We never really thought about tickling a rat, but apparently, it makes them pretty happy. And other than primates, they’re the only other creatures that seem to be able to be tickled.
Rat tickling
Some people hate to be tickled but rats seem to enjoy it to some extent.
According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below), the little creatures “…break down in supersonic ‘giggles’ and ‘joy jumps’ when you gently ruffle their fur—but only if they’re in the mood.”
Now, you probably want to know how we know this. Here’s how:
“For a new study published today in the journal Science, a group of German scientists had the pleasure of tickling some rats to find out that—like humans—these rodents’ responses to tickles are mood-dependent. Stressful situations stifled the rats’ otherwise impulsive laughter, while a more relaxed atmosphere made for uninhibited giggles. The new research, led by animal physiologist Shimpei Ishiyama at Humboldt University in Berlin, offers a new insight into where exactly in the brain this ticklish laughter appears to come from.”
If rats are ticklish, why don’t we hear them laugh?
It turns out that few of us will ever get the pleasure of hearing a rat laugh.
Smithsonian notes that “Tickled rats emit high-pitched chirping and squeaking sounds, which are only audible through a special microphone. Researchers were able to observe this laughter by using the microphones, as well as by measuring behavior and neuron activity of rats that they tickled and gently touched in various regions of the body, including the back and belly.”
It sounds like you’re going to need some specialized equipment.
And if you’re wondering where to tickle a rat in order to make it happy – the answer is the belly. – WTF fun facts
Apparently, thousands of people look up “how to lobsters communicate” – and we’re guessing it’s because they’ve heard the truth and it’s hard to believe.
When we heard that lobsters communicate with their bladders and that they can make things known to other lobsters by urinating at them, we thought it was a grossly creative form of expression. But it gets even better.
While it might not be the most exact description of what’s happening, no less an institution than the New England Aquarium has informed lobster learners that the creatures actually “pee out of their faces.”
Say what?
Ok, so let’s break this down a bit. First of all, lobsters use scent to communicate (as do humans, to be fair). You’ve heard of pheromones, right? The scented hormone we secrete?
Because this factoid ran rampant around the internet with such gusto, Snopes to it upon themselves to get the details (gotta love those professional fact-checkers!). They describe the scented face-peeing this way:
“Found within a lobster’s pee are a fair number of pheromones, which they disperse through theirnephropore rosette glands. The bladder of a lobster is located under its brain, and the rosette glands are connected to the urinary tract.”
Ok, so the key here seems to be the anatomy – the bladder is right under their brain. There’s only so much room in a lobster, and those of us who have eaten them should probably be grateful that we don’t have to pick their bladders out of their tails.
As for the urine stream comes out of their face, Snopes explains further:
“Once these pheromones are produced, they are introduced into the urine stream. In the case of the American lobster, scientific name Homarus americanus, this pheromone-rich pee is released from nephropores at the base of the lobster’s large antennae and then injected into its gill current. According to the NEAQ, it has been determined that this urine stream can reach a length of seven times the lobster’s body.”
Wait, so how do lobsters communicate this way?
You probably still have some questions. Like, what’s a gill current? Well, according to The American Lobster:
“Water passes up through openings between the lobster’s legs, over the gills, and up towards the head.Every few minutes this current of water is reversed the other way so that debris can be flushed out of the chambers.An important part of this “gill current” is that when it is flowing forward towards the head, it can project urine forward.It is thought that the urine of the lobster contains important information about the sex of the lobster and its physiological state.”
Now that we know how lobsters pee out of their faces, we still need to know how and why it works this way. So, back to Snopes (which is cited below and which also has further reading at the bottom of the page for all your legit lobster urine research needs).
When male lobsters want to attract a mate, the females tend to come to him. But he needs to be in a defensive position. As Snopes says: “Their claws are located at the front, which enables the lobster to back into a shelter and face outward toward the entrance, setting up a first line of defense — and attracting a mate.”
