Mental_floss - November 2013
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Transcript of Mental_floss - November 2013
FEEL SMART AGAIN
®
2 5 M O S T P O W E R F U L W E B S I T E S
WHORULESTHE WEB?
It’s NOT Google!
Throw a Successful
Séance!P. 32
+ Revolutionary
Fall Cocktails
+ Our 2013 Internet Cat Power Ranking
GET RICH IN YOUR
SLEEP4 EASY WAYS!
The Show That Made
Breaking Bad Possible
P. 27
P. 54
P. 37
NOVEMBER 2013
VOLUME 12, ISSUE 7
MENTALFLOSS.COM
Pre-OrderPre-Order
a study Of first-wOrld PrOblems
that’s nOt really true, but it might make yOu feel better!
a study Of first-wOrld PrOblems
that’s nOt really true, but it might make yOu feel better!
available at &
What’s better than being rich?
Making fun of Whiney rich people.
What’s better than being rich?
Making fun of Whiney rich people.
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NOVEMBER 2013 • VOL. 12 ISSUE 7
The IndexThe Index
+ Which Internet cat
takes the mouse?
p. 45
ON OUR
COVER:
Illustration by Nicole McEvoy
The 25 Most Powerful
Websites of All Time!
37
48 54
The Secret Lives
of Sumo WrestlersSilicone implants, fraternity hazing, and
way too many naps
S C AT T E R B R A I N
11 Hair: making a fortune with a comb-over,
the ultimate showdown between blondes
and brunettes, and why hair goes great
with pizza
B E A M A Z I N G
20 A skimmable history of milk
21 A.J. Jacobs endorses angry Yelp-ing
22 Drink brandy! It’s your patriotic duty.
23 How to get 50,000 people dancing
24 Why Earth revolves around Stockholm
R I G H T B R A I N / L E F T B R A I N
27 What the heck is with Twin Peaks?
30 The Miss Cleo of Nintendo gamers
32 Houdini: not a fan of séances
35 Paramedics for whales
G O M E N TA L
60 A real live pilgrim!
61 Write better with the help of a bugle
63 Armloads of octopus knowledge
64 The mental_floss quiz
65 Which failed American colony are you?
In Your DreamsWhat is your brain doing
while you’re asleep? These
scientists know!
C O V E R S T O R Y
F E A T U R E S
D E P A R T M E N T S
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How a dumpy diner saved
network television
p. 27
The face of a digital power-
broker
p. 45
She still misses her
mullet?
p. 13
The face of a
Meet the Whale Whisperer.
p. 35
SCOOP!
The conjurer who almost
fooled Houdini
p. 32
Six Flags is the best
medicine.
p. 19
Nutritious and delicious. No,
wait. Just nutritious.
p. 20
Is he history’s greatest math
savant?
p. 63
p. 19
More Index!More Index!
A
Applejack 22
Asthma, cures for 19
B
Beard tax 13
Bikes, sturdy 52
Black, Michael Ian 41
Blonde Witch of Lime Street 33
Brandy 22
C
Castration, strategic 15
Cat,
Boxing 62
Edgar Allan Poe’s 61
From planet Bub Ub Bub 45
Grumpy 45
Keyboard 45
Cat’s Cradle 25
Comb-over, merits of 12
Cyberchondria 39
D
Dodger Stadium 23
Dreams, science of 54
Dwarves, dancing 28
E
Ectoplasm 33
Edison, Thomas 62
Evil spirits 53
F
Flowbee 15
G
Gallbladder, pigeons 15
H
Hair
As baked good 17
Beehive 16
Chonmage 51
’90s 28
“Rachel, the” 13
Hampster Dance 45
Houdini, Harry 32
I
Implants, scalp 51
Index cards, fancy 61
K
King, Stephen, nightmares of 57
Korean politics 43
L
LiveJournal, as political tool 40
Log Lady 29
M
Marriage, online 46
Math, in The Simpsons 63
Moose milk 20
Mouse, Mighty 64
N
Nap, reasons to 52, 56
Nintendo, and moral support 30
O
Octopuses 63
Organist, tips from 23
P
Pilgrim, professional 60
Pirate Party 44
Presidential cow 20
Protein, sources of 17, 51
R
Rather, Dan 46
Ross, Bob 13
S
Scientific American 15, 33
Séances 33
Sex lives
Fruit 22
Octopus 63
Sock puppet 41
Space, haircuts in 15
Sweden 24, 44
T
Twerking 42
Twin Peaks 27
V
Video games
Insomnia caused by 56
Strategies for 30
Vomitorium 60
Vonnegut, Kurt 25
W
Webcam, steamy 38
Weddings 46
Whales, clumsy 35
AL
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IF IDIOMS ARE TO BE TRUSTED, there are two kinds of optimists.
There’s the kind that can see the worth in what they’re given. Like
if someone brought Optimist A half a bucket of lemons, he’d see the
bucket as half-full. And then there’s Optimist B, the visionary who sees
that same half bucket of lemons as a quarter bucket of lemonade. For
years I’ve been the former—I would happily thank the lemon giver, but
I couldn’t always see the fruit’s full potential.
The Internet has changed me. When Kyle
McDonald of One Red Paperclip proved in
2006 that you could take an ordinary paper
clip and trade up until you got a house, I
started seeing the potential in everything.
Now I look at the tiny bowl of paperclips on
my desk and know I’m sitting on a real estate
goldmine. Other sites have infl uenced me as
well. Cats With Bread made me understand
that just looking at a cat and seeing it for all
its fuzzy glory isn’t enough—that cat has not
reached its potential until it’s put its head
through a piece of bread. Same with Selleck
Waterfall Sandwich. Could I look at a waterfall
and lose myself in the overwhelming beauty and serenity of God’s
powerful brush strokes? Sure. But I also see room for improvement:
how much better the scene would be if someone would just get Tom
Selleck and a hoagie in the mix.
What I mean is there’s no doubt that the Internet has had a
powerful and lasting impact on me. But from the list that begins on
page 37, written by Gawker superstar Adrien Chen, you can see it’s
had a pretty important impact on the world, too. Read it and let us
know if we missed anything. Don’t worry—we’ll only see the upside!
Enjoy,
Mangesh
VOLUME 12 , I SSUE 7 | NOVEMBER 2013
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EDITOR’S NOTE
LOOKING AT A
CAT AND SEEING
IT FOR ALL ITS
FUZZY GLORY
ISN’T ENOUGH.
Not the editor
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 7
All Hail Dessert
I thoroughly enjoyed your
article about ice cream
(“The Sweetest Revolution”).
Legend has it that when
my grandpa was young, the
kids in the family would run
outside during thunderstorms
to gather hailstones to fi ll up
the ice well of their hand-
crank ice cream churn!
—Kim Baum
Ice Cream Sailsman
Just fi nished Gillian Reagan’s
article, “The Sweetest
Revolution,” and had to thank
you for the memories of who
we in the small Alabama
town of Dothan called the
Ducking the Question
I hate to be a tape pedant,
but old-fashioned duct tape
hasn’t been used on ducts in
years and isn’t even acceptable
under current building codes.
So “duck” it is.
—Rick Garvia
A Sweet Savings Plan
Two years ago, my daughters
removed a Twinkie from its
wrapper, dated it, and set it
aside in a cupboard just to see
what would happen. The shelf
life of a Twinkie? Appears to
be infi nite.
—Mike Gross
Cleveland Mocks
(In “25 of the Most Pressing
Questions Answered!”
we predicted that Cleveland
fans will have to wait
another year for their
Super Bowl parade.)
Thanks for kicking us when
we’re down. Right through the
heart, mental_fl oss … right
through the heart. It’s a good
thing I like you.
—Sarah Shumaker
Sorry, Cleveland. At least
we love your local applejack
distillery! (See page 22.)
Pinky Dinky Man. Also, in
Panama City, Fla., we have an
ice cream boat that delivers
Push Pops, chocolate eclairs,
strawberry shortcakes, and
other frozen treats.
—Kay Keel
Where the Buf alo Dodge
Reading about The Oregon
Trail made me long for third
grade. I’ve tried playing newer
versions, but it’s just not the
same. I can still picture those
squirrels jerking across the
screen, evading my shot. Oh,
the pain of not being able to
carry back all the buffalo to
my starving family!
—Felicia Ramsey
FR
OM
TH
E W
EB
“KUDOS TO MENTAL_FLOSS FOR ASKING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS!” —@CALLAHAN_JEN
AL
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WE
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WIT
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AG
)
Short answer: Blame the closest Roman linguist.
For the full answer, go to mentalfl oss.com/pounds.
Why is “pound” shortened to “lb.”?
LETTERS
Mental Flaws
In last issue’s “The Legend of the Oregon Trail” we failed to cite as a source Jessica Lussenhop’s excellent 2011 City Pages article
“Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its path.” It was a serious flub on our part. We’re sorry, Jessica!
Reader mail makes us
feel all warm and fuzzy.
Send your thoughts on
the newest issue to
or tweet a comment
with #mentalfloss. If we
print your note, we’ll
send you a T-shirt.
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Joe Pompeo covers the
media beat for Capital New
York, but we gave him a more
surreal task: explaining what
made Twin Peaks a television
masterpiece (page 27). Joe’s
work has also appeared in The
New York Times, Bloomberg
Businessweek, and The New
York Observer.
Paolo Patrizi snapped such
amazing photographs of sumo
wrestlers’ highly disciplined
behind-the-scenes routines
of exercising, eating, and
napping that we had to share
his series “Gentle Giants”
(page 48). The Tokyo-based
photographer’s work has also
appeared in GQ, Vanity Fair,
and Panorama.
Adrian Chen explored the
darkest corners of the Inter-
net while choosing history’s
25 most powerful websites
(page 37), but he recovered
with the help of several
uplifting hamster videos.
Adrian is a senior writer at
Gawker. His work has also
appeared in Slate and Wired.
Ruth Beach may not live
near the ocean, but she was
still able to track down the
reverse Captain Ahab who
saves whales that get tangled
in dangerous nets (page 35).
Ruth has written for every-
thing from Skymall to page-
a-day calendars; right now,
she’s busy working on a series
of children’s books.
AL
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CO
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IN I
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SO
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ON
(JO
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OM
PE
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CONTRIBUTORS
Shamu
Owls
Miley Cyrus
Various Deschanels
… and a few indirect contributors who inspired this issue
ired e
8 mentalfloss.com November 2013
IkeaIkea
RZA
Cousin Itt
E. Honda
George Washington
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*EPA-estimated 26 city/35 hwy/29 combined mpg. Actual mileage will vary. **Requires 93-octane premium fuel.
Dillon Van Way
Dillon Van Way
Mark Kleis
Joe Nation
Dramatization*
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PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
Y B
Y R
OB
CU
LP
EP
PE
R
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 11
R A P U N Z E L’ S LOA D - B E A R I N G LO C K S aren’t just the stuff
of fairy tales. According to the Library of Congress, every strand
of human hair is strong enough to hold 3.5 ounces. And because
the average noggin is home to between 100,000 and 150,000
hairs, that means a human mane could potentially support upwards of 16 tons! But don’t start lifting anvils with your
French braid just yet—it takes only an ounce of force to pluck a hair from your scalp. So while you could throw down
your tresses the next time a dashing prince tries to rescue you, you’d be better off pointing him to a stepladder.
ROCK THAT COMB-OVER
BALDNESS CURES FROM HIPPOCRATES
TURN YOUR HAIR INTO PIZZA
BOB ROSS’S SECRET NEMESIS
HAIR
T H I S M O N T H ’ S T H E M E
MEET THE NEW
RAPUNZEL: YOU!
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I N J A PA N , G U Y S W H O S P O R T C O M B - O V E R S A R E C A L L E D “ B A R C O D E D U D E S ” F O R T H E I R D O M E S ’ L I N E D
A F T E R D E C A D E S of loyal scalp warming,
Frank Smith’s hair handed in its resigna-
tion in the 1970s. The Orlando, Fla., resi-
dent was distraught. He couldn’t stomach
the idea of donning a toupee, and a brief
shaved-head phase drew merciless taunts
from his pals. So one night, over a glass of
wine with his son Donald, Smith began
batting around some new ideas.
Comb-overs were nothing new, but
Smith and son landed on an extreme
variant that required growing out a ring of
hair around the entire head and sweeping
it over the dome in three sections. Frank
Smith was so pleased with the idea that he
successfully applied for a U.S. patent for
“Method of Concealing Partial Baldness.”
The Smiths hoped to monetize the trick
by marketing a spray that held the hairy
illusion in place. Sadly, the business was
a flop, but they didn’t walk away empty-
handed. In 2004, the duo received an Ig
Nobel Prize for their contribution to the
world’s bare pates.
King of the Comb-OverWhen a balding genius perfected a method of scalp coverage, he had no choice but to patent it.
ILL
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BY
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IRC
HN
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THE BOTTOM LINE:
HAIR
12 mentalfloss.com November 2013
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ILL
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A P P E A R A N C E S . T H E H U M A N B O D Y H A S A P P R O X I M AT E LY F I V E M I L L I O N H A I R F O L L I C L E S . R O L L I E F I N G E R S R E F U S E D T O
Why Does Hair Turn Gray? N O M AT T E R W H AT D E F E N S E S YO U E M P L OY, if you wait around long enough, gray hair is going
to sneak up on you. Every hair follicle contains specialized cells called melanocytes that create the
pigments that determine hair color. As we age, these cells gradually become less active until they die
off, leaving behind pigment-free white manes. Since graying is inevitable, the only question is when
your color will start fading. While genetics are a major determinant, pollution, chemical exposure, and
smoking can speed up the process. Just another reason to quit cigarettes: You’ll live longer—and with
better hair!
THE TAXMAN
SHAVETHYour facial topiary may be overgrown, but at least it’s not illegal!
Even the greats make rookie mistakes. During the first year of her reign, Elizabeth I decided to maintain a beard tax devised by her father, Henry VIII. Men who let their stubble flourish for more than two weeks were required to pay the government three shillings and four pence. Setting aside the dif iculties of precisely measuring the growth, Britain’s bearded men laughed of the charges, and the tax was never enforced.
Nearly 200 years later, Tsar Peter I of Russia waged a similar war on whiskers. After touring Europe in 1698, Peter grew convinced that Russia needed to modernize. He imposed sweeping reforms—upgrading the military, ending arranged marriages, and forbidding beards. When his initial ban was no more successful than Elizabeth’s, he instituted a progressive beard tax that charged aristocrats more than commoners. Taxpayers carried a “beard token,” a small silver or copper coin that served as their tax receipt. Russian razor salesmen rejoiced until the tax’s repeal in 1772.
The mullet has stood the test of time. In the Iliad, Homer describes a warrior tribe that’s business in the front, party in the back.
Hairstyles of the Rich and FamousWe swipe our hairstyles from celebrities, but where do stars find their trademark looks?
THE BOB ROSS
It’s hard to imagine the af able painter hating anything, but Bob Ross loathed his iconic perm, a style he originally adopted to save money as he traveled the country giving painting lessons in shopping malls. But after Joy of Painting debuted in 1983, Ross grew to appreciate the look’s market-ing appeal, and he kept the happy cloud of hair.
THE CARRIE FISHER
Fisher’s rebellious Princess Leia borrowed her swirled side buns from another group of activists. In an interview with Time, George Lucas described the hairdo’s origin: “I went with a kind of Southwestern Pan-cho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico.”
