random funny fact

WTF Fun Fact 12915 – The Rainbow Taboo

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The recognition of the long-lasting and widespread “rainbow taboo” began in the 1980s when linguist Robert Blust was in the Tugu communit outside of Jakarta. He pointed out a rainbow and was promptly informed of the bad luck it carried by two people from two separate East Asian communities.

Returning to the Netherlands, he began researching the superstition and realized it was taboo in India as well. Realizing it was not confined to East Asia, he looked around the world and in documents throughout history to find out just how widespread the belief was.

Researching the “rainbow taboo”

Blust was originally told that pointing at a rainbow would make his finger go crooked and be bent like a rainbow permanently. But in other cultures, the bad luck it supposedly wrought was less specific.

According to Atlas Obscura (cited below): “Blust began to cast a wider net. He sent questionnaires to colleagues and missionary stations around the world, inquiring about rainbows and taboos related to them. He would soon amass evidence for the rainbow taboo—in some form or another—in 124 cultures. The prohibition turned up in North America, among the Atsugewi of northern California and the Lakota of the northern plains; in remote parts of Australia and isolated islands in Melanesia; among the Nyabwa of Ivory Coast and the Kaiwá of Brazil. At one time it was present in Europe, too: one of the Grimm brothers noted it in his book on German mythology. The belief was not found in every culture, according to Blust’s search, but it was present globally, across all inhabited regions.”

What’s so bad about a rainbow?

Ideas about what would happen if you point at a rainbow vary from culture to culture. Some people believe your finger will become deformed or paralyzed, others believe it will bring bad luck to your mother. In almost all cases, pointing with your index finger is the key to the offense. Telling someone to look at a rainbow or even pointing another part of the body at it carried no risk, according to Blust’s research.

He also discovered that there were things you could do to prevent the bad luck if you did accidentally point at a rainbow – including wetting your finger and sticking it in your belly button.

Atlas Obscura asked: “What could possibly motivate this bizarre belief?” and noted that Blust proposed “two key factors.”

“The first is that, traditionally, rainbows were considered sacred, a manifestation of another realm. He writes that, accordingly, they were “greeted with that mixture of fear, awe and reverence generally accorded to spiritual things.” The second factor is that pointing is widely viewed as aggressive; guidebooks often advise travelers to avoid it.”

There aren’t too many widespread beliefs that exist in nearly every corner of the world. Things like flood myths or specific mythological storylines are some examples, but pointing out a rainbow is a very specific taboo.

Interestingly, Blust had a hard time getting his research published until recently. Once he did, anthropologists found it fascinating and are still studying it.

These days the taboo is taken less seriously, but people around the world are still aware of it.  — WTF fun facts

Source: “Even Rainbows Have a Dark Side_https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-at-rainbows-taboo

WTF Fun Fact 12914 – It’s Legal To Kill Bigfoot in Texas

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In 2012, a man named John Lloyd Scharf sent a letter to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department asking about the legality of killing Bigfoot. And the Department Chief of Staff, L. David Sinclair confirmed that an indigenous Bigfoot could technically be killed in Texas.

Killing Bigfoot in Texas

Since Bigfoot (referred to as a cryptid – a creature that are considered mythological by mainstream science but are through to exist by cryptozoologists) isn’t considered a game animal in Texas, it turns out that makes him fair game.

Sinclair’s reply read:

“The statute that you cite (Section 61.021) refers only to game birds, game animals, fish, marine animals or other aquatic life. Generally speaking, other nongame wildlife is listed in Chapter 67 (nongame and threatened species) and Chapter 68 (nongame endangered species). ‘Nongame’ means those species of vertebrate and invertebrate wildlife indigenous to Texas that are not classified as game animals, game birds, game fish, fur-bearing animals, endangered species, alligators, marine penaeid shrimp, or oysters.

The Parks and Wildlife Commission may adopt regulations to allow a person to take, possess, buy, sell, transport, import, export or propagate nongame wildlife. If the Commission does not specifically list an indigenous, nongame species, then the species is considered non-protected nongame wildlife, e.g., coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, cotton-tailed rabbit, etc.

A non-protected nongame animal may be hunted on private property with landowner consent by any means, at any time and there is no bag limit or possession limit. An exotic animal is an animal that is non-indigenous to Texas. Unless the exotic is an endangered species then exotics may be hunted on private property with landowner consent. A hunting license is required. This does not include the dangerous wild animals that have been held in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting, which is commonly referred to as a ‘canned hunt.'”

What does it mean?

According to Gizmodo (cited below), “…apparently, as long as you hunt Bigfoot on private property with the permission of the property holder, you are allowed to kill it. I’m a bit surprised, however, that spotting a previously undocumented animal doesn’t automatically transform it from a nonexistent animal into an endangered one. Then again, I suppose rare evidence isn’t evidence of rarity.”

