Image credit: Flickr user AJ Cann

Pocket-sized multitools are a dime a dozen, but the Swiss Army Knife is an icon. Its name is shorthand for versatility and its cross-emblazoned red handle has gone to the North Pole, to the top of Mount Everest, to the depths of the Amazon, and even orbited around Earth on the space shuttle. On the tamer side, the knife is also admired for its design and is displayed in the New York Museum of Modern Art and the State Museum for Applied Art in Munich.

I’ve had a lot of knives in my day, but only recently got my first Swiss Army Knife as a gift. I’m endlessly fascinated by it and have been reading up on its history, so here are ten bits of trivia I just had to share.

1. The Swiss Army Knife has very humble origins. Switzerland was about as poor as it got in 19th century Europe, especially in the sparsely industrialized central cantons, where unemployment spurred emigration and the shuttering of businesses. Karl Elsener, a cutler, or knife maker, desperately wanted to create jobs in his home canton of Schwyz, but to industrialize the traditionally hand-crafted production of knives would have required enormous capital. Elsener could not afford to build a factory or buy machinery so, instead, he founded the Swiss Cutlers’ Union in 1884 in the village of Ibach. A small group of some two dozen craftsmen joined the cooperative, manufacturing different knives for use in kitchens, in farm fields and on hiking trails.

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Ken Burns, creator of innumerable documentaries including The Civil War and Baseball, is the subject of a new short film about the nature of stories and storytelling. It’s compelling, smart, and complex — largely because Burns, one of America’s most famous and revered documentarians, discusses the reality of what documentary films are: that documentary is not about telling “the truth,” it’s about telling a story. (If you will, “a truth.”)

Representative quotes: “All story is manipulation.” Also: “There are many, many different kinds of truths.”

You might also enjoy this interview with the filmmakers, Sarah Klein and Tom Mason.

See also: Ken Burns Effect.

(Via Kottke.)

Time For Another Round of Everyone’s Favorite Game: “Stock Photo or Disgustingly Overpriced Masterpiece”
Surely that photo shown above must be the former, correct? It has to have cost a few bucks at the most, yeah? There’s no way that sold for $4.3 million, right?

I don’t understand the world.

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John Hodgman’s Quest to WIn The Cheater’s Cup
The current mental_floss magazine cover star recently competed in the 2012 Scrabble for Cheaters tournament.

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“I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come.”
The Surprising Science Picture of the Week relives Stephen Hawking’s brief flirtation with weightlessness.

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• The origins of the word mayonnaise may be derived from mahonnaise, for the Spanish port of Mahon, where the French defeated the British in a 1756 naval battle. Others say it’s from the French verb manier, to mix or blend, or from the Old French moyeu (egg yolk). Regardless, it seems the French are always involved.

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Joel Stein’s new book Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity hit stores yesterday. On Friday, we’re going to give away a copy. For now, here are a few things he learned about the world of masculinity while researching the book.

When you put off learning how to be a man for 37 years, a lot of things shock you. Like that real men don’t smile. Or talk. Which made learning from them more difficult. But by watching and listening and focusing on not getting hurt, these are some surprising facts I learned about the world of masculinity.

1. You Cannot Shoot A Turkey You Happen Upon
Part of becoming a man included learning to hunt my own food, but I quickly discovered there’s a hunter’s code you cannot break. It’s considered way beyond bad sportsmanship to kill a turkey you see. That’s not “the game.” The game is to pretend you’re a hot female turkey that wants to have sex with a male turkey by making horny turkey noises and scratching the ground in really slutty ways. It’s only when an excited male turkey approaches you for sex that you are then allowed to shoot him in the face. This is far more civil. I am not sure turkeys see it that way.

2. Being Choked Out Doesn’t Involve Choking
While training to go a full round with UFC fighter Randy Couture, I was choked out twice, professionally. I learned that being choked out doesn’t actually involve any choking. Instead, the choker aims to block the chokee’s blood from traveling through the carotid artery, causing the brain to lose oxygen and shut off. This is supposed to be nicer, but I don’t know. Both times, I feigned falling asleep to get out of it. And both times it hurt like hell.

3. The Current Health Care System Doesn’t Work… for Firefighters
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Today is the 16th day of May, which got me thinking about the number 16. There are 16 ounces in a pound, 16 teams in each NFL conference, and 16 digits in a bank card number. In today’s mentalfloss.com Lunchtime Quiz, however, we treat 16 as a word. Your goal is to name all the non-obscure English words you can (of four letters or more) using the letters in the word SIXTEEN. You’ll have 8 minutes for this challenge, and (naturally!) a score of 16 or better is a win. Good luck!

Give today’s Lunchtime Quiz a shot: Sixteen

Image via zhurnaly [Flickr]

Last year Chris Higgins put together some touching and heartbreaking clips from Henson’s memorial services. Not suitable for work, if sobbing uncontrollably at your work is frowned upon.

Today’s Wednesday Wordplay challenge at the mentalfloss.com Brain Game asks you to choose between four commonly-misspelled words that end with the letters “ABLE.” Three are spelled correctly; one is not. Good luck!

Just ONE of the four words in the following list is misspelled. Identify the culprit:

CHANGEABLE
EXCITEABLE
MANAGEABLE
NOTICEABLE

Ahoy there! The questions in Wednesday’s 5 Questions quiz contain the names of Nautical Notables

How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit. You can’t fool all the people all of the time.
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A new trailer for the Ridley Scott prequel Prometheus is out, and it shows aliens! A short clip from the film has also been released.
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One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others… See if you can figure the odd one out (answers are provided, but not necessarily right answers).
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George Lucas lost the battle with his neighbors to build a large studio in Marin County. But he still got the last laugh, by turning the property into low-income housing instead.
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Sarah Cooper graduated from American University last weekend. At the ceremony she got her diploma, and an engagement ring from her boyfriend in front of a delighted crowd.
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What does the definition of all-you-can-eat mean when a restaurant runs out of food? A Wisconsin man could actually eat more than the twenty pieces of fish he got, and returned to picket the restaurant.
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Europe changed a lot in a thousand years. See it happen in just minutes in this time-lapse video.
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The Vatican is investigating the Girl Scouts because of links to groups like Médicins Sans Frontières that teach safe sex. Not that the church could do anything to them, except tell Catholic girls not to join.
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The 8 craziest prom stories of 2012. Your prom may have been memorable, but did it make the national news?
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Ghost Cities of the Future. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but the omens are there already.