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WTF Fun Fact 13309 – April’s Origins

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What do you know about April’s origins? We are all aware that it is the fourth month of the Gregorian calendar, but it has a fascinating past and some distinctive characteristics.

April’s origins and meaning

One of the most interesting things about April is its name. According to Dictionary.com, April is derived from the Latin word “aperire,” which means “to open.”

Since April is typically linked to the arrival of warmer weather and the start of the growing season, it is most likely referring to the opening of buds and flowers in the spring.

April was actually the second month of the year in ancient Rome. March was the first month on the Roman calendar.

In ancient Rome, the months were closely linked to the phases of the moon. April was particularly significant because it was the month when the moon was at its fullest. This made it an important time for religious and cultural celebrations.

Spring festivals

One of the most important Roman festivals in April was the Megalesia, held in honor of the goddess Cybele. This festival was a time for music, dance, and theater performances. It was also a time to honor the goddess’s fertility and abundance.

Another significant festival in April was the Parilia, which celebrated the founding of Rome. This festival was held on April 21st and was dedicated to the god Pales, who protected flocks and herds. It was a time for purification and renewal. It included the lighting of bonfires and the offering of sacrifices.

However, others believe that the name April comes from the Etruscan word “Apru,” which means “the month of Aphrodite.” Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and her Roman counterpart was Venus. The Greeks considered April a favorable time for weddings and other romantic activities. They believed it to be the month when the goddess of love was most powerful.

In addition to its association with the moon, the Romans associated April with the goddess Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. They held the festival of Veneralia on April 1st. On this day, women would undertake rituals on this day to worship the goddess and ask for her blessings.

Ancient April fools

Most believe that ancient Rome was the place where the custom of April Fools’ Day (or All Fools’ Day) originated. The Romans celebrated a day of practical pranks on March 25th in honor of the holiday of Hilaria. We believe that this celebration may be where the custom of pulling pranks on people on April 1st got its start.

We now associate April with numerous other events and observances. April is National Poetry Month in the US, a time to honor poetry’s beauty and impact. Also, April is Autism Awareness Month, a time to promote acceptance and understanding of people with autism.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “The Mysterious Origins Of The Month Of April’s Name” — Dictionary.com

WTF Fun Fact 13290 – The Spring Equinox At Chichen Itza

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In March, visitors flock to Mexico to celebrate the spring equinox at Chichen Itza.

Chichen Itza is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It was once a major center of the Mayan civilization and is home to some of the most iconic Mayan ruins in the world. Among these ruins is the Kukulcan Pyramid, also known as El Castillo, which is famous for its alignment with the spring and fall equinoxes.

Celebrating the spring equinox at Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza was built by the Mayan civilization over the course of several centuries. Construction started in the 7th century CE. The site contains many impressive structures, including pyramids, temples, ball courts, and an observatory. But the most famous is the Kukulcan Pyramid.

On the day of the spring equinox each year, the pyramid is known for a visual effect known as the “serpent of light.” As the sun rises, the pyramid casts a shadow that appears to be a serpent slithering down the steps. This phenomenon is caused by the angle of the sun and the pyramid’s unique design, which incorporates 365 steps, one for each day of the year.

What’s amazing about the structure is that the architects knew astronomy so well that they could build something so large that also has such a dramatic effect at a precise moment centuries later.

The Serpent of Light

The serpent of light is a significant event for the Mayan people. They view it as a symbol of the cycle of life and death, and the renewing power of the sun. Many visitors flock to Chichen Itza on the day of the spring equinox to witness this event.

In addition to the pyramid, Chichen Itza is home to many other fascinating ruins. Among them are the Temple of the Warriors, the Great Ball Court, and the Observatory. Each of these structures has its own unique history and significance in Mayan culture.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “The descent of the serpent in the Chichen Itza Equinox” — Mayan Peninsula

WTF Fun Fact 13266 – The New York Knicks Colors

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The New York Knicks’ colors are blue and orange. They were chosen because they are two of the official colors of New York City (white is the third). The Knicks adopted the colors in 1946, their inaugural season in the Basketball Association of America (BAA).

Why are the New York Knicks’ colors blue and orange?

The New York Knicks were founded on June 6, 1946 as one of the original members of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949. The Knicks played their first game on November 1, 1946, defeating the Toronto Huskies 68-66.

According to the official NYC website, the colors were chosen to represent the city’s Dutch heritage. New York City was originally founded by the Dutch as New Amsterdam in 1625.