Who knew?

Of course, it might be legal to kill Bigfoot in Texas, but it isn’t going to win you any fans. — WTF fun facts

Source: “It’s officially legal to kill Bigfoot in Texas” — Gizmodo

WTF Fun Fact 12910 – Iron Mountain Vault

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Not many people have heard of Iron Mountain – especially outside of western Pennsylvania. It’s probably better that way since no one is allowed near it. Iron Mountain is a vault holding some of the nation’s (and the world’s) most valuable documents and recordings.

What is Iron Mountain?

Iron Mountain Vault is a data storage facility buried deep underground in the hills of western Pennsylvania. The 1200-acre vault used to be a limestone mine, and you’d have a hard time finding it today even if you looked. They obviously don’t advertise or have big signs letting you know you’re there.

Oh, and there are guards to make sure people don’t get anywhere near it.

According to Penn Live:

“Miners created the cave by exploding 3,000 sticks of dynamite nightly over the course of five decades. They abandoned it in the 1950s when surfacing mining became a cheaper alternative to unearth the limestone.

Soon after, the mine was converted into a storage facility, storing paper records. In more recent years, it became a place to house data centers, including many of those belonging to government agencies and private companies.

The mine is like a small underground city. It has its own fire brigade with trained firefighters, security, streets, a speed limit (10 mph), traffic signs, street names, pedestrian walkways, and addresses assigned to its thousands of tenants that occupy its 16-foot-high corridors.”

What’s inside the Vault?

There’s plenty of mundane stuff (at least to most of us) in Iron Mountain. The facility’s owner simply rents out the space as well as takes on the temperature control and safety responsibilities.

The vault continues to grow, sprawling out with each new customer. Around 2,000 people work at the mine these days.

And what’s inside? Well, a lot – from the accounts of nearly every government student loan holder to master recordings of Ozzy Osbourne and Frank Sinatra. According to the Iron Mountain website, the facility stores “some of the world’s most valuable information.” They’re just not real specific about what it is.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “Inside Iron Mountain” — Penn Live

WTF Fun Fact 12909 – The Land Animal That Lived The Longest

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This is something that will make you appreciate how our modern world is still so, so young. The longest-lived creatures are older than any of us, and most were or are older than our desire or ability to record their age for posterity. That said, we do have records of the land animal that lived the longest that we can properly verify. Other animals may have lived longer, but we don’t have reliable ways to prove it.

The radiated tortoise – one of the longest-lived animals

When it comes to sea creatures, we’re even more clueless as to age, and we endanger them by trying to find out. But it’s a bit easier with land animals, especially tortoises since they don’t move very fast.

As far as things we can verify are concerned, a radiated tortoise from Madagascar named Tu’i Malila is the longest-lived land animal. And here’s another fun fact – all its life, Tu’i Malila was thought to be a male. Upon her death, a proper examination was conducted, and it was determined she was female. (Some tortoises obviously don’t have obvious sex characteristics.)

The story of Tu’i Malila

Tu’i Malila means “King” Malila in the Tongan language and records show that Captain James Cook gave her to the royal family of Tonga shortly after her birth in 1777. She stayed in the royal family’s care her whole life until her death in 1965.

The radiated tortoise (a classification that has nothing to do with radiation but rather the pattern on their shells) is now preserved and on display at the Tongan National Center on the island of Tongatapu.

Other “oldest” animals

However, there is some disagreement over what counts as the oldest living animal. Some argue that an Aldabra giant tortoise from India named Adwaita lived to be around 255.

This year (in January 2022) the keepers of a giant tortoise named Jonathan have convinced the Guinness Book of World Records that the animal from St. Helena turned 190.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “The King of Tonga” — The Good Turtle Blog

WTF Fun Fact 12908 – Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s Swearing Parrots

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Five African grey parrots at the UK’s Lincolnshire Wildlife Park got separated by staff because they were perceived as having a “bad influence” on one another. Someone taught the parrots to swear. And there’s a reason they call repeating things “parroting.”

While no guests complained, the zoo took the proactive step of separating them in case any visiting children ever decided to parrot the parrots.

Parrots and profanity

According to The Guardian (cited below), “The parrots – named Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade and Tyson – joined Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s colony of 200 grey parrots in August. But soon after, they started encouraging each other to swear.”

“We saw it very quickly – we are quite used to parrots swearing but we’ve never had five at the same time,” Steve Nichols, CEO of the wildlife park reportedly said. “Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it.”

No one got rid of the parrots – they were simply “distributed to different areas of the park so they do not ‘set each other off.'”

