The 12 Most Popular mental_floss Stories of 2010

The pageviews have been counted! With six months in the books, here are the 12 most popular mentalfloss.com stories of the year (so far).

12. How to Tweet Yourself Out of a Job
by Rob Lammle
Here are the stories of six people who got fired for tweeting about their bosses, their companies, celebrity customers, and more.
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11. The Quick 10: 10 Weird Celebrity Phobias
by Stacy Conradt
Everyone has their weird fears. But compared to these ten celebrity phobias, perhaps yours are pretty normal.
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10. It Curves! A Brief History of Wiffle Ball
by Ethan Trex

Before you pick up your first white plastic ball and yellow plastic bat of the summer, we thought we'd fill you in on a few points about the proud game's history and the science that makes it fun.

Most of Antarctica is covered by 2 1/2 miles of ice, and that cold, white wasteland is what most people picture when they think of our south pole. But there is a series of dry valleys in Antarctica that have no ice on them at all—a fascinating landscape that looks more like Mars than the rest of our planet.
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2. Spell It Out: 16 Abbreviated Company Names Explained
by Ethan Trex
Dozens of companies use acronyms or initials in their names, but how well do you know what the abbreviated letters mean? Let's take a look at the etymologies behind a few abbreviated company names.
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1. 22 Fictional Characters Whose Names You Don't Know
by Jason English
Did you know the Comic Book Guy has a name? Would you believe me if I told you Shaggy's name on Scooby-Doo was Norville Rogers? Store these 22 tidbits away for future trivia nights.