Mental Floss

LISTS

Westsylvania is just one state that never made the cut.

The road to our 50 states is littered with wannabe territories that couldn't wait to be admitted to the union, but never quite got there. Here are 12 states that could have been.

M Asher Cantrell
Simplify you day, one hack at a time.

Keep these life hacks in your back pocket to make your everyday chores easier, whether you have to clean, cook, organize, or just live more efficiently.

Madeline Raynor










A coronal mass ejection from the sun

Get ready to feel small: The sun is 99.8 percent of the mass of the solar system. Here are more colossal facts about our star.

David W Brown






Fool’s Cap World Map of the World

Odd cartographic creations like ‘Fool’s Cap Map of the World,’ ‘Leo Belgicus,’ and ‘The Porcineograph’ make the classic Mercator Projection look outright dull.

Lorna Wallace
Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us.’

HBO Max’s hit adaptation of the video game is back for its second season. Here‘s what you need to know, from who could have played Ellie and Joel to how the show brought the infected to life to what to expect in season 2. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Meredith Danko




St. Peter’s at night.

Whether you're Catholic or not, it's hard to argue with the claim that St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is an amazing feat of architecture and art.

Stacy Conradt


They had a date with fate—and Hollywood history.

You probably know that no one says “Play it again, Sam.” But there are probably a lot of other facts about this Hollywood classic that you might not know about.

Rebecca Pahle


One of many protests against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.

The deeply unpopular war led to the biggest and most consequential protest movement in U.S. history. Here are the key events and reactions.

Tim Brinkhof
A still from ‘Apocalypse Now.’

Some of our finest filmmakers have dramatized the war in a number of ways, from epic battles to deeply human portraits of violence and even the occasional comedy.

Matthew Jackson