Most of us get surprisingly little education about caring for our teeth. Our parents teach us to brush, and if we are lucky, we get a guest lecture in grade school on the proper brushing technique. And a small percentage of us have dental insurance and talk to a dentist every once in a while. But most people develop oral hygiene habits early in life and stick with them for decades, while science comes up with new findings that contradict conventional wisdom. In other words, you’re doing it wrong. Molly Beauchemin, a “health nerd,” brings us some tips for taking care of our choppers that may surprise you. Who knew you’re supposed to rinse your mouth after drinking acidic beverages, but not after brushing your teeth? And there’s more.

4.) Floss More, Brush Less

A dentist in Virginia once told me about this experiment: go 4-5 days without flossing, then floss. After you floss, ball the string up in your hand and smell it. You will never go without flossing again.

The moral of the story is this: the worst bacteria that causes bad breathe and cavities lingers near our gum line and flossing is the only way to get them out. Luckily, its actually a lot easier to knock plaque off our teeth than we think, so flossing followed by a light brush is sufficient to keep your mouth squeaky clean. In fact, some dentists suggest that if you had a choice between flossing or brushing you'd be better off just flossing. It's that important. As my best friend's father—a dentist—once told me: “floss more, brush less”.

Truly, dental floss is your friend in the long run. Beauchemin even addresses electric toothbrushes in the comments. Read a surprisingly interesting article about teeth at The Hairpin. -via Digg

(Image credit: Brianne Burnell)

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Hey, I didn’t come up with that title- it was attached to the video already. We shouldn’t call these “facts,” as that implies a certain intersection with the truth. But you know, I often come across “facts” on the internet that turns out to be quite wrong, and now Joel Veitch of Rathergood and David Shute are doing their best to contribute to that mass of disinformation. It’s good that they made it go so fast, because if this were slow enough that your crazy great-aunt could understand it, she’d forward it to all her friends. -via b3ta

People survive and recover from comas fairly often, but the odds of recovery depend on a person’s illness or injuries and the length of time they are incapacitated. The longer the coma, the lower the odds of recovery. The ten (actually twelve) people in this list are all very different: their comas lasted from a few days to decades long, and their recoveries varied greatly. Some recovered very gradually. One was in a locked-in state for years while no one knew. And three presented strange language deficiencies when they came to. One was Ben McMahon.  

Growing up in Australia, Ben McMahon learned French and Mandarin, but was never fluent in them. In 2012, he was in a car accident which left him comatose for a week. Doctors said he would be lucky if he survived. He beat the odds and woke up but, oddly, he only spoke Mandarin and couldn’t speak English. He could also write in Mandarin.

Eventually, Ben regained the ability to speak English, but didn’t lose the ability to speak Mandarin. As of September 2014, Ben is living in Shanghai where he attends school, but also gives walking tours of the city. In fact, his Mandarin is so good it impresses native speakers, and he is the host of a TV show in Shanghai.

Some of the stories of coma patients contain disturbing circumstances of violence, injury, and abuse. Read them all at ListVerse. -via mental_floss

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the 8th album recorded by the Beatles. The band's touring days had officially ended in August of 1966, and in December, the boys reunited after several months of pursuing their own  individual interests.

John was finished filming his solo movie debut- a supporting role in an anti-war satire called How I Won the War. Paul had written the score of a film called The Family Way and George had made a pilgrimage to India to study the sitar under the tutorship of virtuoso (and future mentor) Ravi Shankar. Ringo, always the simplest, most down-to-earth Beatle, had spent his holiday time with his wife and newborn children.

The Sgt. Pepper album and concept basically came from Paul. Knowing full well that the Fab Four's touring days were over and that by this time the quartet had grown sick and tired of being "the four moptops,” he reasoned that they could actually assume new identities and send an album out "on tour" in their stead. The four would actually assume the identity of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and not have to worry about the pressure and strain of being Beatles anymore.

