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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

How to Avoid Getting Scammed on New Year’s Eve Champagne

Tonight, when you pop the bubbly, are you popping champagne or sparkling wine? How should you pour it? How do you drink it?

For the First Time Ever, The New York Times Is Making More Money From Subscribers Than From Ads

Good news for journalists, editors and newspapers: the New York Times paywall seems to be working

Machias Seal Island is home to a population of Atlantic Puffins.

Canada And the United States Are Bickering Over Ownership of a Tiny Island

A tiny island with little more than a lighthouse and some puffins is the center of a border disagreement

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Cosmic Sans: a New Font Space Geeks Will Love to Hate

Merging iconic space imagery with everyone’s (least) favorite font

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An Edible White House, and the Long History of Gingerbread

The history of gingerbread starts as early as the 11th century

Frida Kahlo’s Closet Finally Opened for the World

After Frida Kahlo died, her husband, the painter Diego Rivera, refused to let anyone open her closet. Now, Frida’s closet is on display for the world

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Coconut Shell Contraption Turns Your Bicycle Into a Monty Python Skit

This bicycle-mounted coconut holder lets you pretend you’re riding a horse

In Vigil for Newtown Victims, Video Gamers Will Put Down Their Weapons

On Friday, December 21st, a day of cease fire for online shooters

If Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Looks Weird to You, Blame the Guy Who Created Oakley Sunglasses

The Hobbit was shot on a RED camera developed by sunglass mogle Jim Jannard

Is This Hans Christian Andersen’s First Fairy Tale?

A historian in Denmark may have discovered Hans Christian Andersen’s first fairy tale ever

Brits Whine About the Weather on Twitter More Than Any Other Nation

Thanks to Twitter, even people with no direct contact Great Britain’s subjects can bask in its citizen’s propensity for weather-related complaint

‘Apocalypse Then’

More Than One Person Has Built an Ark To Prepare for the Mayan Apocalypse

How exactly does one prepare for the end of the world?

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In a Homemade Tank, Syrian Rebels Use a PlayStation Controller to Operate a Machine Gun

The Syrian rebel forces, who face a strong disparity in access to the tools of war, have fashioned themselves a homemade tank

National Geographic Sells a Painting of Pirates for More than One Million Dollars

For the first time in its 125 year history, National Geographic has opened up its collection to bidders at Christie’s an art auction house based in NYC

Does Blood Doping Even Work?

A recent study found no evidence that using blood doping drugs gives elite athletes any advantage

Not Besse Cooper’s hands

Besse Cooper, World’s Oldest Person, Passes Away

Born in 1896, Besse Cooper was came into a world that was vastly different than the one she just left

A group of hagfish hanging out on the floor of the Pacific.

Hagfish Slime May Cover Models in Future Fashion Shows

The hagfish aims to make a slimy splash on the fashion runway with a tough, silk-like material harvested from its bountiful snot-like secretions

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Maybe This Crazy New Sport Can Ease Your NHL-Lockout Blues

Crashed Ice, or “ice cross downhill,” is a pretty crazy sport

Excerpt from Papias the Grammarian

1 Million Dollars Worth of Rare Dictionaries About to Go on Sale

On December 4, a collection of rare old dictionaries will go on auction at Bonhams in New York City

Artist Calvin Seibert has been carving amazing sandcastles on beaches for nearly 30 years.

Amazing Modernist Sandcastles Sculpted by Calvin Seibert

Seifert uses simple tools to craft the details: two plastic putty knives and a five-gallon bucket to fill with extra sand.

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