random fact

WTF Fun Fact 12954 – Is the Soul Weighing 21 Grams a Lie?

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There’s no reliable way to weigh the human “soul,” though one person has tried. Still, the myth that the soul weighs 21 grams and that scientists have confirmed it still persists. And that’s because of a movie.

The weight of the soul

“21 Grams” is a 2003 film starring Sean Penn in which he plays a mathematician who experiments to find the weight of the human soul. It’s based on a story about a scientist, to some small extent, but the movie is pure fiction.

The man who attempted to weigh the human soul was a physician named Duncan MacDougall from Dorchester, MA. He assumed that if humans had souls in their bodies, those souls must weigh something. Therefore, upon death, the soul leaves the body and a person’s corpse should therefore be lighter.

In 1907, he wrote about his effort: “Since … the substance considered in our hypothesis is linked organically with the body until death takes place, it appears to me more reasonable to think that it must be some form of gravitative matter, and therefore capable of being detected at death by weighing a human being in the act of death.”

A flawed experiment

According to LiveScience, “MacDougall teamed up with Dorchester’s Consumptives’ Home, a charitable hospital for late-stage tuberculosis, which at that time was incurable. MacDougall built a large scale, capable of holding a cot and a dying tuberculosis patient. Tuberculosis was a convenient disease for this experiment, MacDougall explained in his paper, because patients died in ‘great exhaustion’ and without any movement that would jiggle his scale.”

We’re already on shaky ground here, but it gets worse.

“MacDougall’s first patient, a man, died on April 10, 1901, with a sudden drop in the scale of 0.75 ounce (21.2 grams). And in that moment, the legend was born. It didn’t matter much that MacDougall’s next patient lost 0.5 ounce (14 grams) 15 minutes after he stopped breathing, or that his third case showed an inexplicable two-step loss of 0.5 ounce and then 1 ounce (28.3 g) a minute later. MacDougall threw out Case 4, a woman dying of diabetes, because the scale wasn’t well calibrated, in part due to a ‘good deal of interference by people opposed to our work,’ which raises a few questions that MacDougall did not seem eager to answer in his write-up. Case 5 lost 0.375 ounce (10.6 grams), but the scale malfunctioned afterward, raising questions about those numbers, too. Case 6 got thrown out because the patient died while MacDougall was still adjusting his scale. MacDougall then repeated the experiments on 15 dogs and found no loss of weight — indicating, to his mind, that all dogs definitely do not go to heaven.”

Despite being a poor experiment with few samples in which his own first result was undermined by everything that came after it, he sent in his write-up to the journals American Medicine and the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, and his results were also reported in the New York Times.

No one except a sheep rancher in Oregon has ever tried to replicate the experiment, for ethical reasons.

So science has neither determined the existence of a soul nor its weight. —WTF fun facts

Source: “How much does the soul weigh?” — LiveScience

WTF Fun Fact 12953 – Abraham Lincoln, Licensed Bartender and Wrestling Champ

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While U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was known for being a wrestling champ, it’s less well-known that he was also a licensed bartender. In fact, he co-owned a bar with a friend. Unfortunately, that story had a rather sad ending.

Abraham Lincoln is in the Wrestling Hall of Fame

While he grew up in a log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness and then moved to Illinois as a boy, much of Lincoln’s early life isn’t household knowledge. Take, for example, his wrestling “career.” According to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame:

“In the rough and ready style of the frontier, “catch as catch can” wrestling was more hand-to-hand combat than sport. Lincoln, an awesome physical specimen at 6-feet-4, was widely known for his wrestling skills and had only one recorded defeat in a dozen years.

At age 19, he defended his stepbrother’s river barge from Natchez thugs by throwing the hijackers overboard. Ten years later, Lincoln was a storekeeper at New Salem when his boss backed him to out-wrestle Jack Armstrong, local tough and county champion. From the start, Lincoln handed out a thrashing. When Armstrong began fouling, Lincoln picked up his opponent, dashed him to the ground and knocked him out.”

