- [Narrator] They say the best
ideas are often the simplest but there's a fine line
between simple and stupid. Some ideas are so dumb, they're actually genius. Let's check out 20 of these dumb ideas that somehow actually work (gentle music) - Amazing. - Number 20. The big flush. You've probably heard of synchronized ice skating and swimming but what about synchronized flushing? No, it's not the next big Olympic sport. It's Zimbabwe's answer to their blocked sewage pipes problem. In 2012, the mayor of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, ordered residents to flush their toilets simultaneously for an hour, twice a week, to keep the
pipes from becoming clogged. As the blockages were
due to flushed matter drying out and getting
stuck in shoddy pipe-work, the big flush would keep the pipes wet hopefully solving the problem. Admittedly, many residents
deemed it successful. Other residents, however, felt the leaders should be looking at
more permanent solutions. I'd agree. Citywide clogged toilets are definitely worth
causing a stink about. Number 19, Mirror Mountain. The village of Viganella in Italy was built at the bottom
of such a steep valley that the sun disappears behind the mountains, throughout winter. That's three entire
months in total shadow. But in 2005 an engineer and an
architect visited the village and came up with an idea. You can't move the mountains but what if you could
reflect the sun's rays? The village raised €100000 to construct a 400 square foot mirror, for just such a purpose. Which now reflects the winter
sun down to the valley. The idea was so successful that the Norwegian town of Rjukin also installed a sun mirror in 2013 to even greater effect. Rjukin use to spend six months at darkness but now thrives under its reflected sun. Just don't try to use the
mirror to fix your hair, you'll probably go blind. Number 18, iced shoe. Are you tired of having stanky shoes even after washing them? Ever thought about just
throwing them in the freezer? Yeah, it sounds crazy. But when you freeze your
shoes for a good few hours it kills the odor-producing bacteria. Just remember to put them
in a Ziploc bag first before you throw them in. You want to get the
smell out of your shoes, not give you a food foot fungus. Number 17, flaming hot. When civilization inevitably collapses, you'll probably need to
kindle a fire at some point. but of all the useful relics
of the civilized world, there's a surprisingly
common fire making tool that might surprise you. Doritos. Your stockpiles of these snacks may actually come in handy as they're high
carbohydrate and oil content makes them an ideal fire-starting material with a surprisingly long burn time. But don't be fooled by the names, Cool Ranch works just as well as Flaming Hot Nacho Cheese flavor. Number 16, making a stand. If you get tired of
holding your tablet upright while watching movies, this
next solution is just for you. All you need are a
couple of clothes hangers and a lazy temperament. By threading a folding tablet case around a plastic hanger, you can hang it from your
ceiling fan or a bunk bed. If you want to take it up a notch to big brain level, carefully fold a metal hanger and live the life of a
very modern DIY genius. It's amazing what brilliance
our laziness inspires. Relax smarter, not harder. Number 15, cheese floss Do you stay up late at night worrying your cheese isn't
practicing proper dental hygiene? Of course you do. Luckily there's a solution that combines dairy snacks with flossing. It's also weirdly satisfying to watch. Thanks to the razor thinness of floss, it's perfect for cutting
foods like cake and cheese when your knives are dirty. That said, only use unscented floss unless you're into minty cheese. Number 14, anti-knot powder. When your shoelaces and jewelry
become tangled in knots, it can be extremely frustrating but a simple solution can be found easily in your pantry or bathroom cabinet. By sprinkling some
cornstarch or talcum powder on stubborn knots you lubricate the material
with the tiny particles making it easier to untie. It sounds bizarre, but it really works. A big corn-gratulations to
whoever figured this one out. Number 13. Three weeks' notice. Reddit user Stellapotamus
should be congratulated for his amazing solution to a needlessly overcomplicated doctor's appointment cancellation. When the Redditor went
to cancel his appointment he was told there was a $200 charge for canceling without a week's notice, but he also realized it
was free to reschedule. So he rescheduled his appointment for three weeks time. Moments after doing so, he
asked to cancel the appointment. The receptionist told him they needed a week's notice to do so without the charge. Stellapotamus politely pointed out that his appointment was
now in three weeks time. The receptionist realized they'd been had but could do nothing but accept it saying, "Oh, okay, sure." With a polite, "Thank you." Stellapotamus ended the encounter and smugly went about his day. That poor receptionist
never stood a chance. Number 12, stop right there. If you ever find yourself
waiting for a while at a bus stop in Germany, that seems suspiciously devoid of buses you may well be at a fake bus stop. Especially in Dusseldorf, the first place to bring
in the bizarre practice. But why? Well, German nursing homes have started using this tactic to keep Alzheimer's
patients from wandering off. While the patient's short-term
memory slowly disintegrates certain long-term memories remain, like remembering the
purpose of a bus stop. Patients occasionally escape and flock to the bus stop assuming it will take them home. Of course the bus stops, while provided by the
city's transport networks, aren't actually connected
to any transport lines. When the staff notice
the patients out there waiting for hours with
little concept of time, they know exactly what's happened. Staff bring them back in, telling patients that the bus is late and will come later. Once they get back to the home they forget they left in the first place. Number 11, percussive maintenance. When the Apple III
computer released in 1980, it came with a number of
flaws, including overheating, which caused the
integrated chips to expand and become dislodged. Steve Jobs refused to add
noisy vents to the design. So Apple proposed another solution. In a technical bulletin they instructed problem-encountering owners to
lift the machine three inches and drop it in order to reset
the chips on the logic board. It worked and the whole
