Next Media is a large news company based in Hong Kong, specializing in a wide array of media products. Recently one of their divisions, Next Media Animation, has gained attention for their CGI news reports of American news items. Tonight for the Late Movies we take a look at a few of these often hilarious clips.

The first clip that garnered a large amount of attention was this report on Tiger Woods’ car accident from late 2009. (more…)

YES! You can play this challenge/contest without knowing a thing about the weekly hunt! It’s sort of a one-off – a stand-alone if you will. Will you?

Answer the Level 3 bonus-round question correctly and you may win your pick of anything you want from the neatoshop (valued under $25). Ready? Set. GO!

Oh, and don’t forget, even if you’re not the winner, you still need to solve the challenge to compete for next week’s Day 5 final challenge!

Just about everyone knows that Sam Adams is made in Boston, and that Anchor Steam hails from San Francisco. Inspired by these venerable pint-o-neers, the craft-beer movement has filtered into all corners of the country. Tell us where the following brews are made, and we’ll tell you a fun little fact about each one.

Take the Quiz: Beer Geography (Domestic Edition)

I don’t know that there’s much room for humor in the world of finance, especially when it comes to fast-paced buying and selling. But a few companies have found a little room for humor or at least cleverness – check out these 10 that decided to have a smidge of fun with their ticker symbols.

1. HOG: Harley Davidson.
2. BUD: Anheuser Busch, which sells Budweiser products, of course.
3. ZZ: Sealy, a mattress company.
4. TAP: Molson, a Canadian beer company.
5. FUN: Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, which owns 11 major amusement parks in North America (Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, Knott’s Berry Farm and King’s Dominion among them).
6. LVB: Steinway Musical Company. It stands for Ludwig Von Beethoven.
7. LUV: Southwest Airlines. It’s a reference to Dallas Love Field, where they are based.
8. EAT: Brinker International, Inc., which is the parent company of Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy.
9. CAR: Avis. Pretty logical.
10. BUNZ: Schlotzky’s Deli. This one is my favorite.

I think if mental_floss was heading down the publicly-traded road, I’d have to vote for EIN (as in Einstein, of course) for our ticker symbol. Have a clever stock symbol idea? Share it in the comments!

In honor of mental_floss’ brand new US History book (and the incredible deal that’s going with it!), we’ve decided to round up 20 unbelievably important questions about this country to test just how American you are. Does this quiz banner have you shouting U-S-A, U-S-A? Go ahead and add a point to your total. Then take the quiz!

Light graffiti generally consists of some neat swirls and patterns of light in front of the camera, but artist TigTab has a much more complex process that results in infinitely more fascinating creations. By using stencils placed on light boxes and an incredibly slow shutter speed, she can create masterpieces like the one above, pieces that often take up to four hours to complete.

Her pictures generally involve run down or abandoned locations being incorporated into a surreally stunning landscape. “I find beauty in decay – those abandoned and forgotten places all around us. By bringing light into the darkness of each space, it fills that space for a moment in time, and highlights both their beauty and impermanence,” she said in an interview with Odd Stuff Magazine.

Check out more of her work on her ever expanding Flickr page.

TV’s favorite stone-age family first visited our living rooms on September 30, 1960. Originally pitched as The Flagstones, television’s first prime-time animated series ran for six seasons and became so popular that companies like Welch’s paid big bucks to get their products advertised by Fred, Wilma, Betty, Barney and Pebbles. (Let’s face it, 44 years after the series went off the air, kids are still gobbling down Flintstones vitamins daily.) While everyone remembers things like Fred’s catchphrase and his foot-propelled car and Wilma’s baby mastodon vacuum cleaner, what often gets forgotten is some of the great (well, “catchy” at least) music that the series gave us over the years.

If You Play a Hot Piano, You Get Your Fingers Burned

How many of you still wish couples a “happy anniversary” to the tune of the William Tell Overture? Gioachino Rossini wrote the melody, but it was William Hanna and Joseph Barbera who provided the memorable lyrics. Poor Fred had forgotten his wedding anniversary yet again, and in a bid to buy Wilma a nicer last-minute present than a bouquet of flowers, he decided to purchase a piano. Unfortunately his limited budget meant that he had to buy a genuine Stoneway out of the back of a truck from a guy named 88 Fingers Louie. Fred and Barney were busted while hauling the piano home late at night, but the obliging cops took time out to sing this commemorative ditty.

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It’s an all-new 5-day trivia hunt!

Co-puzzle Master Josh Halbur and I are happy to bring you the next How Did You Know? sponsored by our friends over at neatorama.com.

Here’s how it works: Every day the rest of this week, we’ll be presenting two challenges at noon ET. They’ll be very similar to the kinds of puzzles you’ve come to expect from me and Josh, and, yes, they will feed into the Day 5 puzzle, as normal. Each evening, at 8pm ET, we’ll be putting up a third challenge loosely based on the day’s previous two challenges. You won’t need to solve the first two to solve the third, but knowing the day’s theme might help you be the first to crack Level 3. Also: note that you’ll have to solve Level 3–the bonus–to compete on Day 5

>> Prizes! Each day, one person will win one item from the neatoshop worth $25 or less. Shipping is on the house but the item you pick must be in stock. Oh, and no credit if you don’t use up the full $25. To be eligible for the prize, you need to leave the correct answer to Level 3 on the correct neatorama page before 10pm ET. You also need to tell us in that comment what you want if you’re selected at random.

