Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

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Unfortunately, the first athlete to playfully slap a teammate on the butt didn’t record his reasoning for history, but it’s become common practice among professionals and amateurs alike, and many have their own take on it.

Matt Soniak


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Despite the fact that this particular facial hair style had been around since at least 100 BC (one of the earliest known depictions is a mosaic of Alexander the Great), sideburns were named after a specific man in the late 19th century.

Daven Hiskey






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Oklahoma City holds the dubious distinction of being the unofficial Tornado Capital of the United States. The U.S. city and its suburbs have endured more tornados than any other city—100 since 1890, as far back as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administ

Jessica Bloustein Marshall
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Reader Bruce wrote in to ask, “When there is a heavy rain, worms climb out on the pavement, only to die when the rain stops. Why do worms commit suicide?”

Matt Soniak
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Luckily for us, our bodies have procedures to counter the sun our bodies absorb.

Matt Soniak




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After making the butler the culprit in her book, Rinehart would later be almost killed by one of her own servants who wanted to be promoted to her butler.

Matt Soniak




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No doubt most of us have heard that black and other dark objects are more absorbant and white and light objects are more reflective, but let’s start out by clarifying just what’s being absorbed and reflected.

Matt Soniak
Wikimedia Commons/Erin McCarthy

Chinese characters are made up of strokes. Learning to write them involves not only learning where all the strokes go, but also the order in which they are supposed to be written and the direction of each individual stroke (left to right, up to down, etc.

Arika Okrent
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There are many surgeons who say that they first discovered their life’s passion standing over a dissected frog in a middle or high school biology class. But, apart from inspiring the medical professionals of tomorrow, what is the purpose of dissection? An

Kaitlyn Boettcher


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Everyone has heard people say that they are “bad at remembering names,” or maybe you are one who claims it. If so, you're not alone. “Most people are bad at remembering names,” says Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of

Karina Martinez Carter


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Noise-canceling headphones seem like an oxymoron: a piece of audio technology that creates silence, rather than noise. They’re useful on planes, in crowded offices, and for light sleepers trying to catch some shut-eye in a thin-walled apartment, but how c

Roma Panganiban




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This week, NBA center Jason Collins announced he was gay in a cover story for Sports Illustrated. In other words, he "came out of the closet." This expression for revealing one's homosexuality seems natural. Being in the closet implies hiding from the out

Arika Okrent
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As a marker of singularity, our voices are as effective as our fingerprints. Though people may share a similar pitch or certain vocal characteristics, under close examination, no two voices are alike. Height, weight, hormones, provenance, allergies, struc

Kevin Kampwirth