World’s Strangest

Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your familiarity with city nicknames. If you’re lucky, your city will be one of the ten! If you’re unlucky, you’ll score 30% like I did. Link

By popular demand—and by “popular demand,” I mean “one guy who asked politely”—we’ll hold Office Hours again on Friday. In a newsletter last month, mental_floss co-founder Mangesh asked readers for suggestions about additions to our site. Good ideas poured in, and one person reminded me of something we used to do from time to time: “Remember when [...]

In a newsletter last month, mental_floss co-founder Mangesh asked readers for suggestions about additions to our site. Good ideas poured in, and one person reminded me of something we used to do from time to time: “Remember when you used to hold Office Hours and chat with readers via Instant Messenger? You should do that again. [...]

On the heels of last week’s iPad announcement, I had the good fortune yesterday of asking Chris Anderson via telephone what he thinks will happen to print magazines (and publishing in general) as we move further and further into a digital space. If you don’t know Chris, check out the current issue of Wired magazine [...]

Hooray! I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Neatorama has a new look (all you RSS readers, come take a look) and a couple of new features. First of all, I’d like to thank Nathan Mazur of Scared of Bees who did the new art for the blog. Nathan, as you may know, also designed some [...]

How well do you know US National Parks? Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will be easier if you’ve traveled a bit. You’ll be given a park name, and you identify where it is. Good luck; I only scored 50%. Link

Sisso the swift was found with a damaged wing seven months ago. The little bird has healed, but must learn to fly all over again with some inventive physical therapy. Sisso takes flying lessons suspended from a custom-made sling! The swift is being treated at an Israeli animal hospital and it is thanks to this ingenious [...]

This short piece originally appeared as a sidebar in the mental_floss book ‘In the Beginning: A Mouthwatering Guide to the Origins of Everything.’ Pretzel Logic One widely accepted account says pretzels were developed in 610 C.E. by an Italian monk. He baked the confections for children as an incentive to memorize scripture. In fact, the shape of [...]

I collect links to bizarre niche blogs. This one takes the cake for sheer randomness. Selleck Waterfall Sandwich delivers exactly what it says -a collection of images all combining actor Tom Selleck and a sandwich on a background featuring a waterfall. The site even has a theme song, if you can call it a song. [...]

Snow is just a bunch of ice crystals getting together, hanging out and having fun. So why is snow white when ice has no color? First things first, why are different things different colors in the first pla­ce? Visible light is made up of different wavelengths of light—from the shorter, violet ones to the longer, red [...]