20 Facts You Didn't Know 5 Minutes Ago

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!

Cucumbers Can Cure Bad Breath

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! 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!

White Spots On Your Nails

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 nailbed, 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!

Say “Prunes" For The Camera, Not Cheese

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. 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!

The Flaming-Hot Cheetos Invention

In 2019, Flaming Hot Cheetos were declared America’s favorite snack brand for the third consecutive year. But did you know that the super-addictive snack nearly didn’t exist at all?

In 1976, 18-year-old Richard Montañez was hired as a janitor at a Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The position paid $4 an hour with benefits, and Montañez’s wife filled out the application for him because he struggled to read and write.

While on the job, Montañez noticed that a broken machine on the Cheetos assembly line had spat out a batch of plain Cheetos, without the cheese powder dust. Montañez took the Cheetos home and dusted them with chilli powder. He credits the idea to a favorite snack: grilled corn dressed with lime and chili powder sold by a local street vendor.

Montañez 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! Montañez went on to become an executive vice president at PepsiCo North America and is now a bestselling author and motivational speaker. What an inspiration!

Why European Chocolate Tastes Different Than American

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. 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 vs. Cadbury debate for you?

Dunce Caps: From Symbol Of Smarts To Humiliation

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, who’s name later lent itself to the phrase “dunce cap”.

Scotus was a proponent of the use of pointy hats, believing that they would somehow act as a reverse funnel for knowledge, with wisdom flowing into the pointed tip and spreading into the brain below. These hats were also popular among his followers, known as ‘Dunsmen’, and therefore they 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 classrooms where they were used to traumatize and humiliate kids until the late 1950s!

The Eiffel Tower Was Almost Built In Spain

The Eiffel tower is one of the first things that comes to mind when someone asks you to think of France, but this world-famous landmark almost ended up in Spain! Civil engineer 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 re-pitch 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 well as a communications tower. Thankfully, this famously-hated sculpture has since survived to become one of the world’s most well-loved landmarks!

Babies Are Born Without 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 pieces 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 ten or twelve. Being born with kneecaps could 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?

There Are Giant Clouds Of Alcohol In Space

Drifting ten thousand 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 1000 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!

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, named Sagittarius B2, also holds 10 billion billion billion liters of mostly methanol alcohol, which is used in anti-freeze and windshield-washer fluid.

But how did this cosmic hooch get up there? Well, alcohol is an organic compound. As new stars heat up, formed as clouds of gas and dust collapse, ethyl alcohol can attach to specks of floating dust. As this dust moves towards the new star, the alcohol heats, separates and turns to gas!

Your Head Can Boost A Car Key Fob Signal

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 brain, 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!

Phone 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. Cell phone batteries do actually last a bit longer if they’re kept cool. The average 98.6°F 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!

What's That White Stuff On 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.

Rats Have A Tickle Center In Their Brains

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.

Watch Rats Laugh As Scientists Tickle Them by Discover Magazine

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 display a classic display of positive emotion found across many species such as dogs, foxes and even human children called “joy jumps”. True to the name, this involves leaping into the air with both legs together, talk about a cuteness overload!

Where Do Lost Socks Go In The Washing Machine?

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 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!

Denmark Strait: World's Largest Waterfall Is Underwater

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 2-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 Straight, 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 in the ocean floor, creating a downward flow that goes completely undetected without the aid of scientific instruments!

iPhones Have LiDAR Scanners

Apple’s newest sets 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 distances 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 archaeologist creating real-time 3D-maps or a gamer who loves augmented reality, this swanky new scanner could revolutionize the way we use our phones!

Inuit Snow Goggles Were The First Sunglasses In History

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. They probably had permanent cinema-scope vision too!

No Fancy Riding In Galesburg

There are plenty of bizarre laws across the 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 your “cycling circus” tour!

According to a Galesburg police officer, the bizarre law probably came about during a time of great concern about bicyclist safety when there were more crashes than usual. Thankfully, the weird American 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!

Why Medication Bottles Have Protective Foil Seals Under The Lid?

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 with 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 31million 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!

Supermarket Apples Can Be A Year Old

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but what if that apple has 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 9-12 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:

CANCEROUS WAX COATING on APPLE by NOneLikeCharice

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!

I hope you were amazed at these fun facts you didn't know 5 minutes ago! Thanks for reading.