12 Trivia Tidbits for Monday, June 24, 2024
We have terrible news for baseball statistics hounds: the bunt is going extinct.
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Wells Fargo’s Mouse Jiggling Scandal
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority had a long-standing rule that any remote bank employees had to be spied on in order to make sure their home offices were secure. They repealed it during the pandemic, but recently reinstated it. Immediately afterward, Wells Fargo busted over a dozen employees for “simulation of keyboard activity.”
They won’t say how they caught them, but internet sleuths have noted that mouse jigglers can be easily recognized and monitored if they’re plugged into your computer’s USB port. Word to the wise!
The East Palestine Disaster Was Bigger Than We Thought
The train that derailed in Ohio in early 2023 sent up a tremendous plume of toxic horribleness that caused air and water pollution in some Ohio and Pennsylvania communities. A recent study found remnants of those chemicals in 14 additional states. On the bright side, experts say they weren’t found at “toxic” levels.
The Best Euphemism for Cops Was Coined in the Late 19th Century
From the 1880s to the 1910s, people called cops “mutton shunters.”
23 Sets of Twins Graduated in One Class
Ten percent of the graduating class of Massachusetts’ Pollard Middle School are twins. Twins make up about 3.4 percent of the population of North America.
Saturn’s Moon Is the Only Other Place in the Solar System With Active Oceans
The moon Titan has oceans, lakes and rivers, just like Earth, except Titan’s are made of liquid methane and ethane. A new study seems to indicate that its methane oceans have a strong enough current to erode its coastlines, just like ours. Get your own thing, Titan
Hundreds of People Offered to Adopt a Cursing Parrot
Niagara SPCA are looking for a home for Pepper, a rescued parrot who keeps repeating the colorful vocabulary of its (apparently verbally abusive) previous owner. Over 300 people have stepped forward so far.
Twin Wins for Spinal Cord Injury Research
Researchers have compiled what they’re calling an “atlas” of spinal cord injury, cataloguing how nerve damage affects different cell types at a molecular level. Separately, there’s been a big advancement in a possible gene therapy to treat that type of nerve damage.
Training Future Space Doctors
Several schools, like the University of Colorado School of Medicine, are beginning to train students to do complex medical procedures in less-than-ideal environments that simulate conditions on the moon, Mars and on spacecraft.
Separation of Church and State? Never Heard of Her.
A new Louisiana law mandates a copy of the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom in the state.
The PGA Changed a Rule Because of an Emergency Bathroom Break
Pro golfer Jordan Spieth had to tend to a toilet emergency after the final hole, and in his rush, he marked an incorrect score on one hole and was disqualified. Directly after, the PGA gave golfers a 15 minute buffer between sinking their final putt and turning in their scorecards.
Visual Mandela Effects
A recent study honed in on common characters and logos, and challenged people to determine which of three subtly different versions were the real ones. People tended to be very confident in their incorrect answers. Try it out: Does the Monopoly Man have a monocle or glasses? Does the Fruit of the Loom logo have a cornucopia or a plate? Does Waldo carry a cane or an umbrella?
The Bunt Is a Dying Art
Major League Baseball analysts found that bunts have dwindled in the last 20 years, from 786 in 2003 to fewer than 400 in 2023.