Lincoln’s bartending career

Lincoln went on to become a lawyer and, eventually, president of the United States. But before his law career took off, he was a shopkeeper and bartender. In fact, he’s the only president to have ever been a licensed bartender.

According to Chicagoist (cited below):

“In January 1833, he partnered with his friend from his militia days, William F. Berry, to purchase a small store, which they named Berry and Lincoln. Stores could sell alcohol in quantities greater than a pint for off-premises consumption, but it was illegal to sell single drinks to consume at the store without a license. In March 1833, Berry and Lincoln were issued a tavern, or liquor, license, which cost them $7 and was taken out in Berry’s name. Stores that sold liquor to consume on the premises were called groceries.”

Unfortunately, the store didn’t work out because of Berry’s alcoholism. He drank the store’s liquor, and the pair’s business fell into debt. “It wasn’t until 1848, when Lincoln was a congressman, that he was able to pay off the whole debt.”

Once Lincoln entered politics, he denied selling alcohol “by the drink,” but people knew. His opponents even poked fun at him over it during debates.

Alas, he’s remembered for other things now. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Bartender-In-Chief: Abraham Lincoln Owned A Tavern” — Chicagoist

WTF Fun Fact 12951 – The Witwatersrand Gold Rush

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Around half of the gold in the world today comes from South Africa. And it wasn’t even discovered until the 1850s. The Witwatersrand gold field still produces gold to this day.

What and where is Witwatersrand?

The majority of the Witwatersrand Basin is underground, yet it holds the world’s largest gold reserves. It has produced around 88 million pounds of gold since it was discovered.

Located in South Africa, most of the basin is hidden away deep inside the earth. But there are outcrops that are more reachable, such as the one in Gauteng that forms the Witwatersrand ridge. The southern part of the ridge, which is roughly 3 miles west of modern Johannesburg, South Africa was discovered on a farm. Later, people realized that the Centra Rand Gold Field actually continued for 31 miles.

What is Witwatersrand’s history with gold?

In 1852, a Welch mineralogist named John Henry Davis discovered a gold deposit and brought his finding to President Andries Pretorius (who came from a Dutch settler family, was the leader of the Boers, and played a role in later forming the South African Republic). With the fear of what would happen if news got out, Davis was told to sell the gold he found to the Transvaal Treasury for £600 and leave the country.

Of course, news of a gold mine doesn’t stay quiet for long. Other foreigners went through the same thing. George Harrison and Pieter Jacob Marais also found gold and sold out their stakes.

But in September 1886 President Paul Kruger (a Boer who had successfully defended the territory the Dutch took over from the British) declared nine farms in the area open for digging to the public. This sparked the Witwatersrand Gold Rush.

The Witwatersrand Gold Rush

There were already small Dutch gold mines in the area before the late 1880s. But the gold rush meant signaled open season for wealthy men from around the world to start dynamiting the landscape.

Then, mining magnate Cecil Rhodes (founder of DeBeers) got involved. He had already wreaked havoc by displacing people and destroying land in modern Zambia and Zimbabwe. Then, he moved on to the south African cape to find diamonds before hearing about the gold.

The gold found in the region gave the British motivation to take the land the Dutch had claimed for themselves. Gold magnates sought to overthrow governments. They led bloody uprisings, staged raids, and built enormous sites for their workers to live on the land being plundered.

Modern-day effects of the gold rush

The gold rush is credited with the foundation of the modern city of Johannesburg. However, the city still suffers from tremors and other surface instabilities (like sinkholes) after being hollowed out by gold-seekers.

According to Atlas Obscura (cited below): “The mines in the Witwatersrand Basin are some of the deepest in the world, tunneling miles below the surface. The deepest mine, Mponeng, tunnels 2.5 miles below the surface, and houses the world’s tallest elevator, which can go down more than 7,000 feet in three minutes, traveling up to 40 miles per hour. As the gold is extracted, the mines had to be dug deeper to keep the supply up. In certain places, it can take miners two hours to get from the surface to the depths of the mine, where they face extraordinarily dangerous conditions. Gold mining has been on the decline since the 1980s, which has had a huge impact on the economic health of the region that has long glittered with gold. Today, there are just 120,000 remaining workers in the once immensely profitable gold industry in South Africa.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Witwatersrand Basin: Hartbeespoort, South Africa” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 12950 – Anatidaephobia

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Anatidaephobia is the fear of being watched by ducks. And despite this existing as a fun fact for decades, it may not actually be a real thing. If it is, it originated in an awfully strange place for a real phobia.

