What's the last weird or unusual thing you've learned?

[Creep]

According to Wikipedia, there are approximately 40,000 unidentified decedents in the USA. An unidentified decedent is a corpse of a person whose identity cannot be established by police or medical examiners.

 

[Mia]

Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota: Wolf study

An Image Of GPS Tracking Of Multiple Wolves In Six Different Packs Around Voyageurs National Park Shows How Much The Wolf Packs Avoid Each Other's Range

 

[Mia]

Eagle study: Tracking of an eagle's travels over a twenty year period

 

[WolfSpirit]

Today I learned about a tiny little (and actually quite cute) spider that lives in Australia. It's called the peacock spider, because the male has these very colorful wing-like coverings wrapped around his abdomen, and when he sees a female spider he raises them in a fan-like shape to attract her as a mate, similar to the feathers on a peacock. He also does a weird dance while raising two of his legs straight up in the air. However, if the female isn't interested, she will try to kill and eat him! Imagine all that effort to attract a potential mate just to end up as a snack. The male can escape by jumping. I saw it in a video.

So what interesting things have you learned or discovered recently?

Birds can't smell very well. (heard it on the radio - I think - a while ago.)

 

[John M]

Pop tarts are flammable and if for some reason they are left in a toaster that malfunctions and doesn't 'pop up' they can burst into tall flames that shoot out the top of the toaster.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...-terror/b68eca0f-45b7-4d27-9f33-234423cb52d0/

 

[Skittlebisquit]

Does all food do this?

 

[John M]

Hard to say, I suppose one could test it with various toaster foods. From what I can tell its always been with strawberry poptarts though...

Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches

Maybe test with toaster strudel, pop tarts and plain white bread (for the control group). Also, are there certain flavors of poptarts that are more flammable than others?

 

[Nervous Rex]

Hard to say, I suppose one could test it with various toaster foods. From what I can tell its always been with strawberry poptarts though...

Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches

Looks like there's a lawsuit over Pop Tarts starting fires.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Alan Funt was the host of Candid Camera, the first ever prank show. It was aired in one form or another from the 40's through the 70's. Everyone knew the catchphrase, "Smile! You're on Candid Camera!"

In 1969, Alan Funt, his wife, and his daughter were on a plane that was hijacked an forced to fly to Cuba. The pilot made the announcement that the they were flying to Cuba and the whole cabin was tense for a while - until someone identified Alan Funt and said, "We must be on Candid Camera!" The whole cabin burst into laughter and applause.

For a while, no one on the plane would believe that it was an actual hijacking because they saw Alan Funt and were convinced they were on Candid Camera. Alan tried to convince people that it was real but no one believed him. He even begged a priest on the flight to tell the people he wasn't staging the hijacking, but the priest told him, "You're not going to pull one over on me!"

When the plane landed in Cuba and was surrounded by Cuban soldiers, people finally believed it was real. Many people cursed and insulted Alan Funt on the way off the plane, blaming him for a deception.

Wikipedia - Alan Funt

Radiolab Podcast, telling the whole story

 

[WolfSpirit]

Does all food do this?

I would imagine it's the pastry plus sugar part that makes the pop tarts most prone to it. though that's just a guess.

 

[Gracey]

And here's me believing snow was only available in white.

 

[QueenOfFrance87]

• "Homer Simpson" is a character from the 1939 novel The Day of the Locust which was turned into a movie in 1975. The name is unrelated to Matt Groening's cartoon character from The Simpsons.

 

[Wolfsage]

There's a living creature affixed to a location underwater in total darkness. Beneath an ice sheet 25 miles thick in Anartica.

 

[WolfSpirit]

View attachment 66092

And here's me believing snow was only available in white.

Not if animals have peed on it.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Bald eagles do not actually make "that sound" that you hear in Hollywood movies or TV. They actually make a softer, more chirpy sound that doesn't "go" with their large and fierce appearance at all. The stock sound actually used is often from the red-tailed hawk.

Makes sense since I've seen bald eagles at the local wildlife park and I've never heard them make that sound.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

Hard to say, I suppose one could test it with various toaster foods. From what I can tell its always been with strawberry poptarts though...

Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches

Maybe test with toaster strudel, pop tarts and plain white bread (for the control group). Also, are there certain flavors of poptarts that are more flammable than others?

Im going to stick with non flammable kitchen choices!