In the 1990’s, a group of Mazda engineers created a suitcase “car” from a large Samsonite suitcase and a pocket bike. The suitcase car took just a minute to assemble and had a top speed of 30km/h. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: MAZDA: Mazda’s Amazing Suitcase Car | We are Engineers
According to market research firm Euromonitor International, global gum sales have declined 15% since 2007 – the year the iPhone came out. They believe people have less free time and are distracted on their phones in checkout lines where most gum purchases are made. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: No time to kill: How smartphone is pushing chewing gum out of fashion (indiatimes.com)
One in three smartphone users in India run out of space daily according to a survey by Western Digital, compared with one in 10 in the U.S. Google researchers peeked into Indian consumers’ phones and found thousands of “good morning” images from texts filling up their storage. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: The Internet Is Filling Up Because Indians Are Sending Millions of ‘Good Morning!’ Texts – WSJ
For over 10 years, James McCormick sold the ADE 651, a fake ‘bomb detector’, all over the world (but primarily to Iraq). He purchased novelty golf ball detectors for less than $20 and resold them for $5000 each. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Fake bomb detector seller James McCormick jailed – BBC News
In 1999, a group of hackers identified a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Hotmail which allowed access to ~50 million email accounts. There was a login script called “start” which used “eh” as the password. – WTF Fun Facts
Scientists have developed a nanoparticle injection for the eye which converts infrared into visible light allowing night vision for up to 10 weeks. The injection has worked on mice in research trials. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Military Night Vision Goggles | How Do Night Vision Goggles Work? (popularmechanics.com)
TASER is actually an acronym for Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle. The Tom Swift is in reference to a book character that is an inventor of amazing gadgets, who was a childhood favorite of the Taser’s inventor Jack Cover. – WTF Fun Facts
Chinese video sharing and streaming site Bilibili used 1,500 drones to create a light show designed to celebrate the first anniversary of the China release of mobile game Princess Connect! Re:Dive, followed by a huge QR code to download the game.–WTF Fun Facts
Source: “A Chinese Gaming Company Used Drones To Form a Scannable QR Code in the Sky” — Hypebeast
Netflix saved its average user from 9.1 days of commercials in 2019. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: ANALYSIS: Netflix Saved Its Average User From 9.1 Days of Commercials in 2019 – Reviews.com
As of February 2021, Steven Pruitt has made over 4 million edits to Wikipedia’s English content and 35k original articles under the alias “Ser Amantio di Nicolao”. He was named one of the 25 most important influencers on the Internet by Time magazine in 2017. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Steven Pruitt – Wikipedia
In 2018, Americans lost over $700,000 to “Nigerian Prince” scam emails. Each victim lost an average of just over $2,100. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Nigerian prince scams still rake in over $700,000 a year (cnbc.com)
There are several programming languages that have been created using emojis and emoticons including: Emoji, Emojicode, Emoji-gramming, EmojiCoder, and Emotinomicon. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: 5 Emoji Based Programming Languages | Level Up Coding (gitconnected.com)
As part of a study, Facebook users, randomized to deactivate their accounts for 4 weeks in exchange for $102, freed up an average of 60 minutes a day, spent more time socializing offline, became less politically polarized, and reported improved subjective well-being relative to the control group. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Connected, but at what cost? | Science (sciencemag.org)
In 2009, Microsoft promoted Windows 7 in Japan by partnering with Burger King to release a 7 patty Whopper. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2009-10-22-burger-king-selling-a-windows-7-whopper-in-japan.html
Roughly 85% of hospitals still use pagers because hospitals can be dead zones for cell service. In some areas, the walls are built to keep X-rays from penetrating, which also makes it hard for cell phone signals to pass through. Pagers work on very high-frequency radio signals which don’t have the same issue. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Why Hospitals and Doctors Still Use Pagers | The Healthy
In November 2010, the Air Force Research Laboratory created the “Condor Cluster” by connecting together 1,760 Sony Playstation 3 gaming consoles. It was the 33rd largest supercomputer at the time. – WTF Fun Facts
A 2011 study on lost remotes found that 49% of the time it was found in the couch, 8% found it in the bathroom, 8% in a dresser drawer, 4% in the fridge/freezer, and 2% percent found the remote outside. – WTF Fun Facts
Craigslist generates over $1 billion in revenue yearly but only has 50 employees. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Craig Newmark Founded Craigslist To Give Back, Now He’s A Billionaire (forbes.com)