The blue and white colors come from the coat of arms of the Dutch West India Company, which played a major role in the early history of New York. The orange color represents the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau, which ruled the Netherlands at the time of the city’s founding.

The flag was officially adopted in 1915 and has remained unchanged since then. While the flag is not widely used in daily life, it is a symbol of the city’s history and culture, and is often flown at official events and ceremonies.

Why are they called the Knicks?

The Knickerbockers’ name also goes back to Dutch settlers. Those men rolled their pants just below the knees. This style of pants was eventually called Knickerbockers (or knickers). 

As for why the team is called the Knickerbockers instead of something else is a bit of a mystery. However, the story goes that founding father Ned Irish chose the name out of a hat.

— WTF fun facts

Source: “A History of Blue in New York City and its Sports Teams” — NYCFC

WTF Fun Fact 13228 – The Lupercalia

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Each year the ancient Romans celebrated Lupercalia on February 15th. The Romans originally called the festival Februa, and it acted as a purification ritual for the city.

Why did Romans celebrate Lupercalia?

The Romans associated Lupercalia with fertility, renewal, and revelry. But they also conducted it under the eye of a group of priests called Luperci.

The origins of the Lupercalia festival aren’t entirely clear. But they may have something to do with the myth of the she-wolf that nursed the abandoned brothers Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome). The Romans also associated the festival with the god of fertility, Faunus.

In Rome, March was the start of the New Year

According to Encyclopedia Britannica (cited below):

“Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice by the Luperci of goats and a dog, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife, and the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk; the ritual required that the two young men laugh.

The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificial animals and ran in two bands around the Palatine hill, striking with the thongs at any woman who came near them. A blow from the thong was supposed to render a woman fertile.”

The Romans performed the sacrifice at the cave where the she-wolf supposedly suckled the founders Romulus and Remus.

The end of the festival

In 494 CE, Pope Gelasius I banned the Lupercalia because it was a pagan festival.

Some believe he tried to replace it with the Church’s Feast of the Purification (Candlemas), on February 2nd. But that holiday was likely established earlier.

Many people try to make the connection between Lupercalia and St. Valentine’s Day on February 14th. And while the holiday may have picked up some minor influences from the Lupercalia, the creation of that holiday came much later.

Regardless, Romans likely celebrated the Lupercalia for close to 1200 years. (However, academic Agnes Kirsopp Michaels has made the case that the festival only goes back to the 5th century B.C.) — WTF fun facts

Source: “Lupercalia” — Encyclopedia Britannica

WTF Fun Fact 13223 – The Benefits of Reading Physical Books

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Reading is generally good for you, no matter how you do it (unless you’re falling down a rabbithole of conspiracy theories). And your body likes reading in any form. Still, research shows that the benefits of reading physical books is higher than reading on a screen.

What are the benefits of reading physical books?

Reading physical books has numerous benefits. For starters, it helps improve concentration and information retention. Physical books require more focus and concentration than digital books, as there are fewer distractions. This helps to improve memory retention and recall, especially for complex information.

Research suggests that reading online results in lower understanding and less critical reflection. That can even be the case when parents read to children from an ebook. But that’s largely because screens don’t help them enhance elements of the story that would make a book more engaging.

Learning is just better when it’s done on paper.

Physical books are also better for eye health. Digital screens emit blue light, which has been shown to disrupt sleep patterns and cause eye strain.

A paper book in your hands also helps promote relaxation (though we’ve certainly felt the relaxation from reading an ebook!). But it turns out physical books can help to reduce stress and anxiety. The act of holding a book and turning its pages has a calming effect, and the absence of screens and digital distractions can provide a sense of peace.

Paper books also encourage us to unplug. They provide a break from technology and encourage people to unplug and disconnect from their screens. This is especially important in today’s digital world, where people are constantly bombarded with information and distractions.

Love building a library

While ebooks can be very convenient for travel or people with small apartments who don’t have places to store books, it turns out that collecting physical books can be a source of pride and personal fulfillment. A personal library of physical books is a tangible representation of one’s interests and reading history, which can be enjoyed and shared with others. It makes people feel good about their reading habits.

Believe it or not, physical books are more environmentally friendly in some ways. They do not require any batteries, electricity, or other power sources. They are also made from natural materials, such as paper, making them a more sustainable option than digital books, which rely on electronic devices that contribute to electronic waste.

