random fact

WTF Fun Fact 12965 – The New Moon

Have you ever heard that there was a new Moon only to look up at the sky and see no moon at all? Well, that’s because the Moon cycle is starting all over again.

Types of Moons

We obviously only have one Moon, but it goes through lots of phases. A “new” Moon is the opposite of a full Moon. During a full Moon, the sun is fully illuminating one side of the big ball. That’s what makes it glow so brightly in the night sky.

During the time when the Moon is “new,” we are seeing the side that is not illuminated by the sun. The Moon is still up there, but without the sun shining on it, we can’t see it in the night sky.

According to Farmer’s Almanac (cited below) “When the Moon is “new,” it’s located between the Earth and the Sun. In other words, the Moon is in line with the Sun, and the Sun and Earth are on opposite sides of the Moon. (Note that when the Moon is perfectly aligned in front of the Sun, it blocks out the Sun, giving us a solar eclipse.)”

Lunar cycles and the new Moon

The new Moon is the beginning of the lunar cycle. This lasts 29.5 days, and it’s the amount of time it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth.

The Moon cycle used to be used to measure months (each new moon signaled a new month).

Another fun fact: the new Moon always rises close to the time of sunrise.

And according to The Farmer’s Almanac:

“As the new Moon crosses the sky during the day, rising and setting around the same time as the Sun, it’s lost in the solar glare…The new Moon is also lit up from behind, showing us its dark side. It’s doubly invisible. New Moons generally can’t be seen with the naked eye.”

About a day (maybe two) after a new lunar cycle begins, you’ll be able to look up at the night sky and see a slim crescent off to the West after the sun sets. These crescent moons are often very bright. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Learn All About the New Moon” — Almanac

WTF Fun Fact 12964 – Our Obsession With Pumpkins

Pumpking beer, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin-spiced…you name it. Our obsession with pumpkins knows no bounds.

Even if you hate the taste of pumpkins, you might still be soothed by the sight of them. And there’s a reason for that.

What’s with our obsession with pumpkins?

Most pumpkin-flavored things don’t really taste like pumpkin or even contain pumpkin – in fact, most are made with a different type of squash altogether. We’re mostly in it for the spices.

Still, there’s a reason we market everything as “pumpkin flavored” – and it’s all about nostalgia.

According to NPR (cited below), a professor of American Studies at St. Louis University named Cindy Ott wrote a book titled Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon in which she describes why we’re so drawn to the round, orange gourds.

“It’s a vegetable that represents this idyllic farm life, and the best sort of moral virtue. And Americans have become attached to that,” she said.

“‘The rehab of pumpkin’s popularity began when 19th century Americans began to move away from rural life and into the city,’ Ott says. ‘People became stressed about… moving into the office and off the farms, and [the pumpkin] starts to appear in poems and in paintings,’ she says. ‘We’re celebrating the nostalgia for this old-fashioned, rural way of life that no one ever really wanted to stay on, but everyone’s always been romantic about.'”

Recycling pumpkin-flavored ideas

Did you know pumpkin beer isn’t a new phenomenon? Pumpkins were once the food of pure desperation.

NPR explains that “…pumpkin beers and pumpkin breads have been produced since colonial times, Ott says that they weren’t always the specialty foods that they are today. ‘Pumpkin beer was used when there was no barley. [If] there was no wheat for bread, they used pumpkin [for] bread,'”

If anyone mocks you for your pumpkin-flavored obsession, just tell them you’re helping the economy.

“Big corporations advertise many pumpkin-themed products, but due to their limited seasonal availability, many fresh pumpkins sold every fall still come from local family farms,” Ott told NPR. “And that’s actually helping to rejuvenate those farms.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Why Americans Go Crazy For Pumpkin And Pumpkin-Flavored Stuff” — NPR

WTF Fun Fact 12963 – The Autumn Equinox

Solstice, equinox – what’s the difference? We know these things meant more to people in agricultural societies, but they still dictate the way we do things today to some extent. The 2022 autumn equinox will begin on September 22 at 9:03 pm.

Why is the autumn equinox so specific?