Who’s afraid of a duck?

Ducks are probably only watching you if you get too close to them or their nests. But we don’t want to downplay phobias, because they’re very real and produce real physical symptoms. So, could someone fear that a duck is watching them? Sure.

The question is whether this fear rises to the level of anatidaephobia. That’s less likely since the word was coined by Gary Larson in his comic The Far Side. The idea of this particular phobia is a hoax.

Phobias and anatidaephobia

Phobias spawn feelings of intense fear and worry about object or situations. While there’s no formal duck phobia, the idea of anatidaephobia comes from the Greek word “anatidae,” meaning “swan, ducks, or geese,” and “phobos,” meaning “fear.”

According to PsychCentral (cited below, and which does eventually get around to the point of mentioning it’s a hoax): “People who experience this phobia may not necessarily be worried that a duck might attack them. Instead, their fear centers around the idea that somewhere, a duck could be watching them — constantly.”

However, while “Anatidaephobia may seem like it could be a credible phobia, the fear of being constantly watched by a duck is actually a fictional phobia created for entertainment.”

In other words, you won’t find a fear of ducks in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), though you will find diagnostic criteria for “Specific Phobia: Animal type.”

That doesn’t mean a fear of birds, in general, is fake though. “Ornithophobia, or the fear of birds, is an animal type of specific phobia. Some people with this type of phobia may fear all birds or just a specific type of bird, such as a duck. Although anatidaephobia may not be real, the fear of ducks is a very real phobia.”

In the end, PsychCentral explains that: “Anatidaephobia can be traced back to Gary Larson, creator of the ‘The Far Side’ comic. Larson’s cartoon comic depicted a paranoid office worker with the caption, ‘Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.’ The comic showed a duck looking out a window from another building behind the office. The point of Larson’s cartoon was to illustrate that any object can be a source of fear. Since the fictional phobia debuted in 1988, anatidaephobia has gained popularity. This has led to the internet questioning the phobia’s veracity. While anatidaephobia is indeed a hoax and not a real phobia, fears and phobias are no laughing matter. Phobias can have serious affects on a person’s daily life.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Fear of Ducks Watching You: Is Anatidaephobia a Real Condition?” — PsychCentral

WTF Fun Fact 12949 – 200 Invented Languages

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Writers and linguists have created over 200 entirely new languages over the millennia for use in literature, films, games, comic books, television shows, etc.

According to TranslationDirectory.com (cited below), here is a list:

Literature

  • AdunaicfromJ. R. R. Tolkien’s works
  • Aklo,Tsath-yo, andR’lyehianare ancient and obscure languages in the works ofH. P. Lovecraft,Clark Ashton Smith, and others. Aklo is considered by some writers to be thewritten languageof theSerpent People
  • Amtorian, spoken in some cultures on the planetVenusinPirates of VenusbyEdgar Rice Burroughsand several sequels. Judged by critic Fredrik Ekman to have “a highly inventive morphology but a far less interesting syntax.”
  • Ancient Language in theInheritance TrilogybyChristopher Paolini(although this is considered to be a cipher of English by many)
  • Angley,UnglishandIngliss– three languages spoken respectively at Western Europe, North America and the Pacific in the 29th Century world ofPoul Anderson’s “Orion Shall Rise”. All derived from present-day English, the three are mutually unintelligible, following 800 years of separate development after a 21st centurynuclear warand the extensive absorption of words and grammatical forms fromFrenchin the first case,Russian,ChineseandMongolianin the second, andPolynesianin the third.
  • Anglic, the dominant languague of the declining Galactic empire depicted inPoul Anderson’sDominic Flandryseries, is descended from present-day English but so changed that only professional historians or linguists can understand English texts.
  • Anglo-French, in thealternate historyworld of theLord Darcystories byRandall Garrett– where England and France were permanently united into a single kingdom byRichard the Lionheartand their languages consequently merged.
  • asa’pili (“world language”), inbolo’bolo, by Swiss authorP.M..
  • Atreides battle, inDunebyFrank Herbert
  • Babel-17, inBabel-17bySamuel R. Delany
  • Baronh, language of Abh inSeikai no Monsho(Crest of the Stars) and others, byMorioka Hiroyuki
  • Black Speech– language ofMordorinThe Lord of the Rings
  • Bokonon– language of the Bokononism religion in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”
  • Chakobsa, a language used in theDunenovels byFrank Herbert
  • Codex SeraphinianusbyLuigi Serafiniappears to be written in a constructed language which is presumably the language of the alien civilization the book describes
  • CommonThe language spoken in a wide variety of fantasy fiction, particularlyDungeons and Dragons.
  • D’HaranThe ancient, dead language of pre-Great War New World (D’Hara, Midlands, and Westland) in Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth” series.
  • Drac, language of the alien species inBarry B. Longyear’sEnemy MineandThe Enemy Papers
  • Kad’k, the language of theDwarfsinTerry Pratchett’sDiscworld
  • Earthseabooks (byUrsula K. Le Guin)
  • Language of the Making – the basis of all magic, spoken byDragonsas their native tongue and learned with considerable effort by human mages
  • Hardic– linguistically descended from the above
  • Osskilian, andKargish– a different family of languages, distantly related
  • Elemeno, language of two sisters inCaucasiabyDanzy Senna.
  • Fremen, language of the native people of Arrakis, inDuneand other novels byFrank Herbert
  • Galactic Standard SpeechinAsimov’ “Foundation series”. Inhabitants of the planetFomalhautspeak “an extremedialect” of it.
  • GalacticspeakfromThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • Gobbledygook, the language ofgoblins, in theHarry Potterseries. Noted speakers includeAlbus DumbledoreandBarty Crouch.
  • Glide, created byDiana Reed Slattery, used by the Death Dancers ofThe Maze Game