The benefits of reading physical books also help independent bookstores. And purchasing physical books from independent bookstores supports local communities and small businesses, helping to preserve the cultural heritage of local neighborhoods.

For the love of books

If you love books, you’re not alone. People still prefer and buy more physical books than ebooks. And considering how many devices we all own, that’s pretty impressive.

In an era where convenience rules, there’s still something so compelling about holding a physical book that ebooks have never been able to take the lion’s share of the book market. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Reading on-screen vs reading in print: What’s the difference for learning?” — National Library of New Zealand

WTF Fun Fact 13214 – Understanding the Birthday Paradox

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Sometimes, an event is more likely to occur than we think. For example, if you survey a random group of 23 people, you have a 50–50 chance of finding someone with the same birthday as you. Understanding the Birthday Paradox is all about mathematical probability.

What’s the key to understanding the Birthday Paradox?

Understanding the Birthday Paradox is important to understanding the limits of our intuition.

The Birthday Paradox is a statistical phenomenon that states that in a group of just 23 people, there’s a 50-50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday. This likely seems counterintuitive. The probability of any two people having the same birthday seems much lower, right?

But as the number of people in a group increases, the probability of two people having the same birthday also increases. (That part makes sense.)

To understand the Birthday Paradox, we have to consider the probability of two people not having the same birthday.

If the first person in a group has a birthday on any day of the year, the probability that the second person does not have the same birthday is 364/365, or 0.9973. The probability that the third person does not have the same birthday as the first two people is 363/365, and so on.

As the number of people in the group increases, the probability of any two people not having the same birthday decreases.

How does the math work on this?

Ok, let’s say we have a group of 23 people. The probability that any two people do not have the same birthday is (364/365)^(23*22/2) = 0.4927. That means that there is a 50.73% chance that two people in the group will have the same birthday.

In a group of 30 people, the probability increases to 0.7037. In that case, there is a 29.63% chance that two people will have the same birthday.

A simpler way to think about the Birthday Paradox is to think about it as a game of matching pairs. If you have a deck of cards with 365 cards and you randomly draw 23 cards, the probability of matching pairs is 50.73%. The more cards you draw, the higher the chance of matching pairs. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Probability and the Birthday Paradox” — Scientific American

WTF Fun Fact 13139 – Asia Is Bigger Than the Moon

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In terms of surface area, Asia is bigger than the moon.

How on Earth is Asia bigger than the moon?

First, it’s useful to know that the moon is only 27% the size of the Earth. Since Asia is the biggest continent on Earth, it’s not a huge surprise that it might rival the size of the moon in terms of surface area.

The surface Asia’s surface area is 44.5 million square kilometers (4.6 million square miles) while the moon’s is 37.8 million square kilometers (17.2 million square miles).

Moon stats

While the moon is the brightest object in the night sky, it’s still only about a quarter of the size of our planet.

Here are some other interesting moon stats, according to Space.com (cited below):

  • The moon’s mean radius is 1,079.6 miles.
  • Its mean diameter is 2,159.2 miles.
  • The moon is less than a third the width of the Earth.
  • The moon’s equatorial circumference is 6,783.5 miles (10,917 km).
  • The Earth’s moon is the fifth largest moon in our solar system.

The moon appears so enormous because it is so close to the Earth. It’s our closest celestial body at around 238,855 miles away.

To put it in some very random perspective, “If Earth were the size of a nickel, the moon would be about as big as a coffee bean,” according to NASA.

It’s pretty wild to think about the size of objects in our solar system. Often, their measurements don’t mean much to us unless they’re compared to something we can more easily visualize. Still, the fact that Asia is bigger than the moon (in terms of surface area) is pretty mind-blowing. — WTF fun facts

Source: “How big is the moon?” — Space.com

WTF Fun Fact 13075 – Gungywamp

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Gungywamp is a bit of a mystery. But that’s true of nearly all archaeological sites. They don’t exactly come with a guide map explaining what everything is. But the most surprising thing about this over 4000-year-old set of stone circles is that they’re in Groton, Connecticut. Of course, there were Native peoples all over the continent, but the sites changes what anyone previously knew about them.

What is Gungywamp?

The site has artifacts dating from 2000-770 BCE. In and around the 100-acre site, you’ll find structures from both Native Americans and the colonists. In other words, people have lived here for a long time.

