WTF Fun Fact 13126 – RL Stine and Bazooka Joe

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You have to straddle two older generations to appreciate the fun fact (or be a keen observer of the 1990s) that there’s a connection between RL Stine and Bazooka Joe.

What’s the connection between RL Stine and Bazooka Joe?

For those who don’t know, Robert Lawerence (RL) Stine is often referred to as “the Stephen King of children’s literature.” He wrote the Goosebumps series of children’s scary novels (it seems a little weird to call it children’s horror, doesn’t it?). He also wrote the Fear Street series. In other words, his books have scared the bejeezus out of multiple generations of children. He says he was inspired by his own generation’s love of horror in the form of the Tales from the Crypt series.

Before he became a young adult author for the ages, Stine had many different jobs. He wrote joke books. He even made coloring books!

And he also wrote Bazooka Joe comics. You know the ones – they came inside packs of bubble gum.

Who knew that the guys responsible for so many Gen X and Millennial nightmares also write those silly comics that came inside gum wrappers?

From bubble gum to horror writer

Bazooka Joe was just one of RL Stine’s many odd jobs as a writer. He was quite prolific and worked on television shows as well (seriously, check out his Wikipedia entry!). He even holds the Guinness Book of World Records award for being the best-selling children’s book series author of all time. It turns out kids like to be scared.

According to Mental Floss (cited below), Stephen King once told Stine, “You’ve taken every single amusement park plot and haven’t left any for anyone else.”

Stine himself isn’t really scared by horror. He’s a fan of a few of King’s books (like Misery and Pet Sematary) but often finds himself laughing at horror films. — WTF fun facts

Source: “21 Bone-Chilling Secrets About R.L. Stine” — Mental Floss

WTF Fun Fact 13125 – NFL Referees Get Superbowl Rings

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NFL referees don’t get a lot of love, But the refs chosen to work the Superbowl do get their own Superbowl rings.

Receiving a Superbowl ring

A Superbowl ring is obviously a valuable object. Only the winning team gets them, but so do all the referees. The tradition goes all the way back to the first NFL-AFL Championship Game in 1967, which is retroactively called Superbowl I.

Only referees with the best reputations and records are chosen to officiate the Superbowl. They do receive compensation above and beyond their salaries for the work. But the ring serves as an extra reward and moment.

In fact, the refs are the only people guaranteed to get Superbowl rings regardless of the outcome of the game.

But rest assured, they’re nowhere near as large or as valuable as the massive diamond-encrusted rings the players get.

Who else gets a ring?

According to NBC 6 News (cited below):

“While there isn’t a hard-and-fast number to how much a Super Bowl ring is worth, depending on the circumstances and details of the ring, experts generally appraise them between$30,000 and $50,000based on the jewels and features alone.”

As of 2020, all 53 players on a winning NFL team, as well as coaches, team executives, and the practice squad get Superbowl rings. But they’re not all worth the same amount of money. The bling that goes to non-players is up to the discretion of team owners. And they have so much discretion that they can even choose to bestow some type of ring on cheerleaders and trainers.

While the losing team members do not get Superbowl rings, they do get conference championship rings. But it’s a lot rarer for someone to show one of those off, so we don’t hear much about them.

Who makes and pays for Superbowl rings?

Ever wonder who makes Superbowl rings? It’s typically Jostens – the same company that makes most yearbooks and class rings! However, they have to bid on the job each year. In the past, they’ve been outbid a few times by Balfour and even Tiffany’s & Co.

Wondering who pays for all this bling?

The cost of team rings is split between the NFL (which contributes roughly $5k to $7k per ring for up to 150 rings per team) and team owners. —WTF fun facts

Source: “Here’s How Much a Super Bowl Ring Costs and How It’s Made” — NBC 6

WTF Fun Fact 13124 – Signalman Jack

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Signalmen play integral roles in the rail industry, installing, repairing, and maintaining the signal systems used to direct trains. It’s a hard job, but in the 1880s, a signalman named James Edwin Wide taught a chacma baboon from South Africa to assist him. The baboon became known as Signalman Jack.

Training Signalman Jack

Wide had lost both legs in a work accident and needed an assistant to help him get to his job at the railroad. And apparently, he saw a baboon driving an oxcart one day on a trip to South Africa and decided he’d made a fine sidekick.

Wide named the baboon Jack and first taught him to push a small trolly to get him to his job each day a half-mile from his home. The baboon even helped with chores around the house, including sweeping and taking out the trash.

