random funny fact

WTF Fun Fact 12409 – A Strong Signal Jammer

Signal jammers are often illegal for a reason – they can take out all communications in an area, including the ability to dial 911. But a French father in the town of Messanges, France, clearly didn’t know that. He was just trying to get his social media-addicted kids off the internet between midnight and 3 am so they would get some sleep.

A report from the outlet France Bleu says the dad used a multi-wave band jammer, seemingly without knowing its power. These are illegal in France (as well as the U.S.). They work by interfering with all communication signals, not just the internet. Authoritarian regimes often use them to stop the spread of information during revolts.

It wasn’t until neighbors started complaining that the government was forced to investigate the reason for the broader power outage and questioned the father. According to French authorities:

“He was thinking of depriving only his children of the internet and did not imagine that the wave jammer he was using would disrupt telecommunications in an area spanning two municipalities. An investigation by the National Frequency Agency established his responsibility and legal proceedings were initiated.”

You read that correct – legal proceedings. It’s a pretty big deal (and could have had dangerous consequences) to strip your neighbors, even accidentally, of the ability to communicate with the outside world.

That’s why dad is now facing a fine of 30,000 Euros and six months in jail. – WTF Fun Facts

Source: A Father Accidentally Shut Down His Town’s Whole Internet in an Effort to Limit His Kids’ Screentime — Gizmodo

WTF Fun Fact 12407 – Stack of Snacks

Brendan Kelbie is a serial world record breaker who has once again entered the record books with his stack of 6 M&Ms. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but the previous record was 5 and we suggest you give it a try if you think you can do better.

Kelbie recaptured his title from co-champs from Britain and Italy who had done the five stack. His tower held unaided for 10 seconds at his home in Queensland, the Guinness World Records said.

“I’ve decided to break this record because I’m a serial record-breaker, and I am a versatile world record holder,” Kelbie told Guinness.

Kelbie’s other records are equally unique: he’s done the most drumstick flips in 1 minute (98), balanced a basketball on a pair of glasses the longest (29.67 seconds), built the tallest tower of dice on the back of a hand while blindfolded, and spun a basketball on his nose the longest (9.57 seconds).

We think these world records are getting a little silly but to each their own! We certainly can’t do any of those things. – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Australian man stacks six M&M’s, earns world record — UPI

WTF Fun Fact 12406 – Turtle Senses Volcanic Eruption

Animals seem to know when something’s up with Mother Nature. Certain out-of-character animals behaviors after precede storms, earthquakes, and more. Now, there’s evidence that Milly the Sea Turtle knew that the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano was about to erupt.

She was released by scientists in Australia wearing a tracker, and for 47 days she swam straight for the tiny island of Tonga. But the day before the earthquake, something made her do a sharp turn directly away from the island…like she knew it wasn’t a safe place.

While it’s just speculation, for now, Tilly also diverted her journey back to Australia right before a small earthquake occurred near the Great Barrier Reef. Again, she seemed to send something was about to go wrong in that direction.

Research has been done on the ability of whales, dolphins, and even goats to sense seismic activity, but this was the first time the behavior was observed in sea turtles.

Of course, turtles have no real way of explaining their behavior to humans, so we won’t be using Tilly as an earthquake or volcano predictor any time soon. But it is interesting to have more evidence that animals have some sort of sixth sense when it comes to potentially dangerous natural events. – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Tilly The Sea Turtle Knew About Tonga Eruption Before It Happened — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12405 – Creature Kindness

Scott Thompson has a seal to thank for saving his life. In early 2022, the urchin diver slipped overboard and ended up in the Santa Barbara Channel wearing only shorts and a t-shirt while his boat drifted away.

“I was taught by the best urchin divers in the business about safety, but for whatever reason, I was careless,” he wrote in a blog post for Sour Milk. 

Thompson is a strong swimmer but became overwhelmed in the choppy, cold water and began to panic.

“It really didn’t take too long to realize like, ‘It’s getting farther, I’m not getting closer,'” he told KABC-TV. “I thought to myself, ‘Great, this is how I’m going to die.'”

That’s when he met a friendly harbor seal just in time. The little creature gave him the encouragement he needed to keep swimming.

“The seal would go underwater, and he came up and nudged me. Like a dog comes up and nudges your leg,” Thompson told KABC. “Did it know, like, ‘Hey, this human is in trouble, hey, keep going, dude’?” 

After five hours, Thompson finally made it to an oil platform and pulled himself up onto it.

“The crew took it from there and got Scott the medical attention he desperately needed,” his family friend wrote on a GoFundMe page.

Thompson is going to be okay. – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Boater Stranded at Sea Was Convinced ‘​​I’m Going to Die’ — Then a Sweet Seal Helped Save His Life — People

WTF Fun Fact 12403 – Your Brain on Math

Mathematics is a strange beast. It uses our language, but it isn’t quite the same – our brains hear it entirely differently from everyday speech. For example: when we hear a sentence like “cats like warm milk,” our brains process that information mainly in the left hemisphere. Something like “eight plus one is nine,” though, will fire neurons in both.

A study published in the journal Current Biology took a closer look at how our brains process mathematics (as opposed to regular speech). While our brains process ordinary language in the left hemisphere, math triggers neurons in both hemispheres.

The neuroscientists from the Universities of Tübingen and Bonn said in an interview: “We found that different neurons fired during additions than during subtractions.”

Esther Kutter, a doctoral candidate involved with the research group, confirmed: “Even when we replaced the mathematical symbols with words, the effect remained the same. For example, when subjects were asked to calculate ‘5 and 3’, their addition neurons sprang back into action; whereas for ‘7 less 4,’ their subtraction neurons did.”

