Jonas Lauwiner isn't just some nut like Emperor Norton of the United States. To borrow a phrase attributed to Napoleon, King Jonas found the crown of Switzerland lying in a gutter.

The Swiss Confederation is a republic in structure. It had no king until 2019 when King Jonas staged a coronation in Bern. The Times reports that he's been building a power base by exploiting a legal loophole that allows residents to acquire unclaimed land by registering a claim with the local government.

Over time, King Jonas has acquired numerous small plots of land--including sections of road--that are equal to 0.045 square miles, which is roughly a quarter of the size of Vatican City.

-via @myth_pilot | Photo: His Majesty, King Jonas of Switzerland

Horsewoman Kate Janicki of Woodland, California is proud of her sister, Hannah, getting a job at a local Dutch Bros coffee shop. She decided to visit Hannah at work. So she saddled up Penny, one of her horses, and then put the horse in a trailer and hauled her to the cafe.

Once they arrived at the Dutch Bros, Ms. Janicki mounted Penny and took her to the drive through window. Hannah and her coworkers were delighted at the surprise.

Penny was pretty chill about the experience (including the highway noise), but found the white paint marks on the road a bit unsettling.

Since its launch by inventior Ruth Handler in 1959, the Barbie doll (and her fictional universe) was a pop culture behemoth that spawned inumerable accessories and merchandise.

In 1961, Mattel released a 45 RPM record in which Barbie, performed by Charlotte Austin, and Ken, performed by Bill Cunningham, sang six songs with a swing style common to the late 50s and early 60s. It came with a booklet that I gather had the lyrics. They describe an idealized vision of romance suitable for young audiences.

The album is available on YouTube. You can also purchase a copy from eBay.

-via Hollywood Horror Museum

うちのぐるぐるレイアウトもスリップリング経由でレールに給電してます！#鉄道模型 #Nゲージ #Bトレ #ジオラマ https://t.co/Tnngs9844O pic.twitter.com/Btdp3odQYI

— B作 (@Btoretsukuru) April 28, 2026

Japanese X user @Btoresukuru makes N-gauge model trains. The N scale is 1:160, so making a scene so realistic that it looks like a video recording of a real train requires incredibly precise attention to detail. He has a store from which he sells specialized tools and parts for this kind of model railroad construction.

Btoresukuru explains that he used slip rings to permit continuous rotation of both the train and the base. The visual effect is stunning.

A Brazilian funeral company is now selling Mario-themed coffins

You can choose from Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, or even Yoshi pic.twitter.com/bEeNrXcKQ6

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) April 28, 2026

Eventually, you run out of 1-Ups. You jump into a warp pipe that doesn't end.

When that happens, be prepared with an appropriate coffin. The Portuguese text is throwing me off, but I gather that artist Bruno Tanato has teamed up with coffin manufacturer Industria de Urnas Bignotto to produce coffins that resemble the colors and iconography of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, and Princess Peach. They're also working on designs inspired by Barbie and The Fairly Odd Parents.

The Soviet Union was not known for being a powerhouse of popular culture export products (Tetris being the only exception). But the dictatorship nonetheless tried to make popular entertainment for domestic and foreign markets.

Mary Poppins, Goodbye is an example. This is two-part musical miniseries in Russian that premiered in 1984. The story is not too unfamiliar to those of us who grew up in the Disney adaptation of the novel. Natalya Adrenychenko stared in the titular role.

You can watch part 1 and part 2 on YouTube. Scrolling through these videos, it's possible to get the gist of the story even without the ability to speak Russian.

-via @kiyasu

Cig Neutron and Rannie Rodil, who are masters of special effects makeup, costuming, and mask making, created this cosplay mixing up Sailor Moon with the real sailor man. Do you think that Usagi Tsukino would be willing to chug a can of spinach to trigger her transformation?

Citizens attend the Landsgemeinde, a traditional public vote in Appenzell, Switzerland, where historically the only proof of citizenship required for men to vote was the display of a sword or Swiss military sidearm.

One of Switzerland’s oldest forms of direct democracy, the vote… pic.twitter.com/uWwInMb255

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 27, 2026

The Landsgemeinde is a traditional Swiss political event that consists of non-anonymous voting on public issues in an open air assembly. Such an assembly recently took place in the Swiss town of Appenzell in a canton of the same name in the northeastern part of the country.

In this direct democracy, only those men willing to bear arms in defense of the community were allowed to vote. Although military service is no longer a requirement and women were granted the right to vote in 1991, some participants still carry swords to the Landsgemeinde.

There's a dinosaur-themed cafe in Suwon, a city south of Soeul. Threads user @strayhyuniee visited and took photos. One dessert on sale is attracting a lot of attention on the Internet: a tiramisu dish shaped like the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. So it's a tyrannomisu.

Photo: @qhc8821

This photo dating from 1955 shows special slip-on sandals that loggers wore to protect mess hall floors during meal breaks. Lumberjack boots had spikes on the bottom, thus imperiling indoor surfaces.

-via Things from the Past

Photo: Potlatch Lumber Company/University of Idaho Digital Collections

Hunter and Jenna Perrin were in their home in Temecula--a city south of Los Angeles--when they received an automatic notification from their security camera system. This was followed by a knock on the door. NBC 4 News reports that a hot air balloon with thirteen people had landed in the small backyard of the suburban home.

The pilot had determined that the balloon was about to run out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing. He achieved an ideal landing, as the balloon didn't hit the house, any trees, or the fence. In fact, there was no property damage at all and no injuries.

-via David Thompson

Michael Billington, a theater critic for The Guardian, ranks from worst to best all of the plays of William Shakespeare. He identifies 35 of them, but scholars dispute that number, raising higher or lower due to the Bard's collaboration with author writers. The Two Noble Kinsmen, for example, co-written with John Fletcher, is sometimes described as a Fletcher play because that man may have composed the majority of it.

Several years ago, I read and watched all of Shakespeare's plays. There is good reason why some, such as Macbeth, are considered classics and others, such as Timon of Athens, are rarely staged.

Billington's lower ranks are not surprising (although I would place The Merchant of Venice much higher), his selection for #1 is.

-via Kottke

Kent is a craftsman in Japan who makes hats that look loaves of bread, cakes, and other foods.

There are practical uses for brassieres. For example, if a horse suffers an eye injury and the owner needs an eye patch in a hurry, a bra wrapped around the horse's head will suffice. One horse rescue operation suggests, perhaps jokingly, that a bra can protect a horse from eye damage during solar eclipses. When an emergency strikes, you've got to think outside the cup.

-via Lunar & Sunny | Photo: Enck's Training

In years past, farmers in the Landes department of southwestern France moved through marshlands on stilts that kept them dry and able to see greater distances. The performing group Lous Cadetouns preserves that tradition through dances. These carefully choreographed events involve top tier athletes moving acrobatically and synchronized to create engagingly graceful displays.

-via The Awesomer