But it was when Jack followed Wide to work that he seemed to find his calling. The baboon learned to recognize the train whistles used to indicate the vehicle was about to change tracks. After watching Wide operate the signals to indicate which tracks they should take, Signalman Jack was eager to start pulling the levers himself.

Wide had no qualms about letting a baboon do his job.

Kicking back

Wide was eventually able to train Signalman Jack so well that he could sit back and pursue some hobbies while at work.

According to Mental Floss, “As the story goes, one day a posh train passenger staring out the window saw that a baboon, and not a human, was manning the gears and complained to railway authorities. Rather than fire Wide, the railway managers decided to resolve the complaint by testing the baboon’s abilities. They came away astounded.”

Eventually, the railway superintendent decided to formally hire the talented baboon. Signalman Jack was given his own employment number. He even got a salary of 20 cents a day (plus half a bottle of beer per week).

Signalman Jack worked in his job for 9 years without ever making a single error. Sadly, he died of tuberculosis in 1890. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Signalman Jack: The Baboon Who Worked for the Railroad—and Never Made a Mistake” — Mental Floss

WTF Fun Fact 13123 – Aquamation

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Alkaline hydrolysis, also known as aquamation or water cremation may be the next frontier in the death industry. Researchers say it’s one of the most sustainable options for treating human remains.

What is aquamation?

In 2021, aquamation became a subject of interest after the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who requested that his remains be disposed of in this eco-conscious manner. Now, it’s a popular choice in the “green burial” movement.

The goal of aquamation is to avoid the use of non-biodegradable materials and promote the natural decomposition of the body. During the process, the body is liquified under pressure. Then, the bones are dried and turned to ashes in an oven. It reduces the need for ostentatious caskets and the greenhouse gases produced by traditional cremation by fire. It also cuts energy use.

Smithsonian Magazine (cited below) explains in more detail:

“During alkaline hydrolysis, a human body is sealed in a long, stainless-steel chamber, while a heated solution of 95 percent water and 5 percent sodium hydroxide passes over and around it…The process dissolves the bonds in the body’s tissues and eventually yields a sterile, liquid combination of amino acids, peptides, salts, sugars and soaps, which is disposed of down the drain at the alkaline hydrolysis facility. The body’s bones are then ground to a fine powder and returned to the deceased person’s survivors, just as the bones that remain after flame cremation are returned to families as ash.”

Choosing a “green burial”

While you may not have heard of water cremation, there are dozens of American companies that build machines for it. It’s legal in at least 26 states as well as throughout the world.

The process itself has been around for a long time, but it’s still not mainstream. However, it’s likely you’ll hear more about it as nearly every industry strives to become more sustainable.

There are states that still ban the practice because of concerns over the effects of residue in the water supply. It appears not to have any negative effect on water, but regulating it is still a challenge since aquamation’s use is still relatively rare.

According to the Berkeley Planning Journal, the chemicals and materials buried along with bodies in conventional American burials “include approximately 30 million board feet of hardwoods, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 104,272 tons of steel, and 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete.” Fire cremations in America “release an estimated annual 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as well as toxic materials like mercury.”

Smithsonian notes that “Alkaline hydrolysis consumes approximately 10 percent of the energy required to cremate a body in flame, its equipment runs on electricity rather than fossil fuels, and it emits no greenhouse gases.”

Once people get over the suspicions that come with novel new burial practices, experts believe the industry will grow. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Could Water Cremation Become the New American Way of Death?” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 13122 – The Benefits of Recreational Fear

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It turns out fear isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, recreational fear – the kind of fear you experience on purpose by going to haunted houses or watching horror flicks – can be good for your brain.

Seeking out recreational fear

We know some fear can create a stress response in the body that can be harmful. But our body’s ability to feel fear is, overall, a good thing. It tells us to get away from danger and keeps us alive.

But what about the people who seek out fear?

Even a game of peek-a-boo as a baby starts to prime our bodies for being caught off guard. And it can be exhilarating. When we get a little older, we may tell ghost stories around the campfire. In many ways, we seek out fear. As adults, we may go on roller coasters, see slasher or suspense films, or participate in risky activities like mountain biking or skydiving.

But why do we go after this feeling?

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below), “One hypothesis is that recreational fear is a form of play behavior, which is widespread in the animal kingdom and ubiquitous among humans. When an organism plays, it learns important skills and develops strategies for survival.”

