WTF Fun Fact 12695 – Male Mice Are Scared Of Bananas

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We may have never noticed on our own that male mice harbor a fear of the humble banana. But scientists studying the fear responses of male mice to pregnant and lactating female mice made the connection.

Long story short, male mice can be very aggressive towards baby mice (or “pups), especially virgin male mice who see them as genetic competition. That’s why female mice have evolved to produce a compound, called n-pentyl acetate, in their urine that produces a stress and fear response in all male mice (but especially virgins).

Bananas enter the equation because they also happen to emit a compound that produces a fear response in male mice. They don’t contain n-pentyl acetate but rather isoamyl (or isopentyl) acetate.

Of course, bananas didn’t evolve to scare mice, that’s just a coincidence.

According to IFL Science:

“The team bought banana oil extract from the supermarket and placed it inside the cages of male mice to measure their stress levels, which increased significantly in response. The team believe that the stress response in the mice is similar to the stress response when about to engage in a fight.”

At least now we know one more strategy for getting rid of male mice! – WTF fun facts

Source: “Researchers Accidentally Discover Why Male Mice Are Scared Of Bananas” — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12694 – Will You Rue The Day If You Marry In May?

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When the ancient Roman poet Ovid’s daughter wanted to marry, Ovid was told by the high priestess to wait until mid-June. The Romans avoided May weddings in general for superstitious reasons. That’s in part because it overlapped with the Lemuria, a near-month-long festival for the dead.

According to Global News, the French weren’t all that fond of May weddings either:

“Another text that dates back to 1840s France supports this idea. It states: ‘The month of May is also in the Black Mountain a month altogether rejected by the young girls who are betrothed; and they frankly say upon the subject, that it is not suitable to marry at a period when the asses are amorous.’ In other words, it’s unsavory to marry when the animals are mating.”

Believe it or not, May superstitions extend all the way to animals – in fact, cats born in May were thought to be bad rodent killers but also bring snakes home with them.

These days, weddings are very common in May. The only day that’s largely off-limits is Mother’s Day. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Here’s why you shouldn’t get married in May” — Global News

WTF Fun Fact 12693 – Fun Calendar Facts

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This year (2022), May began on a Sunday and June will begin on a Wednesday. That means no other months this year will begin on those days. In addition, May 31st is a Tuesday, meaning no other month will end on a Tuesday.

Sure, it’s a bit of a useless piece of trivia, but it’s a fun numbers game for those who like those sorts of puzzles.

Some international and national U.S. highlights to plan for this June include:
June 2: National Rocky Road Day and National Rotisserie Chicken Day
June 4: National Cheese Day
June 7: Chocolate Ice Cream Day
June 10: National Iced Tea Day
June 12: National Peanut Butter Cookie Day
June 15: Global Wind Day
June 18: International Sushi Day
June 21: Go Skateboarding Day
June 26: World Refrigeration Day

–WTF fun facts

Source: “Some facts about the month of June” — WYTV News

WTF Fun Fact 12692 – The Monarchy Takes A Hostage

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The word “hostage” seems a bit harsh, but that’s precisely what a British tradition was meant to imply.

The British monarchy began to share power with a legislative branch of government way back in 1215, with the signing of the Magna Carta. But over the centuries, the royals have become less “heads of state” and more “figureheads.”

Even though relations between the monarchy and the British government are good, Buckingham Palace maintains a centuries-old tradition (going back to 1600) of taking a member of British Parliament “hostage” to ensure the monarch’s safe return when they make a speech at Parliament. Most recently, MP James Morris was taken “hostage” in May 2022 when Prince Charles delivered a speech on behalf of the Queen.

However, that wasn’t the case in the 1600s, when King Charles I argued back and forth with parliament about how much power they should have. The people wanted a constitutional monarchy and the royals…well, they didn’t for obvious reasons.

There’s lots of detail we’re leaving out here (like an entire English Civil War, and a Second English Civil War), but the important part is that, in the end, Charles I was delivered to Parliament, where they proceeded to try him for treason, convict him, and execute him. Then for good measure, they abolished the monarchy.

So, as you might imagine, the monarchy is a little sensitive about the whole thing and while it looks like a nice joke to the rest of the world now, it’s rooted in something much more serious. Still, all the “hostage”-taking is agreed upon in advance and no one is in danger these days.

But the whole reason we’re here is that this tradition came to light on May 2, 2022, when Prince Charles gave a speech at the opening of Parliament on behalf of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen is suffering from intermittent mobility issues, so much of the royal family went in her place. And they did, indeed, take a ceremonial “hostage.” Conservative MP James Morris said he was the designated hostage this time around. Below, you can find him giving an explanation of the whole tradition. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Buckingham Palace has a centuries-old tradition of taking an MP hostage when the Queen or one of her representatives enter Parliament” — Yahoo News

WTF Fun Fact 12691 – The Roots of Memorial Day

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In the U.S., Memorial Day honors all military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

While the Act of Congress establishing the holiday was passed in 1968 and enacted in 1971, the roots of Memorial Day date back to the years after the American Civil War. And while Waterloo, New York, was identified by the federal government as the “birthplace” of the holiday, records show the first Memorial Day commemoration happened much farther away. (Waterloo was chosen because it hosted the first widespread, formal, annual event where businesses were closed and people visited the graves of soldiers who died in battle.)

