When Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Saturday, everyone who enjoys a good rollercoaster probably cringed. While Six Flags’ executives are assuring patrons that their parks will remain open during their tough economic times, it’s still no fun thinking that all of those six-dollar sodas we’ve been buying over the years couldn’t keep the place solvent.

At least for now, though, Six Flags won’t join the list of dearly departed theme parks that for one reason or another couldn’t hack it and are now in the amusement graveyard. Let’s take a look at some of the ones that weren’t so lucky.

1. Action Park

Sure, modern amusement parks are fun, but where’s the danger? It wasn’t missing at New Jersey’s infamous/beloved Action Park, which entertained and injured locals in Vernon Township, New Jersey, from 1978 to 1996. When the park opened, it was mostly swimming pools and water slides, but over time more complex water attractions, go-karts, and rides were added.

Sounds fun, right? It would have been if not for how dangerous the park was. The staff was often young and inattentive, and injuries and fatalities (yes, fatalities) started piling up. The giant waves in the wave pool (nicknamed the “Grave Pool”) drowned a few patrons, but the park was perhaps best known for its looping water slide. (more…)

When you call friends who live in other parts of the country, do you have to ask what time it is where they are? You know that drives them crazy. Brush up on the time zones with this little quiz.

Take the Quiz: Time Zones

As a 3rd grader, I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes. I walked around the neighborhood trying to solve cases. I took all of the mystery books out of my elementary school library. I even dressed up as the legendary detective for Halloween 2 years in a row. So, I was thrilled when Ransom Riggs suggested doing a spread on author Arthur Conan Doyle in the magazine. What I didn’t realize was what sort of amazing stories Ransom would come up with. Here are two of my favorites, plucked from our latest issue: one on Conan Doyle’s love for adventure and the other on his inspiration for Holmes.

A Need for Speed

Conan Doyle harbored such a compulsive need for adventure that it almost killed him on several occasions. He loved hot-air ballooning and racing fast cars (though, luckily, never at the same time), and as a young man, he made a habit of embarking on absurdly dangerous voyages. In 1880, while traveling on an Arctic whaling ship, he fell overboard into the icy waters so often that the captain nicknamed him “The Northern Diver.” Conan Doyle was also an ardent patriot who wrote impassioned defenses of Britain’s involvement in unpopular wars. In fact, after World War I broke out in 1914, Conan Doyle tried to enlist in the British Army. Of course, at age 55, he was considered too old to serve.

The Truth about Sherlock

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For some historical figures, death wasn’t the end of their journeys. As wars were waged and empires changed, famous bodies were moved from graveyard to graveyard. Others were simply lost. Religious figures were even worse off—people often traded their bones as collectors’ items and symbols of power. But thanks to DNA analysis and radiocarbon dating, scientists have identified the bodies of some notable people who were previously thought to be lost. Here are their stories.

1. Christopher Columbus

In death, Christopher Columbus traveled almost as much as he did in life. He wanted to be buried in Hispaniola (an island in the Antilles), but there were no proper churches there to perform a religious ceremony. His family buried him in Valladolid, Spain, and then he was moved with his son Diego to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 1537. In 1795 Spain ceded the island to France, and his body was moved to Havana; as least, that’s what some say. In 1877, a crew at the cathedral in Santo Domingo unearthed a coffin with the inscription “Illustrious and distinguished male, don Cristobal Colon.” The Dominican Republic claims that this proves the Spaniards moved the wrong body to Havana. In any case, a body that may or may not have been Columbus was moved again from Havana to Seville, Spain in 1898.

Spanish geneticist Jose Antonio Lorente compared the Seville body DNA with Columbus’ brother, Diego, and found that the remains had a mitochondrial DNA match. This proved that at least some, if not all, of Columbus’ body returned to Spain. Dominicans balked at the results, insisting Columbus’ body is buried in their country. The Dominicans refuse to open the coffin, claiming they are religious and don’t like to bother the dead. Part of Columbus’ body could be buried in Dominican Republic and part could be in Spain, but if the Dominican Republic doesn’t unseal the coffin, only Seville can claim the remains of the explorer.

2. Joan of Arc

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I love stop-motion stuff, and this is one of the most clever videos I’ve seen in a while. According to AdFreak, this 2-minute short by Bang-yao Liu took three months (three months!) of planning, four days of shooting and more than 6,000 Post-Its. Pretty incredible. I’m posting the “making of” video after the jump as well, in case you’re interested in seeing just how much not procrastinating went into the production.

Link via the always entertaining AdFreak.
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Seconds make minutes, minutes make hours, hours make days. You can probably take it from there. But before you do, please try today’s Brain Game. Good luck:

Calculators down… try to guesstimate this one.

Which is larger: (A) The number of minutes in a month
or (B) the number of days in a century?

Check out the 63 diamond behemoth that the Pittsburgh Steelers will be lugging around on their knuckles from now on.
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Nothing says stylish & safe like a skirt that turns you into a vending machine. Just one of the six strange self-defense gadgets featured here.
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I’ll take the Quadruple Bypass Burger and a side of beta blockers. Think long and hard before stopping into Arizona’s Heart Attack Grill – where they proudly serve up chest pain-inducing foods in a fake hospital setting that features waitresses dressed as nurses.
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The release of Up in 3D highlights what is one of the fastest growing trends in blockbuster entertainment. Create your own eye-popping cinema with this informative guide to building your own 3D home theater. Or check out other ambitious DIYs.
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Unrealistic courtroom scenes like these led me to believe that contesting my recent parking ticket would have been a lot more action-packed.
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If you’re starting your own business, make sure you hire a professional to design your branding materials – lest you should end up here.
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All you LA Clippers fans should make sure to watch the mail for this letter.
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And when the producers of Night at the Museum inevitable make another sequel, they should consider using one of these places as the setting.

We’re excited to announce two new additions to the kids section of the mental_floss store. My daughter Charlotte agreed to model one of the new designs (”Natural Selection: Good Things Come To Those Who Mate”), but one wardrobe change was more than enough. If your baby is crawling around in a _flossy onesie, send us a photo and we’ll put together a gallery (you can email me – jason@mentalfloss.com).

Whether you’re clothing your own child or in the market for a baby gift, check out our whole line:

If there’s one thing people seem to love watching on YouTube, it’s little kids rocking. Lucky for them, there are plenty of musical prodigies out there to sate their demand. Here are a few of my favorites!

Seven-year-old drummer
Jacob Armen was just seven when this video was recorded, and he’s better than most adult drummers I know.
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Here’s one for the Twilight fans. In the new game The Sims 3, you can upload your Sims to a community site, which leads to a lot of people uploading Sims-ified famous people (see Barack Obama, Britney Spears [2007 buzz-cut edition], and Tina Fey, for example). Well, Twilight aficionados have created 227 Edward Cullens (and more are surely coming), mostly based on Robert Pattinson from the movie. One Sims 3 forum member has been collecting the Cullens in a thread. The cumulative effect of seeing so many strangely genericized goth guys is a little overwhelming, but worth it.

Here are a few of the best. I think it’s all in the squinty eyes.

(Via Waxy.org.)