Territorial lobster communication
Snopes also cites the conservation organization Oceana, which reports that a male lobster tends to dominate one piece of territory and females wait outside the den to mate with him. To let him know they’re out there, they pee in his direction out of the nozzles on their face.
Hey, who are we to judge?
Of course, the urine contains the pheromones that signal she’s ready to reproduce. So – and here’s another fun fact – she takes off her exoskeleton (basically stripping naked) once she gets into his den to mate. We are seriously not making this up.
Other lobster communication-by-urine tactics
Ok, so there’s one mating ritual out of the way. But females aren’t the only ones who urinate out of their faces to send a message. When males fight, the winner will do the same to signal to any nearby females that he’s the winner and ready to pass on his superior genes to any females nearby. “It’s thought that the winner of a match will also contain more serotonin and happy hormones, making him even more attractive to a would-be match.”
Snopes caps us off with yet another fun fact:
“How does a female return the favor? By peeing in his face, of course. Pheromones released in a female’s urine are thought to reduce the aggression of an embattled male and he’ll often allow the female to enter his burrow, where she might stay for up to two weeks. While the two shack up, the cohabitating female will also be urinating to ward off other ladies in the area — until it’s their turn.”
Jonathan the tortoise is the oldest known land animal. And in order to fact-check that (since we feel like it would be an easy claim for people to make without much proof), we turned to Snopes.
An 1886 photo of Jonathan the Tortoise
The rumors about a 100+-year-old tortoise actually started in early 2022 when a website called MajesticAnimals.net posted a photo from what they said was the early 1900s claiming to show a tortoise named Jonathan who is still alive.
The photo was credited to the director of an NGO on Saint Helena Island where old tortoises are known to live.
Says Snopes: “Jonathan has been misidentified in viral photographs before. We have reached out to the government of Saint Helena Island, where the tortoise lives, to confirm the authenticity of the image.”
The image is real – but the site got one thing wrong. It’s actually OLDER than they claimed, and therefore so is Jonathan!
Jonathan is pushing 200!
One of the photos is from 1886! And Jonathan is already full grown. He’s been on Saint Helena for a very long time, and his age is estimated to be somewhere around 190 years old!
As you might imagine, he’s quite a tourist attraction. So if you’re ever in the South Atlantic, off the coast of Namibia, you can visit Jonathan at the governor’s residence “where he gets hand-fed fruit and vegetables and ‘frolics’ with female tortoises, according to an AFP News Agency video profile, even though he has lost his sight due to cataracts.”
It’s doubtful Jonathan would still be alive without human intervention at this point since a blind tortoise wouldn’t fare well out in the wild.
And the latest rumor about Jonathan is that he is also gay and has a male lover. Apparently, he was partnered with a tortoise named Fredrica back in 1991, and when the caretakers wondered why they weren’t producing any offspring despite their frequent mating, they realized she was a he.
Want one more fun fact to top you off? Saint Helena is the island where Napoleon died after his exile. His body is now in Paris, but you can still visit his original grave after you go to see Jonathan. – WTF fun facts
It might not be the most cost-efficient use of the medication, but the answer to “does viagra make flowers last longer?” is yes. It also makes the stand up straight.
How does viagra make flowers last longer?
According to a study in the British Medical Journal (cited below): “Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is good not only for treating male impotence. Israeli and Australian researchers have discovered that small concentrations of the drug dissolved in a vase of water can also double the shelf life of cut flowers, making them stand up straight for as long as a week beyond their natural life span.”
In fact, “1 mg of the drug (compared with 50 mg in one pill taken by impotent men) in a solution was enough to prevent two vases of cut flowers from wilting for as much as a week longer than might be expected.”
How does it work? Well, according to the study “Viagra increases the vase life of flowers by retarding the breakdown of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) (the production of which is mediated by nitric oxide).”
