wtf fun fact

WTF Fun Fact 12901 – Blue Whale Calorie Intake

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 Goldbogen studies 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

WTF Fun Fact 12900 – Goldfish Bowls Are Banned in Rome

If you want to keep a goldfish in a simple round, glass bowl, don’t move to Rome. While many people believe the myth that goldfish have no memories, that’s simply not true. Research has shown that they do, in fact, remember things. And that’s part of the reason goldfish bowls are banned in Rome.

What’s wrong with goldfish bowls?

The bowls in which many people house their goldfish are quite small compared to the distance the fish like to swim when free. That makes many people believe that it’s cruel to keep them in such a small space with so little stimulation.

According to CBC News, “Rome’s daily newspaper Il Messaggero reported that round bowls cause fish to go blind. Animal activists call the bowls cruel, while fish experts say the bowls don’t provide enough oxygen.”

In 2005, Rome’s city councilors decided that it would ban spherical goldfish bowls for the health of the fish. It also banned giving away goldfish and other animals as prizes.

“The Roman bylaw also prevents animal owners from clipping dogs’ tails or trimming cats’ claws for visual appeal or leaving animals in hot vehicles or store windows. It also offers legal protection to people who feed colonies of cats.”

The fight for (all) animal rights

Rome also made it a law that all owners need to exercise their dogs daily, and that failure to walk your dog could mean a fine of $700.

It’s all part of a trend across the world to secure the well-being of pets, remind people of their responsibilities when they adopt an animal, and try to prevent pet owners from treating animals as simply property instead of living beings entitled to a certain quality of life.

While it’s unclear exactly what effect the law has had, it’s likely made some people second guess their behavior towards animals. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Rome bans ‘cruel’ goldfish bowls” — CBC News

WTF Fun Fact 12899 – China Bans Reincarnation

According to the Chinese government, any Tibetan monk needs government permission to reincarnate. The goal of this law, according to foreign policy and religious experts alike is to ensure that the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, reincarnates inside of China’s borders so they can control his actions.

How did China ban reincarnation?

The current Dalai Lama is considered a threat to the Chinese government and its claim to Tibet. Despite the fact that the Chinese government is atheist by nature and its officials are not allowed to practice religion, they still want to regulate what they consider to be Tibetan “separatists” in the form of Buddhist monks. So they rubber-stamped legislation that tries to interfere with the spiritual leadership of the region.

In 2007, the legislation insisted that monks must have “recognition from the religious world and the temple” to reincarnate. “The selection of reincarnates must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups, and the selection process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country,” it says.

That might sound non-controversial at first glance, but the Chinese government has published an official registry of “licensed Buddhas” (monks who have achieved the highest place in the Buddhist religion) along with their recognized temple and an ID card number. The goal is to use the database to recognize only certain monks who tow the party line. The Chinese government says that “fake living Buddhas” are the reason behind the action.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan Buddhist monks pose a threat to the government with their desire for an autonomous Tibet, so they are not on the list.

In other words, if the Dalai Lama wants to reincarnate, he’ll have to do it within Chinese borders and be on the list in order to be recognized as the new, reigning Dalai Lama. Of course, the current Dalai Lama has refused to be reincarnated within Chinese borders, so we’ll likely see two Dalai Lamas when Tenzin Gyatso passes away – one recognized by China and one recognized by most of the rest of the world.

The reaction to the reincarnation law

In 2011, the Dalai Lama called the country’s reincarnation laws “outrageous” and “disgraceful,” saying “The enforcement of various inappropriate methods for recognizing reincarnations to eradicate our unique Tibetan cultural traditions is doing damage that will be difficult to repair.”

The Dalai Lama currently can’t return to Tibet or China and monks have protested this for decades. According to the LA Times (cited below): “More than 140 people in Tibet and neighboring provinces have burned themselves to death since 2009 as a grim protest against Chinese rule; many have called for the Dalai Lama’s return as they went up in flames.”

