to soften it. Eventually, milk became the most popular cereal softener. Why? Dan Lewis of Now I Know explores the likely reasons:

Why milk ended up beating out water was likely a combination of a few factors: taste, the perceived nutritional benefit from the high-calcium milk, and the relative lack of sogginess. In 2012, researchers at Pontificia University Católica in Chile tested cereal and milk versus cereal and water, and determined that the former was better unless you want a bowl of slop; as Gizmodo summarized, the cereal held up okay in milk but water “will turn your Corn Flakes to mush, fast.” And while cereal eaters of the late 1800s probably didn’t run variable-controlled and peer-reviewed experiments, their persona experiences probably led them to the same result. Plus, it kept them on a path to Heaven, apparently.

-via VA Viper | Photo: Ben Seidelman

Florida Man is not like, say, Thor--that is, a title that is passed from one hero to the next. There are many Florida Men--possibly as many as there are men in Florida. And if we're counting the heroic spirit of Florida Man, then all of us, even you, can become Florida Man some day.

In this case, Florida Man A accused Florida Man B of being a drug addict. Florida Man B then took a urine-based drug test, which came back negative. This angered Florida Man A, who threw the cup of urine at Florida Man B. WFLA 8 reports:

Pattenaude got angry when the results showed the victim was not using drug, an arrest report says. Deputies say Pattenaude threw the cup of urine at the victim, hitting him in the shoulder and face.

Deputies responding to the scene noted in the arrest report they saw wet areas on the victim’s shirt and found the empty cup in the yard.

Police then arrested Florida Man A and took him to jail.

-via Dave Barry | Photo of Florida Man cosplay by Princess Papparazzi

It's a speed control gauge from a Swedish steam locomotive. Why? What did you think the Swedish word fart means?

Dalton Richards of the blog Railyard visited the Järnvägsmuseet, a train museum in Gälve, Sweden. This photo from there spoke powerfully to my inner twelve-year-old.

Renee Jensen of Harrington Park, New Jersey says that, while she was at home, a Pennywise the Clown toy floated into her backyard.

Pennywise is the monstrously evil clown character in the Stephen King novel It.

Note that Jensen does not claim to have found the Pennywise toy in her yard. It floated through the air into her yard. The toy bore strange writing on it.

I doubt that this actually took place. But, for a moment, assume that it happened like that to you. What would you do?

You'd probably take actions similar to those of Jensen. She first called the police, who laughed at her and refused to file a report on the incident. With her safety in her own hands, Jensen then burned the toy and slept with a knife at her side and locked the bedroom door.

Why did Pennywise come to Jensen's home? I can guess why from this part of the NJ.com article:

“It’s funny, but it was creepy,” says Jensen, who owns a reiki and intuitive healing business in Ridgewood.

“I kind of live in the woo," she says.

A reiki is apparently some sort of paranormal healing practice. Muck around in the supernatural and this kind of thing happens.

-via The Mary Sue | Photos by Renee Jensen

"You must have proficiency with thieves' tools because you've stolen my heart."

That NPC you met in the tavern on your way to the adventurers' guild hall is looking at you with a beholder's eye. So don't fumble this roll.

Cosplay Ginny Di will have you reaching for your Player's Handbook to decipher the details of these lines, but her intent is clear. She provides a complete printable list of her pickup lines here.

-via Geekologie

What's your best one-liner? Olaf Falafel, a Swedish comedian, secured the title of funniest joke with his performance at the beginning of this video. He beat out many other competitors in a battle royal among joke tellers in Edinburgh. These, The Guardian reports, were the top contenders:

1. I keep randomly shouting out “Broccoli” and “Cauliflower”. I think I might have Florets. – Olaf Falafel

2. Someone stole my antidepressants. Whoever they are, I hope they’re happy. – Richard Stott

3. What’s driving Brexit? From here it looks like it’s probably the Duke of Edinburgh. – Milton Jones

4. A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 18 cows. I said, “Yes, of course. That’s 20 cows.” – Jake Lambert

5. A thesaurus is great. There’s no other word for it. – Ross Smith

6. Sleep is my favourite thing in the world. It’s the reason I get up in the morning. – Ross Smith

7. I accidentally booked myself on to an escapology course; I’m really struggling to get out of it. – Adele Cliff

8. After learning six hours of basic semaphore, I was flagging. – Richard Pulsford

9. To be or not to be a horse rider, that is Equestrian. – Mark Simmons

10. I’ve got an Eton-themed advent calendar, where all the doors are opened for me by my dad’s contacts. – Ivo Graham

-via Nag on the Lake

Redditor bostoncommon902 says that his father, a woodworker, has been producing made-to-fit chairs for the redditor's uncle, who has dwarfism. They provide exactly the right support for the man's body:

My uncle considers it very stable and the most comfortable chair he’s ever had. He has never had the luxury of having his back against the backrest and feet flat on the floor until now. That’s a lot of life to live without ever being very comfortable in a chair. [...]

My uncle said “you have no idea how good it feels to sit on a chair with your back against the backrest and your feet flat on the floor.”

So far, the craftsman has made only three for this gentleman. Bostoncommon902 is inquiring about him making more for other little people.

Historians of professional wrestling may recognize the man. In the 1980s, he was a professional wrestler under the stage name "Farmer Brooks." He partnered with Andre the Giant.

It's age-old wisdom: if you have anything that's really important, you should keep a spare, too.

Thus males among the Labidura riparia species prudently have two penises, which are symmetrically paired. The insect generally uses the right-side penis when having sex. But in the event that that that penis has become damaged or lost, it can make do tolerably well with its backup, left-side penis. It does, however, have more sexual success with the right-side penis.

Researchers Yoshitaka Kamimura, Chin‐Cheng Scotty Yang, and Chow‐Yang Lee recently published their findings in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. From the abstract:

Males of the earwig Labidura riparia (Insecta: Dermaptera: Labiduridae) have morphologically similar laterally paired penises, only one of which is used for inseminating the female during a single copulation bout, and thus provide a rare opportunity to address how selection pressure may shape the evolution of population‐level laterality. Our population studies revealed that in 10 populations, located at 2.23–43.3° north, the right penis is predominantly used for copulating (88.6%). A damaged penis was found in 23% of rare left‐handers, suggesting that the left penis can function as a spare when the right one is damaged. By pairing L. riparia females with surgically manipulated males, we found that males forced to use the right penis outperformed left‐handed males in copulation (the probability of establishing genital coupling during the 1‐hr observation period: odds ratio [OR] of 3.50) and insemination (probability of transferring a detectable amount of sperm: OR of 2.94). This right‐handed advantage may be due to the coiled morphology of the sperm storage organ with a right‐facing opening. Thus, female genital morphology may play a significant role in the evolution of handedness and may have acted as a driving force to reduce penis number in related taxa.

Citation:

Kamimura, Yoshitaka, et al. “Fitness Advantages of the Biased Use of Paired Laterally Symmetrical Penises in an Insect.” Journal of Evolutionary Biology, vol. 32, no. 8, Aug. 2019, pp. 844–855. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1111/jeb.13486.

Photo: Donald Hobern

The appropriately named Twitter user @DuckMischief got into mischief by recording her husband @DaveApnea, snoring. She then musically remixed it and published their joint composition on Spotify.

As you can see from the above tweet, the track is hugely successful. So, appropriately, the couple are offering the track for sale on Amazon.

Personally, having listened to both, I prefer the original to the instrumental. DaveApnea's snoring brings in a depth and power to the melody that should not be missed.

-via Ace of Spades HQ