#Mental Floss

[phoenixyfriend]

I have begun watching The New hbomberguy Video

There's some fun bits, like "Where does--and I mean this as a compliment--the most fuckable twink I've ever seen in my life get off telling me how to manage my T-levels?"

But like... man.

I think one of the things that bother me about the Internet Historian case is that it seems like, if the guy had just reached out to Mental Floss, it could have been a really cool collaboration.

He could have just. Fucking asked. Cross-advertized it with the magazine telling their readers "Now this fan favorite is narrated by [internet famous person] with some amazing animation, based on the writing of [our guy.]"

#also fun: My parents never took me to a psychologist so I assume that's normal. #and the tight rage of 'THIS VIDEO IS ABOUT JAMES SOMERTON.' #phoenix liveblogs #hbomberguy #plagiarism #phoenix talks #internet historian #mental floss

[corin-tuckers-left-one]

The thing that I don't get with the new Hbomberguy video is that if the Internet Historian had just been like, "hey, I read your article and I thought it'd be really cool to do an animation and narration for it" I wouldn't put it totally outside the realm of possibility that the people at Mental Floss would've done it. Guy's tarnished any further career now because he was too lazy to just ask first.

#hbomberguy #internet historian #man in cave #mental floss

[decorativecollar]

I hadn't watched the video by the internet historian but the original article is very good, check it out! Other works by Reilly are also very interesting

#cave rescue #lucas reilly #mental floss #sand cave #internet historian #to read

[royalpain16]

Princess Ingrid Alexandra, age 19, is second in line to the throne of Norway, after her father, Crown Prince Haakon. She is expected to become the second queen of Norway, although she would be the first Norwegian-born woman monarch. Margaret I—who reigned in the late 14th and early 15th centuries over the union of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden—was born in Denmark. Because Norway amended its constitution in 1990 to follow absolute primogeniture, Ingrid Alexandra remains ahead of her younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, in the line of succession.

Like the other princesses, Ingrid Alexandra balances her official life with personal pursuits. In 2016, the then-12-year-old princess lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympics in Lillehammer and two years later christened Norway’s new research vessel, the Crown Prince Haakon. For her 18th birthday in 2022, the princess received her own office at the Royal Palace, her family’s official residence in Oslo. She also posed for her 18th birthday portrait wearing a tiara—a family heirloom—for the first time.

Education will be Ingrid Alexandra’s primary focus over the next few years, but she’ll presumably make time for some of her favorite sports, including skiing and surfing. The princess won a gold medal in the national women’s junior surfing championship in 2020. Ingrid Alexandra also went skydiving for the first time just after her 19th birthday.

- Samantha Drake

#princess ingrid alexandra #norwegian royal family #queens of europe #future queens #2023 #mental floss

[hailieshapedbox]

BURNWELL

#burnwell #dog walker #albert walker #chemdawg 91 #grand hindu #hindu kush #grand daddy purple #mental glue #mental floss #gorilla glue #life #love #trippy #drugs #smoke #weed #marijuana #cannabis #420 #710 #stoner #hippie #blunts #joints #bong rips #girls who rip bongs #girls who smoke weed #weed strains #explore #expand

[thatfantasylovingdork]

BWAHAHA HE CAN’T GO ON A PLANE NO WONDER STARSCREAM HATES HIM

#megatron #gun ownership #mental floss #trivia #funny #transformers #maccadam

[road2nf]

All nerds need a community of other nerds. Otherwise we tend to allow the rest of society to convince us that there’s something wrong with who and what we are. We start to forget that we are awesome, which easily leads us to forget to be awesome.

I haven’t been a Nerdfighter for very long. It was probably about a year ago that a friend showed me Mental Floss, which I enjoyed and watched sporadically, clueless that John did anything else and that Hank even existed.

It was only late December 2013 that I discovered SciShow and thereby came to know and love Hank. I wouldn’t say I was a Nerdfighter though until February of this year, when I found the Vlogbrothers channel.

Prior to that, I thought John and Hank were cool dudes, but now I am addicted to Vlogbrothers videos, I own a copy of TFiOS that has collected my tears and been passed on to my sisters, I have pictures on facebook of me doing the Nerdfighter gang sign thing, etc.

