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Mental Floss
Restaurants are ideal places for spies to ply their trade, as there’s plenty of ambient noise, a nice crowd to throw things off, and food to go around, which tends to alleviate stress. Here are five restaurants where tradecraft was the daily special. 1.
David W Brown|
Babies sure are cute. But do they make good world leaders? Here’s a peek at some of history’s youngest rulers and their reigns.
Lucas Reilly|
In 2001, Belgian schools waged a new front in the war against childhood obesity. In an effort to keep kids away from sugary drinks, a plan emerged to swap soda and lemonade for a healthy alternative: beer.
Julia Davis|
Under J. Edgar Hoover, everybody who was anybody had an FBI file. Here are some interesting things we found while poking around their archives.
Lucas Reilly|
Many great rock songs have been the result of a lyricist finding inspiration in the pages of a book.
Stacy Conradt|
With gas prices continuing to jump up and down, there's increasing attention on finding viable alternative fuels. You may know all about electric cars or natural gas, but what about the coffee car? Here are some unusual alternative fuels that could find t
Jason Plautz|
Last summer Bill DeMain shared 15 nuanced words and expressions that simply can’t be said in English. Haley Sweetland Edwards gave you 14 more last fall. It seems no matter how great the English language is, there are plenty of mots justes missing from it
Romy Oltuski|
Despite photographic evidence and eyewitness accounts, these tales of time travel were too good to be true.
Bill DeMain|
Installment #30: August was a bad month for the Ottoman Empire, as the Albanian rebellion reached its climax and ethnic tensions between Bulgarians and Turks exploded, literally, with a terrorist bomb attack on the marketplace of a small town named Kochan
Erik Sass|
The big countries don't always bring home the gold or the glory. Here's a look back at Olympic performances from underdog nations.
Orrin Konheim|
We often think of American presidents as butts of jokes, the muses for mockery, and the subjects of satire. But every once in a while, our commanders-in-chief (or their speechwriters) come up with a few witty wisecracks of their own. Saturday is President
Julia Davis|
To help prepare soldiers for the overwhelming nature of invading a country where the language is unknown and the culture is mostly alien, the U.S. Army invents fully realized countries, from international dynamics to currency.
David W Brown|
For some athletes, the Olympics aren’t just a competition: they’re a chance to escape oppression. Earlier this week, seven of Cameroon’s athletes disappeared from London’s Olympic Village. The week before, three runners from Sudan’s Olympic training squad
Lucas Reilly|
Installment #29: August 7, 1912, was a busy day in one of the most complicated presidential elections in U.S. history. The election of 1912 would see not two, not three, but four presidential candidates face off in a fierce, but genteel, contest that divi
Erik Sass|
Throwing rice at a newly married couple has been a tradition for thousands of years, possibly going back as far as the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians. Are birds suffering from our holy matrimonies?
Matt Soniak|
Stockbyte/John FoxxBefore Curiosity landed on Mars, the main topic of discussion among amateur astronomers was the blue Moon that is scheduled to make an appearance on August 31. The widely accepted definition of a blue Moon is a full Moon that appears tw
Kara Kovalchik|
If you like beer, and like it in large quantities, this might be a familiar scenario: You sit down at the bar, get a beer and drink it. You drink another one. Maybe a third. Things have gone well up to this point, but now you have to pee. So you go. Once
Matt Soniak|
From Bambiraptor to Gluteus Minimus.
Miss Cellania|
Twenty years ago, Reebok introduced us to "Dan and Dave." Once American sports fans moved beyond their game of word association -- "Who?" -- the two men involved became part of one of the most memorable marketing campaigns in history despite a letdown of
Bud Shaw|
You’ll need more than a map and a shovel to find these cultural gems. But trust us, it will be worth the effort.
Ethan Trex|
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