Places

WTF Fun Fact 12625 – The Hall of Records

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We’ve all seen pictures of Mount Rushmore National Memorial. There aren’t many places in the U.S. to see giant sculptures carved into the side of mountains.

This sculpture happens to be in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. The 60-foot-high monument depicts U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It was completed in 1941, planned and executed by a man named Gutzon Borglum (his son, Lincoln, helped oversee the site).

You might not know that Borglum thought it needed a little something extra in the form of a written description. Specifically, he wanted to carve an inscription of the nine most important events in U.S. history from 1776 to 1906, roughly 80 by 120 feet in size. And he wanted it to be in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase.

His plan to add some extra flair failed since the text could not be made legible. Also, they needed the planned space for Lincoln’s head.

Borglum then developed a plan to build a room inside the mountain to hold documents and other artifacts that were important to American history. It was to be drilled into a small canyon behind Lincoln’s mouth and accessible by an 800-foot granite stairway.

This “Great Hall” was designed to have bronze and glass cabinets inside, containing documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. And, of course, it wouldn’t be complete without the planned bronze eagle with a 38-foot wingspan with the words “America’s Onward March” and “The Hall of Records” engraved above it.

Construction on the Hall of Records actually began in July of 1938. It got to the point where a 70-foot tunnel was blasted into the side of the mountain. But Congress shut down the plan. Borglum died in 1941, and then the U.S. was preoccupied with WWII, so all work on the monument shut down.

According to the National Park Service:

“Although Borglum’s grand scheme for the Hall of Records had to be abandoned, the idea remained. On August 9, 1998, Gutzon Borglum’s dream was completed when a repository of records was placed in the floor of the hall entry. This repository consists of a teakwood box, inside a titanium vault, covered by a granite capstone. Etched on the capstone is the following quote by Gutzon Borglum:

‘..let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone shall wear them away.‘

The repository contains sixteen porcelain enamel panels. Inscribed on the panels is the story of how Mount Rushmore came to be carved, who carved it, the reasons for selecting the four presidents depicted on the mountain and a short history of the United States. This repository is not accessible to visitors but is left as a record for people thousands of years from now who may wonder how and why Mount Rushmore was carved.” – WTF fun facts

Source: “Hall of Records” — U.S. National Park Service

WTF Fun Fact 12619 – The Official Bird of Madison

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It all started off with a college prank.

Back in 1979, students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to prank their dean. We’re guessing they had seen Animal House with John Belushi a few too many times.

It was a relatively innocent prank concocted and executed by a group of students known as the Pail & Shovel Party, who already had a reputation for their campus antics involving $10,000 toga parties and buying toys for students waiting to register for classes. Then there was that time they stuck a Statue of Liberty replica in a lake, but we digress.

To welcome back students in 1979, they decided to go as tacky as possible and decorate a lawn near the dean’s residence with pink plastic flamingos. One thousand and eight of them, to be exact.

It wasn’t until years later, when a newspaper columnist named Doug Moe wanted to commemorate the incident, that the idea of having an official bird came about. He lobbied to make it happen, despite the plastic flamingo not being an actual animal. In his defense, he said the city already had 5 “official” songs, so the bar seemed pretty low for making things official in the city. The move would be just another way for Madison to show it had a sense of humor about itself.

The city council agreed. Councilwoman Marsha Rummel, who voted in favor of the motion to adopt the plastic flamingo as the city’s official bird, said: “If you don’t have a little fun, [life]’s not worth living.” Fourteen other council members agreed, and only 4 opposed the motion.

Of course, not every city has an official bird.

According to Mental Floss,

“Most states have an official state bird, but it’s less common for a city to declare an official bird. About 28 American cities have proclaimed a fowl of choice: Chicago’s is the peregrine falcon and Key West, Florida’s is the chicken—and then there’s Madison, Wisconsin.”

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Why the Plastic Flamingo is the Official Bird of Madison, Wisconsin” — Mental Floss

WTF Fun Fact 12611 – The Ancient Origins Of the Loch Ness Monster

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Perhaps the modern version of the Loch Ness Monster legend began on May 2, 1933, but that was long after the first sighting of a beast that lived in the Lochs of Ness had been “sighted.” In the early 20th century, a couple told the Inverness Courier about seeing “an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface.” The journalist chose to use the word “monster,” and a new chapter in the legend was born.

