Link About It: This Week’s Picks

The art of ping pong, a pickled dinosaur brain and the joy of "sploshing" in our look around the web

1. Best Dressed at the Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade From the adorable to absurd and awkward, the 2016 Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade in NYC brought out all kinds of pooches (and owners) who delighted the crowds this past weekend. Among a few Harry Potters, aliens and Princes, there were also some Game of Thrones references, and (perhaps the weirdest and best) …

First-Ever Fossilized Dinosaur Brain Found

The first-ever fossilized dinosaur brain has been discovered in England, and the preservation is so incredible that paleontologists and paleobiologists believe it was essentially pickled. While it may look like a rock, the find is actually the fossilized brain of an Iguanodon—an herbivore that would have measured around 33 feet long and weighed over three tons. The soft-tissue fossil is very rare, and it’s said …

$300k Kickstarter to Save Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

A truly iconic piece of film history, Dorothy’s ruby slippers from 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz,” is in desperate need of conservation. The sequin-covered shoes (an anonymous gift to the museum in ’79) are some 80 years old and it shows. In order to preserve them, the Smithsonian needs some $300k and has launched a Kickstarter to make it happen. At the time of publish, …