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2025 Mental Floss
101 Interesting Facts We Learned in 2024 | Mental Floss
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0:00
Earth famously has one moon. But this fall, our planet gained a bonus so-called mini-moon
0:04
thanks to the asteroid 2024 PT5. The asteroid traveled in a horseshoe-like orbit around Earth
0:09
for about two months before continuing its journey through the solar system. It will visit
0:13
our planet's orbit again in 2055, when it probably won't be close enough to Earth to be moony
0:17
Speaking of big old space rocks, the Cheekshulub asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years
0:23
ago didn't just wipe out the planet's non-avian dinosaurs. It also left a telltale layer of
0:28
extraterrestrial material all over the place. In 2024, geologists studying this material
0:33
suggested the asteroid came from way out in our solar system. They found chemical signatures that
0:38
matched those of carbonaceous-type asteroids, a type that falls to Earth relatively rarely
0:43
They were made of primordial materials in a composition that indicates they were formed
0:46
past the orbit of Jupiter. Hi, I'm Erin McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief of Mental Floss
0:50
and this is The List Show. Those are just the first of 101 facts we learned in 2024
0:55
that we're going to cover today. Let's get started. If you're looking to embrace a plant-based lifestyle, consider moving to Los Angeles
1:08
That's the best city for vegans and vegetarians in the United States, according to a 2024 study from WalletHub. In addition to boasting the second highest number
1:16
of highly rated affordable restaurants with veggie-friendly options, the California destination is also home to plenty of farmers' markets, community gardens, and organic farms
1:25
But maybe you're a carnivore, so that doesn't matter to you. If you want to live in a super
1:29
pet-friendly place, head to the Grand Canyon State. WalletHub also ranked the most pet-friendly
1:33
city in the US, and Scottsdale, Arizona came out on top. WalletHub's research found that
1:38
Scottsdale had some of the most pet-related businesses in the country, and boasted an
1:42
abundance of pet-friendly rentals. The city's parks, hiking trails, and good weather helped
1:46
it reach the number one spot, too. It's pretty hard to confuse a dog with a panda bear, but in
1:51
In 2024, two Chinese zoos tried to get their visitors to do just that
1:56
Taijou Zoo in Jiangsu province painted two chow chows black and white and apparently called
2:00
them panda dogs. As one zoo official explained, there are no panda bears at the zoo, and we wanted to do
2:06
this as a result. In September, Shanwei Zoo copped to doing the same thing, down to calling them panda
2:12
dogs, after its dyed pooches were seen panting and heard barking. Visitors were apparently so angry that they demanded a refund
2:19
And speaking of dubious animal disguises, in March 2024, a woman rescued a baby hedgehog
2:24
from the side of the road and took it to a wildlife hospital in Cheshire, England
2:28
There she discovered that it was not, in fact, a baby hedgehog. It was a spiky pom-pom that had apparently fallen off of someone's hat
2:34
Hey, we've all been there. Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine found that human microbiomes go through
2:40
distinct changes at two specific ages—44 and 60 on average—which may offer clues to
2:46
a person's overall health and disease prognosis. The changes correlated with cardiovascular health, kidney function, metabolism of alcohol
2:53
caffeine and fat, and skin and muscle health, among other factors. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the steps from John Wick Chapter 4
3:00
Paris has no shortage of tourist hotspots. This year, another joined the ranks
3:04
The Musée du Fromage, France's very first cheese museum. The museum features a working dairy, where you can watch cheese get made, an exhibit
3:11
all about cheese and cheese making, and a gift shop. Oh yeah, and a cheese taste testing station
3:16
Not sure if it's BYOB. your own baguette. Happy 50th birthday to Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, first
3:23
published in 1974. It wasn't the only classic book to celebrate the Big Five-O this year. So did
3:28
Stephen King's Carrie, Peter Benchley's Jaws, and James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk
3:32
Fun for literature lovers. Not so fun for people who still think the 70s were only like
3:36
20 or 30 years ago. Some incredible new words and phrases got added to dictionaries in 2024
3:43
Here are two of our favorites that were added to Dictionary.com this year. Mid, meaning mediocre, and bed rotting, which refers to spending hours in bed during the
3:52
day to escape stress. This year, the language blog Word Tips yzed 1.7 million geotagged posts in English to
3:59
determine which country swears the most. And no f***ing surprise, it's the United States, where 41.6 out of every 1,000 tweets
4:07
had at least one curse word. Next was the UK, with 28.6 tweets out of 1,000 containing at least one swear, followed by Australia. Crikey
4:15
As for which countries curse the least, that would be Kuwait, where just 3.6 tweets in every
4:19
1,000 contained a swear word. The ysis was based on English, though, so who knows about swearing in native languages
4:26
This year, the business admin website Vera compiled a list of the most commonly searched
4:30
for text message abbreviations. If you catch yourself typing SMH or shaking my head into the group chat every other message
4:36
you're not alone. The abbreviation is the most popular one in the U.S., with an average monthly search volume
4:42
exceeding 230,000 queries. Plenty of fictional Disney and Warner Bros. characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny
4:48
have received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But no superhero managed the honor until September, when Batman became the first caped character
4:56
to get a plaque. His star was placed near his co-creator Bob Kane and 1960's Dark Knight Adam West
5:02
There's a $75,000 sponsorship fee for a star to cover the costs associated with making
5:06
and installing the plaques and the accompanying dedication ceremony. Good thing Bruce Wayne can afford it
5:12
