The world’s oldest astronomical clock still operating is the ‘Prague Orloj’ in Prague. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock
The French phrase rire dans sa barbe translates ‘to laugh in one’s beard’ meaning to laugh quietly about a past event. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.talkinfrench.com/weird-french-expressions-part-3/
The first cell phone was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X aka ‘The Brick’. It was designed by Rudy Krolopp in April of 1984 and sold in the United States for just under $4,000. It weighed two pounds. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7432915/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/t/first-cell-phone-true-brick/#.Xdf1WdXgpPZ
In 2012, a Cleveland woman arrested for a traffic violation was ordered to share her crime by holding a sign for 2 days that read ‘only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.’ – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/11/13/165027763/convicted-idiot-driver-who-passed-school-bus-holds-her-sign-of-shame
Researchers found African cotton leafworm moths remember the kind of plant where they mated for the very first time and will return to that plant species to mate again. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-moths-remember-where-they-mated-first-time-180954502/
An ancient shark fossil that looks a lot like an eel was found in Morocco. The fossil belongs to the ancient shark genus Phoebodus which lived 360 million years ago. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/10/amazing-fossil-shark-skeleton-first-of-its-kind-phoebodus-morocco/
Facebook created two AI chatbots named Alice and Bob but shut them down when they stopped communicating in English because it wasn’t as efficient as the language they developed themselves. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/06/what-an-ais-non-human-language-actually-looks-like/530934/
Oceanographers and engineers in California have created ‘snotbots’, which are drones that collect spray from whales’ blowholes. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://shop.whale.org/pages/snotbot
A team of 20 sherpas cleaned up and removed 11 metric tons of garbage and four dead bodies from Mt. Everest in April and May of 2019. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/11-000-kg-garbage-four-dead-bodies-removed-from-mt-everest-in-two-month-long-cleanliness-drive-1543470-2019-06-06