How Emoji is Obscuring the Way We Communicate

Emoticons were initially created to help illustrate hard-to-explain emotions in text, but as it turns out, they’re actually obscuring the way we communicate. A study from the University of Minnesota’s GroupLens laboratory reveals that when two people look at the same emoji, they often have differing opinions on what it depicts. This discrepancy is further exacerbated when viewing emoji from different platforms, as Apple, Google, …

New Mexico’s Otherworldly Art Environment

The 150-member strong artist collective Meow Wolf has opened the doors to “The House of Eternal Return”—the physical manifestation of its grand artistic vision. The massive, immersive installation sits inside an abandoned bowling alley in Santa Fe, New Mexico and allows visitors to roam through a neon-lit fantasy world—including a treehouse, a full-size two-story home, and other rooms that seem to bleed into another dimension. …

A Rare $178M Caravaggio Painting Found in an Attic

After climbing into the attic to check on a leak, the owners of a home discovered a rare painting by Italian master painter Caravaggio estimated to be worth $178 million. Experts believe the painting—which depicts the heroine Judith beheading an Assyrian general—was completed around 1604 in Rome and was probably forgotten in the attic, preserving it for over 150 years. French authorities have barred it …