In January, Mickey and Minnie Mouse entered the public domain, with a caveat the size
5:16
of Cinderella's Castle. Technically, it was the 1928 animated short Steamboat Willie that became public property
5:22
so only the versions of Mickey and Minnie from that program are fair game
5:26
If you make a horror movie featuring a modern-day Mickey, expect at least a cease and desist letter
5:31
Disney does not mess around with IP violations. In 2006, for example, the company told a stonemason they weren't allowed to engrave a child's
5:38
tombstone with Winnie the Pooh, though they ended up relenting after bad press
5:42
And Mickey Mouse is still trademarked. So if people think your horror movie is an official Disney production, you're also in trouble
5:49
And speaking of the most important people in pop culture history, Dolly Parton launched her own wine this year, aptly named Dolly Wines
5:55
It launched with three varieties, Chardonnay, Rosé, and Prosecco. Parton was heavily involved in the process of crafting the wines, weighing in on everything
6:02
from their taste to the design of the bottles. But unfortunately, we lost a classic gum brand in 2024
6:08
After being a candy shelf staple for 54 years, Ferrara announced it was officially discontinuing
6:13
Fruit Stripe. The gum was known for its zebra mascot, colorful striped patterns, and fruit flavors that lasted
6:19
about as long as it took to find a trash bin for your wrapper. Have you ever wondered what Costco's best snack is
6:24
Wonder no more, thanks to a survey that came out this year from Coupon Birds. Looking at 145,000 customer reviews, they determined that Costco.com's best snack is
6:33
Utah Truffle's Dark Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt. 91.99% of its reviews were 5-star
6:38
I have a feeling that this is controversial, so tell me what your favorite Costco snack
6:42
is in the comments. Mine is the bag of Doritos the size of my head that I will then eat all by myself
6:47
Don't judge me. Spaghetti Carbonara is a culinary treasure, which is why chefs were scandalized when Heinz
6:53
started selling it in a can in the UK. The shelf-stable product contains cooked noodles sitting in a creamy sauce
6:59
Heinz emphasized the convenience factor over authenticity, but this did little to quell
7:03
the controversy. Sierra Tassoni, the manager of an Italian restaurant in London, told The Sun
7:08
It's a disgrace, and it couldn't be any further from authentic carbonara. If somebody came in here and asked for a can of carbonara, they would immediately be thrown out
7:17
Italy doesn't just care about pasta. They also love their Parmesan cheese
7:21
And in 2024, they provided the world with some amazing photos, thanks to one Olympic medalist incredible promotional pictures Giorgia Vila a gymnast was sponsored by Parmigiano Reggiano You know the cheese If you haven seen the photos do yourself a favor and go check them out On the subject of Olympic foods the viral chocolate muffins from the Paris
7:39
2024 Olympic Village were the talk of TikTok, when Norwegian Olympic swimmer Henri Christensen
7:44
made a series of photos describing his love for the baked goods. This prompted a wave of chefs
7:49
and food enthusiasts to wonder what exactly made these muffins so noteworthy. Killeen Zong
7:55
a New York City cafe owner, started a quest to find the muffins and bring them to her shop
7:59
Once found, she priced the muffins at $10 each, which covered transport costs
8:02
and sold out the same day. And before we go back to non-Olympic foods, let's talk briefly about breaking, the new Olympic event that took place in Paris this summer
8:10
While it took to social media like wildfire thanks to one particularly enthusiastic competitor
8:15
the event unfortunately will not be offered in 2028. Each local Olympic Games Committee decides
8:20
which sports, in addition to standard ones, they will include. Paris chose breaking along with
8:25
skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing. For Los Angeles 2028, baseball, softball, cricket, and lacrosse are set to return from previous games, and squash and flag football
8:33
will be added. Visitors to the Cheesy Toast Shack in St. Andrews, Scotland, come for the grilled
8:38
cheese. But not everyone knows they have to fight for it. The seaside eatery is monitored by brazen
8:43
seagulls, who take advantage of distracted tourists and swoop in to nap their toasties
8:47
After many sobbing children, and making a joke about selling seagull insurance in the
8:51
local paper, the owners actually began offering the insurance. For an additional British pound, the eatery will replace a toastie if it's stolen by
8:58
the birds. Walt Disney World isn't known for its fine cuisine, but maybe it should be
9:02
In 2024, the theme park giant became host to its first ever Michelin-starred restaurant
9:07
Victoria and Alberts received the honor from the Michelin Guide—yes, the tire company—for
9:11
its eclectic menu. But don't expect a Tinkerbell-sized bill. The flat rate for the meal starts at $295 per person
9:19
Cheetos have the power to alter your gut microbiome, so it should come as no surprise that the
9:24
ultra-processed snack can have a big effect on organisms outside your body, too
9:28
In September, rangers at Carlsbad Caverns National Park came upon an accidental case
9:32
study of this principle when they discovered a bag of Cheetos left behind by a visitor
9:36
In the brief time it had lain in the moist environs of the cavern's big room
9:40
a thriving colony of mold had grown around the bag and on the surfaces of the cave
9:44
which attracted cave crickets, mites, spiders, and flies, the Associated Press reported
9:49
Seemingly innocuous littering has outsized consequences in the cave's highly specialized and fragile ecosystem, a ranger wrote on Facebook. He advocated for leave-no-trace ethics
9:59
It's animal fact time. Anyone who spends time around horses will tell you they're incredibly
10:03
smart creatures. According to new research, horses can even plan and strategize. Researchers
10:08
at Nottingham Trent University tested how 20 horses responded to a reward-based game
10:13
and found that the animals strategically changed their approach to make sure they got the most
10:17
treats while putting forth the least amount of effort. An inspiration to us all. Feeling stressed
10:22