Once the London newspapers heard about it, it would be a tabloid story for decades to come. Thousands of people would not only try to see the beast but collect rewards from circuses and the like to capture it.

We don’t believe in the Monster, but do you want to know another fun fact? The loch sits on an enormous ancient fault line. So feel free to rile up the believers by telling them the creature could have come from the center of the earth. They love that stuff!

Anyway, the oldest sighting we know about comes from historical accounts dating all the way back to August 22, 564. An Irish priest, who would later become known as St. Columba, reported seeing an animal in the water while visiting Loch Ness, Scotland. In fact, he not only saw it, but he also claimed it tried to eat one of his servants. Luckily, he was able to command it through some sort of priestly superpower to find a snack elsewhere.

Today, the Loch Ness Monster is one of many cryptids (animals whose existence has never been proven). While it’s neither a profitable profession nor an actual science, those interested in this phenomenon can become cryptozoologists!

According to National Geographic: “Besides the Loch Ness Monster, other lake cryptids include Champ (in Lake Champlain, the United States, and Canada); Issi (in Lake Ikeda, Japan); and the Lagarfljot Worm (in Lagarfljot Lake, Iceland). Other cryptids include chupacabras, blood-sucking creatures that threaten livestock throughout Latin America; bunyips, which lurk in Australia’s swamps; dingoneks, “jungle walruses” found in lakes and rivers in central Africa; and, of course, Bigfoot, who stalks old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest.”

Enthusiasm over the Loch Ness Monster has dampened in recent years partly because of the decline of the ridiculous tabloids that used to tout their existence in the check-out aisle of the grocery store. But we think it’s also probably because so many of the photos people submitted as proof of its existence have been proven fake. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Aug 22, 564 CE: Loch Ness Monster Sighted” — National Geographic

WTF Fun Fact 12602 – Lopburi’s Monkey Buffet

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Lopburi, Thailand, is the kind of place that no one needs to be convinced to visit. It’s one of the country’s oldest cities, holds the oldest ruins, and is just generally stunning to look at overall. The only issue for most people is that it’s a little hard to get there. And what usually seals the deal is the fact that long-tailed macaque monkeys roam the streets and serve as entertainment.

In order to thank the monkeys, the residents of Lopburi hold an annual banquet for them at the site of a 13th-century temple known to house many macaques.

The macaques probably don’t care much about the dancers and other forms of entertainment on offer. Like most of us primates, they’re there for the food. And residents deliver in the form of piles of delicious fruits, vegetables, and sticky rice.

The locals believe that celebrating the monkeys brings them good luck and more tourists. But we imagine it’s also pretty fun to watch since monkeys go a little wild around piles of food. We’ve always wanted to see a monkey food fight, and the festival reportedly has plenty.

The festival itself draws tourists, but it may not be the best time to go since the macaques are pretty riled up. If you’ve ever been in a place where monkeys roam the streets you know they can be mischievous little thieves. They like to snatch phones, sunglasses, and purses, and there’s not much you can do once a monkey has your stuff.

If you’re willing to risk it anyway, the festival typically occurs at the end of November, and Lopburi is about a 3-hour drive from Bangkok. And there are food stands for the human attendees because you do NOT want to try and take a monkey’s feast. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Everything You Need To Know About The Lopburi Monkey Festival” — Culture Trip

WTF Fun Fact 12599 – Philadelphia’s “Eagles Jail”

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Philadelphia fans have a reputation for being…well, let’s say rowdy. For example, they’re the fans who booed Santa Claus and pelted him with snowballs. In fact, in 1986, the Eagles stadium stopped selling beer at halftime in the hopes of improving fan behavior. But it clearly didn’t do the job because, in 1997, the Eagles installed a courtroom and jail at Veterans Stadium.

During a Monday Night Football game that year, the Eagles played the 49ers in a matchup that somehow sparked around 60 fistfights in the stands, along with some yahoo setting off a flare gun. Enough was enough. Families claimed to be afraid to take their children to games. So, the next time fans returned to the stadium, Eagles Court was in order.