The newspaper also noted that, in 2016, “Baima Chilin, deputy Communist Party chief of the region, said that the Dalai Lama was ‘no longer a religious leader’ after he left Tibet in 1959. ‘If the Dalai Lama wants to return to China, he must give up ‘Tibet independence,’ and must publicly acknowledge Tibet and Taiwan are inseparable parts of China and that the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government.'”

There’s no chance of that happening. — WTF fun facts

Source: “In China, the state decides who can come back from the dead” — LA Times

WTF Fun Fact 12897 – The World’s Oldest Cat

The world’s oldest cat was named Creme Puff – and the furry girl held on until age 38! It’s all been confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The story of Creme Puff

Creme Puff was owned by Jake Perry, who can safely be called a legendary cat owner (as well as a husband, father to humans, and plumber). He also adopted and found homes for hundreds of cats over his lifetime. But even more stunning is that Perry had been the owner of the previous record-holder for longest-lived cat before Creme Puff came along!

That cat, Granpa Rexs Allen was part sphynx and part Devon Rex mix, and he lived to age 34.

Creme Puff was a mixed tabby cat.

What’s Perry’s secret to cat longevity?

As you might imagine, Perry treated all of his cats as they so richly deserved. He built a theater in his garage that played nature documentaries for his cats to watch. He remembered and celebrated their birthdays every year (which, if you think about it, is A LOT of birthdays). Perry even had steps built all over the walls of his house so his cats would have things to climb on to stay engaged and stimulated.

Most importantly, he insisted that a loving relationship is the secret to cat longevity.

The diet Perry fed his cats is more questionable (or is it, since 1/3rd of the cats he’s owned have lived to be 30?). According to Atlas Obscura (cited below, with an excellent story on Perry) the cats’ daily diet had a few extra fixins’ on top of dry commercial cat food, including “a home-cooked breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, broccoli, coffee with cream, and—every two days—about an eyedropper full of red wine to ‘circulate the arteries.'” (Note, caffeine and alcohol are not recommended for cats, nor is that much human food, so there much be some other secret – or it all goes together in some perfect feline-friendly way.)

Perry’s vet of choice is Bruce Hardesty, the owner of South Congress Veterinary Clinic in Austin, Texas. He’s seen 40 or 50 cats Perry has owned over the years. He believes at least 6 of Perry’s cats have reached age 30. – WTF fun facts

Source: “How to Raise a 165-Year-Old Cat” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 12896 – Coins in the Trevi Fountain Are Donated

Have you ever wondered what happens to coins in the Trevi Fountain – or any fountain that people toss coins into, for that matter?

They certainly can’t be left in there; otherwise, the fountain in Rome would be buried under a pile of coins by now.

Coins in the Trevi Fountain go to a good cause

Rome’s Trevi Fountain was built in the 18th century and remains a major tourist attraction. The superstition goes that if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi, you’re destined to return to Rome again someday. And for anyone who has been to the spectacular city, that’s reason enough to part with the extra change.

The tradition is so popular that around $1.7 MILLION is thrown into the fountain every year!

But where do the coins end up?

They go to help the poor by supporting soup kitchens, a homeless center, and other social assistance programs.

The Trevi’s coin controversy

The coins in the fountain have recently been the source of some controversy.

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “Visitors are so keen to engage in the tradition that around $1.7 million in change is thrown into the 18th-century fountain every year. For many years that money has gone to a Catholic charity called Caritas, which aids the poor—and it will continue to do so, Rome’s mayor assured residents after reports circulated that the city council intended to lay claim to the funds. The confusion and controversy stemmed from a leaked document suggesting that the administration of Virginia Raggi, a populist politician who became Rome’s first female mayor in 2016, planned to use the money to bolster city infrastructure, according to ABC News.”

Caritas then published an article accusing the government of taking money away from the city’s poor – and that did not go over well.

While it doesn’t sound like the worst idea to let some of the money go towards maintaining the city that tourists love (and trample), the money wasn’t guaranteed to be used that specifically if it went to the city’s populist government.

Virginia Raggi, the mayor at the time of the controversy in 2016, backtracked on her plans after she was accused of diverting money from the poor. While she asked the city council to approve her plan, she later (and inexplicably) said there were no plans to ever divert the money.

