WTF • Fun • Fact    ( /dʌb(ə)lˌju/  /ti/   /ef/ • /fʌn/ • /fækt/ )

     1. noun  A random, interesting, and overall fun fact that makes you scratch your head and think what the...

WTF Fun Fact 13079 – Snowflakes Require Dust or Pollen

Snowflakes are frozen bits of water that form around a “nucleus.” That nucleus is something that must already exist in the air – like a dust or pollen particle.

How are snowflakes made?

All political jokes aside, snowflakes are actually an interesting natural phenomenon.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (cited below): “A snowflake begins to form when an extremely cold water droplet freezes onto a pollen or dust particle in the sky. This creates an ice crystal. As the ice crystal falls to the ground, water vapor freezes onto the primary crystal, building new crystals – the six arms of the snowflake.”

This doesn’t mean the air is dirty or polluted – after all, pollen is completely natural!

Who are snowflakes so unique?

You may be wondering why all snowflakes are unique if they each require the same circumstances in order to form.

NOAA has an answer for that!

Snowflakes are made up of ice crystals. These build up around the nucleus symetrically “because they reflect the internal order of the crystal’s water molecules as they arrange themselves in predetermined spaces (known as “crystallization”) to form a six-sided snowflake.”

A combination of air temperature, humidity, and the speed at which they fall determine precisely how the ice crystals form into different shapes. When it warmer, the crystals have a longer, sharper shape and when it’s cold, they tend to be shorter and flatter.

Snowflakes always have six sides, but those “arms” can branch off in different directions depending on those factors as well.

That’s why no two snowflakes are exactly alike.

Of course, when you get 5 or 6 feet of snow, it’s pretty hard to think about those snowflakes as individuals! They all go in the same shovel! — WTF fun facts

Source: “How do snowflakes form? Get the science behind snow” — NOAA

WTF Fun Fact 13078 – World’s Biggest Snowflake

We really can’t picture the world’s biggest snowflake. Apparently, it was 15 inches long. But there is no photo since it was spotted by multiple people all the way back in 1887. Nothing has overtaken it in the Guinness Book of World Records because…well, how do you preserve a snowflake long enough to prove it?

According to the Guinness Book of World Records page for the “largest snowflake”: “It is reported that on 28 Jan 1887 at Fort Keogh, Montana, USA, ranch owner Matt Coleman measured a snowflake that was 15in 38cm wide and 8in 20cm thick, which he later described as being ‘larger than milk pans’ in Monthly Weather Review Magazine.”

Spotting the world’s biggest snowflake

Experts insist that snowflakes as large as frisbees or basketballs aren’t entirely out of the question – but they’re likely multiple snowflakes attached to one another.

Yet, since the 19th century, there have been multiple recorded sightings of such giant flakes falling from the sky (and really falling since their weight and size would make them fall faster than small snowflakes).

According to the NYT (cited below), there are still questions.

“But the evidence was always sketchy and, because of the fragile nature of snowflakes, fleeting. The giant flakes were not quite in the category of sea monsters or U.F.O.’s. Even so, skeptics noted the human fondness for exaggeration, as well as the lack of convincing photographs. And the organizations that compile weather records never made tracking big flakes an observational requirement. So the giants languished in a twilight world of science, their existence claimed but seldom documented.”

Snowflakes can get BIG

Maybe there really was a 15-inch snowflake. Multiple Army officers reported seeing them, as did a nearby rancher in Montana where they fell. But what other evidence could we reasonably expect?

There’s not much restricting the possible size of snowflakes other than the wind. It’s likely that a truly huge flake would be torn apart before anyone could see it.

Yet, if you look back far (and wide) enough in history, there are multiple mentions of abnormally large flakes. These days, anyone with a ruler and a camera could document the world’s biggest snowflake if they wanted to.

According to the NYT:

“William S. Pike, a British weather observer for the Royal Meteorological Society, found 11 poorly known reports, which he described in The Journal of Meteorology in January 1988. He wrote that reliable observers of big flakes estimated their diameters at anywhere from two to six inches.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Snowflakes as Big as Frisbees?” — New York Times

WTF Fun Fact 13077 – The Origin of Bowling

Who knew the origin of bowling goes back thousands of years?! It could go back to over 5000 years, to be exact.