THE LARRY FINE
The frizzy Stooge got his famous locks by accident. Fine was wash-ing his hair backstage at the musical revue A Night in Spain, when a producer walked in on him. The sight of Fine’s mid-drying curls was so funny that he encouraged Fine to wear it out. The Stooge spent the rest of his career wetting his hair before every performance.
THE JENNIFER ANISTON
Everyone’s favorite Friend grew up dreaming of Valerie Bertinelli’s ’do, but her sole attempt to emulate the look resulted in an unflattering mul-let. Stylist Chris McMillan saved her hair by inventing “the Rachel,” but Aniston says she never liked the high-maintenance ’90s hairstyle. She prefers a just-rolled-out-of-bed look.
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 13
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HAIR
ILL
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J O I N T H E C I N C I N N AT I R E D S I N 1 9 8 6 A F T E R T H E Y D E M A N D E D H E S H AV E H I S M U S TA C H E . W I L L I A M H O WA R D TA F T WA S T H E
The Sheikh of Shampoo The next time you rinse and repeat, give a nod to the Indian surgeon who brought hair washing to the West.
UNTIL THE LATE 18TH CENTURY, Westerners
had a rough time washing their hair. With
no specialized product for the task, bathers
were forced to rely on regular old soap, which
is why very few Pantene ads are set in 1750s
London. Then, Sake Dean Mahomed came
along and changed everything.
Mahomed was born in 1759 in the Indian
state of Bihar. At the age of 11, he joined the
East India Company’s army, and by the time
he was 25, he’d arrived in London as one
of the first colonial travelers to make the
reverse commute. Once he’d settled in the
West, Mahomed got busy. He published a
travelogue, the first book in English by an
Indian author. Later, he opened England’s
first curry restaurant.
These efforts weren’t his most lasting
contributions to British society, though.
For centuries, Indians had been enjoying
a cleansing head massage with oils called
champi. When Mahomed introduced the
practice to Londoners, the name became
corrupted as “shampoo.” Before long,
Mahomed had made a name for himself
scrubbing the heads of London’s high
society. And as business boomed, he drew
customers from continental Europe’s classi-
est addresses. Of course, a little showman-
ship helped. Dressed in traditional Indian
garb, Mahomed wowed crowds by massag-
ing scalps and billing the practice as a cure
for everything from gout to sprains. Before
long, he’d even secured a position as the
“shampooing surgeon” to both King George
IV and King William IV. If you’re looking
for a way to cozy up to the new royal baby,
maybe it’s time to invest in some shampoo
and a towel.
14 mentalfloss.com November 2013
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ILL
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L A S T S I T T I N G P R E S I D E N T T O S P O R T FA C I A L H A I R . H U M A N H A I R C O N TA I N S 1 4 E L E M E N T S , I N C L U D I N G G O L D . A N I M A L
In 1896, Scientific American finally got to the bottom of what was mak-ing people lose their hair: music. Here’s the magazine’s report from an English study linking shedding to certain instruments:
While stringed instruments prevent and check the falling out of the hair, brass instruments have the most injurious ef ects upon it. The piano and the violin, especially the piano, have an undoubted preserving influence. The violoncello, the harp, and the double bass participate in the hair-preserving qualities of the piano. But the hautboy, the clarinet, and the flute have only a very feeble ef ect. ... On the contrary, the brass instruments have results that are deplorable.
THE BEST REASON
TO TURN DOWN
YOUR MUSIC
Headstand Your Way to Better Hair! A bad toupee can look ridiculous, but compared with these historical cures for baldness, even the worst rug seems practically dignified.
The Hippocratic WayThe Ancient Syrian Way
The Eunuch Way The Celtic WayThe Ancient Indian Way
A balm of opium, horseradish, pigeon droppings, beetroot, and spices
At least you get rid of all that pigeon dung and opium cluttering the garage.
Partridge gallbladder mixed with wine, drunk in the light of a full moon
You’ll get a mild buzz going before introducing yourself to werewolves.
Castration: a major step but less expensive than using Rogaine indefinitely
It’s an easy way to show solidarity with your dog and win Bob Barker’s approval.
A mixture of burned raven ashes and sheep suet. It’s a food blogger’s dream!
After you’ve gone to the trouble of catching and burning a raven, growing hair is a cinch!
A strict regimen of headstands, explaining why very few Olympic gymnasts are bald
Down.
The Cure
Plausibility
Upside
(It works!)
A N YO N E C RU I S I N G late-night TV in the early ’90s couldn’t miss the Flowbee—a preposter-
ous haircutting gadget that combined the ease of clippers with the tidiness of a vacuum
cleaner. Night owls across the nation were mesmerized by the strange commercials, but it
left them wondering: Who on Earth would use a Flowbee?
Well, nobody. But lots of people in space used a similar contraption. In 1990, NASA
patented a zero-G hair salon—a large, semicircular plastic bubble that closed around an
astronaut’s head. Two sealed armholes allowed a barber to reach inside, while a vacuum
pump inhaled stray hairs. Since the shaggy spaceman was locked inside the bubble, a
breathing tube was necessary. Unfortunately, the Flowbee’s interstellar cousin wasn’t any
more popular than the earthbound version, and NASA let the patent expire in 1994.
The Flowbee of the Future
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 15
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H A I R B A L L S W E R E O N C E T H O U G H T T O C U R E E P I L E P S Y, P L A G U E , A N D P O I S O N I N G . T H E F E A R O F H A I R C U T S I S C A L L E D
HAIR
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That Thing You ’Do The best haircuts aren’t just fashion statementsÑthey’re history lessons!
THE MOHAWK | Plenty of groups have worn Mohawks over the centuries. In fact, Herodotus wrote about them nearly 2,400 years ago. And while Native American tribes like the Pawnee were known for doing the ’do, there’s no evidence that Mohawks ever sported Mohawks. So why the confusion? The 1939 Henry Fonda hit Drums Along the Mohawk featured the cut.
groups have nturies. In fact,m nearly 2,400
e American tribes like r doing the ’do, there’s ever sported
usion? The s Along the
THE BEEHIVE | In 1960, Modern Beauty Shop magazine gave Chicago stylist Margaret Vinci Heldt a tough assignment: Develop a new haircut. After some tinkering, she perfected the beehive, the sweeping monument beloved by everyone from Audrey Hepburn to Amy Winehouse.
LIBERTY SPIKES | Punk fans rock these long, thick spikes as an homage to the Statue of Liberty’s headwear, but the look’s roots are way tougher. Celtic warriors were allowed to wear the spikes—but only after they had killed an enemy!
THE QUEUE | The Qing Dynasty asserted its power in 17th-century China by forcing all men to wear a queue, a long, braided ponytail with the rest of the head shaved. Unfortunately, the look wasn’t optional—shirk-ing meant certain death, giving rise to the saying “Keep your hair and lose your head, or keep your head and cut your hair.”
THE POUF | Marie Antoinette helped hair reach new heights when she showed up for her husband’s coronation with a towering hairstyle. The look sparked a national craze, and before long Frenchwomen were styling their hair until it stretched three feet above their heads! Of course, because plain old hair is boring, women embellished the style with feathers, figurines, and the occasional birdcage.
16 mentalfloss.com November 2013
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T O N S U R E P H O B I A . H A I R D O N AT I O N S T O C H A R I T Y A R E C O M M E N D A B L E , B U T T H E I R S W O N ’ T G I V E Y O U A D E D U C T I O N .
LOCKED IN BATTLEThe rivalry between blondes and brunettes is usually only good for misplaced stereotypes. Since 2011, how-ever, Russians have been using chess to determine whether the color of one’s hair indicates aptitude. For the past three years, teams of the nation’s top blonde and brunette women have trav-eled to Moscow to battle on the board. But actually declaring a winner has proved dif icult. After three contests, the scoreboard is locked up, with both sides having won a competition before the most recent tilt ended in a draw. Moscow isn’t settling for a tie, though. Next year’s rubber match will finally clear up the age-old question of whether blondes or brunettes have more (intelligent) fun.
PYONGYANG’S
HOTTEST HAIRCUTVisiting North Korea? You’re going to need a trim first.
North Korea has its share of problems. Its belligerent posturing has isolated it from the rest of the world. Its collapsing economy and infrastructure exacerbate frequent famines. So it makes sense that in 2004, then-dictator Kim Jong Il focused his energies on tackling the nation’s most pressing prob-lem: shaggy hair.
To combat messy locks, Kim commissioned a must-see five-part television series, Let Us Trim Our Hair in Accordance With Socialist Lifestyle. Each episode not only tracked down mildly bushy men on Pyongyang streets, but shamed them with insults like “Can we expect a man with this disheveled mind-set to perform his duty well?” The series also shed light on the scientific reason why men should cut their hair: because long locks dampen intelligence by robbing the brain of nutrition. (Note from our fact-checkers: Not true!)
To counter this brain drain, men were instructed to keep their hair less than five centimeters long and to get a trim every 15 days. Each episode also featured a handful of state-approved hairstyles. One look that wasn’t on the table for good Socialists: me-ticulously groomed pompadours. Some privileges are reserved for Dear Leaders.
Abraham Lincoln grew his iconic beard on the campaign trail after an 11-year-old girl wrote him: “All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you.” IL
LU
ST
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Y M
IKE
Y B
UR
TO
N.
AL
AM
Y (
KIM
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IGH
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).
FARMER
Since 2008, organic garden-
ers have been deploying
an herbicide-free weapon:
woven mats of human hair
called SmartGrow laid in the
dirt. The product keeps soil
moist and gives plants a dose
of nitrogen, all while fending
off weeds. And it does it
without getting a single hair
in your salad!
PIZZA MAKER
If you’ve had a slice of frozen
pizza lately, you’ve probably
munched on a bit of hair
without knowing it. Hair is
rich in L-cysteine, an amino
acid that is added to dough
to cut mixing times and add
elasticity. Where do com-
panies get cysteine? By pro-
cessing duck and chicken
feathers and human hair.
OCEAN JANITOR
We have to wash our locks
regularly because oils collect
on the surface. That’s great
news for the shampoo indus-
try, but it’s also a godsend for
the environment. In 2006,
tons of donated hair clip-
pings were dumped into the
ocean to help soak up the
mess after an oil spill in the
Philippines.
Get Your Hair a JobFor years, the mess on a salon’s floor had limited job prospects. If a discarded hair was lucky, it might end up in a wig—a pipe dream for so many shorn locks. But everything’s dif erent now! For today’s trimmed hair, the world is its oyster. Just look at the possibilities.
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 17
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The next time you’re having trouble breathing, hop
on a roller coaster. A University of Amsterdam study
found that a few loop-de-loops can help asthma sufferers breathe easier. Apparently, a
wild ride leads to “positive stress,” which can alleviate an asthmatic’s feelings of being
short of breath.
The Best Medicine
THE BEST PLACE TO BUY MOOSE MILK
FRUIT COCKTAILS YOU’LL LOVE
KURT VONNEGUT’S HOMEWORK TIPS
ALAMY
BE
AMAZING
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20 mentalfloss.com November 2013
with AMIR BLUMENFELD
PH
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ON
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THE CURIOUS COMEDIANBE AMAZING!
The Milkiest WayAsk the right questions about milk, and you can impress any farmer, cow, or block of cheese you meet.
What’s the
best place to get
chocolate milk?
School. Of the milk
American schoolkids drink,
71 percent is flavored. We
should never have made
the Nesquik Bunny
the secretary of
education.
Whatever
happened to
the milkman?
As of 2007, 0.4 percent of
Americans were still getting
deliveries from milkmen.
Yet only .00001 percent of
Americans still have per-
sonal blacksmiths.
Can I
pour America
a glass of milk?
Probably not. American
milk consumption has fallen
by 20 percent over the last 20
years to just 20 gallons
annually. I suggest we raise
our butter consumption
to make up for the
lost calcium.
Who was the
most milk-friendly
president?
William Howard Taft had a
pet cow, Pauline Wayne, that
lived on the White House
lawn and provided the fam-
ily’s milk. Meanwhile, Bo
Obama can barely
even garden.
What’s
the best place
to open a dairy?
Finland, where per
capita milk consumption-
tops 180 liters per year.
If you’re as bad with the
metric system as I am,
that’s 95 gallons a
day.
What’s a
tasty alternative
to cow milk?
Moose milk is popular
in parts of Russia, which
explains a lot of the
subtext of Rocky
and Bullwinkle.
When did we
start bottling milk?
The first glass milk bottle,
Thatcher’s Common Sense
Milk Jar, was invented in
1884. It was a vast improve-
ment over Thatcher’s
Common Sense Drinking
Straight From the
Udder.
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MODERN PROBLEMS BE AMAZING!with A . J. JACOBS
THAT’S GROSS. Hit that diner with a
strongly worded Yelp review!
But listen: You should also be thankful
that buggy water is a rare occurrence in
modern dining. In the past, your average
meal was so disgusting and unhygienic that
just reading about it would make you reach
for a bottle of Doc Fletcher’s Genuine Pink
Bismuth Nostrum With Extra Opium.
At least your meal was worm-free.
Egyptian mummies’ stomachs have been
found to contain a delicious blend of
tapeworms, liver fl ukes, whipworms, guinea
worms, and roundworms, according to
Morton Satin’s book Death in the Pot. For
centuries, things didn’t get better. British
diarist Samuel Pepys recorded this 1662
meal: “My stomach was turned when my
sturgeon came to table, upon which I saw
very many little worms creeping.”
Even the cosmetically clean food wasn’t
safe. Poisonous (but sweet-tasting) lead
found its way into all sorts of treats, as a
kind of precursor to high fructose corn
syrup. In 19th-century England, red
peppers were painted with shiny red lead
to make them more appetizing. British
country inns ground their salad greens
with a giant ball of lead, giving diners
an unhealthy dose of metal shavings,
according to Swindled, a survey of bad food
by Bee Wilson.
Baked goods were no better. Reformers
accused bakers in 17th-century England
of diluting their breads with ash and
bones (hence the threats by the salivating
giant in Jack and the Beanstalk to
make his bread with “the blood of an
Englishman”). These rumors were
mostly unfounded, but bakers did dilute
bread with the bleaching agent alum,
which has since turned out to be toxic
in large quantities. Where’d they get
the alum? From the urine that paupers
sold to manufacturers, writes Wilson in
Swindled.
Impurities aside, humans have also
voluntarily shoved a baffl ing variety
of creatures into their mouths over the
years. The fi rst known cookbook—dating
to fourth-century Rome—contained
recipes for fl amingo tongues and calf-
brain pudding. And most alarming of all,
21st-century Americans ate something
called the Ballpark hot dog, which
contained … well, I can’t even bring
myself to type it.
ALAMY
Lead Hot Chili Peppers
Have a problem for A.J.? Send your woes to [email protected].
DEAR A.J., I went to my local diner,
and they served me a glass of ice
water—with a dead mosquito in it. I
asked the manager what he planned
to do about it. He said he’d give me
a “free glass of water.” What should I
have done? —PAUL IN SACRAMENTO
Dipping peppers in lead wasn’t the only heavy-metal food trend. Pickle makers in 19th-century England added copper to their cucumbers to make them greener.
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22 mentalfloss.com November 2013
5TO TRY
With these brandies, you’ll no longer see fruit as just a
garnish.
TOM’S FOOLERY
APPLEJACK
Apple skin, fresh apple slice, apple
juice ... if it’s in an apple, you can taste it in
this Ohio treat, a great pick for fall
cocktails.