So it looks like the coins will continue to go to charity. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Rome’s Mayor Says Coins Tossed Into Trevi Fountain Will Still Go to Poor” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12895 – The Mumbai Thief Punished With Bananas

Bananas are very nutritious, and they can often help with constipation. But we’ve never seen them employed as a laxative punishment.

It all happened in Mumbai, India back in 2016…

The thief and the bananas

Indian police caught a thief who had allegedly stolen a gold chain from a woman on the street in Mumbai. In order to conceal any crime, the thief decided to swallow the gold chain.

Of course, we now have ways of checking to see if there’s a gold chain in someone’s stomach, so police had his stomach X-rayed at the hospital to reveal that the gold chain was indeed inside him. An enema was administered but yielded no results.

And THEN came the uncomfortable part.

Rather than let nature take its course, the police wanted to retrieve the chain more quickly. So they force-fed the man over 40 bananas.

Bananas are one of the best foods to help with digestion since the carbohydrates they contain are easily broken down by the body. And if someone’s not feeling well (say, after swallowing a necklace), bananas are a gentle way of easing stomach pain. Of course, the point here was to use them as a laxative.

The banana aftermath

According to The Guardian (cited below), “Doctors suggested performing an operation, but police officers decided it would be too expensive and opted instead for the bananas.”

Mandatory surgery seems pretty darn drastic! So in this case the bananas were the less extreme option.

It’s unclear if the police used a technique other than simply mandating the man eat the bananas behind bars. A senior inspector with Mumbai police named Shankar Dhanavade said “He was fed more than 40 bananas throughout the day,” so that’s all we know.

The 25-year-old man eventually passed the chain – and we’re happy not to have the gruesome details of that part. What we do know is that the police made the man wash and disinfect the chain before handing it over.

A not-so-rare approach

Apparently, banana-feeding is not a rare occurrence in Mumbai (perhaps because swallowing allegedly stolen jewelry happened more often than you’d think).

The Guardian noted that “According to reports, it was not the first time Mumbai police had used this technique in order to recover a stolen item. In July last year, a chain was retrieved after a thief was made to eat two-dozen bananas and drink several litres of milk laced with laxatives, the Hindustan Times reported. In April, a thief was fed five-dozen bananas after swallowing a gold chain with a large pendant. The thief successfully excreted the loot, but the disgusted victim refused to touch it and instead took it to a jeweller in a plastic bag, the newspaper said.”

In case you skimmed that, it said 5 DOZEN bananas and a LARGE pendant. We’re pretty sure that thief never wanted to swallow anything again after that traumatic episode! And while we can’t be sure, we also imagine he never wanted to eat another banana again after that.

While we don’t advocate swallowing jewelry, we are now considering adding more bananas to our diet – in moderation, of course. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Indian police force feed 40 bananas to thief who swallowed gold chain” — The Guardian

WTF Fun Fact 12894 – Firefighters Use Wetter Water

It’s supposed to be one of those “duh” facts that water is wet. But did you know if can technically be “wetter”? Firefighters use “wetter” water to put out fires. This involves using synthetic chemicals to improve water’s ability to put out fires.

Why do firefighters need water wetter?

Some types of fires are so hot that water simply evaporated the moment it hits the flames. Wetting chemicals help increase water’s spreading and penetrating properties.

We’ve long known that fires involving oil and gasoline can’t be put out with a splash of water. Decades ago, fire departments started using chemical and mechanical foam and carbon dioxide to help extinguish those fires.

But even a fire that starts with a match may be hard to extinguish with plain old H2O. The material that’s burning may be too thick and dense for water to penetrate it and extinguish all of the flames, for example.

As a result, fire departments use water-wetting chemicals. These give water properties that allows it to maintain contact with a solid surface or spread out more effectively to address a wider area.

How can you make water wetter?

In firefighting, the purpose of water is to make other things wet. But when water bonds are cohesive, water can bead up and not penetrate the surface of an object. But adding detergents, water becomes wetter, the cohesive forces weaken, and it’s able to make other things wet – which in turn extinguishes a fire.

