Today’s What We’re Reading features the history of “cool,” career secrets for first-year students, Dan Cohen’s list of libraries and local music, Lego Academic, and much more!

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History Links

Nabatean-Arabic Missing Link: “Oldest” Inscription Found in Najran

A professor at the University of Aix-Marseille found the Arabic inscription near the Yemeni border.

How “Man of Science” Was Dumped in Favour of “Scientist”

A historical examination of the term that brought linguistic unity to those studying the various branches of the sciences.

How Did Cool Become Such a Big Deal?

A “cool” article on a staple word of the English language.

Fantastically Wrong: Ridiculous Mythical Critters Dreamed Up by 19th Century Lumberjacks

Profiles of several wonderful creatures from the American frontier that never existed.

Professional Matters

How College Students Can Prepare to Be Job-Ready: Career Secrets for Freshmen

The author argues that group projects are a practice in leadership skills, while balancing work and school produce self-management skills broadly applicable both in and out of your professional life.

History and Heritage

Libraries & Local Music

Dan Cohen is crowdsourcing a list of public libraries that “catalog, host, promote, and provide access to music from their communities or states.”

How Objects Speak

An interesting piece on the evolving relationship between scholars and material culture from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In and About Washington, DC

Washington DC from Murder Capital to Boomtown

BBC News Magazine on gentrification, inequality, and poverty in Washington, DC.

The Best Museums in DC That Aren’t on the National Mall

DCist writers highlight their favorite museums off the National Mall strip.

Fun and Off-Beat

PUBLISH OR PERISH!!!! pic.twitter.com/a5333nDd4F

— Lego Academics (@LegoAcademics) August 8, 2014

Lego Academics

An Archaeologist recently created a fictional Twitter account illustrating the struggles and frustrations of academia, and has rapidly amassed more than 15,000 followers.

How to Use Math to Crush Your Friends at Monopoly Like You’ve Never Done Before

A statistical approach to Monopoly highlights the more crucial properties and spaces, but it can’t help you get the game piece you really want: the Scottish Terrier.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.