But perhaps one of the coolest remnants left behind is a stone “calendar” cellar which has a tiny window that naturally illuminates it from the outside during the equinoxes. It’s mixed in with lots of other stone cellars that some archaeologists think are simply root cellars (where vegetables are stored in the cold seasons).

All the chambers/cellars seem to contain petroglyphs (prehistoric rock carvings). North of those, you’ll also find double stone circles made of large quarried stone. There are 21 of them laid end to end.

But what does it all mean?

Who built the site?

The most likely explanation is that this is a prehistoric Native American site that was later used by colonists as well. But the nature of the stone circles is reminiscent of medieval Irish structures. And that’s controversial because it would suggest that Europeans (perhaps Irish monks known as Caldees) may have made their way to North America long before Columbus. This is considered a fringe theory since there is no other evidence, linguistic or archaeological that would support it.

If you’re into fringe theories, there are also those who believe some of it was built by aliens. They use the occasional spikes in electromagnetic energy in the area caused by the quartz, granite, and magnetite rocks to forward a theory that it’s some sort of alien energy vortex.

Arrowheads, pottery fragments, and other artifacts make it certain that the site was also used by Native Americans and colonists. But was there another group of people who built some of the stranger aspects of the site?

It’s fair to argue that Native Americans that were wiped out built the mysterious structures. People clearly lived there for thousands of years, making it hard to tell where one group’s artifacts begin and end in the timeline.

There was once a Gungywamp Society that investigated the site, but they have now disbanded. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Gungywamp – Groton, Connecticut” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 13041 – Oldest Mummy Ever Found

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You might be surprised to know that the oldest mummy ever found does not come from Egypt. The practice of mummification likely began in Chile.

The first mummies

The Chinchorro people settled in the bays of the Atacama Desert of present-day Chile around 7,000 BCE. All evidence points to these people developing a mummification technique around 5000 BCE. That’s two millennia before the the first ancient Egyptian mummies.

According to CNN (cited below), the oldest mummies ever found are currently kept the San Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum in the village of San Miguel de Azapa. The museum has 300 specimens but only displays around 10% of the collection to the public.

“It’s a very sacred collection because the majority of the items are related to the ceremony of death,” Mariela Santos, the museum curator and conservationist told CNN.

The first mummies

In Chile, the first mummies were babies and fetuses. And the area developed at least five separate mummification processes. However, 2 (black and red mummies) are the most common.

“Making the black mummies involved taking the dead person’s body completely apart, treating it and then reassembling it, skin and all. The red ones were created by making small incisions to remove internal organs and then drying the body cavity. Both were typically stuffed with sticks and reeds (to fill out the forms), adorned with wigs, and masked with clay over the faces — the former painted in manganese and the latter in ochre.”

Recognition for the site of the oldest mummy ever found

Chile’s Chinchorro sites were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2021. This makes it more popular with tourists and gives the area more resources to preserve their mummies. It should also put Chile on the map as far as the history of mummification is concerned. However, an influx of tourists can also hurt local communities.

Athropologist Bernardo Arriaza has studied the Chinchorro mummies and is an advocate for the site getting the attention it deserves.

“What we’re trying to show is that we not only have the oldest evidence of intentional mummification, but it was done by pre-ceramic hunter-gatherer people in a pristine environment that remains today,” he told CNN. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Surprise! The world’s oldest mummies are not in Egypt” — CNN

WTF Fun Fact 13014 – Movies Don’t Really Burn Calories

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A popular claim that watching scary movies burns as many calories as a walk re-circulates each year around during spooky season. But in reality, movies don’t really burn calories. The claim wasn’t the results of a rigorous study and was misleading. In fact, it was only made for publicity purposes.

What’s the claim about movies burning calories

From clickbait site to serious websites like The Guardian, it’s common to the headline once a year that watching movies like The Shining burn calories because they get your heart racing. And while that’s not false, the claim that watching a scary movie is somehow equivalent or better to exercise is untrue.

According to The Guardian’s piece the year the study came out:

“Those who watched a 90-minute horror film were likely to burn up to 113 calories – the same sort of figure as a half-hour walk. Some movies were more effective than others, however: of the 10 films studied, the top calorie-burners were the classic Stanley Kubrick chiller The Shining (184 calories), Jaws (161 calories) and The Exorcist (158 calories).”