Basically, that means flower wilting and erectile dysfunction involve the same enzyme, and Viagra helps slow down the breakdown of that enzyme. In men, this allows blood vessels to stay open longer, and in plants, it does the same to their vascular tissues.
No more flaccid flowers
Of course, you may not want to go through the trouble of getting a Viagra prescription (or raid anyone’s medicine cabinet) for the sake of your centerpieces. There are other ways of getting some flowers to spring to attention. For example, putting a few old pennies (that still have some copper component) in a vase of tulips will also make them stand up straight.
The word nurdle is used in a few different ways. But today we’re going to look at its use to describe the squirt of toothpaste that you squeeze out onto your toothbrush.
How did “nurdle” come to be?
According to “verbal branding pro” Nancy Friedman’s blog Fritinancy (cited below): “The word, of unknown origin but possibly related to nodule, was reportedly coined by the American Dental Association in the 1990s to educate the public about proper brushing technique. The word is spelled “nerdle” in an August 19, 1996, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article quoted in Double-Tongued Dictionary, but the spelling has since been standardized as ‘nurdle.'”
But the word really came to the fore in 2011 when GlaxoSmithKline (which makes Aquafresh “Triple Protection” toothpaste) and Procter & Gamble (which makes Colgate) reached a settlement over its use in their marketing campaigns, with specific reference to the tri-colored nurdle that’s depicted on their boxes.
Both companies have invested money in the depiction and use of the word. Aquafresh used to have a site for children called Nurdle World, and Aquafresh ran a site called The Nurdle Shmurdle – though both have been taken down.
Other uses of the word
Friedman’s blog also describes another use of the word: “Nurdle is also used in the plastics industry to describe pea-size plastic resin pellets. When released from inland factories, the pellets often make their way into coastal waterways and even the deeper oceans, where they pose an ongoing threat to marine animals that mistake the pellets for food. According to a 2001 study of Orange County (California) beaches, nurdles made up 98 percent of ocean debris. See, for example, this 2007 article about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
We’ll be honest. We’ve never heard of a nurdle, and the blob on our toothbrush doesn’t look nearly as nice and nurdle-y as the one depicted on any toothpaste box. Still, we’ll never be able to brush our teeth without thinking of a nurdle again. – WTF fun facts
Until 2011, any drink with less than 10% alcohol was not really considered alcohol. Instead, it was a “foodstuff.” That made beer more of a soft drink, of sorts. It wasn’t until 2011 that Russian then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed a bill that officially classified beer as alcohol in 2011.
Russian beer becomes alcohol
Now, that doesn’t mean Russian kids were drinking beer and calling it a Coke. It was all about who and how regulated beer could be in Russia. And we know Russians like their vodka, so they’re used to some thing a little bit stronger.
Once the law was signed, it allowed ministers to control the sale of beer in the same way they did spirits.
Overconsumption of alcohol is a problem in many places in the world, but Russian alcohol consumption at the time the bill was signed was twice the critical level set by the World Health Organization.
Beer becomes alcohol
The 2011 bill likely came in response to a soaring interest in beer in Russia. And it didn’t seem to be for the same reasons we saw a beer Renaissance in the states. In Russia, it was seen a healthier alternative to spirits. So perhaps people just needed reminding that it was, in fact, still booze.
According to a BBC News story at the time (cited below): “Over the past decade, beer sales in Russia have risen more than 40% while vodka sales have fallen by nearly 30%. Correspondents say it is common to see people swigging beer in the street and in parks as if they are drinking soft drinks. It is not restricted to certain stores and is sold around the clock.”
To bring the consumption of beer under control, the Russian beer industry saw a 200% tax hike by ministers. That would probably discourage our drinking habits too!
While the new law was signed in 2011, it did not go into effect until 2013 and was set to “stop alcohol being sold in unlicensed kiosks, ban its sale from stores between certain hours and restrict its advertising.”– WTF fun facts
In 1908, the New York Timesran a story calling a dog in Paris a fake hero. But before you jump to the canine’s defense, you might want to hear why. It turns out he was a bit of a bad boy.
