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Smart News / Smart News Travel

Cool Finds

Volunteers Counted All the Squirrels in Central Park

Three hundred people tallied up the number of bushy-tailed residents over the course of 11 days last October

The hand-tooled leather cover

A Bible Owned by Lincoln, Unknown to Historians for 150 Years, Goes on Display

The relic offers a new opportunity to reflect on Lincoln’s religious beliefs

French gallerist Philippe Mendes poses next to Eugene Delacroix's lost preliminary painting of “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment."

Cool Finds

Lost Version of Delacroix Masterpiece Goes on View After Being Found in Paris Apartment

The painting, made in preparation for 1834’s ‘Women of Algiers in Their Apartment,’ went missing in 1850

Inside Poster House

The U.S. Is Now Home to Its First Poster Museum

Poster House, which just launched in New York, seeks to ‘cover posters from all over the world and time periods,’ its director says

The Fortingall Yew.

Trending Today

U.K.’s Oldest Tree Is Being Besieged by Tourists

Visitors to the Fortingall Yew are snapping twigs, stealing needles and tying beads and ribbons to branches, which experts believe may be stressing it out

John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz, the creators of BASIC.

New Hampshire Is First State to Install Highway Marker to Computer Programming

The roadside sign is dedicated to BASIC, a computer programming language developed at Dartmouth College in 1964

Thanks to a $392,000 restoration campaign, tourists can now explore the space, roaming the baths’ still-standing walls and the extensive network of tunnels hidden below

You Can Now Tour the Tunnels Beneath Rome’s Baths of Caracalla

The newly opened underground network features a brick oven once used to heat the baths’ caldarium, as well as a contemporary video art installation

Paisaje Artico de Sommarøy

This Norwegian Island Wants to Become the World’s First Time-Free Zone

‘Our goal is to provide full flexibility, 24/7,’ one resident said. ‘If you want to cut the lawn at 4 a.m., then you do it.’

Still from Mona Lisa Beyond the Glass

The Louvre’s First VR Experience Lets Visitors Get Close to the ‘Mona Lisa’

The project will be featured in a major da Vinci exhibition dropping in October

Trending Today

Grand Canyon Will Soon Be a Dark Sky Park

After three years of retrofitting lights, the national park will soon be certified by the International Dark Sky Association

The Rebecca Salome Foster monument pictured before (left) and after (right) restoration

Long-Forgotten Monument to Prison Reformer Will Be Reinstalled in New York Courthouse

Rebecca Salome Foster was known as the “Tombs Angel” in recognition of her work with inmates housed at a Manhattan prison known as “The Tombs”

Cool Finds

Scotland’s Tiny Artificial Islands Date to the Stone Age

Five crannogs in the Outer Hebrides were built 5,000 years ago, perhaps for ritual purposes

Future of Space Exploration

The International Space Station Is Open for Business—and Tourists

NASA is relaxing its restrictions on commercial activities on the ISS as part of an effort to free up funding for other projects

An activist holds up a rainbow flag inside Botswana's High Court to celebrate Tuesday's landmark ruling.

In Landmark Ruling, Botswana Strikes Down Colonial-Era Law Criminalizing Homosexuality

‘A democratic society is one that embraces tolerance, diversity and open-mindedness,’ Justice Michael Leburu said of the ruling

A woman looks at wreckage of trucks in the ghost city of Pripyat during a tour in the Chernobyl exclusion zone on June 7, 2019.

HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ Miniseries Is Driving Tourists to the Nuclear Disaster Site

Chernobyl tourist agencies have reportedly experienced a 30 to 40 percent jump in bookings since the show’s premiere

Detail of the roof in the central nave of la Sagrada Familia. The columns are designed to invoke trees and branches.

137 Years After Construction Began, La Sagrada Familia Receives Building Permit

The church’s trustees hope to complete construction by 2026, the centenary of architect Antoni Gaudi’s death

Simone Leigh's "Brick House" is the Plinth's first artistic commission

The High Line’s Art-Centric Final Section Is Officially Open

Dubbed the Spur, the space will feature a rotating series of contemporary art commissions

The experience unfolds across five rooms: the Recycle Bank, the Coral Tunnel, the Net Guard, the Jellyfish Station and the Bubble Mall.

Art Meets Science

A New Pop-Up Exhibit in NYC Immerses Visitors in a Deep-Sea Experience

Designer Randy Fernando says the show strives to be “interactive and playful,” while also “incorporating touches of activism”

The small, rocky island of St. Michael's Mount is off the coast of Cornwall, England.

Calling All Green Thumbs! A Legendary British Island Is Looking to Hire a Resident Gardener

Applicants will need to be comfortable with rappelling down the battlements of a historic castle

A young girl plays at the newly restored Moat Brae house.

The Scottish Garden That Inspired Peter Pan’s Neverland Opens for Visitors

The Moat Brae house and its surroundings, where author J.M. Barrie played as a child, is now a children’s literature center

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