The lead author of the study Prof. Dr. Dr. Florian Mormann of the Department of Epileptology at University Hospital Bonn, remarked on the study’s significance: “This study marks an important step towards a better understanding of one of our most important symbolic abilities, namely calculating with numbers.” – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Math Neurons” Fire Differently Depending On Whether You Add Or Subtract — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12402 – Self-Cleaning Fish

An experiment published in the journal PLOS Biology showed for the second time that fish could recognize themselves in the mirror. Scientists injected the cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) with a substance that “tattooed” them with brown marks on their scales. When they spotted their reflections, they were triggered to try and scrape off the marks.

This goes far beyond simple mirror recognition. Fish mirror self-recognition (MSR) would give the creatures a characteristic only shared by two other creatures – humans and chimpanzees.

Previous research drew the same conclusions but was not conclusive since the sample size was small and not all of the fish exhibited the behavior. But the recent replication study remedied those inadequacies and added more evidence to the theory that fish are self-aware.

Not everyone is convinced, though. Some researchers are still skeptical that the behavior was not the result of self-awareness but rather a physical reaction to being tattooed by the scientists.

When interviewed by IFL Science, the lead researcher, Professor Masanori Kohda of Osaka City University, said, “During the long 50-year history of mirror tests of animals, this study is the first test that uses the mark to which the subject animals pay attention. Hence, this fish shows the highest passing rate for mark-test, exceeding that of chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants.” – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Fish Cleaning Themselves In A Mirror May Have Just Demonstrated Self-Awareness — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12401 – World’s Tallest Fork

In what we hope is a mere formality, Fireview, Oregon is trying to confirm that the 37-foot-tall fork they’ve erected on the site of their new food truck plaza is the world’s largest. Their goal is to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records with the decidedly non-utilitarian utensil.

The Fairview government’s official website reads:

“Tuesday, February 15, the World’s Tallest Fork, to be determined by Guinness Book of Work Record, will be arriving in Fairview to be erected in its new home between 9 AM and 11 AM. This 37-foot tall stainless steel “Fork” will be the art piece placed in the public plaza at the entrance to the new Fairview Food Plaza at the corner of Halsey Street and NE 223rd Ave. The “Fork” will be traveling from McMinnville, where it was created.

The Fairview Food Plaza is a public-private partnership between the Fairview Urban Renewal Agency, property owner Denise Arndt and Plaza operator Justin Hwang.  The Plaza is planning to open in April 2022 with 16 food carts featuring a vast variety of foods.  The dining hall courtyard and public plaza will be a destination for the community and cultural events for years to come. The development will include a farmers market anticipated to start at the end of June 2022.”

By way of explanation, Mayor Brian Cooper told KATU-TV: “So, the fork came about because we wanted something on the corner, whether it was a water tower or a windmill or some sort of piece that’s going to be on the corner, and then one of the design teams said, let’s just put a fork here and we’ll come back to it. And over the course of a couple months, it just kind of stuck in the brain…And you can come up with an entire marketing scheme of ‘Take a left at the fork,’ ‘The Fork in Fairview.”

The current record holder for the world’s tallest fork is Missouri, with a utensil that stands 35 feet tall. So, fingers crossed that no one has secretly erected a larger fork in the meantime! – WTF Fun Facts

Source: The Fork is Coming! — Fairview Oregon government homepage

WTF Fun Fact 12398 – Canadian Humor

In 1999, Canada’s Northwest Territories was split in two. The eastern region became Nunavut, a territory made up of the Inuit (known to some as Eskimos). However, the other half of the 1.3 million-square-mile territory wanted to come up with its own name.

Politicians turned to residents to come up with new names, which may not have been the best idea in retrospect. Before the Boaty McBoatface debacle, Canadians proved that the people don’t always know best when they rallied behind the name “Bob” for their territory.

According to The Baltimore Sun, other contenders included Restavit, Alluvit, Fullavit, Tundraland, Freedom Territory, Eskimo Pie, and Snobound. So, in some respects, it could have been worse.

While the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today, an online campaign on behalf of Bob contained a list of reasons why citizens thought it was a good idea, such as: “‘Bob’ sounds the same in each of the official languages of the Northwest Territories” (these include English, French, Cree, Inukitut, and Dene).

“‘A spokesman for Bob said ‘ sounds friendlier in news reports than ‘A spokesman for the Northwest Territories said,'” claimed another fan.

Politicians were not so good-natured about the fun and games:

“The campaign to make the name of the Western Territory into ‘Bob’ is not humorous,” said J. Michael Miltenberger, member of the territorial assembly. “This campaign is hurting the reputation vTC of residents of the Western Arctic across North America and beyond.” – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Northwest Territories looking for new name – ‘Bob’ need not apply — CBC News

WTF Fun Fact 12397 – Beer Mustache

Men with mustaches and beards are losing an estimated 162,719 pints of beer in their facial hair every year, according to Guinness.

The brewery commissioned a scientific study and researchers found that quite a bit of beer was being wasted each year in the UK (and presumably around the world) – about £4.58 a year, they estimate. It has been humorously titled the “mustache tax.”

There are an estimated 92,370 drinkers with facial hair in the UK. Those men drink an average of 180 pints each a year. That makes the total cost of wasted suds around £423,070, or around $572K in US dollars.

According to The Guardian, “As the data was based on the average mustache surface area. Scientists were able to work out the amount of wastage depending on size, shape, and density.” – WTF Fun Facts

Source: Hairy topers ‘wasting Guinness’? — The Guardian