Lifestyle

Deep in the depths of time, there was the Ocean of Milk. The gods and demons both desired amrita, the nectar of immortal life, which could only be obtained from the great ocean. The supreme god Vishnu told them to use Mount Mandara as a churning stick, and to rotate the mountain with the giant serpent, Vasuki, as...

Amy’s job is pretty repetitive, but normally she doesn’t mind doing what she’s asked. Today, however, she’s working alongside Sidney. Amy can’t help noticing that Sidney is receiving a small reward every time he completes a task, while she gets nothing. After a few rounds of this treatment, Amy has had enough. She refuses to go on performing...

Recently, some scientists taught an artificial intelligence software, called Delphi (after the ancient Greek religious sanctuary), to make moral pronouncements. Type any action into it, even a state of being, like “being adopted,” and Delphi will judge it (“It’s okay”). Delphi is a “commonsense moral model” that can reason well about “complicated everyday situations,” according to Liwei Jiang, a computer...

This article contains affiliate links to products selected by our editors. Mental Floss may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.We don’t know who needs to hear this, but there’s no need to shell out a small fortune to quickly (and easily!) elevate your bath or shower experience. In fact, some of the best—and most useful—tub-friendly...

The RMS Titanic has remained a tragic fixture in our minds for well over a century now. It represents both the pinnacle of human engineering and technological prowess, as well as the depths of human carelessness. With its gargantuan size, Titanic was a floating tribute to excess, hubris, and hope, which is why its sinking on its very...

Thanks to Shakespeare (and Petrarch before him), there’s a good chance you’ve heard of sonnets—even if you can’t exactly recall what makes a sonnet a sonnet. The tidy five-seven-five syllable format of a haiku has made it another especially popular type of poem around the world. Clerihews, than-bauks, and these other poetic forms haven’t quite achieved the same...

It’s no surprise that Alabamans seem to have a soft spot for 2002’s Sweet Home Alabama; and their eastern neighbors do, too. According to a new study by Shane Co. wedding blog The Loupe, people in Alabama and Georgia Google the Reese Witherspoon classic more than any other wedding movie.To draw that conclusion, The Loupe bloggers first compiled...

From the time Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul premiered in 2015, fans of the Albuquerque-set crime saga have been wondering if Bad alumni Bryan Cranston (Walter White) and Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) would ever appear on the new series to help ethically-challenged lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) complete his transformation into an undistinguished member of the bar.Spoilers...

We may not always call it sweet corn, but we enjoy this American staple nearly daily. It’s sweet corn that we grill on the Fourth of July, charring the golden ears to get a smoky tang. It’s sweet corn that we buy at summer farmers’ markets to boil and smother in butter and salt. And it’s sweet corn...

People who make their living catching fish on the open ocean first noticed the strange phenomenon a few decades ago. It occurred in the shadow zones, the spots between the great ocean currents where sea water doesn’t circulate, off the coasts of Peru, West Africa, and California. The fisher people shared the knowledge among them like a common...