Smart News: Arts and Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

Afghan men stand near the ruins of the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan.

Cool Finds

Destroyed Buddha Statues Are Coming Back to Life in Afghanistan as Beautiful 3D Projections

3D light projections recreate a pair of statues destroyed by the Taliban

June 16, 2015

A screen shot from a video about how Indo-European languages spread around the globe.

Cool Finds

Half of All Languages Come From This One Root Tongue. Here’s How it Conquered the Earth.

Today, three billion people speak Indo-European langauges

June 16, 2015

Some sommelier have taken an interest in pairing strains of marijuana with wine varieties.

Which Wine Should You Pair With Your Weed?

Forget the cheese and charcuterie

June 12, 2015

New Research

Here’s Why Americans Waste So Much Food

Spoiler alert: desire for freshness, fear of food poisoning play a role

June 12, 2015

Though still in development, Google's Im2Calorie program can compute the number of calories in a glamor shot of your food.

Google is Trying to Count Calories in Food Porn

All you need is an Instagram photo and an algorithm

June 11, 2015

Being officially dead because of a typo makes living life difficult

June 10, 2015

Starting New York Giants catcher John Tortes "Chief" Meyers in an unspecified game against the female team in 1913.

Cool Finds

Amateur Women’s Baseball Teams Existed as Early as 1866

They typically challenged local a men’s teams to play

June 9, 2015

Bermuda

There’s Only One Way to Make a Dark ‘n’ Stormy Without Breaking the Law

The cocktail has a surprising, and litigious history

June 8, 2015

French supermarkets are now required to donate food that might normally be thrown away around its sell-by date.

French Government Plans to Fine Grocery Stores That Throw Away Food

New regulations require that markets donate extra food or face fines

June 5, 2015

Parched regions of India depend on women who take on the time-consuming, inconvenient task of obtaining and carrying water

June 5, 2015

People look at ancient Assyrian human-headed winged bull statues at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad March 8, 2015.

Seven types of cultural objects are under threat from the Islamic State and instability in Iraq

June 3, 2015

Graphic design student Oskar Pernefeldt envisions a blue and white flag to symbolize Earth's presence on far off planets like Mars.

Does Planet Earth Need Its Own Flag?

Some think we need a universal flag to stake our claim in space

June 2, 2015

Cool Finds

How People Write Down Their Laughter Has Changed Over Time

“Hehe” means something different than “heehee”

June 2, 2015

One of the LATA 65 students works on a mural in Lisbon.

Cool Finds

Lisbon Artists Are Teaching Graffiti Classes for the Elderly

Grannies learn about street art history and how to tag walls

June 1, 2015

New lanes on London's Regents Canal urge human bikers, runners and walkers to break for ducklings.

Cool Finds

London Adds Special Lanes for Ducks

A city charity has painted pathways for waddlers on Regents Canal walkways

June 1, 2015

Cool Finds

Two Factions Are Battling for Control in an Alternate Reality Game

The aliens are here and some want them to stay

May 29, 2015

Membership in the American Booksellers Association is up

May 29, 2015

In 16th-century England, death by plague, depicted in the wood carving above, might have been an easy way to go compared to the accidents that could befall a person in everyday life.

Cool Finds

Here Are Some of the Weird Ways You Could Die in Tudor England

Pole vaulting and bacon are among the odd causes of death discovered by historians

May 29, 2015

Cool Finds

Archivists Uncover an Unfinished Memoir By Orson Welles

Fragments of “Confessions of a One-Man Band” discovered in a newly-acquired trove of documents

May 29, 2015

The original Pac-Man was kind of a feminist.

Pac-Man Turns 35 This Month

The now-iconic game was originally released by Namco in 1980

May 27, 2015

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