random funny fact

WTF Fun Fact 13146 – Oldest Library in the World

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Al-Qarawiyyin Library is the oldest library in the world. It is located in Fez, Morocco, and was part of the oldest continually operating university in the world, al-Qarawiyyin University. The university opened in 859. (If you’re thinking this can’t be right because Oxford is the oldest university, note that it’s simply the oldest in the English-speaking world. Even the University of Bologna was founded after al-Qarawiyyin.)

Al-Qarawiyyin had a library, but sultan Abu Inan Faris founded the one we consider the oldest continually operating library in 1349. He was able to collect some of the world’s most precious manuscripts.

How the al-Quarawiyyin Library came to be

Al-Qarawiyyin university, its library, and a mosque were founded by a woman (around the same time algebra was invented!).

Her name was Fatima El-Fihriya, and she even attended the university. Born in Tunisia around 800 AD, her family became wealthy as a result of her father’s successful merchant business and migrated to Fez.

Both well-educated, Fatima and her sister Maryam went on to found mosques in Fez. Fatima’s wealth was a result of her father having only two daughters to leave his riches to, and Fatima’s husband and father died shortly after her wedding. However, we know little else about their lives. A fire in 1323 destroyed most of the records that could tell us more about her life.

It appears Fatima El-Fihriya’s goal was to make Morocco an educational hub, which she did. In fact (while it’s disputed), she likely influenced the future of educational institutions around the world.

Al-Qarawiyyin offered many courses on the Qur’an, but eventually expanded to include the study of medicine, grammar, mathematics, music, and astronomy. It drew intellectuals from all over the world.

Once accessible only to academics, the library is now open to the public thanks to a full renovation Canadian-Moroccan architect Aziza Chaouni began in 2012 and finished in 2017.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “The Fascinating History of the World’s Oldest Library; Al-Qarawiyyin Library and University, Fez” – Odyssey Traveler

WTF Fun Fact 13144 – The Number of Internet Users

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In November of 2022, the world population reached an estimated 8 billion people. The number of internet users is around 5.47 billion. That’s a lot, but it still leaves a mind-boggling number unconnected (for better or worse).

More internet user stats

The 5.47 billion number refers to active internet users, so it doesn’t imply that everyone else lacks Internet connectivity altogether. However, it’s estimated that 2.7 billion people do lack access to the internet.

First Site Guide (cited below) also gathered some other eye-popping internet facts from 2022. For example, did you know that 4.32 billion people use mobile devices to access the internet? And as we walk around, we’re surrounded by an average of 26 “smart” objects connected to the internet.

When it comes to social media, the majority of internet users are on some form of it. In 2021, there were 4.2. billion active social media users. (It remains to be seen if controversies associated with Twitter and Facebook will reduce that number or send people to other sites.)

We were surprised to know that 7 million blog posts get published every day, though it’s not clear exactly what counts as a blog and if some news items (or posts that people treat as news) get counted in this. What we do know is that there are around 198.4 billion websites, so people have plenty to choose from.

Who has the highest number of internet useres

Denmark, Iceland, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar have the highest “internet penetration” rates in the world. In fact, over 98% of the people in these countries have internet access (and the average internet speed in the UAE is a whopping 110.90 Mbps!). However, China has the most number of internet users.

North Korea, unsurprisingly, has the least number of internet users. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Internet Statistics 2023: Facts You Need-to-Know” — First Site Guide

WTF Fun Fact 13143 – Grass Screams When Cut

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You’ll never cut your grass again without thinking of this weird fact – grass cries for help when it’s mowed. No, you can’t hear it, but scientists have discovered grass screams when cut.

How does grass scream when cut?

We’re only just beginning to understand how plants communicate with one another and the rest of the world around them (including insects).

Dr. Michael Kolomiets, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist, published an article in 2014 in The Plant Journal noting that the aroma of cut grass is the plant’s way of both signaling distress and attracting beneficial insects that will help it heal.

According to ScienceDaily (cited below): “When there is need for protection, the plant signals the environment via the emission of volatile organic compounds, which are recognized as a feeding queue for parasitic wasps to come to the plant that is being eaten and lay eggs in the pest insect,” Kolomiets said.

