Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

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The legal pad got its start in 1888, and it's still a best-seller at office supply stores. But why exactly did that yellow tint become popular?

Matt Soniak
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Did the Nazis Have a Secret Antarctic Fortress? Like many conspiracy theories, there are some elements of truth to it all. But whether the facts can be woven together into one cohesive narrative without having to make great leaps of logic is another matte

Matt Soniak


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The Gideon Bible is not some special version or translation of the Bible that hotels really like (the books are usually plain old King James Versions); they're named for the group that distributes them.

Matt Soniak




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Chocolate is toxic to dogs and a number of other animals because it contains alkaloid chemicals called methylxanthines - namely, theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine) and caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine).

Matt Soniak


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Point-blank is the range at which a given weapon/ammunition combination can be fired at the center or vital area of a given target and hit it without the shooter having to adjust the elevation of the weapon to account for the effect of gravity on the proj

Matt Soniak

You hear the term all the time, but is there really anything special about grand juries? Not on the surface. Like a regular trial jury, a grand jury is selected and sworn in by a court, and are often, in fact, pulled from the same pool of people as trial

Matt Soniak




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So I'm up in Seattle this week, staying at a hotel some blocks from the original Starbucks (which, it turns out, isn't REALLY the original, but rather the second location, which was situated better for marketing purposes, but who's counting).

David K. Israel




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Various people had their hands on it, but the credit for the bulk of the pledge goes to Francis Julius Bellamy, a Baptist minister from New York.

Matt Soniak


Stephanie and her curious two-year-old want to know why we sometimes say “Holy Mackerel!” Unfortunately, the answer is about as clear as the tomato sauce Brits like to douse the fish

Stacy Conradt


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The circling thing is a relic of domestic dogs' wild past, a bit of hard-wired behavior that hasn't been bred out yet. Biologists and dog experts say that it might just be a strange quirk for domestic pooches, but for wild dogs and wolves, circling before

Matt Soniak


Consider the following ingredient lists:McDonald's Fancy Ketchup: Tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavors (vegetable source).Heinz: Tomato concentrate from red ripe t

Matt Soniak


The alphabet, as best as historians can tell, got its start in ancient Egypt sometime in the Middle Bronze Age, but not with the Egyptians. They were, at the time, writing with a set of hieroglyphs that were used both as representations of the consonants

Matt Soniak

We don't want to spoil anything from this season of Breaking Bad for those who haven't seen it. But for the floss readers curious about lily of the valley, a plant that played a part in Sunday's season finale, we're happy to talk botany. Read on at your o

Matt Soniak