Less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered and the Civil War ended in 1865, a group of formerly enslaved people held a celebration in Charleston, South Carolina, in honor of fallen Union soldiers.

Years earlier, the newly-freed men and women had stayed behind in order to give a proper burial to the 260+ Union soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave outside a racetrack the Confederacy had turned into a prison. The Union soldiers died of disease and exposure and were hastily buried in pits. Yet these men and women chose to honor them instead of evacuating the badly damaged city, removing them from the mass graves, and creating new graves for each soldier in a new cemetery labeled “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

The commemoration event to honor them in 1865 involved nearly 10,000 people, mostly Black with a few white missionaries, who marched to the racetrack carrying flowers. Black regiments marched in the parade while ministers recited Bible verses and a children’s choir sang. (You can read about the event in the book Race and Reunion by David W. Blight – though people still question whether there’s enough evidence to say the parade happened.)

While a file in an archive labeled this event the “First Decoration Day,” a few years later, in 1868, May 30 was chosen by the leader of the Northern Civil War veterans organization as a day to remember fallen soldiers as well. General John A. Logan called for a nationwide day of remembrance “designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

Logan called the proposed holiday “Decoration Day” and chose the date because it didn’t commemorate any particular battle (thereby including everyone from both sides of the war in the memorial event).

Decoration Day was, indeed, celebrated long before there was a federal holiday called “Memorial Day.” General (later President) James Garfield made a speech while 5,000 participants decorated the resting places of the Civil War soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetary (which contained the graves of 20k soldiers).

Later, Northern states organized Decoration Day and began to hold it on the same day every year, all declaring it a state holiday by 1890. The Southern states honored their war dead as well, but they each chose a different date to celebrate it. No one mentioned the Charleston celebration at the time.

While Decoration Day was originally a day to honor the Civil War dead, after WWI, it became a day to celebrate all the people in the military who lost their lives while serving.

The Act of Congress that created “Memorial Day” fixed that date as the last Monday in May (rather than the 30th) and declared it a federal holiday. This made it part of a movement to create more three-day weekends.

However, the story of the freed slaves who commemorated Union soldiers was lost to time, and some still reject it as a part of the Memorial Day timeline. However, the graves of the soldiers have been found and moved to a new cemetery (the re-burial was not in doubt), and some local residents grew up hearing stories about the massive parade from their grandparents. Still, it will likely never be recognized as the “first Memorial Day” (even though the title may be less important than simply remembering the story). That’s because it was only written about once, as far as we can tell. Perhaps archives will reveal more evidence in time.

As a bonus fun fact, did you know that there is a national moment of remembrance each year at 3:00 p.m. local time each Memorial Day? If you can’t make it out for a formal remembrance but want to honor the dead, a 3 p.m. moment of silence is a simpler act of reverence for those who want to acknowledge the day. –WTF fun facts

Source: “One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed African Americans” — History.com

WTF Fun Facts 12690 – The Official Creation of U.S. Memorial Day

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The U.S. Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971 with the Uniform Holiday Memorial Act, however it has a history dating back much farther. The long title of the act that created Memorial Day is “An act to provide for uniform annual observances of certain legal public holidays on Mondays, and for other purposes.”

The Act is identified as Pub.L.90–363, 82Stat.250 and was actually enactedon June 28, 1968, though it didn’t “take effect” until 1971. Of course, people celebrated, but creating a national holiday requires some extra time to work around business schedules since it would be a federal holiday and an official day off for federal workers. The travel industry played a role in lobbying for the Act in order to increase the number of 3-day weekends for Americans to plan vacations.

While the act may have been passed in part for political and financial reasons in Congress, to many Americans it was (and is) an important day of acknowledgment for soldiers past and present. At the time, the war in Vietnam was still raging as well, and this didn’t have heavy support on the homefront.

What is now “Memorial Day” started not long after the U.S. Civil War (which makes sense, since it claimed more lives than any other conflict in American history), and in many places was called originally called “Decoration Day.” In 1966, the federal government named Waterloo, New York the “birthplace of Memorial Day.” (But if you read the next “Fun” Fact, you’ll see why this was problematic for many people.)

It was (and IS) a day to celebrate all the members of the military who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. A number that stands at around 1.3 million people. –WTF fun facts

Source: “Memorial Day” — History.com

WTF Fun Fact 12689 – The World’s First Gardens

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While the practice of growing plants and flowers for aesthetic pleasure hasn’t been a characteristic of all times and places, gardening goes back thousands of years. There is evidence of Egyptian palace gardens in the second millennium BCE! And they were so large it was said that oarsmen could row their boats through their water features.