  • Groilish, spoken bygiantsinGiants and the JonesesbyJulia Donaldson.
  • High Speechof Gilead from Stephen King’sThe Dark Tower (series)
  • Ilythiiri, the language ofdrowelves inForgotten Realmssetting.[2]
  • Kesh, inUrsula K. Le Guin’s novelAlways Coming Home
  • Krakish, inGuardians of Ga’HoolebyKathryn Lasky
  • Láadan(ldn), inSuzette Haden Elgin’s science fiction novelNative Tongueand sequels
  • Lapine, inWatership DownbyRichard Adams
  • LilliputianfromJonathan Swift’sGulliver’s Travels. Further samples of the language are provided inT. H. White’sMistress Masham’s Repose. InGulliver’s Travels, other fictional languages, spoken in other places Gulliver visits, are also presented, e.g.Brobdingnagian,Laputan,BalbinarbianandHouyhnhnmlanguages.
  • Mando’a, created byKaren Traviss, used by theMandaloriansin theStar WarsRepublic CommandonovelsHard ContactandTriple Zero
  • Manganiin theTarzannovels ofEdgar Rice Burroughs
  • Marain, inThe Culturenovels ofIain M. Banks
  • Thelanguages of Middle-earth(most notablySindarin(sjn),Quenya(qya) andKhuzdul) byJ. R. R. Tolkien, partly published inThe Lord of the Rings, and posthumously discussed inThe History of Middle-earthandother publications.
  • MolvanianfromMolvania, A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry
  • Nadsatslang, inA Clockwork OrangebyAnthony Burgess
  • Newspeak, inNineteen Eighty-FourbyGeorge Orwell(fictional constructed language)
  • The “NautilusLanguage”, spoken on boardJules Verne’s famous fictional submarine, in token of crew members having completely renounced their former homelands and backgrounds. Every morning, after scanning the horizon with his binoculars, Nemo’s second-in-command says: “Nautron respoc lorni virch”. The meaning of these words is never clarified, but their construction seems to indicate that the “Nautilus Language” (its actual name is not given) is based on European languages.
  • Old Solar, inOut of the Silent Planet,Perelandra, andThat Hideous StrengthbyC. S. Lewis
  • TheOld TonguefromRobert Jordan’sWheel of Timeseries
  • Paluldonianin aTarzannovel,Tarzan the Terrible, byEdgar Rice Burroughs. Used by the inhabitants of the realm of Pal-ul-don in Africa, separated from the outside world by impenetrable marshes.
  • Parseltongue, the language ofsnakes, in theHarry Potterseries. The ability of humans to speak it is considered amagicability.
  • Pennsylvanisch, fromMichael Flynn’sThe Forest of Time
  • PravicandIotic, inThe DispossessedbyUrsula K. Le Guin
  • Ptydepe, fromVáclav Havel’s playThe Memorandum
  • QuintagliofromRobert J. Sawyer’sQuintaglio Ascension Trilogy
  • QuenyafromJ. R. R. Tolkien’s works.
  • QwghlmianfromNeal Stephenson’sCryptonomiconandThe Baroque Cycle
  • Rihannsu, spoken by the Rihannsu (Romulans) in theStar Treknovels ofDiane Duane
  • Spocanian, inRolandt Tweehuysen’s fictional countrySpocania
  • Stark(short for Star Common), a common interstellar English-based language fromOrson Scott Card’sEnderseries
  • Starsza MowafromAndrzej Sapkowski’sHexer saga
  • Trolllanguage fromTerry Pratchett’sDiscworld
  • Utopian language, appearing in a poem byPetrus GillesaccompanyingThomas More’sUtopia
  • Whitmanite, spoken by members of a radicalAnarchist-Pacifistcult of the same name inRobert Heinlein’The Puppet Masters. “Allucquere” is a female given name in Whitmanite.
  • Zaum, poetic tongue elaborated byVelimir Khlebnikov,Aleksei Kruchonykh, and otherRussian Futuristsas a “transrational” and “most universal” language “of songs, incantations, and curses”.

