Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

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Some people are like homing pigeons: Drop them off anywhere, and they’ll find their way around. Other people, though, can’t tell when they’re holding a map upside down. Are the directionally challenged just bad learners? Or are some of us just lucky to be

Lucas Reilly
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Before Sochi was selected as the host of the 2014 winter Olympics, not many people had heard of it, so it didn't have a widely known English pronunciation.

Arika Okrent


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Caffeine isn’t the kickstarting jitter-drug you think it is. If anything, it’s a sneaky imposter.

Lucas Reilly


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Super Bowl XLVIII is this weekend, and both teams have already selected their designated uniforms for the occasion. But have you ever wondered why we call these athletic garments “jerseys” in the first place?

Mark Mancini


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“Squatter’s rights” isn’t a list of specific rights, but refers to a specific form of adverse possession, a legal principle that we inherited from England and has been around, in one form or another, for ages.

Matt Soniak


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Leaving aside for now the few foreign loanwords (e.g., Qatar, Iraq) where Q shows up without a U, an English Q is the only letter that can't go anywhere without a partner. Why does a Q always need a U? We can blame it on a whole bunch of our alphabetic an

Arika Okrent
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Kind of. Boredom won’t directly kill you on its own, but it does make it more likely that a handful of other things will put you six feet under.

Matt Soniak
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The term is mainly used figuratively today, but in the past it depended on whom you asked as different cultures gave different answers.

Matt Soniak
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Facial hair is a symbol of virility and wisdom (not to mention a wonderful enhancement to a male body). But that doesn't mean a man who suffers from boy face—meaning, he can't cultivate a beard—isn't wise or manly. So why can't some men grow facial hair?

College Weekend






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From reality TV shows to The Beach Boys’ croons of Aruba and Jamaica, references to honeymoons are everywhere. But where did the term "honeymoon" first come from?

DeAnna Kerley


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When we pull an all-nighter to study for a test or put together a presentation, we assure ourselves we’ll just make it up later—but can you really catch up on lost sleep?

Caisey Robertson
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If you’ve got a receding hairline, don’t be so quick to blame it on your baseball caps or your grandpa.

DeAnna Kerley
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When it comes to buying canned vegetables, we usually find the same handful of choices: peas, beans, corn, carrots, beets, tomatoes. Why don’t we see broccoli or green peppers in a handy-dandy can?

Kara Kovalchik


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We’ve all heard it before: A deafening squeal coming from the speakers at a concert or event that causes everyone in the audience to plug their fingers in their ears and shout, “Make it stop!”

Sean Hutchinson


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Winter is officially here, and for those of you at more northern latitudes, you know what that means: snow and ice. And while walking in a winter wonderland is certainly wonderful, slipping and sliding can mean some nasty injuries.

DeAnna Kerley


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Birthday cakes have been a tradition since the Ancient Romans were around, and celebrating someone’s birth with a delicious pastry seems pretty logical. But have you ever wondered who the first pyromaniac was to light a cake on fire?

DeAnna Kerley


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There’s only one thing in this world shaped like an egg. Not exactly spherical, not exactly an oval, it’s kind of hard to describe what an egg looks like. “Asymmetric tapered oval”? Sure, why not.

DeAnna Kerley