Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

This scene probably wouldn’t be enough to claim ownership of the moon in space court.

The question of who has a claim to the moon and its resources is less a speculative fiction subject and more one for lawyers. Specifically, space lawyers.

Jake Rossen




You might not want to eat a hot dog after reading this.

You’ve probably wondered what’s really inside a hot dog before. We have the answer—though we don’t recommend reading it before your next cook-out.

Jake Rossen




The Dakotas didn't get along.

If the colony of Carolina and the Dakota Territory hadn’t decided to split themselves up, we’d have only 48 states right now. But why did these particular places become geographic variants of each other?

Leah Beckmann






There's a legitimate reason, and it isn't purely aesthetic.

Natural rubber is white, and so were the earliest car tires. So, why are modern-day tires black? The answer is linked to Crayola and carbon black.

Jake Rossen


The bow of the USS ‘Samuel B. Roberts,’ lying more than 4 miles under the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

These are the five deepest shipwrecks ever discovered, including the USS ‘Samuel B. Roberts,’ which went to the depths of the Philippine Trench during the Second World War.

Tim Brinkhof


“Say uncle!”

One theory says it comes from an Irish word; another says we have the ancient Romans to thank. But the joke is on those theories, because the real story is more complicated than that.

Kara Kovalchik, Erin McCarthy