Plant communication

Grass produces a “defensive” protein when damaged. Of course, that doesn’t stop the lawnmower or insects from destroying the blades. But it appears to produce a compound that repels insects that are feeding on the damaged grass.

This compound, or one related to it, also appears to attract organisms like parasitic wasps that feed on insects like caterpillars that are destroying the grass.

Or to put it in science-speak:

“We have proven that when you delete these volatiles, parasitic wasps are no longer attracted to that plant,even when an insect chews on the leaf. So this volatile is required to attract parasitoids. We have provided genetic evidence that green leafy volatiles have this dual function — in the plant they activate production of insecticidal compounds, but also they have indirect defense capability because they send an SOS-type signal that results in attraction of parasitic wasps.”

So, maybe it’s not so much that grass screams when cut so much as it cries for help. Either way, freshly cut grass emits a compound that repels damaging insects and attracts insects with a protective function.

It’s just one of the many ways that plants are far more complex than we had ever previously imagined. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Mown grass smell sends SOS for help in resisting insect attacks” — ScienceDaily

WTF Fun Fact 13138 – The First New Year’s Celebration

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Much of the world uses the Gregorian calendar, but the main calendar alteration that paved is one made by Julius Caesar. In some sense, the first new year’s celebration can be dated back to his reign – 45 BCE, to be exact.

Altering the calendar

In the 7th century BCE, the Romans introduced a calendar that followed the lunar cycle. Of course, people didn’t have these things hanging on their walls. The calendar was mostly helpful in planning crops and collecting taxes.

While the lunar calendar eventually fell out of sync with the actual seasons and needed some tweaks, there was a bigger problem. Politicians would add days to the calendar at will, mainly to extend their reigns or mess around with political terms.

When Julius Caesar became dictator of Rome, he decided to change things. His calendar was solar-based.

According to History.com (cited below), “In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 46 B.C., making 45 B.C. begin on January 1 rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step.”

January 1 was also a way to honor the Roman god Janus, the double-faced god (looking backward and forward).

What was the first New Year’s celebration?

So, the first January 1 that marked the new year wasn’t exactly a celebration so much as a bureaucratic decision. However, people would still offer sacrifices to the gods.

There were no ball drops and bubbly and no New Year’s resolutions. Still, 46 BCE is the first year New Year’s day started on January 1.

Months were renamed when Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, but the calendar was still largely intact.

However, the “Celebration of New Year’s Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.”

Calendars are far more complicated than most of us realize!

The second New Year’s correction

History.com continues the explanation: “The Church became aware of this problem [of the calendar not lining up to the solar year], and in the 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius to come up with a new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting ten days for that year and establishing the new rule that only one of every four centennial years should be a leap year. Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse on January 1 to celebrate the precise arrival of the New Year.”

Celebrating the New Year goes back to 2000 BCE, when the Mesopotamians celebrated the vernal equinox towards the end of March. If you really want to play fast and loose with definitions of NYE celebrations, you could go back to the Babylonians in 4000 BCE and their 11-day, end-of-March festival called Akitu.

But if you’re looking to trace New Year’s Day back to January 1, you have Julius Caesar to thank for that.— WTF fun facts

Source: “The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time on New Year’s Day” — History.com

WTF Fun Fact 13134 – Brussels sprouts bitter no longer

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Have you ever wondered why today’s Brussels sprouts don’t taste as gross as they might have while you were growing up? It’s not just your palate that’s changed, but the sprouts themselves. Thanks to some genetic tinkering, Dutch scientists have made Brussels sprouts bitter no longer.

Brussels sprouts get a makeover

Brussels sprouts simply don’t taste the same way they did a few decades ago. If you hated them as a kid, there’s at least some chance you might like them now.

According to NPR (cited below): “This all started to change in the 1990s, and it began in the Netherlands, where Brussels sprouts have a simpler name: spruitjes. A Dutch scientist named Hans van Doorn, who worked at the seed and chemical company Novartis (the seed part is now called Syngenta), figured out exactly which chemical compounds in spruitjes made them bitter.”

The next step was to consult the seed archives (libraries of seeds for different types of Brussels sprouts). Companies then planted them all and began selecting for the ones with the least bitterness.