>> So what’s in it for the person/team who finishes first with all the correct answers? Bragging rights, as always, with your photo/bio posted on our site. But also the chance to win the Day 5 neatorama prize, and, as has been tradition here for the last 28 months of HDYK?, your pick of any one of the amazing t-shirts from our store.

As always, if you’re not a Fan of our Facebook page, be sure to add us so we can keep you updated, and you can get in on some additional nifty clues throughout the week. If you’re new to our five-day hunt, you can read up on our new Rules page here. Oh, and yesterday’s challenges can be found here if you missed it. Okay, ready to get your Hunt on? Click on through.

The Andy Griffith Show (TAGS) premiered on television on October 3rd, 1960. That means Sunday will mark the show’s 50th anniversary! There are events scheduled all over the country (and on TV) to celebrate this milestone. In the series’ eight-year run, we got to know the residents of Mayberry as if they were our own neighbors.

Sheriff Andy Taylor

The character Andy Taylor, and indeed the entire show was modeled on Andy Griffith’s persona, which he inhabited as a storyteller and in the 1958 movie No Time for Sergeants. If you were to watch that movie today, you’d think that you were watching a Gomer Pyle who happened to look like Andy Taylor. By the end of the first season of TAGS, the sheriff toned down the wackiness and became the straight man to the even goofier deputy and the townspeople of Mayberry. The switch was necessary because someone had to rescue the protagonist of the week from their troubles.

Andy Griffith grew up in Mt. Airy, NC, which became the fictional town of Mayberry on TV. Griffith insisted that the characters in the show reflect a small town way of life as he knew it, without poking fun at rural or Southern people. TAGS was the number one show in its final season, but Griffith wanted to move on, so new characters were introduced as a transition to the spinoff series Mayberry, RFD. He then starred in several unsuccessful series between 1970 and 1980. Griffith also appeared in many made-for-TV movies, but fell ill with Guillain-Barre Syndrome in 1983. Recovered, he made another name for himself as lawyer Ben Matlock in the hit series Matlock from 1986 to 1995. Griffith, who lives in Manteo, NC, is yet to retire at age 84. His latest project is a series of public service announcements promoting the benefits of the new health care reforms to seniors.

Barney Fife

Deputy Barney Fife is the sheriff’s cousin, best friend, and co-worker. However, several quotes later in the series lead us to believe they are not closely related. There is some speculation the character may have been related to Andy’s deceased wife. His awkward, over-the-top personality provided more pure comedy than any other TAGS character. Some of Fife’s quotes became pop culture touchstones, such as the catchphrase “Nip it in the bud”. In 1965, Barney left Mayberry to work as a detective in Raleigh, but he returned home occasionally during the last three seasons.

West Virginia native Don Knotts met Andy Griffith when they both acted in the Broadway play No Time for Sergeants. They were reunited in the movie version. When Griffith told Knotts about the development of TAGS, Knotts himself suggested the character who became Barney Fife. After leaving the show in 1965, Knotts starred in The Don Knotts Show in the 1970-71 season and had several successful movies, including The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and The Reluctant Astronaut. He teamed up with Tim Conway for several more film comedies. He played landlord Ralph Furley on the hit TV show Three’s Company from 1979 to 1984. Knotts continued to act in TV and onstage until shortly before his death in 2006.

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In 1853, Saratoga Springs was a fashionable resort destination in upstate New York, providing recuperation and relaxation for rich folks fleeing the filthy, squalid city. Today, however, the Springs are equally famous for being the birthplace of the potato chip, invented by George Crum, a chef employed by the luxurious Moon Lake Lodge.

Like many brilliant inventions, the first batch of potato chips resulted from a failed attempt to do something else. Crum’s specialties were French fries, usually prepared in the traditional thick-cut style, producing meaty wedges with the skin unpeeled. But on August 24, 1853, a particularly troublesome guest sent his fries back to Crum’s kitchen, complaining they were too chunky. Crum obligingly produced another dish of more slender fries, but these too were sent back. Completely riled up, Crum decided to create fries so impossibly thin and brittle the finicky guest wouldn’t be able to spear them with a fork. To make sure they were inedible, he fried them for even longer and then coated them liberally with salt.

Of course the plan backfired, and the guest pronounced the dish delicious. Soon other diners wanted to sample the addictive chips.Before long “Saratoga chips” were packaged in portable paper
bags and were being sold across New York and New England. In 1860 Crum opened his very own restaurant, where every meal started with a basket of potato chips.
(Delicious photo from TheKitchn)

Looking for more fabulous content like this? You’re in luck – The Mental Floss History of the United States hits bookshelves near you on October 5th! If you pre-order, you’ll get three free issues of mental_floss magazine. Get all of the details over here.