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Arts & Culture

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The Birth of Non-Alcoholic Ketchup

One of the first recipes for ketchup published in the United States called for “love apples”

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Winners of Nature’s Best Photography

Through January 2013, the Natural History Museum is home to stunning photographs of wildlife around the world

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Summer Movie Forecast: More of the Same

Hollywood has always loved sequels, and judging from the box office viewers do too

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What Sunken Sandwiches Tell Us About the Future of Food Storage

The sinking of the Alvin was an accident that demonstrated the promise of a novel food preservation method

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How Posters Helped Shape America and Change the World

One enthusiast’s collection, on exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California, offers a sweeping look at grass-roots movements since the 1960s

Crawfish étouffée

Five Quintessential Cajun Foods

If you’ve only had the pleasure of eating a bowl of gumbo, queue up some Beausoleil and prepare some of these specialties

A design diagram for the interior of the Stratocruiser

The 86-Year-Old Company that Still Designs Your In-Flight Experience

Seattle-based design firm Teague has designed every Boeing aircraft interior since the 1940s, from the post-WWII Stratocruiser to the 2009 Dreamliner

Food books worth reading

Books on How To Get Pickled

Curious about the middle ground between fresh and rotten? These four books tell you how to preserve the fleeting tastes of spring

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Chickens Dressed Like Napoleon, Einstein and Other Historical Figures

They came, they clucked and they conquered. Get the story behind these absurd portraits and how they came to be

Lean-On-Me Tray with hot entree

A More Efficient Airline Meal Tray

A recent innovation in the design of the airline meal tray has resulted in massive savings. Maybe the next innovation should focus on the actual food

Salt

Mark Kurlansky on the Cultural Importance of Salt

Salt, it may be useful to know, cures a zombie

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For the Love of Film Blogathon III: The White Shadow and Streaming Restored Films Online

Casablanca streaming live on Facebook tonight and read about the opportunity to view a recently restored version of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first films

A diagram of visitor movement in the American Art and Furniture gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art

What a Physics Student Can Teach Us About How Visitors Walk Through a Museum

By sketching the movements of people at the Cleveland Art Museum, Andrew Oriani laid the groundwork for some deep insights into how art is appreciated

Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man by Mark Kurlansky, available through booksellers on May 8

Clarence Birdseye, the Man Behind Modern Frozen Food

I spoke with author Mark Kurlansky about the quirky inventor who changed the way we eat

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Eating Invasive Species to Stop Them?

The “if you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em” strategy for controlling exotic species could backfire, a new analysis warns

Drylands design students walking a ditch in the Embudo Valley

Designing Democracy Around a Ditch

How a ditch irrigation system in the arid Southwest became the backbone of local democracy

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What to Watch This Mother’s Day

From saints to sinners, some Mother’s Day movies you may have overlooked

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Edible Dictionary: Microbial Mothers

Why are the lees at the bottom of a wine or cider barrel named for your female parent?

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