Dog Saves Child
As the story is told, a heard a child screaming for help one day by the Seine river in Paris. And like a proper hero, he jumped in to rescue the poor kiddo.
Of course, he was greatly rewarded.
It turns out that the slab of meat he received as a reward was something he didn’t want to give up. So he presumably figured he’d just wait by the Seine to see if his heroics could be of service again. And it didn’t take long for another child to fall in.
Once again, the dog saved the child and was rewarded.
Now, remember the story of Pavlov’s dogs.
“Fake hero” dog pushes children
Eventually, someone noticed that a suspicious number of children were falling into the Seine, and always nearby a certain meat-loving canine. At first, people thought there was some sort of child-drowning criminal wandering about the neighborhood.
It didn’t take long for people to figure out that the dog eventually started pushing kids in if he had to wait too long for a rescue and reward scenario to present itself.
That’s what landed him on the front page of the NYT in a story titled “DOG A FAKE HERO.”
Now, whether the story is true or not, we can’t say. We only know what the NYT reported. Sadly, they didn’t follow up on what may have happened to the dog nor did they mention whether or not any of the children noticed that they took a swim courtesy of the canine.
A 2017 survey from Rover.com found that Americans are really fond of their dogs. In fact, “dog people” tend to prefer their pets over people at times.
People think of dogs as family
Aside from the finding that 54% of dog owners said they would consider ending a romantic relationship if their dog didn’t like their partner, the report also noted that:
24% of dog owners make up songs to sing to their dogs 29% share more pictures online of their dogs than of friends and family 47% of those with a significant other admit they’d find it harder to leave their dog for a week than their human partner
Other furry findings
According to Rover.com’s report on their findings, there are 54 million households in the U.S. wth dogs.
94% of dog owners consider their dog a part of the family
56% greet their dog first when they return home before greeting the rest of the family.
78% would include their dog in family moments like marriage proposals, holiday cards, and even vacations
56 percent% have celebrated their dog’s birthday
Being a dog owner is even good for our health. “Dog ownership increases leisure time and physical activity by nearly 70 percent.”
According to Rover pet lifestyle expert Brandie Gonzales, “Young Americans are less likely to be homeowners or parents than previous generations, but one category they lead in is pet ownership. They shower their dogs with attention and splurge on expensive gifts because their dog is their best friend, and they want to be their dog’s best friend too.”
Millennials may have killed department stores and traditional marriage, but they sure were a boon for the animal rescue industry! At least one thing has remained stable over time – dogs are still man’s best friend.
When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, he made a historic phone call. We’re not sure what he was thinking at the time, but he got a bit cheeky when making his decision about who to call and what to say.
And it turns out the first iPhone call was a prank call to Starbucks.
The first iPhone call
On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to a crowd in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. He opened up Google Maps on the phone and located the nearest Starbucks.
On the other end was Ying Hang “Hannah” Zhang. “How may I help you?” she asked.
“Yes, I’d like to order 4,000 lattes to go, please,” Jobs replied.
It was a potentially momentous occasion, had the order been filled. But I think we all know that no Starbucks can make that many lattes at a moment’s notice.
And it turns out Jobs was just yanking her chain.
“No, just kidding. Wrong number. Goodbye!” he said as he hung up.
Technically, it was the second call
If you want to get technical, this was the first impromptu call on an iPhone. According to Fast Company (cited below): “His call to the Starbucks that day was the first real public phone call made from an iPhone in history. Sure, Jobs had held a conference chat earlier in his presentation with Apple executives Jony Ive and Phil Schiller–but that call was prearranged and heavily scripted, no different than the dozens if not hundreds of calls they would’ve made during rehearsals, or the likely thousands of calls performed while testing the device prior to its announcement.”
Funny enough, people who know this fact still call up their local Starbucks today and try to order 4000 lattes in honor of Jobs.
