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Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Conservationist Are Resorting to Branding Endangered Tortoises

If the tortoises’ shells are marred with numbers and letters, they’ll be less appealing to poachers

Cool Finds

Fresh From 1849: The First Animated Gif of the Moon

A series of exposures shows the oldest surviving photo of the Moon

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Egypt Just Unearthed a Previously Unknown Pharaoh’s Tomb

Ancient Egypt’s King Senebkay just arose after a 3,650 year slumber

The Franklin Papers includes 4,522 documents, including angry letters the founding father never sent.

Cool Finds

It’s Ben Franklin’s Birthday—Want to Rummage Through His Papers?

4,522 documents, letters and notes that Franklin wrote or received

From an illuminated manuscript circa 1350s

Cool Finds

Not All the Knights of the Round Table Were White

The storytellers assumed we’d be sharp enough to pick up on their hints that Sir Morien was black. Turns out, we’re not

Icelanders still hold strong to their belief in fairies

Cool Finds

Icelanders Protest a Road That Would Disturb Fairies

Nepal has the Yeti. The South has Bigfoot. Iceland has fairies

Cool Finds

How Scientists Recorded the Music Inside One Woman’s Head

A patient was hallucinating musical scores, and researchers have managed to record it

Cool Finds

What Prompts People to Eat Human Flesh?

Power, violence, revenge—and the heat of the moment

Hundreds of years before the Great Wall of China, seen here, there was another.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Chart the First Great Wall of China

Hundreds of years before the Great Wall, the Qi Dynasty built a wall of rammed earth

A university in China sponsored a beauty contest for would-be flight attendants.

Cool Finds

China And Qatar Want Flight Attendants To Be Young, Single, Skinny And Female

Just like American airlines did in the 1960s

A black rhino in Tanzania.

Cool Finds

A Permit to Hunt a Critically Endangered Black Rhino Just Sold for $350,000

Proceeds will supposedly go toward conservation of the species

The fact that only 87.5 percent of trains arrived within three minutes of their scheduled arrival time has the Swiss up in arms.

Cool Finds

Trains Running Three Minutes Behind Anger Swiss People

The Swiss media is very displeased by the late-ness

Agraphia—or "word blindness"—is unusual because patients cannot read, but they can write and understand words out loud.

Cool Finds

What Happens When a Teacher Forgets How to Read?

She searches for another way to enjoy books

None

Cool Finds

These Non-Gear Shaped Gears Work Better Than You’d Expect

These are the manic pixie dream gears you’ve been waiting for

Image: Dave Milsom

Cool Finds

Ultramarathoners Get Better With Age

Unlike sprinters or gymnasts, ultramarathoners are like a fine wine, getting better—or at least more durable—with age

I heard you like stars.

Cool Finds

Astronomers Find What May Be a Star Within a Star

The best candidate yet for an elusive Thorne-Żytkow Object

Elvis Presley in 1957.

Cool Finds

Just in Time for His Birthday, a Photo Gives a Glimpse, Possibly, of Elvis’s Teen Years

Elvis has been gone for nearly 40 years, but a newly published photo shows the King at age 13

A little Shamu with your beer?

Cool Finds

Iceland Is Making Beer Out of Dead Whales

Unsurprisingly, whale lovers do not love this idea

Forty Years Ago, Women Had a Hard Time Getting Credit Cards

Despite the law, a report from 2012 found that women still pay more for credit cards

A mall in Dalian, China. Photo:

Some Chinese Malls Have “Husband Storage” Facilities for the Shopping-Averse

They offer a range of activities and services to “meet the needs of male customers,” such as smoking, internet, drinking, snacks and “beautiful attendants”

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