Do you use toothpicks after every meal? Your loyal helpers have been around for ages! Clever researchers have found hints that Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens were hardcore toothpick enthusiasts. During the Medieval period, when life was all castles and chivalry, folks flaunted their upper-class status with gold or silver toothpicks elegantly tucked away in snazzy cases. What is the most modern and safest version of this smart accessory?

There was a man back in 1964 who was able to predict the future accurately as if he saw it with his own eyes. The man’s name was Arthur C. Clarke. He spoke about how we would be able to contact our friends anywhere on Earth. He told a tale of how a person would be able to conduct business from Haiti or Bali as if they were in London. What other predictions did he make, and did all of them come true?

There are some unique places in the world where you'll think your brain is playing tricks on you. At Hoover Dam in Nevada gravity seems to play with us. Try this experiment if you ever happen to go there. Pour water from a bottle over the dam. You will witness that instead of going down, the water will start flowing upward. Let's discover some more places that seem unreal.

You got your fingertips when you were still growing in the womb. That unique pattern stays with you for your entire life. If you’re a construction worker, especially a bricklayer, or have to wash dishes by hand, you might lose some details in your beautiful natural pattern. Otherwise, fingerprints never change. Sounds like they were made to prove your identity, and that's why bad guys do it.

Did someone put a rubber band on your doorknob? If this ever happens to you, you should call the cops immediately. Someone in your neighborhood might be trying to rob your house! This technique became frequent back in 2016, but some burglars might still be trying to use it. And that's not the only use for rubber you didn't know of.

If you use taxi services often enough, you might know that taxi drivers have secrets they don't tell their passengers about. For example, if an airport taxi driver assumes that you're a tourist, they may decide to give you a sightseeing tour you haven't asked for. Some taxi drivers can start the meter not when you climb into their car, but as soon as they arrive to pick you up. So let's figure out what things you should pay attention to while getting into a car, why you should check your valuables before leaving a taxi, and why it often takes taxi drivers so long to pick you up.

Airplanes may be a marvel of modern engineering, but unless you're flying first-class it isn't what most people would call glamorous. For many, the biggest problem is how crowded airliners can get. But believe it or not, there was a time when flights rarely left more than half full. How was this possible? It might be hard to believe in a world where you must book your flight months in advance, but there was a time when you could simply drive to the airport on a whim and go almost anywhere you wanted. If you were lucky, you might even get the whole row to yourself!

If just 1 inch of rain fell over an area of 5,000 acres, the amount of water would be enough to fill almost 3-and-a-half million 40-gallon bathtubs! Imagine all the bubble baths! But what would happen if all this rainwater gathered in one gigantic raindrop and fell to the earth? So, it's a stifling day in the middle of July, and you're staying outside, trying to catch a breath of fresh air. Suddenly, you spot a dark cloud growing on the horizon. "Finally," you think. "I wouldn’t mind a cool shower!" But then, as the cloud is coming closer, you notice that it doesn’t look like a regular cloud. For one, it's too big. And secondly, it's narrower at the bottom and spreads wider at the top...

In movies, birds can casually pick up people and carry them across huge distances. But do birds have those heavy-lifting superpowers in real life? One of the strongest birds on our planet is the harpy eagle: they've been recorded to tackle up to 40 lbs. Owls are equally as strong, and the great horned one is among the toughest birds out there. The biggest type of falcon on Earth is the gyrfalcon: it may weigh somewhere around 3 lbs, but it can lift up to 5 lbs!

The universe is full of marvels, and the black hole star is one of the most impressive ones. It’s a supermassive force that can bend the laws of physics, and a true enigma for scientists to unravel. No wonder science fiction writers find them so captivating! But how is it possible that the star is born from a black hole? And what's more, how do they continue to coexist together?

Are you afraid of thunderstorms and lightning? It can penetrate your room and then flies back through the walls. It's a real natural phenomenon called Ball lightning. And you're fortunate to be alive after meeting it. Perhaps that ball lightning occurs as a result of a lightning strike on the ground. Another theory says that glass can generate these balls. But how dangerous are they?

Ever wondered if you’re a musical genius? With this test, you’ll be able to figure out if you’re the new Mozart or if you’re in desperate need of some music lessons. Grab your headphones and good luck! We'll start with measuring your pitch knowledge. If you’re the type of person that sings out of tune to your favorite songs, you’ll learn a lot from this. But if you’re pitch perfect, well then just go join a musical already!

The Grand Canyon is like a history book of the Earth, where you can travel back in time just by looking at the rock layers. But here’s the mystery: one billion years' worth of rocks has vanished without a trace! It's called the "Great Unconformity" and it has baffled scientists for over 150 years. Some scientists think that the rocks were washed away into the ocean during the violent breakup of Earth's ancient supercontinent. But was it really so? And does the Grand Canyon have any other secrets waiting to be uncovered?