So yeah, I’m kinda new here, but in my few months so far as a Nerdfighter, I feel like the world sucks a bit less just knowing that there is a community of people who proudly call themselves nerds, are committed to viewing the world and the people in it complexly, and work together to try and make the world suck less.

All nerds need a community of other nerds. Otherwise we tend to allow the rest of society to convince us that there’s something wrong with who and what we are.

We start to believe that we shouldn’t let our intelligence show and that we shouldn’t like things enthusiastically and that being weird is bad.

We start to forget that we are awesome, which easily leads us to forget to be awesome.

In high school, I didn’t know anything of Nerdfighteria, but I had an entirely insane best friend, who helped me to worry less about what people thought about me, and I had Dustin, who did the morning announcements on Fridays and always signed off by saying “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome.” and that is how I made it through.

Humans are extremely complex, but humans are extremely predisposed to ignore the complexity of other humans and of the things other humans do.

All this does is screw humanity over.

At the core of most of the world’s problems are people not actually understanding the problem and people not understanding each other.

Even though their videos are short, John and Hank never just hand us basic summaries and generalizations of things. Instead, they always give us something to think about and invite us to discuss it further and share our questions and insights.

They help us remember that the truth resists simplicity, and they have created places on the internet where intelligent discussions of complex issues can be had without all intelligence being lost and buried at the bottom of an ocean of hater comments and trolling.

Kids and young adults are used to being talked down to by less young adults. but even though John and Hank are about twice the age of most of their audience, the way in which they address their viewers makes them feel less like teachers (in the way one generally thinks of teachers) or any other sort of authority figures and more like really cool, really smart, older brothers.

They don’t belittle your intelligence.

They don’t make you feel stupid for asking a question.

They don’t make you feel foolish or weak for asking for advice.

They’re people to whom young adults can look up but not feel inferior.

I get very anxious in real-life social situations, but if I ever get the opportunity to meet John and Hank, I don’t think I’d be all that scared to approach them.

-care623

#nerdfighters #nfstories #vlogbrothers #nerdfighteria #dftba #awesome #community #Mental Floss #SciShow #books #reading #TFiOS #the fault in our stars #question #to think #intelligence #advice #fear #feeling stupid #conversation #discussion #role models

[shakespearenews]

6. The History of Cardenio // William Shakespeare and John Fletcher

Approximately 543 English plays performed in commercial playhouses during the Renaissance have survived. That may seem like a large number, but according to David McInnis, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, “as many as 744 plays are identifiably lost, with hundreds more completely untraceable.” One of the most famous lost plays is William Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s The History of Cardenio, which was performed in 1613 and entered into The Stationers’ Register, a record that listed publishing rights, in 1653. It’s assumed that it was based on part of Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which features a character called Cardenio.

In 1727, editor and Shakespeare imitator Lewis Theobald staged a play called Double Falsehood, which was based on three untitled manuscripts Theobald claimed were the lost Cardenio. The next year, he published an edition of the play—but at some point, the manuscripts vanished and were ultimately never verified. While some academics have taken Theobald’s play at face value, others are skeptical of its authenticity. As Oxford University professor Tiffany Stern told the BBC, “If you look for Shakespeare in the work of a famous imitator, you will find Shakespeare whether he’s there or not.”

Paleographer Charles Hamilton suggested that a play known as The Second Maiden’s Tragedy (1611) may actually be Cardenio, but his claim gained little support; most commonly, that play is attributed to poet and playwright Thomas Middleton. Another Shakespeare play which has been lost to time is Love’s Labour’s Won, a possible sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost.

#history #lost plays #lost books #shakespeare #william shakespeare #plays #theater #theatre #mental floss #don quixote #cardenio #thobald #double falsehood #the second maiden's tragedy #thomas middleton

[jwood718]

Thanks to Indiana Landmarks for this story from Mental Floss:

“A Look Back at When Thanksgiving Was Basically Halloween” By Christopher Klein

Thanksgiving ragamuffins; Bain News Service c. 1910 (Library of Congress)

“Masked children roaming door-to-door, begging for treats. Well-lubricated adults dressing up for costume parties. Sounds like a normal Halloween—except it wasn’t. Less than a century ago, this was Thanksgiving. It seems as bizarre as decking the halls on the Fourth of July, but it’s true: For decades before World War II, Turkey Day was the day for putting on false faces.

