Mental Floss

WEIRD

SportsLogos.net

Minor League baseball has been an American staple for over a century. Among the roughly 245 Minor League teams scattered across the nation, some have acquired some rather unusual names. Here are 11 of the oddest.

Mark Mancini
Nicap.org

How to spot a UFO from the ground: Look up. Do you see something that you cannot identify? You have spotted a UFO. Leonard Stringfield did a little better than that. Back in his Air Force days, he was a passenger on a cargo plane flying from Ie Shima to T

David W Brown
Illinois National Guard

The leg was buried with full military honors at Santa Anna's request; he then constantly reminded everyone that his loss was a representation of his dedication and love for Mexico.

Stacy Conradt




ThinkStock

We've all heard the phrase “hair of the dog,” but what about “scale of the snake” or “guts of the wasp”? Those aren't approved hangover cures, but they do describe actual ingredients found in alcoholic beverages.

Leah Shaffer


ThinkStock

Any child can tell you that banning something is almost a surefire way of piquing an interest in it. Some governments, however, decided that banning these unusual things was an easy fix for their problems.

Caisey Robertson


Open Library

Modern plastic surgery encompasses both cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, and has a history that goes much further back than our modern movie stars and beauty obsessions.

Arallyn Primm
Grand Gallimaufry

The Bubonic Plauge, also known as the Black Death, killed at least 75 million people on three continents. Described as the most lethal epidemic in history, the plague began in China in the 1330s and made its way through Europe from 1346 to 1353. In those

Bryan Dugan


ThinkStock

This might not be the time for the birds and the bees talk, but sometimes, when a man and a woman love each other, they have sex—but they don’t always do it to make a baby. In fact, sometimes, they are very much not in the market for a baby. So befor

Linda Rodriguez McRobbie






Getty Images

Getty Images You have to love a Wikipedia page bearing the goofy warning label: "This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Please do not take it seriously." That's how the brilliant Wikipedia:Deleted articles with frea

Chris Higgins
Getty Images

Like the Shaun of the Dead slogan says, "aim for the head." But before you start readying your zombie apocalypse weapon of choice, you'd better find out if you're going to get in trouble for taking out the infected. According to San Diego criminal lawyer

Jill Harness


Getty Images

One of the biggest news stories of 2012 has been the so-called Miami Zombie attack, where one man—theorized to be on bath salts—attacked a homeless man and gnawed on his face. But lots of other terrifying things happened all over the world this year that

M Asher Cantrell


While museums dedicated to Spam and barbed wire are strange in their specificity, some museums are just plain bizarre in their subject matter. Here are some of the weirdest museums ever curated. 1. Leila’s Hair

Jill Harness


Turbo B and Penny Ford, featured performers on "The Power" On July 5, 2011, the 39-story "Techno-Mart" mall in Seoul, South Korea shook for ten minutes, causing a two-day evacuation and an investigation. The cause of the tremors? Seismic experts conclu

Chris Higgins


Gripsholm Castle in Sweden

Swedish blogger Ulrika Good posted a story about a king and his lion that captured the internet, and turned a Swedish meme into an international sensation. She later put up an English version to replace the rough Google translation many were using. King F

Miss Cellania
iStock

At the risk of accidentally sounding biblical, we regret to report that gnomes have been banished from the garden.

Linda Rodriguez McRobbie