FINGER LAKES
DISTILLING PEAR
BRANDY
This bruiser packs a blazing wallop, then
reveals its softer pear side.
SANTA FE SPIRITS
APPLE BRANDY
This dry pour blends smoke, apples, and
hard candy, like that delicious fire at Granny Smith’s
orchard.
DUTCH’S SPIRITS
PEACH BRANDY It’s as if whiskey and peach cobbler had a torrid one-night stand, and the real
beneficiary was our bars.
CATOCTIN CREEK
1757 VIRGINIA
BRANDY
This thick Virginia brandy brings together
grapes, caramel, and mint. Thomas Jef erson
would approve.
ILL
US
TR
AT
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BY
LA
UR
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MA
KI
WHAT COLONIAL AMERICA LACKED in parliamentary
representation, it made up for with an abundance of
apples. By the late 17th century, colonists had become
experts at making hard cider, spiking the beverage’s
potency by leaving it out overnigh t, letting the water
freeze, and skimming off the ice. The concentrated
booze that lingered was dubbed applejack. When
Scottish immigrant William Laird arrived in New
Jersey around 1698, he kicked things up by distilling
the fruit into a brandy he aged in oak barrels.
Twelve generations later, the Lairds are still
America’s applejack barons. Incorporated in 1780,
Laird’s is now the country’s oldest commercial distillery
in the states. The secret? Fans in high places. George
Washington loved Laird’s applejack so much that he
asked for the recipe and even served it to his troops
during the Revolutionary War. In 1840, William Henry
Harrison poured applejack to draw crowds to his
campaign rallies. And when Abraham Lincoln ran a
tavern in Illinois, Laird’s was one of his top sellers.
The company even stayed afl oat during Prohibition
by making the preservative pectin for the Army and
breaking into the applesauce business. In 1933,
the government gave the family the OK to make
medicinal brandy, giving the Lairds a leg up when
Prohibition ended.
Brandy may not be fueling troops anymore, but
Lairds is going strong with its delicious 12-year-old.
Meanwhile, other distilleries are cranking out dazzling
brandies using everything from peach to pear. If you’re
bored with bourbon, it’s time to give fruit a chance.
Brandied ContentWant to be more presidential? Start by guzzling some applejack.
OUR PICK
IN THE SPIRITBE AMAZING!
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 23
I STARTED TAKING PIANO
LESSONS when I was 4∏. I had always been fascinated with the organ at church. I’d go down and talk to the organist, who was my piano teacher, and beg her for organ lessons. I guess I wore her down. She gave me about
six basic lessons to keep the fi ngers and pedals smooth.
I ALSO TOOK ACCORDION
LESSONS, and my teacher wanted me to be a concert accordionist. I became popular and played Vegas and Tahoe.
AT THE ORANGE COUNTY
FAIRGROUNDS, there was an organ on the stage. The music director asked if I knew how to play it, which I did. He liked the songs better on the organ and told me to leave my accordion at home next time.
I WAS NOT A SPORTS FAN before working for the Dodgers. I was very busy with music. My mother and husband, Billy, were Dodger fans. As an ironworker, Billy helped build Dodger Stadium. He did that for 40 years. Now, he accompanies me to every game.
I PICK ALL THE MUSIC. Over the years, the selection has evolved greatly. I used to play 40 to 50 songs a game. Gradually, record-ed music was introduced. Now, I play four or fi ve songs a night.
I DON’T USE SHEET MUSIC. I have 2,000 songs in my head.
I’VE MET SOME NEAT PEOPLE. How many organists can say they’ve accompanied opera singer Plácido Domingo and some of the American Idol stars?
AS MUCH AS I’VE PLAYED “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” I’m not bored with it.
PH
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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF
A Ballpark Organist When it comes to riling up the crowd at Dodger Stadium, only one woman has the keys: organist NANCY BEA HEFLEY. This is her 26th season manning the ballpark’s pipes.
WORK STUDY BE AMAZING!with BRIT TANY SHOOT
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24 mentalfloss.com November 2013
ILL
US
TR
AT
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BY
MA
RT
IN H
AA
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Stellar SwedenA ginormous scale model of the solar system brings the universe down to Earth.
EVERY DAY ON HIS WAY TO WORK at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, plasma physicist Nils
Brenning pedals his bike past the Ericsson Arena, the largest spherical building in the world. In the ’90s, he
started thinking. What if the hockey venue, which looks like a giant golf ball, represented the sun in a model
of the solar system? Brenning called his friend Gösta Gahm, a Stockholm University astronomer, and shared
his idea. The two started calculating where the inner planets would land, and soon they’d drawn a map that
scattered them across Stockholm, in museums, parks, and shopping centers. Then, they started building.
Nearly two decades later, the Sweden Solar System is a 1:20 million-scale model that stretches over 700
miles of Swedish landscape. This is no simple Styrofoam-ball affair. The model uses one-of-a-kind sculptures
created by artists, designers, and schoolchildren to represent planets, comets, asteroids, and plutinos. But
Gahm says the biggest inspiration for the project is “the unexpected enthusiasm we met among the people
who wanted to host a planet.” The objects stretch all the way up the Baltic coast to the tiny town of Delsbo,
where beloved dwarf Pluto is represented by a 12-centimeter ball wedged in a tomb-like marker. The termina-
tion shock—the region of space where the solar winds start to slow—sits above the Arctic Circle.
Aside from the impressive scale of the project—more than 20 stations currently exist, with more in the
works —what’s awe-inspiring is the way it fuses art and science, the everyday and the extraterrestrial. Whether
visitors seek out stations in a purposeful scavenger hunt or stumble across them in a mall, this ingenious
model delivers a big bang.
POINTS OF INTERESTBE AMAZING!
EAT
X B.A.R. A city built
on 14 islands ought
to know seafood. At
this unfussy brasse-
rie, you choose a su-
per fresh specimen
from a display on ice
and anoint it with a
fun sauce (chili and
ginger, brown butter
and horseradish,
roasted gazpacho).
Simple and so good.
Blasieholmsgatan 4A, restaurangbar.se
SHOP
X ACNE What to do
with the infamous
bank vault that intro-
duced the world to
Stockholm Syndrome
after a 1973 hostage
situation? Turn it into
a flagship shop for a
fashion brand synony-
mous with minimalist
Scandanavian style,
of course!
Norrmalmstorg 2, acnestudios.com
STAY
X HOTEL
SKEPPSHOLMEN
Built as barracks for
the Royal Marines at
the turn of the 18th
century, this serene
hotel (once also, um,
a plague hospital!)
shares an idyllic island
with Stockholm’s pre-
mier art museums.
Gröna gången 1, hotelskeppsholmen.com
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 25
THE CRITICAL AND COMMER-CIAL SUCCESS of Cat’s Cradle allowed him to stick with it.
ILL
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Cat’s CradleKurt Vonnegut’s science fiction satire turns 50 this year. Here’s how the
grad school dropout found the hilarious side of nuclear dread.
In 1947, Vonnegut left an anthropology grad program at University of Chicago after it
REJECTED HIS THESIS IDEAS.
Many characters were
PARODIES OF G.E. SCIENTISTS,especially Langmuir.
One of them, Irving Langmuir, told Vonnegut that when H.G. Wells visited his lab in the 1930s, he had pitched Wells a story idea:
WATER THAT WAS SOLID AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. (Wells didn’t use it.)
The idea stuck with Vonnegut. Eventually,
IT INSPIRED HIS FOURTH NOVEL.
To pay the bills, he got a
PR GIG AT GENERAL ELECTRIC, interviewing scientists and sharing their stories.
Before the novel’s release, a struggling Vonnegut considered
QUITTING WRITING.
Vonnegut was happy with it too. When he later graded his own works,
HE GAVE IT AN
CHEAT SHEET BE AMAZING!
Sweeter still:
CHICAGO ACCEPTED VONNEGUT’S NOVEL AS HIS THESIS.
Using warm ice as a starting point, Vonnegut crafted
A SATIRE OF RELIGION AND THE ARMS RACE.
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A Shot in the DarkH O W T W I N P E A K S M A D E M O D E R N A R T O F
T H E S O A P O P E R A — A N D S AV E D N E T W O R K
T V I N T H E P R O C E S S . B Y J O E P O M P E O
AVID LYNCH and Mark Frost seemed an
unlikely pair when they met for lunch one
day in 1988. Lynch was an auteur who’d bur-
nished his reputation directing the bizarro
fi lms Eraserhead and Blue Velvet; Frost was best known
as a writer for the network police drama Hill Street
Blues. But the two had hit it off a few years earlier when
they met working on Goddess, a Marilyn Monroe biopic
that never made it to production. Now they were look-
ing to get their hands dirty again.
As the duo sat in Du-par’s, the kitschy L.A. restau-
rant near the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura
boulevards, inspiration struck. “All of a sudden,” Lynch
is quoted as saying in Lynch on Lynch, “Mark and I had
MAKE A LIVING PLAYING NINTENDO»
AT SEA WITH A WHALE DISENTANGLER»
HOW HOUDINI MADE A RELIGION DISAPPEAR»
AL
AM
Y
D
T W I N P E A K S1 0 1 M A S T E R P I E C E S #65
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28 mentalfloss.com November 2013
this image of a body washing up on the shore of a lake.”
From that stray spark, Lynch and Frost sketched the
idea for what would become Twin Peaks, an enigmatic
murder mystery that surrounded its plot twists with
art-house motifs. Though it would run only for two sea-
sons on ABC, the show revolutionized television and
laid the groundwork for the golden age of prime-time
dramas. But before Twin Peaks could storm the small
screen, Lynch and Frost had to convince someone to
roll the dice.
LYNCH WAS A SHAKY CHOICE for prime time. His
name was synonymous with eerily beautiful cult fi lms,
and his one dip into the mainstream, an adaptation of
Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi novel Dune, was a criti-
cal and commercial disaster. To the industry observer,
it seemed that Lynch was just too niche—or maybe just
too weird—for network television.
The move didn’t seem to make any sense from a
career perspective: TV was a giant step backward for
an auteur of Lynch’s caliber. Today, in an era where
shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad enjoy all the
glitz and prestige of the big screen, it’s easy to forget
that television used to be the stepping-stone to fi lm.
An Oscar-nominated director like Lynch working
on TV was like an all-star demoting himself to the
minor leagues.
But Lynch’s agent was keen to see what his cli-
ent could do with the medium. And Lynch and Frost
were starting to develop a killer storyline. Set in a fi c-
tional Washington logging hamlet, Twin Peaks revolves
around the grisly slaying of blonde homecoming queen
Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The protagonist is a quixotic
FBI agent named Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) with
an obsessive attention to detail and an affi nity for diner
coffee, which he takes “black as midnight on a moon-
less night.” Together, Laura’s killing and the big-city
detective’s arrival upend the small town, pulling back
the curtain on its underbelly—gambling, prostitution,
and backdoor dealings that turn local power brokers
into villains—before uncovering the even more sinister
forces that lurk in its woods.
The mystery is riveting, but it’s the heavy injection of
trademark Lynchism, the juxtaposition of the familiar and the sur-
real, that makes the show so special. For Lynch, it wasn’t enough to
have straightforward heroes and villains, so some of the show’s
rogues haunt an alternate dimension accessible only in night-
mares and, when conditions are right, through a pit of bubbling
tar among the pines. The result is a crime procedural fi ltered
through an off-kilter lens. But the elements that made the show
so original also made it risky. Prime time was the province of
Murphy Brown and Sam Malone, not one-armed shoe salesmen
or dancing dwarves.
When the time came to pitch the show, Lynch received a good
omen. Even when he wasn’t directing, he was always searching for
symbols and oracles. One of his superstitions was that if you saw a
license plate with your initials on it in any order, and the numbers
on the license plate added up to what you’d consider to be a good
number, and it was a really nice car, it would bring you good luck.
Driving down Melrose on the day he and
Frost were headed to present their creation
to ABC brass, Lynch spotted a brand-new
Mercedes with a lucky number and his ini-
tials. He told Frost, “Mark, this is going to
be very good!”
Fortunately for the duo, ABC was in a
gambling mood. As a new decade dawned,
all the major networks were pushing for
more originality in their lineups. The big
three were anxiously watching Fox and
cable channels eat into their ratings, and
ABC was struggling. The network had a
reputation as a stodgy, corporate outfi t that
micromanaged its productions to medio-
cre results. NBC, on the other hand, was enjoying some success
with a laissez faire approach to working with Hollywood talent, so
ABC did what all TV networks do: It replicated the formula. “We
had a strategy to turn the network around by taking shots and
being patient,” an ABC executive, Chad Hoffman, said at the time.
Hoffman spent just 45 minutes with the Twin Peaks pilot script
before deciding: “We’ve got to do this.”
AS PART OF THE TWIN PEAKS deal, ABC gave Frost and Lynch
unprecedented creative control over the fi nal product, and the duo
took advantage of the freedom. As Lynch, who was 44 when the
show debuted, and Frost, who was 36, looked for inspiration, they
PRIME TIME WAS
THE PROVINCE OF
MURPHY BROWN
AND SAM MALONE ,
NOT DANCING
DWARVES.
TELEVISION
Lynch’s characters aren’t the only ones obsessed with cof ee—the director has his own line of gourmet beans called David Lynch Signature Cup.
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fi lm, Wild at Heart, Lynch became less involved with
the second season, leaving his writers’ bench to hash
out the plot. Then, ABC shot itself in the foot by bump-
ing Twin Peaks from Thursday’s prime real estate to
Saturday’s wasteland, which killed the Friday-morning
break-room buzz that had made it a smash.
The fatal blow, though, was the network’s demand
for the show to answer the central question the plot
and the marketing buzz orbited around—Who Killed
Laura Palmer? Midway through season 2, the killer
was revealed and the writers found themselves in
a bind. The series devolved into an unsustainable
hodgepodge of silly side plots as the writers struggled
to keep the story’s larger mythology alive for 14 more
episodes. Lynch himself took control of the series
fi nale, which bridges the gap between Palmer’s mur-
der and the supernatural mysteries of Twin Peaks. The
stunning two-hour episode brought the curtain down
on June 10, 1991. Just a little over a year after it fi rst
rocked TV, Twin Peaks had disappeared.
DESPITE ITS BRIEF RUN, Twin Peaks’ immense infl u-
ence was visible almost immediately. Lynch and Frost
had proved that viewers would tune in for big-screen-
quality production in a weekly format, and in the process
they ushered in a new age of televised drama. Two years
later Fox would debut the The X-Files, which relied on a
similarly elaborate mythology to sustain its nine-season
run. When ABC’s Lost premiered in 2004—constructed
around an ever-unfolding course of otherworldly (and
largely forest-based) mysteries—it drew immediate
Peaks comparisons. “Twin Peaks was a huge impact
on me,” the show’s cocreator Damon Lindelof told an
audience in Manhattan a few days before the Lost series
fi nale in May 2010. One of the lessons he learned? That
a show doesn’t have to solve every mystery it sets up.
More importantly, Twin Peaks proved to fans, crit-
ics, industry gatekeepers, and fi lm creators alike that
television would no longer live in the shadow of fi lm—
it could actually be good. Little by little, TV shows were
becoming every bit as worthy of close attention and
deconstruction as fi lms—a shift that wouldn’t just
make for better water-cooler chatter, but would also
open up a new venue to which writers and bloggers
could devote entire careers. And none of that might
have happened, if one daring network hadn’t gambled
on Frost and Lynch.
benefi ted from the same serendipity that initially spawned their
masterpiece. While scouting locations at a sawmill, they encoun-
tered a woman whose job was to touch each log as it made its way
down the conveyor belt. This chance meeting presumably inspired
the Log Lady, one of the show’s quirkiest characters.