Comic books

  • Bordurianin some ofHergé’sThe Adventures of Tintin, mostly inThe Calculus Affair
  • Interlac, the universal language spoken in the 30th century in theLegion of Super Heroescomics
  • Kryptonese, or Kryptonian, the language of Superman’s home planet ofKrypton
  • Syldavian, in some ofHergé’sThe Adventures of Tintin, mostly inKing Ottokar’s Sceptre
  • Movies and television
  • Two kinds ofalien language, termed “Alienese” and “Beta Crypt 3” appear quite frequently in background sight gags inFuturama.
  • Ancientin theStargateuniverse (i.e.Stargate SG-1andStargate Atlantis) is the language of the Ancients, the builders of theStargates; it is similar in pronunciation toMedieval Latin. TheAthosianssay prayers in Ancient.
  • Atlanteancreated byMarc Okrandfor the filmAtlantis: The Lost Empire
  • Cityspeak, a “mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German,” plus Hungarian and French, spoken on the street of overcrowded and multi-lingual Los Angeles of 2019 inBlade Runner. Similarly, used in manycyberpunkgenrerole playing games.
  • The Divine Languageis a language invented by directorLuc Bessonand actressMilla Jovovichfor the 1997 movieThe Fifth Element.
  • Enchanta, in theEncantadiaandEtheriatelevision series in the Philippines, created by the head writerSuzette Doctolero
  • Gelfling, spoken inJim Henson’s fantasy epicThe Dark Crystal
  • Goa’uld, the galacticlingua francafromStargate SG-1, supposedly influencedAncient Egyptian
  • Huttese, language of both alien species and people in some ofGeorge Lucas’sStar Warsfilms
  • Irken, inInvader Zim, byJhonen Vasquez,et al.
  • Klingon(tlh), in theStar Trekmovie and television series, created byMarc Okrand
  • KrakozhianfromThe Terminal
  • Ku, a fictional African language in the movieThe Interpreter(2005)
  • Linguacode, a universallanguagecode sometimes used by theUnited Federation of Planetsin theStar Trektelevisionseries.
  • Marklar, spoken by the people of Marklar in aSouth Parkepisode.
  • MinbarifromBabylon 5, three related languages used together, corresponding to the areas of expertise of the three societal castes.
  • Nadsat, the fictional language spoken by Alex and his friends inClockwork Orange
  • Nellish, a personal language from the main character ofNell
  • PakufromLand of the Lost
  • PortuGreek, the trade language featured inWaterworld
  • The pseudo-Spanish/Greek/Arabic language of Republica, as used in the fictionalChanel 9program within the British comedy sketch show theThe Fast Show
  • Quenya(qya) andSindarin(sjn), the two Elven languages, spoken in theLord of the Ringsmovies.
  • Slovetzian, the fictional Slavic language ofSlovetziain the movieThe Beautician and the Beast
  • TheStar Warsseries features several fictional languages.
  • Tenctonesefrom theAlien Nationmovie andtelevision series, created byVan LingandKenneth Johnson
  • UnasinStargate SG-1, supposedly the first hosts of the Goa’uld
  • Ulam, language spoken by the prehistoric humans inAnthony Burgess’ movieQuest for Fire, created by melting roots of European languages.
  • Vampirelanguage used in the movieBlade.
  • Vulcan languagefromStar Trek
  • Unnamed languages
  • In theJanissaries seriesofscience-fictionnovels byJerry Pournelle, the human natives of the planet Tran speak a language apparently derived fromMycenaean. A form of Latin is also spoken in an empire resembling ancient Rome’s, but only by scholars.
  • Riddley Walker, a 1980 novel byRussell Hoban, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is written entirely in a “devolved” form of English.
  • Writer/directorLuc Bessoninvented aDivine LanguageforMilla Jovovich’s character “Leeloo” to speak in the filmThe Fifth Element.
  • Music
  • Gulevache: fictionalRomance Languageof the kingdom of Gulevandia on the bilingual operaCardoso en Gulevandiaby the comedy groupLes Luthiers
  • Kobaian, the language used by 70’s French rock groupMagma.
  • Vonlenska, sometimes known as “Hopelandic”, the language sung byJón Þór Birgissonof theIcelandicband “Sigur Rós” on many of their songs.
  • Loxian, featured on theEnyaalbumAmarantine.
  • Unnamed language by Yves Barbieux, used in his song “Sanomi” and performed by the Belgian groupUrban Tradin the Eurovision Song contest in 2003.
  • Mohelmot, a forbidden language used byThe Residentson the albumThe Big Bubble: Part Four of the Mole Trilogy.
  • Unnamed language by Emmanuelle Orange, used in her song Pialoushka and performed by Montreal bandEden106.
  • Unnamed language featured in thechorusof2NU’s 1991 trackThis is Ponderous.
  • Unnamed language featured in the soundtrack to the film1492: Conquest of ParadisebyVangelis.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “List of constructed languages” — TranslationDirectory.com

WTF Fun Fact 12948 – Pumpkin Boat World Record

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Have you ever looked at a giant pumpkin and thought to yourself, “that looks seaworthy”? Well, plenty of folks do, which is where there’s a Guinness World Record for the longest journey in a pumpkin boat.

A 12-hour tour – in a pumpkin boat

On August 27, 2022, a Nebraska man named Duane Hansen took for the river in an 846-pound pumpkin and rode it 38 miles down the Missouri River. The S.S. Berta turned out to be seaworthy for the 12-hour tour from Bellevue Marina to Nebraska City’s Riverview Marina.

Hansen’s goal was to beat the previous Guinness World record for a journey by gourd set in 2016 by Rick Swenson. He sailed on the Red River between Minnesota and North Dakota.

Taking a risk

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “Hansen spent years on the project, eventually naming his prize pumpkin Berta, he told News Channel Nebraska’s Dan Swanson. He was inspired to break the record after attending a three-day pumpkin growing seminar in Portland, Oregon, five years ago, when he met a woman who at the time held the record he sought.”

Apparently, you can get some really unique ideas at pumpkin-growing seminars!

