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Arts

Data Mining the Classics Clusters Women Authors Together, Puts Mellville Out On a Raft

“Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?”

Insult Your Foes Like a Montague

A wanna-be ninja

Meet Jinichi Kawakami, Japan’s Last Ninja

This 63-year old engineer, is probably Japan’s last true ninja

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Was Vincent van Gogh Color Blind? It Sure Looks Like It

Filtering van Goghs works to simulate color blindness unlocks strikingly different images, perhaps revealing something about the way the famous painter saw the world

Left, the Kingdom Tower of Jeddah. Right, the Tower of Babel.

Better, Faster, Taller – How Big can Buildings Really Get?

The race for the tallest structure in the world has been with us since humans built structures, and today it is going strong. But where’s the limit?

Faces created using Phil McCarthy’s Pareidoloop.

Facial Recognition Software Makes Art from Random Noise

The Gabarnmung cave paintings lie in southwestern Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Is This the Oldest Cave Art on the Planet?

Underneath a rock slab which rests on dozens of narrow stilts researchers have found the world’s oldest stone axe, and a vast collection of painted artwork

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Science Proves: Pop Music Has Actually Gotten Worse

Science confirms what you’ve always suspected: music these days is worse than it used to be

Behind the doors of the Geneva Freeport are untold treasures.

Hollywood’s Next Heist Movie Should Be Shot Here

No one knows exactly what’s hidden in a giant warehouse in Sweden, but everyone agrees that it’s really, really valuable

Jean Jacoby's Corner, left, and Rugby. At the 1928 Olympic Art Competitions in Amsterdam, Jacoby won a gold medal for Rugby.

When the Olympics Gave Out Medals for Art

In the modern Olympics’ early days, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians battled for gold, silver and bronze

Today’s the Shared Anniversary of Ruin Porn Poster Children Detroit, Machu Picchu

July 24th marks double jackpot for the intrepid explorers of years past as well for as fans of the latest photographic trend, “ruin porn.”

Documenting “the Last Green Spot Between NYC and Philly”

Countess Markievicz in uniform with a gun, circa 1915

Daughters of Wealth, Sisters in Revolt

Gore-Booth sisters, Constance and Eva, forsook their places amid Ireland’s Protestant gentry to fight for the rights of the disenfranchised and the poor

America’s Other (Lady) Audubon

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This Beautiful Window Art Also Saves Birds’ Lives

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Lego Meth Lab Makes It Almost Seem OK

Publicity photo for The Son of the Sheik

The “Latin Lover” and His Enemies

Rudolph Valentino fought a long battle against innuendo about his masculinity right up until he died. But now he seems to have won

Hedy Lamarr in a 1942 publicity photo

Team Hollywood’s Secret Weapons System

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels makes a point.

Hitler’s Very Own Hot Jazz Band

The Ginger Ninjas on the move in Guadalajara, Mexico. Where buses and airplanes would provide the horsepower for other touring bands, the Ginger Ninjas go by bicycle.

Rock, Pedal and Roll: Band Tours the World by Bicycle

“I believe the bicycle is one of the best, if not the coolest, machines ever invented,” says the frontman of the Ginger Ninjas

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