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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Get Ready for the Best Meteor Showers of 2013

The Quadrantid shower is already behind us, and star gazers will have to wait until April (the start of meteor shower season) for the next big show

At Auction: A 1766 Copy of ‘Aristotle’s Masterpiece,’ a Best-Selling Sex Guide Banned in England Until 1961

Banned in England until 1961, a copy of this 17th-century text is going up for auction

How To Make the Best Snowfort Ever

If you’re going to win a snow battle, you’ve got to have a snow fort. Here’s how to make the best one

The lack of independently-moving fingers makes replying an arduous process.

Congratulations, You Accidentally Wrote a Book Last Year

People wrote more than 40,000 words on average last year… in email

Graffiti Meets Chemistry, Loses

How do you actually get rid of graffiti? Chemistry, of course

Gandalf’s fireworks were far better of course.

How to Properly Celebrate a Hobbit Birthday

Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday, and in his honor here’s how to throw the best Hobbit Birthday ever

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Introducing the First Search Engine for Math And Science Equations

Symbolab allows users to search for equations using both numbers and symbols as well as text

Love Chicken Nuggets? Thank Cornell Poultry Professor Robert C. Baker

In 1963, this professor of poultry science came up with the first chicken nuggets

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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