His water-worthy pumpkin was named the SS Berta and had a circumference of around 146 inches. And the trip was not without its challenges.

“Hansen hopped inside and took off for the day-long journey, with family members and friends cheering him on from along the banks. Throughout the next 12 hours, he fought to stay afloat as an array of obstacles—including rocks, sand bars and waves—threatened to tip him over.”

Of course, someone relatively objective had to witness the event, so Hansen brought along a larger entourage to witness the send-off and arrival.

Smithsonian Magazine notes that “To comply with the Guinness World Records’ rules, Hansen had asked non-family members to witness the event. Attendees included Bellevue City officials, who took photos and videos along the way to provide evidence.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Nebraska Man Makes World’s Longest Journey by Pumpkin Boat” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12947 – Only Humans Have Chins

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We found this hard to believe at first, but it’s the little details that matter when it comes to anatomy. As an anatomical feature, only humans have chins.

That seems surprising if you’ve ever rubbed your pet under their little “chin.”

What’s a chin?

While we basically all call the bottom of the face a “chin,” a chin is technically a bone formed at the apex of the lower jaw. And a chin is a bony protrusion that juts out in a way that is only seen in human skulls.

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “Even chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest genetic cousins, lack chins. Instead of poking forward, their lower jaws slope down and back from their front teeth. Even other ancient hominids, like the Neanderthals, didn’t have chins…”

Ok, so maybe anatomical technicalities aren’t really that amazing, but what is interesting is that the chin protrusion doesn’t really serve a purpose. No one knows why humans even have chins.

Why do chins exist in humans?

Of course, once anthropologists and evolutionary biologists realized this bit of human uniqueness, they set about trying to explain why we evolved chins. Maybe it’s to help us chew food? Maybe it helps us speak?

Nope. Those ideas have all been largely debunked. The chin is in the wrong place to help reinforce the jaw for chewing. Our tongues don’t seem to generate enough force to require a chin to help us speak. If the chin developed to help us find mates, then it would only appear in one gender.

The list of reasons the chin doesn’t need to exist goes on and on.

According to Duke University’s James Pampush, the chin may not actually serve a purpose at all. This would make it a “spandrel” – “an evolutionary byproduct left from another feature changing.”

“In the chin’s case, it could be the result of the human face shrinking over time as our posture changed and our faces shortened, or a remnant from a period of longer jaws.”

Of course, there’s really no way to prove the chin serves no function since you’d have to reject every possible hypothesis first.

It looks like we may just have to live with the mystery. — WTF fun facts

Source: “A Chin-Stroking Mystery: Why Are Humans the Only Animals With Chins?” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12946 – The Stone of Destiny

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Even if you’re a “royal watcher” and love the idea of real-life kings, queens, and princesses, you can still feel a little “icky” about the idea that royals often feel like they were chosen by the universe in some way to wield power and influence over others. Perhaps that’s why the so-called “Stone of Destiny” is making headlines before the coronation of King Charles III.

What is the Stone of Destiny?

Also called the Stone of Scone, this slab of red sandstone has been used in the UK since the 9th century when it was used to coronate Scottish kings. King Edward I stole it in 1296 after invading Scotland, and it was built into a throne in Westminster.

The Stony of Destiny long sat at Westminster Abbey and is still today what kings and queens of England sit upon during their coronations (with a cushion, of course, because royalty doesn’t want to be uncomfortable).

Stealing the stone

The stone was briefly stolen on Christmas Day in 1950 by students and a teacher making a statement about Scotland’s independence, but (while it was broken in the process) it was returned 4 weeks later. And the people who stole it were not charged – instead, a movie was made about the effort, aptly titled Stone of Destiny.

Soon, it will play a role in King Charles III’s rapidly-approaching coronation.

In 1996, the stone was returned to Scotland, but it will make the journey to England for the King’s coronation.

What’s so special about the stone?

The stone has some conflicting stories associated with it. The most common legend is that it was used by Jacob as a pillow in the Book of Genesis. It’s the pillow he laid his head upon when he had the dream of Jacob’s ladder.