What is the origin of bowling?

According to the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame (cited below): “A British anthropologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, discovered in the 1930’s a collection of objects in a child’s grave in Egypt that appeared to him to be used for a crude form of bowling. If he was correct, then bowling traces its ancestry to 3200 BC.”

If Petrie’s assessment is inaccurate, bowling would still be many centuries old. It could go back to 300 AD Germany. At the latest, we know bowling was already popular in 1366 in England “A German historian, William Pehle, asserted that bowling began in his country about 300 AD. There is substantial evidence that a form of bowling was in vogue in England in 1366, “when King Edward III allegedly outlawed it to keep his troops focused on archery practice. And it is almost certain that bowling was popular during the reign of King Henry VIII.”

Variations on bowling

Of course, ancient and medieval bowling didn’t have the same technology as we do today. These games were variations on trying to hit pins with balls.

Immigrants from Germany, England, and the Netherlands all brought their own pin games to America, where lawn bowling became popular.

But bowling was rarely a wholesome sport. Aside from getting banned in England briefly in the 14th century, “An 1841 Connecticut law made it illegal to maintain ‘any ninepin lanes,’, probably because bowling was the object of much gambling.” By this time, New England mansions were already home to personal bowling lanes.

“While it is uncertain where the tenpin game evolved, by the late 1800s it was prevalent in many states such as New York, Ohio and as far “west” as Illinois. However, details like ball weights and pin dimensions varied by region. But that changed when restauratnteur Joe Thum finally pulled together representatives of the various regional bowling clubs. On September 9, 1895, at Beethoven Hall in New York City, the American Bowling Congress was born. Soon, standardization would be established, and major national competitions could be held.”

In 1914, we saw the first modern bowling balls in America. By 1952, we had automatic pin setters and bowling was becoming popular on television. — WTF fun facts

Source: “History of Bowling” — International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame

WTF Fun Fact 13076 – Heilan Horse Culture Museum

The Heilan Horse Culture Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to living horses. It’s also part palace for some of the world’s most beautiful horses from around the world.

What is the Heilan Horse Culture Museum?

Located in Jiangyin City, China, outside of Shanghai, the museum shows off 43 breeds of horses from 30 different countries. Horses come from China, Germany, Turkmenistan, and Spain, for example. The roughly 300 horses live in glamorous marble stables – and are even a few zebras on site.

According to Atlas Obscura (cited below): “The horses on display are “dressed” for the occasion. Some of their manes are braided, or styled in ripples or waves. The horses live in proper stables, but are displayed in luxurious marble pens to greet visitors. The palatial museum is decorated with chandeliers, carpeted grand staircases, amazing statues, gold ceilings, and a shopping mall.”

Visiting the horse museum

The museum is located half an hour north of Shanghai as part of an effort by Chinese menswear company Heilan Group to build a “Luxury Town” for tourists.

In 2015, the museum’s Heilan Equestrian Club broke the Guinness World Record for the largest horse dressage, which included “30 black horses, 30 white horses, and a riding team of all women.”

The museum was built in 2009 and offers not only performances and competitions by training. Iin fact, it was the first comprehensive training facility in China, according to Atlas Obscura.

The museum didn’t open to the public until 2016. It also includes many caretakers for the horses, including on-site veterinarians. Visitors can not only see the well cared for horses, but learn about the development of the species and how horses have played a role in human civilization. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Heilan Horse Culture Museum” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 13075 – Gungywamp

Gungywamp is a bit of a mystery. But that’s true of nearly all archaeological sites. They don’t exactly come with a guide map explaining what everything is. But the most surprising thing about this over 4000-year-old set of stone circles is that they’re in Groton, Connecticut. Of course, there were Native peoples all over the continent, but the sites changes what anyone previously knew about them.

What is Gungywamp?

The site has artifacts dating from 2000-770 BCE. In and around the 100-acre site, you’ll find structures from both Native Americans and the colonists. In other words, people have lived here for a long time.

But perhaps one of the coolest remnants left behind is a stone “calendar” cellar which has a tiny window that naturally illuminates it from the outside during the equinoxes. It’s mixed in with lots of other stone cellars that some archaeologists think are simply root cellars (where vegetables are stored in the cold seasons).

All the chambers/cellars seem to contain petroglyphs (prehistoric rock carvings). North of those, you’ll also find double stone circles made of large quarried stone. There are 21 of them laid end to end.

But what does it all mean?

Who built the site?

The most likely explanation is that this is a prehistoric Native American site that was later used by colonists as well. But the nature of the stone circles is reminiscent of medieval Irish structures. And that’s controversial because it would suggest that Europeans (perhaps Irish monks known as Caldees) may have made their way to North America long before Columbus. This is considered a fringe theory since there is no other evidence, linguistic or archaeological that would support it.

If you’re into fringe theories, there are also those who believe some of it was built by aliens. They use the occasional spikes in electromagnetic energy in the area caused by the quartz, granite, and magnetite rocks to forward a theory that it’s some sort of alien energy vortex.

Arrowheads, pottery fragments, and other artifacts make it certain that the site was also used by Native Americans and colonists. But was there another group of people who built some of the stranger aspects of the site?

It’s fair to argue that Native Americans that were wiped out built the mysterious structures. People clearly lived there for thousands of years, making it hard to tell where one group’s artifacts begin and end in the timeline.

There was once a Gungywamp Society that investigated the site, but they have now disbanded. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Gungywamp – Groton, Connecticut” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 13074 – Marriage and Online Dating

Studies found that 1 in 6 marriages these days begin after online dating. Interestingly, research from 2020 showed that dating apps were linked to stronger marriages and lower divorce rates. However, in 2021, another study found that couples who meet online were more likely to get divorced during the first three years of their marriage. So, what can we make of the data on marriage and online data?

Marriage and online dating

According to Pew Research Center (cited below), 30% of U.S. adults have used a dating app. And while many experiences were positive, younger women are more likely to be harassed on these platforms.

Pew also notes that 12% of their respondents “have married or been in a committed relationship with someone they first met through a dating site or app.” And nearly a quarter of Americans have gone on a date with someone they met on a dating site/app.

The good and the bad of online dating

Like most other ways of meeting people, online dating comes with benefits and drawbacks.

In general, people say it’s an easier way to meet people they find attractive and who share their interests. “But users also share some of the downsides to online dating. Roughly seven-in-ten online daters believe it is very common for those who use these platforms to lie to try to appear more desirable. And by a wide margin, Americans who have used a dating site or app in the past year say the experience left them feeling more frustrated (45%) than hopeful (28%).”

Women under 35% have the most trouble using apps. In fact, 60% of these users have had people continue to contact them after making it clear they were not interested. And 57% report being sent unsolicited sexually explicit messages.

Equal opportunity

Men and women were equally likely to have used a dating site or app, according to Pew. And white, Black, and Hispanic users all had roughly the same number of users. However, the tech is most common with people under age 35.

While the Pew survey found the number of U.S. marriages that started online to be 12% (less than other surveys), it’s still a significant number.

Interestingly, despite many positive experiences, around half of women think online forums are an unsafe way to meet someone. This is presumably because of the amount of harassment they get.

As for the future of marriage and online dating, only time will tell whether they are more successful. — WTF fun facts

Source: “The Virtues and Downsides of Online Dating” — Pew Research Center

WTF Fun Fact 13073 – Teens Tune Out

Got teenagers? Do you feel like they listen to you? If not, it’s likely because our brains rewire themselves to tune out our parents in our teen years. In fact, Stanford University research shows that teens tune out their mothers’ voices around the age of 13.

How teens tune out

More specifically, according to Stanford (cited below), “Around age 13, kids’ brains no longer find their moms’ voices uniquely rewarding, and they tune into unfamiliar voices more.”

Of course, this doesn’t give a person a free pass not to listen to their mom. But it does seem to be an evolutionary mechanism. Our brains are preparing to separate us from our parents in the long run – something we all have to do in order to become successful adults.

Clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Daniel Abrams, Ph.D. told Stanford News: “Just as an infant knows to tune into her mother’s voice, an adolescent knows to tune into novel voices. As a teen, you don’t know you’re doing this. You’re just being you: You’ve got your friends and new companions and you want to spend time with them. Your mind is increasingly sensitive to and attracted to these unfamiliar voices.”

