Mental Floss

LISTS











On the set of 'The Haunting'

The haunted house is one of horror’s most time-honored tropes, a dark twisting of the place we call home into a maelstrom of terror and things that go bump in the night.

Matthew Jackson




Sugar skulls are just one part of Día de los Muertos.

In Latin America, el Día de los Muertos is a celebration of life and death, and an invitation for the deceased to return home once again to those who love them.

Roxana Becerril


Permafrost in Eastern Siberia.

About 11 percent of the Earth’s surface is perpetually frozen, though that will surely change as global warming continues.

Tim Brinkhof


Windsocks can tell you which way the bise blows.

Geographers and climatologists have a goody bag full of wonderful words that get super specific about wind.

Arika Okrent


Novelists have used everything from real killers to newsworthy hostage situations to literal white whales to craft their fiction.

Erin McCarthy