This is a natural phenomenon that influences culture, not the other way around. So while you might start shopping for your autumn decor in August, fall doesn’t really begin until the solar system says so.

The autumnal equinox occurs when the sun is nearest to the equatorial plane (the imaginary extension of the equator), giving us a day with equal amounts of sunlight and darkness. It lasts a few days, and as soon as it’s over, the days start to get shorter.

Spring also has an equinox. When it’s over, the days start to get longer.

Winter and summer, on the other hand, have solstices.

What’s the difference between an equinox and a solstice?

The summer and winter solstices occur when the sun is farthest from the equatorial plane. They are the day when the daylight is longest (spring) or shortest (winter).

So while the solstices and equinoxes each usher in a new season, each only applies to two seasons and represents a different phenomenon. (And all of the seasons are the opposite in each hemisphere – we’re only talking about the northern hemisphere here!)

What’s so fun about the autumnal solstice?

If you like fall weather (and live in the northern hemisphere), you’re probably pretty excited about its official start.

Historically, the equinox signaled the end of the outdoor working season or harvest season. It was a time to celebrate all of the hard work nature had done for humans and that humans did to reap the benefits and survive through winter. It’s traditionally a time to give thanks and take stock of all of nature’s bounty a community had received.

In many places, it was a time of harvest festivals, feasting (at least on the things that might not be preserved over the winter), and thanking the gods of the harvest. — WTF fun facts

Source: “The Spiritual Meaning of the Autumn Equinox” — Spirituality & Health

WTF Fun Fact 12962 – The Earth’s Rotation Around The Sun

The Earth’s rotation around the sun isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact – and one we learn in elementary school. Of course, we don’t retain all of that information throughout our lives, which is why some people answered a question about it incorrectly.

In need of a revolution

Now, this is disturbing in many ways. However, some people don’t do well when quizzed on the spot. We’d like to think that it’s more of a misunderstanding than a quarter of Americans truly believing that the Earth is the center of the solar system.

Spoiler alert: the Earth revolves around the sun.

Maybe we should all talk to elementary school students taking science classes more often.

Parsing data on the earth’s revolution

Here’s how the survey was done: People were asked a (theoretically simple) question: “Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth.”

Only 26% answered incorrectly.

According to NPR (cited below): “In the same survey, just 39 percent answered correctly (true) that ‘The universe began with a huge explosion’ and only 48 percent said ‘Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.’ Just over half understood that antibiotics are not effective against viruses.”

It’s a bit of an embarrassing science deficit. In fact, that last misunderstanding (about antibiotics) has been downright dangerous.

However, NPR goes on…“As alarming as some of those deficits in science knowledge might appear, Americans fared better on several of the questions than similar, but older surveys of their Chinese and European counterparts. Only 66 percent of people in a 2005 European Union poll answered the basic astronomy question correctly.”

But let’s not celebrate too soon because “both China and the EU fared significantly better (66 percent and 70 percent, respectively) on the question about human evolution.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says” — NPR

WTF Fun Fact 12961 – Ride-Sharing Risks

We would have assumed that with fewer cars on the road, ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft would have helped decrease the number of traffic deaths. But a 2018 study from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, there are some unforeseen ride sharing risks. In fact, these services have contributed to a 2%-3% increase in traffic deaths.

Reporting on the risk of ride-sharing

In “The Cost of Convenience: Ridesharing and Traffic Fatalities,” authors John M. Barrios (University of Chicago), Yael V. Hochberg (Rice University), and Livia Hanyi Yi (Rice University), claim that since 2011, roughly 1,100 deaths could be attributed to ride sharing companies in the U.S.

The report (cite below) states: “The arrival of ridesharing is associated with an increase of 2-3% in the number of motor vehicle fatalities and fatal accidents. This increase is not only for vehicle occupants, but also for pedestrians.”

Why the increase in traffic deaths?

After looking at the data, the authors note a number of ride sharing risks that contribute to traffic accidents.

The biggest increases occurred in large cities, where ride sharing also put more cars on the road despite the presence of public transportation. An increase in new vehicles leads to more congestion on the streets, which is correlated with more accidents.