So might your dog. We've known for a while that dogs can smell stress, but in 2024 we learned that
10:27
a human's stress can affect dogs. After putting volunteers through stressful situations, like
10:31
public speaking stressful rather than two tubs of ice cream stressful, and calm situations
10:36
and then collecting their sweat, they found that dogs exposed to the sweat of the stressed out
10:40
people didn't approach bowls that may or may not have had food in them. The researchers took this
10:45
as meaning that the dogs themselves were down and pessimistic. Other researchers, however
10:49
cautioned that there were other interpretations, like the dogs had learned from prior experience
10:53
that when their humans were feeling down, the treats were not forthcoming
10:58
This year, scientists discovered that octopus cyania, or the big blue octopus
11:02
teams up with different fish species to hunt for food. The cephalopods also oversee the fish
11:06
as the latter try to find hidden smaller species and mollusks. The hunter fish will then hover over
11:11
the prey's location so that the octopus can flush it out. If there is one thing we know about cats
11:16
it's that they're not inclined to do what you want them to do. Ever. Even if you're scientists
11:20
trying to study chronic pain in cats. When researchers at the University of Montreal put
11:25
electrodes on the heads of felines in an attempt to detect pain in cats with osteoarthritis
11:30
the cats kept shaking them off and sometimes damaging them. If the scientists wanted to get
11:34
anywhere, they'd have to sedate the cats, which wasn't ideal. So they came up with a novel and
11:39
undeniably adorable solution, crocheting hats that the cats would wear over the electrodes
11:44
They detailed the method in a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods
11:48
This year we learned that if you have two million bucks lying around, you can put it to good use
11:52
finding the world's largest known prime number. That's what Luke Duran did when he used what was
11:56
called a cloud supercomputer to find that 2 raised to the 136 millionth, 279 thousandth
12:04
841st power minus 1 is a prime. Durant hopes that such discoveries can open people's minds
12:10
to new uses of GPUs. A small percentage of our human genome is made of Neanderthal DNA
12:16
which means that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred tens of thousands of years ago
12:20
A 2024 study in the journal Scientific Reports suggested where that may have occurred
12:24
Researchers created a model that incorporated environmental factors, climate patterns, and topography during the time when Neanderthals and humans coexisted
12:32
then overlaid a map of the two species known archaeological sites. The models indicated that the Zagros Mountains, a range stretching from southeastern Turkey to
12:40
northern Iraq and Iran, may have been ground zero for genetic intermingling
12:45
A volunteer at a Scottish archaeological site got the surprise of his life in 2024
12:49
when he discovered a 1,000-year-old ring on the very last day of the dig, no less
12:54
According to dig leader Gordon Noble, former engineer John Ralph was one volunteer working
12:58
on a floor of what was once a house in Scotland that was deemed so insignificant they'd saved
13:03
it until the final day on the site, when he came across the bauble, which has garnet or
13:07
red glass at the center. It's believed to have belonged to the Picts
13:11
For nearly two centuries, the final resting place of Le Lyonnais, a French steamship
13:15
was unknown. The ship was a hybrid equipped with sails and a steam engine, and traveled between New
13:20
York and France. This year, shipwreck researchers pinpointed its location, roughly 200 miles off the coast
13:25
of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and may one day be able to retrieve artifacts from the site
13:31
Underwater archaeologists completed a quest to find the Quest, the last ship that famed
13:35
polar explorer Ernest Shackleton commanded. He died of a heart attack during his final voyage to Antarctica on the vessel, and after
13:42
the expedition was eventually called off, the Quest changed owners several times
13:46
It eventually ended up in the Norwegian seal-hunting fleet and sank in 1962, about 40 nautical
13:51
miles off the coast of Labrador, according to the Royal Canadian Geographic Society
13:55
which led the expedition to locate it. We here at Mental Floss are just slightly obsessed with
14:00
the Franklin Expedition, which left England in 1845 in search of the Northwest Passage and never
14:05
returned. While we know that the HMS Terror and Erebus ended up stuck in sea ice, and that the
14:10
crew eventually abandoned the ships looking for rescue, some mysteries still linger, like how
14:15
expedition leader Sir John Franklin died and where he's buried. In 2024, the remains of a different
14:20
member of the expedition were identified as belonging to James Fitzjames, a senior officer
14:25
who was among the 105 who abandoned the ships and whose remains were discovered on King
14:29
William Island. Fitzjames was identified with the help of historian Fabienne Teteroux
14:34
whose interest in the expedition was sparked by the AMC show The Terror, based on a novel
14:39
about the disaster. The authors of the study thanked Teteroux for generously sharing the
14:43
results of her investigations of Fitzjames' family history and for her efforts to identify
14:47
possible candidates for our Franklin Expedition DNA research. It was through her efforts that
14:52
we were connected with the descendant donor who provided the DNA that allowed for identification The Terror isn the only show to abuse history as source material We learned that True Detective Night Country which hit HBO earlier this year
15:05
worked in not one but two historical mysteries. One was the ghost ship Mary Celeste, which left
15:10
New York bound for Italy with eight crew members and the family of the captain on board. It was
15:13
found less than a month later near the Azores. Totally empty. No one knows what happened to the
15:18
people aboard to this day. The other event was 1959's Dilatov Pass incident, in which a group
15:24
of people who had gone hiking in the Urals were found dead, some partially clothed, and
15:28
many with serious trauma. Today, scientists think that their injuries were caused by a
15:32