Of course, agriculture existed long before that, but gardening (or ornamental horticulture), was designed purely for pleasure (not for medicinal purposes alone) once people settled down.

While some trace the oldest gardens to China, those acted more as hunting lands. Other ancient references to “gardens” (such as in the Epic of Gilgamesh) were likely patches of trees and not purely ornamental agriculture.

In the 6th century BCE, gardening was in full bloom. The Babylonians had the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which the Hellenistic Greeks referred to as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

There were gardens at the schools of ancient Greece (Aristotle kept one) and all over Rome. In fact, the Romans were obsessed with gardening. The architectural author Vitruvius wrote the first book on landscaping.

After the decline of Rome, the Moors kept the tradition alive in the West (along with much of Western intellectual tradition) while a separate culture of gardening developed in China and spread to Japan. Monks also copied Roman gardening manuscripts and kept gardens of their own, penning some original gardening manuals as well.

Purely ornamental gardening fell out of fashion (or, well, people didn’t quite have time for it) in the middle ages. But it was revived again in France in the 13th century to some extent and boomed again in the Renaissance period.

In the 16th century, the Spanish were the first to build public parks. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Where was the world’s first garden made?” — Garden Visit

WTF Fun Fact 12688 – The Dubai Miracle Garden

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If you’ve paid much attention to what Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has to offer, you’d know a giant garden is one of the less miraculous things. Nevertheless, the Dubai Miracle Garden is 72,000 square meters large and contains an amazing 150 million flowers. That makes it the world’s largest natural flower garden.

Just a few years ago, it contained a mere 65 million flowers, so it’s growing all the time. And there are over 2 miles of walkways for you to travel down to view them all. And since the flowers change every year, visitors can see a different set of attractions each time they visit.

The Dubai Miracle Garden was named the “Largest Vertical Garden in the World” by the Guinness World Records in 2013. Throughout the property, you’ll also find giant peacocks, teddy bears, and faces made out of flowers, along with (at least at one point, a life-size replica of the Emirates Airbus A380 which the Guinness Book called the “Largest Floral Installation” in 2016).

The garden, which opened in 2013, typically attracts over 1.5 million people each year. And while things may be different now because of the pandemic, in 2017, the garden reported that creating the attraction each year requires 60 days and 400 people.

One impressive feature is the way it’s watered. After all, it’s in a desert! Well, it turns out the flowers are kept alive via drip irrigation that reuses wastewater.

Interestingly, there are 60 different kinds of flowers (which is a lot, but still less than expected). That’s no doubt due to just how many (or few) can survive the weather – petunias, geraniums, and marigolds are quite common. The garden is closed in summer but remains open from November through May of each year.

It also doubles as a theme park with food stands, which we imagine serve lots of cold treats since the temperature in winter is still in the high 70s Fahrenheit. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Dubai Miracle Garden: world’s largest natural flower garden” — CNN Travel

WTF Fun Fact 12687 – The Problem With Pointing Out Baldness

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A UK judge just ruled that using the word bald as an insult in the office is now considered inappropriate because it’s a word more likely to apply to men than women. (While outlets keep reporting that calling a man bald in general now constitutes sexual harassment, that’s not what the ruling said.)

But the employment tribunal also compared calling a man bald to commenting on the size of a women’s breasts (which, well…I guess we’ll all just have different opinions on that one).

According to CNBC’s coverage of the ruling:

“Three members of the tribunal who decided on the ruling, and alluded to their own experience of hair loss, said that baldness was more prevalent in men than women. Therefore, they argued that the use of the word ‘bald’ as an insult related to a ‘protected characteristic of sex.'”

And we get it, but it’s worth pointing out that we’re all now extremely aware that women can experience baldness as well (alopecia, the Will Smith slap…anyone remember that?).

The case was brought by Tony Finn, who was an electrician for the British Bung Manufacturing Company. He was fired last year and a threat from his shift supervisor is part of the complaint. The supervisor called Finn a “bald c—”! And, no, the main problem was not the second word.

The insult was deemed a “violation against the claimant’s dignity, it created an intimidating … environment for him, it was done for that purpose, and it related to the claimant’s sex.” Again, we’re talking about the world “bald” here, not the C-word.

According to CNBC:

“The tribunal members also suggested that it was not the use of profanities that was the issue, with Finn also having being found to use such language in the workplace: ‘Although, as we find, industrial language was commonplace on this West Yorkshire factory floor, in our judgment Mr King crossed the line by making remarks personal to the claimant about his appearance.'”

Finn will now receive compensation from the company, but the amount has yet to be set.
– WTF fun facts

Source: “Calling a man bald counts as sexual harassment, UK judge rules” — CNBC