Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you: “Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” Does that mean, ‘Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a penalty for some transgression’ or does it mean, ‘Because the agency was inattentive, they overlooked the misbehavior and gave it their approval by default’?
We’ve stumbled into the looking-glass world of “contronyms”—words that are their own antonyms.
In case you weren’t obsessively refreshing mentalfloss.com all week, here’s what you missed.
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6. 7 of the World’s Oldest Food Finds, by Therese Oneill
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7. 12 Lonely Negative Words, by Judith Herman
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Bonus points for an amazing Arianna Huffington glamour shot.
Great quote from Mark Cuban on his lean days: “I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation.”
1. After coffee beans are decaffeinated, coffee manufacturers sell the caffeine to soft drink makers and pharmaceutical companies.
2. In 1674, the “Women’s Petition Against Coffee” said it was turning British men into “useless corpses” and proposed a ban for those under 60.
3. Chock Full O’Nuts coffee does not contain nuts. It’s named for a chain of nut stores the founder converted into coffee shops.
1. 11 Weirdly Spelled Words—And How They Got That Way
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2. Why Do Sign Language Interpreters Look So Animated?
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3. 5 U.S. Cities That Were Destroyed—and Completely Rebuilt
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4. 6 Pieces of Folksy Wisdom That Are Actually True
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5. Forget Wayne’s World 3: 8 Movie Sequels Actually on Track for 2015-16
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6. 11 Things You Might Not Know About the U.S. Air Force
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7. 7 Overlooked Thanksgiving Rituals, According to Sociologists
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8. 5 Historical Manias That Gripped Societies, Then Disappeared
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9. 17 Other Memorable White House Photographs Before McKayla Maroney
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10. 11 Badass Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes
Scientists successfully generate gasoline out of thin air
Breakthrough technology takes carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from CO2 and water in the air to create methanol and then converts it into gasoline.We’ll never hear about this again. And we may never hear from those scientists again.
Amazing though.
Big Oil’s gonna be piiiiiiiiissed
Somebody go put these folks in the witness protection program before they get hits put on them by ExxonMobil
just in time for me to get my first whip
PUT THIS EVERYWHERE.
Now HERE’S a post that needs 4 million notes!
EVERYBODY REBLOG
I’ve actually heard of a man mysteriously disappearing after he refused to the government to not go through with his making of a substitute of gasoline with water. So everybody needs to reblog. Seriously.
If any of you had bothered to read the article you’d come across this little gem:
Or this one:
So it’s nothing new, and it’s nothing confirmed yet. But it probably will in the next few years, and just like how music conglomerates will go away, so too will Big Oil.
Even with the spike in usage of Britishisms, there are still a number of words and phrases that can baffle even the most pretentious BBC America fans. Next time you’re in London, keep these translations to hand—or as the Yanks would say, nearby—and you’ll be just fine.
1. Knock up: To wake up. Don’t freak out if your flatmate says he will be sure to knock you up in the morning.
2. Pants: Underwear. Be careful not to compliment your friend’s new pants, or she will be very confused. Trousers or slacks are what you wear over your pants.
3. Take the piss: To take advantage of; to ridicule. This is one of the more unattractive British phrases that show up frequently in conversation.
You Brits are weird.
Holy moly me oh my.
LION KING BLOOPERS
These are...
By the way, how do you say it?
I have to write a letter to myself that will be mailed to me in 4 years and all I have down so far is “I hope you suck less”.
but other news bled...