sudden slab avalanche. Night Country got some mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it, for whatever
15:37
that's worth. This year, a National Geographic team climbing Mount Everest made a discovery
15:41
that could shed light on a 100-year-old mystery. In June 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Sandy
15:47
Irvine vanished while attempting to be the first to summit the mountain. No one knew if
15:51
made it. Mallory's body was found in 1999 without the camera that likely would have revealed once
15:56
and for all if they'd made the summit. Irvine was still missing though, until this September
16:01
when climber and filmmaker Jimmy Chin and a team found Irvine's boot, his foot still inside
16:06
though they're not revealing the exact location so that they can investigate further. How did
16:10
they know the shoe belonged to Irvine? The sock on the foot had A.C. Irvine on a label
16:15
Horror fans looking to be homeowners got good news this year when the house from the 1982 film
16:19
poltergeist hit the market. Located in Simi Valley, California, the nearly 2,400-square-foot home
16:25
features four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and an in-ground pool. Thankfully, it's not the
16:29
same pool that was filled with skeletons for the movie. That scene was filmed on the soundstage
16:33
It used real skeletons, which may have contributed to the franchise's supposed curse
16:39
The American West is known for many things. Bison, big skies, and apparently sightings of
16:44
strange flying objects. According to a study published in December 2023 and reported in the
16:49
media in early 2024, which examined around 98,000 reports over a 20-year span, most sightings of
16:55
unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP, come from the western United States. The region's generally
17:01
nice weather and low light pollution, as well as numerous airport and military facilities
17:05
could be partly to blame. But the researchers also suggest the West's long history with UAPs
17:10
Think Area 51 in Roswell? Is at play, too. In September 2023, geophysical observatories around
17:17
the world detected a seismic signal that lasted for nine days. It didn't seem connected to any
17:21
earthquake or volcanic eruption, yet it was powerful enough to make Earth vibrate for more
17:25
than a week. A year later, scientists announced the cause. A massive rock slide on Greenland's
17:31
underpopulated east coast. They found that the rock slide had caused a 650-foot tsunami in a long
17:37
narrow fjord, but instead of the water rolling out of the fjord in one huge wave, water sloshed
17:42
back and forth in a pattern called a seiche. For nine days, a 23-foot wave oscillated between the
17:48
fjord sides, causing the mysterious and unusually long signal. In someone else's hands, a pair of
17:53
19th century pistols might carry only the worth of their materials, but if they once belonged to
17:58
Napoleon Bonaparte, they're treasures. The firearms sold for $1.8 million at a July auction
18:03
In a nod to his ego, they're engraved with his own likeness. Frank Lloyd Wright's Winslow House
18:08
built in 1894 in River Forest, Illinois, went up for sale in 2024. Winslow House is the first
18:14
example of what would become Wright's prairie style, and features horizontal lines, a load-of-the-ground
18:19
profile, natural materials, and custom art glass. Its sale price? Just over the cost of some of
18:25
Napoleon's pistols. $2.2 million. Four words. Colin Firth wet shirt. Fans of the BBC's 1995 Pride
18:32
and Prejudice miniseries know exactly what I'm talking about. And probably so does everybody else
18:38
The image of Firth's Mr. Darcy in a white linen undershirt after his quick dip in the lake
18:42
has entered the broader pop culture consciousness. And this year, the garment that made it all
18:46
possible sold at auction for a whopping £20,000, or around $25,000. Fun fact, there almost was no
18:54
shirt. Firth was originally supposed to be naked for his run-in with Jennifer Ely's Elizabeth
18:58
Bennett. But this was the BBC, so they had to button him up a bit. Three sisters inherited a
19:04
dime in 2024 that was kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years. If this sounds like a pretty
19:08
cheap inheritance, you should know that this was no ordinary dime. It was made by the U.S. Mint in
19:13
San Francisco in 1975, but it is curiously missing the S. Mint mark. Only one other dime with this
19:19
distinction has ever been sold, and it went for a bit more than $500,000, including the buyer's
19:24
premium. According to a survey conducted in 2024, the preferred seat on an airplane is 1A
19:30
a front window seat respondents picked when shown a map of a Boeing 737-800. The seat was preferred
19:36
for being among the first to deplane, along with proximity to the bathroom and the fact that it
19:40
faces the bulkhead, not the back of another seat. As most travelers know, however, it's not really
19:45
the best seat. That honor belongs to whichever one is furthest away from the guy who takes off
19:49
his shoes and his socks. We also found out which airline bumps the most passengers this year
19:54
According to an ysis by the travel website Upgraded Points, Frontier Airlines came in first
19:59
involuntarily bumping 3.21 people per 10,000 passengers from the beginning of 2023 to mid-2024
20:06
Next came American Airlines with 0.6 out of every 10,000 travelers, followed by Spirit Airlines with a bump rate of 0.43% per 10,000
20:14
Travel wisely. Many beloved celebrities passed away in 2024, including sex therapist Dr. Ruth
20:20
baseball great Willie Mays, Titanic producer John Landau, filmmaker Roger Corman, and actors like
20:26
James Earl Jones, Shelley Duvall, Shannon Doherty, and Dame Maggie Smith. One celebrity death that
20:30
hit me pretty hard was Richard Simmons, who I once had the opportunity to do a workout with
20:35
and trust me when I say he was a complete delight. Just two days before he died, Simmons gave an
20:39
interview in which he revealed that he had written 14 songs with Patrick Leonard for a Broadway show
20:43
about his life. He also reflected on fame, saying, I never thought of myself as a celebrity. People
20:49
don't know this. I'm really a shy person and a little bit of an introvert. But when that curtain
20:53
