May 2012
54 posts
What Exactly Is Quicksand?
Clear your schedules! Today we’ll be answering 20 big questions just like this one on mentalfloss.com.
Twenty years ago today, The Real World made its...
Twenty years ago tomorrow, Johnny Carson ended his Tonight Show run.
Today Mr. T Turns 60
Happy birthday, Laurence Tureaud!
Here he is playing the White House Santa in 1983.
Why Do Paper Cuts Hurt So Much?
Paper cut image via Shutterstock
Matt Soniak answers another one of life’s big questions.
Cakes Based on Kids’ Books and Characters
See More: 11 Cakes Based on Kids’ Books, Movies and TV Shows
Beyond Battleship: 3 More Board Game Movies in the...
“It’s like Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy.”
When Facebook introduced the News Feed in 2006,...
© Rick Friedman/Corbis, 2004
There were protests and petitions (on Facebook). TIME called it “Gen Y’s first official revolution.”
Pictures of Things That Kids Eat
Here’s a round-up of niche blogs documenting school lunches around the world and other kid-food adventures.
14 Essential Talking Points About The Berenstain...
With 300-plus titles in print and more than 260 million books sold, the Berenstain Bears are bound to come up in conversation. Here’s how to steer a predictable discussion about teamwork and manners to one on sex and panda discrimination.
10 Uninhabited Islands and Why Nobody Lives on...
A tour of abandoned and uninhabited islands around the world.
We Lost Jim Henson 22 Years Ago Today
Image Via zhurnaly [Flickr]
Here are some touching and heartbreaking clips from his memorial services.
12 Really Forced Portmanteaux That Didn't Catch On
Scandiknavery (deceit or trickery by Scandinavians)! Balloonatic (a person who is balloon-mad)! Saccharhinoceros (a lumbering person with an excessively effusive or affectedly sentimental manner)! Alcoholiday (leisure time spent drinking)!
For whatever reason, these words never caught on.
Who Said It: @JoseCanseco or Gertrude Stein?
Gertrude Stein is emblematic of a literary and artistic era, with the rhythmic cadence of her poetry underlining a naked self-expression.
Jose Canseco slugged 462 dingers and is now known on Twitter for his candid insight, bouts of oppressive confidence tempered by poignant disclosures of self doubt, and an ever-turbid relationship with the ethereal but “so hot” Leila Shennib...
War Elephants vs. Flaming Pigs
War elephants were the tanks of their time. Their tough hides were nearly impervious to arrows, and their giant size made them perfect for trampling through enemy lines. In 331 BCE, Alexander the Great was so nervous about the Persian army’s pachyderms that he made a sacrifice to the God of Fear the night before battle. The mighty elephants’ reputation only grew when, in 218 BCE, Hannibal set...
John Adams on Being the First Vice President
“My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
No matter how many mistakes your mother may have...
Image courtesy of Luke Bryant’s Flickr stream.
The 9 Worst Moms of the Animal Kingdom
The Founder of Mother's Day Later Fought to Have...
Years after she founded Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis was dining at the Tea Room at Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia. She saw they were offering a “Mother’s Day Salad.” She ordered the salad and when it was served, she stood up, dumped it on the floor, left the money to pay for it, and walked out in a huff. Jarvis had lost control of the holiday she helped create, and she was crushed by...
Music Cures Everything
REUTERS/PETR JOSEK/LANDOV
Well, maybe not everything. But low birth weight, the effects of brain damage, illiteracy, droopy plants, teen loitering, sluggish alcohol sales…
Read More: 11 Problems Researchers Think Music Can Solve
11 Countries Where Same-Sex Marriage is Legal
© Kimberly White/Corbis
On Tuesday, North Carolina voted to amend their constitution making gay marriage illegal. In response, on Wednesday President Obama came out in support of same-sex marriage. It will probably be a long time before anything is decided here, but eleven other countries have already legalized gay marriage. Here are their stories.
11 Nineteenth-Century VP Candidates Who Vaguely...
If you’re writing a movie about Grover Cleveland’s VP or James Buchanan’s running mate, James Hamblin has found the perfect actors.