That means it would have been mined in Palestine and the story goes that it made its way through Egypt, Spain, and to Ireland, courtesy of the prophet Jeremiah before the next part of the legend begins.

Later, the stone was brought from Ireland to Argyll, Scotland by Fergus the Great, the legendary first king of Scotland. (More accurately, he was the King of Dál Riada, a territory that spanned modern-day Scotland and Ireland.)

During the Viking raids on Scotland in the 9th century, the stone was moved to the Abbey at Scone (which is why it’s often called the Stone of Scone). It was moved there by Kenneth MacAlpin, which sounds like a modern name but is actually the name of a 9th-century king who began to consolidate the lands (and peoples, such as the Picts) into a separate country called Scotland.

Its biblical origins are unlikely, however, since geologists have proven that it’s “lower Old Red Sandstone” from a quarry very close to Scone. However, some insist the real Stone of Destiny still resides in Scotland because what was stolen by King Edward I and then repatriated had always been a replica of the original. — WTF fun facts

Source: “The “Stone Of Destiny” Is Returning To Westminster For The Coronation Of King Charles” — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12945 – Snapchat Dysmorphia

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If you’re over 30, you probably remember the days when getting rid of red-eye in a photo was your biggest photographic concern. Now, people have so many options that the results hardly look human. And that’s a big problem when it aids people’s body dysmorphic disorder or creates the newly-minted “Snapchat dysmorphia.”

Striving for perfection

Plenty of us are guilty of looking at an old photo and wishing we looked that good in real life. Some of us even try to use that photo as a guide for how to style ourselves in the future. But social media filters do something different to our psyches. That’s because they allow us to airbrush away the tiniest flaws, see what we look like in perfect lighting, and even allow us to snip in our waists or hips.

Once we see ourselves as we truly want to be, the effects can be a little too alluring. In fact, more and more people are getting plastic surgery to look more like their filtered selves.

According to Jessica Baron in Forbes, “[In 2018] we were introduced to the phrase “Snapchat dysmorphia” in a piece by researchers from the Department of Dermatology at Boston University’s School of Medicine. In JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, they described the ability of Snapchat and FaceTune filters to smooth out skin and make teeth look whiter and lips look fuller as a gateway to seeing oneself in a whole new way – a way users wanted to replicate in real life.”

Things have only gotten worse since then.

Your profile pic, yourself

According to Healthline (cited below), filtering isn’t necessarily the problem: “Filtering your selfies isn’t necessarily harmful. Often, it’s nothing more than a fun exercise, like dressing up or experimenting with a new makeup style.” The problem is when we filter ourselves so heavily and so constantly that we start to get disconnected from reality (especially the reality that someone could be so flawless).

“Snapchat dysmorphia, to put it simply, happens when you compare filtered selfies to your actual appearance. When you fixate on your perceived flaws, the feelings of discontent and unhappiness that surface might lead you to wish you could alter your features to match those filtered images.”

Snapchat dysmorphia is a problem, but not yet a diagnosis

Social media use in general has long been linked to increased bodily dissatisfaction. In fact, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) is named in 8 lawsuits accusing the company of exploiting young people for profit.

Healthline states, “Snapchat dysmorphia isn’t an official mental health diagnosis, so experts have yet to determine a standard definition, criteria, or symptoms.”

Simply filtering your selfies doesn’t qualify you for this potential future diagnosis, however. Cosmetic surgery or injections to alter your face or body are things people have been doing for decades.

The problems come in when we fixate on our appearance in selfies, feel like we can no longer be as good as our social media selves, and get preoccupied with “flaws” that only we see (such as our eye placement, forehead, lip shape, etc.).

Some people become obsessed with taking selfies and editing them. They may go back and edit old photos to alter their appearance to measure up to some perceived standard. They feel anxiety over going out without heavy makeup. Or they get defensive when others take photos. They may even feel worse about themselves the more they take and alter selfies. The problem is, they’re unable to stop.

We may find that, in a few years, there’s a mental health diagnosis that addresses this. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Snapchat Dysmorphia: Does Perfection Lie Just a Filter Away?” — Healthline