Naughts parrots

Guests weren’t put off at all by the parrots. In fact, as you might expect, they drew people into the facility. “People have come to us but they think it’s highly amusing, we haven’t had one complaint,” Nichols said, according to The Guardian. “When a parrot tells you to fuck off, it amuses people very highly. It’s brought a big smile to a really hard year.”

We know some humans who offer that service for free as well, but someone it just seems less rude coming from a parrot.

The paper also noted that “The park is also home to parrot Chico, who made headlines in September after learning to sing a range of pop songs, including Beyoncé’s If I Were a Boy.”

It sounds like quite an interesting place! — WTF fun facts

Source: “Swearing parrots separated after telling folk where to go” — The Guardian

WTF Fun Fact 12907 – The Controversy Over Santa Anna’s Leg

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Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón – known as General Santa Anna – was a Mexican politician and military general who fought for the independence of Mexico in the mid 1800s. And while much is known about him, less is known about the ongoing “fight” between Illinois and Texas for custody of Santa Anna’s leg.

When did Santa Anna lose his leg?

Santa Anna was a controversial figure who gave up Mexican territory to the U.S. but continued to be a hero to his troops nevertheless.

In the little-known Pastry War (1838-1839) against the French, he lost his left leg.

French troops shot Santa Anna in the leg at the Battle of Veracruz (1838). They used a French grapeshot (a bag of smaller caliber rounds bound together rather than a single piece of ammunition), which damaged the leg so badly that doctors had to amputate it. Later, Santa Anna used the moment not only to hold a full military funeral for the leg but to use it as propaganda to gain back power after retiring a few years earlier.

The leg funeral took place in Mexico city. However, protestors later dug up the limb and dragged it through the streets.

But this is not the leg at the heart of the controversy.

The battle for a wooden leg

Santa Anna had a wooden prosthetic made to replace his leg. Today, it’s in Illinois of all places.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

“In 1847, the United States and Mexico fought what Americans call the Mexican War and Mexicans call the Invasion of Mexico. During that conflict, his forces were surprised by a gallant Illinois infantry unit. He fled on horseback, leaving the prosthesis behind.
Our troops took the abandoned appendage into custody and transported it to Illinois, prudently assuring it would never again be put to warlike purposes. It has resided here since, and is currently among the holdings of the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield.”

Over the last few decades, Texas has tried to claim ownership of the wooden leg. Illinois will not relinquish it.

In an editorial in 2016 (cited below), the Tribune’s board wrote: “A museum at the San Jacinto Battlefield, where he was captured and forced to give up his claim to Texas, has petitioned the White House to get the leg moved there, where it would keep company with his knee buckle and tent stake. Students at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio think they should get the leg so they can give it to Mexico.”

The answer to Texas’ request has been a resounding “no” from Illinois. “At San Jacinto, Santa Anna still had the legs he was born with. Texans didn’t inflict the injury that necessitated the replacement, and Texans didn’t capture it or preserve it for 169 years. As we all know, possession is nine parts of the law,” noted the editorial board. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Santa Anna’s leg? Come and take it.” — Chicago Tribune (editorial board)

WTF Fun Fact 12906 – People Seem to Love Throwing Bikes in Water

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We don’t understand it. It’s a phenomenon that’s still being investigated across the world. What’s behind the desire for people to throw perfectly usable bicycles into waterways like rivers, lakes, and canals? After all, it’s such a waste.

Mistreated bikes are a big problem

Amsterdam is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. And yet, lately, city workers have been pulling out roughly 15,000 bikes each year(!) from canals. There are so many bikes on the bottom of these canals that they sometimes scrape the bottom of barges coming through. And despite that obscenely large number of trashed bikes, it’s actually less of a problem than it was years ago.

Bike-sharing companies have had to pull their bikes out of rivers in Southern China and Rome’s Tiber River as well. In fact, bike-sharing companies have pulled out of some cities because they cost is greater than the reward.

But why on earth are people so wasteful? What’s the point of trashing a (in most cases) perfectly good bike?

Why do people throw bikes in the water?

On a 2022 episode of NPR’s All Things Considered (cited below), author ofTwo Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle, Jody Rosen, tried to shed some light on the matter.

She said: “When you see the bicycle go in there and slip below the surface of the water, there’s just a certain satisfaction, a certain free zone in that. And I say that not because I’ve done it myself, mind you. This is a practice which is documented online, for instance, on YouTube quite comprehensively. So there’s lots of videos that you can see where people are tossing bikes into water and taking videos of it for fun and sport. So that is definitely a factor. But there’s all kinds of other types of vandalism that surround this, which I think are interesting.”