On opening day, 20 fans were brought in front of Justice Seamus P. McCaffery.

But here’s another fun fact: It turns out Philly fans weren’t really the problem.

McCaffery said :

“Eagles Court was a lot of fun and it served a purpose. One of the interesting facts that came out of Eagles Court was that 95 percent of the people arrested were not from Philadelphia. But Philadelphia was getting broad-brushed as the city with horrible, horrible fans.”

So, apparently, Philly isn’t necessarily home to rowdy fans, but it encouraged rowdiness in people somehow.

For the most part, the court existed to bounce and/or fine people who got out of hand. Anyone who had committed a legit crime was handed over to the local police.

Eagles security and Philadelphia police had cited or arrested fans in the past, but most of them never showed up to their court dates weeks or months later, and their crimes weren’t serious enough for the police to track them down again. Eagles court made sure they were fined on the spot (or assigned community service).

But one of the problems with Eagles court is that it virtually forced people to plead guilty on the spot to avoid being arrested for real. It’s unlikely that everyone was sober enough to understand what was happening.

Some media outlets report that the court was only housed in the stadium in 1997 and was transferred out and into an actual court by 1998, while others say it was in the stadium for its whole (short) life, from 1997 to 2003. When the Vet was replaced by Lincoln Financial Field, there was also a 4-cell jail inside, but that only lasted two years. – WTF fun facts

Source: “The Eagles’ history features a stadium jail, bounties and vomit, but lacks titles” — CBS Sports

WTF Fun Fact 12598 – Volunteering for Prison

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Zurich West Prison is designed to house no more than 241 people awaiting trial in Switzerland. Prison isn’t a fun place in any country, but that didn’t stop people from lining up to give the place a test run earlier this year. The prison is accepting volunteers over the age of 18 who live or work in Zurich.

As of February, over 832 people had applied to spend a couple of nights testing the facility in April 2022. What can we say, people are willing to try just about anything!

But they won’t be Instagramming the experience – there are no phones allowed. So, you won’t be able to see their prison meals, while they’ll be able to choose from a list of vegetarian, halal, or meat-based options.

Oh, and get this – they’ll also be able to opt-in to a strip search! (We’d pass, but that’s just us.) Of course, as volunteers, they’ll have the option of leaving at any time.

Switzerland’s prisons had come under scrutiny for their poor conditions, so Zurich West Prison wants to iron out any kinks beforehand. They aren’t prepping it to be a luxury stay, but they want to get a sense of how the prison operates with people in it before those people are those who have been charged with a crime.

According to an article in Bloomberg:

“What else do we know about the experience volunteers should expect? For starters, they won’t pay anything, and they also shouldn’t expect to get paid for their time in jail. Daily life will include going through intake procedures, testing food, walking the yard, and sleeping in a cell. Cellphones and other electronic devices must be left at the door when checking in, and every volunteer will need a security clearance. To obtain this clearance, participants must go through a security checkpoint similar to airport TSA. And as for strip searches? According to officials, those are voluntary. (Whew!)

During the authentic incarceration experience, volunteers will receive safe words. That way, if things spiral out of control, they can let authorities know ASAP. The same goes for those who get cold feet at any point during the test run. In return, the experience will let officials of the prison system test the new facility’s capacity, operations, and services. It will also give correctional officers a chance to communicate and cooperate with authorities like prosecutors and law enforcement.”

The prison hopes the safe words won’t be necessary.  – WTF fun facts

Source: “Swiss Prison Flooded With Volunteers for Three Nights in Jail” — Bloomberg

WTF Fun Facts 12588 – The Walkie Talkie Skyscraper

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In 2013, a 38-story skyscraper needed a bit of a redesign during construction. Located at 20 Fenchurch Street in London, the building is nicknamed the “Walkie-Talkie” because of its shape. The building has an interesting top-heavy shape.

The building cost around £200million and was designed by architectRafael Viñoly. But it wasn’t very popular. In fact, in 2015, the Carbuncle Group named it the worst new building in the UK. But they weren’t the people who were most upset.

It turns out that on those rare sunny London days, the building could become a giant magnifying glass.

