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Even better than a Labradoodle

Ever since I sawÂ these pictures on Cute Overload last week, I've been trying to convince my landlord that it would be acceptable for me to have a pet alpaca. Our building doesn't allow cats and dogs, much less large South American ungulates, but on the other hand, according to Wikipedia,Â alpacas are well suited to domestic life: 1. They're already house-trained! "To help alpacas control their internal parasites they have a communal dung pile, which they do not graze. Generally, males have much... READ ON

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iShouldn't

Sure, I could talk about the evolution of toilet paper, from wood bits to hay to American Joseph Gayetty's landmark decision to make a New York toilet paper factory in 1857 and print his name on every single sheet, but all of that seems to come up short in relation to this newfangled toilet paper holder. Get yours today here (link via... READ ON

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Also, I love that they talked about the weather

This little story sounds like it's straight out of our magazine: 1. It's about mental_floss mascot Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and their legendary meeting-of-minds. 2. It also involves Arthur Schopenhauer, John Lennon, and Brigitte Bardot. 3. It refers to Freud as "a crotchety old cokehead." Presented with no comment, because jeez, how can I improve on... READ ON

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Is this really a movie?

Â ... READ ON

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Watercooler chat in honor of Alexander the Great

Alex died on this day in 323 B.C. We've got lots of interesting bits on Alex in our new Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets book. Here are a couple you probably haven't heard: In all likelihood, Alexander's tomb does not contain Alex himself. The emporer Ptolemy took Alexander's body and brought it to Alexandria, where it was on display for a long time. But the body was lost and its current whereaboutsÂ is unknown. Don't you just hate it when you misplace a body? Ever wonder where Ty Cobb got his name? Me... READ ON

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More Gore

While on the Gorey train, here's a curious fact I discovered on The Progressive Review's site: In college, Gore's roommate was future actor Tommy Lee Jones and the two became great friends. At the end of their freshman year, Gore, Jones and several of their other friends put together a traveling musical show where Gore was the standup comedian. They called themselves Tommy Lee Jones and the Ben Hill County Boys and had one performance at Wellesley College. Talk about a Motley Crue. Oh wait, sorry, wrong... READ ON

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Those Wacky Germans

One of my favorite leisure activities is watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which admittedly aired like two weeks ago but in my defense I've been getting married and moving and weeping vociferously re. the United States national soccer team's loss to the Czeck Republic. At any rate, any serious speller (and I myself was third runner up in the Audubon Park Elementary School spelling bee as a fourth grader) knows that the German is the Everest of languages. This year, for instance, both the... READ ON

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Reason #564 why I'd fail the "So You Wanna Be a Buddhist Monk?" test

According to a Reuters article, "Phnom Penh patriarch Non Nget has told Cambodia's 40,000 Buddhist monks to remain passive while watching World Cup soccer games or be defrocked."... READ ON

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Why You Can't Hear Me Now

I've seen this home-made iPod charger all over the place today (I first saw it posted at Popgadget). And while the idea of being able to charge your iPod on the go with a couple of batteries is pretty darn appealing, I was even more fascinated by the inventor. A former MIT grad student, Limor Fried designed the thing, but amongst her other brilliant inventions is a totally illegal cellphone jammer (it was part of her thesis)! The idea is simply that when you're sitting next to an annoying... READ ON

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A rare moment of seriousness

The January/February issue of mental_floss featured an unusually sober, and sobering, article -- the second in a series on global conflicts -- that explained the reasons for the Rwandan massacres of 1994. It was written in clear, straightforward terms, and I remember thinking at the time that maybe tragedies of such magnitude demand that kind of description; there's no point in cluttering it with overblown rhetoric because the atrocities speak for themselves. That thought was in the back of my mind again... READ ON