Illustrator Ian Falconer's 'Olivia' piglet character was based on his niece

Meet Icarus the Second, the first English pig to fly

"When pigs fly" is an ironic phrase meant to express disbelief or impossibility, though it isn't as true today as it may once have been. This article details how a piglet dubbed "Icarus the Second" took flight in November 1909. Stashed in a basket...

Olivia Nuzzi serves as a modern example of New Journalism

Writer Lily Isaacs argues that Nuzzi, a political journalist known for engaging in personal relationships with her subjects, can be viewed as an inheritor of New Journalism. Isaacs claims Nuzzi’s departure from purely objective reporting has informed her profiles, leading to intimate insights into her subjects' psychology.

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' was inspired by a real-life Alice

Carroll invented "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to entertain a family with whom he was traveling, particularly its young children, one of whom, Alice, he worked into the story. Scholars have scrutinized the relationship between Carroll and Alice, with many biographers noting that many of the photographs he took during his career were portraits of children.

O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became symbols for her fiction

O'Connor was drawn to peacocks because of their dichotomy—people were drawn to the beauty of their feathers but turned off by the ugliness of their behavior. It was an apt symbol for her fiction and the birds featured prominently on several of her books' covers.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Minnelli is the goddaughter of Kay Thompson, the author of the 'Eloise' books

Many people speculate that Eloise, the little girl living at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in Thompson's popular series, is Minnelli. The actress, however, denies the claim. Still, people continue to theorize that Minnelli likely influenced the privileged, precocious character's traits.

The forgotten campaign to replace the Teddy Bear with 'Billy Possum'

After a 1909 pre-inauguration dinner for incoming President William Howard Taft featured possums and potatoes as the main course, Susie W. Allgood wanted to produce and market an alternative to the Teddy Roosevelt-inspired teddy bear: Billy Possum. Kids thought it looked too much like a rat.

How the CIA used 'Animal Farm' as Cold War propaganda

After Orwell's death in 1950, undercover agents bought the book's film rights from his widow and got to work creating a family-friendly version of the story that would reinforce its anti-Soviet themes and downplay its criticisms of capitalism and sympathetic portrayal of Snowball, the Trotsky analog.

The stories behind open-source project logos, including Tux, Linux's penguin mascot

During a trip to an Australian zoo, Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux kernel, was bitten by a penguin, which inspired the animal to be selected as the software's logo. The first design was drafted by Larry Ewing while a student at Texas A&M University, and the Tux name—short for tuxedo—aligned with the animal's appearance.

'Bluey' actors didn't meet for four years, and the kids' identities are secret

The hit cartoon show from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation first debuted in 2018 and later became a global hit after being licensed to Disney. Main voice actors Melanie Zanetti and David McCormack recorded their voices for four years before meeting in person ahead of an appearance on Jimmy Fallon. Learn more tidbits about the show here.

Mid-century modern graphic designers like Milton Glaser and Eric Carle found success with children's books

Glaser was famous for creating the "I Heart NY" logo, the DC Comics logo, and an iconic Bob Dylan poster for CBS Records, but he naturally transitioned to illustrating children's books like "The Smallest Elephant in the World" and "If Apples had Teeth." Carle, author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?," began his career in advertising. Scholars say mid-century modern's preference for clean lines and bold colors was a natural fit for kids' books.

'Potter Puppet Pals' was one of the internet’s first viral videos

Created by animator Neil Cicierega in the early 2000s, Potter Puppet Pals featured felt puppets parodying the Harry Potter characters. Its 2007 video “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” became an early YouTube sensation, amassing more than 200 million views.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

The Jane Goodall Institute was not amused by a 'Far Side' cartoon, but Goodall was

The doctor's institute was not amused by a cartoon by Gary Larson that used her name, sending the "Far Side" author a cease and desist letter. However, Goodall thought the cartoon was funny and rescinded the letter. Goodall and Larson would go on to become friends and work together.

Caroline Calloway: The influencer who botched two six-figure book deals

The daughter of a real estate mogul, Caroline Calloway was an Instagram influencer who leveraged her "Cambridge captions"—young adult novel-esque descriptions of college parties—into a six-figure book deal in 2014. After having failed to produce...

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program provides free books to kids

Parton launched the program in 1995 to benefit children in Tennessee by providing a free book every month. It began expanding across the country in 2000 and was eventually adopted in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The organization claims to provide over 1 million books to children every month.

David Ogilvy’s brother helped get him into the advertising business

Ogilvy sent a copy of his stove sales manual, "The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker" (which Fortune magazine later called "probably the best sales manual ever written”) to his brother, who was working at London ad agency Mather & Crowther at the time.

She can't feel pain, hunger, or danger

Olivia Farnsworth, born with a rare chromosome 6p deletion, may be the only person known to lack pain, hunger, and fear responses. This overview explores her unique condition, the incredible incidents that revealed it, and how scientists hope her case could unlock new insights into human survival and sensory systems.

Office Assistants, including Clippy, were digitally edited with Macintosh computers

The animated characters served as intelligent user interfaces for Microsoft Office and were sketched by hand before being scanned. Clippy was selected as the default assistant after social psychologists at Stanford University identified it as the most trustworthy, likable, and humorous character based on public testing.

A gallery of famous artists and their dogs

Picasso often featured his photographer's dog, Lump, in paintings, due to an unusually close connection. George O'Keeffe adopted chow chows as companions and protectors in the New Mexico desert. See the pets of Lucian Freud, Frida Kahlo, and more.

See hilarious photos from the Comedy Wildlife Awards 2025

Napping frog princes, annoying lion husbands, and kung fu sea eagles are just some of the charming shots you'll find among the finalists for the award.

Turning 2D illustrations into 3D models with AR

Coloring books capture the imagination of children and provide them with one of their earliest opportunities for creative expression. This two-minute video shows an augmented reality coloring book app in which children color characters in a printed coloring book, their drawing is detected and tracked, and the video stream is augmented with an animated 3-D version of the character that is textured according to the child’s coloring.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

A gallery of medical illustrations from NIH

The National Institutes of Health provides educational materials for broad use. The institute hosts a Flickr account with many different image galleries, including this one (with over 70 images to date) that illustrate and annotate curious phenomena, from the life cycles of a malaria parasite to the comparison of male and female bladders. Explore the gallery here.

There are several theories for how the Oscar got its name

Several different people claim to have bestowed the famous nickname, including a librarian who thought the knight resembled her uncle Oscar and a gossip columnist who was poking fun at a local theater owner.

An illustrator named Thomas Nast helped create the Santa Claus we know today

Older depictions of Saint Nicholas present a tall and thin bishop, while 19th-century illustrations from Thomas Nast gave the world Santa’s iconic white beard, big belly, jolly smile, and red suit.

The company building Irish pubs across the globe

The Irish Pub Company is a Dublin-based business specializing in designing Irish pubs around the world. The outfit has created over 2,000 custom Irish pubs in over 100 countries, each with its own distinctive flair incorporating essential features of the classic Irish pub. Read about the founders and their clients here.

Tuscany is home to a Pinocchio-themed park

Pinocchio Park, originally conceived as a sculpture park, was built around Emilio Greco's "Pinocchio and the Fairy" monument. It now includes an interactive museum, themed rides, and a puppet show.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.