Bright Side

What country holds annual bathtub races and has a prepared landing pod for flying objects? Also, it has a place where there are so many snakes that they look like spaghetti on your plate! Do you know where you can see the most cheerful town in the world? It's called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! Yep, just like that, with two "ha's" and two exclamation marks! Still no idea? This country produces more than 70% of all maple syrup in the world! Several of the most popular superheroes, such as Wolverine and Superman, were created there. Yes, you nailed it: this awesome country is Canada, and here are 50 cool facts about this place! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How To Understand People Better? Every human being is a unique universe. However, psychologists keep discovering new behavioral patterns that are believed to be rooted in our childhood and can be applied to everyone. Do you want to learn how to make people respect you and listen to you? Have a look at these useful psychology tricks – they might affect your communication skills positively and make your life easier in some way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many of us would like to own just one inexpensive and effective item that we can use for self-care. In fact, this magical thing exists. Did you know, for example, that you can apply some petroleum jelly to the eyelids before using eye shadows? To style your hair, rub petroleum jelly between your fingers and apply it to your hair. The main thing here, as with other styling gels, is not to use too much. Believe it or not, you can replace almost all of your cosmetics products with petroleum jelly. How is this possible? Watch the video and take note. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And, here you are. On Earth. 66 million years ago. It’s one of the warmest periods in the planet’s history. There are no icecaps yet – everything is lush and green. Dinosaurs roam the Earth. Massive sauropods peacefully chew on flowering plants and trees, their young ones following closely by their side. But what is that bright spot in the sky? It grows bigger, brighter. This is the asteroid! Little do the great reptiles know: today marks the beginning of one of the largest mass extinction events in Earth’s history – ¾ of life on our planet will be wiped out... So what happened after the asteroid hit the Earth 66 years ago? The cosmic monster falling toward the Earth was the size of Mount Everest. At least 6 miles wide and weighing 460 trillion tons, the meteor was coming in hot…and fast. 12 miles per second, heading right for the Yucatan Peninsula in present-day Mexico. At that speed, it could travel from LA to New York in under 4 minutes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Sun just suddenly stopped shining? The first thing that probably comes to your mind is that it would get a whole lot darker and colder. True, but that doesn’t even begin to describe what kind of catastrophic event it would be because eventually humankind would meet its eminent demise. In the first few minutes after the Sun stops burning, life goes on as usual here on Earth because the sunlight itself is still traveling towards the planet. But after 8½ minutes, the skies go black, as if someone just flipped a switch. After an hour, once everybody has realized the situation they’re in, panic ensues on the side of the planet where it's supposed to be daytime. The temperature across the globe drops by several degrees and just keeps going down. One of the worst things is that photosynthesis stops within 24 hours. Within a week or so, the average temperature on the planet falls below zero. Most plants have already perished due to the cold, and heat-loving animals start to disappear shortly after. People build shelters and try to survive the cold and lack of food. They might be more successful in areas with a lot of geothermal activity, such as Iceland. After just one year, the planet might host some types of bacteria that can survive even in unbelievably low temperatures. But other life forms on the surface have been wiped away. Just remember, though, this scenario was just a hypothetical “what if?”. As for the real future of the Earth, it’ll stay firmly “tied” to the Sun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of the greatest inventions we use every day were created by accident. From the microwave to ice-cream cones, the accidental inventions on this list completely changed our way of life. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. But every now and then, it’s for the better! American chemist Roy J. Plunkett was doing research for the company Dupont to make fridges safer and invented a strange substance that was non-reactive, non-stick, and resistant to extreme temperatures. We all know it as Teflon. John Pemberton was a pharmacist trying to find a way to get rid of headaches. He came up with a simple recipe consisting of two ingredients: coca leaves and cola nuts combined into a syrup. It was later mixed with soda by accident and became a huge hit. Dr. Spencer Silver, a chemist for 3M Company, was trying to create a super strong adhesive but what he got instead was a “low-tack” yet high-quality adhesive only strong enough to hold up a piece of paper but durable enough to be relocated multiple times without losing its stick. We all know and love it as Post-it notes today. The first antidepressant was discovered in 1957 and was supposed to be a cure for tuberculosis. Wilhelm Roentgen unintentionally put his hand in front of an electron-beam tube back in 1895 and noticed that the radiation passed through solid objects and body parts leaving a shadow. And now we have x-ray imaging! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July, 1957. An ordinary day in the state of Kerala, India. People walk down the streets doing their business and it begins to rain. Suddenly, people start to shout and run away in fear. Everything turns into a kind of horror movie. Because the rain drops that fall from the sky are bright red. And this is not a horror movie. It's all happening for real. Imagine the familiar view outside your window. What if you saw it gradually turn red? The clothes of people caught in the rain would change to pink. So what caused the red rain? There's a logical explanation for it. And for white rain, too. As well as for black rain. Wait, really? What other rain colors are there? Well, a green rain fell near Calcutta in the summer of 2002, and one day a brown rain fell in southern Russia. Let's find out more about these amazing natural phenomena. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent psychological research carried out at the Edinburgh International Science Festival discovered an interesting fact: any change in the relationship of a loving couple immediately affects the positions that partners take in their sleep. The most important thing here is not the position in which they cuddle before going to sleep or the one that they take right after they fell asleep. The position they sleep in all night long and wake up in the morning is the only one that really matters. Inspired by the research of Professor Richard Wiseman (University of Hertfordshire) and the work of psychologist Corinne Sweet, we at Bright Side have decided to create this fun guide to sleeping positions for couples that hopefully will give you a better understanding of your relationship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to tell if you're being followed? And what to do when you think someone's following you? How to get away safely? Imagine you’re walking home after a night out with friends. That’s when you hear footsteps behind you. You turn around to see someone walking toward you... We hope nothing like this ever happens to you, but being prepared for it gives you confidence like nothing else. First of all, if some people are walking by, you can loudly say “Hey!” and pretend they’re your friends. Don’t go to your house or apartment when you’re being followed. If worse comes to worst, don’t stay quiet. But yell “fire” instead of “help.