For starters, sitting and doing nothing for 90 minutes can burn anywhere from 60 to 130 calories, depending on the person. You get those points for just existing. So go ahead and watch Steel Magnolias because scaring yourself silly isn’t going to help you lose weight.

The “study” is not really a study

What’s even more problematic is that while there is an academic behind the claims (and metabolism measurements):

  1. He didn’t set out to perform a rigorous scientific study.
  2. The data was never published in a scientific journal (which is important because that requires a study to be worthwhile, constructed correctly, and subjects it to peer review).
  3. The results are unimpressive at best (and genuinely misleading at worst).

The source of the info is Dr. Richard Mackenzie, listed as “senior lecturer and specialist in cell metabolism and physiology at the University of Westminster in London” at the time. He is cited as saying (via university press release, not a journal study) that:

While the scientists did measure heart rate, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output, the study involved just 10 people and was commissioned by the movie rental firm Lovefilm (now owned by Amazon).

Mackenzie noted that:

“As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline. It is this release of fast-acting adrenaline, produced during short bursts of intense stress (or in this case, brought on by fear), which is known to lower the appetite, increase the basal metabolic rate and ultimately burn a higher level of calories.”

The top 5 movies he asked people to watch (with calories burned during viewing) were:

1.The Shining: 184 calories
2.Jaws: 161 calories
3.The Exorcist: 158 calories
4.Alien: 152 calories
5.Saw: 133 calories

No, movies don’t burn calories in any helpful way

When Snopes (cited below) checked up on the even more bombastic claim people had made after hearing about the study (that watching horror movies could help reduce obesity), the noted: “The study was neither peer-reviewed nor published (nor, apparently, meant to be taken seriously). No follow-up studies replicating its findings, and people who wish to lose weight are probably better advised to get some exercise.”

Snopes then went on to point out the obscenely small sample size, the lack of replication of the study (mandatory of a study to actually make its way towards being considered scientific), and the failure to follow-up with subjects’ actual weight loss.

But the most important point is that even if everything had been done properly, the results aren’t impressive.

The average length of a feature film is around 90 minutes, during which the average person sitting on their butts and doing nothing burns 60 – 130 calories. If you stand, you might burn 100 – 200 calories, more than the 184 that people watching The Shining burned. The person watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the “study” only burned 107 calories – so we’re pretty skeptical of all of these measurements at this point.

The best we can say is that maybe some people burn a couple of extra calories watching scary movies that they would if they were just watching a blank wall. In other words, get your exercise if you want to burn calories in a meaningful way. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Does Watching Horror Movies Reduce Risk of Obesity?” — Snopes

WTF Fun Fact 13005 – Board Games For The Brain

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Fun fact: People who regularly play non-digital games (such as cards and board games) are more likely to score better on memory and thinking tests when they’re in their 70s.
If you’re interested in maintaining your mental acuity over time, board games for the brain may just help you out!

***

If you want to stay sharp in your 70s, games are a great way to exercise your brain. But digital games (such as video games and games on your phone) just won’t cut it. The link between mental acuity in later life and games seems to apply only to physical games like board games and playing cards.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh “tested more than 1000 people aged 70 for memory, problem solving, thinking speed and general thinking ability,” according to Science Daily (cited below). “Those who regularly played non-digital games scored better on memory and thinking tests in their 70s, the research found.”

The power of board games for the brain

Interestingly, the study also found that “People who increased game playing during their 70s were more likely to maintain certain thinking skills as they grew older.”

Scientists discovered the connection after testing their subjects every three years, until they reached age 79. They compared test results to how often people reported playing games like cards, chess, bingo, or crossword puzzles.

The team also factored in the scores from the subject’s intelligence tests when they were 11 years old and considered factors like lifestyle, economic status, and activity levels so that they could be reasonably sure that the games were the underlying factor for better memory test scores. (The participants were part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. They were all born in 1936 and have been tracked in a variety of ways throughout their lives.)

They found that: “People who increased game playing in later years were found to have experienced less decline in thinking skills in their seventies — particularly in memory function and thinking speed.”

Protecting cognitive health

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said of the study: “Even though some people’s thinking skills can decline as we get older, this research is further evidence that it doesn’t have to be inevitable. The connection between playing board games and other non-digital games later in life and sharper thinking and memory skills adds to what we know about steps we can take to protect our cognitive health, including not drinking excess alcohol, being active and eating a healthy diet.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Playing board games may help protect thinking skills in old age” — Science Daily

WTF Fun Fact 13003 – The Sean O’Casey Bridge

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Fun Fact: “Dublin’s Sean O’Casey Bridge is a pedestrian bridge over the River Liffey built to open up and allow ships to pass. But it was operated by a remote control that got lost in 2010. It was only in 2014, after building a new remote, that the bridge became operational again.”

