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Cities

These flowers may look beautiful, but in the imagination of Tamiko Thiel, they've turned hostile due to climate change.

Cool Finds

Augmented Reality Art Imagines What Could Be Seattle’s Weird, Bleak Future

Artist envisions mutant flowers and drone-like seaweed that may one day take over a post-climate change Seattle

The Survivor Tree was returned to the WTC in 2015.

Cool Finds

Saplings From the 9/11 Survivor Tree Are Headed to Paris, San Bernardino and Orlando

The tree is a powerful symbol of resilience and life, even in the most tragic circumstances

The lowly urban rat deserves our attention.

In Defense of Studying City Rats

By placing a taboo on researching these “disease sponges,” we leave ourselves at their mercy

Empress Green is a 4,500-square foot urban farm located at Urby Staten Island, a 900-apartment complex in New York City.

Meet the Woman Who Runs NYC’s First Commercial Farm in a Residential Development

Wouldn’t it be great if all apartment complexes came with an urban farm?

Kayak may be the best way to explore the climate change memorial of the future.

Anthropocene

What Will the Memorials of the Future Look Like?

From underwater trees to mechanical parrots, the memorials of tomorrow don’t look much like the ones that exist today

Fuselage from Flight 93, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, September 11, 2001

Remembering 9/11, From a Scrawled Note to a Scrap of Fuselage

How objects both ordinary and extraordinary help us reflect on the devastation

Oil painting of the Great Fire, seen from Newgate.

History of Now

The Great Fire of London Was Blamed on Religious Terrorism

Why scores of Londoners thought the fire of 1666 was all part of a nefarious Catholic conspiracy

Manspreading, NYC, 1947 Artist: Amelia Opdyke Jones New York Transit Museum Collection

Cool Finds

New Exhibit Shows Manspreading Has Been Taking up Subway Space for Decades

Vintage ads show struggles with transit etiquette

Gotta catch 'em all.

Forget Bowling: Taiwan Has Shrimping Alleys Instead

Catch-your-own shrimp bars are one of Taiwan’s tastiest trends

A street scene in Kigali. The city's population is expected to nearly triple by 2020.

Cool Finds

Why This Rwandan City Bans Cars Once a Month

Kigali’s #CarFreeDay is a first for Africa

Smart Startup

Could This San Francisco Startup Transform Garbage Collecting?

Compology uses sensors and software to plot truck routes to empty only dumpsters that are full

Hops successfully grow up the retaining wall on a lot in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The black circles at the base of the plants are old plastic drum barrels that were cut into rings and filled with mulch from a nearby community compost. This helps to keep the hops moist.

Growing Hops in Abandoned Lots? Pittsburgh Will Drink to That

The city’s craft breweries may soon be able to make truly local beer

The viewing pod slides up and down the tower, which has been acknowledged as world's most slender by Guinness World Records.

Cool Finds

New Observation Tower Is World’s Thinnest

Brighton’s West Pier comes back to life…as a crazy vertical viewing tower

Cool Finds

For Sale: 400 Awesome Vintage Boomboxes

A New Zealand aficionado is auctioning off his collection of iconic 1980s music machines

"UnderLA" brings projections of the Earth's lithology to a concrete-bound stretch of the Los Angeles River.

Cool Finds

A New Installation Turns the L.A. River Into Art

The river’s surreal landscape is the perfect place to make a statement about water use

Piccadilly Circus, circa 1949.

Cool Finds

Tour the London of Yore With a Gigantic New Photo Map

The London Picture Map brings an old city to new life

The Mertz Library hosts one of the world's largest collections of material about plants.

Cool Finds

Go Inside New York’s Nearly Secret Botanical Library

It’s a gardener’s fragrant fantasy

New Research

The Secret Life of Urban Hedgehogs

Though city-dwelling hedgehogs have adapted to metropolitan life, some need a little help to thrive

It took over 10,000 linear feet of recycled rebar to create Reclaimed.

Cool Finds

A Seattle Dump Just Got Some Clever Public Art

Recycled rebar will make the Seattle North Transfer Station more beautiful

A Coney Island hot dog

The Origin of the Coney Island Hot Dog Is a Uniquely American Story

They also have very little to do with the New York City amusement park

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