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On today's episode of Scatterbrained, we're celebrating summertime! There's a fact list all about your favorite treats like popsicles, s'mores and iced tea. John Green tests summer life hacks from the Internet. We go back in time to the origins of the state fair. Then, we learn about how SPF may make you stay in the sun longer.
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Amanda Suk: @sukiestyles
Becca Scott: @thebeccascott
Elliott Morgan: @elliottcmorgan
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Mike Rugnetta: @mikerugnetta
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Summer Facts and Life Hacks! - Mental Floss Scatterbrained | Mental Floss
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0:00
Hello and welcome to Mental Floss Video. It's summertime and there is a lot we need to know
0:05
about summer in order to make it through this season. Like for instance, when were snow cones
0:09
invented? Let's get started. We are going to start with some quick facts about the best summer treats
0:23
starting with my birthday. July 30th, best day in the summer. I don't have a P.O. box, but you guys
0:30
are more than welcome to send me hip-hip hoorays. I do accept all of that. Okay, let's get started
0:35
hey? The famous expression, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, was popularized in an
0:39
obituary. Writer Albert Hubbard wrote about the death of actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder in 1915
0:45
The obituary read, he picked up the lemons that fate had sent him and started a lemonade stand
0:49
and the expression had been around before then, but it took off after this
0:53
The cookbook S'mores, gourmet treats for every occasion, claims to have the secret to an evenly roasted marshmallow
0:59
Author Lisa Adams recommends cooking it on a metal cooking rod or coat hanger
1:04
Get John, get the team, let's try this out. I will just sit back and eat it all
1:08
In Gaffney, South Carolina, there's a 135 foot tall water tower in the shape of a peach
1:14
It's known as the peachoid, and it has looked that way since 1981
1:17
There's a sweet variety of watermelon known as the Bradford, after the last name of the
1:21
man who created it, in the 1840s. People loved them, but they were difficult to ship, so they fell out of favor
1:28
The Bradford family took it upon themselves to continue growing their variety in their backyard
1:32
Thanks to that, they didn't go extinct and you can now buy them again. According to the Ben & Jerry's company, they allow employees to bring three pints of ice
1:39
cream home daily. Speaking of frozen treats, the inventor of popsicles, Frank Epperson, filed his patent
1:45
in the 1920s. It contains a drawing of how to make popsicles in test tubes because of course this was before
1:51
the days of the popsicle mold. And the modern snow cone is credited to a man named King Sammy
1:57
He filed a patent for a snow cone ice shaving machine in 1927 after selling his snow cones
2:01
at the Texas State Fair. The popularity of iced tea led to a surge in the popularity of tall glasses
2:07
During the early 20th century, people started buying more large glasses because they were
2:11
drinking so much iced tea. And finally, according to internet sources, National Corndog Day is always on the first
2:17
Saturday of March Madness, the NCAA men's basketball tournament. But there hasn't been a presidential proclamation making it official yet, even though there
2:26
is a national day for everything. And there should be a national day for proclaiming national days
2:32
Hmm? Summer is life hack season so today I going to test a few that I found on the internet First up how to store your valuables at the beach Here I have an emptied sunscreen bottle I can put my keys in it and then I can put like a couple credit cards in
2:50
it but can it also fit my phone? No. Not, not. It can't. But I guess I can store my
3:01
keys and some credit cards, maybe a little cash in here and then you know
3:04
when people steal my sunscreen they would also be stealing other things that are important to me. Fail
3:09
The internet also says you can use a diaper to store your valuables to ensure that no one will steal them
3:14
and that does work in my experience. You can even hide a phone in there
3:17
but the one thing you can't do is then put that diaper on your kid
3:22
Another hack for your beach or pool days, apparently attaching your keys to a cork will make them float if you drop them in the water
3:28
Let's see. Uh, yeah, no. It doesn't work at all. I mean, maybe if you have one key, but if you're the kind of person with more than one key, fail
3:42
I mean, we only have two keys here and this cork is underwater, so if you toss your keys into the ocean, say goodbye to them
3:48
And to the cork. Next up, can I squeeze lemons more effectively by using tongs
3:52
I'm going to be squeezing the lemon juice into the coffee cup in which I made all of that terrible coffee a few videos ago
3:58
Piece of advice, the most valuable thing in my kitchen is an actual lemon squeezer
4:02
but I am gonna try this. That was one of the most physically difficult things
4:10
I've ever done. And we'll compare that to this experience. I mean they're about even
4:20
but I guess if you wanna use tongs you can, so pass
4:24
Another food one, apparently you can separate marshmallows in a sticky bag by adding one teaspoon of cornstarch
4:30
and shaking it, which is a big deal for me because I often find that my marshmallows
4:34
get all stuck together in the bag. It's happened in this bag. Look at this
4:39
It's a desperate situation. You can't even get to the marshmallows. If you're me, what you do, and I'm not proud
