it's time to look a little closer some things you look at every day are much more complicated than
you might think like did you know there is a tiny hole at the bottom of every padlock and it could
be the difference between it malfunctioning or not or how about the fact that there's only one
state capital in America without a McDonald's that you can't guess which one from the full name of
Captain Crunch to the surprisingly old origins of the word hipster I'm Mike from list 25 and
here are 25 fascinating facts that are hidden in plain sight 25 the numbers on recycling symbols
everybody recognizes the three arrowed recycling symbol but did you ever notice the letters or
numbers written in or underneath them these aren't just for show they actually have a very important
meaning for categorizing recycling based on their chemical makeup the numbers range from
1 to 7 the first is polyethylene terala which covers most plastic bottles and jars and the
final category is polycarbonate and biodegradable plastic like certain food containers if certain
kinds of plastics mix together then it can make an entire batch unusable so it's pretty important
to have a system also check with your local authorities because certain places can only
recycle up to certain numbers so for instance here in Gainesville I don't think I can recycle
five or higher so 1 to four I can throw in the recycling five six7 throw right in the trash
so before recycling always check with your local government authorities recycling you're welcome
don't just recycle blindly 24 the letters on tires just like recycling car tires can have their own
sophisticated system here Size Matters the numbers tell you the width diameter and load index of the
tire meaning how much weight they're recommended to carry there are letters too for the type of
tube inside whether they're for special vehicles like trucks as well as what the maximum speed is
if your tire has a J Speed index for instance it can only reach about 60 MPH the highest is Y which
can withstand speeds of over 180 mph or about the speed of a Formula 1 car 23 the hole in the center
of CDs DVDs or Blu-Rays no these holes are not for making better frisbees they're just spinning on
your finger they are essential for discs to work properly that's because of the way disc readers
work you see discs aren't completely flat there are tiny bumps on the surface which are read by
a laser to do that the disc needs to be spinning at a constant speed and that's where the spindle
motor comes in this is a circular piece of metal or plastic which is why CDs DVDs Blu-rays all have
a hole in the middle the spindle spins it around quickly allowing the machine to read the music
video or data especially on older CD players you can actually hear the worring sound of the motor
22 the function of the ridge on five keypads feel around on your keyboard and you'll notice some
bumps unlike the ones on CDs or Blu-Rays these ones are made to be felt by our fingers small
grooves called ridges are engineered onto both the F and J key to help guide you without looking down
on keyboards which have a numeric keypad there's also Ridge on the number five for the exact same
reason you could say that it's a key part of the design 21 the function of the hole in a padlock
speaking of holes from school lockers to bikes and Gates padlocks are one of the easiest ways
to keep your belongings safe what you probably didn't know is there is a tiny hole at the bottom
making sure that padlocks work no matter the condition no bigger than the size of a pin this
hole is to let any water stuck inside drain out stopping it from clogging up the mechanism on the
inside it also stops water from getting Frozen in extremely cold temperatures 20 tape makes
frosted glass transparent frosted glass is used in homes offices and sometimes even public restrooms
to allow more light through while keeping a level of privacy that is unless you have some
Scotch tape sticking a bit of clear tape onto frosted glass instantly makes it see through
just like regular glass why does this happen it's because a frosted glass has a rough surface and
laying tape on top makes it smooth meaning light can bleed through much easier luckily this only
works for the Frosted side so you won't get any anyone peeking in on you in the public toilet
19 Buddha's head might be covered in snails when you think of a Buddhist monk the image that first
comes to mind is someone in a row without shoes and most important a shaved head so then why do
most depictions of the Buddha have him with a head full of curls well the story is a little
complicated and there are no certainties but some of the first images of the Buddha were wavy
hair over time this evolved into small compact curls often with a bun on the top others claim
that these are actually dried snails which crawled onto his head during a meditation to
protect him from the Sun however this could just be a metaphor for the Buddha's Union with nature
18 traffic signs are retrolective when you pull up to a red stop sign at night it's pretty hard
to miss that is as long as your headlights are on the light from your car is being reflected in
