Who Flew Before the Wright Brothers?
Orville and Wilbur Wright are generally credited with being the first in flight. Whether that's true depends on your definition of "flight."
Orville and Wilbur Wright are generally credited with being the first in flight. Whether that's true depends on your definition of "flight."
Last week, mental_floss asked for input on three possible covers for the upcoming magazine issue. The one featuring president Theodore Roosevelt was the favorite among commenters. I don't know which cover was selected, but it made me think of the many way
Just a couple of weeks ago, Randall Munroe of xkcd posted aerial photographs of Boston he took with his Kite
I came across this story last week about a man being prosecuted for making moonshine, which got me to thinking; do people still make moonshine? It turns out the "business" is still in practice, breaking the bank all the way. However, instead of the three-
Listen, kids, we're going on an educational vacation this year! Now, before you moan and groan, we are going to learn about pirates, and airplanes, and Indians, and ...
I was watching someone's excellent sketch audition reel the other day, and almost completely lost it during one of his requisite animal characters--it was an impersonation of a certain pupating insect, and it was genius. I'll post as soon as it's publi
When the Eiffel Tower was first built, it was the tallest building in the world. At 986 feet, it was almost twice as tall as the previous tallest building, the Washington Monument. It wasn't until 1930 that the Chrysler Building in New York surpassed the
If Momma refuses to let you spend your allowance at the tattoo parlor, maybe you should drop some history, and let her know just how "useful" a tattoo can be. Tattoos as Telegraphs The Tattoo: secret messages The Tattooed: slaves The Reason: It beats pay
HARPER LEE Most one-book authors are one-book authors for a reason: They die before they can crank out a second. (Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind comes to mind.) It seems Harper Lee, however, just plain doesn't want to write anymore. In the 1950s,
First: Get Embroiled in a Love Triangle Lord Edward Bruce loved Venetia Stanley. So did Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset. This being 1613, the disagreement quickly turned to impassioned slapping, which was, of course, an invitation to duel to the death. S
Really. Joe Kissell at Interesting Thing of the Day says: "During World War II, German submarines, known as U-boats, kept very busy blowing up allied ships in the Atlantic—particularly those bound for Europe with supplies from North America. The U-b
I love it when reporters do our job here at the _floss. By that I mean, I like when they jam a whole bunch of interesting factoids into an article so I don't have to bother culling them from five different places (okay, maybe not five, but still"¦). Well,
Keeping on the Nobel path from this morning, it's just about time for the 16th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Awards. The ceremony will take place this Thursday, the 5th of October, at the Sanders Theater, Harvard University. You might recall the Ig Nobels
Years ago, I went to go see Spike Lee talk about his then-new movie Bamboozled at a campus forum, and I was stunned to hear about how he had planned on using animation in the film. While I have yet to see the movie (and I think there is a section in the f
I don't know about where you all live, but here in LA, more and more tattoo removal parlors are opening up around town. Which might make you think ink is passé, right? Well, not for celebs. In fact, Heather Locklear, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie all emer
The summer of 2001 was spent searching for Chandra Levy, mourning Mr. Belvedere, and pardoning Microsoft. But on the second Tuesday of September, a mere twenty months after widespread wisecracks the world might end on Y2K, the world did. Now it's almost
So I'm getting ready for a week-long trip to NYC, putting together a "To Do" list and checking out what shows are happening at which museums. It's kind of curious: I lived in NYC for close to 15 years and only got to each of the big museums a handful of
You probably know the Greek mathematician Archimedes as the guy who figured out how buoyancy worked, leapt from his bath yelling "Eureka!," and ran through the streets of Syracuse as naked as Will Ferrell in, oh, any of his movies. But don't judge him bas
With all the beer and sports around here (just 10 more hours left to enter our contest!), it's getting a little testosterone-y. So I thought I'd draw your attention to this wonderful piece in the Guardian about Emilie du Châtelet, intellectual femme fata
What better way to end your workweek than with a dose of complete and utter slackitude? That is, if you're even still at the office. Yeah, we saw you trying to sneak out early, but we know you were just trying to emulate these guys: Famous Figures Who Ne
If you haven't eaten lunch by now, you might want to do that right now, because you're certainly not going to want much to eat or drink after reading these thorougly unappetizing and cautionary tales from Forbidden Knowledge. Hey, don't say we didn't warn
It's well established on this blog that I'm fascinated by bank robberies. (Not that I'd ever steal anything except copyrighted images and the occasional MP3 myself, no sir.) Thus, for your second installment of Forbidden Friday, I present to you: Great B
The Times reports today that scientists are reconstructing the Neanderthal genome, which has led to lots of debate about whether we should clone one, were that possible. Putting aside what society would actually do with a cloned Neanderthal (put him in so
So I just went down to get the mail and was once again completely overwhelmed with the amount of coupons in my mailbox. There were so many colorful circulars, both glossy and newsprint, for the most inane products and services (honestly, do I really need