The benefits of fear

By seeking out recreational fear, we put ourselves in a situation that has little risk. And perhaps scaring ourselves in a controlled situation can help us cope with real fear later on.

You can learn a lot about yourself by the way you react to fear. It’s just that not many of us like to acknowledge that feeling or explore it.

Researchers at the Recreational Fear Lab, a research center at Aarhus University, Denmark are looking into the science of fear and trying to learn more about our responses to stress. One thing they’re looking at is the relationship between fear and enjoyment. After all, some people really seem to go after scary experiences in order to hit a “sweet spot” between boring and terrifying.

The question of what makes recreational fear appealing to some is still up for debate. But researchers suspect that “even though fear itself may be unpleasant, recreational fear is not only fun—it may be good for us.”

One suggestion is to not be so afraid of fear, especially when you can control the parameters.

“With research findings such as these in mind, we should maybe think twice about shielding kids and young people too zealously from playful forms of fear.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Can Experiencing Horror Help Your Brain?” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 13121 – Nightmare Disorder

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Chances are you’ve had at least one nightmare before – and perhaps even one bad enough to wake you up from your slumber. While nightmares are common, nightmare disorder is (luckily) not.

What is nightmare disorder?

According to the Mayo Clinic (cited below), “Nightmare disorder is when nightmares happen often, cause distress, disrupt sleep, cause problems with daytime functioning or create fear of going to sleep.”

Sounds stressful!

For those with the disorder, the bad dreams ten to occur in the second half of the sleep cycle. And while they’re brief, they’re bad enough to wake you up and cause enough anxiety to prevent you from getting back to sleep. You may even experience a slowly unfolding nightmare that gets worse as it continues or one that causes you to suffer from palpitations.

This disorder is only diagnosed in people who have frequent enough nightmares that it interferes with their normal days due to distress or lack of sleep. In children, it can lead to a fear of the dark or behavioral problems.

Music for nightmares

According to Smithsonian Magazine, there is new hope for sufferers of nightmare disorder, who may number somewhere between 10 million in the U.S. alone.

A study showed those people might be able to take charge of their dreams and change their tone using music.

“Sounds played during sleep may reduce the frequency of nightmares and promote positive emotions that can help lead to a better slumber. Existing therapies coach sleepers to imagine and rehearse alternate happy endings to their nightmares before bed, a practice known to significantly reduce bad dreams. Now, Swiss scientists aim to supercharge this idea by associating those happy endings with an audio cue that will trigger them during sleep. When nightmare disorder sufferers listened to a piano chord while they practiced imagining a good dream, then heard that same chord while they were in REM sleep, bad dreams were frequently kept at bay.”

This is called imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), and it’s a cognitive-behavioral technique that only takes about 5 or 10 minutes a day. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Nightmare Disorder” — Mayo Clinic

WTF Fun Fact 13120 – The Rise in Canine Influenza Cases

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You may have heard that the 2022 flu season has been particularly bad for humans. But there has also been a rise in cases of canine influenza. Did you know your dog could get the flu?

What is canine influenza?

Don’t worry – YOU can’t give the flu to your dog. Only zoonotic diseases can be passed between species, and the type of seasonal influenza we get isn’t one of them. (However, there are zoonotic influenzas that animals can give to humans).

While you’re not responsible for infecting your dog, there are a lot of commonalities between humane and canine flu. For example, both cause symptoms like cough, fever, and a runny nose.

Dog flu is also airborne and highly contagious. Dogs get it from other dogs through nasal droplets that are spread when they cough, sneeze, or bark. It’s common in kennels, but it can be spread at the dog park, doggy daycare, or even veterinarian’s office.

Why the rise in dog flu?

Dog flu can spread year-round, but the current strain called H3N2 appears to be a result of people loosening their COVID restrictions and heading out and about with their pups. It’s the same reason we catch the flu.

Dogs with the flu experience lethargy and respiratory symptoms and should be checked by a veterinarian (which you may be able to do through telemedicine if you’re concerned about exposure).

Cases are so plentiful this year that some shelters have stopped adopting out dogs until they’re well again and doggy daycare centers in some cities have had to shut down to avoid spreading it.

Dogs can experience fever and loss of appetite if their case is bad enough, and it can turn fatal if they develop pneumonia, so the symptoms are nothing to ignore! Dogs have had to be hospitalized and given oxygen just to keep them breathing.