story seems to suggest that your old man hitting
the TV to fix the signal, wasn't just an act of idiotic frustration. Man-on-machine-violence,
fixing electronics since 1980. Number 10, off the hook. For Jasper Lawrence, allergies were a problem his entire life. So when he heard about Dr. David P Strachan's hygiene hypothesis, he was convinced the answer
to his problem was parasites. The theory, based on studies into the impressive
immunity of primitive tribes around the world, suggested that parasites and bacteria helped maintain
the internal balance of our bodies. So Jasper made a trip to Cameroon and infected himself with 50 hookworms. At the end of the eight
week incubation period he realized that his symptoms
had declined significantly. Hookworms are thought
to regulate inflammation in the host's body, which reduces the extreme
effects of allergies. But the question is,
would you turn your body into a medicinal worm farm? Number nine, The Syphilis Solution. In the early 1900s, Austrian
physician and psychiatrist Julius Wagner-Jauregg experimented with an unusual
treatment for syphilis. At that time, syphilis
was a common disease which often prove deadly over time, with no proper pharmaceutical cure. However, it was understood
that in many cases high fevers could cure the disease. So Wagner-Jauregg
developed Malarial Therapy, intentionally infecting
syphilis patients with malaria to induce a fever and
kill off the disease. Since medication to treat
malaria was available it was considered an acceptable risk. This technique was used from 1917 to the 1940s and even
earned Wagner-Jauregg a Nobel prize in medicine in 1927. Number eight, Night Witches. Between 1942 and 1945 the members of a night bomber division of the Soviet Air Force made up of only female pilots garnered a fearsome reputation as the terrors of the skies. Given the nickname "Night Witches", the group used Polikarpov U-2 biplanes to drop bombs on Nazi targets. The planes were small and slow only holding two bombs at a time and were easy to shoot down if detected. So the Night Witches
came up with a solution. When the pilot was nearing her target, she would cut the engine off, midair. The plane would glide down almost silently and before the enemy
even knew they were there they would restart engines
and drop their bombs. Sounds like a dangerous plan, sure, but they were highly successful. And if it works, it works. Number seven. The man for the job. When two dolphins at an
aquarium in Fushun, China were found to have
swallowed plastic shards, veterinarians were unable to remove them. So they turned to someone truly unexpected and yet totally obvious. Mongolian herdsman, Bao Xishun. The Guinness World Record's tallest man. Standing att 7 feet, 8.98 inches, Bao used his 42-inch long arms to reach down and extract the shards from the dolphins' stomachs. Successfully. Now that's good use of human resources. Number six, galactic DIY. When an electrical unit malfunctioned on the International
Space Station in 2012, onboard astronauts, Sunita
Williams and Akihido Hoshide needed to replace it. But when they tried to attach
the unit to the spacecraft they were unable to, as metal shavings had gathered
inside the connecting bolts. After a grueling four hours with no luck, it was time to remove
their rocket scientist hats and don their handyman hats. Thinking on their feet, they fastened the
toothbrush to a metal pole and started scrubbing
away the metal fillings. After another four hours, they were finally able
to attach the new unit and just like that, a $3 toothbrush saved a hundred billion dollar space station. Number five, adaptive technology. If you ever find yourself stuck without an HTMI adapter with no other way of connecting
your device to the TV, don't panic. Your entertainment needs
aren't as doomed as they seem. Simply follow the lead of this genius who hooked his camcorder up to the TV and aimed it at his tablet, which was streaming the big game. There's no doubt about it, This guy is living in 3019. Number four, fire suck. Sometimes there's a fine line between a genius idea
and grounds for divorce. I'll let you decide which
category this guy falls under, though I'm voting genius. By depriving a flame of oxygen and pulling the fuel
into a vacuum chamber, you can put out a fire using a Hoover. It goes without saying though, you should probably pick an extinguisher over a Dyson if your house is up in smoke. But funnily enough, this method is actually
proposed for use by astronauts. So it might be genius after all. Your significant other
probably won't think so though. Number three, safe or soaked. When the Lung Shan Bus
Company in the Hunan province received numerous passenger complaints about their drivers'
unsafe, erratic driving, they came up with a solution. Next to the drivers they
hung large bowls of water intended to deter the drivers from making sudden stops or sharp turns on threat of a jolly good soaking. The bowls where expected to remain full when drivers finished their shift and to keep drivers from
refilling the bowls, they installed CCTV. Seeing as they failed to take sharp stops caused by other dangerous
drivers into consideration, the company's idea
doesn't really hold water. Number two, counter camouflage. Thanks to their amazing
camouflage abilities, having a pet chameleon can easily turn into a near impossible game of hide and seek. Luckily Redditor Impenetrablefog came up with a solution, tying a balloon to your chameleon. Mr. Chameleon, however,
doesn't look too pleased by his floating companion. Number one, tough on stains. Household cleaning
products are great and all but can any help when your pesky roommate leaves his radioactive materials
strewn about the place? Surprisingly, yes. When a huge nuclear site in Northern Scotland
was being decommissioned moving the plutonium
stained steel equipment presented a serious hazard to workers. The equipment needed to be decontaminated but the standard cleaning agents slowed down the process,
taking too long to dry. After a worker mentioned seeing an advert where household cleaner Cillit
Bang stripped dirt off a coin they have seriously
suggested giving it a try. It turned out to be extremely effective for the plutonium stains and proved to significantly
reduce the cost of the project. Now that's what I call bang for your buck. Which of these solutions were you most surprised actually worked? Do you have any dumb solutions that are surprisingly effective? Let me know in the comments down below. Thanks for watching. (gentle music)