Later, while shooting a scene in Laura Palmer’s bedroom, a set
dresser named Frank Silva was moving some furniture when some-
one warned him not to lock himself in the room. A lightbulb went
off above Lynch’s head. Silva was lanky and wild-eyed, with a long
face and stringy gray hair—someone so completely out of place in
a frilly pink bedroom that seeing him there was unsettling. “Frank,
are you an actor?” Lynch recalls asking. He’d found the man who
would end up playing Twin Peaks’ spectral bad guy, Bob, described
by The Awl as “one of the scariest, most terrifying, most nightmare-
inducing-est characters ever.”
While some of the series’ highlights came from off-the-cuff
moments like these, the ultimate charm of Twin Peaks lies in just
how meticulously Frost and Lynch developed their sordid little
town. Even the minor supporting characters were fully fl eshed out.
And Lynch coaxed his actors into bringing their idiosyncrasies to
life in his own offbeat way. “Think of how gently a deer has to move
in the snow,” he whispered to Lara Flynn Boyle, who played Laura
Palmer’s best friend. After nearly 40 takes, that was the odd direc-
tion she needed to get the scene just right.
Lynch was also literally hands-on. At the very beginning of the
pilot, Jack Nance’s character, Pete Martell, discovers Laura Palmer’s
plastic-wrapped body on the shore of a lake. “David hand-placed
those granules of sand on my face and played with the plastic as if it
were a bouquet of fl owers,” Sheryl Lee told The Guardian in 2010.
When inspiration struck Lynch, he would call Frost to share his lat-
est breakthrough. “Mark, I think there’s a giant in Agent Cooper’s
room,” Lynch once theorized into the phone. (It worked. There is!)
It was as if Lynch was an all-knowing mystic who’d endeared
himself to a congregation of believers. “There’s a scene where Kyle
had to throw a rock and hit a glass bottle. He sat us down and told
Kyle he was going to hit [it]—and that bottle was freaking far away,”
recalls Kimmy Robertson, who played the loyal secretary of the
sheriff ’s department, in that same Guardian
feature. “Kyle hit it, and everybody freaked
out. It was like David used the power of the
universe to make Twin Peaks.”
WITHIN A MONTH of the show’s April 8, 1990
premiere, America had caught Twin Peaks
fever. “Everyone at parties is talking about
it,” a 29-year-old George Stephanopoulos
told Newsweek, while a New York maga-
zine writer put it this way: “In Cambridge,
Massachusetts, in Madison, Wisconsin, and
in Berkeley, California, there are Twin Peaks
watching parties every Thursday night, af-
ter which … Deconstruction.”
Menacing promos that promised some-
thing new and “ ’90s” lured viewers, who
couldn’t get enough of this avant-garde cinema masquerading as
prime-time soap opera. Twin Peaks was scary enough to rival any
horror fl ick, but also at turns funny, beautiful, and heart-wrench-
ing. The ratings were gangbusters. By May, Twin Peaks had been
renewed for a second season. The show was a critical coup as well,
collecting nearly 20 Emmy nominations between 1990 and 1991.
Not even Lynch expected Twin Peaks to resonate with viewers the
way it did. “We had zero thought that this thing would travel so
well around the world,” he said in 2008. “It was a magical thing.”
But it wasn’t long before the bottom fell out. Busy making his next
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ERICH BLATTNER: I had an Atari growing
up. I’d played the Commodore 64 and
128, so I was defi nitely a gamer, although
I didn’t have a Nintendo Entertainment
System at that time. When I was going
to try to get the job, I started playing my
roommate’s NES pretty heavily to build
up my game knowledge.
JR: So that was part of the job interview?
Quizzing you about games?
EB: I knew that was one of the things they
checked for. During my interview, they
sat me down in a cubicle and had me play
a game for 15 to 20 minutes and then
came back to ask me questions about it.
JR: What was the exact role of a game-
play counselor?
EB: [We] answered specifi c questions
about games. At the time, it was just a
toll number, a 206 area code number,
that you could call.
JR: But it wasn’t a 900 number, 25 cents
a minute, or anything like that?
EB: No. At fi rst the service was free. Only
the normal long distance charges would
apply. Eventually, they changed it to a
900 line.
JR: So for a time, it’s just a free phone
call? Nintendo’s just running this service
to help people enjoy their product?
EB: Yeah, and the game-play counselors
had this rock-star attitude of “We’re the
pros. We’re sitting here playing games,
and you call us up, and we help you!”
JR: I was into Nintendo hardcore, as was
every single person I was friends with,
because if you weren’t, I didn’t know
what to talk to you about. I’ve never
heard of anyone calling this number.
Was it a popular thing? Were you on the
phone all the time with calls coming in?
EB: Pretty much. I worked different
shifts, and if you worked the 4 a.m. shift,
it would be slow early in the morning.
But it would pick up, and you’d be
answering back-to-back calls through
most of your shift.
JR: Did you have to train to become good
at video games?
EB: That’s the fi rst thing they did when
they hired you, was put you through a
training process!
JR: I want to know everything about that
process. How did they train you?
EB: Well, it’s knowing the most
commonly asked questions for the
most commonly called-about games,
which at the time were things like
The Legend of Zelda, The Adventures
of Link, and Metroid. Your typical
call would be “Are there codes for this
game?” and you could go consult the
database for that.
JR: And what kinds of questions are
these? Are they like “How do I fi nd the
freeze ray in Metroid?”
EB: It’d be like that—“How do I fi nd a
specifi c item in Metroid?”—but it would
also be “How do I get through the ninth
A Hard Day’s Play Plenty of kids dream of playing video games for a living. As a
Nintendo game-play counselor, ERICH BLATTNER was one of
the rare few to have lived that dream. Jef Rubin1 finds out exactly
what it was like to get paid to provide moral support to thousands
of frustrated gamers.
TECH
JEFF RUBIN: Were you good at Nintendo? Were you a Nintendo kid?
1 Host of The Jef Rubin Jef Rubin Show (jef rubinjef rubinshow.com), Battletoads enthusiast
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 31
level of The Legend of Zelda in the
second quest?”
JR: And did Nintendo train you to play
Metroid or whatever game? Or did they
want you to fi gure it out yourself?
EB: They’d give you training materials,
like all the hand-drawn maps and
whatnot you needed to get through it.
It wasn’t that they wanted you to play
it—they wanted you to be able to answer
questions on it. But generally, to answer
questions, you had to play it.
JR: If someone can’t beat Battletoads,
what do you tell them? “Just practice
Battletoads all day”? Is there any other
advice you can give?
EB: That’s kind of where the “counselor”
in “game-play counselor” came from,
because sometimes it was just that—
offering encouragement, personal
stories, anecdotes.
JR: No! You had to tell anecdotes? Like,
inspiring game-play stories of your own?
EB: Exactly. Like “I had so much trouble
doing that. I spent the last two weeks
doing it. Eventually, I got it. It felt so nice
fi nally beating it. I know you can do it.”
JR: I love how positive you are. You’re a
part of their game-play experience. Is
that something else Nintendo trained
you to do?
EB: Yep, and there was certain terminol-
ogy they wanted us to avoid. You never
killed enemies—you defeated them.
JR: Who’s calling? Are you dealing
mostly with kids here?
EB: That was the perception, but
honestly, you would get calls from people
of all ages. I would get calls from people
in senior citizens’ centers. Or you’d get
lots of calls from parents.
JR: I’m glad I’m talking to someone who
was an offi cial Nintendo representative.
Obviously I did this back in the day,
but I’ve heard since—now that we have
the Internet to fact-check things—that
blowing on a game [when it wouldn’t
load] does not work.
EB: Well, it works in the short term, but
it causes problems in the long term.
JR: So the answer is more nuanced than
I would have imagined!
EB: If the connections [between the
game and the system] were not all
seated properly, you would get garbage
on the screen. By blowing on those
connectors, you’re adding a little bit of
moisture from your breath. That often
helped make the connection, but in the
long run, it would erode those contacts.
So, really, you were better off cleaning
your system with an offi cial Nintendo
Cleaning Kit.
JR: It sounds like being a game counselor
was pretty fun. Was it a cool job to have?
EB: Oh, yeah. They gave you free video
game systems; you had a library of every
game made. You got paid pretty well for
a kid out of high school. It was a great
job to have.
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ILL
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HISTORY
Houdini often visited séances in disguise,
calling himself F. Raud. He was known to throw of his wig in the middle
of a reading to expose the trickery of these so-called mediums.
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N JULY 23, 1924, Boston was suffering from a brutal heat
wave. The evening temperature hovered in the high
80s when the famed magician Harry Houdini trudged
up to the fourth fl oor séance room at 10 Lime Street.
With him were O. D. Munn, editor of Scientifi c American, and an
esteemed panel of scientists. They had come to witness the psychic
feats of the nation’s most credible spirit medium, a pretty 36-year-
old fl apper with blue eyes and a bob.
Her name was Mina Crandon. Followers called her “Margery”;
detractors knew her as the Blonde Witch of Lime Street. And
she was renowned for conjuring the voice of her dead brother,
Walter, whose spirit rapped out messages, tipped tables, and even
sounded trumpets. Even by ghost standards, Walter was unfriendly,
answering questions and quoting scripture in a gruff disembodied
voice. Margery, by contrast, was charming and attractive—at least
when she wasn’t showing off her most convincing psychic talent:
extruding a slithery, viscous substance called “ectoplasm” from her
orifi ces. Photos show this otherworldly substance fl owing from her
nose and ears, but mostly it emerged from beneath a sheer kimono
like a string of entrails—an “ectomorphic hand” that Walter used to
carry out his commands.
Today we remember the era’s jazz, speakeasies, and
glitz, but the ’20s were also the zenith of America’s
obsession with the spirit world. Reeling from losing
an estimated 15 million people in the Great War and
21 million more to the Spanish-fl u pandemic, people
were searching for ways to connect with the dead.
Spirit guides emerged to help the bereaved, usually
for hefty fees. And as reputable magazines and
newspapers increased their coverage of paranormal
phenomena, mediums became rock stars. Margery
herself had become a messiah to hundreds of
thousands of Americans.
In the summer of 1924, Margery occupied the red-hot
center in the raging national debate over Spiritualism, an
80-year-old religious movement that centered around
the possibility of communicating with the dead. The most famous
of its 14 million believers was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the
Sherlock Holmes mysteries and a man of impeccable reputation.
Witnessing a séance in his London home, he became convinced
of Margery’s supernatural powers. Her refusal to be compensated
for her miracles only added to her credibility. It wasn’t long before
Doyle had recommended her to the editors of Scientifi c American,
which was offering a $2,500 prize to the fi rst medium who could
verifi ably demonstrate to its six-man investigative committee a “vi-
sual psychic manifestation.”
Houdini’s Greatest TrickT H E M A G I C I A N I S FA M O U S F O R H I S T H R I L L I N G E S C A P E S , B U T T H E F E AT H E
S H O U L D B E K N O W N F O R I S B R E A K I N G I N TO A S É A N C E . B Y R O B E R T L O V E
This was no fl y-by-night group of spook
hunters. Scientifi c American’s J. Malcolm
Bird chaired the committee, which included
psychologist William McDougall of Harvard,
former MIT physicist Daniel Comstock, and
two members of the Society of Psychical
Research, Hereward Carrington and Walter
Prince. Bird and Carrington had already
examined Margery more than 20 times and
were ready to hand over the money. The New
York Times reported the development with a
straight face: ‘margery’ passes all psychic
tests scientists fi nd no tirckery in
scores of séances with boston medium.
But Houdini, who’d suggested creating the
panel after Scientifi c American approached
him to investigate Spiritualism, had yet to
offer his approval. When he learned the
committee was prepared to endorse Margery,
he was outraged. Having already exposed the
tricks of other celebrity mediums, Houdini
was sure the committee was about to be
duped once more. He canceled his shows
and headed for Boston.
MARGERY GREETED THE PANEL and took
her seat within a three-sided Chinese
screen, the lights dimmed. Soon enough,
an eerie whistling fi lled the room. On cue,
the spirit of Walter whispered his arrival,
even touching Houdini on the inside of his
right leg. After a break, he ordered an elec-
tric bell enclosed in a wooden box brought
to Houdini’s feet. Then Walter levitated a
megaphone and boomed: “Have Houdini
tell me where to throw it.”
“Toward me,” Houdini said, and the mega-
phone fl ew through the air and crashed in
front of him. That was just the beginning.
Throughout the evening, Walter produced
a sequence of metaphysical spectacles, ring-
ing the bell box on command and tipping
over the wooden screen.
Houdini had done his homework. He knew
that Dr. Le Roi Crandon, Margery’s husband,
always sat on her right. (A Harvard-educated
O
MARGERY WAS
CHARMING AND
ATTRACTIVE—
AND KNOWN
FOR EXTRUDING
ECTOPLASM.
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HISTORY
surgeon, Crandon was her greatest promoter,
often showing visitors nude photographs
of his wife in séance delicté). Houdini also
guessed correctly that he would be seated at
her left in the circle, with hands joined, feet
and legs touching. In preparation for the
evening, Houdini wore a tight bandage under
his right knee all day; it was so painful it made
his skin tender to even the slightest touch.
The heightened sensitivity paid off. He could
feel Margery twist and fl ex in the dark as she
moved her left ankle slightly to get to the bell
box under the table. Later, he felt her shift
again to tip the Chinese screen with her foot.
The fl ying megaphone stumped Houdini for a
few hours, but he eventually fi gured out that
Margery had placed it on her head, dunce-
cap-style, with a momentarily free hand. She
then jerked her head in his direction to send
it crashing to the fl oor.
“I’ve got her,” he said when the evening was
over. “All fraud. Every bit of it. One more sit-
ting and I will be ready to expose everything.”
A second séance at a Boston hotel fea-
tured a levitating table. Houdini reached
out in the dark and found Margery’s head
lifting the table from beneath. He again felt
her legs move as she reached to ring the
bell box. “The slickest ruse I ever detected,”
Houdini said later, in something close to ad-
miration. But when he announced his fi nd-
ings to the committee, he was asked to hold
off on a public denunciation.
The committee was confl icted. When
it refused to award the prize after several
additional séances, the Spiritualists became
enraged—as did the spirit. “Houdini, you
goddamned son of a bitch,” Walter roared.
“I put a curse on you now that will follow
you every day for the rest of your short life.”
Bird and Carrington, still fi rmly under
Margery’s seductive spell, continued to
report that she had supernatural powers.
In October, Scientifi c American published
an article that described the committee as
hopelessly divided.
The dithering angered Houdini. In
November, he published a pamphlet called
Houdini Exposes the Tricks Used by the
Boston Medium “Margery,” complete with
drawings of how she produced her “mani-
festations.” “She certainly was clever in her
maneuvering to pull the wool over the eyes
of the committeemen,” he said, admitting the
ingenuity of her techniques as he debunked
their metaphysical nature. Houdini’s pam-
phlet humiliated Margery, but he wasn’t
done yet: The “scourge of Spiritualism” want-
ed to make the religion disappear. Before
long, Houdini was reproducing Margery’s
so-called miracles to great laughter in perfor-
mances across the nation.