Mother Nature is caring, loving, and providing, but sometimes, she is also terrifying. These Reddit users have seen her dark and spooky side. They have been through the worst. And fortunately, they all lived to tell the tale. So, are you ready to face it and learn about her chilling, uncanny secrets?

Every year, the local newspaper and television in Urbania, Italy, publish a strange weather forecast based on onion wedges. And it's not the only unusual old-school way to predict the weather. The legend goes that you can determine how harsh the next winter will be by looking at the woolly bear caterpillar's color pattern. Have you ever heard of the saying: when ladybugs swarm, expect a day that’s warm? This is actually true.

Half the world spends two to six hours a day on social media, and those numbers keep going up. A lot of the credit goes to Steve Jobs, the inventor of the iPhone. But when you picture Steve, make sure it’s with his head up, addressing a crowd, looking into someone’s eyes, or exploring the world, not bent over the little screen so many of us hold in our hands. Steve Jobs was the least likely in any crowd to be gazing at social media! He didn’t use Facebook, and he didn’t use Twitter.

Cookies under the entrance mat, beads spread all over the floor, invisible paint smeared on door handles – sounds like a naughty dog has been in your house, or a starter pack for when you're home alone during the holidays! But these and other unusual tips can protect your house – or at least let you know it was visited while you were away! And remember that most break-ins occur in the afternoon when people are at work or school. Burglars feel safe because their chances of getting caught or identified are low. Still, before getting inside, they watch houses for some time to figure out if they're empty. By the way, one of the things they pay attention to is cars parked in driveways. So if you have an old vehicle you haven't gotten rid of yet, make it useful!

Someone you like is about to talk to you? Oh no, you're already blushing and about to faint! Important interview? You can't say a word without a hiccup or nervous laughter! But maybe if you learn why this happens, you'll get yourself out of an awkward situation next time. For example, for some people talking is a powerful stress reliever. That's why the best they can do when they are nervous is just mumbling or a stream of consciousness that’s clearly not showing their bright side. It takes some skill to deal with that, but it's possible. And we're about to tell you how.

If you're a football fan, the game is exciting to you as it is. But it can get even cooler: during a match between Austria and Denmark, a mysterious hole popped up from nowhere and stopped the game. The players were furious but also confused by this weird deep hole, much like in "Stranger Things." It was deep enough to consume a player's ankle. On top of that, the match was delayed by 90 minutes due to a power outage.

Each of us has to use public bathrooms once in awhile. We might not like them or feel uncomfortable about them but we still go there and use them. But have you ever wondered why toilet stall doors rarely reach all the way to the floor? It turns out, there're several reasons for it and I'm gonna explain all of them to you. In this video you're also gonna find out why "push-to-enter" doors are the most common ones in public bathrooms. Partially it has something to do with the fact that people are usually in a way bigger hurry when they enter the bathroom than when they exit... But not just that.

Titanic fans, this one is for you. You probably know your favorite movie by heart, but have you ever wondered how much of it is actually true? Jack and Rose never fell in love on board the real Titanic. There was a real J Dawson on the luxurious ocean liner, but he was a crew member, and his full name was Joseph. Yet, some parts of the story going on on the screen were real.

The first pyramid in Antarctica was observed by the British Antarctic Expedition in the 1910s and kept secret for a long time. The mystery was soon enough deciphered by scientists: these formations are just mountains. Antarctica has way more incredible features, like the fact that it’s the home of 60 to 90% of the world’s fresh water. At some point in our planet’s history, Antarctica had the same average temperatures as the city of Melbourne has today. Let's discover more of its secrets and mysteries.

Sports fans, are you ready for a journey to see the world's weirdest stadiums?

Did you know that plants can talk? Well, not in the way we do, but they emit high-frequency sounds as loud as our conversations. What if your plant is thirsty and is trying to let you know about this? Unfortunately, these sounds are too high for our ears to hear, but insects, other mammals, and even other plants might be able to hear them. But it turns out that sounds you can't hear can hurt your ears.

The Great Pyramid at Giza is twice the volume of the Houston Astrodome, a gigantic multi-purpose domed sports stadium. The largest American flag is one and a half football fields long and an entire football field wide. Each star on the flag is 17 ft high! The largest creature that's ever taken flight on our planet weighed more than a piano. And its wings were longer than 6 queen-size beds! We're keeping to amaze you with interesting facts about this world. Today we're going to talk about the biggest things on Earth. Do you know, for example, what's the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall? Or which plane can hold 50 cars? Or that there's a haul truck that can carry the weight equal to more than two fully grown blue whales? The average person wouldn't even reach the top of a vehicle's huge wheel. The giant's almost twice as tall as a giraffe! Let's measure and compare the real sizes of different objects. Some of these cool facts will definitely impress you.