...New York City brought the trend to the next level. Officials staged a regal annual parade to commemorate both Thanksgiving and the British evacuation of New York...Kids raided their parents’ wardrobes to join in the fun: Boys paraded in high heels and old evening gowns, as girls marched in over-size Prince Albert coats...So many kids were sporting tattered clothes and darkened faces on Thanksgiving that by the 1900s, it was known as Ragamuffin Day.”

This anecdote is surely supposed to inspire a reaction: “ When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a holiday in 1863, towns from Juneau, Alaska, to Tampa, Florida, began marking the date with masquerade balls. The Tombstone Prospector took note of 1890 costume prize-winner Miss Will Sneed, dressed as a gold mine ‘in a gown that would inspire even the most dejected prospector to try again.’”

One wonders just how much double entendre was written into that sentence.

Full story

#History! #Indiana Landmarks #thanksgiving #mental floss

[jhsharman]

I have a theory that Archie Comics had this page in storage, to be pulled out when the time came that they needed to fill a page. Because this is from Betty number 98, published in the year 2001. And, granted, the relationship has to trends is one beat behind The New York Times calling up Sub Pop for "Grunge slang terms" -- but they did get to it with the trend and lobbed up a smattering of references to "grunge", at the tail end and then a tad beyond its hipness and usefulness in terminology, from 1993 to 1995. And I gather things got moving in Betty number 6 when the… opposite of hip but can get compelling… writer Bob Bolling wrote (synopsis from comics.org):

At the "Persistent Pain" concert, Betty and Veronica compete for the title of "Miss Alternative Girl".

That was 1993. And somehow gets whatever it is you can call "alternative rock" 180 degree off. (Or maybe just 120 -- "Persistent Pain" is an amusing enough send-up, though it would tend to suggest maybe a Nine Inch Nails?).

And I am thinking that the editor, Victor Gorelick, just did not care enough to look at it closely. Because old fogey he may be, he probably would have known to nix the word. Though, I imagine the editors would then float "should we go with goth?". (Still a tad early to be near the customary end for " emo".)

It is worth pointing out, checking comics.org, all but one story in this comic book sees reprinting. The one story not republished? Archie meets none other than Phil Spector. Something which would not have been easy down the line -- unless he was called in for jury duty or managed a prison meeting.

#Archie Comics #Betty Cooper #Veronica Lodge #Grunge #Sub Pop #Persistent Pain #Victor Gorelick #Bob Bolling #2001 #Grunge slang #Mental Floss #Phil Spector #John Constanza

[venusianwonders]

Fun facts about the planet Venus by Mental Floss, from folkloric associations to weather on the planet

#planet venus #mental floss #venusian #venus #solar system #space #planets #planetary science #astronomy #astrobiology #astrophysics #astrogeology #phosphorus and hesperus #inanna #morning star #evening star #ufos #spacecore #vincent van gogh #greenhouse effect #astrochemistry #percival lowell #copper

[xtruss]

Why Is It So Common To See Just One Shoe, Not Two, On the Side Of The Road? Shoes Don't Always Mate For Life.

— By Mike Rampton | Apr 16, 2024 | MentalFloss.Com

What happened?/Gaiamoments/E+ Via Getty Images

Birdwatchers keep note of the birds they spot and train enthusiasts keep track of the various types of trains they see. But nobody ever seems to write down when they see an old shoe lying on the side of the road.

We’ve all seen it, though—perhaps hundreds of times: one shoe, on its own, somewhere a lone shoe has no business being.

It seems to make no sense. Of all the mistakes to make while accidentally preoccupied with other things, accidentally kicking one shoe off while strolling down the street and failing to notice it seems absurd. There are over 200,000 nerve endings in the average adult foot, so you would 100 percent realize if you’d absent-mindedly flung off a loafer.

Sadly, as with so many things, the truth about this errant footwear is pretty mundane: sometimes people just lose a shoe.

As a Reddit thread from several years ago details, there are more ways of losing a shoe than you might think—especially once a vehicle is involved. Based on the hundreds of responses from Redditors who have lost a shoe, one of the most commons reasons seems to be that people frequently use the roof of the car as a temporary resting place ... then get forgetful.

