Motor vehicles are prohibited in Denali National Park in Alaska, except for buses that shuttle visitors through a limited area. Rangers patrol on foot, horseback, in helicopters, or with dogsleds. For more than 100 years, Denali has raised sled dog puppies in their own breeding program in conjunction with reputable Alaskan breeders. On March 30, sled dog Spark gave birth to six puppies in the park. Some of these will be swapped with other litters from breeders, and four that show the best qualities of a sled dog will grow up to be official Denali canine rangers. This year's puppies are named after national parks: Sequoia, Mammoth, Rainier, Teton, Mesa, and Acadia. They are now six weeks old, and you can peek in on them anytime with the Denali Puppy Cam! Keep in mind that Denali is four hours behind the Eastern Time Zone. If the puppies are asleep, scroll down to read about Denali's puppy program.  -via Metafilter 

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson collaborated on the Declaration of Independence in 1776. They both served as US president, then retired, and notably died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the country's founding, on July 4th, 1826. Those are things you already know about the two men. You might also know that the two friends had a falling out over politics after the Revolutionary War, and went years without speaking. 

However, in the 15 years before their deaths, the two Founding Fathers reconnected by correspondence. They reminisced about how the Declaration came about, and their memories didn't always agree. But they were both aware of the lack of documentation as it was happening, and that their later correspondence would become part of the nation's historical record. Those letters reveal fundamental differences in the way that Adams and Jefferson understood the nature of the general public and how they would guard the liberties they fought for.  

When I taught my kids how to drive, I made then watch The Dukes of Hazzard so that they would know how to locate suitable topography for car jumps.

Why? Well, this is why.

Fox 11 News reports that sheriff's deputies in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin chased a suspect who was out on bond for car theft. During his automotive flight, he departed the bounds of the earth as he hit an embankment and passed over another car perpendicular to his path of travel.

You can see the full bodycam video here.

The car, lacking the structural integrity of the fictional 1969 Dodge Charger of fame, did not do well upon its descent from the heavens. The suspect proceeded on foot until tased and subdued.

-via ABC News

One redditor jokes that it's the "I wasn't asking" version of the toilet plunger.

Redditor /u/brewstah saw this plunger at a hardware store in Osterville, Massachussets. Why was it made this way? There's speculation that it's to prevent a customer from walking off with it, although I think that a used plunger is an item unlikely to be stolen.

My guess is that the employees had to assemble a plunger on short notice and grabbed an available handle. In this case, it was a broom handle.

-via David Thompson

Kate, an artist in Odesa, Ukraine, creates marvels of stained glass which she sells on her Etsy store called Sea Stained Glass. She has not yet said if she will sell her latest creation: a functional cap made of stained glass.

As you can see from this video, it's quite functional. Although a bit heavy, it's comfortable--in large part because Kate shaped it for her head specifically. She mentions that the visor is good alternative to sunglasses (which she doesn't like) because it shades her eyes without resting on her face.

We tend to think of navies as a military force that deploys on the high seas. The US not only uses its navy for ocean battles, but traditionally for troop transport to faraway wars before air travel. But how would a country house and train a navy without seaports? There are seven landlocked countries in the world that maintain navies as a separate branch of their military forces. The "how" behind those forces comes down to the fact that oceans aren't the only bodies of water in the world. But the "why" is way more interesting, and each country has their own story. Some are responding to real threats, and some are legacies of a complicated history. In the case of Laos, we don't know much about it at all, but I'm sure they have their reasons in their own cultural context. This video from Half as Interesting is a minute shorter than it looks, since an ad is at the end. 

Zillow Gone Wild introduces us to this lovely old firehouse that is now on the market for a large family that wants a lot of open space. It has four bedrooms and four bathrooms spread over 3,105 square feet.

Although built in 1927, it's a thoroughly modern home with the appliances necesary to feed an entire crew. There's plenty of room to spread out--even enough for an indoor pickleball court.

I appreciate that the renovators kept the firepole in place, even if there's an unnecessary guardrail. Firepoles are an underappreciated transportation system, although I've never been able to convince my boss at the library of this perspective.

