THE 25 SMARTEST THE BEST PLACES FOR STARGAZERS, BIRD-WATCHERS, CHESS PLAYERS, CITIES IN THE WORLD YODELERS, AND BATMAN FANS P.22 FEEL SMART AGAIN ® HOW TO GROW A DIAMOND IN 21 DAYS P.54 THE SECRET MISSION TO SAVE TIMBUKTU’S LIBRARIES P.42 HOW STEPHEN CURRY DEFIES THE LAWS OF MATH P.50 TALK YOUR WAY INTO RUSSIAN ROYALTY P.49 CONDUCT A HELICOPTER SYMPHONY P.53 LIFE AS A GOAT ONE MAN’S AMAZING TRUE STORY JULY/AUGUST 2016 JULY/AUGUST 4 ISSUE 15, VOLUME MENTALFLOSS.COM P.34 www.apadana-ielts.com www.apadana-ielts.com JULY/AUGUST 2016 • VOL. 15 ISSUE 4 CONTENTS DO THE IMPOSSIBLE! Meet the guy who transformed into a goat. p.34 FEATURES 18 38 40 42 50 54 Presenting: How dumpster Nine unbeatable Most librarians Stephen Curry The audacious the engineer divers took back world records check out books. shouldn’t exist mission to bake who saved the the USSR’s music (including one These librarians (mathematically diamonds from skyscraper scene for popes!) smuggled them. speaking). scratch WHERE TO GO IF YOU LOVE... SPECIAL Soccer-playing robots (p.24), 500-year-old skyscrapers (p.25), TRAVEL democracy and cheese (p.26), yodeling (p.27), magicians and SECTION jugglers (p.28), idioms (p.29), the color blue (p.30), chess, Buddhism, and dinosaurs (p.32), and toucans (p.33) IN EVERY ISSUE SCATTERBRAIN GO MENTAL 10 SPACE: Tips for making an alien pen pal, 60 Fun with landscape cartoons! what goldfish scales tell us about traveling 63 Beach gear from yesteryear to Mars, and the cosmic beauty of blubber 64 The mental_floss quiz containers Cover by TIM BOWDITCH TIM Skinny Ships www.apadana-ielts.com CONTENTS THE INDEX A M Anastasia, Grand Duchess 49 Maguire, Jerry 40 Apollo 11 12 Moon Artist, con 21 Purported see-through 17 Astrology, Hindu 14 Residents of the 17 B When we nearly blew up the 17 Ballet, scientific contributions of 12 Motion machine, perpetual 48 How Star Trek Batman, Turkey 32 Mud predicted the Why Carl Sagan cell phone Beach attire, vintage 63 Skyscrapers 25 tried to nuke p. 39 the moon Blubber, container for 14 Wrestling 29 p. 17 Blue, an urban ode to 30 N C Nuchal ligament 37 Cheese 26, 57 Nuclear weapons, space 17 Chicago, swampy 21 P Chops, yodeling 26 Palm reading, party trick 20 An important D update from the Pianist, one-handed 52 Watermelon Promo Board! Democracy, direct 26 Pigeons, banned 16 p. 41 Diamonds, man-made 54 Pope-dads 40 Dinosaurs, dance floor for 32 Puppets, string 28 Doritos 13 R E Rock, living under a 28 Exoskeleton, springy 36 Romanov, impostor 49 F Are robots taking Rumen, artificial 35 over Pittsburgh? Feudalism, a holdout island for 16 S p. 24 Fusion, cold 48 Scrabble, robot that plays 24 G Seashells, aural 39 Gingerbread houses 26 Shaman, tips from a 36 Goldfish, uses for 13 T Grass, perils of eating 36 Timbuktu, literary traditions of 43 The diamond industry is H Toast, French 66 under pressure. Ham, kosher 58 p. 54 Twain, Mark 39 Hand, giant 15 U Helicopters, symphony for 53 Hell, mayor of 29 UFO 25 The best island for USSR 17, 38 feudalism Heterochromia 62 and stargazing Hippo, celestial 15 V p. 16 I Venice, travel alternative to 25 Ireland, literal father of 41 Voltaire 64 J W Jetsons, The 24 Waterfall K For laundry 31 Khan For stargazing 14 Washing machine, inspiring 21 Never, ever, ever Fazlur 19 Thomas Jeferson’s play H-O-R-S-E X with this guy. Genghis 41 symbol of freedom p. 50 Ishamuddin 28 X-rays, musical 38 p. 62 ALAMY (ROBOT, CURRY, STAR TREK). ISTOCK (TELESCOPE, SURFBOARD, DIAMOND, WATERMELON). RYAN INZANA (MOON) INZANA RYAN WATERMELON). DIAMOND, (TELESCOPE, SURFBOARD, ISTOCK TREK). STAR CURRY, (ROBOT, ALAMY www.apadana-ielts.com to the magz ine EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT Get in on the u n and sus cribe today! GO ONLINE mentalfloss.com/subscribe OR CALL 877-717-8931 www.apadana-ielts.com EDITOR’S NOTE MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Recently, I pulled a total daredevil move and boarded also a story about the architectural mission to build one of a flight with my 3-month-old. As she dozed through the world’s tallest skyscrapers (page 18), and one about an takeoff, I watched previews for the in-flight entertainment. incredible feat of conservation: the librarians who shuttled There were plenty of options, including Oscar nominees I Mali’s ancient books out of the way of extremist destruction was dying to see. But there are a lot of minor impossibili- (page 42). ties involved in being a new mother, and sitting through a That there are so many ways of defining “impossible” is whole movie is near the top of the list. So I settled on a proof of how basic the desire to attempt it must be to the remake of the 1990s surfing–crime spree classic Point human condition. Waxing vaguely poetic about this myself, Break, thinking I could tune in and out. another film came to mind: the artsy-thinky romance I don’t think I’m spoiling it when I tell you it’s about Before