Paul had, by this time, almost by default, taken over the leadership of the band. For the past several years (long before Ringo had joined the band in '62), he and Lennon had jockeyed for the leadership of the group, but now John was fairly "indisposed" after two continuous years of "destroying his ego" with massive doses of LSD. According to John, he was "going through murder" by the early days of 1967.

Paul took over the reins for the recording of Sgt. Pepper, and the album was to be pretty much the swan song of the Lennon/Mccartney songwriting partnership, the most successful partnership in the history of popular music.

George was in the midst of being swept away by India, its religion and its music, and was becoming almost completely disinterested in any Beatles projects, thinking them unimportant and frivolous. (George was also growing as a songwriter himself and had become quite tired of being thought of as the "fifth wheel" of the group's composers, still an afterthought behind John and Paul after all these years.)

Succinctly and tellingly, Ringo was to recall the Sgt. Pepper sessions as “The time I learned to play chess.” Ringo too, as usual, took a back seat to John and Paul, but he, unlike George, had little ego and seemed to be content in the Beatles' changing circumstance.

Before the Sgt. Pepper sessions began, all four Beatles grew mustaches, the better to assume their new Sgt. Pepper "identities.” (John had also become the first Beatle to become shorn of his world-famous Beatle locks- before filming began on How I Won the War.) John had also donned his much-needed "granny glasses" in public. For years as a Beatle, the myopic Lennon had squinted out at the adoring audiences attending their concerts.

The album was to take 129 days to record (700 hours, all told), an unprecedented amount of time to record an album at the time.

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John Green has some surprising things to tell us about Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Star Trek, The Wizard of Oz, The Matrix, Casablanca, Jurassic Park, and other blockbuster films, plus a few stories from movies that would never be described as blockbusters. Those stories are still interesting, in this mental_floss List Show video. -via mental_floss

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Chris Poole and his cats Cole and Marmalade (previously at Neatorama) demonstrate the signs of a crazy cat person. None of them are surprising, but the cats sure are cute acting their parts in the list. My family has four cats, and my husband and I spend an inordinate amount of time during the day catering to their needs and desires. But my oldest daughter is the one who wears cat clothing, hangs artwork of our cats, and sleeps surrounded by them. She’s a textbook case. -via Tastefully Offensive

Many Instagram accounts resemble never-ending fashion shoots, and people love them. Dana Herlihey and some co-workers opened an Instagram account and used a plastic Halloween skeleton as their model as a joke. But “Skellie” turned out to be very popular, and the parade of typical Instagram poses continues. Skellie describes her page thusly:

OMG I cannot literally even so I'm literally dead. omgliterally

The pictures are hilarious! For being so dead she can’t even, Skellie sure has a lot of fun. -via Laughing Squid

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Seven-year-old Liam Porter of Augusta, Georgia, is growing up fast. So fast that he keeps outgrowing his prosthetic arm, and insurance coverage limits the number of new arms he can get. Meanwhile, John Peterson of Augusta got a 3D printer and volunteered with the organization E-nable, which coordinates a network of people all over the world to make prosthetics limbs. Peterson made a prosthetic for Liam that resembled a robot and called it a Clone Trooper arm. Liam got his arm during a surprise party after he and his friend Jacob watched a movie at a local theater. The Georgia Garrison of the 501st Legion was on hand to make it extra special.

The troopers of the Georgia garrison of the 501st Legion – whose motto is “Bad guys doing good” – presented Liam with a “Friend of the Garrison” certificate and he fits right in with them as he poses in his helmet with his left arm outstretched, looking identical to theirs. Inside their armor, Jake and Melissa Barnes, of Atlanta, and local artist Jen Belgin, who is some kind of Imperial officer, turn heads as they lead Liam around the lobby drawing smiles and stares and posing for pictures. Belgin painted the helmet and detailed the arm, writing Liam’s name on it in a squiggly language called Aurebesh.

Using his new trooper arm, Liam high-fives Melissa.

“Looking good, sir,” she said, since Liam is now a commander and outranks her. “I like the helmet.”

Later, things quickly devolve as Liam and Jacob grab their blasters and take the troopers hostage.

“Wow, that escalated really quickly,” Jake says, his hands in the air. Liam is a big fan of the Star Wars movies but the family didn’t know what was coming, Ryan said.

“We were just as surprised as he was,” she said.

Read more about Peterson and how he made Liam’s new arm at the Augusta Chronicle. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The house where author Ray Bradbury lived for over 50 years went on sale last year. You can get a good look at it in the real estate listing photos. Renowned architect Thom Mayne and his wife purchased the house for $1.67 million. And Friday they had it torn down.

The discussion under all these stories, and the post at Metafilter, divides fans into two camps: those who don't want to see history being demolished, and those who say this is no big deal. Both have valid points.

Those who regret seeing the house torn down are sad that it wasn’t preserved for its historical value. It could have been made into a museum. It was a perfectly habitable house, built in 1937, with some interesting architectural details.

Others say the house was outdated and not particularly significant in its architecture. Bradbury’s legacy lives on in his writings. And no one wants to live in a house with only three bedrooms. If fans wanted to preserve it, they should have bought it. One commenter pointed out that if every home in Los Angeles where a celebrity once lived were preserved, there could be no new homes built.

(Image source: Redfin)

The NBC comedy Parks and Recreation has just started its seventh and final season. No matter whether you were there from the beginning, or you jumped in when the series became wildly popular, you’ll want to learn a bit more about than you can find out just by watching. Did you know:

1. THE SHOW WAS INITIALLY CONCEIVED AS A SPIN-OFF OF THE OFFICE.

NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman asked Greg Daniels, the man in charge of the American version of The Office, for a spin-off of the popular comedy. Along with Office writer Michael Schur, the two considered some concepts, including one where a broken copy machine from Scranton would break down in an episode of The Office and then end up in Pawnee, making the office equipment the spun-off character. Despite the originality of that idea, Daniels and Schur decided to create a show of their own, while using The Office’s mockumentary format and one of the show’s actors, Rashida Jones.

18. AMY POEHLER WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FINAL SEASON’S TIME JUMP.

The final season will take place in 2017—a three year time hop that took place in the surprising final moments of the season six finale “Moving Up,” which revealed a no-longer-pregnant Leslie Knope interacting with her and Ben’s three small children. Retta, who plays Donna Meagle, revealed that Amy Poehler influenced the decision. Poehler expressed a desire to not work with infants on the show, because she had her fill of babies raising her two children in real life.

There’s more to learn between numbers one and eighteen in a list of Parks and Recreation trivia at mental_floss.

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research. It contains adult subject matter.

by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff

Giles Skey Brindley, MD, FRCP, FRCS, knows how to stand proud. At a 1983 Urodynamics Society lecture in Las Vegas, Dr. Brindley demonstrated—with panache—that he could inject drugs into his penis and thereby cause an erection.

Dr. Brindley had developed the first effective treatment for what was then loosely called “impotence” and today goes by the stiffer euphemism “erectile dysfunction.” His appearance in Las Vegas ensured that the discovery would not go unnoticed.

Two decades later, Laurence Klotz, a University of Toronto urologist, wrote a firsthand account of his experience at that meeting. Titled “How (Not) to Communicate New Scientific Information: A Memoir of the Famous Brindley Lecture,” it graces the November 2005 issue of the urological journal BJU International. Dr. Klotz reports:

[Dr. Brindley] indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be eroticaliy stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes to make it possible to exhibit the results.... He then summarily dropped his trousers and shorts, revealing a long, thin, clearly erect penis. There was not a sound in the room.

