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Reader Adam from Fairfax, Virginia, wrote in to ask, "How did the US states get their names?" This week, we'll be tackling the origins and meanings of the names, 10 states at a time. Let's kick things off with Alabama through Georgia.
1. Madison Hobley On January 6, 1987, Madison Hobley was awakened early in the morning by a blaring smoke alarm. He told his wife to get their baby son and then left the apartment to investigate the situation and help other tenants in their apartment bui
Before I disappear on paternity leave, we've got a few old contests we need to settle up. Our jury has reached verdicts in the following cases: Prizes: The Princeton Review's Best 373 Colleges and The Mental Floss History of the World Challenge: Submit t
We all know about Elvis, McCarthyism, Sputnik, the Korean War, Rosa Parks’ fateful bus ride, and Castro taking over Cuba – defining moments of the 1950s. In the decade itself, everyone was talking about now-forgotten moments like the Suez crisis, the “Bus
The Internet is abuzz about the picture of the giant goldfish that recently surfaced (haven’t seen it? Check out #1 below). Real or not real, there are plenty of other mammoth versions of animals out there. From huge hares to big bovines, here are 10 la
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s memoir, A Journey, is sparking all sorts of picketing and protesting around the U.K., so we thought it might be a good time to take a look at a few presidential memoirs from this side of the pond. Here are a few
Almost anything can be made into a fish tank IF you've got the room, the money, the time, and the dedication to make it work. If you don't, you can enjoy these projects others have put their hearts into for a beautiful display of fish. 1.
Clare Burson owns a piece of cheese that's 117 years old (pictured at left). It has survived wars, crossed continents, and now resides in her apartment in New York, sealed in a glass jar. Burson first learned of the cheese in 1999, when her grandmother
• "In recorded history, bananas date back to around 600 B.C.E., when they were mentioned in Buddhist texts. The fruit came to the Americas in the 15th century but wasn't regularly imported to the United States until later, following a showcase at the 1876
CONELRAD
As you might know, we’re kind of Disney freaks in this family. When you combine this with my love of obscure road trip stops, it’s rather astonishing that I grew up just two hours from Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri, and never once dropped
Last week we told you about some of the celebrity professors who have turned up on college campuses in the past. Today, let’s take a look at some big names who are going to be sharing their intellects and experiences with students during the current acad
Sometimes very private people wish to withdraw from the world, and they have that right. Yet some cases may be more than just personal choice. When there is a lot of money at stake and a very few people have access to an elderly recluse, the temptation to
Big, successful, first-novels are usually followed by more. But here are 7 that, for one reason or other, qualify their authors for the One-Hit Wonder category: 1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper
The internet is a strange, strange place—and the proof is in the weird fan art dedicated to actor Nicolas Cage. Here are some of our favorites.
You might think that the death of a famous person would be relatively easy to double check before reporting it—but you would be wrong. For hundreds of years, the news has been jumping the gun on the deaths of some of our most celebrated personalities, so