Margery didn’t get the Scientifi c American prize, but Houdini’s
efforts didn’t slow her down. Dr. Crandon pushed his wife to
continue holding séances, inviting all doubters to the room at 10
Lime Street. In 1925, the Harvard faculty formed an investigative
team, which skeptically witnessed new manifestations of her
talents, including a luminous jumping paper “doughnut.” One
investigator reported that he’d witnessed Margery reaching
beneath her dress and pulling out strands of fake ectoplasm, which
appeared to be “butcher’s offal.”
Meanwhile, Margery’s supporters went on the offensive, threat-
ening to beat Houdini to a pulp and rooting for his demise. The
escape artist continued to defy death in his stage show—locked,
bolted, or chained in coffi ns submerged in water or buried under
six feet of sand. Each time, he escaped. But Walter, Margery’s angry
spirit guide, knew better. In August 1926, the spectre proclaimed
that the end was near: “Houdini will be gone by Halloween,” he said.
In fact, Houdini died in agony on the afternoon of
October 31, 1926 from septic poisoning. Throughout
his career, Houdini had offered his steely abs to
anyone who cared to take a shot. But when a student
from Montreal threw a punch before Houdini could
tense up, the blow ruptured his appendix, leading to
a fatal infection. Houdini had worked hard to debunk
Margery, but in a strange twist of fate, it was Margery
who had the last word.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived on for four more years
and died a believer. The author’s spirit appeared to
Margery often as she soldiered on through the depths
of the Great Depression and her own alcoholism, but
Houdini’s debunking had taken its toll. By the time she
died at her house on Lime Street in 1941, her reputa-
tion and the Spiritual movement were in tatters. One
of Walter’s fi ngerprints turned out to be her dentist’s,
and one of her greatest supporters, Malcolm Bird,
admitted to helping produce Walter’s actions at séances. But the
fascination with Margery remained. Even on her deathbed, a psy-
chic researcher showed up, hoping for a confession—or at least a
hint of how she pulled off her most famous tricks. “Why don’t you
guess?” she laughed bitterly. It was clear that the Blonde Witch of
Lime Street wasn’t done toying with them yet. “You’ll all be guess-
ing—for the rest of your lives.”
“THE SLICKEST
RUSE I EVER
DETECTED,”
HOUDINI SAID
LATER, IN
SOMETHING
CLOSE TO
ADMIRATION.
Harry Houdini
exposes
Margery’s trick,
showing how
Walter really
rang the bell.
CO
RB
IS
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ILL
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HO
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sedate her, she’ll drown. In most situations,
the only real option is to tire her and the
calf out until you can get close, Cottrell says.
That’s what he and his team did when they
rescued a calf in September 2012. From their
boat, they grappled on to the commercial
crab gear wrapped around the calf ’s tail and
hung on for nearly fi ve hours until the whale
was exhausted. Even then, cutting the animal
loose takes skill and careful planning. “Cut
the wrong rope and it’s going to be harder
to grapple on,” Cottrell says. “That can be a
worse situation.”
PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE Rescues can
drag on for days or even weeks. In May 2009,
a 35-ton humpback got tangled in 15 heavy-
duty prawn traps. Cottrell and his team cut
away as much as they could during daylight,
but they had to suspend the rescue at sunset.
With no other options, they attached buoys
to the animal and estimated its speed. Then
the team went to bed. “That was the longest
night of my life,” Cottrell says. “I was trying to
sleep, thinking if we don’t relocate this ani-
mal, it may wash up dead [with] our buoys
on it.” Thankfully, they freed the whale the
next day.
STAY IN THE BOAT When you’re dealing with
a 40-foot whale, that boat is your best friend.
“Getting into the water, where there’s nets
and lines—that’s how you drown,” Cottrell
says. It’s a rookie move. There are videos of
amateurs disentangling whales on YouTube,
but Cottrell uses them as anti-training fi lms.
“These people are lucky they didn’t die,”
Cottrell says. In other words: Don’t try this
at home!
BE A TEAM PLAYER Cottrell is humble about
his role, always emphasizing that he’s just one
man in a larger network—the British Columbia
Marine Mammal Response Network, to be ex-
act. The organization includes more than 400
volunteers, starting with commercial fi sher-
men or residents who spot a whale in trouble
as well as the local fi shery offi ces with knowl-
edge of currents, weather, and geography.
And then, there’s the elite group of 15 or so
disentanglers worldwide, who are working to
develop a training manual with strict proto-
cols. Of course, while Cottrell is quick to share
credit, he’s also aware of his skills. “I have to
untangle my Christmas lights” just like every-
one else, he says. “But I am good at disentan-
gling, so I quickly, quickly deal with it.”
The Whale LifeguardW H E N A B U S - S I Z E B A L E E N G E T S S N A R E D I N A
N E T, I T ’ S U P T O VA N C O U V E R ’ S M A S T E R W H A L E
D I S E N TA N G L E R , PA U L C O T T R E L L , T O G E T I T
O U T. T H E S E A R E H I S S E C R E T S . B Y R U T H B E A C H
GEAR UP Cottrell started radio tagging harbor seals nearly 25 years ago. As
the Pacifi c regional marine mammal coordinator for Canada’s department of
fi sheries and oceans, he understands sea-animal behavior better than most.
But there’s more to his job than whale whispering. Major entanglements
with an anchor line can trap the mammal below the surface, where it will
drown. Minor snarls, too, can be tragic—a gill net wrapped around a whale’s
head can hinder its ability to eat. Luckily, Cottrell is one of the best in the
world, and to save the whales, he uses a set of specifi c tools. For tracking an
animal on the move, he needs satellite tags and a laptop, buoys, and a 24-
foot rigid-hull infl atable boat. Grappling hooks and blades attached to long,
lightweight poles make short work of lines and nets. And Cottrell is always
on call. When the phone rings, he and his SWAT team suit up and hop a
chartered fl ight.
TUCKER THE ANIMAL OUT There’s no way to tell an agitated 45-foot mama
humpback to chill while you untangle her 25-foot calf from a fi shing net. If you
MARINE BIOLOGY
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Mom, I was just holding those for a friend.”
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Sure, with its sprawling server farms, Google is probably the web’s most powerful entity. But to us, powerful isn’t just about computations—it’s about changing what we eat, how we vote, and the ways we kill time at the of ice. >
BY ADRIAN CHEN
WEBSITES
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 37
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THE 25 MOST POWERFUL WEBSITES
THE FIRST successful webcam wasn’t sexy, funny, or even all that
interesting. It was a low-resolution camera pointed at a cof eemaker. In
1991, computer scientists at the University of Cambridge were tired of
trekking upstairs for a cup of Joe only to find the cof eepot outside the
Trojan Room lab empty. They set up a live video feed connected to a local
network. When they made the page public, in 1993, it became Internet
famous. As traf ic swelled, the lab even added a lamp so international visi-
tors could peek in after hours.
By luring millions of visitors, the cof eepot proved that anything can
be hypnotic on the web. That opened the floodgates for slightly more
engaging live streams: from the voyeuristic JenniCam to feeds of live
panda cubs. But by 2001, the cof eepot’s 15 minutes had long passed.
Researchers packed up the camera and moved to a new facility. The
pot? It sold for $2,300.
No.1≥ TROJAN
ROOM COFFEEPOT
SPACE JAM
If you need updates about the hottest movie of 1996, this site boasts, “You’ve made it: Jam Central Station, the central depository for all things Space Jam.”http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm
THREE RIVERS STADIUM
Once home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers, Three Rivers Stadium met the wrecking ball in 2001, but its digital presence soldiers on in denial.3riversstadium.com
INTERNET EXPLORER IS EVIL
Still livid about Microsoft forcing you to install Internet Explorer 1 in 1998? You’re not alone!toastytech.com/evil/
CNN’S O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL PAGE
There haven’t been any new develop-ments in the O.J. murder trial in 17 years, but CNN’s web portal still collects the network’s breaking coverage.cnn.com/US/OJ/
Old websites don’t die. They
just hang around waiting to
move to digital Valhalla.
INTERNET FOSSILS!
THE STEAMIEST WEBCAM EVER
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In 1999, writer Gail Simone noticed an
unsettling trend in comic books: a dis-
proportionate number of female super-
heroes were being killed, maimed, or
depowered, compared with their male
counterparts. So she created Women
in Refrigerators, a database of heroines
who had met untimely demises. The
name comes from the Green Lantern’s
girlfriend, who was stuf ed into a fridge
after being murdered by one of his
nemeses.
Simone did more than just chronicle
these grisly ends. By giving writers the
opportunity to respond, she created an
important forum for discussing sexism
in the art form. The site opened the
doors to similar critiques about the
disproportionate attacks on gay and
lesbian characters. Soon, the phrase
“women in refrigerators” became
shorthand for problematic depictions
of women across pop culture. It also
helped Simone become part of the
solution. In 2007, she became the first
female writer to helm DC’s Wonder
Woman in the title’s 66-year history.
BEFORE THE INTERNET, getting a medical diagnosis required
consulting a trained professional. That changed in 1996, when
WebMD debuted the Symptom Checker, a catalog of condi-
tions that nervous web browsers could peruse for hours. The
problem, of course, is that self-diagnosis isn’t quite the same
as visiting someone who owns a stethoscope. As a result, the
site fomented a brand-new malady: cyberchondria—Internet-
induced hypochondria.
Just how needlessly alarming can the web be? Fewer
than 1 in 50,000 people have a brain tumor, but according
SAVIOR OF SUPERHEROINES
No.4≥ WEBMD
to Psychology Today, enter the word headache into a search
engine and you’ll find that 25 percent of the results point to brain
tumors as a probable cause. That explains why a 2008 study
confirmed that 40 percent of people who use the web to self-
diagnose end up suf ering increased anxiety.
What makes WebMD stand out from the pack? As The New
York Times noted, its click-friendly alarmist tone makes it chum
for cyberchondriacs. And the strategy pays—in 2010, the site
generated more than $500 million in advertising profit. Great for
WebMD. For the suf erer of the common cold? Not so much.
USERS UPLOAD
2.5 BILLION
IMAGES A
MONTH.
SPAWN OF A NEW AFFLICTION
Amazon has changed the way
Americans shop, but its most powerful
of ering doesn’t come in a box. Over the
past few years, Amazon has quietly laid
the groundwork for a cloud-computing
takeover that could be even more
far-reaching.
In 2006, Amazon started leasing out
storage space on its massive server
farms, saving companies the hassle of
setting up expensive in-house systems.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), as it’s
known, helps some of the world’s
biggest businesses run. Netflix uses it
to stream billions of hours of video to
consumers, while banks rely on AWS
to crunch numbers from their massive
databases. As Borders can tell you,
don’t bet against Amazon’s ability to
completely transform an industry.
no.
2 Amazon
SERVING THE NEW WEB ORDER
NO.3 WOMEN IN
REFRIGERATORS
You’re
experiencing
trembling. Could
it be associated
with any of these
common causes?
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 39
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THE 25 MOST POWERFUL WEBSITES
GOOGLE FIELDS 40,000 SEARCHES
PER SECOND.
9%According to a
Harvard Business School study, a one-
star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating boosts the eatery’s profits by
five to nine percent.
no.
6 YELP
WHERE THE PEANUT
GALLERY MAKES BIG DOUGH
RUSSIA’S Alexei Navalny can ruin a politician’s career with a
single blog post. Known for his bold exposés—including leaking
internal documents from crooked state-run companies—Na-
valny’s incendiary writing helped spark the biggest antigovern-
ment protests Russia has seen in years. Just as the Drudge Report
rocked American politics by picking up the Monica Lewinsky
scandal before mainstream outlets would touch it, Navalny will do
whatever it takes to keep Moscow’s elite honest. What’s surprising
is his weapon of choice: LiveJournal.
In the U.S., the online diary site is best remembered as a cache
of bad poetry and Star Trek fan fi ction. But in Russia, where the
nickname for the site, ZheZhe, doubles as the word for blogging, it’s
a vital broadcast system. Thirty-fi ve million people have accounts,
including celebrities, politicians, and even Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev, and it’s seen as one of the few places where citizens and
journalists can publish without censorship. Unfortunately, all that
free speech has hurt Navalny. After four years of rabble-rousing, the
government slapped him with trumped-up embezzlement charges,
the legality of which is no doubt being debated on LiveJournal.
KEEPING POLITICIANS HONEST
No.7≥ LIVEJOURNAL
As a tiny island nation with just
300,000 residents, Iceland’s
gene pool is dangerously shallow;
discovering that your hot date is a
not-too-distant cousin is a distinct
possibility. In 1997, a team that
included deCODE Genetics solved
the problem with the site Islend-
ingabok. Citizens enter a potential
mate’s name into the Book of Ice-
landers, and the site parses 1,200
years’ worth of genealogical data to
determine how closely related they
are. But what if you meet someone
at a bar and don’t want to spoil the
moment by fi ring up your laptop?
Islendingabok has an app for that.
Just tap phones with your prospect,
and wait for the all-clear. As the
tagline cheerfully advises: “Bump
the app before you bump in bed.”
no.
5 Islendingabok
COUSIN-KISSING PREVENTION
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PETS.COM WAS LITERALLY
fl ying high on November 25,
1999. A 36-foot balloon version
of the site’s famous sock-
puppet dog mascot soared over
New York City in the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade. A
few months later, the company
would rake in $82.5 million in
an initial public offering.
The sock puppet—voiced by
Michael Ian Black—cemented
its status as a pop culture icon
by appearing in a $25 million
Super Bowl ad. The puppet
was interviewed by People and
appeared on Good Morning
America. When Pets.com began
offering sock puppets, it sold
10,000 in the fi rst week, more
than all its pet-related products.
That fact alone should have
raised red fl ags. No ad campaign
could fi x Pets.com’s unsustain-
able business model, which
required shipping heavy bags of
food at huge losses. This strategy
led to $62 million in losses in
1999. Despite partnering with
Amazon, the site had to be put
to sleep in November 2000.
“The only thing I ended up
with out of that investment is a
sock puppet,” Amazon CEO Jeff
Bezos told Vanity Fair. And the
rest of the Internet-commerce
industry? It learned that the
value of having a catchy mascot
is second only to having a solid
business model. As for the pup-
pet, the critter now serves as the
mascot for 1-800-BarNone, a
Michigan-based car loan com-
pany for drivers with bad credit.
BarNone’s slogan: “Everyone
deserves a second chance.”
You can’t click on too many
sites without running into a troll,
the folk devils of the Internet
who live to spout mean-spirited
nonsense. If you want to trace
the behavior back to its source,
there’s only one place to look:
4chan. When 15-year-old Chris-
topher “Moot” Poole started a
seemingly innocent anime fan
board in 2003, he didn’t realize
he was opening the web version
of Pandora’s box. 4chan quickly
grew into one of the darkest
corners of the web thanks to its
anarchic “/b/” section, where
anonymity gave rise to a culture
of bullying and harassment.
But strangely, even as 4chan
has grown as a staging ground
for flame wars, it’s also been a
hive of positivity. The site incu-
bated many of the web’s silliest
memes, including Lolcats and
Rickrolling.
4chan’s most powerful legacy,
however, is the hacktivist collec-
tive Anonymous. The group first
organized in the mid-2000s to
campaign against Scientology,
but today the masked hackers
often rally around social causes,
taking down government web-
sites to protest censorship or
hounding animal abusers.
Even trolls have hearts.
EVERYTHING GOOD
AND BAD ON THE WEB
no.