Rosen believes bike-sharing programs make it easier for people to take these two-wheelers for granted, noting, “The fact that these bike programs are proliferating across the world, which I think we can say is a good thing — we need more bicycles in the city — but there are simply more of them around. And in fact, you can imagine that people feel a little bit more impunity, that a potential bicycle drowner would feel less guilt attached to tossing a bike in the water if it’s a share bike that has a bank or some sort of corporate sponsor’s logo on the mudguard as opposed to, you know, some individual joe-schmoe’s bike.”

Interestingly, Rosen also thinks there may be a political dimension to this – that somehow people are threatened by bikes because they are so attached to the idea of driving a car. “We’re seeing a kind of increasingly heated debate over what kinds of vehicles belong on the streets of cities. Motorists are reacting to the increased numbers of bicycles on the streets, sometimes with great annoyance and and sometimes with actual violence. So it may be that at least these drowned bikes, these trashed and vandalized bikes reflect a kind of ongoing battle for the right to the roadways,” she suggested.

Whatever the reasons, this is happening all over the world, in bike-friendly cities. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Why do so many bikes end up underwater? The reasons can be weird and varied” — NPR

WTF Fun Fact 12902 – Tom Cruise Split From Wives At Age 33

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Tom Cruise has been married three times. And all of his marriages ended when his wife at the time was 33 years old. Coincidence? Maybe.

The significance of 33

What is it about the number 33? Tom Cruise’s three wives – Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes – were all 33 when their relationships with the actor ended. They were all 34 when the divorce was finalized.

Cruise is a Scientologist, and while there’s no proof that the “magic number” had anything to do with the breakup, 33 is a significant number for him. However, it’s not clear that Cruise was in control of any of the breakups – in fact, Katie Holmes was said to have left him.

As for the actual significance of the number 33, it’s hard to say. Scientologists are a notoriously secret group, so while some “sources” say the number is important, it’s unclear exactly how. We do know that L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, built his first church in Phoenix, on the 33rd parallel.

Is it all a coincidence?

The average age of divorcing couples in the U.S. is around 30 years old, so it’s more than likely just a kooky coincidence. The number has some significance in other religions an in numerology, but it’s not clear if Cruise believes in any of that.

It’s also worth noting that while the news widely covered the fact that Cruise’s breakups all came when his wife at the time was 33, all of the divorces happened when they were 34. It’s just that Holmes announced the breakup when she was 33, people picked up on the number, and no one was sure how old Holmes would be when the divorce was finalized.

So maybe 34 is the unlucky number here. – WTF fun facts

Source: “All three of Tom Cruise’s marriages ended when wife was 33” — TODAY

WTF Fun Fact 12901 – Blue Whale Calorie Intake

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It’s no surprise that a blue whale’s calorie intake is massive – after all, they’re the largest creatures on Earth (and the largest animal to ever live). But half a MILLION calories is a lot to take in – especially in just one mouthful of food!

Blue whale feeding

The majority of a blue whale’s diet consists of tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill (interestingly, one of the smallest ocean creatures). According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “A foraging whale lunges into a swarm of these shrimp-like animals, accelerating to high speed with its mouth open at a right angle. Pushed back by the rush of water, its mouth expands and its tongue (itself the size of an elephant) inverts to create more room. The whale engulfs up to 110 tonnes of water and any krill within is filtered out and swallowed.”

Jeremy Goldbogenstudies blue whales at the University of British Columbia. He tagged 265 of the massive creatures to log the amount of energy they expended while lunging to eat. His devices recorded information for 650 feeding lunges.

“The data-loggers recorded the whales’ position, their acceleration, and the noise and pressure of the surrounding water. The noise was important – by measuring the sound of water rushing past the animal, Goldbergen could work out how fast it was travelling.”

Blue whales can move up to 8 mph in less than a minute and 770 to 1900 calories just to work up the momentum to take that big gulp of ocean water. An average feeding dive takes about 10 minutes, and the whales take around 3 to 4 gulps in that time. But they consume from 6 to 240 times the amount of calories they expend.

Blue whale calorie counting

If a blue whale expends so much energy simply diving for food, it makes sense that they would have to take in an enormous number of calories to make it worth the trouble. But it’s hard to believe just how many calories they can take in.

Smithsonian Magazine states: “If a big whale attacks a particularly dense swarm, it can swallow up to 500 kilograms of krill, eating 457,000 calories in a single monster mouthful and getting back almost 200 times the amount it burned in the attempt. A smaller whale lunging at a sparse collection of krill would only get around 8,000 calories, but that’s still 8 times more than what it burned. Even when Goldbogen accounted for the energy needed to dive in search of prey, the whales still regained 3 to 90 times as much energy as they spent.”

This makes it easier to think of all of the rest of our meals as relatively low-calorie, by comparison. –WTF fun facts

Source: “Blue whales can eat half a million calories in a single mouthful” — National Geographic