Woodpecker image via Shutterstock

If you or I bump our heads hard enough on a hunk of wood, it might smart for a while. But to get through an average day, a woodpecker might ram its head into a tree trunk at a speed of 6 or 7 meters per second some 12,000 times without seeming the least bit bothered by it.

Lucky for them. The life of a woodpecker revolves around slamming its face into trees at high speeds. It’s how they feed themselves most of the time, excavating bugs from the wood when fruit or nuts aren’t available. It’s also how many of them make their homes, hollowing out a space in a trunk some 8 inches wide and up to two feet deep to make a nest. This is the niche they’ve come to fill, and over millions of years of doing it, they’ve evolved some intense headgear to prevent brain damage, cracked skulls and retinal detachment.

To figure out what all goes into woodpecker head trauma prevention, a team of Chinese scientists took a look at the birds’ heads, brains and behavior in several different ways last year. (more…)

In today’s world, more people probably play solitaire by clicking a mouse than by flipping cards, but today’s mentalfloss.com Brain Game Wednesday Wordplay challenge is old-school. Good luck!

By changing one letter in each step to form English words, and leaving all other letters in their original positions, convert CARD into FLIP in the fewest possible steps.

C A R D
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_ _ _ _
F L I P

Holy trivia, Batman! Wednesday’s 5 Questions quiz is a Round ‘Robin’ affair.

The 10 Worst U.S. Cities for Traffic. Drivers lose a lot of time sitting in traffic jams, but it might be worth it in Honolulu.
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Find out what happened to 70 finalists from American Idol. Many are still singing, but a substantial number are working in restaurants.
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How does one “discover” a new cut of steak? Oklahoma State University isn’t telling, because they want to patent it.
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Where NASA left off, private enterprise steps in. SpaceX Dragon successfully launched Tuesday morning, the first private spacecraft to travel to the ISS.
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Addison Kleinhans and Bella Hicks are children battling cancer together. And they swear they’ll be best friends forever.
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How do cranes get to the top of skyscrapers?
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12 Amazing Notes Confiscated By A Middle School Teacher Over The Years. Gems like these will only exist in digital texting form in the future.
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Bill Murray hosts a tour of Moonlight Kingdom. I want to see this film based on just the way he looks.
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20 Freakish Creatures from the depths of Russia’s White Sea. Alexander Semenov brings back photographic evidence of a whole different world.
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Who’s to blame for Facebook’s stock debacle? Shares were initially offered at $38 Friday, but then slid to $31, for a variety of reasons.
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How Do Trick Candles Work? Another in a series of things you always wondered but never bothered to ask.

Quicksand is a staple hazard of adventure movies, TV shows and video games. Whenever a minor character needs to be killed off quickly, the hero needs someone to rescue, or danger needs to be introduced without calling the villain in, quicksand is there to fulfill the task and swallow an explorer whole. Conveniently, there’s always a pool of pasty goo sitting around somewhere, usually perfectly circular and somewhat hidden from the characters’ view. This shouldn’t come as a shock, but real quicksand isn’t exactly how Hollywood makes it out to be.

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On this day in 1906, the Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine.” Me? I’m a terrible flyer. I get anxiety sweats and headaches and I hold my neighbor’s hand so tightly that everyone’s knuckles turn white. But when I need to get across the country, I sure do appreciate that I can hop on an airplane for a few hours instead of driving my car for a week. Here, six songs about flying. Did your favorite make the list? Tell us in the comments.

Fly Me to the Moon

Though Frank Sinatra popularized this song, it was also sung by Marvin Gaye, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Anita O’Day and many others.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Written by John Denver, this song was Peter, Paul & Mary’s biggest hit. Coincidentally, John Denver died in a plane crash in 1997. (more…)

If You’ve Been Hoping To Clone Ronald Reagan, You Might Find This Helpful
This seems, as the article says, rather craven.

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Memes: Collect the Whole Set
These meme trading cards are pretty nifty

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Today I Learned On Reddit’s Today I Learned: Someone Wanted to Drop Nukes Into A Volcano
“I believe that explosives dropped down their throats may cause such a vomiting of lava and ash as to hasten the day of unconditional surrender.” (Via Reddit user sino7)

I’m pretty sure Dr. Evil stole this exact plan years later.

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In 2009, students at Cambridge University genetically engineered E. coli bacteria, adding DNA sequences in order to create colors visible to the naked eye (standard E. coli does not have a pigment). The students called this new strain E. chromi, and it has limited uses today, primarily related to detecting pollution or other chemicals — if the bacteria detects a chemical, it changes color.

That’s all well and good, but how do we take this and go nuts with it, creating a Terminator-like dystopian horrorscape? I’m so glad you asked. In the short film below (which is largely fictional), an example is given in which an advanced form of this bacteria could be ingested by humans, and it could then identify illnesses within the GI tract…which you’d learn about after pooping a rainbow of bacteria-laden diagnostic material. (Oh, were you eating? I should have warned you.)

I should emphasize: this is a speculative art project based on some limited real-world science. But who among us does not dream of a poop-rainbow-filled tomorrow? I, for one, welcome our new bacterial overlords.

(Via Waxy.) See also: io9 on Daisy Ginsberg, one of the artists behind this project.

STEVE SISNEY/Reuters/Landov

Last night Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Los Angeles Lakers to advance to the Western Conference Finals. Including the Thunder, there are nine teams in the four major American sports (NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB) with nicknames that don’t end with ‘S.’ How many can you name in three minutes?

Take the Quiz: Team Names That Don’t End With ‘S’

Note: Two readers suggested this quiz back in 2009—Bill Smith and Christi Larkins. At that time Mr. Smith was an up-and-comer in the athletic department of the University of Arkansas. I don’t know Ms. Larkins’ claim to fame, but I’m glad she’s sharing her quizzes with us. If either of you see this, say hello!

Friday, May 25, is International Geek Pride Day. We didn’t invent it — according to Wired, a guy named Tim McEachern deserves some of the credit. He started the Geek Pride Festival in Albany, New York, in 1998. Geek Pride Day later spread to Spain and across the Internet. The date was chosen to commemorate the 1977 premiere of Star Wars. Big day in geek history.

To celebrate this year, we want to hear about your proudest geek moment. Define that however you like. But make it memorable! On Friday, we’ll award six mental_floss prizes for our favorites.

Can’t wait to hear your stories!

Also, this is happening: