(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] In the age of the internet, an entire goldmine of
knowledge is never more than a few clicks away. The problem is that it sometimes seems like there's just too much out there. How do you decide what's worth knowing and what will only clog up your
brain with useless nonsense? That's where I come in. From the weird and wonderful
to the downright amazing, coming up are 20 facts you
didn't know 5 minutes ago! (upbeat music) A cucumber cure. Picture this: you have
a first date planned at a fancy restaurant,
but when you arrive, you realize you forgot to bring
any breath mints with you. And to make matters worse, you've just ordered
garlic bread as a side. Fear not, friend, all you need to do is order a side salad with cucumber! You see, fibrous vegetables,
such as celery and cucumbers, boost your mouth's saliva production, which washes away
odor-causing bacteria and, in turn, cures bad breath! For a simple hack, holding
a slice of cucumber between your tongue and
the roof of your mouth for about 90 seconds can help
to eliminate nasty odors. And if there's no cucumber on the menu, parsley also has the same
odor-neutralizing effect. So, just discreetly chew on your garnish and you should be covered! (air whooshes) Mysterious fingernail markings. Have you ever glanced
down at your fingernails and noticed some bizarre white markings that weren't there before? This kind of discoloration is
actually a common condition known as leukonychia. Most of the time, it doesn't
signify anything serious, and there are a number
of potential causes. The primary reason is as a
result of injury to the nail bed, which can occur if you accidentally strike or pinch your nail. Because of the time it takes
your fingernails to grow, you might not even recall the injury by the time any white spots show up. Leukonychia can also appear
as an allergic reaction to cosmetic products like polish, gloss, hardener, or nail polish remover. Sometimes, it can also mean
your nails are deficient in certain minerals or vitamins, most commonly zinc or calcium. But unless your entire nail turns white and you experience any pain, these markings will usually
go away on their own, so there's no need to worry! Now that I've got you
looking at your fingers, why don't you make them
useful by heading on over to those Like and Subscribe buttons and showing them some love? See that little bell icon? You should totally tickle that too to make sure you're the first to know when I upload more amazing content. Now, let's gets get back
to boosting your brains. (air whooshes) Say, "Prunes." Before you have your photograph taken, you expect to hear the
oh-so-familiar phrase, "Say cheese!" But back in the day, prunes
were on the menu instead. In the 1800s, most people
weren't comfortable smiling due to a general lack
of good dental hygiene, which meant they didn't
have very attractive teeth. Having your photograph taken
was also considered a luxury and was treated with a
good deal of seriousness, meaning a big cheesy grin
was seen as childish. So, photographers in
British studios in the 1840s told people to say prunes to keep their mouths taught instead. And that predates today's fish-faced pout by about 180 years! By the mid-20th century,
photography had become much faster, cheaper and more casual. Plus, people had better teeth.
(bell rings) So, when Kodak started
making cameras in the U.S., which ordinary people could afford to buy, they marketed them with
photographs of smiling faces. Former Ambassador Joseph
E. Davies was the one to come up with the idea to say cheese as the perfect formula
for an instant smile. And the rest is history! (air whooshes) A flaming-hot invention. In 2019, Flamin' Hot Cheetos were declared America's favorite snack brand for the third consecutive year. But what if I told you that
the super-addictive snack nearly didn't exist at all? In 1976, 18-year-old Richard
Montanez was hired as a janitor at a Frito-Lay plant in
Rancho Cucamonga, California. The position paid $4
an hour with benefits, and Montanez's wife filled
out the application for him because he struggled to read and write. While on the job, Montanez
noted that a broken machine on the Cheetos assembly
line had spat out a batch of plain Cheetos, without
the cheese powder dust. Montanez took the Cheetos home and dusted them with chilli powder. He credits the idea to a favorite snack: grilled corn dressed with
lime and chilli powder, sold by a local street vendor. Montanez first pitched the idea to former PepsiCo CEO
Roger Enrico over the phone and was given two weeks
to prepare a presentation to the executive suite. Of course, it was an instant hit! Montanez went on to become
an executive vice president at PepsiCo North America, and
is now a bestselling author and motivational speaker. What an inspiration! (air whooshes) Choc the difference. If there's one thing
Americans and Europeans will always bicker over, it's chocolate. If you've sampled both sides, there's no denying that choccy tastes totally different across the pond. But why? The simple answer is
different regulations. Firstly, European chocolate
is technically creamier because it requires a minimum of at least 14% dry milk solids, while the minimum amount
in the U.S. is 12%. Euro chocolate is also slightly richer because it's required to
contain at least 3.5% milk fat compared to the 3.39% needed in the U.S. What's more, European chocolate is, well, just more chocolatey. That's because it has also
has a higher requirement for cocoa content, which
gives bars their deep flavor. But that's not the only reason why Europeans love to
hate American chocolate. You see, Hershey's also
uses a special ingredient that sets it apart from
the rest: butyric acid. This ingredient makes the
chocolate last longer on shelves, but also gives it that tangy flavor that many foreigners find off-putting. Does that settle the age-old Hershey's versus Cadbury debate for you? Let's start a healthy discussion
about this unhealthy treat in the comments below. Which brand of chocolate
do you personally prefer? And if you can think of any other foods that taste different in your country, go ahead and let me know. I'm genuinely interested. Let's get back to the facts. (air whooshes) Dunce caps for smart people. At one point in the Middle Ages, the dunce cap we now associate
with idiocy and punishment was actually a symbol
of respected scholars. It all began with master philosopher and metaphysical thinker John Duns Scotus, whose name later lent itself
to the phrase dunce cap. Scotus was a proponent of
the use of pointy hats, believing they would somehow act as a reverse funnel for knowledge, with wisdom flowing into the pointed tip and spreading to the brain below. These hats were also
popular among his followers, known as Dunsmen, and therefore, became a signifier of high intelligence. But by the mid-16th century, popular thought had begun
to turn against Scotus, and the Dunsmen came to be
associated with idiocy instead. Naturally, their pointy hats were adopted as a symbol of stupidity, and found their way into
elementary school classrooms where they were used to traumatize and humiliate kids until the late 1950s. (air whooshes) The Spanish Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is
one of the first things that come to mind when someone
asks you to think of France. But this world-famous landmark
almost ended up in Spain! Designer Gustave Eiffel
first pitched the plans for the monument to Barcelona. But the city rejected his ideas, thinking it would look like an eyesore. He was forced to repitch
the project elsewhere, and the tower found its home in Paris, where it served as the main archway for the 1889 International Exposition. Surprisingly, the Parisians
didn't like it much either. One critic even referred to
the enormous iron structure as a "metal asparagus." The tower wasn't supposed
to stay up for long, and was even offered up for sale as scrap. It was only spared because
the French army found that its 984-foot height
worked pretty well as a communications tower. Thankfully, this famously-hated
sculpture has since survived to become one of the world's
most well-loved landmarks! (air whooshes) Who needs kneecaps? Did you know that a baby's body has about 300 bones at birth, compared to the 206
bones that adults have? Over time, the process of
smaller pieces fusing together reduces the number of bones in the body. One seemingly crucial thing babies aren't born with is kneecaps. Instead, babies are born
with a piece of cartilage that will eventually become
a bony kneecap, or patella. Cartilage, which can be found
in the nose, ears and joints, is flexible and gives structure where it's needed in the body. Most children's kneecaps begin to ossify, that is, turn from cartilage into bone, between the ages of two and six. Often, several pieces of
cartilage will begin to harden into bone at the same
time until the kneecap is one complete bone by
the age of about 10 or 12. Being born with kneecaps
could actually make the birthing process more difficult, or could even result in birth injuries because bone is rigid and
less flexible than cartilage. Isn't the human body smart? (air whooshes) Space booze. Drifting 10,000 light years from Earth in a constellation far, far away is a massive cloud of alcohol. The cloud, which was discovered in 1995 near the constellation Aquila, is 1,000 times larger than the
diameter of our solar system. What's more, it contains
enough ethyl alcohol to fill 400 trillion
trillion pints of beer. Anyone got a rocket I can borrow? Sadly, the cloud is 58
quadrillion miles away, so an interstellar pub crawl
is probably off the cards. What's more, it contains a
cocktail of 32 compounds, and some, like carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and
ammonia, aren't so desirable. Another alcohol cloud,
called Sagittarius B2, also holds 10 billion
billion billion liters of mostly methanol alcohol, which is used in anti-freeze
and windshield-wiper fluid. But how did this cosmic
hooch get up there? Well, if the conditions are just right, simple alcohol compounds can form completely naturally in space, often on the surface of
bits of floating space dust. As this dust moves within
the high-energy vicinity of celestial bodies, like stars, the alcohol is forced to
separate from the dust, forming massive alcohol
clouds, which then float off, presumably to get some aliens very drunk. I wonder if space booze
goes well with moon cheese? (relaxing jazz music) (air whooshes) Use your head. How many times have you parked
your car in a parking lot and walked away only to
realize you forgot to lock it? Instead of retracing your steps towards the car until it's in range, there's one simple way to reach
your car from further away: hold the metal key part of
your key fob against your chin, then press the lock button. You might look slightly
weird while doing it, but you'll be grateful when it
saves you a few extra steps. The trick works by turning
your head into an antenna, according to Silicon Valley
radio engineer Tim Pozar. With all the fluids in your head and the electrical currents
flowing in your body, your noggin ends up being
a pretty decent conductor. It won't work across great distances, but using your head can actually extend the key's wireless range
by a few car lengths! (air whooshes) Battery hack. Most modern smartphones
are supposed to have a great battery life. But it seems to me like
they're always dying when you need them the most! Thankfully, there's one super-simple way you can make the most out
of your remaining juice. If, like most people, you carry your smartphone
around in your pocket, then part of the problem might be that your pocket is too warm. You see, cell phone batteries
do actually last a bit longer if they're kept cool. The average 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit body heat of a human being, when transmitted through a cloth pocket to a cell phone inside, is enough to speed up chemical processes inside the phone's battery. As a result, it runs
down at a faster rate. The simplest way to keep your phone cooler is to carry it inside your
bag or on a belt clip instead. And if you ever find
yourself away from home without a charger, you
can switch off your phone and pop it in the refrigerator to slow the battery losing charge. I don't recommend using
the freezer though. (air whooshes) Surprising salmon. Salmon is one of the most
popular seafoods in the world. But if you've ever
prepared the fish yourself, then you'll have probably
run into the issue of that white funky stuff that seems to appear when you cook it. Most people assume it's just fat, but the white gunk you see
oozing from your dinner is actually a simple
protein called albumin. Whether boiled, baked,
fried, or barbecued, the substance will still appear. Albumin lives in fish in liquid form and appears when the
muscle fibers are heated and they contract, pushing
out the white-colored protein. Although it's totally safe to eat, some people find it unsightly. To try and remove albumin, you can either blot the
cooked fish with a paper towel or brine it before cooking. To brine your fish, just
give it a quick soak in a blend of sea salt and water, which should help to relax
and dissolve the muscle fibers and minimize the appearance of albumin. (air whooshes) Giggling rodents. Rats aren't the most
conventionally cute animals, but their reputation as disgusting vermin seems a little harsh, especially when you learn
that they're ticklish! A study conducted in
2016 was able to pinpoint the tickle center of the mammalian brain, showing for the first time
that stimulating neurons in that particular region
can elicit a series of ultrasonic squeaks that are too high to be heard by human ears. (electronic squeaking) Shimpei Ishiyama, a neuroscientist at the Humboldt University of Berlin, noted that the rats not only
return over and over again to the place where they were tickled, but that tickling their bellies also triggers the
neurotransmitter dopamine in the key reward-related
brain circuits in the rodents. If that wasn't enough to prove
that they love being tickled, rats also show a classic
display of positive emotion found in many species,
such as dogs, foxes, and even human children, called joy jumps. True to their name, this
involves leaping into the air with both legs together. Talk about a cuteness overload! (air whooshes) Disappearing socks. During a clothes wash, socks seem to creep into the yawning abysses
of the laundry drum, never to be seen again. But where do they really go? There are actually a
couple of explanations for their mysterious disappearance. If you have a top-loader machine, a sock could sneak into the crevice between the inner and outer drums, then get snagged in
the water drain or pump as a result of overloading the appliance. It's also possible for a sock to get stuck underneath the spinning agitator. For front-loading washers, though, a rogue sock might get
lodged just underneath the rubber water seal known as the gasket. And if you pull this part back, you could find a goldmine of lost socks. Even if socks do make it to a dry cycle, they can be easily victimized
by static electricity and get stuck to the inside of pant legs or other materials during
the folding process. In short, no, there isn't
a sock-eating monster in your washing machine! (air whooshes) Waterfall wonders. Niagara Falls is pretty big, but it's far from the biggest
waterfall known to man. Some claim Angel Falls in
Venezuela is the world's tallest, with a staggering height of 3,212 feet and a plunge of 2,648 feet. But that doesn't even
come close to the truth. The Denmark Strait is more
than three times the height of Angel Falls, and it
can be found in the ocean. That's right, this mammoth waterfall, located near the southern
tip of Greenland, begins 2,000 feet under the ocean surface and plunges to a depth of 10,000 feet; a nearly two-mile drop! What's more, the Denmark Strait carries an estimated 123 million cubic
feet of water per second. That's equivalent to
almost 2,000 Niagara Falls at peak flow! But how can a waterfall happen underwater? Simply put, cold water is
denser than warm water. In the Denmark Strait,
southward-flowing frigid water from the Nordic Seas meets warmer water from the Irminger Sea. The cold, dense water quickly
sinks below the warmer water and flows over the huge
drop into the ocean floor, creating a downward flow that
goes completely undetected without the aid of scientific instruments! (air whooshes) An iPhone secret. Apple's newest set of iPhones come with a whole array of new features, not to mention a hefty price tag. But there's one thing that
sets the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max models apart
from their predecessors. In addition to the three
super-powered cameras, look a little closer at
the back of the phone and you'll notice an
inconspicuous black dot in the bottom right corner. It's completely flat to the touch and pretty easy to miss on first glance. But what is it? It's officially known as a LiDAR scanner, which stands for light
detection and ranging. This is a radar-related
method for optical distance and speed measurement
which uses tiny laser beams that can't be perceived by the human eye. A LiDAR scanner determines the distance between itself and an object by monitoring how long it takes a laser to bounce back. By sending hundreds of thousands of light pulses every second, LiDAR scanners can
accurately work out distance and object sizes over small distances. The data can then be used
to construct 3D-models of any environment. So, whether you're an architect
drawing up building plans, an archeologist creating
real-time 3D-maps, or a gamer who loves augmented reality, this swanky new scanner
could revolutionize the way we use our phones! (air whooshes) Old school sunglasses. Sunglasses, as we know them today, were first invented sometime
in 12th century China. The primitive frames were a crude slab of roughly-shaped smoked quartz
made to block out the sun. The darkened lenses were only
available to the very rich. They weren't vision-corrected
and didn't offer protection against harmful UV rays, but they did help to hide emotions from others while talking. This was particularly handy
for Chinese judges at the time, who routinely wore
smoke-colored quartz lenses which allowed them to
conceal their true feelings and seem emotionally detached
while questioning the accused. But centuries before Chinese judges found a use for sunglasses, rudimentary snow goggles had been used by Inuit and Yupik communities. These snow goggles would
be made from driftwood, ivory or bone with a slit cut into them, and protected the eyes from sunlight reflecting off bright white snow. I guess they had permanent
Cinemascope vision too! (air whooshes) No fancy riding. There are plenty of bizarre laws across the United States of America, but one particular law in the
city of Galesburg, Illinois is a real sucker for
cyclists: no fancy riding. For a definition of fancy riding, look no further than the
Galesburg Code of Ordinances, which states that "no rider of a bicycle shall remove both hands
from the handlebars, or feet from the pedals, or practice any acrobatic or
fancy riding on any street." Well, that rules out Galesburg
for my cycling circus tour! According to a Galesburg police officer, the bizarre law probably came about during a time of great concern
about bicyclists' safety when there were more crashes than usual. Thankfully, the law is seldom
enforced with any punishment, so kids are free to take
their hands off the handlebars without the fear of being thrown in jail! (air whooshes) Life-saving foil seals. Ever wondered why pill bottles
have protective foil seals beneath the lid? You might assume it's there
to keep the pills airtight, but the real reason is far more morbid. On September 29th, 1982, Mary Kellerman took a Tylenol for a cold. A few hours later, she was dead. That same day, Adam Janus died in exactly the same circumstances. When his brother and sister-in-law visited and developed headaches, they took Tylenol from the same bottle and both perished within
the next two days. In the days that followed, three more people suffered
the same mysterious fate. By early October, investigators discovered that the pills the victims
took were laced with cyanide! Over 31 million bottles
of Tylenol were recalled, and a couple more deadly
bottles were found on shelves in the Chicago area. Someone had taken the
bottles off the shelves, put cyanide into the pill capsules and then placed them back. The criminal was never caught,
but the following year, U.S. Congress published the Tylenol Bill, making it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. And in 1989, the FDA
established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all
such products tamper-proof, which included protective foil seals! (air whooshes) Ancient apples. They say an apple a day
keeps the doctor away. But what if that apple had
been sitting around for a year? Sounds totally gross,
but here's the catch: most people have eaten a
year-old apple at some point. Apples ripen during a very
short period in the U.S., between August and September, so keeping them in stores
for the rest of the year means they must be treated with chemicals and kept in cold storage. In a warehouse setting, apples usually sit for at least 9 to 12 months, with one investigation even finding that the average supermarket
apple is 14 months old! But that's not all. Scrape a supermarket apple with a knife and you'll notice something strange. The white substance you see here is actually shellac or carnauba wax, which is used to keep the apple fresh. Apples actually produce their
own natural coating of wax, but some of that is washed away
when growers wash the fruit to remove field dirt or any leaf litter. Applying an artificial coating of wax not only makes the apple
look shiny and new, but helps to seal in the
moisture, extending its life. But the coating can also
act as an oxygen barrier, meaning the apple may
look deceptively fresh but is actually soggy
and tasteless inside. What's more, consuming
the wax in large doses could be harmful to the
colon and small intestine. So perhaps it's best to
stick to just one apple a day from now on! Which of these facts impressed
or amazed you the most? Let me know down in the comments below. And if you wanna titillate
your trivia senses some more, why not lose yourself in the
"Be Amazed Fact Show," next! As always, thanks for watching, guys! (upbeat music)
