Cover Story:

It’s a Fad, Fad, Fad, Fad World



Alas, poor fads, we never knew ye well. Oh, Rubik’s Cube, great keeper of secrets—how we’d twist and twist you, and yet you never let us peek at your perfect form. And Kilroy? You were here, and there, and everywhere for so long. But where are you today? From telephone-booth stuffing to water beds, from ant farms to conical bras, mental_floss is paying tribute to dearly departed fads. So if you never got to say goodbye, this is your chance to hear their full stories and remember them as they’d want to be remembered: brand, spanking new.
Features:

The Unpredictable Life of Werner Heisenberg


By William S. Kirby
Physicist Werner Heisenberg was either a flat-out Third Reich sympathizer or the guy who saved the world from the Nazis’ nuclear wrath. Whatever the case, the man who won a Nobel Prize for his Uncertainty Principle was appropriately hard to pin down. Read on as William Kirby mines the life and times of one of the most influential—and most perplexing—thinkers in history.

War Torn: Making Sense of Six Global Atrocities (Part II)


By Steve Wiegand
Israel and Palestine. Rwanda. East Timor. These words graze past our ears all the time, but we never bother to investigate. But as the stories receive more and more press, it gets harder to find unbiased accounts of the conflicts. In this second of a two-part series, journalist Steve Wiegand digs deep to fill us in on how three horrific situations got to be so bad.

The Little Emirate That Could


By Steve Wiegand
Remember that “small” party you threw in high school that somehow got out of control? Well, the emirate of Dubai feels your pain. What began as a simple project to diversify the tiny state’s economy has ballooned into an over-the-top, multimillion-dollar tourist industry featuring year-round ski slopes (in the desert!) and man-made island chains. But is all this high-rolling fun really good for Dubai’s culture? Flip to page 60 to find out.
scatter_brained:

Happily Ever After


By Laurel Mills and John Green
Once upon a time, there was a happy little magazine that lived in the deep, dark Forest of Facts. One day, the magazine had to carry a basket of goodies to the faraway Village of Readership. It was a terrifying journey, filled with pits of inaccuracy and thistles of painful metaphors. Thankfully, two fairy godpersons (named, whimsically enough, Laurel Mills and John Green) guided the magazine safely through, pausing just often enough to pick a few, ripe fairy tale facts to finish off this issue’s Scatterbrained.

Six Degrees of Ken Jennings:

Isaac Newton and Apple Computer


By Ken Jennings
left_brain:

How Fat Vaccines Will Work


By howstuffworks.com
Ain’t science grand? We’ve got shots to stop polio, tetanus, and smallpox. But obesity? Sure enough, Swiss scientists have identified a hormone that plays a big role in weight gain. More importantly, they’ve figured out a way to bottle an antidote in convenient vaccine form. So kick off those sneakers and let those gym memberships lapse; HowStuffWorks is about to give you the skinny.
spinning_the globe:
50-Cent Tour:

United Arab Emirates



My Big, Fat, Government-Subsidized Wedding: Why the UAE is Paying its Citizens To Tie the Knot


right_brain:
Underground Education:


Romancing the Throne


By Eleanor Herman
The general feeling about matrimony is that a man takes a wife for better or for worse. But when he takes a mistress, well, it’s usually for worse. Somehow, though, King Henri IV’s dalliance proved the exception. Read on as Eleanor Herman reveals how one mistress got involved in more than just one of the king’s affairs, and saved an entire nation in the process.

Six Degrees of Ken Jennings:


Kevin Bacon and Canadian Bacon


By Ken Jennings

Masterpieces:


Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint


By Elizabeth Lunday

Jasper Johns’ “Flag”


By Robert Cumming After another white Christmas has passed and before the next green spring can dawn, we tend to get a little blue. Luckily for us, we’re friends with that rouge-cheeked rogue Paul Davidson, who sprinkles golden sunshine everywhere he goes. Thanks to him, our lives are no longer colorless. Paul stuffed this issue’s Scatterbrained with a rainbow of facts—from the history of yellow journalism to the fine art of being “maroon-ed.” The result should leave you tickled pink.

plus_the usual departments:
[10]

Bizarre Museums


By Laurel Mills

[know-it-all]

The Letter 'G'



[know_your dough]

Fair Trade


By Robert Cumming

[the_dead guy interview]

Alfred Hitchcock



[the_quiz]