goes up, that's a different story. I'm there to make people happy. Richard, we'll miss you. And I
20:57
hope we'll get to see your show. While on a hike through North Dakota's Hell Formation in 2022
21:02
a trio of tweens discovered a huge fossil partially exposed in a rock. Their father called a friend
21:07
who happened to work for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and after a team from the
21:11
museum carefully extracted the partial skeleton from the stone, paleontologists identified it as
21:16
juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, which they announced this year. The skeleton is one of the few ever
21:21
found of a teenage T-Rex, which scientists say was about 25 feet long and weighed roughly 3,500 pounds
21:27
in life. And that's not the only discovery by a kid in 2022 that was announced this year. A 12-year-old
21:33
in an English village was walking his dog with his mom when he came across a gold bracelet
21:37
After review, museum curators determined this year that it was most likely worn by a Roman
21:41
soldier from the first century CE. Let's talk about some impressive records set in 2024. A woman
21:46
in California set the new record for the most pull-ups done in 30 seconds by a female. The
21:51
Special Olympics champion Chelsea Werner did 11 pull-ups, which is about 11 more than I can do
21:56
In 2012, when Macy Davis Sutherland was a junior in high school, her best friend's brother pointed
22:01
out that one of her arm hairs was extra long. That's usually the stuff of nightmares for a
22:05
teenage girl, but it gave Davis Sutherland an idea. Over the next decade or so, she focused
22:09
on growing the hair as long as possible, though it did occasionally fall out or get pulled
22:14
out. This year, she finally achieved her goal, the record for longest arm hair on a woman
22:19
at a staggering 7 inches long Giants take note This year Ruth Amos and Sean Brown the UK duo behind the YouTube channel Kids Invent Stuff took the suggestion of an 11 fan and decided to build the world largest electric toothbrush which is 10 times bigger than your conventional toothbrush According to the BBC the 6 device can also
22:39
be used for scrubbing the patio, t the grass, and even for cutting trees
22:43
How big are the world's largest hands and feet on a living teenager? 9.13 inches and 13.5 inches
22:50
respectively, as we learned this year. 16-year-old Michigan native Eric Kilburn Jr. earned the
22:54
record for his massive appendages from the Guinness World Records Committee. Here's a very
22:58
specific and impressive record for you. In March of 2024, six sisters in Missouri and Ohio set the
23:04
record for highest combined age of six living siblings at 570 years and 40 days, with the
23:10
oldest having been born in 1923. But as impressive as that sounds, it might be surpassed because in
23:16
September there were reports about six sisters in Florida who were reportedly a combined 575 years
23:22
old. At the height of Star Wars mania in 1979, toy maker Kenner produced a figure of cult anti-hero
23:28
Boba Fett, who made his big screen debut in The Empire Strikes Back. But this Fett was a little
23:33
too deadly. His tiny missile posed a choking hazard to children. Thankfully, none of the figures went
23:38
out to buyers. The figure was redesigned so the weapon was non-firing. Few of the rocket-firing
23:43
Fetts were ever discovered. In May, one sold for $525,000, making it the most valuable vintage toy
23:50
ever. And a very important record was beaten this year. A bar in Indonesia set the record for most
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margaritas sold in eight hours. That number? 2,728. That's even better than Margaritaville
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But in 2024, we also saw some records taken away. A dog named Bobi died in October 2023 at the ripe
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old age of 31 years and 165 days old. He was, according to Guinness World Records, the oldest
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dog ever. But this year, the organization launched an investigation into Bobi's title
24:17
and unfortunately for the dearly departed pup, their findings did not work out in his legacy's
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favor. After Guinness was unable to gather enough evidence to support that Bobi really was the age
24:26
his owner stated he was, they wound up stripping the dog of his world record. Scientists investigating
24:32
ridges off the coast of Chile this year found maybe 50 new species, while also taking new
24:36
photographs of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Casper Octopus. Both very good names
24:41
Greenland sharks are the longest living vertebrates, as far as we know. Scientists have been trying to
24:46
to figure out why they live for so long, with no luck. Until recently. In July 2024, researchers
24:52
determined that it's highly likely the animal's metabolism is the reason behind its long lifespan
24:56
They studied 23 Greenland sharks from ages 60 to 200 years and found no differences in enzyme
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functions, implying that their metabolisms don't age in the same way or slow down over time like
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those in most species. In case you doubted that great whites are the apex predators of the sea
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a discovery made in 2024 proved it. A team of U.S.-based scientists were studying poor beagle
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sharks when one of their tracking devices floated to the surface without its host
25:21
They concluded that the 7-foot-long pregnant shark they were monitoring had been eaten by an even larger great white. It marked the first-ever documented case of a
25:29
poor beagle being devoured by another shark. The hairs on tarantulas are good for more than
25:33
creeping out arachnophobes. A study published this year suggests that the spider evolved their
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bristly coats as a defense against army ants. When the arachnid is under attack from the insects
25:43
the hairs covering their body protect them from any real damage. Researchers also found that
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tarantulas and army ants have a symbiotic relationship. The ants may not be able to
