Subscribe here, or by clicking subscribe above!
It’s late morning on the polar ice when Eric Larsen unzips his tent to find white-out conditions obscuring everything from view. He’s had just a few hours of sleep, and he still overslept. Today he and his expedition partner, Ryan Waters, are making their final push to the North Pole, less than four miles away. But the whipping wind is pushing the big ice floe where they set up camp southward, and every moment counts.
At this point, the two veteran adventurers have spent 53 days inching across the Arctic sea ice, and today will be another slog through slushy leads and over hummocks. When they began planning this expedition, they expected it to be treacherous. That was the point. They wanted to show the world how climate change was already wreaking havoc on the North Pole in fact, they’re calling this the Last North Expedition. They predict that their method of reaching the Pole on foot will soon be impossible.
Courtesy of Kerry Wolfe
Isolation is tough people have had to endure not seeing friends, spending the holidays and milestones without family, and getting to the end of everything on Netflix. But for medieval monks, isolation wasn t only a way of life, but a means to protect all of Christendom. According to the 5th century s Augustine of Hippo, monks lived in the “City of God,” and their holy work protected those who lived in the “Earthly City,” a.k.a. the rest of us. In other words, the more isolated the monastery, the better. Feast your eyes on five of the world’s most precariously placed monasteries.
McDonald s/Justin Dodd
If you re celebrating a 50th birthday or anniversary this year, you re in excellent company. From the first e-mail to McDonald s Quarter Pounder, 1971 was a year full of change. Here are 50 people, places, things, and events celebrating their own 50th birthday in 2021.
1. Walt Disney World
Jacqueline Nell/Disneyland Resort, Getty Images
Following the success of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Walt Disney began searching for a location for a second theme park in 1959. After Walt s death in 1966, his brother Roy O. Disney continued the search and also insisted that the name of the theme park be changed from Disney World to Walt Disney World to act as a remembrance of his brother.
Courtesy of
Weekly World News
Though it feels a little bit like choosing a favorite child, of the thousands of stories Mental Floss publishes in any year, our staffers are bound to have some particular favorites. It could be a case of a long-gestating idea finally coming to fruition, or a story that is so unique (or just plain bizarre) that there’s no way we could pass up the chance to write about it. As we ve done in years past, we asked the Mental Floss team to share some of their favorite stories from 2020 just in case you missed any of them.
Choosing a name for your baby is a tricky business. Not only do the parents usually need to agree on it, but any number of relatives and friends might weigh in with strong opinions of their own. Once you’ve ruled out the names of all the school bullies and detested exes within six degrees of separation, you might feel like you’re running out of options.
Even after you come to a decision, there’s still a chance your little Amelia will show up for her first day of kindergarten and meet five other Amelias in her class. This particular situation is pretty likely according to BabyNames.com,