Mental Floss

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Wellcome polio vaccine dropped on to sugar lump for child patient.

Go check those medical records to see if you’re vaxxed, and meanwhile, learn more about the polio with these nine facts.

Jennifer Billock




Postage stamps don't expire, but you also can't use some of them forever.

Can you really use that book of Elvis stamps you grabbed back in the 1990s? Yes, but there's a catch.

Jake Rossen








Heat waves are tough to endure.

The conditions for stifling heat are pretty easy to explain, and so is the solution: Keep cool.

Jake Rossen
A surprising amount of lost books have found their way into flames—sometimes courtesy of the authors themselves.

Every so often the literary world is rocked by the discovery of a work that was thought to be lost forever—but there are many books that remain lost to this day, much to the sadness of readers everywhere.

Lorna Wallace