For 2 hours a day, the sun shone just right so that the building acted like a concave mirror, beaming that light down onto the streets. (In this magnifying glass metaphor, that makes humans the ants.)

Developers only realized that it was creating temperatures up to 243 degrees F at ground level in the summer of 2013 when a beam six times brighter than direct sunlight started melting a car – a Jaguar XJ, to be exact. The owner, Martin Lindsay, told the BBC that he only realized what happened when he saw a photographer taking photos of the vehicle and asked about it. He recalled the moment:

“The photographer asked me, ‘have you seen that car? The owner won’t be happy.’

“I said: ‘I am the owner. Crikey, that’s awful.'”

The wing mirror, panels, and Jaguar badge all melted.

“It could be dangerous. Imagine if the sun reflected on the wrong part of the body. On the windscreen, there was a note from the construction company saying, ‘your car’s buckled; could you give us a call?'” Lindsay said.

A reporter named Jim Waterson even managed to fry an egg in a pan on the sidewalk.

After that, the building got some new nicknames – “Walkie-Scorchie” and “Fryscraper,” for example.

Of course, an immediate and permanent solution needed to be found, so an awning was installed on the south side of the building to keep it from inadvertently incinerating Londoners and their pricey vehicles.

The same architect, Viñoly, also designed a building in Las Vegas with a similar problem and its windows needed to be coated in non-reflective film.

Viñoly blamed himself, but also the fact that he didn’t realize it was ever that sunny or warm in London. Meanwhile, the Jaguar owner got his repairs paid for by the developers.

–WTF fun facts

Source: “‘Walkie-Talkie’ skyscraper melts Jaguar car parts” — BBC News

WTF Fun Fact 12587 – Discount Turns to Debt

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In what may be one of the most expensive typos in history, in April of 2006, Alitalia had the price of their business class flight from Toronto to Cyprus (an island nation in the Mediterranean) deeply discounted. The regular cost was $3,900, but a glitch resulted in the price losing two zeros. Tickets were sold for just $39 – for a 12-15 hour flight! (And that’s just in Canadian dollars – it was $33 in US dollars. Then again, once you add taxes and fees, it was closer to $200.)

Word spread quickly on the website FlyerTalk before Alitalia could make any changes and while they didn’t release the specifics, guesses as to the number of tickets sold range from hundreds to over 2000.

The price was active for around 12 hours, and you better believe that Alitalia tried not to honor the price at first. And purchasers had the angry reaction you’d imagine. In fact, things got so heated that Alitalia ended up honoring the tickets that were officially confirmed. (People who bought through Orbitz and other brokers were largely out of luck.)

The lucky buyers who were given ticket confirmation numbers upon purchase took their trips, costing Alitalia around $7 million.

CBC News interviewed one of the lucky travelers shortly afterward, Donnie Bowers of New Haven. “I didn’t even know where Cyprus was,” he said.”I looked at the regular price, and I thought, wow, this is something to really get involved in.”

They reported that 509 people made purchases, though other sources report higher numbers.

“Why not roll the dice and see what happens?” Bowers said as he prepared for his October 2006 trip. – WTF fun facts

Source: Flyertalk Forums, 2006

WTF Fun Fact 12565 – The World’s Largest Waterfall

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You’ll have to travel to the place where the cold water of the Nordic Sea meets the warmer water from the Irminger Sea if you want to catch a vague glimpse of the world’s largest waterfall. The only problem is, it’s underwater.

Because the cold water is dense, it sinks below the warm water and spills over an undersea cataract all the way down to the ocean floor. It’s so big that the downward flow is estimated at over 123 million cubic feet per second. Denmark Strait cataract is around 11,500 feet long (with the next largest being Angel Falls at a mere-by-comparison 3,212 feet).

It also carries an estimated 175 million cubic feet of water per second. For perspective, that’s equivalent to around two thousand Niagaras Falls. – WTF Fun Fact

Source: “Where is Earth’s Largest Waterfall?” — NOAA

WTF Fun Fact 12548 – The Biltmore McDonald’s

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The Vanderbilt family became the wealthiest people in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But by the third generation, they were doing more spending than saving (or working), and their fortunes soon vanished. One of their weaknesses came in the form of building wildly expensive real estate, including the Biltmore Estate.

