In case you’re not familiar with the Turnip, it’s a whimsical Google search, wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting pages “turn-up.” As always with this feature, the _floss is not responsible for accuracy. If you know one of the below statements/links to be untrue, by all means, let the world know in the comments below.

Today I typed “more women prefer” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

More Women Prefer Dogs Over Husbands – An online poll released shows more women would rather have a pet than a husband.

Turnip #2

The behavior of men in choosing urinals is different from that of women choosing restroom stalls, according to some reports. Whereas more women prefer stalls in the middle section, men prefer urinals to either end of the line, obviously hoping to draw as little attention as possible. Those men who actually choose urinals in the middle (4, 5, or 6) seem to be less self-conscious and less likely to succumb to external influence or pressure.

Turnip #3

Study: More women prefer pretty-boy features on men than rough-hewn look

(more…)

The image above is undoubtedly impressive, but the really amazing thing about the picture is the fact that this place doesn’t really exist. Photographer Matthew Albanese takes painstaking efforts to create amazing model worlds out of common household ingredients and then uses tilt shift photography and lighting tricks to make the model become a photo realistic creation.

In fact, the setting above is constructed with faux fur, sifted tile grout and cotton. His website also has a strikingly real tornado created with steel wool and cotton and a stunning volcano created with phosphorus ink, cotton, tile grout, and cotton. It’s most certainly worth your while to explore his entire collection.

Today’s Brain Game is open-ended; there are several dozen correct answers, and your job is to find just one of them (preferably one that someone else hasn’t already offered in the comments). To win the game, come up with ONE word that contains five consecutive consonants. Examples?  BIRTHSTONE, POSTSCRIPT. And to make it a bit more challenging, please follow the “sometimes Y” rule (which states that if “Y” makes a vowel sound, it should be considered a vowel).

Can you come up with a word containing five consecutive consonants?

Please post ONE such word in the comments
(and save any additional ones so that others may answer).

Missile Silo Confessions: Living on the Edge of Armageddon. Lots of photographs and reminiscing from the people who built, manned, and recovered a Titan missile site.
*
For the video We Love xkcd, an (almost) all-star cast from the Blogosphere recreates this comic that parodies this ad.
*
Michael R. Barrick created a graphic last summer using the Vancouver Olympics mascots and the internet cartoon known as Pedobear. It was only a matter of time before someone used it without knowing that Pedobear is not an Olympic mascot.
*
6 Shockingly Evil Things Babies Are Capable Of. Of course, babies wouldn’t consider them evil, just the result of natural selection that made their existence possible.
*
Edgar Parker opened his dental practice in 1892 and found business was not that great. So he took his practice on the road and became “the P.T. Barnum of dentistry.”
*
Is there an Academy Award for weather forecasts? This guy must be trying for one, the way he’s hamming it up.
*
7 Carnivals Around the World. These events will have different dates, but they’ll be celebrated again this (and every) year.

If you weren’t looking, you probably missed it, but the latest issue of mental_floss magazine made a cameo tonight on the hilariously smart CBS hit: Big Bang Theory. This probably won’t satiate Jason, who’s been jonesing to get one of our t-shirts on one of the main characters, but it’s a start ;-)

Be honest now: did anyone actually notice the magazine tonight?

OK, I have a confession to make: I’m a big wuss and I love Joni Mitchell. It’s almost all my mom listened to while I was growing up, so even before I started discovering music on my own, I was pretty familiar with most of her stuff from the late 60s through the 80s. A lot of people love the old classics — her 1971 album Blue still makes a lot of critical “desert island” top ten lists — and while I certainly do too, I think she’s done interesting and innovative work since then as well, much of which gets overlooked.

So this is a special kind of list. It’s one especially good song from every Joni Mitchell album in chronological order, which, if listened to from start to finish, should provide an interesting snapshot of the progression of her style (from the folky 60s to the jazzy 70s and poppy 80s and then back to her folk roots in the 90s and beyond) and her voice, which gets gravelly and deep as the years wear on (she’s been a smoker for decades, and you can tell; though she can’t hit the high notes like she used to, I think it gives her voice a cool, weathered quality).

Song for a Seagull: “Cactus Tree” (1969)

The big hit from her debut album, the one that launched her into stardom, back in her flowy-gowned, ethereal hippie days.

(more…)

We had a hard time narrowing all your amazing captions down to 10, so… we went with 14 finalists. Remember now, only one vote per person. May the best horse win…

The Hollywood Walk of Fame celebrates its 50-year anniversary this week. Although a big block-party-style bash is scheduled for later this summer after some much-needed renovations are complete, the actual construction kickoff happened on February 8, 1960, with the star ceremony taking place the following day. Since Hollywood’s celebration is still a few months away, we thought we’d help celebrate the official day in our own meager way – by featuring the WoF in a Q10.

1. The first stars were actually put in place in 1958 so the Chamber of Commerce and the L.A. City Council could show the town what they had in mind. But construction didn’t start on the full plan until February 8, 1960. The first official dedication ceremony was for Joanne Woodward and her star the next day, but the Walk of Fame site still lists her official induction date as the 1958 date the prototypes were unveiled. The first new star to be laid was in honor of director and producer Stanley Kramer.

2. After the unveiling of the first eight prototype stars in 1958, the Chamber and the City were promptly sued by Charlie Chaplin’s son, who was upset his father hadn’t been included. Charlie Sr. is there now, but he had to wait another 14 years for his April 10, 1972 induction.

3. As with most things in Hollywood, induction to the Walk of Fame is going to cost you (or your movie studio). Upon selection, someone has to cough up $25,000, which pays for the star’s creation, installation and maintenance. But Hollywood’s honorary mayor, the late Johnny Grant, once said in an interview that it wasn’t uncommon for film studios to offer up to four times that amount. “These studios, when they want a star and they’ve got a picture opening, they’d give you $100,000,” Grant says. Sometimes fan clubs also foot the bill.

(more…)

Editor’s Note: Reader Andrea recently asked if we could cover the history of traffic lights. Here’s what we had in the archives. –Jason

We’re still stumped on that whole chicken vs. egg question, but there’s one thing we do know for sure—traffic congestion predates the automobile. Long before the invention of the internal combustion engine, horses and people were already having so much trouble yielding to each other at intersections that, in 1868, a British railroad engineer designed the first traffic signal to help them out. Oddly, the contraption only featured two settings: “stop” and “caution,” indicated by a bar held horizontally or lowered to a 45-degree angle. At night, red and green lights were used to make the bar visible, meaning that, in this case, “green” meant “slow down.” A proclamation issued by London’s police commissioner in 1868 explained the system as well as the then-novel concept of pedestrian right-of-way, and for the first time, cities had a way to keep people from constantly running into each other.
(more…)

Until Madonna and Mariah Carey took over, Elvis was the king of the Billboard charts. Can you name his 18 singles that hit #1 on the charts in six minutes? Share the ones you missed in the comments, as well as any Elvis sightings.

Take the Quiz: Elvis’ #1 Hits