a very deliberate way called retro reflectivity all that light bounces off the sign and instead
of dispersing in different directions comes back to its source which is you the driver s
manufacturers achieve this effect by using glass beads special paint and a layer of reflective
sheeting 17 a cumber ground is a useless person you've probably heard the word cumbersome and know
it's something that's difficult or inconvenient but how about cumber like cumbersome it's a very
old word diting back to 17th century England next time you want to inject some oldfashioned language
into an insult try using it cumber ground refers to an object or person that's totally worthless
basically an obstacle to anyone and everything okay so that might be a little bit too harsh
actually 16 the part of your back you can't reach is called the acnestis there is nothing worse than
having an itch that you can't scratch and we've all had it before in that one spot on your back
you just can't seem to reach there's a word for that acnestis it's most often found somewhere
in the middle of the shoulders and comes from the Greek word for spine this isn't limited to humans
either many animals also have an acnestis maybe that's why dogs are so happy when you scratch them
in that perfect spot a lot of foot kicking can you imagine if us humans did that just
like 15 the function of the small hole in gasoline nozzles just like the padlocks from
earlier there's a tiny hole in the nozzle of pumps at the gas station don't be alarm though
they are meant to be there and without them the process would be much more dangerous that hole is
usually found on the side and it's connected all the way back through the pump air is constantly
moving from the input all the way back through to the pump in a vacuum until the gas tank is full
then the air flow is interrupted and automatically stops pumping usually with a clicking sound this
remarkable simple safety feature stops gasoline from overflowing and spilling onto the ground 14
fruit snacks are made shiny using car wax not many food products you buy look exactly like they do in
the packaging I'm looking at you McDonald's but when it comes to Candy what's inside often comes
pretty close to the picture and there's a reason for that many confectionary companies use an
ingredient called carnala wax to make sweets look shiny and attractive it's a natural ingredient
coming from a tree in Brazil but don't get too excited carabo ax has another use too it's car
wax which makes it sound a little less appetizing 13 some fingernails grow faster do you ever get
the feeling that you're having to cut your nails really often well it's probably one hand more than
the other your dominant hand grows Nails slightly quicker than your weaker one on top of that your
longer fingernails grow slightly faster than your smaller fingers these differences are tiny
because the average rate is just under 3 and 1 12 mm a month but if you let them grow out you
might notice 12 Captain Crunch has a full name ah Captain Crunch one of the most popular children's
cereals in America the brand has used commercials and cartoons for decades to promote its fictional
character simply known as the captain but if you want to feel a little more adult about
eating it you could call him by his full name in a satirical expose published by The Wall Street
Journal in 2011 it was revealed that the captain's complete name is Horatio mellan Crunch and that he
had never really served as a a naval Captain so all these years Captain Crunch has been stealing
Valor 11 the purpose of rais lines on credit cards many of us use contactless payments these days
which we can often do directly from our phones but if you take the time to inspect your physical
credit card you'll find a few hidden details often one side of the card has two tiny bumps they let
people who are visually impaired know that the card is the right way up that's also the reason
for the notch on one side too to direct people towards the end with the chip inside 10 people
used to answer the phone with a Hoy if you're a Simpsons fan you will know how Montgomery Burns
answers the phone with a Hoy hoi AO Hoy this is more than an old timey joke making fun of
the character's age it's actually a reference to Alexander grah Bell the inventor of the telephone
after patenting his creation he wanted everyone to use the greeting aoy when answering the phone
a word that has its roots in Naval communication so why don't we use that today well you can thank
Gran Bell's rival Thomas Edison Edison campaigned for hello instead a word that had been floating
around Europe during the 19th century clearly Edison ended up winning that battle and these
days aoy is mainly associated with pirates oh SE Montgomery Burns you scoundrel Smithers release
the hounds excellent nine a regulation golf ball has hundreds of dimples if dimples are a
sign of attractiveness then golf balls must be the most beautiful in sport they haven't always been
dimpled though original smooth golf balls made with a rubberlike texture became dented pretty
quickly and it didn't take long for players to realize that these damaged ones actually went
further because the aerodynamics were improved to standardize this feature dimples were added