9 SLASHDOT
In the late 1990s and early
2000s, long before Reddit
unearthed its first meme,
Slashdot was the center
of the nerd universe. The
collection of tech news,
opinion, and inside jokes
was required reading for
geeks, who flocked to any
site Slashdot endorsed
with a link.
Unfortunately, these
plugs were a catch-22 for
burgeoning sites. Slashdot’s
vast audience was so
enthusiastic that it flooded
and crashed target sites’
servers. Users even coined
the term “Slashdotted” to
describe these outages.
Paradoxically, the durabil-
ity of today’s sites is a direct
result of the “Slashdot
Ef ect.” Programmers knew
they needed more robust
sites to survive Slashdot’s
high-volume love, so they
invested in improving soft-
ware, caches, and servers
to handle large quantities
of traf ic, making great
websites better and harder
to crash.
EVEN WHAT KILLS YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER
IN 2000,
DAVID BOWIE’S
HOURS… WAS
THE FIRST
DIGITAL ALBUM
DOWNLOAD.
NO.10 4CHAN
No.8≥ PETS.COM
ASSERTING THE SOCK PUPPET’S CULTURAL DOMINANCE
AL
AM
Y (
PU
TIN
)
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 41
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THE 25 MOST POWERFUL WEBSITES
WHEN college freshman Aaron Peckham launched Urban Dic-tionary in 1999, he used the site to catalog the ridiculous lingo he and his friends made up. But as people from across the web began contributing and voting on the accuracy of definitions, what began as a goof self-corrected and transformed into a valuable resource.
Today, the crowdsourced database contains more than two million definitions of slang words and phrases—a godsend to less-than-hip parents. (For the record, Mom: “nom: 1) The act of eating. 2) An act of af ection.”)
But the site’s greatest beneficiary might be the U.S. legal sys-tem. According to The New York Times, courts are increasingly leaning on the online dictionary to define slang. And while it’s both hilarious and uncomfortable to think of lawyers reading elderly juries the site’s definition of twerking—“when a woman slams her bottom on a man’s pelvic area while dancing”—it makes all the dif erence in cases involving sexual harassment, where decisions often hinge on parsing linguistic intent.
THE FIRST
YOUTUBE VIDEO
SHOWS FOUNDER
JAWED KAREEM
AT THE ZOO.
In April 1993, the particle-physics
lab CERN changed the digital
world forever by launching the
world’s first website. It was refresh-
ingly minimalist—actually, it was
dreadfully boring—just a straight-
forward presentation of informa-
tion. It was the content and the fact
that CERN was making it available
royalty-free that was revolutionary.
The site shared basic technical
information about how to code
a web page, how to search for
information on the web, and the
source code for setting up a web
server. It also provided instructions
for building sites and browsing the
web. Like an invasive species, the
information spread, and websites
began popping up everywhere. By
the end of the year, there were 500
sites. Today, more than 630 million
make up a huge part of the digital
universe as we know it.
no.
12 CERN
THE MOTHERSHIP
WHERE JIVE TURKEYS SWAY JURIES
No.11≥ URBAN DICTIONARY
A few more examples of what makes Urban Dictionary a lifesaver
•couch syrup “The liquor one hides in a couch while pretending to be sober”
•hungs “A shortened way of saying one is hungry”
•textretary “A sidekick who texts for the driver”
•almost-quaintance “A person to whom one has at one point sent a successful social networking friend request”
•on blast “To embarass someone or to make someone look stupid”
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NO.14 GITHUB
THE ROSETTA STONE
OF CODE
No.15≥ OH MY NEWS
In a medium where unsubstantiated rumors spread like wildfire, verifying information takes on a special significance. David and Barbara Mikkelson run Snopes, the web’s foremost fact-checking site, from their California home, and they’ve allayed our collective anxiety by debunking some doozies.
Thanks to the Mikkelsons’ meticulous research, we are no longer burdened by the following urban legends:
By allowing anyone to con-
tribute lines of code, the open
source movement was able
to tackle some of computing’s
thorniest problems. GitHub, a
kind of Facebook for program-
mers founded in 2008, made
open source even more demo-
cratic by allowing its 1.3 million
members to introduce fixes
without having to go through a
project manager.
Because GitHub catalogs
all the iterations of a code,
sites like TechCrunch have
hailed it as a modern Library
of Alexandria, a catalog that
beginners and experts can use
to better understand coding
and develop ever more elegant
solutions. And as TechCrunch
also notes, GitHub has one dis-
tinct advantage over its ancient
forebear. Because users write
and edit by copying existing
patches of code onto their own
computers, there’s little danger
this incredible resource will be
lost to the sands of time.
BACK IN 2000, South Korean journal-
ist Oh Yeoh-ho was fed up with his
country’s mainstream media, so he
launched Oh My News. True to its
slogan, “Every Citizen Is a Reporter,”
his online newspaper allows anyone to
submit stories, which are then read and
edited by paid staffers.
Two years later, Oh My News rose
to prominence with its coverage of a
story other outlets wouldn’t touch: the
deaths of two schoolgirls crushed by a
U.S. Army truck. When a user posted
a heartfelt plea to protest the deaths,
10,000 Koreans fl ooded into Seoul’s
streets for a massive candlelight vigil.
The rally highlighted Oh My News’s
power as an organizational tool, and
supporters of Roh Moo-hyun, an ideal-
istic presidential candidate, took note.
Although Roh had been a dark horse,
Oh My News helped him squeak out
a win. Roh was so appreciative of his
digital army that he snubbed the major
media and gave his fi rst postelection
interview to the people’s paper.
no.
13 Snopes
A MYTH-BUSTING MARRIAGE
THE SITE THAT ELECTED A PRESIDENT
AL
AM
Y (
RO
H M
OO
-HY
UN
)
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THE 25 MOST POWERFUL WEBSITES
NO.18 THE HUNGER SITE
ONE FOR YOU,
TWO FOR ME
No.17≥ Craigslist
Saving the world is hard work.
Or at least it was until John
Breen revolutionized social
justice in 1999 by creating an
ingenious charity that appealed
to lazy do-gooders. All someone
had to do was click a button,
and, as if by magic, ¼ cup of
food would be donated to the
United Nations’ World Food
Programme.
Breen’s click-to-donate model
was wholly original. He sold day-
long sponsorships to the site,
convincing big-name advertis-
ers to absorb his costs. It was a
win-win for everyone—people
were fed, companies looked
good, and users added a little
satisfaction to their days. Well, it
was great for everyone except
Breen, who was overwhelmed.
As the dot-com bubble burst
and maintenance rose beyond
his capabilities, Breen sold
The Hunger Site to a shopping
portal, where it became a for-
profit corporation and ran out
of money. But the site laid the
foundation for a new generation
of creative capitalism, inspiring
entrepreneurs to find new ways
of getting people to do good
without having to do much.
ASK ANYONE who’s ever desperately needed a roommate, a last-
minute concert ticket, or a used ukulele: We would be lost with-
out Craigslist. What started as a Bay Area email list in 1995 has
grown into a massive hub of more than 100 million ads a month.
Humans have been trading goods forever, of course, but
through the 20th century we had to rely on newspaper classfi ed
ads. That method was time-consuming and relied on a lot of luck
and patience (and your hands got grubby from the newsprint).
Craigslist revolutionized that equation with convenience, speed,
and a much wider draw—all at no cost to most users.
Strangely enough, Craigslist has proved that free can pay.
For all its grassroots charm, the site has backing from serious
investors, and they’re making serious money. In 2012, the site
made $126 million in revenue, primarily from the nominal fees
it charges for posting help-wanted ads in certain markets. That’s
enough to buy a lot of used coffee tables.
In 1999, Napster turned
any computer into an
infi nite jukebox. But
Metallica couldn’t just be
cool about it, and court
orders laid the service to
rest two years later. For
the record industry, the
damage was done—the
notion that music was
something that could
be possessed was gone
forever.
In Napster’s wake,
fi le-sharing hubs popped
up around the world,
sparking lawsuits and
debates about intel-
lectual property. One of
these sites, the Swedish
hub Pirate Bay, came
to embody the inter-
national movement to
reform copyright laws
through its loose affi lia-
tion with the burgeon-
ing political group, also
Swedish in origin, the
Pirate Party. Founded by
tech entrepreuneur Rick
Falkvinge, the Pirate
Party—which stands
chiefl y for civil liberties,
freedom of information,
and copyright reform—
quickly spread through
Europe. It found par-
ticularly strong traction
in Germany and Iceland,
where this year voters
elected three candidates
from the Pirate Party to
parliament. The party is
now organized and cam-
paigning for copyright
reform and the free shar-
ing of information in
more than 43 countries.
no.
16 The Pirate Bay
THE SITE THAT LAUNCHED A POLITICAL PARTY
REFRESHING THE BARTER ECONOMY
At the other end of the spec-
trum, Alex Tew needed tuition
money, so he did something
audacious—he asked for it. In
2005, he started a site, Million
Dollar Homepage, sold the pix-
els to advertisers for a dollar
apiece, and in just six months,
Tew cleared the million-dollar
hurdle. All of which proved
that when it comes to crowd-
sourcing funds, no cause is
too selfish.
NO.19 MILLION DOLLAR
HOMEPAGE
BITTORRENT ACCOUNTS FOR 18% OF ALL INTERNET
TRAFFIC.
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GRUMPY CAT’S
REAL NAME IS
TARDAR SAUCE.
Inspired by classifieds, Match.com
founder Gary Kremen, started
registering domains like Autos.
com and Jobs.com in 1994. Those
domains were worth a pretty
penny, but during the domain-
name gold rush, Sex.com was El
Dorado.
Unfortunately for Kremen, the
domain also caught the eye of
con man Stephen Michael Cohen.
In 1995, Cohen used forged docu-
ments and incredible chutzpah to
convince a registration company
to transfer the domain to him. He
quickly outfitted Sex.com with
a slew of porn ads that began
amassing millions of dollars.
Kremen sued for control of his
domain, but Cohen’s now-deep
pockets funded a protracted
legal battle. After a five-year fight,
Kremen was awarded the domain
and a $65 million settlement. But
Cohen wasn’t ready to give up his
freedom, so he hid out in Mexico
until 2005. When Kremen finally
got the name back, he sold it for
a then-record $14 million. Today,
Sex.com is an X-rated clone of the
social bookmarking site Pinterest.
The legal system works!
no.
21 Sex.com
No.20≥ HAMPSTER
DANCE
THE SITE WORTH GOING INTO EXILE OVER
SILLINESS PAYS
IN 1998, Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte started a friendly competition with a classmate to see who could drive the most traf ic to a website. LaCarte of ered up Hampster Dance, a page featuring dozens of poorly ani-mated hamsters dancing in an infinite loop to a sped-up version of the Roger Miller song “Whistle Stop.”
LaCarte didn’t know it, but she had
unleashed an Internet plague. A remix
of “The Hampster Dance Song” charted
in countries around the world, and
LaCarte’s critters were licensed for a
children’s television cartoon. LaCarte’s
greatest legacy? Proving Internet popu-
larity is often directly proportional to sil-
liness—an equation that cats and Chuck
Norris have ridden to great fame.
Our Internet Cat Power Ranking
GRUMPY CAT
GREATEST STRENGTH: Always grumpy.
FATAL FLAW: Always grumpy.
KEYBOARD CAT
GREATEST STRENGTH: Dependably
good for a jaunty tune.
FATAL FLAW: Very limited repertoire.
LIL BUB
GREATEST STRENGTH: Adorable
perma-kitten from another planet.
FATAL FLAW: Questionable
spelling skills.
DRAMATIC CHIPMUNK
GREATEST STRENGTH: Theatrically
turning around.
FATAL FLAW: Upon closer
inspection: is not a cat.
NYAN CAT
GREATEST STRENGTH: A Pop-Tart body!
FATAL FLAW: Unrealistic. There’s no air
for pastry cats to breathe in space.
KEYB
GREATE
SUBORDINATE CLAWS
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
MIK
E B
RID
AV
SK
Y (
BU
B). B
RY
AN
BU
ND
ES
EN
(T
AR
DA
R S
AU
CE
). C
HR
IST
OP
HE
R T
OR
RE
S (
NY
AN
). C
HA
RL
IE S
CH
MID
T (
KE
YB
OA
RD
CA
T)
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 45
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THE 25 MOST POWERFUL WEBSITES
No.24≥ POWERLINE
The web has a woefully short
memory. Links die, codes go bad,
and sites are pulled down in an
instant . Luckily, Brewster Kahle’s
nonprofi t Internet Archive tire-
lessly preserves huge swaths of the
web’s history before it vanishes.
Kahle fi rst had the idea for catalog-
ing the web while designing the
web crawler Alexa Internet. As his
spiders indexed the web, he real-
ized he could store all that informa-
tion. In 2001, he made all of those
cached websites available to the
public with The Wayback Machine,
a massive database of snapshots of
millions of websites through time.
How powerful is this tool for online
researchers? This list wouldn’t have
been possible without it.
no.
23 The Internet Archive
LONG-TERM MEMORY
FROM PRACTICALLY the day they sprang into existence, blogs have
been denigrated as trivial, inaccurate, and derivative. Untrained
writers could never match the accuracy and depth of newspapers
and network news. Power Line, a scrappy right-wing blog, turned
that perception on its ear when it took down one of old media’s most
venerable fi gures: Dan Rather.
In September 2004, Rather and CBS News aired an explosive
story about George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National
Guard. The report used military documents to show that Bush had
received preferential treatment and performed poorly while failing to
meet his service obligations. Just two months before Bush came up
for reelection, the report was a bombshell.
Or it would have been, except the documents weren’t authentic.
Power Line cofounder Scott W. Johnson thought something seemed
fi shy, and, thanks to tips from Power Line readers, it took him only
a few hours to expose the critical documents as forgeries. The Inter-
net’s self-taught experts had proved to be more reliable fact-checkers
than the traditional elite in CBS’s news department. As the scandal
erupted, Rather resigned from CBS, and even stalwarts like Time
hailed Power Line’s meticulous work. Score one for new media.
According to a 2012 Stanford
study, 22 percent of heterosexual
couples met online. And Match
claims responsibility for 30 per-
cent of all marriages that began
online. That’s 12 engagements or
weddings per day—in other words,
an awful lot of chicken dancing.
Match didn’t rise to the top of the
pile without competition, though.
Only the strong survive in the
online dating business. Just look
at these rival sites it dispatched
along the way:
•WENEITHER.COM
Attempted to pair of couples by
the things they disliked
•IRRITATEDBEINGSINGLE.COM
For people with IBS or Crohn’s
disease
•CLOWNDATING.COM
A dating site for Bozos
NO.22 MATCH.COM
MADE IN HEAVEN
“AT ONE
POINT, 50
PERCENT OF THE
CDS PRODUCED
WORLDWIDE HAD AN
AOL LOGO ON IT.”
—JAN BRANDT,
AOL’S FORMER CHIEF
MARKETING OFFICER
DAN RATHER, WE HARDELY KNOW YE!
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No.25≥ RAP GENIUS
YOU CAN LEARN how to French braid on YouTube, but deciphering the
lyrics to hip-hop songs? That was nearly impossible before Rap Genius
came along. Started by three Yale alums in 2009, the site has harnessed the
knowledge of rap fanatics to create the web’s most exhaustive database of
lyric interpretations.
But Rap Genius is no mere Wikipedia of samples; the magic is in the
richness of the annotations. Users have fi lled the site with clear but color-
ful footnotes backed by links and additional sources, and rap superstars
occasionally drop by to spill additional knowledge.