Making a better Brussels sprout

Once scientists chose the best candidates for less bitter sprouts, “They cross-pollinated these old varieties with modern, high-yielding ones, trying to combine the best traits of old and new spruitjes. It took many years. But it worked.” Then word spread in the professional culinary scene. It took off mainly in the United States, not in Europe.“

Once word got out about everyone’s least favorite vegetable from childhood tasting a bit different, big-name chefs (like David Chang at Momofuku in New York) got on board and started selling them again. People were delighted to have a new vegetable to enjoy and the “new” Brussels sprouts took off without people knowing the bitterness chemical had actually been bred out of them.

Most of us who like Brussels sprouts now assume we just have more mature palates. But we actually have the Dutch to thank for getting our greens with less suffering. — WTF fun facts

Source: “From Culinary Dud To Stud: How Dutch Plant Breeders Built Our Brussels Sprouts Boom” — NPR

WTF Fun Fact 13133 – Is Aging a Disease?

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Is aging a disease? Well, it depends on how you look at it. It’s a natural process, so in that case, the answer is no. And yet The World Health Organization (WHO) added “aging” as a disease to the 11th edition of their International Classification of Diseases in June of 2018.

Is it fair to say aging is a disease?

In many ways, it may seem silly to call gaining a disease since it’s both universal and natural for all living creatures. However, some types of aging can be seen as pathological because they are sped up and therefore abnormal. (One example is the deterioration of the skin due to UV exposure, which can lead to rapid aging and cancer.)

Aging is also a risk factor for many diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

But to call aging a disease would be to classify us all as constantly in a state of disease. But you can also argue that aging serves no purpose and then it seems less natural.

What’s in a disease?

Disease is seen as a deviation from the normal (at its most basic). In this sense, aging is completely normal. It may also be desirable since it tends to come with the accumulation of wisdom. However, it’s simply to argue that not every old person brings wisdom into old age.

Those who want to classify aging as a disease don’t necessarily want to valorize the youthful (after all, they have no control over their age) and will someday be old. However, calling aging a disease allows researchers to investigate its causes and, potentially, actions that might stop bodily and cognitive decline that are the hallmarks of aging.

When people die of old age, autopsies show a series of degradations in their bodies that could potentially be stopped. They are the body’s typical reaction to the passage of years, but they represent abnormal cellular functions that lead to the body growing more frail and senile. Those aren’t judgment calls but facts.

But should aging fall outside the scope of medicine? Should doctors stay away from treatments that can help reverse the effects of aging? If it’s not a disease, then technically they should not treat the symptoms.

Aging is harmful to the body no matter how you look at it. And the more we look into it, the more we see there are specific causes related to the body wearing down with age. Should we do nothing about them? If we were to reject age as a disease, then only a few researchers would be able to study it with age-related research funding. Later, only the rich would have access to aging treatments because insurance companies wouldn’t cover aging treatments. That might leave us with a civilization comprised only of the rich. —WTF fun facts

Source: “It is time to classify biological aging as a disease” — Frontiers in Genetics

WTF Fun Fact 13132 – The Super Bowl Shuffle

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In 1985, the Chicago Bears recorded a hit rap song called “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” The song was even nominated for a Grammy award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. However, they lost to the late singer Prince’s song “Kiss.”

The Bears’ Super Bowl Shuffle

We never expected to see the Chicago Bears nominated for a Grammy. But that’s precisely what happened after the team members known as the “Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew” released The Supe rBowl Shuffle in 1985.

The song was distributed through Capitol Records – and notable, it was released two months BEFORE their win in Super Bowl XX. How embarrassing would it have been if they lost?!

The song was popular, but it peaked at number 41 on the charts (hey, not everyone is a Bears fan).

The son’s Grammy nomination came in 1987. And that’s where the Bears lost.

The song’s legacy

The Super Bowl Shuffle made about $300,000, which went to the Chicago Community Trust to help struggling city families with housing (hence Walter Payton’s line “Now we’re not doing this because we’re greedy / The Bears are doing it to feed the needy.”)

