Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Take a Lovely Two-Minute Tour of Antarctica From the Air

A brief helicopter trip around Italy’s Mario Zucchelli Research Station

February 11, 2014

Cool Finds

Mathematician Calculates 177,147 Ways to Tie a Tie

“I have tried 10 or 20 of them, and most of them to be quite honest look kind of awkward,” he says

February 11, 2014

Cool Finds

The Oldest Human Footprints Ever Discovered Outside of Africa Have Already Been Washed Away

Casts and computer images are all that’s of footprints made 900,000 years ago on the British coast

February 10, 2014

Cool Finds

Americans Are More Into BDSM Than The Rest of the World

Not only is BDSM far more common than you might think, it’s also far less of a red-flag when it comes to health and psychology

February 10, 2014

Cool Finds

For 25 Years, U.S. Special Forces Carried Miniature Nukes on Their Backs

The B-54 Special Atomic Demolition Munition was a nuclear bomb the size of a backpack

February 10, 2014

Cool Finds

This Satellite Just Returned From Circling the Sun, But NASA’s Lost the Ability to Talk to It

The style of transmitters that would let NASA talk to the spacecraft were taken out of commission

February 10, 2014

Cool Finds

Forget the Paleo Diet, Make Yourself Some Mesoamerican Hot Chocolate

Skip the contents of that deer stomach, or whatever other weird diet you’re on, and get yourself some cocoa beans

February 7, 2014

Cool Finds

See What It’s Like to be a Paleontologist in the Gobi Desert

Aki Watanabe took Google Glass to the Gobi Desert to show people first hand what fossil hunting is like

February 7, 2014

Cool Finds

These 10 Year Olds Are Studying the Impact of Texting on Mario Kart Performance

Everybody knows that driving while texting is a really, really bad idea. But what about driving a Mario Kart and texting?

February 7, 2014

Cool Finds

Mars Got Hit By a Meteorite, And Now There’s a Picture

Follow up with NASA’s high-resolution HiRISE camera captured this dramatic impact crater

February 7, 2014

Cool Finds

Capybaras Are Basically Nature’s Chairs

The world’s largest rodent can’t get any respect

February 7, 2014

Cool Finds

Hollywood Overvalues Older Male Actors And Undervalues Older Women

A female movie star’s salary peaks at age 34, and then drops off the cliff. Men hit their peak earnings at 51, and keep on making money

February 7, 2014

Cool Finds

People Have Been Saying “Ax” Instead of “Ask” for 1,200 Years

“Ax” for “ask” isn’t wrong, it’s just different

February 6, 2014

Cool Finds

The Line Between Weirdness And Normalacy Depends Entirely on Your Point of View

In 1956, an anthropologist described Americans as a people with a “pervasive aversion to the natural body”

February 6, 2014

Cool Finds

A Swarm of Tumbleweed-Like Robots Might Be the Ideal Desert Data Gatherers

The hardy robots can traverse places that would be difficult or very expensive to send human data-gatherers

February 6, 2014

Cool Finds

This Little Minnow Will Be the First Fish Ever Taken Off the Endangered Species List

Thanks to successful conservation efforts, the Oregon chub has successfully rebounded from near-extinction

February 6, 2014

Cool Finds

Watch the First Ever NYC Blizzard Caught on Film

Not only is this the first ever film of a blizzard in the Big Apple, it is probably the first ever film of any American blizzard ever

February 5, 2014

Cool Finds

Wikipedia Wants to Archive Famous People’s Voices

If you have a Wikipedia profile, the Wikipedia Voice Intro Project wants to hear you

February 5, 2014

Cool Finds

This Terrifying Parasite Bears an Uncanny Resemblance to the Queen in “Aliens”

Phronima hollow out their prey and ride around in their corpse

February 5, 2014

Cool Finds

A Tiny Scrap of Paper Offers a Glimpse Into Jane Austen’s Inspiration

The small scrap of paper transcribes part of a sermon, the theme of which Austen later explored in “Mansfield Park”

February 5, 2014