Now that the site has proved its value—and nabbed $15 million in ven-
ture capital—the founders want to bring the model into the classroom by
extending into everything ever written. If Rap Genius can unravel dense lyr-
ics, why can’t it break down legal documents? Or historical speeches? Or the
Bible? Silicon Valley’s investors are betting that the Rap Genius model can
make sense of any text. We can’t wait for Ghostface Killah to fi nally explain
Ulysses in language we can understand.
BREAKING IT DOWN
THE AVERAGE
IPOD CONTAINS
$800 WORTH
OF PIRATED
MUSIC.
To be fair, Richard
Dawson was more a
moderator of family feuds
than an instigator.
Also referencing how
he breaks up families
by sleeping with your
respective parents
Or gang wars
Slang for showing off
(REAL ANNOTATIONS
FROM RAP GENIUS)
Since he’s “flossin’, ” this could either mean that
— He’s bragging about his style in a “fashion”
sense, as in how good he looks
Or …
—He’s bragging about how well he can rap,
which is pretty damn well (and most likely).
But he do be stylin’, man.
Rap Genius Explains
WU-TANG CLAN’S
“WU-TANG CLAN AIN’T NUTHING TA F--- WIT”
[VERSE 1: RZA]
YO THERE’S NO PLACE TO HIDE AS I STEP INSIDE THE ROOM
DR. DOOM, PREPARE FOR THE BOOM
BAM! AW, MAN! I, SLAM, JAM, NOW SCREAM LIKE TARZAN
I BE TOSSING AND FLOSSING MY STYLE IS AWESOME
I’M CAUSING MORE FAMILY FEUDS THAN RICHARD DAWSON
AL
AM
Y (
DA
N R
AT
HE
R, D
UN
K, F
IRE
WO
RK
S, T
AR
ZA
N). G
ET
TY
(D
R. D
OO
M). C
OR
IBIS
(D
AW
SO
N)
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 47
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48 mentalfloss.com November 2013
They may look like raw heavyweights slapped in diapers and
thrown into a ring, but there’s more to Japan’s oversize athletes
than meets the eye. Behind the scenes, their days are a blend of
rigorous training, fraternity-style hazing, and epic naps.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAOLO PATRIZI
THE SECRET
LIVES OF
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50 mentalfloss.com November 2013
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THE STABLE LIFE
At the age of 15, promising wrestlers join
a heya, or “stable,” of 15 to 30 members.
Admission to these elite training camps
is cutthroat—for years, a strict height
requirement forced some shorter hopefuls
to resort to scalp implants. (In 1994, one
diminutive wrestler injected six inches of
silicone into his dome.)
Life only gets tougher after admission.
Tradition dictates a wrestler’s schedule,
wardrobe, and menu. Wrestlers must
maintain a well-oiled chonmage—the
topknot hairstyle once sported by samurai
[below right]—and are obligated to wear
kimonos in public. They also scarf down
about 6,500 calories a day, gorging on a
protein-packed stew called chanko-nabe.
But there is one perk: They can guzzle as
much beer as they want.
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 51
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52 mentalfloss.com November 2013
THE DAILY GRIND
Wrestlers rise at 5 a.m. and perform an
endless routine of leg lifts and squats on
an empty stomach. Low-ranking wrestlers
build their stamina by battling senior ones
until they can no longer stand. At noon,
the stable finally eats and then naps [left].
To stack on the pounds, senior wrestlers
can sleep until dinnertime, devour another
meal, and then hit the hay again. The
largest wrestlers can top 400 pounds, but
their frames are deceptively muscular—
they average just 26 percent body fat.
Low-ranking wrestlers’ downtime is
packed with chores: scrubbing the backs
of their elders [right], shopping for gro-
ceries, and cooking for the group. Since
they’re not allowed to drive, wrestlers get
around on bikes—strong, strong bikes.
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 53
MATCHES MADE IN HEAVEN
Japan’s 700 sumo wrestlers
are in constant training for six
annual tournaments, where the
sport’s Shinto roots are on dis-
play. Referees’ outfits are styled
after priests’ robes, and the ring
features a shrine, like the ones
where the first sumo matches
took place 2,000 years ago. To
exorcise evil spirits, wrestlers
toss salt into the ring, and the ref-
eree douses the sacred dirt with
sake. As for the skimpy outfits?
They’re a symbol of toughness.
Baring it all screams “I don’t need
weapons to plow you over.”
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ROM THE MOMENT he fi rst picked up a golf club at
age 10, Jack Nicklaus had an innate grasp of the
game. At 20, he placed second at the U.S. Open.
The next year, he won the tournament, followed
by the Masters and the P.G.A. Championship.
When the 1964 U.S. Open began, he was the
favorite. As he walked onto the course, Nicklaus
was counting on the choreographed power of his swing—which
artfully combined brute force with graceful accuracy—to smash
the ball far onto the fairway.
But something was off. On the fi rst hole, he plunked the ball
directly into a sand trap. Fourteen times that day, he found himself
behind trees and hacking his way out of traps. The next two days
were worse. Nicklaus fi nished the tournament he was supposed to
win tied for 23rd place.
Nicklaus had lost the fi ne sense of timing that was his livelihood,
and he didn’t have long to get it back. In three weeks, he was scheduled
to play in the British Open, one of the most challenging courses in the
sport. Every golfer has a bad day, or even a bad week. But Nicklaus’s
poor performance would put his career in jeopardy if it continued.
B Y D AV I D K . R A N D A L L
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y R YA N S N O O K
While our bodies rest,
our minds get to work.
How a dreaming brain is
your best shot at solving
all your problems.
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 55
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A few nights before he left for the Open, Nicklaus dreamed of
pounding the ball onto the fairway. When he woke up, he real-
ized he had held the club slightly differently in his dream, an ad-
justment that allowed him to keep his right arm steady through
the swing. It was a tweak barely perceptible to anyone else, but
Nicklaus instantly recognized it was the solution to his troubles.
He got out of bed, went directly to the course, gripped the club
like he had in his dream, and shot a 68. His old stroke was back.
In his sleep, Nicklaus had solved a problem that was costing him
10 strokes a round: the difference between walking home with a
$100,000 check and barely making enough money to cover air-
fare. His dreaming brain was able to do
something that it couldn’t when he was
awake. Clearly, something happened that
night that led Nicklaus to wake up with a
solution to his swing problem. But what?
SCIENTISTS have long attributed insights
to fl ittering strokes of genius—a mysteri-
ous dance of cells and neurons that adds
up to a game-changing thought—and they
marvel at how the mind, while in a dream,
sometimes suddenly reaches the perfect
solution to a problem. Take the German
chemist August Kekulé, who in 1865 woke
up from a dream about a snake eating its
own tail. At the time, he was working on
a model of the structure of benzene, an
industrial solvent. As he lay in bed, he realized that benzene’s
chemical bonds fi t into the same hexagonal shape as the snake
in his dream. Benzene’s chemical makeup had been confounding
engineers and scientists; the discovery was so important to Ger-
man industry that Kekulé was awarded a title of nobility.
What dreaming does for our brains is most evident in stories like
these, in which the mind solves a problem without any conscious
effort. Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously awoke from an opium-
induced dream in 1816 with 300 lines of poetry in his head, which
became “Kubla Khan.” Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday” after
waking up with the melody in his mind. Dreaming seems to be the
time when the mind works in its laboratory, testing approaches
and solutions to situations that were a part of its waking life. But
scientists are only now beginning to understand the process.
In the early 1980s, biologists Francis Crick (the Nobel Prize–
winning scientist who helped decipher the structural model of
DNA) and Graeme Mitchison formed a theory about sleep. REM
is when our most vivid dreams occur and a period during which
the mind is as active as it is while awake. If we spend too little
time in REM one night, our brains compensate by prolonging
that stage the next night. Crick and Mitchison theorized that the
brain picks up countless bits of information throughout the day—
the face of a waiter at lunch, the pattern of a coworker’s tie—and
sorts through it at night. Storing all of this information into long-
term memory could keep our brains from fi nding something
important when we need it. Instead, the brain picks and chooses
what it keeps. Information that isn’t essential is forgotten, mak-
ing way for what’s coming the next day. According to the theory,
this process of cleaning up and organizing the mind’s fi ling cabi-
net could take place during REM sleep, which would account for
the randomness of dreams. And with only important information
left, the mind is free to make associations it couldn’t see before.
In the early 2000s, a team of researchers at the University of
Lübeck in Germany put this theory to test. They were curious
whether insights came with time as the brain worked over new
information or whether sleep was the catalyst for new ideas.
To fi nd out, they gave a group of voulunteers number problems
to solve and then allowed them varying amounts of sleep. The
individuals were then assessed on how quickly they came up with
novel solutions to the problems. The subjects who slept discov-
ered quick solutions and shortcuts, while those who didn’t snooze
did not. Sometime in the night, the sleeping subjects’ minds were
able to construct a novel approach. It was as if sleep stretched the
muscles of the brain, and it responded
by bending its conception of facts and
reality in a way that let it arrive at a new
vision. While the study confi rmed that
sleep did enhance problem solving, the
question of whether dreaming played a
role remained. Were dreams just a part
of sleep that occurred while the brain was
consolidating memories and honing new
skills, or did dreams actually help the
brain reach its goal?
ONE NIGHT, after a day of hiking in
Vermont, Robert Stickgold noticed some-
thing strange. As the Harvard professor
started to drift off to sleep, he had the
sensation that he was grabbing rocks
and pulling himself up, as he’d done earlier in the day. When he
shared this experience with colleagues—the feeling that his mind
had been replaying its day as he fell asleep—he learned he wasn’t
alone. His friends had similar experiences after a day of intense,
focused activities like whitewater rafting or—this being a group
of Harvard professors—studying organic chemistry. Stickgold
wanted to conduct a study to see whether this was common.
That’s when a colleague suggested Tetris. Anyone who has
played the video game knows there is something about sorting
all those shapes into straight lines that sticks with you. Stickgold
assembled a group of college students, including some who had
never played the game before. The subjects played a few rounds
and then dozed in the sleep lab. Stickgold woke them up not
long after and asked what they were dreaming about. Approxi-
mately three out of every fi ve replied that they saw falling Tetris
pieces. The challenges the brain had grappled with earlier that day
replayed in the mind as the subjects went to sleep.
Next time you wake up in a cold
sweat, don’t just bury your head under
your pillow and forget it. You could
be sleeping on the next Hollywood
blockbuster! —STACY CONRADT
How to Get Rich
Of Your Nightmares
IT WAS AS IF SLEEP
STRETCHED THE
MUSCLES OF THE
BRAIN AND IT
RESPONDED BY
BENDING REALITY.
56 mentalfloss.com November 2013
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of dreaming, which fused elements of skiing with what the sub-
jects already knew, occurred later in the night, when the adult
brain spends longer amounts of time in REM. As the subjects
slept, their brains conducted free-association sessions, desper-
ately searching for connections.
THIS MAY EXPLAIN not only why the dreams we remember after
a long sleep seem so strange, but also how we craft new ideas
from memory. The open interplay of emotions, facts, and fresh
information allows our brains to see things in a new way. Further
research showed that not all sleep gives the brain the same ben-
efi ts. The quality of sleep a person gets
immediately after learning something
new matters, and the most important
period of learning occurs in the fi rst
six hours of the night. In one study,
researchers trained subjects to per-
form a motor-skill test. One group was
awakened after less than six hours of
sleep and trained to perform a second,
unrelated task. The other group was al-
lowed to sleep normally. Subjects who
did not have their sleep interrupted
were able to complete the motor-skill
test an average of 21 percent faster the
next day. Those who were awakened,
however, improved by an average of
only 9 percent. Their brains, it ap-
peared, were interrupted at a crucial time.
Scientists currently think the process of clearing the mind of
unnecessary information, honing skills, and recognizing patterns
is at work in all stages of sleep. And they know that the benefi ts
improve exponentially the longer someone rests. Subjects who
were able to reach deeper stages of sleep demonstrated a better
command of fl exible thinking, a vital cognitive skill that allows
us to apply old facts and information to new situations. Sud-
denly, a golfer who identifi es a new grip in his sleep doesn’t seem
like an anomaly or even a genius—he seems like living proof of
what our dreams do for us every day. It turns out the old adage
“practice makes perfect” is only half right; success depends on
practice, plus a good night’s sleep.
More reports of Tetris dreams came on the second night of
the study. It seemed that once the mind realized that being
asked to sort falling shapes was no fl uke, it decided to devote
extra time to fi nding a strategy. All the subjects who were new
to Tetris reported seeing game pieces in their dreams, while
only half the experienced gamers did. Intriguingly, Stickgold
also included several subjects in the study who regularly suf-
fered from amnesia. This group, too, reported dreams of falling
shapes, though the subjects could not consciously remember
playing the game. Each person’s brain used sleep as a time to
rehash what it experienced while awake. When subjects played
the game again, their Tetris dreams
appeared to help them improve.
Stickgold decided to take this line of
study further, using more video games.
He convinced Harvard to buy the arcade
game Alpine Racer 2 and install it in his
sleep lab. The game was part of a new
line of machines that required players to
move their whole bodies, rather than just
their thumbs. The experience was paral-
lel to hiking in Vermont or any other full-
body activity that melds decision making
with physical movement, a taxing cogni-
tive process in which time and patience
lead to skill. Stickgold then designed a
study that would test whether humans
continue to dream about new informa-
tion throughout the night. His goal was to determine how novel
data interacts with what the mind already knows. As in the Tetris
experiment, volunteers played the game for 45 minutes and slept
in the lab. But this time, Stickgold waited until some subjects
had completed one or two sleep cycles, the roughly 90-minute
loops that the brain goes through every night, before he woke
them and asked what was going on in their dreams. As in the
Tetris experiment, almost half the subjects who were awakened
early had dreams that seemed out of the video game, dreams of
skiing or hiking in the mountains.
But as the night progressed, something interesting happened:
The dream reports became less straightforward. Subjects be-
gan to say they were dreaming of things like moving quickly
through a forest as if on a conveyor belt. The literal replay of new
information had evolved into analysis. Once an initial phase of
dreaming passed, the brain began fi nding connections and asso-
ciations with the data embedded on its memory cards. This stage
Excerpted from Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall. Copyright © 2012 by David K. Randall. With permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
THE TERMINATOR $78 MILLIONJames Cameron was fighting a 102-degree fever when a vision of a robot dragging itself along the floor with a knife came to him in his sleep. Then California’s future governor got the part, and things really got scary!
MISERY $61 MILLIONWhile dozing on an airplane, Stephen King has said, he “dreamt about a woman who held a writer prisoner and killed him, skinned him, fed the remains to her pig, and bound his novel in human skin. ”
TWILIGHT $398 MILLIONA meadow-side conversation between a girl and a “beautiful, sparkly” boy vampire came to Stephanie Meyer in a dream, she told Oprah. “He was trying to explain ... how much he cared about her, and yet ... wanted to kill her.”
ALAMY
November 2013 mentalfloss.com 57
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 59
PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
Y B
Y F
ON
G Q
I W
EI
(CH
INA
TO
WN
SU
NS
ET
, 2
013
)
JOB ADVICE FOR ASPIRING PILGRIMS
VIRGINIA WOOLF’S WRITING TIPS
ITALY’S CHEESIEST BANK
+ OTHER STUFF WE LOVE RIGHT NOW
In his new series, Time Is a Dimension, Singapore-based artist Fong
Qi Wei attempts to capture the feeling of time in a single photograph.
