More Facts you didn't know minutes ago

Dunce caps for smart people.

At one point in the Middle Ages,

the dunce cap we now associate with idiocy and punishment

was a symbol of respected scholars.

It all began with the 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.

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!

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

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 the 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 make

the birthing process more difficult,

or could even result in birth injuries

because the bone is rigid and less flexible than cartilage.

Isn't the human body smart?

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.

Does anyone have 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)

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 extend

the key's wireless range by a few car lengths!