Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

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If you’ve ever had the date on a cell phone or computer mysteriously switch to December 31, 1969, you may have thought it was simply random. However, the reason behind this odd glitch is a nice little tidbit of computer trivia.

Erica Palan
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“Lethal injection” isn’t a marketing term or a cute nickname. The intent of the injection is to execute someone. So why bother with the alcohol swab and sterile needle? Are they really worried about the condemned getting an infection?

Matt Soniak


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Medical professionals can choose from a wide variety of scrubs with different colors and patterns. So why are plain blue and green ones so popular?

Matt Soniak


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A lot of people assume that it's just the way that coins smell, and the odor is rubbing off on their hands, but you're not smelling the metal so much as you're smelling yourself.

Matt Soniak


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Soap operas, "soaps" or "my stories," as many a <em>grandmother</em> has called them, are dramas presented in a serial format on daytime television or radio. Their name comes from a time when old serial dramas broadcast on radio had soap manufacturers (Pr

Matt Soniak


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Modern myth would have you believe that goldfish can't remember anything that happened more than three seconds ago and, hence, their lives are filled with the constant excitement of never-before-seen sights and sounds.

Matt Soniak
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We all know washing our hands is important, but, like washcloths and towels, can the bars of hand soap we use to clean ourselves become dirty as well?

Matt Soniak
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"In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream." That was the tagline for the movie Alien, Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece. Released two years earlier, Star Wars allowed us to hear plenty of things in space, like the whine of TIE fighter engines and

Matt Soniak


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Bill Parcells was one of the first coaches to be doused with celebratory Gatorade after a win. But who came up with the idea? Here are the answers to some burning questions about this fairly new tradition.

Ethan Trex


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This is sort of a trick question, as they technically didn’t wear “helmets,” but leather “flight caps” that covered the head and ears. These kept the pilots from getting too cold or going deaf while flying with their cockpit canopies open, which they some

Matt Soniak


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The two-minute warning comes up at the end of each half in every NFL football game. Most fans take it for granted, but why does the NFL stop the clock with two minutes or so left in each half? Is it just so the NFL can sneak an extra commercial break in

Ethan Trex


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Beginning with the earliest American settlements and continuing into the 18th century, most barns weren't painted at all. So when did they become red?

Matt Soniak
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Ever wonder what all those strange credits are when they roll by at the end of a film? From Gaffer to Boom Operator, here's some production roles to know

David K. Israel


Readers of a certain age might remember Hypercolor or Hypergrafix clothing, the color-changing T-shirts produced by Generra that were all the rage in the early '90s. Now that the '90s are back, it's a good time to finally figure out the science behind the

Matt Soniak




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Grab a partner and look into his or her eye "“ or stare deeply into it, if appropriate "“ in a normally lit room. The quick and dirty version of how you're able to view each other is this: Light enters the eye through the cornea, the clear outer dome, and

Matt Soniak