Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

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"Let's meet at the sign of the Hung, Drawn and Quartered..."

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rebecca o'connell (istock)

In 1991 the World Wide Web became open to the public and ushered in a new era of consumer Internet use.

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California is the only state that offers both a regular public marriage license and a confidential marriage license. Here's why.

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Radios, it turns out, are dimwits.

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Everyone has felt like they were being watched before. But how?

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Without the help of the Internet, how do computers do it?

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Your ears aren't the only thing you have to worry about.

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There's a lot of information crammed onto food packaging these days, and along with all of the helpful stuff (like nutritional data and ingredients), there's also the mysterious, multicolored row of circles or squares that serves a very important purpose

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Or was Toucan Sam just faking it all these years?

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Originally it stood for something else.

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The answer is much higher than we previously suspected.

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According to one study, dogs tilt their heads when they hear words that are meaningful to them, like the name of their favorite toy.

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Don't believe the myth.

We can thank the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians. Here's how people decided how long an hour, a minute, and a second are.

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Venomous bites can paralyze and kill prey. But what happens when a snake is exposed to its own toxins?

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Up to 35 percent of the population experience this sneezy reaction to bright light.

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Their inventor originally wanted them in the shape of a curvaceous, kneeling woman.

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The Haribo gummy bears were right on trend in the 1920s.

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How timeouts for the humble caffeinated beverage became a workplace mainstay.

Your house smells. It's not your fault.

Your house smells. Don’t feel bad—everyone's abode has a distinctive odor. But not one of you could pick your own home’s aroma out of a scent lineup.

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A little grease goes a long way.

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According to theories, everything that could occur or exist does exist in at least one universe...whoa.