Wetting agents also reduce the surface tension of water by penetrating the water molecules and making them less adhesive. They can also help increase the evaporation temperature of water. For firefighters, this allows them to get things wetter faster and with less water.

The most common chemicals in wet water are surfactants such as ethylene or propylene glycol. They make water easier to distribute over a surface and better able to flow into things that are on fire. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Fighting Fires with “Wet” Water” — Fire Engineering

WTF Fun Fact 12893 – Scottish Words for Snow

The Scottish are really giving the Inuit a run for their money when it comes to piling up snow-related words. A few years ago, academics reported that they had found over 400 Scottish words for snow – 421, to be exact.

Why are there so many words for snow?

If you live in a snowy place, you know that there are different kinds of snow – wet snow, powdery snow, heavy snow, snow that makes good snowmen, lake effect snow, etc.

After spending years working through historical documents written in the Scots language, it turns out the people of Scotland really got descriptive! Academics at the University of Glasgow organized the Historical Thesaurus of Scots into some interesting categories, including (but not limited to):

  • types of snow
  • actions that involve throwing snow
  • pre-snow weather conditions
  • snowstorms
  • snow accessories
  • snow words related to sheep

What are some Scottish words for snow?

According to the BBC (cited below), the words that will go into the thesaurus include:

  • snaw – snow (viewed either as falling flakes, or as the layer of these formed on the ground)
  • feefle – to swirl
  • flindrikin – a slight snow shower
  • sneesl – to begin to rain or snow
  • snaw-pouther – fine driving snow
  • spitters – small drops or flakes of wind-driven rain or snow
  • unbrak – the beginning of a thaw
  • skelf – a large snowflake

But our favorites are “Katty-clean-doors,” which is a child’s name for snow, and “smirr,” which refers to a fine rain, drizzle, or of sleet or snow.”

The Scots thesaurus

Of course, we all have lots of words that mean roughly the same thing – there are thesauruses for nearly every language. But we’re still impressed by just how diverse the Scots language is.

The Scots thesaurus also includes a category on sport and believe it or not, the game of marbles has the most words associated with it at 369. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Scots ‘have 421 words‘ for snow” — BBC

WTF Fun Fact 12892 – McDonald’s Bubblegum-Flavored Broccoli

People long looked for ways to make broccoli easier to eat, but we’re stumped by McDonald’s attempt to make bubblegum flavored broccoli.

I suppose it’s better than broccoli-flavored bubblegum though.

When and why did McDonald’s make bubblegum broccoli?

In light of ever-more-disturbing news about the effects of the American obesity crisis, McDonald’s has long been asked how they’re trying to help. In 2014, McDonald’s CEO Donald Thompson revealed the fast-food chain had tried out some interesting options to help children eat healthier.

The attempt to sneak veggies into children’s diets came to light in 2014 when, according to Mental Floss (cited below), “Thompson was asked what the fast food giant was doing to provide healthier food options for children.”

As it turns out, “Three years earlier, the chain had already revamped its Happy Meal by cutting the amount of French fries in half and offering fruit as a side option. But Thompson said they had also experimented with some unconventional methods of enticing children to eat healthier.”

One of those possibilities was bubble gum-flavored broccoli. They made it, but they never sold it.

What happened to this culinary curiosity?

It probably comes as no surprise that it never quite made it past the company’s focus groups. Kids were confused and not delighted enough to make up for any skepticism.

Mental Floss notes that “the vegetable creation didn’t exactly surprise or delight its intended audience…And even the powers-that-be were unimpressed.”

“It wasn’t all that,” Thompson said.

It appears that the item may have been planned as a Happy Meal option (one that was eventually replaced by fruit slices and yogurt).

Franky, we’re surprised no one revived the idea during the era when “Millennial pink” was the color of the moment. Sure, it would have gotten some bad press, but it certainly would have been a big seller for those Instagram food photos! – WTF fun facts

Source: “When McDonald’s Invented Bubble Gum-Flavored Broccoli” — Mental Floss