Singers included Walter Payton, Willie Gault, Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon, Otis Wilson, Steve Fuller, Mike Richardson, Richard Dent, Gary Fencik, and William Perry. Meanwhile, the “Shufflin’ Crew” was on instrumentals and included some less well-known players like punter Maury Buford on cowbell and defensive back Ken Taylor on the tambourine. A “Shufflin’ Crew” chorus included players like Leslie Frazier. Few players declined to be involved.

The Bears weren’t the first or last team to try and make music history. The 1984 San Francisco 49ers recorded “We Are the 49ers” before winning the Super Bowl champs, but the disco-pop hit wasn’t all that successful (neither was their do-over “49ers Rap”). They were no “Super Bowl Shuffle,” cringey as it may have been.

And who could forget (except everyone) the Green Bay Packers’ attempt to spoof the “Macarena”, by recording “Packarena” in 1996? — WTF fun facts

Source: “Throwback Thursday: When the Chicago Bears Sang ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle” — Hollywood Reporter

WTF Fun Fact 13131 – Queensland’s Rabbit Laws

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We’ve heard of rabbit control, but Queensland’s Rabbit Laws are a bit on the strange side. For example, you cannot own a rabbit in Queensland unless you can prove you are going to display it for an acceptable purpose.

Queensland, Australia’s unique outlook on rabbits

It’s illegal to keep a rabbit as a pet in the state of Queensland. But according to the state’s business website: “…you can obtain a European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) for the purposes of exhibiting to the public. Under the Exhibited Animals Act 2015 (EAA) rabbits are category B species and may be exhibited for purposes such as educational exhibits or for entertainment.”

Those who work with rabbits much apply for a license and the premise at which the exhibition takes place needs to be licensed as well. “An example may include an invasive pest educational centre, or a zoo where the public enter the regular enclosure site to view the rabbit.”

The rules continue: “Rabbits may also be obtained solely for the purposes of exhibition outside of the premise where the licence is issued to (off the regular enclosure site). An example of activities permitted solely off the regular enclosure site include persons in the business of conducting magic performances at children’s parties.”

Queensland’s rabbit laws, continued

You must apply to exhibit a rabbit using an authorized form as well as submit a management plan detailing the way you are going to exhibit the rabbit and deal with it on a daily basis.

The management plan must address “animal welfare, human health, safety and wellbeing, social amenity, the economy and the environment…” People need to be aware of their obligations.

Why is this all such a big deal? Well, rabbits are an invasive species that Queensland has been trying to get rid of since the 1880s! — WTF fun facts

Source: “Exhibiting a rabbit” — Business Queensland

WTF Fun Fact 13130 – William Shatner’s Kidney Stone

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In 2006, actor William Shatner – aka the original Star Trek series’ Captain Kirk – had a kidney stone. That wouldn’t be a very interesting fun fact except that he decided to sell it. William Shatner’s kidney stone was sold to a casino for a whopping $25,000. The money went towards building homes for the homeless.

Selling William Shatner’s kidney stone

Shatner himself set up the auction, and an online casino known for collecting kooky memorabilia won the bid. Of course, they were in it for publicity. The company is called GoldenPalace.com, and in 2006, they reported:

“The former Captain of the Enterprise passed a kidney stone at warp speed and beamed it into the waiting hands of GoldenPalace.com. The casino paid $25,000 for Shatner’s specimen, the entirety of which will go to Habitat For Humanity to help provide housing for those in need.

Although the kidney stone that broke down Shatner’s shields caused him more discomfort than a Klingon pain stick, the sci-fi/pop-culture icon is more than happy that his calcium offspring fetched such a price.”

A kidney stone for a cause

While this all seems silly, something good came out of it. GoldenPalace.com reports that Shatner held out for a higher price for the sake of charity.

“When I was contacted about selling my kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for an original price of $15,000 I turned it down knowing that my tunics from Star Trek have commanded more than $100,000. I offered the stone, stint, and string for $25,000 and informed them that 100% of the proceeds would go to benefit Habitat for Humanity and I retain visitation rights?”

At the time, that was enough to build about half a house.

The stone itself? Shatner said it was so big, “you’d want to wear it on your finger.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Shatner Sells Kidney Stone For $25,000” — CBS News