Say, for example, you’re changing out of a pair of muddy sneakers after a run, and rest your shoes briefly on the roof of the car before making some space where they won't get the car dirty. It’s apparently very easy to forget all about them and accidentally drive none the wiser. Yes, you’ve technically lost a pair of shoes, but it’s unlikely that someone is going to find them both in the same place; the more likely scenario is that each one of the two shoes will end up in different spots, allowing at least two people to experience the so-called “one-shoe phenomenon.”

Shoes can be ejected from moving vehicles, of course. According to Lifehacker: “People also tend to throw their shoes for some reason, especially kids.” Several parents shared similar stories about kids regularly throwing things out an open car window, shoes included. In some cases, Redditors shared tales of one car passenger throwing a shoe at another passenger out of frustration, and it accidentally finding its way out the window.

Anyone who has ever taken a National Lampoon’s Vacation-style trip where a family and all their belongings are crammed into the back of a car for nine or 10 hours at once will be familiar with the phenomenon of opening a door at a gas station and having a pile of your belongings tumble out—shoes possibly included. Similarly, a loose piece of footwear being carted around in a garbage truck could find its way overboard.

But motorized vehicles aren’t always part of the equation when it comes to a dropped shoe. A sleeping child being pushed in a stroller can easily, albeit accidentally, jettison a shoe without realizing it, as can the recipient of a piggyback or the inhabitant of a bike seat. Someone walking down the street with a pair of shoes in their not-fully-closed backpack or bag could also lose one without noticing.

However, there is another pretty logical reason why you only ever see individual shoes in the road, and not pairs. Depending on how many people see them, a pair of shoes might very likely be picked up by a passerby—to wear, sell, or even donate. A single shoe, however, is useless to most people. So there it stays, for people to pass and say to themselves, “Isn’t it funny how you only see single shoes by the road?”

#Shoe 👟 | On the Side of the Road #Shoes 👞 | Not Mate | For Life #Mental Floss

[royalpain16]

None of the princesses know better than 19-year-old Catharina-Amalia, the Dutch heir to the throne, that the perks of royal life come with drawbacks. Amalia, as she’s known, is the eldest child of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, and will be the fourth queen regnant since her great-great-grandmother Wilhelmina became the first queen of the Netherlands in 1890. 

Amalia—who has two younger sisters, princesses Alexia and Ariane—is the first Dutch princess to have had her place in the line of succession secured since birth; she was born in 2003, two decades after the Netherlands amended its constitution in 1983 to follow absolute primogeniture. As the heir apparent, she holds the title Princess of Orange. 

Amalia has publicly tried to navigate the delicate balance of carrying out her royal duties while pursuing “normal” activities for someone her age. When Amalia turned 18 in 2022, she became a member of the Netherlands’ Council of State. At the same time, the princess turned down the $1.8 million annual support she’s entitled to from the government as the heir apparent, saying she was currently doing nothing to earn it. That same year, Amalia began studying at the University of Amsterdam to earn a degree in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics. 

However, the princess’s university experience quickly took a frightening turn when a Dutch criminal group threatened to kidnap and assassinate her. Amalia moved back in with her parents in the royal palace in The Hague near Amsterdam and now attends lectures with a security escort. She has said she misses the freedom she had as a student living on her own.

- article by Samantha Drake

#princess caterina amalia #dutch royal family #the netherlands #queens of europe #future queens #2023 #princess amalia #mental floss

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

MentalFloss: "A Massachusetts Library System Will Let You Pay Fines With Cat Pictures"

“We at the Worcester Public Library are always looking for ways to reduce barriers,” Worcester Public Library executive library director Jason Homer told WBUR. “We know that a lot of people, unfortunately, through being displaced in housing, or life getting in the way in the global pandemic, lost a lot of materials.”

#Mental Floss #Worcester Public Library #WBUR FM #Paying Library Fines With Cat Pictures #Massachusetts Library System

[now-winter-comes-slowly]

#christmas #chinese food #jewish history #mental floss #articles #kirstin fawcett

[thoughtportal]

Condoms, 3D movies, the name Tiffany ... All of these things have been around a lot longer than you might think. On today's episode of The List Show, we're breaking down our favorite deceptively old things, from synchronized swimming to Juicy Fruit.

#video #mental floss #history #Youtube