It was on this day in 1991 that Freddie Mercury passed away. I’m a fan, so I thought I’d pay a little tribute to him in our Q10 today. I was born a little too late, but I would have loved to see Queen in concert. They sound like they were amazing. If any of you have first-hand concert experience, let me live vicariously through you – share it in the comments!

1. He designed the Queen emblem (AKA the Queen Crest) himself, thanks to a degree in art and graphic design from Ealing Art College. The crest is made of the zodiac signs of the whole band – two Leo lions for John Deacon and Roger Taylor, a Cancer crab for Brian May and two fairies to represent Freddie’s Virgo sign. The “Q” and the crown represent the band name, of course, and a phoenix protects the whole thing.
2. His birth name was Farrokh Bulsara; he started going by Freddie when he was at St. Peter’s, a boarding school for boys near Mumbai. He legally changed his name to Freddie Mercury around 1970, when Queen was formed.
3. He and family (parents and one sister, Kashmira) were Parsis and practiced Zoroastrian religion. Even though he hadn’t practiced in years, his funeral was performed by a Zoroastrian priest.

4. Freddie was born in Zanzibar – his family moved there so his dad could continue his career at the British Colonial Office. (more…)

As adjectives go, “small,” “medium” and “large” aren’t very exciting. So restaurant executives with menu-printing powers have gotten all cutesy and creative with the names of their sizes. Do you know your Grande from your Gulp?

Take the Quiz: Quirky Sizes

[When you're done, share your favorite oddly named size in the comments.]

Every now and again, I compile a list of mental_floss announcements and post them under the heading ‘Odds/Ends.’ There is no semi-regular feature people read less. In an effort to change that, I’m going to start surrounding my updates with random facts and links, the same way I coat Bailey’s pills with peanut butter and stick them in her Kong (this tactic is not pictured.) Let’s begin.
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We’ll be making a separate announcement later today, but I’ll break the news here. This week, we’re having a big mental_floss t-shirt sale. All shirts are $14.90. Visit our store, fill up your cart, and use the code holidayteeparty during checkout.
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It was recently announced that First Daughters Sasha and Malia Obama will be attending Sidwell Friends School. Every story I saw on the subject mentioned that Chelsea Clinton was a Sidwell alum, but she’s not the only one. In addition to other children of famous politicians, ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum, and science guy Bill Nye all graduated from Sidwell. Nancy Reagan attended elementary school there in the 1920s, and Gore Vidal was a Sidwell student from 1934-36. Going to school with important people is nothing new for the Obama family. Way back in March of 2007, we discussed notable alumni of Hawaii’s Punahou School, where the President-Elect graduated. (more…)

As many studies do, it sounds kind of no-duh at first blush — but according to a new study by sociologists from the University of Maryland, unhappy people spend a lot more time watching television than happy people do. Surprised? No, I wasn’t either; but it’s thought-provoking to see this idea reflected in the sober light of a scientific study. And it makes me think about my own habits — how much do I watch?

Let’s see — I can’t get enough of Mad Men or The Daily Show, I’ve been watching Olbermann a few times a week since a month before the election (though less so as political news gets less hot-n-heavy), I’ve inherited a guilty passion for Kitchen Nightmares from my wife and I always check out 60 Minutes and SNL weekly. When Colbert makes an appearance on my TiVo, I check him out too. I guess that’s about it. But then there are the movies I watch and whatever internet-based video I consume in a day, which is difficult to measure since it comes in such fits and starts.

Does that make me a less happy person than someone who watches zero hours of TV per week? Probably not — it’s so subjective. But it does make me think that if I found a way to fill up the remainder of my free time with television-watching, it would be indicative of some gnawing emotional issue that needed resolution (and that the TV-watching was helping me to avoid).

While most large studies on happiness have focused on the demographic characteristics of happy people — factors like age and marital status — Dr. Robinson and his colleagues tried to identify what activities happy people engage in. The study relied primarily on the responses of 45,000 Americans collected over 35 years by the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and on published “time diary” studies recording the daily activities of participants.

“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”

But the researchers could not tell whether unhappy people watch more television or whether being glued to the set is what makes people unhappy. “I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. Still, he said, the data show that people who spend the most time watching television are least happy in the long run. [link]

What do you think — when does TV-watching transition from a legitimate activity to an emotional crutch?

I remember learning how to write in cursive in elementary school, and I’m not certain how different the process is today when teaching youngsters how to do it. The one thing that always drove me crazy about writing in cursive, however, are those letters that require you to “back up” in order to finish them, like the lower-case “i.” If you write the word “invisible” in cursive, for instance, when you end with the “e” you have to go back and put three dots over the top of the word for the i’s.

With this in mind…

When written in lower-case cursive,
what common four-letter word
requires three additional short lines
(not dots) after the initial stroke?

HERE is the solution.