If you’re concerned, the best bet is to give your vet a call. They may offer a flu vaccine for your pup. However, just like human flu vaccines, these aren’t 100% effective in preventing the flu. But they can help lessen symptoms if your dog gets sick.

If your dog shows any signs of the flu, you should isolate them immediately to prevent them from spreading it to other people’s pups. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Dogs Are Impacted by an Intense Flu Season, Too” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 13119 – Greenland’s Ecosystem Surprise

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Evidence from the oldest DNA ever analyzed indicates that northern Greenland used to be a lush wonderland where mastodons, reindeer, geese, and hares once lived among a wide array of trees and other greenery. Greenland’s ecosystem surprise was reported in the journal Science in December 2022.

Why is ancient Greenland’s ecosystem such a surprise?

Today, Greenland’s ecosystem is far less varied thanks to its extreme Arctic climate. While you will find moss, lichen, small trees, and bushes in the tundra, it’s still largely considered an Arctic desert.

According to Eske Willerslev, a paleogeneticist at the University of Cambridge and a co-author of the study,

“No one would have predicted an ecosystem like this. Some species you find further south in Greenland, but a number you don’t find in the Arctic at all. It’s an ecosystem with no analog in the present day.”

Ancient DNA

According to Science (cited below), the insights into Greenland’s ancient past “come from the oldest DNA ever recovered: 2-million-year-old snippets of genetic material from more than 100 kinds of animals and plants, extracted from buried sediments.”

So not only is the information about Greenland’s ecosystem special, but the ability to use short and partially decayed DNA from millions of years ago is an exciting development.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Beyond evidence of reindeer, geese and one mastodon, [the researchers] also found signs of marine species, including horseshoe crabs and green algae. In this era of the island’s geologic history, temperatures were around 18 to 31 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they are in Greenland today.”

Needless to say, scientists are excited about the finds.

“I wouldn’t have, in a million years, expected to find mastodons in northern Greenland,” said Love Dalen, a paleogeneticist at Stockholm University in Sweden.

“It feels almost magical to be able to infer such a complete picture of an ancient ecosystem from tiny fragments of preserved DNA,” said Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Lost world in northern Greenland conjured from DNA in ancient soil” — Science

WTF Fun Fact 13118 – Oldest Known Pet Cat

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We know cats date back millennia and they even domesticated themselves. But we’re willing to be that most people assume the oldest known pet cat comes from Egypt. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the oldest known pet cats may come from the island of Cyprus.

Cyprus’ cats

In Egypt, cats were worshipped as idols as well as cherished as pets and pest control specialists. For centuries, we’ve assumed that Egyptians were the first to keep cats as pets. But a team of French archaeologists working in the island country of Cyprus has turned the feline companion timeline on its head.

What’s the evidence? Well, the best proof we have that cats were kept as pets rather than simply furry, mouse-hunting neighbors are cat burial sites. People bury their pets – they don’t bury wildlife.

The oldest pet grave we now have is a 9,500-year-old site on Cyprus in the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos. The presumably beloved kitty was buried with seashells, polished stones, and other decorative items.

According to National Geographic (cited below), this “predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.”

The oldest known pet cat

The details of the grave suggest that the feline resting inside is the world’s oldest known pet cat. Of course, there could be gravesites elsewhere in the world that will rewrite the timeline again.

According to Melinder Zeder, a curator of Old World archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and president of the International Council for Archaeozoology, “The process and timing of cat domestication has been terrifically difficult to document.”

“In the absence of a collar around its neck, the deliberate interment of this animal with a human makes a strong case that cats had a special place in the daily lives, and in the afterlives, of residents of Shillourokambos,” Zeder told NatGeo.

The rest of our earliest evidence for cat domestication comes from ancient Egypt, but the oldest cat mummies date back a “mere” 4000 years.

Researchers have long been confident that felines domesticated themselves much earlier, but the Cyprus site is the first solid proof. We already knew cats were present on the island (and therefore valued in some way since someone had to bring them there) because archaeologists found bones. But a grave site suggests something quite different and more significant in terms of what cats meant to people.

“The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands. But we couldn’t decide if these cats were wild or tame,” said a study author. “With this discovery, we can now decide that cats were linked with humans.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Oldest Known Pet Cat? 9,500-Year-Old Burial Found on Cyprus” — National Geographic