The Biltmore is a French Renaissance-style chateau and the largest private home in America. George Vanderbilt commissioned it after he visited Asheville, North Carolina in 1888 and fell in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains. Construction began in 1889 and hosted Vanderbilt’s first guests on Christmas Eve, 1895.

Biltmore spans a stunning 175,000 square feet and was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt. It has The 250-rooms, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. Across the way, you’ll find 75 acres of gardens designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

And just down the street, you can get a Big Mac.

That’s right. The Biltmore is now a bit of a tourist trap, and what was once a village housing the staff is now basically a strip mall for anyone who is less-than-impressed by the glamorous home itself (or, you know, can’t go a day without fast food).

When McDonald’s bought the space, the Biltmore Village Historic Resources Commission was less than pleased to see something so unglamorous taint the home and its surroundings. But what can you do?

Well, for starters, you can pretty much force McDonald’s to renovate their McBuildings into something more fitting of the atmosphere. After it was built in 2000, it was almost immediately renovated to become…a fancy McDonald’s.

According to Atlas Obscura,

“The Biltmore McDonald’s octagonal dining room features tables of red oak, wrought iron railings, and luminous chandeliers under a sweeping pressed-tin ceiling, with every wood feature boasting a handsome finish. A baby grand player piano sits in the corner, churning out disembodied tunes you might hear at a fanciful gala, while a gold-leaf mantled fireplace forms the base of a giant stone chimney. And while the food is sourced and prepared as it would be at any McDonald’s, the staff who makes it maintain a strict dress code of slacks and a bow-tie. It’s fast-food meets forced-fanciful.”

So if you like to slurp your milkshake in style, now you know where to go. –  WTF fun fact

Source: “Biltmore McDonald’s” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 12398 – Canadian Humor

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In 1999, Canada’s Northwest Territories was split in two. The eastern region became Nunavut, a territory made up of the Inuit (known to some as Eskimos). However, the other half of the 1.3 million-square-mile territory wanted to come up with its own name.

Politicians turned to residents to come up with new names, which may not have been the best idea in retrospect. Before the Boaty McBoatface debacle, Canadians proved that the people don’t always know best when they rallied behind the name “Bob” for their territory.

According to The Baltimore Sun, other contenders included Restavit, Alluvit, Fullavit, Tundraland, Freedom Territory, Eskimo Pie, and Snobound. So, in some respects, it could have been worse.

While the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today, an online campaign on behalf of Bob contained a list of reasons why citizens thought it was a good idea, such as: “‘Bob’ sounds the same in each of the official languages of the Northwest Territories” (these include English, French, Cree, Inukitut, and Dene).

“‘A spokesman for Bob said ‘ sounds friendlier in news reports than ‘A spokesman for the Northwest Territories said,'” claimed another fan.

Politicians were not so good-natured about the fun and games:

“The campaign to make the name of the Western Territory into ‘Bob’ is not humorous,” said J. Michael Miltenberger, member of the territorial assembly. “This campaign is hurting the reputation vTC of residents of the Western Arctic across North America and beyond.” – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Northwest Territories looking for new name – ‘Bob’ need not apply — CBC News

WTF Fun Fact – Hidden Michelangelo

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WTF Fun Fact - Hidden Michelangelo

Michelangelo hid in a secret room under the Medici Chapel in Florence for 3 months during a period of political turmoil, occupying his time by sketching on the walls. His whereabouts were a secret for ~500 years until the museum director stumbled upon the room in 1976. – WTF Fun Facts

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/06/03/615181742/this-room-is-thought-to-have-been-michelangelos-secret-hideaway-and-drawing-boar?t=1643625131637

WTF Fun Fact – TV Pickup

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WTF Fun Fact - TV Pickup

“TV Pickup” is a phenomenon wherein a large percentage of the population in Britain all simultaneously turn on their electric appliances (e.g. kettles) during commercial TV breaks causing massive power surges (an extra demand of 200–400 megawatts) countrywide. – WTF Fun Facts

Source: TV pickup – Wikipedia