Originating in the 16th century, a “rum bubber” was a thief who specialized in stealing silver tankards from inns and pubs. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Fraser’s Phrases: It’s A Rum Do | Anglophenia | BBC America
WTF Fun Fact – Skywalker Ranch Fire Department
George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, has his own fire department with one fire truck. He originally had two, but donated one to a nearby volunteer fire department. There are ~10 firefighters in his department and they protect his Skywalker Ranch and surrounding areas from wild fires. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Skywalker Ranch’s fire department helped put out wildfire in Marin (sfgate.com)
WTF Fun Fact – The Mayor, Mimes, and Bogota
When Antonous Mockus, a mathematician and philosopher, became mayor of Bogotá, he hired 420 mimes to improve both traffic and citizens’ behavior. The mimes would ridicule bad drivers and also mock pedestrians who didn’t follow crossing rules. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Academic turns city into a social experiment – Harvard Gazette
WTF Fun Fact – Okinotorishima Reef
Japan has spent over $600 million fortifying two rocks that are part of the Okinotorishima coral reef so they can claim a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the atoll. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Okinotorishima – Wikipedia
WTF Fun Fact – Hozhizuna no Hama / Star Sand Beach
Hoshizuna no Hama (“star sand beach”) is a small beach located on a remote island in Japan. The grains of sand found here are shaped like tiny stars. It’s not really sand but the exoskeletons of tiny one-celled organisms, called Baclogypsina sphaerulata. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: The Star Sand Beach of Hoshizuna-no-hama | Amusing Planet
WTF Fun Fact – Best Selling Toy
The world’s best selling toy is the Rubik’s Cube. Over 350 million cubes have been sold – 200 million between 1980 when it was first introduced and 1983. The patent expired in 2000 leading to a number of new cube concepts. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.considerable.com/entertainment/retronaut/rubiks-cube
WTF Fun Fact – Elephants Hear With Their Feet
Elephants can hear with their feet. They are specialists in seismic communication, relying upon sound waves that travel within the surface of the ground instead of through the air. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Elephants-can-hear-through-their-feet-2593114.php
WTF Fun Fact – Psychogenic Death
Psychogenic death is a condition where a person develops extreme apathy, gives up hope, relinquishes the will to live and dies, despite the lack of an obvious physical cause.–WTF Fun Facts
Source:Psychogenic death: 5 signs of giving up the will to live (ideapod.com)
WTF Fun Fact – An Unlikely Place To Incubate Eggs
The male Banggai cardinalfish fertilizes the females clutch of eggs and then immediately sucks them into his mouth where he stores them for a month. Scientists believe they don’t eat while doing so except for some of the eggs either accidentally or by “design”. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.seattleaquarium.org/blog/creature-feature-male-mouth-brooding-banggai-cardinalfish