Mental Floss

DEATH

Always a somber scene.

Do you have to wear black to a funeral? Does a procession always end at a cemetery? We answer all of the burning questions you might have never thought to ask about funerals.

Jake Rossen
Fires have prompted a number of safety regulations.

From tragic factory fires to toxic food scandals, some safety laws we may take for granted today actually have some pretty unsettling backstories.

Colin Scanlon
























On January 30, 1925, Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins went underground—and didn’t come out. The epic effort to rescue him gripped national headlines and transformed into a battle between heroism and folly, selflessness and selfishness, life and death.

Lucas Reilly