Rewarding signals

All of these changes have to do with the reward centers of the brain. The brain prioritizes stimuli (like certain voices) that activate the reward centers. Unfamiliar voices start to stimulate the brain more around age 13. So while they are still capable of listening to their moms, teens simply don’t get the same level of stimulation and comfort from her familiar voice as they did as children.

In most ways, this is a good thing. It’s a sign that their brain is maturing and getting ready to engage with the world independently from their parents. This allows them to become “socially adept outside their families” – something required for any adult.

How things change over time

Under the age of 12, kids can identify their mom’s voice with great precision, and it tends to activate reward centers and emotion-processing regions of the brain. But if you’re a mom, take heart. Your voice is what sets your child’s brain up for their social and emotional future.

According to co-author Percy Mistry, Ph.D., “The mother’s voice is the sound source that teaches young kids all about the social-emotional world and language development.”

But things change as we grow up. And the switch towards privileging unfamiliar voices between ages 13 and 14 happens at the same time in all genders. — WTF fun facts

Source: “The teen brain tunes in less to Mom’s voice, more to unfamiliar voices, study finds” — Stanford University

WTF Fun Fact 13072 – Elephants Swim

Despite their size and weight, elephants swim with great skill. They can cross rivers, swim underwater, and even float when they get tired.

How do elephants swim?

The elephant’s trunk is one of its best swimming tools. It acts as a snorkel when they go underwater, helping them breathe.

Not all elephants get the chance to swim unless they live in swampy areas or near deep enough rivers. But they’re built to do it. Even their feet have webbing that helps them glide through the water. Their ears help them keep water out of their ear canals, and their tails can even act as rudders.

Learning to swim

Elephants aren’t born knowing how to swim. They typically learn how to use their trunk as a snorkel at a few months old. That’s when their mother brings them to a nearby body of water and watches over them while they learn.

Despite looking like they’d immediately sink to the bottom of the water, elephants are also naturally buoyant. That makes it very difficult for them to drown (unless they get caught up in rapids).

According to the Elephant Guide website (cited below):

“Elephants typically swim using somewhat of a breaststroke. For us humans, this will be comparable to a “doggy swim” type of stroke rather than a clean human breaststroke.
The elephants’ four legs are used to propel them through the water. Their legs are so powerful that they can swim continuously for as long as six hours! An elephant’s head and torso are generally kept just below the surface of the water as it paddles its massive limbs back and forth on a typical swim.”

Swimming for distance

The longest recorded elephant swim was 22 miles and 6 meters deep!

But typically they go for short swims to cool off. Distance swimming only occurs when they need to cross a body of water. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Can Elephants swim? They even swim underwater!” — Elephant Guide

WTF Fun Fact 13071 – The Man Who Invented Pop-Up Ads

Ethan Zuckerman is the man who invented pop-up ads. And he’s very sorry he did.

Pop-ups pay the bills

Zuckerman wrote a long apology to the world in The Atlantic in 2014 (cited below). In it, he explained that from 1994-7 he worked for a website that needed a creative new revenue stream:

“At the end of the day, the business model that got us funded was advertising. The model that got us acquired was analyzing users’ personal homepages so we could better target ads to them. Along the way, we ended up creating one of the most hated tools in the advertiser’s toolkit: the pop-up ad. It was a way to associate an ad with a user’s page without putting it directly on the page, which advertisers worried would imply an association between their brand and the page’s content.”

Of pop-up ads, Zuckerman admits “I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it. I’m sorry. Our intentions were good.”

The best intentions of the man who invented pop-up ads

Creating better, more targeted ads required better surveillance of web users’ behaviors. Specifically, “tracking users’ mobile devices as they move through the physical world, assembling more complex user profiles by trading information between data brokers.”

The more a business relies on ads for income, the more they need people to see those ads. The ads become more invasive as a result. Enter pop-ups.

While the man who invented pop-up ads regrets his creation, he also notes that there’s no other way to offer the free services of the Internet without some sort of advertising.

People aren’t willing to pay for services like social media, for example. As a result, the ads we see have to be visible and valuable – and that means targeting us with things the algorithm knows we’re interested in and making sure we see the ads by forcing us to click through them in order to get to the content we want to see at the moment. — WTF fun facts

Source: “The Internet’s Original Sin” — The Atlantic