Mental floss
mental_floss is a bi-monthly American magazine, launched in 2001
[Press Release describing magazine launch], that presents facts and
trivia in a humorous way. It was one of the first magazines to blur the lines between
education and
entertainment (see
edutainment). It includes columns by
A.J. Jacobs and
Ken Jennings and it frequently features
Albert Einstein on the cover.
The magazine was co-founded by William E. Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur while they were students at
Duke University. According to the mental_floss website, the idea came from conversations at the Duke cafeteria about the need for an educational magazine that was funny and entertaining [
1].
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A.J. Jacobs writes a piece in mental_floss based on what he has learned after reading the entire
Encyclopedia Britannica, as described in his book
The Know it All. The piece is called
Know it All, an obvious allusion to his book. Each issue, he shares a few pieces of information that he learned during that time. Every new edition features facts about articles that begin with a certain letter of the alphabet; the letter changes each issue, in alphabetical order (A, B, C, D, etc.).
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Ken Jennings, of
Jeopardy fame, does a piece each issue called
Six Degrees of Ken Jennings, in which he plays the game
Six degrees of separation with two things unrelated except by the way they sound (
Benedict XVI and
Benedict Arnold, e.g.), or by a very general association (
Isaac Newton and
Apple Computer, e.g.). They are usually "related" by sound, however.
Each issue of
mental_floss is divided up into the following sections:
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scatter_brained. In this section, a number of trivia items (all connected to an encompassing topic through ) are written about in short paragraphs.
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right_brain. Articles about topics that would, supposedly, fit the "right brain" way of thought (about art and literature, e.g.), can be found here.
Six Degrees of Ken Jennings appears in
right_brain.
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left_brain. Exactly the same as right_brain; however, this section deals with topics that would befit the so-called "left brain" way of thought.
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spinning the_globe. A different part of the world is explored each issue.
spinning the_globe always begins with a section describing a "50 cent tour" of whatever region that issue is focused on.
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The Quiz. In each issue, there is a quiz in the back of the magazine. In addition, there is a mini quiz consisting of five questions on the
mental_floss website every day.
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Official website*
Article about origins by Duke Magazine
