1. Word of the day: Xylarium – Library of Wood

This one is in Canberra, it has 47000 samples.

Found on Present & Correct.

2. Couldn’t think of a better way to beautify blank walls:

French artist Mantra paints photo-realistic murals that look like massive butterfly specimen display frames. Found on Kottke.

3. Rabbit charioteer from Ancient Rome, riding a chariot pulled by geese, Tivoli, 2nd century AD

Found on History Cool Kids.

4. Motorcycle chariots, 1936

At the celebration of New South Wales police in Australia in 1936. How is this still not a thing?

Found on Reddit.

5. This Sahara Railway is one of the most extreme in the World

6. Real Places with Ridiculously Depressing Names

New Zealand.

Wyoming, USA.

Argyle, Canada

France

Montana, USA

Maryland, USA

New Jersey, USA

Found on Sad Topographies, an Instagram dedicated to finding “somewhere to go when you’re feeling low”.

7. The actual strategy plan Walt Disney gave investors.

A 1957 chart of how Disney would work. See it enlarged.

8. The Real Dress that inspired the Titanic Wardrobe

Actual vintage photo of the dress that inspired one of Rose’s dresses from Titanic.

Found on Tumblr.

9. Dr. Seuss’s Little-Known “Adult” Book of Nudes

Not necessarily what you’d expect from Dr. Seuss… or is it ?

Found by one of our awesome MNC Ambassadors (thanks for the tip Eliza) on Brainpickings.

10. The Gentleman’s Surprise Chair circa 1888

Found on Reddit.

11. Dinner on Horseback

“One of the most famous photographs of the Gilded Age in New York … the ‘Dinner on Horseback’ given by Cornelius Kingsley Garrison (CKG) Billings at Sherry’s Restaurant on 44th Street and Fifth Avenue in March 1903… Sherry’s was the hot restaurant of its day, a trend-setter – the first where society women went to dine in public for the first time without a male escort…The floor was covered with grass and dirt, a brook, waiters dressed for a fox hundred, and three dozen real horses. The horses were equipped with special saddles and trays measuring two feet by two feet with champagne bottles with long straws in the saddlebags and a large bag of oats for each horse. Entertainment was provided by a bevy of chorus girls dancing and singing. Guests were given sterling silver menus in the shape of horseshoes. The final cost of dinner for 36: $50,000 (or approximately $1 million in today’s currency), in an age when the average annual income of Americans was less than $1000.”

Found on the New York Social Diary