Here's a scene from the Fairfield Branch of the Henrico Public Library system in Virginia. A 2022 issue of American Libraries (the flagship publication of the American Library Association) describes this clever computer station created to help caregivers of young children tend to their computer needs while keeping their kids out of trouble.

Library Director Barbara Weedman saw the need for furniture like a child's computer station, but adult sized. Shannon Wray designed the desk, which debuted when this branch library opened in 2019. A mother with a child promptly sat down at this station, intuitively understanding what the playpen was for.

-via @WolfofX | Photo: Chris Cunningham

That win was because I was a row behind the popes seat pic.twitter.com/4JTS2PwkFK

Pope Leo XIV, born as American citizen* Robert Francis Prevost, grew up in the Chicago area and therefore is a devoted fan of the White Sox baseball team--even performing the traditional chant while in full papal regalia.

In 2005, Prevost attended Game 1 of the World Series. He was recorded on camera doing so, thus we can know precisely which seat at Rate Field he sat in. The venue has marked the location.

-via Mallory Palmeri

*Whether he is now is apparently a fascinatingly complex legal question.

Ray Bradbury, a lifelong advocate for free speech, published his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 out of material he had developed for a couple of years prior. It depicts a society in which books are illegal and "firemen" are not people who put out fires, but people who burn books. The novel was an enormous success at its outset and remains popular to this day.

That prompt success at publication led Bradbury to issue a 200-copy special edition made with asbestos covers--thus making them resistant to burning--and autographed.

Copies are quite rare. This one on eBay is priced at $45,000.

-via reddit

Redditor /u/tylerthecreativemode shares photos of a little free library in Berkeley, California. Most little free libraries are single boxes, often shaped like buildings. But this is an entire little free library system with multiple branches. I count eight boxes with books. Some redditors are dubbing it the Little Free Library of Congress or the Little Free Great Library of Alexandria.

The official LFL map shows numerous locations in Berkeley--apparently a city with a love for this community practice. The cozy, goblincore style is offers a welcoming ambiance.

Some ideas, such as Leonardo da Vinci's helicopter, are ahead of their time in that it would not be possible for da Vinci to construct a functional model. But what ideas are behind their time? This is to ask: which technologies could have arrived earlier because their prerequisites were already present?

Brian Potter, an engineer, asserts that the Wright brothers' flyer could have been constructed the late 1880s instead of 1903. The constituent technologies for the turbojet, which first appeared in 1937, were known in the 1920s.

Much depends on how one defines "plausible" and the risks that inventors are willing to take. Japanese physician Hanaoka Seishū (1760-1935) was the first surgeon in the world to use general anesthesia in 1804--four decades before it was used in the West--but blinded his wife and crippled his mother while trying to get the dosage right.

-via Marginal Revolution

Mike Matthews founded Grandma Stand in 2012 to honor is grandmother, Eileen Wilkinson, who had a lot of wisdom to share. He built an outdoor stand and set it up in public places in New York City. There, Grandma Eileen listened and chatted with passersby.

Grandma Eileen passed away in 2018 at 101 years old. Matthews took down the stand. But in 2024, he decided to re-establish the stand new new grandmas staffing it.

Matthews now has 20 volunteer grandmothers participating in New York City, as well as 20 other locations around the United States.

The Grandma Stand project is the subject of a new documentary that you can watch on PBS.

-via Kottke

Is there a talent or swimsuit competition? I'm not sure, but we know that the competition is stiff from a hard calcium carbonate shell.

CU Boulder Today, a publication of the University of Colorado at Boulder, reports that the Senckenberg Institutes in Germany holds an annual competition which declares one mollusc to be "the coolest."

There are over 86,000 identified species in the phylum Mollusca, but only one can claim this annual honor.

Among the top contenders is the moon clam (Ephippodonta lunata), which can be found off the coast of southwestern Australia. The moon clam was nominated by CU Boulder researchers, so the campus is abuzz with excitement that the moon clam has made it to the final five possible winners.

-via David Thompson | Photos: Western Australia Museum

It's like a scene straight out of the movies: a car crash in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, left a motorcycle dangling from a traffic light.

Thankfully, the motorcyclist was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, and the driver of the car was unharmed.

(Photo: Sohrab Sandhu/CBC)