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Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Instead of Cheesy Pickup Lines, 19th-Century Americans Gave Out Calling Cards

Consider it the Victorian-era version of OKCupid

Crews abandon their ships during the Great Whaling Disaster of 1871.

Cool Finds

Remnants of a Whaling Disaster Have Been Discovered off the Coast of Alaska

A catastrophe wiped out an entire whaling fleet 144 years ago, now researchers have found some of the wrecks’ remains

"Take care of your book — it is the true companion in campaigns and in peaceful work," urges one poster found in the New York Public Library's Russian Civil War poster collection.

Cool Finds

The New York Public Library Just Made More Than 180,000 Items Available Online

Instant gratification for curious minds

A First Folio kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, U.K.

Cool Finds

Shakespeare’s First Folio Goes on Tour in the U.S.

Rare copies of the tome, containing 36 of the Bard’s plays, will visit every state for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death

A gold-painted statue of Chairman Mao has been erected in a remote part of central China.

Cool Finds

Chinese Capitalists Built a Gigantic, Golden Statue of Chairman Mao

Like the Chairman’s legacy, this 121-foot statue is hard to ignore

A nautical-themed hairstyle from the mind of Danny Lewis.

Cool Finds

Create Your Own Delightful, Excessive Version of 18th-Century Women’s Hairstyles

A museum’s interactive tool gives the powdered styles of the French Court of the 1700s some fierce competition

A logarithmic scale captures the whole universe

Cool Finds

This Image of the Universe Captures Its Immensity

Comets, planets, galaxies and the cosmic web crowd together in this portrait of everything known

Vermeer's "Little Street" painting compared to the buildings at the present-day address.

Cool Finds

An Expert Has Figured Out the Real-Life Location of Vermeer’s “Little Street” Painting

The painter probably had a personal connection with the house that figures prominently in the painting.

Romanian villagers dress up in real bearskins for ursul.

Cool Finds

Ring in the New Year by Dressing Up as a Bear

Romania’s famed bear dance scares away winter

The Detroit Reservoir preserved this 19th-century utility wagon.

Cool Finds

West Coast Drought Uncovers Remnants of a Long-Sunken Oregon Town

Historic low water levels revealed remains of a town beneath Detroit Lake

Screenshot from "American Panorama" showing the origins of foreign-born Americans living in Washington, D.C. in 2000.

Cool Finds

Explore America’s History With These Richly Interactive Maps

“American Panorama” delves into the social, political and economic movements that define this country

A copy of a photograph of a solar eclipse taken by the English astronomer Arthur Eddington in 1919.

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Photos of Eclipses and Stars Found in an Observatory Basement

The stash of old negatives includes a 97-year-old copy of the photo that helped confirm the Theory of Relativity

Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark is the resting place of Hans Christian Andersen. Now, it will mark the home for the city's homeless, as well.

Cool Finds

Copenhagen Has a Cemetery for Homeless People

But proper burials for indigent individuals remain few and far between

Cool Finds

What Should People Do With Food Waste? Make Beer

Craft beers are getting creative

Excerpt from the "Executive Coloring Book" by Brenda Jackson, Dennis Altman, Marcie Hans, Martin A. Cohen, and Ronald L. McDonald, published in 1961.

Cool Finds

Adult Coloring Books Were Popular (and Subversive) in the 1960s

Coloring books made fun of corporate culture, conspiracy theorists and Communist fears

Cool Finds

A Giant Squid Visits a Japanese Harbor

These denizens of the deep usually lurk between 2,000 to 3,000 feet below the surface

Screenshot from “The story of space debris” showing the Earth's cluttered space in 2015.

Cool Finds

Jettison Through Nearly 60 Years of Space Junk Accumulation

People have been leaving a mess out in Earth’s orbit

Cool Finds

France Has a Power Plant Fueled by Cheese

Of course they do

Pile of yarn or unknotting opportunity?

Cool Finds

Tied Up in Knots? Call a Yarn Detangler

A niche group of knitters specializes in wrangling disobedient skeins

This mysterious object was discovered buried in a Jerusalem cemetery.

Cool Finds

It Took Israeli Authorities Months to Identify This Strange, Gold Object

Ancient artifact or back massager?

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