***

Pro tip: If you build a bridge to help pedestrians cross a waterway and the bridge needs to open up in order to allow ships to pass, make sure you create more than one remote control to operate the bridge. Otherwise, a mobile phone-sized remote could get lost for four years. And that can make things very inconvenient for shipping through the waterway. Just ask Dublin – they know all about it.

The Sean O’Casey Bridge

Irish news site TheJournal.ie (cited below) reported in 2014 that the Sean O’Casey Bridge over the River Liffey in Dublin was once again operational after engineers were able to create a new remote to operate the bridge.

Describing the bridge, the news site said, “The design includes two 44-metre-long arms, capable of swinging open when required. That operation is controlled by a hand-held remote device — but,asTheJournal.iereported last year— that device went missing some years ago, meaning openings were no longer possible.”

The loss presumable occurred when the bureaucrats running the bridge moved offices.

Re-opening the bridge

Years of budget issues prevented a proper engineering review necessary to solve the problem, according to the news site. But in 2014, someone found the money to reprogram a new device.

Financial Advisor to the AuthorityJohn Crawley told TheJournal.ie: “Its not like a Sky box remote control.” The bridge remote required more than just an open and close button; it needed to be a secure system that no one could hack. Special engineers were required in order for it to be done right.

“An Irish-based firm carried out the reprogramming, and that aspect of the work cost around €1,800,” Crawley said. —WTF fun facts

Source: “The Celtic Tiger bridge that wouldn’t open because of a lost remote control” — TheJournal.ie

WTF Fun Fact 12970 – Leland Melvin and the “Astro Dog” Photo

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Astronaut Leland Melvin was told he could bring his family to his NASA photoshoot. So he did – they just happened to be his two rescue dogs (which he had to sneak into the facility). The result is an epic astronaut photo.

Who is Leland Melvin?

Leland Melvin was a NASA astronaut and current dog lover. He was a member of the 24th shuttle mission to the International Space Station which helped deliver and install the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory.

But Leland Melvin’s got quite a history aside from that. He’s also the only person drafted into the National Football League to have flown in space!

Melvin has a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and a Master’s degree in materials science engineering and played for the Detroit Lions. After his football career, he worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center “in the area of nondestructive testing creating optical fiber sensors for measuring damage in aerospace vehicles, resulting in publications in numerous scientific journals.”

He has also served as head of NASA Education and co-chair of the White House’s Federal Coordination in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) Education Task Force, the United States representative and chair of the International Space Education Board (ISEB), and won the NFL Players Association “Award of Excellence.”

Oh, and he’s even been a celebrity judge on Top Chef and appeared on an episode of Cesar Milian’s The Dog Whisperer with his dog Jake.

Sneaking dogs into NASA

According to the American Kennel Club: “The world got to know [Leland Melvin] as the ‘coolest astronaut in the galaxy’ through an iconic 2009 photo that, thanks to the web, became nearly as famous as Betty Grable’s World War II pinup poster. No one could forget Melvin’s official NASA portrait, known as the ‘Astro Dog’ shot.”

Blaring his stereo to drown out their barking and prepared with 100 milkbones to distract the pups so no one notices they were on site, Melvin drove onto the Johnson Space Center in Houston site for his official photo with his two dogs, Jake and Scout.

Dogs weren’t allowed on site, so he had to hide them all day, only letting them out when the photographer came in to start snapping photos. — WTF fun facts

Source: “About Leland Melvin” — Leland Melvin Official Website

WTF Fun Fact 12920 – Art Bell’s Vietnam Rescue

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Art Bell was an American broadcaster who hosted a popular paranormal radio show called “Coast to Coast AM,” among others. But while people may know his voice, they likely don’t know about Art Bell’s Vietnam rescue mission while he was an Air Force medic during the Vietnam War.

Who is Art Bell?

Art Bell came from a military family and went on to serve in the US Air Force in the Vietnam War. It was there that took up a childhood passion for radio by operating a pirate station he indulged his childhood passion for radio by operating a pirate station that played anti-war music for American servicemen.

