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Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Roald Dahl’s Iconic Illustrator Inspired This New Font

Quentin Blake’s handwriting has elements of spontaneity and joy

Perhaps Magnolia rzedowskiana should be renamed Magnolia interneta.

Cool Finds

Two New Flower Species Were Discovered Online

These naturalists didn’t know one another—but that didn’t keep them from discovering two new magnolias together

In 1957, the former first lady took to the wheels of steel.

Cool Finds

That One Time Eleanor Roosevelt Was a DJ

In 1957, the first lady spun records for a cause

You can thank William Perkin for that garish dress your best friend will make you wear at her wedding.

Cool Finds

How Malaria Gave Us Mauve

Tropical diseases and coal tar have a lot to do with brightly-colored clothing

Eric Underwood's Instagram rant about having to put makeup on his shoes inspired a new ballet shoe by Bloch.

Cool Finds

Flesh-Toned Ballet Shoes Will Soon Be Available for People of Color

At long last, there are options for non-white dancers

Wacky Victorian women play behind a clothing screen, ca. 1900.

Cool Finds

Researchers Seek Silly Sherlocks to Dig up Victorian-Era Jokes

Joke detectives are using the British Library to uncover what made Victorians chuckle

Cool Finds

Geometric Shapes Inspire New, Stretchy Materials

Intricate designs drawn from Islamic art could help make materials that stretch in new ways

Cool Finds

MAD Magazine’s Iconic Alfred E. Neuman Turns 60 This Year

The impish mascot has had a long, colorful life

Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, Switzerland

Switzerland

CERN Seeks International Artists For Full-Time Residency

The European Center for Nuclear Research is calling for art submissions for its annual award

Say goodbye to the Louvre's iconic pyramid.

Cool Finds

This Summer, the Louvre’s Pyramid Will “Disappear”

A French street artist promises a tantalizing trick of the eye

Cool Finds

World War II Survivor Tips Off Geologists to Hidden Tunnels Beneath Naples

The forgotten tunnels were used as bomb shelters

"Serra Gaucha," by Guy Laramée

Cool Finds

These Mountains Are Made of Books

An interdisciplinary artist creates landscapes out of encyclopedias

Walt Whitman spent much of the Civil War in hospitals, cheering up wounded soldiers and writing letters on their behalf.

Cool Finds

A Rare Walt Whitman Letter Was Found in the National Archives

The poet wrote the letter on behalf of a dying soldier

Cool Finds

Recently Discovered Spider Is Named After Physicist Brian Greene

About the size of the human palm, the “Brian” spider can swim and hunt fish

"Meditation and Minou," 1980, by Will Barnet.

Cool Finds

The Worcester Art Museum’s New Exhibit Is All Cats, All the Time

New art exhibit will trace humans’ captivation with cats throughout history

Peter Strien was 21 years old when he was wounded at the battle of Fort Steadman.

Cool Finds

These Eerie Civil War Photos Changed How the U.S. Saw Veterans

Reed Bontecou’s groundbreaking photography used a new medium to bring attention to the wounds of war

Bristol Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris with the thunder run.

Cool Finds

A New Production of “King Lear” Features 18th-Century Special Effects

The Bristol Old Vic’s thunder run hasn’t been used since 1942

The palace is surrounded by old-growth forest that seems to contain the oldest trees in Europe.

Found: The Biggest Collection of Ancient Oaks in Europe

The massive, old trees were hiding in plain sight in the woods of a spectacular mansion

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love #TheShirt

Cool Finds

Mr. Darcy’s Wet Shirt is Coming to the United States

It’s the costume that launched an entire generation of Jane Austen lovers

Cool Finds

Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Electronic Music Pioneer Clara Rockmore

The theremin virtuosa would have been 105 years old today

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