4:46
but you can, this is a bit of a real life life hack for you guys
4:50
You can just roll this backwards, and then you just, you've got the marshmallow
4:56
and then, again, this is not something that makes you feel good about yourself
5:01
but it isn't a way to eat marshmallows. You just, well it's pretty good
5:06
It's just as good as a marshmallow. But we'll try this cornstarch thing
5:10
A teaspoon is not much. That is my scientific knowledge of teaspoons
5:15
Here we go. I mean the bag doesn even shake That has a zero percent chance of working No it did not work
5:30
Hold on, all I've got now is cornstarch on my marshmallows. Is this edible
5:39
Quality guarantee. Is there anything about how you're not supposed to consume it? All right, I'll give it a try
5:48
Not as good. Fail. We're gonna finish up with a camping hack. We've attached a headlamp to a gallon of water
5:54
It's supposed to light up a tent, but we're gonna see if it can light up the whole studio
5:58
So, lights off everybody. This looks really good! That's a proper life hack for you. Pass
6:07
Let's go back in time and examine the history of a popular summer activity, going to the fair
6:13
There are tons of fairs and festivals all over the world with different origins
6:17
So to keep things simple, we're going to primarily focus on the origins of the U.S. state fair
6:22
First, a couple of predecessors. In the 6th century B.C.E., the Bible's Book of Ezekiel was written
6:27
It had seven references to fairs, which seemed to basically be marketplaces
6:32
And during the 4th century C.E., the historian Ammianos Marcellanos wrote about some fairs that occurred during the time of the Roman Empire
6:39
They were generally places that wealthy and foreign people went to trade products
6:43
Jumping ahead to the Middle Ages, there were many popular trade routes. so merchants started creating fairs by them
6:49
Then, cities would pop up nearby because people needed places to stay and bank
6:53
and workers needed places to live. About one century later, we got the word fair
6:58
It ultimately came from the Latin term feria, which referred to religious festivals
7:02
So even though we don't have time to totally get into fair history today, that gives you a sense of its precedence
7:07
The York Fair claims to be America's first fair, with that first fair occurring in 1765, before the U.S. was founded
7:14
It was located in the town of York, They describe it as a two-day agricultural market on the town commons
7:20
In 1807, New England farmer Elkanah Watson showed his sheep in the Pittsfield, Massachusetts town square
7:26
and thought, if two animals are capable of exciting so much attention
7:31
what would be the effect on a larger scale with larger animals
7:35
He's sometimes called the father of U.S. agricultural affairs. Then, three years later, Watson held a cattle show along with a few neighbors
7:43
The following year, that event was official. Watson's organization was named the Berkshire Agricultural Society
7:49
As for the first official state fair, that occurred in 1841. It was located in Syracuse, New York
7:55
In 1859, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the Wisconsin State Fair
7:59
His fee Less than a decade later the Civil War ended According to the Saturday Evening Post this marked a period of change for fairs They started to become more about thrill shows contests and pageants
8:12
Speaking of contests, around 1898, butter sculptures began showing up at state fairs
8:18
thanks to a push from the dairy industry. And by the 1950s, fairs were becoming more high-tech than ever
8:24
an example being Texas' introduction of a monorail. Long gone were the days of cattle in the town square
8:30
But hey, we'll always have butter sculptures. Before you emptied that sunscreen bottle for your life hack
8:39
hopefully you used up all the sunscreen first. For decades, there's been a theory that people wearing sunscreen may actually stay in the sun longer
8:47
And in the 90s, some researchers wanted to find out whether that was true. But you can't test it with a placebo sunscreen for a number of reasons
8:55
including the fact that it's unethical to send subjects out into the sun with no protection
8:59
So instead, they tested whether sun protection factor, or SPF, affects how long people stay in the sun
9:06
They split their 87 participants of varying complexions into two groups. All of them were between 18 and 24 years old, and they were either French or Swiss
9:15
They received SPF 10 or SPF 30 sunscreen before going on a summer holiday of around 20 days
9:21
It was a double-blind trial, meaning the participants weren't aware of the SPF level they were given
9:25
and neither were the researchers. While on vacation, the participants kept a record of their exposure to the sun
9:30
like any outdoor activities, and sunbathing. The two groups got equal levels of sunburn
9:35
But the people who wore SPF 30 sunscreen did spend an average of 25% more time in the sun
9:43
That was despite using basically equal amounts of sunscreen as the SPF 10 group
9:48
Interestingly, on their first day of vacation, sunbathers in both groups started at around the same time of day
9:55
But the people in the SPF 30 group eventually started sunbathing earlier in the day
10:00
That meant more time in the sun. The researchers leave us with this takeaway
10:05
People should be warned against the danger that using a sunscreen may inadvertently prolong recreational sun exposure
10:13
So, enjoy your summer, but protect your skin and maybe go inside like every once in a while
10:35
Thank you
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