Mental Floss

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The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War from 1961 to 1989.

The U.S. and USSR employed spies, quelled internal dissent, made allies abroad, and stockpiled nuclear weapons in this proxy war.

One of these is going to be a problem.

LEGO bricks are notorious for being indestructible, but one color is an exception.

This island may look mysterious, but it isn’t a phantom island.

Old maps are littered with islands that have vanished. What happened to these strange and unexplainable lost lands? Did they ever exist in the first place?

The ‘Eagle’ has (crash-) landed: The Andrée expedition’s balloon on the ground on Kvitøya, Svalbard.

Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and two companions wanted to fly a hydrogen balloon over the North Pole. Their Arctic mission didn’t go as planned.

And the crown goes to New York!

New York, California, and Texas come out on top.

Grab your magnifying glass.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

Spacewalks would make anyone nauseous.

Sick astronauts on a space mission can’t just pop down to Earth to see a doctor. Here’s how they deal with bumps, bruises, and worse.

Next time, there won't be any need to panic.

When something goes wrong with your car, a curious-looking icon illuminates on the dashboard. But what those symbols mean isn’t always obvious.

The Equal Rights Amendment is the best-known Constitutional amendment that is not yet part of the Constitution.

Since 1789, Congress has sent 33 constitutional amendments to the states for ratification. Here’s the scoop on the six amendments that didn't make the grade.

Mr Payback, An Interactive Movie (1995) trailer [FTD-0013]

‘Mr. Payback’ might not have set the box office alight, but it did at least try to pioneer a new form of entertainment.

The code name for the American mission: Operation Little Vittles.

The space agency helped out on a landmark criminal case in 1990.

A map of the 63 National Parks in the U.S.

From Acadia to Zion, the U.S. has some pretty majestic national parks. Here’s one fun fact about every single one—plus a map so you can see where they all are.

See if you can decipher this twisted tune.

It’s time to play Tune Twist, where we translate the lyrics of popular songs into multiple languages and then back into English. Can you figure out what the song is, or who performed it?

View of Rio de Janeiro at dusk

Latin isn’t widely spoken in Latin America, so why is it called that?

Lester “Iron Pants” Holt.

Now that Lester Holt is stepping away from the NBC anchor desk, let’s celebrate the journalist known around the newsroom as “Iron Pants.”

Superbad Official HD Trailer (2007) | Superbad

Feeling nostalgic? Some of the most-loved millennial movies like ‘Superbad’ to ‘The Big Lebowski’ have stood the test of time.

Road signs shout less than they used to.

Road signs have changed case in the last 15 years or so—here's why.

Civil War medical officers including Jonathan Letterman, a surgeon who pioneered the ambulance-to-ER transport of wounded patients during the Civil War.

Civil War surgeons learned fast. Here are a few of the MacGyver-like medical solutions that have had a lasting impact.

Some words have been around longer than you think.

We dig down to the root of the issue.

This stickler doesn’t like how people are using the word ‘phenomenal.’

Not even the strictest sticklers seem to care about how we use words like ‘abhorrent’ and ‘sodden’ anymore.

Katherine Johnson at NASA's Langley Research Center, 1980.

Before she helped send the first astronauts to the moon, Katherine Johnson was a human “computer” working behind the scenes at NASA.

The Dame of Sark, Sibyl Hathaway, in March 1953.

Dame Sibyl Hathaway protected her people with the unlikeliest of weapons: Feudal etiquette, old-world manners, and a dollop of classic snobbery.