He was also briefly a DJ for an English-language radio station in Okinawa. And it was there that he set a Guinness World Record for broadcasting before moving back to the U.S. to become a paranormal DJ.

According to his NYTs obituary (cited below): “His ‘Coast to Coast’ show was syndicated and broadcast from 1989 to 2003, followed by episodic returns on satellite radio and online with a program called ‘Midnight in the Desert,’ which he canceled in 2015 after he said shots had been fired at his home.”

The obit also notes that “While some critics accused him of laying the foundation for right-wing conspiracists on talk radio, Mr. Bell’s politics were not easily pigeonholed. He described himself as a libertarian, but his passion was directed less at politicians or ideology than at debunking scientific doctrine and preaching apocalyptic prophecy.”

Eventually, he dropped the political angle in favor of paranormal topics.

Art Bell’s Vietnam rescue mission

While the proof is unclear and Art Bell’s Vietnam rescue mission is often referred to as something he simply told people about, it has come to be accepted (and it is likely provable if someone wanted to look into it) that he set his broadcasting marathon record in order to raise money for war orphans in Vietnam.

Over 100 children had been rendered orphans by the war with no one to care for them. Bell chartered a plane with the money and brought them to the U.S., where it’s said they were adopted by American families. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Art Bell, Radio Host Who Tuned In to the Dark Side, Dies at 72” — The New York Times

WTF Fun Fact 12831 – Sea Sponges Sneeze and Squeeze

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It turns out sea sponges get full of mucus and other gunk (which we’re sure there’s a technical name for). And to get rid of this waste, they perform one of the most ancient ways to get rid of waste – that is, sea sponges sneeze to squeeze out the gunk,

Not exactly appetizing, but they aren’t really built in a way to do anything more complex.

Sea sponge sneezing

According to ScienceDaily (cited below), “A group of researchers found that sponges, one of the oldest multicellular organisms in existence, ‘sneeze’ to unclog their internal filter systems that they use to capture nutrients from the water.”

That’s not a super smooth move, but nearby creatures don’t mind – they eat the waste.

But this sneeze is nothing like a human sneeze – in fact, it takes about half an hour to complete.

“Our data suggest that sneezing is an adaptation that sponges evolved to keep themselves clean,” marine biologist Jasper de Goeij told the publication.

Blowing out the waste

Even though our sneezes aren’t the same, they do serve the same purpose – trying to get waste out of our bodies.

Here’s how it works for sponges:

“Sponges gather food for themselves by filtering out organic matter from the water. They draw in and eject water from different openings, and sometimes the sponges will suck in particles that are too big. ‘These are sponges; they can’t just walk to somewhere else when the water around them gets too dirty for them to handle,” said de Goeij.”

When sponge tissues contract, they push waste-containing mucus into the water surrounding them.

Munching on mucus

What the sponges “sneeze” out doesn’t simply all sink to the bottom of the ocean floor. Apparently, that mucus is a prime snack food for other creatures.

“We also observed fish and other animals feeding off of the sponge mucus as food,” says Niklas Kornder, a doctoral researcher in de Goeij’s research group said. “Some organic matter exists in the water surrounding the coral reef, but most of it is not concentrated enough for other animals to eat. Sponges transform this material into eatable mucus.”

While marine biologists believe most sponges sneeze, they’ve only witnessed it in the Caribbean tube sponge (Aplysina archeri) and an Indo-Pacific species of the genus Chelonaplysilla.

While the underwater snot-eating isn’t the most appetizing thing to think about, it does raise some questions for the researchers:

“In the videos, you can see that the mucus moves along defined paths on the surface of the sponge before accumulating. I have some hypotheses, but more analysis is needed to find out what is happening,” says Kornder. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Sponges ‘sneeze’ to dispose of waste” — ScienceDaily

WTF Fun Fact 12793 – Angry People Overestimate Their Intelligence

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Just because things like swearing are common among intelligent people doesn’t mean that extends to actual anger. In fact, angry people tend to overestimate their intelligence.

Anger and intelligence

Some negative emotions are more common among intelligent people, but anger seems to make folks a bit overconfident. A study showed that those who are quick to anger tend to think they’re smart (and the rest of the world needs to catch up).

The study

According to LiveScience (cited below): “To test this, the researchers surveyed more than 520 undergraduate students attending schools in Warsaw. The students answered survey questions to gauge how easily and how often they get angry. Then, the students took a survey to assess their own intelligence before taking an objective intelligence test.”