in the early 20th century to all golf balls on the official ones used in the recent PGA Tour
the number of dimples range from 322 to 376 eight only one state capital doesn't have a McDonald's
there are more than 13,000 McDonald's in the US in Houston alone there are 126 however there's one
state capital that isn't home to the golden arches Mont perer Vermont it's probably because the
city's tiny home to just over 8,000 people but if you happen to be in the city and need your fix of
chicken McNuggets don't worry there's MC Donald's about 15minute drive away and the next town over
seven junk food is as addictive as drugs speaking about junk food those Cravings can be as serious
as drugs the way your brain takes both of these is very similar those sweet salty and unhealthy Foods
we know as junk food are scientifically referred to as ultra-processed foods and researchers have
found that these foods can be extremely addictive they boost the amount of dopamine in the brain
making us feel good but only temporarily when it wears off we're left wanting more so sneaking a
few french fries is not due to your weak willpower these foods do have a very powerful effect on the
brain six School Master is an anagram of the classroom School Masters became important in
England during the end of the Middle Ages as education was formalizing their task was simple
keep the entire school Under Control okay maybe not exactly a simple job but it's a little easier
when you consider the fact that the majority of schools back then only in a couple of classrooms
so it's natural that the term School Master is actually an anagram of the classroom you just
have to rearrange the letters because that's how anagrams work I wonder which smart no- all student
came up with that idea and if no one claims it dibs that's me I'll take I'll take credit
I call dibs that's that's how it works sorry five riding roller coasters helps to pass kidney stones
ever been on a roller coaster and felt that your body was really going through something
the speeds and dips and turns and twists can be a serious strain on the body but researchers found
positive effects roller coasters can be so intense that they help pass kidney stones the
small Harden bundles of minerals that can clog up and damage your insides while it's definitely not
a substitute for medical treatment simulations show that these Stones can pass through your
body much quicker with a roller coaster ride four the placement of a donkey's eyes helps
it see all its feet you'd think that a donkey's vision would only cover its front two feet when
looking down however their eyes are specially spaced out basically on either side of its face
just so they can see all four at the same time that means they don't have any blind spots and
helps them be more coordinated I mean maybe they need it because after all they do have two left
feet three most collect calls are made on Father's Day back in the day before every
phone had internet collect calls were very popular just like the ones from prison they mean that the
receiver agrees to pay the cost of the call this feature gave phone companies an insight into when
people were desperate to talk to each other and in the '90s AT&T revealed that the most collect
calls each year were always on Father's Day these calls lasted longer than usual too proving that
those kinds of holidays are a good opportunity to think about the ones we love two pitch black isn't
really black close your eyelids for a couple of seconds what do you see okay maybe you know the
flickering of the light from the screen you're watching this on but in a dark room you see Pitch
Black right wrong that color has a name it's called aen it's technically a very very dark
gray which is because the photo receptors in our eyes are still working even in super dark
environments this is also why after being exposed to Bright Lights and then closing your eyes you
get those white moving dots or colors one the word hipster goes back 90 years there was a time when
every Cafe was full of hipsters they were mainly young people with tattoos a lot of facial hair and
usually thought of themselves alternative although they pretty much all ended up looking the same the
term peaked in the early 2000s but its Origins go back much further during the 30s when the coolest
kind of music to listen to was jazz people who had a deep knowledge of it started to be known
as hepster meaning up to-date by the' 60s it was used to describe trendy people with baggy pants
and by the 2000s finally made its way to the skinny jean flannel wearing modern hipster and if
your local bar is filled with craft beer and micro bruise well then you have the hipsters to think so
what's your favorite fact to tell let me know in the comments below and as always don't forget to
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personal ones links in that description on now did you know that King Charles II mixes alcohol with a
powdered human skull or how about fatal familial insomnia or it becomes impossible to sleep your
memories are dismantled and eventually you slip into a coma to learn about these and dozens of
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