I have a relative who is afraid of everything, no matter how remote the odds. She barricades herself in every night thinking that someone might break in her house and hurt her, although the odds are much greater that she will suffer a heart attack and no one will be able to get in to help her. If you’re going to be afraid of what might happen, go with the odds. Overall, the most likely disaster you will deal with is a traffic accident. That’s why we wear seat belts all the time. If you should have a wreck, that seat belt is the most important thing to have. But it’s not the only thing that might come in handy.

Houdini makes escape tools. Not for magicians, but for everyday folks who may someday need to escape from a wrecked or submerged car. The Houdini Emergency Rescue Tool is small enough to hang on a keychain, but has a window breaker, a seatbelt cutter, a safety whistle, and an LED flashlight all in one gadget. It runs on lithium batteries and yes, includes a keychain ring, all for $24.95. The Houdini Pro Emergency Rescue Tool is somewhat larger and geared toward use by police and fire fighters. It lacks a safety whistle, but has heavy-duty versions of the other tools. Available in either yellow or black for $39.95.

These tools could help in quite a few scenarios besides being trapped in a car. You never go wrong by attaching a flashlight to your keys. Yeah, some would say investing in a tool like this would brand you as a paranoid, but it’s a small gadget that will give you peace of mind even if you never use it. And it would make a great Christmas gift for Mom, or anyone whose safety you care about.

Watch this body builder flex his muscles! Just one example of a large collection of James Kuhn’s moving face paintings.
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Why it took 17 years and $13 million to bring Chinese Democracy, the new Guns N’ Roses album to the public. Personally, I think Axl Rose was going for the world record in procrastination.
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The Greatest Pranks in Geek History. The Cal Tech Prank Club and the MIT Hacks have spent years trying to outdo each other. (via Neatorama)
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Depression 2009: What would it look like? For starters, it would be completely different from what our grandparents experienced in the 1930s.
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The future is green in architecture. Here are 24 buildings, homes, and complexes that incorporate the latest in environmental design.
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Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 80s and 90s? Take a look at the top twenty adventures, from a field of around 200 books.
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Brilliant Meteor Caught On Video In Canada. After that eye-popping video, read the story.
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Would you like to celebrate Thanksgiving the way the Pilgrims did? Then be ready for a departure from your traditional turkey, dressing, gravy, potatoes, and pie menu!

In August, I revealed some of the more obscure superpowers of comic book heroes and villains over the years. The list attracted plenty of comments from people who named other ridiculous superhero powers, inspiring me to write a sequel. Here are seven more powers bestowed on superheroes – not just in comic books, but also on television – that should be remembered.

1. The Power to Stop Timepieces

A forgotten character from the Golden Age of comic books, Mister Midnite first appeared in Silver Streak Comics in 1939. While many writers were dreaming up cool powers for new superheroes to cash in on the success of Superman, the brains at little-known Comic House Publishers came up with Mister Midnite – alias “wealthy young sportsman” Neal Carruthers – who possessed a unique power. When he called out “Stop, time!” he could stop…time? Well, not exactly. He could only stop clocks. He only lasted two issues, perhaps because his publisher realized that there was only so much you can do with that power. Fortunately, he never had to battle Uri Geller.

2. Super-Ventriloquism

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Since next Saturday will be the 12th anniversary of Dan Flavin’s death, today’s post features the American artist at the request of reader nikki. Flavin made a name for himself with fluorescent light sculptures, like “untitled” and “untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3,” both shown above.

1. A former altar boy, Dan Flavin “fondly recalled the ritual of the Mass as ‘rich in candlelight, music, chant, vestments, processions and incense.’” At the urging of his father, who wanted him to be a priest, Flavin even attended a seminary for four years.

2. Before he began working with lights, Flavin created artwork that often included poems or other texts “set in gestural decorative designs.” One 1961 work, “My Dove, my Beautiful One, Arise, Arise,” was based on a poem by James Joyce. That same year, Flavin wrote his own poem, in which he first explored the beauty of fluorescent lights.

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Try your hand (or rather, your eye) at the Mosquito Tone Test. Even with headphones I was unable to hear the 18KHz! The others just made my head feel like it was going to explode. If you want to really be naughty and annoy someone, trying playing a few of them at once, yikes!
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From Flossy reader Rebecca, “This has been going around in the Austen-circles for the past week: Did the U.K. invent baseball? Apparently a passage in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey hints to the existence of baseball in the U.K. before it was ever “invented” in the United States. You might have seen Stephen Colbert’s take on the issue on Thursday night’s episode of the Colbert Report.” (If you’re pressed for time, start it at 1:45)
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20 strange sculptures.

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Extra Extra! For linguists and word-lovers the world over! “Meh” is officially the new “whatever“; will “teh” be the new “the”? Let us hope not.
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In this video, Linsey Pollak, an Australian musician and instrument maker, carves a carrot and then plays it as a clarinet. Basically the ultimate dinner party trick.
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Another edition of Steve, Don’t Eat It! This time featuring Urkel-Os from 1991. I had no idea this was a real product. Does anyone remember eating them back in the day?
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Can you name these famous foursomes in 10 minutes?
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