Everyone had stopped breathing. But the mere public showing of his erection from the podium was not sufficient. He paused, and seemed to ponder his next move. The sense of drama in the room was palpable. He then said, with gravity, “I’d like to give some of the audience the opportunity to confirm the degree of tumescence.” With his pants at his knees, he waddled down the stairs, approaching (to their horror) the urologists and their partners in the front row.

And so on.

Oamaru, New Zealand, is famous for its colony of blue penguins, and plenty of tourists come to see them. But the town is also the steampunk capital of New Zealand. Tom Fassbender went to see what that was all about, and found that the community takes the steampunk ethic seriously, as a part of preserving its Victorian-era architecture and as an art project.

To the town’s credit, it’s fully embraced the steampunk vibe, going so far as hosting the annual 3-day Steampunk NZ Festival (2015’s is scheduled for May 28) and creating a steampunk-themed playground—complete with an elephant howdah zipline, a pennyfarthing swingset, and a Victorian-age rocket slide—that my daughters have declared as the best playground in the world.

And right smack in the middle of all this steampunky goodness is Steampunk HQ, a industrial-inspired steam-powered art gallery and retro-futuristic showroom set up in a massive, three-story Victorian-style sandstone building originally built in 1883 (it used to have five stories but lost two in what they say was a “spectacular fire”).

Take a tour of Oamaru and the Steampunk HQ in pictures and text, at Boing Boing.

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HelloDenizen, the folks behind the Tiny Hamster series, have once again put animals into a human situation. These chameleons aren’t forced into a sporting competition against their will; it just happens to be the consequence of their predatory habits. -Thanks, Elijah Jones, Joe Matsushima, and Jake Wyatt!

A bodybuilding forum discusses a good workout schedule, which may be three times a week. Or it could be every other day, which is four to five times a week. What? The conversation quickly switches to math, specifically, how many days are in a week. TheJosh insists that "every other day" means four times a week, and those who said it was 3.5 times a week were wrong because that would mean a half of a workout somewhere.

I never said anything about going exactly 7 times, like I said, if I go every other day, that is 4 DAYS A WEEK. How hard is that to comprehend?

Week 1 - Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Week 2 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.

8 DAYS IN 2 WEEKS

In your terms,

8x in 2 weeks = 4 times a week, genius.

All Muscle and No Brains? lol

You can see how this can be confusing. Several forum members stepped in to try to explain the impossibility in getting eight workouts in two weeks and still leaving a day between each. It was a losing battle.

For me to get this? You are the one who is not getting it, it's simple, just look at the calender and COUNT THE DAYS.

There is 7 days in a week, if you workout every other day, you work out 4 days a week, how hard is that to ****ing comprehend?!

Ill do it out in 4 weeks for you, maybe it will make more sense?

Week 1 - Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Week 2 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
Week 3 - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Monday
Week 4 - Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday
Week 5 - Thursday, Saturday, Monday, Wednesday
Week 6 - Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday

No matter how you look at it, if you workout every other day, you work out 4 times a week.

Notice here that a “week” can start on Friday and end on Thursday by the time you’ve worked out for six weeks. But the rest of the forum isn’t about to give up on explaining it. TheJosh has it all figured out, though. It’s even easier if you think about it over a month’s time.  

I took the week out to make it more simple for you since you are having such a hard time comprehending simple counting! Is it that hard to admit you're wrong?

If you work out every other day for 31 days, that is 16 days a month, 4 days a week!   

Well, if you put it like that, how can anyone argue? While that bon mot ends the first page of discussion and makes the perfect punch line, the thread continues for another four pages. It’s all funny, but that first page, enshrined in 2008, should be part of the Internet Hall of Fame. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Shustov)

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Dave Hax explains in detail how to get more of the pizza than you should, or more than you are entitled to. This works much better if you are the one bringing it home, or pulling it out of the oven. The only thing the other pizza-eaters can say is, “I thought I told you to order a large.” Then you assure them that you will -next time. -Thanks, Dave!