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make a meal out of hairy tarantulas, but they are able to snack on the debris they find in their dens
25:57
Meanwhile, these scavenging sprees leave the spiders with a clean home. Animals are capable
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of getting themselves out of some pretty sticky situations, even when it seems like they should
26:05
be well on their way to being a meal. One species of water scavenger beetle, for example, will use
26:10
a frog's butthole as an escape hatch after it's been eaten. And in 2024, scientists caught another
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incredible escape act on camera for the first time. Scientists knew the Japanese eels could
26:19
escape from the gills of fish that ate them, but not how they did it. To figure it out, scientists
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injected lab-raised juvenile Japanese eels with a contrast agent so they'd show up on x-rays
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then put them in tanks with a freshwater fish called a dark sleeper, which ate them whole
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As the cameras rolled, they could see that the baby eels were slithering backward out of the
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fish's digestive tracts and then out of the dark sleeper's gills, like Andy Dufresne in The
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Shawshank Redemption. 13 of the 32 eels that were consumed made a partial escape, with 9 ultimately
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making it all the way to freedom. Australian freshwater crocodiles have the unfortunate
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tendency to eat cane toads, an invasive species that's fatally toxic to the reptiles. To save the
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crocodiles, researchers fed them poisoned bait that made the animals feel sick and lethargic
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They did this by removing the toxins from dead cane toads and injecting them with a chemical that makes crocs feel nauseated
27:09
Their goal was to use this conditioned taste aversion to train the crocodiles to not eat cane toads
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as the reptiles came to associate feeling unwell with eating the amphibians
27:19
White Nose Syndrome is a fungal disease that affects bats during hibernation and causes them to be more active than usual
27:24
That makes them waste stored fat, which eventually leads to their malnourishment and starvation
27:29
But this year, we learned more about how scientists are fighting back to give these bats a better
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chance at survival. This included funneling cool air into hibernation areas and putting out more
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food for bats so they can have enough fat to survive the infection. If you thought you saw
27:43
Bigfoot while out in the woods, we have some bad news for you. You probably just saw a bear
27:48
A January 2024 study found that most Bigfoot sightings were probably actually misidentified
27:52
American black bears. The study's author investigated if there was a correlation between
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a place's reported Bigfoot activity and its black bear population, and found that for every
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1,000 additional black bears in a given area, the number of Bigfoot sightings rose by 4%
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All the more reason to add some bear spray to your official Bigfoot hunting kit
28:11
Every kid's dream? To swing around the city like Spider-Man. It's just a fact. And this year
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we got one step closer. Scientists at Tufts University's Silk Lab made the first web-slinging
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technology. The Silk Fibroin Solutions shoots out of a needle, immediately solidifies, and can stick
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to surfaces. Watch out, Tobey Maguire, we're coming for your job. And Andrew Garfield. And Tom Holland
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Man, they just keep making those movies. Dodos may be the punchline for many extinct animal ogies
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but scientists in 2024 discovered that their ridicule may not be deserved. The birds are
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commonly thought of as plump, slow, and dumb, but new research shows that they may have actually
28:47
been a force to reckon with. After studying sources dating back over 400 years and re-examining
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fossil bone structures, scientists now believe Dodo's were fast, agile, and physical creatures
28:57
The dodo's tendon, which closed its toes, was exceptionally powerful. ogous to climbing and running birds alive today, reported Dr. Neil Gosling
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Something that will never go extinct? Twilight. Remember Midnight Sun's Stephanie Meyer's retelling of Twilight from Edward's perspective
29:11
What am I saying? Of course you remember. Well, in September, Netflix announced that it was turning the novel into an animated series
29:17
Will Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart voice the main characters? I'm gonna guess… no
29:23
For decades, devoted Seinfeld fans speculated about a script deemed too disturbing to film
29:28
For a show that once depicted George's fiancé being poisoned by licking postage stamps
29:31
that's certainly a statement. Finally, in 2024, some enterprising soul unearthed The Bet, a nihilistic tale written by Larry
29:38
Charles in 1990 in which Elaine considers buying a gun for personal protection and ultimately
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threatens to shoot Jerry in the head. Charles confirmed the script was authentic, and too bleak to ever actually be produced
29:50
This year, we learned that kids, after all this time, still can't get enough of Pixar
