celebrities 19th-century women went nuts for Franz Liszt, music's first celebrity Annie Rauwerda

Environment Woman given maximum fine for walking into Australian airport with a rose Mark Frauenfelder

animation Grotesque candle creature animated by Ben Treat Popkin

archaeology Hundreds of vampires discovered in mass grave David Pescovitz

london Handprints of child laborers discovered on roof tiles at Victorian era construction site Rusty Blazenhoff

oceans Creepy dolls, magic spell bottle, barnacle-encrusted bible, and other bizarre beach detritus to be auctioned off in environmental benefit David Pescovitz

Happy Mutants Pearly Kings and Queens are London's fabulous working-class royalty Rusty Blazenhoff

kickstarter A peek inside Mike Mignola's illustrated edition of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, with annotations by Lemony Snicket Gareth Branwyn

nfl Medical historian explores how the science of repeated head injuries was established, and then forgotten Jennifer Sandlin

airbnb Want to stay in the Sicilian palazzo featured in The White Lotus? It's yours for $6k per night on Airbnb Mark Frauenfelder

chemistry Trying to recreate a stink so foul it was considered dangerous to smell Gareth Branwyn

mysteries Archaeologists solve mystery of huge object protruding from sand on Florida beach David Pescovitz

History The real garden gnomes of the 1800s Grant St. Clair

poop It's Oregon Trail, but you have dysentery all the time and it doesn't kill you Thom Dunn

podcasts How We Survive podcast tackles lithium's relationship to climate change Elías Villoro

trees The Chandelier Tree, a redwood you can drive through Popkin

mental illness The bizarre mystery of "prairie madness" Jennifer Sandlin

musicals Rent opened on Broadway 26 years ago today Devin Nealy

Pest control This 1862 mousetrap was a miniature cannon that blew mice to smithereens Popkin

Comics The origins of the shonen genre predate manga Devin Nealy