Sunrise, which is about two people having a very an extreme athlete–turned–FBI agent who infiltrates an long chat. “If there’s any kind of magic in this world it must extreme athlete–crime syndicate on a mission to complete be in the attempt of understanding someone,” says one a series of impossible physical feats and commit a series of to the other. “It’s almost impossible to succeed, but ... the extraordinary crimes. (At least one surfing crime syndicate answer must be in the attempt.” actually did exist in history—see page 62.) There’s a lot I think that’s why we love stories about impossible of beautiful scenery and unbelievable stunts. And there’s things, whether or not their endings are “happy.” I won’t a lot of waxing vaguely poetic about the allure of doing ruin Point Break for you, but this story has one: I accom- the impossible. I giggled watching it, because it was plished my own improbable feat! The baby slept the absurd, but also because it struck me how very different entire movie, through the credits, and well into the second the mental_floss definition of an “impossible” feat is from showing, so I watched it one and a half times (I was afraid Hollywood’s. to move to change the channel). If that doesn’t scream Because for this issue, we were knee-deep in a story impossible, I don’t know what does. about a guy who tries to become a goat. (Not dress up as a goat, but rather, logistically and philosophically become a goat. There’s a lot to unravel—we attempt on page 34.) Another is about a company that’s growing diamonds in an atomic oven, creating in two weeks something that takes eons to form in the Earth’s crust (page 54). There’s @jessanne ISTOCK 6 mentalfloss.com July/August 2016 www.apadana-ielts.com SKINNY SHIPS, the Portland, Oregon– based duo of Richard VOLUME 15, ISSUE 4 | JULY/AUGUST 2016 Perez and Jennifer FOUNDERS DeRosa, illustrated Mangesh Hattikudur Will Pearson this issue’s cover. They’ve also created icons and images EDITORIAL VP, EDITOR IN CHIEF Jessanne Collins for Facebook and Fitbit, and have contrib- CREATIVE DIRECTOR Winslow Taft uted to The New York Times and The Wall EXECUTIVE EDITOR Foster Kamer Street Journal. They’re now at work on ART DIRECTOR Lucy Quintanilla MANAGING EDITOR Jen Doll their latest project: designing invitations SENIOR EDITOR Lucas Reilly for their wedding this fall. COPY EDITOR Jason Lamphier FACT CHECKER Riki Markowitz PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Steph Tan PROOFREADER Regan Hofmann “I never wanted an engagement ring, and MENTALFLOSS.COM my wedding ring is a VP, DIGITAL/EDITOR IN CHIEF Jason English EXECUTIVE EDITOR Erin McCarthy EDITOR AT LARGE Nick Greene simple $75 gold band,” SENIOR EDITORS Arika Okrent, Jen Pinkowski, Abbey Stone, Jennifer M. Wood says ALINA SIMONE. SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR Beth Anne Macaluso STAFF EDITORS Erika Berlin, April Daley, Bess Lovejoy Still, in the process of ASSISTANT EDITORS Rebecca O’Connell, Caitlin Schneider SENIOR WRITERS Shaunacy Ferro, Jake Rossen writing “How to Make a Diamond” (page STAFF WRITERS Stacy Conradt, Michele Debczak, Kirstin Fawcett, Anna Green, 54), she “developed a tiny case of man- Chris Higgins, Kate Horowitz, Kara Kovalchik, Andrew LaSane made -diamond jewelry lust.” Simone has SENIOR DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DESIGNER Emem Ofong DESIGNER Chloe Efron PRODUCER Colin Gorenstein also contributed to The New York Times, RESEARCHER Jocelyn Sears PROOFREADER Betsy Johns FACT CHECKER Austin Thompson The Wall Street Journal, and Elle. She’s DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY AND PARTNERSHIPS Taylor Lorenz working on a story about Americans PUBLISHING training to become Korean pop stars. VP, MARKETING Tara Mitchell ACCOUNT DIRECTORS Dan Figura, Molly Hollister ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Abby Sharpe NORTHWEST ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Steve Thompson BETHLEHEM MIDWEST DIRECTOR Erin Sesto SHOALS (pictured) and SOUTHWEST DIRECTORS James Horan, Richard Taw SILVERBIRD 5000 DETROIT DIRECTOR David Sauter are the noms de plume SALES ASSISTANT Alma Heredia of two core members INTEGRATED MARKETING DIRECTOR Nikki Ettore of the acclaimed, now- ART DIRECTOR, MARKETING Joshua Moore defunct basketball blog FreeDarko. They INTEGRATED ASSOCIATE MARKETING DIRECTOR Betsy Connors INTEGRATED MARKETING MANAGER Caila Litman got back together for this issue’s guide to PROMOTIONS MANAGER Jennifer Castellano RESEARCH MANAGER Joan Cheung NBA superstar Stephen Curry (page 50). MARKETING COORDINATOR Reisa Feigenbaum Their book, FreeDarko Presents: The Un- AD OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Garrett Markley SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Yuliya Spektorsky disputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, DIGITAL PLANNER Jennifer Riddell is in stores now.