After shooting the same scene for two to four hours and layering all the shots on top
of one another, Wei slices away scenes to create still images with a moving pulse.
fqwimages.com
GO
MENTAL
City Lights
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60 mentalfloss.com November 2013
CO
RB
IS (
CH
EE
SE
BA
NK
)
How did you become a pilgrim reenactor?
My parents brought me
to visit Plimoth Plantation
when I was a small child,
and a pilgrim woman asked
me to help her do dishes
in the scullery. I wouldn’t
do that at home, but after
drying those wooden
plates, I was hooked!
Afterward, I wrote a hand-
written letter addressed to
Mistress Fuller at Plimoth
Plantation. Somehow,
it got to her, and I got a
letter back. She told me
you could volunteer to be
a pilgrim child. I went to
an audition, and I was so
sad when I had to leave at
the end of the day. It has
literally shaped the rest of
my life.
GO
MENTAL
“Mugwump is a
derogatory word
for somebody in
charge who af ects
to be above petty
squabbles and
factions. So when
your boss tries
to make peace at
the meeting table
like an impartial
angel, he is being a
mugwump.”
“Once you are properly vinomadefied all sorts of
intriguing things start to happen. Vinomadefied,
by the way, does not mean ‘made mad by wine,’
but merely ‘dampened by it.’ ”
“A vomitorium
is not a room in
which ancient
Romans would
throw up halfway
through a ban-
quet in order to
make room for
the next course.
That’s a myth. A
vomitorium is
simply a passage
by which you can
exit a building,
usually a theatre.”
“Once your toes
are snugly
pantofled, you
can stagger of
to the bathroom,
pausing only to
look at the little
depression that
you have left in
your bed, the
dip where you
have been lying
all night. This
is known as a
staddle.”
ONE QUESTION FOR ...
SPEED READ
VISIT Plimoth Plantation, 137 Warren Ave.,
Plymouth, Mass.
of the month:
“There is a single
Old English word
meaning ‘lying
awake before
dawn and worry-
ing.’ Uhtceare is
not a well-known
word even by
Old English
standards, which
were pretty
damn low.”
The Horologicon: A
Day’s Jaunt Through the
Lost Words of the English
Language, by Mark Forsyth,
Berkley, $16
A PilgrimMalka Benjamin, Plimoth Plantation
T
D
Lo
LaLa
B
You know where to stash your money, but where do you keep your extra cheese? Cash-strapped Italian cheesemakers use their maturing parmesan as collateral for loans! Credito Emiliano charges a small premium to defray the cost of its two climate-controlled warehouses, which hold more than 400,000 wheels of crumbly gold, so it never has to eat a loss.
If you learn just six words of Old English this month …
INVESTMENT CHEESE!
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 61
AL
L P
RO
DU
CT
IM
AG
ES
CO
UR
TE
SY
MA
NU
FA
CT
UR
ER
S
1
3
4
2
7 Ways to Be a Smarter
SPLURGE!
5
FEATURED
FLOSS
PRODUCT
VIRGINIA WOOLF–
ENDORSED!
1 Jack Kerouac typed 100
words a minute and fed
a giant scroll of paper into
his typewriter so changing
sheets wouldn’t interrupt his
flow. 2013’s answer to that? A
USB typewriter that replaces
your keyboard. $499 and
up; conversion kits from $55,
usbtypewriter.com
2 John Steinbeck wrote of
his favorite pencil: it is
“the best I have ever had … it
is black and soft but doesn’t
break of . ...They are called
Blackwings and they really
glide over the paper.” Procure
a 12-pack of Blackwing
602 pencils ($20, pencils.
com). Then send them
to David Rees, artisanal
pencil sharpener, who will
whittle your writing utensil
to a perfect point and return
it with the shavings and a
certificate of sharpening. $35,
artisanalpencilsharpening.com
3 Despite his fascination
with the raven, Edgar
Allan Poe wrote with his cat—a
tortoiseshell named Catterina—
watching from a perch on his
shoulder. Adopt a furry com-
panion at your local animal
shelter. ASPCA.com
4 Other than rum,
Ernest Hemingway’s
primary tools were paper and
a trashcan. In a letter to F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway
revealed, “I write one page
of masterpiece to ninety-one
pages of shit. I try to put the
shit in the wastebasket.” Cel-
ebrate Hemingway’s 91:1 ratio
by crumpling pages into this
Essey Bin Bin Wastebasket,
$55, switchmodern.com
5Mark Twain hid out in his
study from breakfast until
dinner. If his family needed him,
they blew a horn. Rothco Brass
Cavalry Bugle, $61, rothco.com
6 Long before Arianna
Huf ington made them hip,
Virginia Woolf had a standing
desk. Jesper Height-Adjust-
able Laptop Table, $299,
brookstone.com
7 Vladimir Nabokov wrote
on index cards, which,
according to the Paris Review,
he would “copy, expand, and
rearrange” into novels. Our take?
These letterpress note cards by
AnneBVinyl made exclusively
for mental_floss and delivered in
a nifty pocket protector. $38,
store.mentalfloss.com
Getting dressed is for amateurs. Take a cue
from Gertrude Stein and spend the morning
writing in your bathrobe.
OUTSOURCE
YOUR
SHARPENING
WRITER
7
6
BONUS
TIP
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62 mentalfloss.com November 2013
THE SIMPLIFIER
G O
MENTAL
Baroque
(1600–1760)
Classical
(1730–1820)
Romantic
(1815–1910)
Serialism
(1920s–1950s)
Minimalism
(1960s–?)
Full of layers and gaudy
ornaments, they’re
perfect for a big occasion.
Light, airy, and no-frills—
they’re essentials for a
classy party.
It can take forever to
get to the end, but you’ll
want more when you’re
finished.
A little hard to swallow
and easy to dislike, but
give them a chance!
All these products of the
1960s do is loop around
and around and around.
Bach,
Vivaldi,
Handel
Mozart,
Haydn,
Clementi
Beethoven,
Brahms,
Schubert
Schoenberg,
Boulez,
Webern
Philip Glass,
John Adams,
Steve Reich
STYLE COMPOSERS DESSERT REASON
CO
RB
IS (
CA
KE
S). A
LA
MY
(F
RIE
S, F
RU
ITC
AK
E)
Because Sweet Potato Awareness Fortnight just wouldn’t be enough. Do your part by reminding a stranger that sweet potatoes exist.
November is
The Best Ever Made
THOMAS EDISON MAY HAVE MADE POP CULTURE’S FIRST MEMES—
the inventor fi lmed cats doing silly things long before it was cool. In
1892, Edison and W.K.L. Dickson invented America’s fi rst motion picture
camera, the kinetograph. The duo used it to fi lm a bevy of peephole
shorts, capturing everything from fl exing strongmen to Annie Oakley’s
sharpshooting. But this fi lm of two tabbies duking it out in a tiny boxing
ring is the cream of the crop. A century before the web’s existence, Edison
and Dickson had already predicted the Internet’s greatest gift—cat videos.
Thomas Edison - 1894 Boxing cats is available on YouTube.
Wedding cake
Angel food
cake
Fruitcake
Black Forest
cake
Bundt cake
HOT DATE
DE
B
Explained by CAKECLASSICAL MUSIC
SWEET POTATO
AWARENESS MONTH FELINE
BOXING
VIDEO
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 63
THEIR SEX LIVES Since traditional mating tech-
niques are awkward when you each have eight
legs, the octopus has developed a hands-off
approach to procreation. Males pass along their
genetic material by inserting a particular arm
into the female’s mantle (the scientifi c word for
“gelatinous octopus body”). To avoid entangle-
ments, some males with commitment issues sever
the arm right off and simply hand it over.
READ: Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea, by Katherine Harmon Courage, October 31, Current Books
THEIR GENERAL BADASSERY One of the biggest
challenges of studying octopuses in a lab? Keeping
them in their tanks. The wily critters in Middlebury
College’s octopus lab are experts at getting free
and running—yes, running—amok, hiding in
bookshelves and feasting on fi sh from other tanks.
“You’d chase them under the tank, back and forth,
like you were chasing a cat,” a researcher says.
READ: ÒDeep Intellect: Inside the Mind of theOctopus,Ó by Sy Montgomery, orionmagazine.org
THEIR MARTYR TENDENCIES A mother giant
Pacifi c octopus deposits up to 100,000 eggs, each
the size of a grain of rice, in her den. For six months,
she keeps oxygen fl owing to them and brushes them
with her tentacles to prevent algae from smothering
them, not even leaving their side to eat. The
tearjerker ending? Once they hatch, she dies.
WATCH: Life Season 1, Ep. 8, ÒCreatures of the Deep,Ó BBC America, Amazon.com
CO
RB
IS (
OC
TO
PU
S)
Nicholas by René Goscinny(Phaidon, $10)
No matter what Nicho-las does, happy chaos always follows. From the genius behindAsterix, this 1959 clas-sic was available only in French … until now!
My Dirty Dumb Eyes
by Lisa Hanawalt (Drawn
& Quarterly, $23)
Cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt’s works are occasionally bawdy, often absurd, and always hilarious. They also fea-ture the best illustrations of animal hats ever.
The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh (Bloomsbury, $26)
Mathematical concepts both useful and obscure ex-plained via the antics of America’s favorite yellow family!
Open by Andre Agassi (Vintage, $16)
In chapter one of this autobiography, Agassi’s dad decks a trucker, waves a gun, and rigs a contraption to shoot tennis balls at his son. Then the story gets crazier.
I Don’t Know by Leah Hager Cohen (Riverhead, $18)
A philosophical meditation on the lost art of admitting igno-rance. What does it say? We’re not sure—we actually haven’t finished it yet.
BRAIN KALE
BRAIN CANDY
Our favorite reads right now
THE PAPER TRAIL
Pop Culture Syllabus:
OCTOPUSES
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64 mentalfloss.com November 2013
BY LUCAS ADAMS
NAME: _______________________ ___________________________ AGE: _______
OCCUPATION: ________________________________________________________
AL
AM
Y (
MO
BIL
E)Pretty Good
The Best
The Worst
Also Pretty Good
0–4
5–7
8–11
12–15
2 Isaac Bonewits is the
only person to have earned
a degree from an accredited
university in which fi eld?
A Air guitar
B Basket weaving
C Magic
D Pantomime
3 Which culprit caused a
12-hour Internet outage in
Armenia in 2011?
A Russian troops
B A feral cat
C 4chan hacktivists
D A 75-year-old Georgian
woman hunting for
copper scraps
Your
Score!ANSWERS
1. a
2. c (U.C. Berkeley, 1970)
3. d (Georgia supplied
most of Armenia’s
Internet, and the woman
accidentally sliced a
cable with her spade.)
4. d (Rumsfeld didn’t
know a stock photo of
him had been used until
it was reported in Time.)
5. c (Scrooge McDuck
was strangely influential.
He also inspired the plot
of Inception.)
6. c
7. a
8. a
9. d (Frings were fries
fused with onion rings.)
10. c
11. a
12. d
13. b
14. c
15. d
4 Which offi cial appeared
alongside a Japanese geisha
on the packaging of a U.K.
brand of wasabi-fl avored
peanuts?
A Kofi Annan
B Arnold Schwarzenegger
C Madeleine Albright
D Donald Rumsfeld
11 Who were the “them” in the
cult 1954 sci-fi classic Them!?A Giant ants
B Enormous dogs
C Killer bees
D Martians
12 Which character was J.K.
Rowling initially planning
to kill off in Harry Potter:
Order of the Phoenix?
A Ginny Weasley
B Hermione Granger
C Hagrid
D Arthur Weasley
13 Which former president
was elected to the Confed-
eracy’s House of Representa-
tives?
A John Buchanan
B John Tyler
C Millard Fillmore
D Zachary Taylor
14 What was the nickname
of Frederick William I’s divi-
sion of extra-tall soldiers?
A The House of Goliath
B The Battle Monsters
C The Potsdam Giants
D The Angry Giraffes
15 The Land Before Time has
12 sequels. Which of the fol-
lowing isn’t one of them?
A Invasion of the TinysaurusesB Journey to Big WaterC The Secret of Saurus RockD Night of the Asteroids
6 Which of these authors
didn’t want their work
burned after their death?
A Emily Dickinson
B Franz Kafka
C George Eliot
D Virgil
7 Which of these is not the
name of a horse that won the
Kentucky Derby?
A Mister Sweetie
B Macbeth II
C Exterminator
D Count Turf
8 What was the title of
Bruce Willis’s 1987 debut
album?
A The Return of BrunoB Sing HardC Willis’s WordsD Look Who’s Singing
9 Which classic Jack in the
Box menu item was aban-
doned in the 1970s?
A Fondue Fingers
B Jello Fellows
C Jack Hammers
D Frings
10 Which of these dishes
does not have a national
holiday dedicated to it?
A Waffl es
B New England clam
chowder
C Kielbasa
D Curried chicken
Hey, overachiever!
If you scored an Also
Pretty Good on this
quiz, enter the coupon
code HONORSYSTEM at
store.mentalfloss.com
and save an extra 15%
on your order.
Excludes clearance, package deals, and subscriptions.
A Mighty Mouse B Aquaman C Scrooge McDuck D Jimmy Olsen
QUIZGO
MENTAL
A Paint it blackB Make it edible
C Live inside itD Set it on fi re
1 Artist Alexander Calder agreed to build a gold mobile for the Solomon
Guggenheim Museum on the condition that he could do what?
Start
Here
5Which comic character inspired the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark?
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November 2013 mentalfloss.com 65
ALAMY
Pretty if y.
Which Failed American Colony Are You?
The Defi nitive Personality Test
START HERE
English, old sport.
Anywhere but here.
Give me a year, tops.
Vanished.
Spanish all the way!
They might have absorbed
us.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Borrowed it from a native word for
white beads.
Got it from an archangel. No
big deal.
It’s a shout-out to my homeboy King Charles IX!
Introducing African slavery to what’s now
the U.S.
A bloody revenge massacre by the
French.
No clue! It’s a complete
mystery.
Being home to the first English
child born in America.
Hosting the first Catholic mass in what’s now the United States.
What’s your claim to fame?
What’s your lasting legacy?
What‘s your Achilles’ heel?
Describe your staying power.
Where do you see yourself in
five years?
On the beaches
of the Carolinas.
Winter, tribal attacks, and
slave rebellion.
Vive la France!
SAN MIGUEL
DE GUALDAPEFounded in 1526, you
predated America’s old-est city, St. Augustine, by 40 years. But be-
tween slave revolts and tribal attacks, you lasted
only three months.
FORT CAROLINE
You took a solid crack at staking a Florida
claim for France, but after the Spanish
routed your forces, Paris asked you to
pack it in.
ROANOKEYou mysteriously
vanished sometime between 1587
and 1590, leaving generations of
historians to speculate about
your fate.
YOU AREYOU ARE YOU ARE
Plymouth’s big day is
NOV. 28!
Where’s your favorite coastal
hangout?
Where did you get your name?
How’s your relationship with
the locals?
Attacks from those
sneaky Spaniards.
I’m good for three months,
minimum.
What’s your national background?
EXTRA CREDITGO
MENTAL
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66 mentalfloss.com November 2013
ALAMY
THE MONA LISA HAS NO EYEBROWS.
1,006 WORDS
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The 2014 XV Crosstrek. It’s a natural choice for any direction you’re headed. As the
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