Our ninth annual 10 Issue hits newsstands next Tuesday, and to celebrate we'll be previewing it here all week. This year's 10 issue includes a whole range of wonderful lists from 10 ways Video Games will Change Your Life (they can make you rich and help you find love!), to 10 Things You Definitely Don't Know about Afghanistan, to 10 Ridiculous Feats of Literature. Plus, we've got stories on outsider artists, the wild wild west, and so much more. Here's a sneak peek at one of my favorite stories from the... READ ON
Boingboing linked to these beautiful blueprints straight from Gustave Eiffel's pen, and I completely fell in love with... READ ON
Forget stress balls and punching bags. If you're feeling destructive and simply want to break something, check out the Anger Release Machine. Created by artists Katja Kublitz and Ronnie Yarisal, Anger Release is basically a traditional vending machine stuffed full of glassware and china. When someone pays money for a particular product (say, the beautiful vase at D4, or the porcelain cat at C3), the coils slowly push the fragile piece to the front. And then it drops just like a bag of potato chips... READ ON
One of the facts that we hear repeated with some frequency is that trumpeter Louis Armstrong got his first Christmas tree at age 40, and loved it so much that took it on tour with him for a month. While it's a great bit of trivia, I was curious to double check it. Turns out, the story's even better the way his wife tells it: "We finally went to bed. And Louis was still laying up in the bed watching the tree, his eyes just like a baby's eyes would watch something... So finally I said, "Well, I'll turn... READ ON
While most people in the US will be celebrating Christmas today, I'm guessing a few of you out there will be gathering around the olde Festivus pole. For those of you indulging in Festivus (A Holiday for the Rest of Us!), you might be interested in learning that the Costanza clan's strange celebration of choice-- popularized on Seinfeld-- actually existed long before the show. The holiday, which features a stark aluminum pole instead of a Christmas tree, "The Airing of Grievances" where... READ ON
One of my favorite scenes from John Green's wonderful novel Paper Towns is when the character Radar doesn't want to invite a girl over to his house because he's embarrassed by his parents. More specifically, he's embarrassed by their enormous collection of Black Santa figurines, with Black Santas crammed onto every windowsill and bookshelf in the house. Until I read the passage, I had no idea that there was such a tremendous market for Black Santas, although it makes complete sense. Why not imagine Santa... READ ON
That's right, folks. The new issue is out on stands today, and it's pretty darn wonderful. But if all my story descriptions (Steven Hawking's Revenge Tactics, the Dangerous World of Animal Smuggling, a Tunnel That Saved Bosnia!) and overuse of exclamation points hasn't enticed you, maybe this peek at the new cover will. Also, here are a few other things you'll learn from the new issue: -Why 10 month-old babies learn to fake smiles -The (actual) pros and cons of Swedish socialism -How Greenland... READ ON
The new issue's almost here (stay tuned for the big cover unveiling later today!), but we can't stop the show and tell just yet! Here's a sneak peek at our Spinning the Globe tour of Sweden. The story covers so many things, from how Sweden's socialism actually works, to why Swedes don't really like ABBA, to why 1950's nostalgia is taking the country by storm. Of course, one of the other things we cover is how the nation is way ahead of the rest of the world in... READ ON
Our Jan/Feb issue hits newsstands tomorrow (ish), so we're giving you another reason to go out and pick up a copy! One of the things I love is when you hear stories that make heroes a little more human. The new issue's got a little feature on nerdy celebs with anger management problems. Here's the section on Stephen Hawking: Wheel Power While renowned mathematician and physicist Stephen Hawking can't show his anger through the inflections of his electronic voice, he manages to... READ ON
The Jan/Feb issue of mental_floss hits newsstands soon, so we're continuing with our week-long preview of the magazine's stories. While I have a vague understanding of the Bosnia-Serbia conflict, the truth is, I know very little about the history. But the story of this tunnel, which was dug under the house of middle-class family man Bajro Kolar and led to a garage in the city, was utterly fascinating to me. Here's just a glimpse at the impact: Saving a City The Sarajevo Tunnel was... READ ON
5 Questions: Nervous "Rex"
Were They on The Wonder Years?
M&M’s stands for “Mars & Murrie’s,” the last names of the candy’s founders.