According to the Booth School of Business: “Evaluating the effect of ride sharing on driver quality is complicated, according to the researchers. An increase in high-quality ride-share drivers could offset increased VMT and potentially reduce accident rates; however, while some poor drivers may substitute ride sharing for driving, other passengers may be skilled drivers who simply enjoy the convenience. At the same time, lesser-quality drivers may be tempted to drive for ride-sharing services.”

The cost of the increase in accidents is estimated to be $5.33 billion to $13.24 billion per year.

Of course, there are benefits to ride sharing: “These include improved mobility for the disabled and for minorities, flexible job opportunities that are especially valuable to those otherwise at high risk of unemployment, and customer convenience and resulting consumer surplus.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “The Cost of Convenience” — University of Chicago

WTF Fun Fact 12960 – Knocker Uppers

No one enjoys an alarm clock. But just imagine not having one and relying on someone to stop by your home and bang on your window or door to get you out of bed in the morning. That’s what happened in industrial England before alarm clocks were invented. The human alarm clocks were known as “knocker uppers” or simply “knockers.”

Who were the knockers?

According to Snopes (cited below): “Before the average industrial worker in England had access to alarm clocks, someone needed to wake them up. This fell to the ‘knocker-ups,’ or ‘knocker-uppers,”’or simply ‘knockers’ who would go around working-class neighborhoods around Britain with sticks, pea-shooters, poles or anything else that would help them knock on doors and windows to get people up.”

Try hitting the snooze on that!

According to the BBC, they “were common in mill towns in northern Britain, or in London where dockers had unusual hours, and even with brewery workers in less industrial towns in Dorset.”

How did the knocker uppers come about?

A 2020 article in the Journal of Victorian Culture, “Knocker Ups: A Social History of Waking Up in Victorian Britain’s Industrial Towns” explains:  

“In pre-industrial societies, people organized their activities around diurnal and seasonal rhythms. Historians have argued that in contrast, industrialized societies became preoccupied with time and watching the clock. Time became money. Beginning work at factories at a fixed hour in the day became crucial for both factories and workers. In particular, wages of industrial workers became bound by time – if they failed to report to their duties on time they were fined. Within this context, knocker ups emerged in British industrial society to perform the vital duty of waking up industrial workers. Consequently, they became an integral part of the service industry created to cater to working-class clients. By waking up industrial hands on time, knocker ups contributed to industrial productivity. Usually, knocker ups went around industrial towns waking up clients with their innovative tools. Some used sticks and canes while others shot peas through pipes. Either way, the knocker ups used their creative ways to let their clients know it was time for them to wake up.”

We just wonder how the neighbors felt on the days they got to sleep in! — WTF fun facts

Source: “Who Were the Knocker-Uppers?” — Snopes

WTF Fun Fact 12959 – Detroit Undercover Cops Arrest Each Other

In 2017, a meme started going around claiming that a group of undercover cops in Detroit posing as drug dealers ended up trying to arrest another group of undercover cops. Of course, Snopes took on the task of finding out if it was true, and it turns out it is. Detroit cops did try to arrest each other.

Detroit undercover cops arrest each other

In November of 2017, Snopes (cited below) reports that “Special-operations officers from Detroit’s 11th Precinct were preparing to execute a search warrant on a suspected drug house, but unbeknownst to them, cops from the department’s 12th Precinct were operating within the 11th Precinct’s territory. This intersection of two different groups of police who had not coordinated with or made their presence known to each other set the stage for chaos.”

This is why communication is important!

When two 11th Precinct met the supposed drug dealers, they tried to detain them while their colleagues executed a search warrant on the drug house. However, cops from the 12th Precinct burst in before it could be secured. This triggered a brawl between undercover agents. Obviously, the officers didn’t know one another.

“More officers from the 11th district arrived to serve a search warrant and that’s ‘when it started to go terribly wrong,’” Snopes reports Detroit Police Chief James Craig saying. Camera footage show officers punching and shoving one another.

The embarrassing aftermath

Reports say over two dozen total officers were involved, some in full tactical gear, and one needed to be hospitalized after the fracas.

“This is probably one of the most embarrassing things I’ve seen in this department since I’ve been appointed police chief,” James Craig told reporters. “In fact, I’d have to tell you it is probably one of the most disappointing things I’ve experienced in my entire 40-year career.”

During the botched operation, 12th precinct officers, who were posing as drug dealers, were held at gunpoint by police from the 11th precinct. “I am thankful that no one was more seriously injured,” Craig said. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Did One Group of Undercover Cops Try to Arrest Other Undercover Cops?” — Snopes

WTF Fun Fact 12958 – Odorless Sweat

Most sweat doesn’t smell. Body odor comes from the bacteria that feed on sweat in your armpits and groin only. Other perspiration is odorless sweat.

What sweat is odorless?

When most of us sweat, we can smell it. But that’s because getting sweaty means we sweat all over our bodies. However, the sweat that comes from our head, arms, back, and legs has no odor at all.

Only the perspiration from your armpits and groin produces body odor. If you use a strong antiperspirant in those areas, you can get all sweaty and not smell it.

Why does some sweat smell bad while some have odorless sweat?

According to Harvard Health (cited below):

“Your body has two main types of sweat glands — eccrine and apocrine — that release fluid (sweat) onto your skin’s surface when you’re hot. Sweat serves an important purpose. As perspiration evaporates, it cools your body temperature. Eccrine glands are all over your body. Apocrine glands are in areas like your armpits and groin. They produce a thicker, milky fluid. Sweat itself doesn’t have a smell. The odor happens when bacteria come into contact with the perspiration your apocrine glands release.”

Food and body odor

Your diet can also change the way you smell.

According to Harvard Health: “Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower produce gas. The breakdown of garlic and onions in your body releases sulfur-like compounds that waft out through your pores. And people with a rare condition called trimethylaminuria develop a fishy odor after eating seafood.”

Odorless sweat is still more common, however.

Can you stop sweating?

Those with a medical condition such as hyperhidrosis can address excess sweating with antiperspirants, other prescriptions, and even BOTOX. There’s even a surgery that can remove your sweat glands entirely.

However, sweat helps us cool down. So unless it’s ruining your life, it’s probably better to just sweat it out. — WTF fun facts

Source: “What’s that smell? Get rid of body odor” — Harvard Health Publishing

WTF Fun Fact 12957 – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Rhyming

A recent publication reports that a neuroscientist who suffered a series of strokes and seizures couldn’t stop rhyming and rapping after his recovery.

The rhyming neuroscientist

Of course, the neuroscientist’s name has been withheld to preserve his privacy, but a Feb 2022 piece in the journal Neurocase titled “The neurologist who could not stop rhyming and rapping” (cited below) says he is 55 years old.

In the abstract, author Mario Mendez states that “His strokes included right posterior cerebellar and right thalamic infarctions, and his subsequent focal-onset seizures emanated from the left frontotemporal region.

The urge to rap

The abstract goes on to describe the aftermath of his strokes:

“On recovery, he described the emergence of an irresistible urge to rhyme, even in thought and daily speech. His pronounced focus on rhyming led him to actively participate in freestyle rap and improvisation. This patient’s rhyming and rapping may have been initially facilitated by epileptiform activation of word sound associations but perpetuated as compensation for impaired cerebellar effects on timed anticipation.”

We still don’t know the underlying mechanisms that cause a person’s brain to develop linguistic dysfunctions after an injury such as a stroke. Some strokes affect the ability to speak or understand language, while others cause brain injuries with more unique symptoms. The irrepressible urge to rhyme is certainly a unique one!

Other post-stroke rappers

In 2019, The Atlantic published a piece on a 50-something man who couldn’t stop rapping after a stroke – and it’s likely the same person.

Dr. Sherman Hershfield specialized in physical medicine and rehabilitation and was in excellent health before he was plagued by blackouts and then a grand mal seizure and series of strokes. Then: “His personality also seemed to change. He suddenly became obsessed with reading and writing poetry. Soon Hershfield’s friends noticed another unusual side effect: He couldn’t stop speaking in rhyme.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “The neurologist who could not stop rhyming and rapping” — Neurocase