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Healthy food isn’t always tasty, but with regards to bananas, this isn’t the case. Did you know that bananas bring a great many benefits to your health? Eating just two bananas a day can truly transform your body in a month! Don’t miss our little bonus – it can help you look gorgeous every single day without wasting money on cosmetics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you survive falling out of a plane? Such miracles happen extremely rarely. But you can increase your chances to survive even in the situation when it seems that nothing can save you. What is the maximum height a person can plummet from and survive? Even the fall from the first floor can turn out bad, one from 33,000 feet. However, Yugoslavian flight attendant Vesna Vulovic managed to survive a fall from such height after her plane blew up in the air as a result of a terrorist attack. She got severe injuries but a bit later returned to the aviation working as a flight attendant again as if nothing had happened. The secret here was that due to her traumas she lost the memories of the catastrophe and didn't suffer from PTSD or nightmares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists these days are serious about bringing animals extinct millions of years ago back to life. They even have a list of candidates, which includes the woolly mammoth, dodo, mastodon, and Tasmanian tiger. However, the animals you’re about to see are not desirable and will not be loved by humans. Those scary monsters from the past won’t do anyone any good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve never toyed around with Google Earth, whether for fun or strictly educational purposes, then you’ve been missing out! There are so many cool and bizarre things you can see from satellite images that you probably wouldn’t catch if you didn’t have a bird’s eye view. For example, you can see graffiti in a volcanic crater in Mexico, the world’s largest logo in Chile, a pond full of hippos in Tanzania, and even Batman’s secret hideout in Japan… Wait, what? You heard right! Watch the video for that and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Living in a modern age, we’re constantly surrounded by all sorts of tech. We’re so used to it, that we don’t even notice how ingeniously designed it really is. And there a lot of small mysteries: Why does a keyboard have legs? How does my phone vibrate? Why doesn’t this USB plug ever fit on the first try? Today, you’ll have all the answers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean to be “cute”? Beauty standards and perceptions of attractiveness vary across cultures, but one thing is clear: being called “cute” is something entirely different. Is there a scientific explanation of why our brains perceive some people as “cute” and others as “beautiful,” “hot,” and so on? We’re about to answer all of them with the help of science! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you live in a country for many years, everything looks ordinary and familiar. But an outsider will always spot some curious quirks in your customs and behaviors that make them think, “What’s going on here?” Life in the US can puzzle newcomers in many ways, from buying foods and magazines in a pharmacy to deep-frying almost anything you can think of. For example, if you’re not from the US, it may be puzzling to walk into a pharmacy and see aisles and aisles of over-the-counter meds, toys, makeup, clothes, and even groceries! In America, if a restaurant doesn’t offer free refills on fountain drinks, it’s kind of strange. But in other countries, once you buy one beverage, that’s it! And Americans speak so loud compared to other countries. Whether it’s talking on your cell phone or chatting with a friend over lunch, Americans seem to really like projecting their voice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How large was the iceberg that sank the Titanic? Months before the disaster struck, a ginormous chunk of ice had broken away from a glacier in southwest Greenland. It was made of the snow that had fallen about 100,000 years ago - when mammoths were still roaming the planet. And when the iceberg just started its journey, it was a huge thing. Almost 1,700 ft (518 m) long, it also weighed 75 million tons! Even after melting into the water for months, the iceberg still weighed an impressive one and a half million tons. Its top part was towering over the water for almost 100 ft (30m). But what people saw was just a tiny part of a jumbo piece of ice. The largest part of any iceberg is hidden under the surface, with a mere one-tenth visible above the water. "The Titanic iceberg" wasn't an exception. The moment the ship collided with it, the vessel was doomed. But what if what we know about the disaster is not true? What if it had been the Kraken that sank the Titanic? A legendary creature feared by everyone who sets off on a sea voyage... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So…You’re driving along a highway, the weather’s good, and you’re in total control of the car. And suddenly - bam! – another driver comes out of nowhere, cuts you off, and slams the brakes! Naturally, you can't avoid the collision. Sounds like a typical fender bender, but you might be surprised to know that this is one of many scams people try to pull on the road! Or imagine that you’re slowly creeping along the parking lot looking for a spot with full concentration. But suddenly, a person walking past your car hits the ground, most likely damaging or even breaking off your side view mirror in the process. You get out of the car to see if they’re ok, and the “victim” starts threatening you that they'll call the police... What would you do in this case? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to sleep easily on a plane? People who can easily fall asleep on a plane are among the lucky few because most of us aren’t able to doze off in a cramped space, sitting in such an uncomfortable position and surrounded by total strangers. What if we told you there are some simple tricks that can help you catch some Z’s on board? Who knew that flying on a Tuesday or keeping your seat belt fastened could actually make a difference? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to choose a perfect haircut? If you feel like changing your appearance and trying something new, the best advice is to be bold. But before putting yourself in the hands of a professional stylist, it’s worth exploring what will work best for your unique features. We at Bright Side are convinced that there’s nothing better than emerging from a salon and feeling like a million dollars. So here’s a guide to help you achieve it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices