random fact

WTF Fun Fact 12982 – Death By Turnip

by

On December 19, 1881 a former British Conservative MP (Member of Parliament) named Sir William Payne Gallwey suffered death by turnip.

It’s even more strange since he was out on a shooting trip at his estate, Thirkleby Park. But a gun was not the cause of his death.

How does one die by turnip exactly?

The Northern Echo reported, that Gallwey “was out shooting in the parish of Bagby, and in crossing a turnip field fell with his body on to a turnip, sustaining severe internal injuries.”

He received medical aid after his fall. But already in poor health, he was unable to recover from his run-in with the turnip. He died a few days later.

Gallwey was 73, and he just retired from Parliament a year earlier.

According to Victorian Commons (cited below), “Gallwey is not the only MP whose death involved a turnip.”

A second death by turnip

In November 1833 Whig MP Lewis Fenton died after falling from a window at his home. He

“Press reports suggested that there was ‘considerable mystery’ surrounding the circumstances of his death, hinting at suicide, but the ensuing inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. As Fenton’s widow explained to the surgeon who tended him, Fenton had been in the habit of going into the attic to look at ‘a piece of ground where some turnips were growing, to see that none of his cows were trespassing in it’. He had apparently over-balanced while standing on a chair to look out of the window.”

Assuring people it was not a suicide, Victorian Commons notes that “Other evidence showed that Fenton had been in a cheerful mood the evening before his death, when he had drafted a speech for a forthcoming meeting regarding a testimonial to the anti-slave trade campaigner William Wilberforce.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Beware the turnip! Unusual causes of death among Victorian MPs” — Victorian Commons

WTF Fun Fact 12981 – Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco is Camp Crystal Lake

by

Are you a fan of 80s slasher films or Gen X nostalgia in general? Then you might want to visit the Kittatinny Mountain region in northwestern New Jersey. There, you’ll find a Boy Scout camp called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco. It was the setting for the iconic horror film Friday the 13th.

Just make sure you don’t go in the summer because they really don’t like it when people bring up getting murdered in the woods.

Camp-No-Be-Bo-Sco is Camp Crystal Lake

For those who visit, the camp still looks much like it did in the 1980 film about a camp that reopens on Friday the 13th, 1980, decades after a drowning and two grisly murders. The boy who drowned – Jason Voorhees. And his mother is none-too-pleased.

In the film, campers return just like they do in real life each summer. At the real Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, kids enjoy week-long retreats with swimming and games, and arts and crafts. Of course, Camp Crystal Lake was the setting of a new set of a second murderous rampage.

The Boy Scouts of America run the camp (No-Be-Bo-Sco stands for North Bergan Boy Scouts). And they’re very careful about its image and protecting campers from any unnecessary scare tactics from outsiders during the summer.

Things change in the fall.

Touring Camp Crystal Lake (aka “Camp Blood”)

Unaffectionately referred to by campers as “Camp Blood” in the film, those who run the camp these days know that film tours are a great way to raise money. That’s why they hand it over to a group of camp alumni in the fall. The former campers bring in Friday the 13th movie props, invite actors, etc., and run Crystal Lake Adventures. They’ve been leading tours since 2011.

According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine (cited below), whose author took a tour:

“The staff at Crystal Lake Adventures do not do media interviews or allow any commercial photography. My tour guide said events always sell out quickly, and word-of-mouth among Friday the 13th fans provides plenty of publicity.”

Sounds like the perfect way to prepare for Halloween! — WTF fun facts

Source: “The 1980 Slasher Movie ‘Friday the 13th’ Was Filmed at This Boy Scout Camp in New Jersey” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12980 – Pringles Are Not Potato Chips

by

If you think a potato chip is made from thinly sliced potatos, then Pringles are not potato chips at all. However, as far as British courts are concerned, they’re made with enough potatoes to call themselves potato chips.

What’s in a name?

It took 3 court cases at three different levels drawn out between the years 2007 and 2009 to decide whether the makers of Pringles were entitled to use the phrase potato chip to identify their product. As you might imagine, it was all about money.

According to HowStuffWorks (cited below): “Here’s how this comically complicated problem started. In the mid-20th century, a tax was born by way of France and England called the value-added or VAT tax. This ‘consumption tax’ started off as a 10 percent tax on all goods bought from a business. More than 20 percent of the world’s tax revenue comes from the value-added tax making it a pretty big deal.”

Deciding if Pringles are potato chips

Ok, so what does this have to do with potato chips?

“In Britain, most foods are exempt from the value-added tax, except for potato chips or ‘similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour.’ This led to a long, arduous journey to figure out whether or not Pringles (which, by the way, were touted at one time as the “newfangled potato chip“) were actually potato chips. If they were ruled as chips, Pringles’ parent company at the time, Procter & Gamble, would be subject to a 17.5 percent VAT tax.”

As you may have noticed, many companies will go to great lengths to reduce their tax burdens. But get this…”Procter & Gamble’s initial argument was that, no, Pringles were not potato chips because they didn’t “contain enough potato to have the quality of ‘potatoness.‘”

In 2008, a lower British court agreed with P&G , but a year later, the Court of Appeal re- reversed that decision, “calling Procter & Gamble’s argument that the ingredients of a product don’t define the product ‘hogwash.'”

Potatoness begets taxedness

That overturned decision was bad news for P&G because they were now on the hook for $160 million in taxes.

Apparently, 42% of potato flour is enough to constitute potatoness for the point of British taxes. — WTF fun facts

Source: “It Took a Court to Decide Whether Pringles Are Potato Chips” — HowStuffWords

WTF Fun Fact 12979 – The Longest Name in New Zealand

by

New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs’ (DIA) sets a 100-character limit when it comes to people’s names. But that doesn’t fully explain the longest name in New Zealand, which belongs to a man named Full Metal Havok More Sexy N Intelligent Than Spock And All The Superheroes Combined With Frostnova.

How did he get the longest name in New Zealand?

The man wasn’t born with this name. In fact, he lost a bet five years earlier.

According to the NZ Herald (cited below), “A message on an online body building forum, written by someone describing themselves as a friend of the man, said the name change was the result of a lost poker bet and the man realized his drunken consequences only when his passport expired.”

Making it official

Apparently not one to backtrack on a bet, Mr. Frostnova registered his name change in 2010, which was confirmed by DIA Births Deaths and Marriages spokesman Michael Mead. It does sound like he was a bit too inebriated after the poker match he lost to remember precisely what he did, however. It was only when he applied for a new passport that he realized the name had been accepted and was now legal (though he was welcome to change it).

“The name met the requirements of naming rules and the applicant paid the fee and completed the form correctly, he said. Mr Frostnova could change his name again any time by completing the form correctly and paying the $127 fee, Mr Mead said. The process takes around eight days.”

There was no reason for the government to try to stop him since the DIA says names are only rejected in cases where they might “cause offense to a reasonable person, are unreasonably long, or without adequate justification include or resemble an official title or rank.”

However, in 2008, a Family Court Judge named Rob Murfitt did take issue with the name of a child and “publicly criticized some parents’ choice of names after he ordered that a girl named Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii be taken into court custody so she could change her name.”

In New Zealand, names can not include numbers or symbols. Therefore, some “rejected names in recent years include Majesty, King, Knight, Princess, Justice, Anal, V8, 89, Mafia No Fear, Lucifer, full stop and *.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Dunedin man’s 99-character name” — New Zealand Herald

WTF Fun Fact 12978 – How Does Temperature Affect the Color of Leaves?

by

Have you noticed that autumn looks a bit different every year? Sometimes the leaves fall early. Other times they’re on the trees much longer to give a full display of color. A lot of this has to do with the temperature outside. But how does temperature affect the color of leaves?

The temperature of fall and its effect on leaves

As the nights get cooler in the northern hemisphere in September and October, we begin to see the trees change. If you’re lucky enough to live around a mixture of trees, you’ll begin to see bright red, orange, and yellow leaves appear.

Without as much daily sunlight, trees don’t go through as much photosynthesis. This is aprocess that produces sugars, which trees use as energy to grow and flower.

A reduction in photosynthesis leads to a reduction in chlorophyll as well, which is the pigment that makes leaves green. As they lose chlorophyll, they lose their green color and prepare to shed for the winter so trees can conserve their energy inside the branches and bark.

How does temperature affect the color of leaves?

But that still doesn’t explain the role of temperature.

The weather leading up to shorter days is actually quite important when it comes to determining how fall plays out for leaves .

We know that a reduction in chlorophyll leads to leaves being less green, but what makes some seasons produce more vibrant red leaves than others? Why does a tree turn bright orange one year and only a dull copper the next year?

Well, it turns out that the pigments that begin to show up once chlorophyll is reduced are dependent on both temperature and moisture conditions right before days start getting shorter. For example, some weather conditions make a leaf turn red early. It also helps it stay on the tree longer, so it goes through its full range of colors before falling off.

The role of weather in fall leaf displays

According to scientists at Michigan State (cited below), lots of warm days and cool nights narrow the veins in leaves. This helps trap the sugars made during photosynthesis in those leaves. When this happens, the sugars produce more vivid pigments.

“The most brilliant leaf displays follow a period of warm days filled with sunshine and cool nights. During this weather cycle, leaves produce an abundance of sugars during the sunny days. The cooler nights and gradual narrowing of leaf veins in the fall, means that a majority of the sugars produced are trapped in the leaf. An abundance of sugar and light in the leaf lead to the production of vivid anthocyanin pigments, which produce red, purple and crimson colors. Yellow and gold leaf colors are produced by carotenoid pigments, which are ever-present in the leaves and are therefore less dependent on the aforementioned conditions.”

Other factors in fall leaves

“Soil moisture also plays a role in the timing and brilliance of leaf color. The best displays are produced when the soil has been adequately moist throughout the year coupled with the aforementioned late summer weather. A late spring, or severe summer drought can delay the onset of color. A warm period during the fall can also decrease the intensity of fall colors by triggering early leaf drop before the colors have had a chance to develop.”

Finally, MSU explains that other factors can play a role in individual trees:

“Trees on the edge of low-lying areas, where cooler air collects at night, often display colors sooner than trees in an upland forested setting. Trees that are diseased or in decline may also display fall colors earlier than their healthy neighbors.“

And that’s why no two autumns will ever look the same. — WTF fun facts

Source: “How weather affects fall colors” — Michigan State University Extension

WTF Fun Fact 12977 – Why Isn’t September the 7th Month?

by

To us, the months of the calendar can mean lots of things. It can signal big changes (new school years, new fiscal years, birthday months, the beginning of Spring, harvest season, etc.). But historically, calendars were also instruments of power. That’s part of the explanation as to why September isn’t the 7th month of the year anymore.

What does September mean?

Our month of September comes from the ancient Roman calendar. The month named Septem literally meant “seven” – as in the 7th month of the year.

For much of their ancient history, the Romans has a 10-month calendar. However, to be fair, emperors were always inserting new numbers of days or months named after themselves in there. In fact, the infamous emperor Commodus tried to rename all the months after himself (a measure that was repealed after his assassination).

What did calendars really mean?

People weren’t hanging their calendars on the walls back in the ancient world. They mostly went by the night sky and used the position of the sun and the seasons to figure out what needed to be done in the fields (nearly all society was agrarian at the time).

Those in power – whether it was political or religious power (or both) – used calendars to try to make the world operate according to their whim. And while you can’t change the pace of the seasons or the lunar cycles just by sticking in a random month, you can change things like the time when taxes are due, which can really mess things up for the people around you. Politicians would even try to lose or gain a month to shorten someone’s tenure in power!

So, why isn’t September the 7th month anymore?

Recalling the entire history of the calendar would take a while. Let’s just say there have been plenty of disagreements over the centuries about how many months were needed, how many days would be in each month, when new days should be inserted to keep up with the astrological “calendar,” and what the months would be called.

But the end of September’s literal meaning started in 451 BCE when January and February were added by the Roman ruler Numa Pompilius to create a 12-month year. He added them at the end of the old calendar (which began in March), then switched things around again, but the 12-month idea clearly made more sense because it lined up with the lunar cycles.

The calendar went through many more changes, including the inclusion of the 27/28-day month called Mercedonius at one point. In 46 BC Julius Caesar had enough and reformed the calendar. That didn’t mean there weren’t tweaks here and there after that, but there’s a reason we refer to our current calendar as the Julian calendar.

It’s just that no one really cared that poor September had lost its meaning along the way. — WTF fun facts

Source: “September (Roman month)” — Wikipedia; “Roman republican calendar” — Britannica

WTF Fun Fact 12976 – Rubber Bands Last Longer When Refrigerated

by

Rubber bands aren’t expensive, but they can be important to have around. And making sure you don’t use them recklessly could help keep rubber out of landfills. But did you know that there’s an easy way to prolong the life of your rubber bands? Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Why do rubber bands last longer when refrigerated?

The rubber used to make rubber bands is unlike most other materials. In many cases, materials do better in warmer or room temperature environments places that don’t stress the bonds hold them together. But that’s not the case for rubber bands.

Cold temperatures make the polymers in the rubber more relaxed. This prevents them from degrading or forming the dry rot that causes them to break just when you need them most.

According to JFlex (cited below): “When a rubber band is stretched it causes its polymer chains to become very ordered and it expels thermal energy (heat), thus shortening its life. This is increased further when placed in higher temperature environments which increases the oxidisation rate. Also, the natural rubber that is used to make rubber bands crystallises over time, giving us what is commonly called ‘dry-rot’ – which is where the bands get dry, crumble and no longer have any elasticity.”

Be careful when removing rubber bands from the fridge

Now, if you do decide to refrigerate your rubber bands, make sure not to stretch them right away.

“When a rubber band is in its relaxed state it is very unordered, and will cool when going from a structured state to a relaxed state. So when a rubber band is put in the refrigerator it makes the polymers even more relaxed due to the way they behave in the cold.

Something to be careful of is immediately stretching the rubber band after being in the fridge, as this will cause it to weaken significantly because of the rapid change of temperature state.”

Who knew? —WTF fun facts

Source: “Why do rubber bands last longer when refrigerated?” — JFlex

WTF Fun Fact 12975 – Italy’s Oldest College Graduate

by

In 2020, 96-year-old Giuseppe Paterno became Italy’s oldest college graduate. In 2022, at age 98, he did it again by getting a Master’s degree in history and philosophy from the University of Palermo.

The background of Italy’s oldest college grad

According to Reuters (cited below), Paterno was born in 1923 and “grew up in a poor family in Sicily and despite his love of books and studying, he wasn’t able to go to university as a young man…Instead, he served in the navy during World War Two from the age of 20 and went on to be a railway worker.” He is the youngest of seven children.

He enrolled in the University of Palermo in 2017 to get an undergraduate degree in philosophy and history, which he achieved in 2020.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, Palermo said “I’ve finally realized my dream…Being able to study has always been my greatest aspiration, but my family wasn’t able to pay for my education. We were a large family and very poor.”

About his college goals, he told the paper: “I came out unscathed from the war and took a job working for the state railway service. I wasn’t enthused about my job, but I knew I had to do it because by that time I was married and had a family to support. At the same time, I had an overwhelming desire to dive into books and read, study and learn.”

Paterno’s lifelong learning goals

Paterno did try to go back to school and take evening classes at age 31 but wasn’t able to balance family life, work, and college at the time.

It wasn’t until his 90s that he was able to really make time to study.

In 2020, he said: “I’d wake up at seven to study. I’d use an old typewriter to complete my assignments. I’d rest in the afternoon and in the evening I’d study until midnight. My neighbours used to ask, ‘why all this trouble at your age?’ But they couldn’t understand the importance of reaching a dream, regardless of my age.”

However, COVID nearly thwarted his efforts as he was forced to enroll in online classes to finish his undergraduate degree. But he made it, saying: “It’s one of the happiest days of my entire life. I only wish my wife were here to see me. She died 14 years ago.”

That’s when he made plans to get his Master’s degree, which he received in June of 2022.

Now Italy’s oldest college graduate plans to use his beloved typewriter to write a novel. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Italy’s oldest student graduates again aged 98” — Reuters

WTF Fun Fact 12974 – The Sex Lives of Constipated Scorpions

by

The Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 10 unusual (or unusually unuseful) scientific research projects each year since 1991. While it’s all in good fun, we couldn’t help but do a double-take this year at one of the winners – a team that published a study on the sex lives of constipated scorpions.

Constipated scorpions have it rough

Solimary García-Hernández and Glauco Machado of the University of São Paulo in Brazil won the 2022 Ig Nobel in biology for trying to discern whether being constipated affects a scorpion’s sex life. (To be fair, we can’t help but think being constipated is kind of a bummer for any creature.)

According to an Associated Press story on the prizes, “Scorpions can detach a body part to escape a predator — a process called autotomy. But when they lose their tails, they also lose the last portion of the digestive tract, which leads to constipation — and, eventually, death, they wrote in the journal Integrated Zoology.”

“The long-term decrease in the locomotor performance of autotomized males may impair mate searching,” they wrote.

Ok, maybe constipated humans don’t have it so bad after all.

Why even study this?

So, this particular study came about in an interesting way. The paper’s lead author Solimary García-Hernández had long been studying the scorpion species Ananteris balzani.

This species has an interesting characteristic – they shed their tails to help them escape a predator.

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “It was a big surprise in 2015 when she, while working as part of a larger research team, found that Ananteris scorpions are capable of shedding their tails. “Autotomy”—the process of dropping a body part to escape a predator—was until then known to have evolved in only a handful of animal lineages like starfish, spiders and certain lizards.”

Ok, so we totally understand wanting to look more closely into that interesting fact, especially since it turns out that when lizards shed their tails, it can impact their ability to walk but doesn’t kill them. However, scorpions are different.

When Ananteris scorpions shed their tails, their digestive tract backs up with feces, and they get swollen and die within around 8 months.

That’s weird since animals don’t typically adapt in a way that’s fatal to them unless it somehow helps their species. In this case, the extra months likely give them more time to reproduce. And that’s where studying their sex lives comes in.

The sex lives of constipated scorpions

García-Hernández decided to monitor the post-tail life of these scorpions to see how tail loss impacted their ability to reproduce.

“The team then set up a series of matings between stump-tailed and intact scorpions. García-Hernández predicted that autotomized male scorpions would be less successful at mating than their fully endowed counterparts, since the tail plays an important role in their complicated mating ritual.”

Male scorpions use their tails both to show off to mates and during intercourse, so not having a tail should make mating difficult. However, it turns out they just used their stump and were just fine.

It was a different story for females, however.

According to Smithsonian, “when the team explored the reproductive costs paid by stump-tailed females, the story was different. They found that tailless females, while able to mate successfully, went on to have 20 percent fewer offspring than intact females.

The reason for this difference? The five-month scorpion pregnancy provides a lot of time for females to get more and more constipated, says García-Hernández. She hypothesizes that the buildup of feces caused by the loss of the anus is either toxic to the embryos or that the feces simply crowds out the developing scorplings. This latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that a severely constipated scorpion can weigh 30 percent more than it did before it lost its tail. By comparison, that’s equivalent to a 150 pound person gaining 45 pounds of poop weight.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “For Constipated Scorpions, Females Suffer Reproductively. Males, Not So Much.” — Smithsonian Magazine