Tag Archives: Mental_Floss

Knowledge abundant in The Magic City

Birmingham was recently included in a Forbes Magazine list of the nation’s biggest brain magnets – it’s on the list at number six.

While that result shocked some (maybe some of the same folks still in shock about UAB’s NCAA tournament selection) visitors to BhamWiki really weren’t. The volunteer-built virtual archive of the city’s history (whose creator John Morse is still an occasional contributor to this site) is celebrating its fifth anniversary today.

mental floss logoAnother reason to not necessarily doubt the ranking is the success of mental_floss magazine. Yesterday’s announcement of its sale to magazine publisher Felix Dennis was the first time many learned (or realized) that the magazine is based in The Magic City (their offices are on Southside) or that one of the founders, Will Pearson, is from Hoover.

Neither one of these fine establishments are going anywhere anytime soon, but that’s no reason to not go ahead and check them out.

mental_floss book tour hits UAB tomorrow

So if you’re hungry for some new tidbits of knowledge, a homegrown fountain of trivia is hoping you’ll head on over to UAB’s Alys Stephens Center tomorrow evening to get your fix.

The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization’s Best Bits book tour stops in Birmingham at the center’s Sirote Theatre starting at 7 p.m. So if you’ve never seen Will Pearson but want to make sure you know who he is, check out the post on the magazine’s blog (which also has dates and locations for those of you that aren’t in town but still want in on the action).

There’s scholarship money to be had!

Has college tuition got you down? Are you wanting to show off your wordsmithing skills to the some of the folks at one of the best magazines out there? Are you a full-time undergraduate student at a two or four-year college? Well, we might have a solution for you…

mental_floss has teamed up with Borders and Miriam Webster are offering you a chance to win one of five (5) $10,000 scholarships in their College Ain’t Cheap Tuition Giveaway. You’ll write an essay of no more than 750 words talking about why you should win one of the prizes (in the style of mental_floss of course), usable on tuition and/or books in Fall 2009. If you don’t win one of the first prizes, the consolation prize is pretty cool itself. You really don’t want to start practicing procrastinating (you may do a lot of that when you get to college, though I wouldn’t suggest that), so enter now (the contest ends on January 31)!