People in the study who were quick to anger had a higher opinion of their own cognitive abilities. Those who were more neurotic, on the other hand (who reacted to events with anxiety and distress), tended to see themselves as less intelligent.

In the end, it seems to come down to narcissism. Ill-tempered people tended to be more narcissistic and therefore think they’re smart. Of course, there’s no real, true test of intelligence, so we don’t know if that’s true or not; we just know that they seem to think they’re the real deal when it comes to brains.

Perceived intelligence

The study looked at anger as an overall personality trait, asking people to judge their own general tendencies towards anger. It didn’t try to test how angry they got in the moment.

It’s also important to note that “although the researchers found an association between the two traits, it’s unclear if there’s a cause and effect relationship between anger and overestimating intelligence. More research is needed to explore that link.”

The study was published in the journal Intelligence. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Angry People Think They’re Smarter Than They Are” — Live Science

WTF Fun Fact 12769 – The Marriage of Mickey and Minnie Mouse

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Sometimes Disney love stories do come true. Just take the example of the real voice actors behind the classic characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor were married from 1986 until Allwine’s death in 2009.

Are Mickey and Minnie Mouse married?

According to the Disney Parks Blog (cited below), everyone wanted to know if the two cartoon characters were meant to be married.

“In the September 30, 1933 issue of Film Pictorial magazine, Walt Disney was asked if his two stars were married. He explained, ‘A lot of people have written to him asking this question because sometimes he appears to be married to her in his films and other times still courting her. What it really amounts to is that Minnie is, for screen purposes, his leading lady. If the story calls for a romantic courtship, then Minnie is the girl; but when the story requires a married couple, then they appear as man and wife.'”

So, it was a marriage of convenience for the cartoon characters at least.

The real Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Taylor was the official voice of Minnie Mouse from 1986 to 2019, while Alwine voiced Mickey from 1977 to 2009.

But Allwine and Taylor kept their real-life marriage on the down low.

“When we got married, we kind of kept it quiet, because everybody was saying, ‘Oh, Mickey and Minnie got married. ‘It wasn’t Mickey and Minnie; it was Wayne and Russi. We wanted to keep it about us and not about the characters.'”

Of course, the creators of Mickey and Minnie Mouse were husband and wife as well – Walt and Lilly Disney!

It just goes to show that the Disney tradition has been a family affair from the get-go. It’s pretty sweet when you think about it.

–WTF fun facts

Source: “Disney Romance: Mickey and Minnie and Walt and Lilly” — Disney Parks Blog

WTF Fun Fact 12738 – Balance For Better Health

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According to a new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, your ability to balance on one foot may indicate better health and a longer life expectancy.

People in the study who were aged 51 to 75 and couldn’t balance on one foot for over 10 seconds were more likely to die within the next ten years.

According to CNN:

“While aging leads to a decline in physical fitness, muscle strength, and flexibility, balance tends to be reasonably well-preserved until a person’s 50s, when it starts to wane relatively rapidly, the researchers noted. Previous research has linked the inability to stand on one leg to a greater risk of falls and to cognitive decline.”

If you want to try it out, lift your foot and out the front of the foot behind your standing leg. Keep your arms at your side and look straight ahead (focusing on something in the distance often help maintain balance).

If at first you don’t succeed, that’s ok. You get three chances to get your body used to the task. You just can’t use anything to hang onto for support.

CNN explained the correlation between lifespan and balance in the study, citing one of the study’s authors:

“Being able to balance on one leg is important for older people for several reasons, and it is also reflective of wider fitness and health levels, said study author Dr. Claudio Gil Araújo at Exercise Medicine Clinic – CLINIMEX – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ‘We regularly need … a one-legged posture, to move out of a car, to climb or to descend a step or stair and so on. To not have this ability or being afraid in doing so, it is likely related to loss of autonomy and, in consequence, less exercise and the snowball starts,’ he explained.”

So, how did researchers get to their conclusion? One in five study subjects failed the test (balance is tricky!). Then the subjects were followed for seven years. During that time, 7% of study subjects died. But what was significant is that the proportion of people who failed the balance test was much higher than those who passed.

That doesn’t mean you’re doomed if you have bad balance. It just means that it may be indicative of other issues that may affect your health and long life. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Wobbly on one leg? Ability to balance is linked to a longer life, study finds” — CNN