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Inside Out 2, the sequel to the 2015 Pixar hit, became the highest grossing animated film
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of all time this year. Earning over $1.6 billion worldwide. What emotions do you think we'll see in the third
30:05
movie? Let us know in the comments. As for adults, they prefer a little more violence and swearing. A new record for highest-grossing
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R-rated movie of all time was set this year by Deadpool and Wolverine. The movie raked
30:15
in over $1.3 billion. We've covered banned baby names on this show before, so you know
30:20
that some monikers simply don't pass muster. This year, a seven-year-old boy in the UK
30:25
whose middle name is Skywalker had his passport denied. The UK Home Office said they either
30:29
needed to nix the name or get permission from Disney to use it. The family was forced to cancel
30:33
their vacation. But there's a happy ending to this tale. The young Padawan did get word that
30:38
a passport would be issued for him after a media outlet approached the home office about the story
30:42
New research this year showed that people who suffer from dyslexia and dyscalculia
30:46
might have some unexpected strengths. A study out of the UK suggested that people with the
30:50
conditions showed a trend of being less biased. Some of the characteristics considered were race
30:55
gender, and disability. If you've ever dreamed of curling up on a giant gelatin mold, your very
31:00
specific wish was granted this year. Jell-O entered the home goods market with a line of
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inflatable furniture designed to look like its jiggly snack products. The seats came in four
31:08
colors, strawberry red, lime green, lemon yellow, and orange. Well, orange. Sadly, they were only
31:14
available for a limited time. The German Navy finally started phasing out floppy disks from its
31:19
operations in 2024. The old-school technology had been used to manage its Brandenburg-class
31:24
F-123 warships since the 1990s. Though that may seem shocking, it's not uncommon for governments
31:29
to hold off on transitioning to new tech. Up until 2019, the US military was using 8-inch floppy disks
31:34
in its nuclear program. And speaking of technology, coffee might fuel the world, but it's also fueling
31:40
a ton of waste. Grounds usually wind up in landfills. Last year, our MIT university engineers
31:45
in Australia found a way to repurpose the grounds as an ingredient in concrete, which they said made
31:49
it 30% stronger. This year, they put their lab results to the test with experimental
31:54
footpaths around Australia. Virginia is making a huge effort to bring color to many people's
31:59
worlds through new lens technology. The state has installed colorblind-friendly viewfinders to all 43 of their state parks, allowing people with red-green color deficiency to distinguish
32:07
more colors. The lenses have worked wonders. Calling all Nintendo fans. An official Nintendo museum opened in Japan this past year. The
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museum, located in Osaka, has everything from a workshop where you can make your own playing
32:19
cards to interactive Mario exhibits. In other Nintendo news a Golden Nintendo cartridge sold this year for over This rare item is one of 26 that were ever made and one of 13 believed to still exist It was a promotional prize given during a Nintendo event in 1990 and while this copy was only graded
32:38
a 4.0 out of 10 on the CGC scale, it still sold for a hefty price in August. For the month of March
32:44
the Worcester Public Library System literally accepted pictures of cats in lieu of cash for
32:49
lost or damaged items. The Felines for Fee Forgiveness program was the library's way of
32:53
making sure fees weren't keeping patrons from using the library. Drawings of cats were also
32:57
permitted, as were photos and drawings of honorary cats, which included dogs, raccoons, orcas
33:03
capybaras, and any other animal. Libraries remain undefeated. And also, if cat photos can be used as
33:09
currency, that means I'm rich. What do Baby Yoda and Taylor Swift have in common? They're both
33:14
getting booted from road alert signs. According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration's latest
33:18
manual, state departments of transportation are discouraged from displaying messages with obscure
33:24
or secondary meanings, such as those with pop culture references, unconventional sign legend
33:29
syntax, or that are intended to be humorous. So long to Boston's use your blinka and every other
33:35
funny and punny reference on the road. If you have hot parents, congratulations. You've won the lottery
33:40
both in terms of genetics and literal money. A working paper shared this year found that the
33:44
offspring of conventionally attractive couples grow up to be higher earners on average. One
33:49
standard deviation of difference in the parent's attractiveness levels was associated with a .05
33:54
deviation in their child's salary, which could amount to over $100,000 in additional income over
33:59
their career. Take a seat, Chauvet. A drawing of three human-like figures and a pig found in
34:04
an Indonesian cave was found to be the world's oldest known narrative art, predating the famous
34:08
prehistoric cave paintings in France by more than 10,000 years. It's believed the art is at least
34:13
51,200 years old. It may be the oldest known example of visual storytelling, but the pig
34:18
and people scene isn't actually the oldest cave art. That crown is worn by a set of 64,000-year-old
34:23
handprints on the wall of Spain's Maltreviezo cave. Workers at Carraway Mine in central Botswana
34:28
unearthed the world's second largest gem-quality diamond on record, which the country's president
34:33
announced in August. The rock weighs a little more than a pound. In jewelry speak, that's
34:37
2,492 carats, and barely fits in a person's palm. The Canadian company that owns the mine where it
34:43
was discovered said that the diamond will probably be sold and cut into multiple smaller stones
34:48
Mozart wrote Serenade and See at some point in the 1760s, when he was still a young teenager or
34:53
even a preteen. The 12-minute composition remained lost for more than 250 years
34:58
