Sadly, that day will not be today, because I have stumbled across the best World Cup coverage on the planet, by writer Austin Kelley. A sample: Legendary French midfielder Zinedine Zidane retired from international soccer a few years ago. Then, he had a vision at three o'clock in the morning. "I woke up suddenly and then, I talked to someone," he said. "It's a mystery"¦ I can't explain that encounter myself. That person really exists but it all comes from... READ ON
In a development that will delight John to no end, doctors in L.A. are currently working to separate a set of conjoined twins: The complex surgery on Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros began at about 6 a.m. at the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. About 80 doctors and staff members will try to separate many of the girls' vital organs. The girls, whose parents are from Mexico, are considered ischiopagus tetrapus twins, which doctors at the hospital said are among the rarest and most complex to... READ ON
The folks at Gawker are aping a Dorothy Parker poem today (how long before this becomes a regular segment? "Gawker Parker?"). Alas, copyright probably forbids me from reproducing my three favorites here, but I can tell you that: * Though she'll forever be associated with Manhattan, Parker was a bridge-and-tunneler by birth. Her mom went into labor while on vacation in New Jersey. * She was obsessed with death, but she had good reason: Both her mother and her stepmother died while she... READ ON
Every time scientists try to pin human uniqueness on a particular behavior, they turn out to be wrong. We have culture; so do orangutans. We give ourselves names; so do dolphins. We're altruistic, empathetic, kind; so are chimpanzees, when they're not throwing feces at each other. So although I'm really excited about the Modigliani-ish 27,000-year-old sketch of a face that's been found in a French cave, the following paragraph drove me bonkers: The only reason we can be sure the people who... READ ON
If Al Gore wasn't impetus enough, now there's yet another reason to start worrying about global warming: It's forcing polar bears to eat each other. Sayeth the Discovery Channel: Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found. ... Researchers discovered the first kill in January 2004. A male bear had pounced on a den, killed a female and... READ ON
Ever since I saw these pictures on Cute Overload last week, I've been trying to convince my landlord that it would be acceptable for me to have a pet alpaca. Our building doesn't allow cats and dogs, much less large South American ungulates, but on the other hand, according to Wikipedia, alpacas are well suited to domestic life: 1. They're already house-trained! "To help alpacas control their internal parasites they have a communal dung pile, which they do not graze. Generally, males have much... READ ON
This little story sounds like it's straight out of our magazine: 1. It's about mental_floss mascot Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and their legendary meeting-of-minds. 2. It also involves Arthur Schopenhauer, John Lennon, and Brigitte Bardot. 3. It refers to Freud as "a crotchety old cokehead." Presented with no comment, because jeez, how can I improve on... READ ON
The January/February issue of mental_floss featured an unusually sober, and sobering, article -- the second in a series on global conflicts -- that explained the reasons for the Rwandan massacres of 1994. It was written in clear, straightforward terms, and I remember thinking at the time that maybe tragedies of such magnitude demand that kind of description; there's no point in cluttering it with overblown rhetoric because the atrocities speak for themselves. That thought was in the back of my mind again... READ ON
Today is Tim's and my second wedding anniversary (cue the oohs and aahs), so over the weekend I was scrambling to come up with a gift made of cotton. For those of you who haven't yet experienced wedded bliss, on each anniversary there's a traditional category of gift you're supposed to give: first anniversary is paper, fifth is wood (heh), fifteenth is crystal, and so on. I kind of enjoy the forced creativity of it all, but I've always thought it seemed a little Hallmark-holidayish. Turns out, it mostly... READ ON
Speaking of cars, I found myself thinking all weekend about David's idea for "McFuel" made from leftover french fry grease. It's just harebrained enough to be pure genius, but until David actually draws up a business plan and waltzes into McDonald's corporate headquarters, it'll go un-executed and unknown to the world (except the part of the world constituted by the fine readers of the m_f blog). Unless... unless David registers it with one of the many idea repositories on the web. My favorite... READ ON
5 Questions: Maybe, Maybe Not
Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie?
In the Peanuts comic strip, Peppermint Patty's real name is Patricia Reichardt.