until library researchers at Germany Lipsig Municipal Libraries came across a copy of it while building an archive of Mozart work The piece handwritten in brown ink was tucked inside a bound manuscript It believed Mozart sister is responsible for jotting down this copy of the composition
35:13
Scholars initially thought cocaine had spread throughout Europe sometime in the 1800s
35:17
but new research has revealed people on the continent were ingesting the raw material at
35:21
least two centuries earlier. Scientists yzed brain tissue from nine people buried in a mass
35:26
grave beneath Milan's Cagranda Hospital, the final resting place for the hospital's poor patients
35:31
and found that two of them contained traces of the alkaloid of cocaine. Those two peasants
35:35
weren't bumping that as part of some sort of 17th century brat summer. Back then, people ingested
35:40
cocaine by chewing or sucking on coca leaves. In August 2024, a postcard arrived at an office
35:45
building in Swansea, Wales. It was also dated August, but the year was 1903. Someone named
35:51
Edward had sent it to Lydia Davies, who was later identified as probably being his sister
35:55
to tell her that it was impossible to get a pair of some unnamed item
35:59
I have got now about 10 shillings as pocket money, not counting the train fare
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so I'm doing all right, he wrote. So did Lydia ever get the message
36:08
It's a mystery, but the Royal Mail thinks she probably did, and someone dropped it back in the mail this year
36:13
If you're that person, tell us in the comments. Raking leaves on your lawn, a classic dad chore
36:19
We've known for a while that unraked leaves were better for wildlife, but this year we learned from the University of Maryland
36:24
that raking lawns meant slower decomposition rates and less carbon storage in the yard
36:28
They determined that the decomposition of leaves benefits the yard as nutrients go back into the
36:32
soil. Small animals and insects also depend on such leaves for food and protection
36:38
Scientists in Spain have genetically engineered lettuce to make it, well, super lettuce. The
36:42
result is a crop which has around 30 times more accessible beta-carotene than its normal
36:47
counterparts. Some people are buried with precious mementos or cherished items. Three bodies in a
36:54
uncovered this year, however, were buried with cheese. Priorities. The cheese is thought to be
36:59
the oldest cheese ever discovered at around 3,500 years old. Now, how does it taste? A painting found
37:05
unceremoniously stacked in a family's main attic sold this year for $1.4 million with the buyer's
37:10
premium. How does a random painting sell for so much? Well, it might be a Rembrandt, one of around
37:16
300 paintings the artist is known to have made. If this sounds expensive, just note that if the
37:20
painting is proven to be a Rembrandt, it would fetch closer to 15 million
37:24
1.4 million is nothing compared to a dinosaur fossil that sold at auction this year
37:29
The nearly complete Stegosaurus sold for over million This crushes the previous record held by a T fossil that sold in 2020 for nearly million And if you think that guns and dimes and paintings and fossils are the only things that can
37:42
go up for auction, think again. A sample of the specimen of mold that led to the accidental
37:46
discovery of penicillin was put up for sale by Bonhams this year. They made $76,700, including
37:52
the buyer's premium. Penicillin's discoverer, Alexander Fleming, routinely preserved specimens of the mold in glass and gave them as gifts to everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to FDR
38:01
This particular moldy art piece belonged to Fleming's niece. It's about time to add another climate change issue to worry about
38:08
Alarming research shows that Thwaites Glacier will likely be gone in 200 years
38:12
This block of ice is also known as the Doomsday Glacier because of its power to grow sea levels
38:17
by 25 inches and contributes to 4% of all global sea level rise
38:21
In space news, this year was big for black holes. In a study published in 2024, researchers were able to create the most realistic and
38:28
accurate representation of a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star. They were able to use
38:33
this to come up with potential answers to serious questions like why these events emit visible light
38:38
when it seemed like it should be x-rays. Some scientists this year hypothesized that
38:42
Earth may once have sported its own ring. This theory comes as a response to try to explain the
38:46
Ordovician impact spike, which is the name of a particular inexplicable rise in the number of
38:51
of meteorite strikes on Earth around 466 million years ago. The leading theory is that Earth's
38:56
short-term ring, made up of rocks and dust, started to fall apart and crash to the surface
39:01
Watch out, Saturn. We're coming for you. And while a whole cosmic ring of meteorites plummeting to
39:06
the Earth might sound like a sci-fi apocalypse movie, a gigantic disastrous earthquake taking
39:11
out millions of people is a real threat for certain parts of the world. Los Angeles
39:15
in particular, has been in threat of a huge earthquake for years now. Researchers this year
39:19
determined that the big one, as it's called, may not be as catastrophic as previously thought
39:24
While it's still incredibly dangerous and destructive, new imaging models show that
39:28
the catastrophic readings from earlier models did not account for the complex geography of the area
39:34
New York has been dethroned as the rudest city in the U.S. The trophy now goes to Miami, Florida
39:40
It scored a rudeness score of 9.88 out of 10, according to a study by Preply that considered
39:45
disrespectful behaviors like being inconsiderate towards others and being loud in public space. is
39:50
Don't worry, New York, we'll get it back. Though we were 21st on the list, so we have quite a way to go
39:56
And that's 101! Thank you all for another amazing year of fun facts about history, science, animals
40:01
parmesan cheese, and everything in between. Here's to 2025 and hundreds more interesting things to discover
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Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next year
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