# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 338
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6751 "2023-06-17T23:19:35Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > We don’t eat any other bromeliads. Thanks for the clarification. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6752 "2023-06-18T07:46:45Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The real world contains many, many examples of _both_. Of both _what_? What are you trying to say? ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6753 "2023-06-18T15:06:26Z")
(I’m responding to this post simply because it’s the most recent in the series.) I’ve always been VERY skeptical about these anecdotes (receiving radio broadcasts through fillings). Granted, a non-linear junction (crystal, transistor, or whatever) can be used in making a simple AM radio receiver, but even the simplest receiver of that type requires a reasonable antenna and some sort of mechanical transducer. Radios using transmitted RF to power the transducer usually have to have an earth ground as well. And how is this circuit actually tuning? One can argue that some undefined chemical reaction in the mouth is creating a voltage source, that the jaw might act as a resonating surface, and so forth and so on, but it really strains credulity. You can’t toss a germanium diode into a glass of salt water and hear your local baseball game. Can someone stand very close to an extremely powerful transmitter and get some effect in their fillings? Maybe. But this is not what’s usually described. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6754 "2023-06-18T15:56:17Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > I’ve always been VERY skeptical about these anecdotes (receiving radio broadcasts through fillings). I vaugely recall Mythbusters did something on this with a skull and simulated saliva and maybe some acid because on of the theories involved citrus. Or maybe it was someone else. Or maybe false memory. I vote for Mandela Effect. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6755 "2023-06-18T16:02:00Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Can someone stand very close to an extremely powerful transmitter and get some effect in their fillings? Maybe. But something like that only has to happen once to become fodder for TV writers in varied situations. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6756 "2023-06-18T17:18:35Z")
I would point out that the rarity of this happening (if it really happens at all) speaks to how difficult it would be for the necessary circuit elements to come together by chance. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6757 "2023-06-18T17:31:56Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > But something like that only has to happen once to become fodder for TV writers in varied situations. 60s and 70s sitcoms didn’t even need a valid instance of some odd thing happening. All they needed was a room full of average TV writers, a deadline for a “new” plot idea rapidly approaching, and an audience that didn’t care about fact-checking The Brady Bunch. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6758 "2023-06-18T17:34:30Z")
I remember reading about a case of tinnitus claimed to be caused by a filling vibrating from radio frequency transmissions. There was no claim that a radio broadcast could be heard, no mention of braces. Maybe that’s possible on it’s own as the shape of a filling inside a tooth might leave some tendril that of the shape and size. Something like that could produce the fillings and/or braces radio receiver stories. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6759 "2023-06-18T17:35:27Z")
> [@digs](#): > > and 70s sitcoms didn’t even need a valid instance of some odd thing happening. Yeah, but dental work receiving radio signals? That’s a wildly unique idea for a sitcom writer throwing stories together at light speed. I suspect they all started their day reading the filler stories in the daily newspaper for ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6760 "2023-06-18T17:39:15Z")
Or heard the legend circulating orally and thought it would make a good story, which, after all, is one of the factors that makes such contemporary legends (formerly known as urban legends) circulate orally in the first place. Such stories are usually about societal anxieties. Getting braces is really anxious-making for teens, and sixty years ago, transitor radios were relatively new technology and radios could be built at home (crystal radio sets etc.); teens also tend to have fairly low literacy in more advanced science, and I suspect most TV writers and viewers also fall into that category. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6761 "2023-06-18T17:43:45Z")
Yes, this! I was trying to say that you’d get the writers for various sitcoms reading about same dubious effect, like “Dental Talk Radio”… or stealing it from the first show to do it… And it never mattered to the writers whether it had really actually happened in the real world. As long as they could make it happen in \* _[Gilligan’s Island](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/GilligansIsland)_ , _[ALF](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/ALF)_ , _[Gimme a Break!](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/GimmeABreak)_ , _[Charles in Charge](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/CharlesInCharge)_ , _[Small Wonder](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/SmallWonder)_ , _[Punky Brewster](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/PunkyBrewster)_ , or _[Webster](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/Webster)_… all the way back to _[I Love Lucy](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/ILoveLucy)_ etc. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6762 "2023-06-18T18:26:46Z")
People who did _both_ large amounts of good and large amounts of evil. Or varying amounts of good and evil. Whatever. People are usually complicated. Whether one side balances out the other is making for endless discussion and soul-searching these days. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6763 "2023-06-18T18:36:52Z")
Certainly this is anecdotal, but my sister was able to pick up WLS radio station for part of a day. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, either a filling or something to do with her braces or both. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6764 "2023-06-18T18:43:04Z")
The organist in _Slap Shot_ did not receive a screen credit, but his name is Rod Masters. 45 years after the movie he became organist for the Seattle Kraken. He wears a helmet while playing. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6765 "2023-06-18T18:58:34Z")
One fillings picking up radio stations story has been attributed to Lucille Ball during WWII. This story dates only to the 1970s when she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and by then the concept had already been used on an episode of Gilligan’s Island. However, maybe someone has a way to access this paper on [Pseudohallucinations: radio reception through shrapnel fragments](https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/ajp.138.9.1263b) which might help with the general concept. ---
**Author:** ![Blindmellowjelly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindmellowjelly/32/13920_2.png) [@Blindmellowjelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blindmellowjelly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6766 "2023-06-18T19:52:28Z")
Well, this radiowave conduction/induction teeth and fillings proposition, might be part and parcel of this mythology of “Tinfoil Hats” and either induction or veriduction and blocking. M8ght also hearken to “special dentists” that install Rfid and trackers locators, cyanide teeth… ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6767 "2023-06-18T23:14:03Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > TIL that L. Ron Hubbard and rocket scientist/ occultist [Jack Parsons](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons) were in a romantic spat with the same lady. Aliester Crowley also figures into the story. At one point I think Parsons tried to kill Ron with a magical storm while Ron was at sea. More about the story [here](https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/the-occult-history-behind-nasas-jet-propulsion-laboratory). I learned that reading about it in _Sex and Rockets_ about Jack Parsons. Fascinating book. > **[Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack... by Carter, John](https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Rockets-Occult-World-Parsons/dp/0922915970)** > > Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons \[Carter, John, Wilson, Robert Anton\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6768 "2023-06-19T00:15:58Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > (I’m responding to this post simply because it’s the most recent in the series.) > > I’ve always been VERY skeptical about these anecdotes (receiving radio broadcasts through fillings). Granted, a non-linear junction (crystal, transistor, or whatever) can be used in making a simple AM radio receiver, but even the simplest receiver of that type requires a reasonable antenna and some sort of mechanical transducer. Radios using transmitted RF to power the transducer usually have to have an earth ground as well. And how is this circuit actually tuning? > > One can argue that some undefined chemical reaction in the mouth is creating a voltage source, that the jaw might act as a resonating surface, and so forth and so on, but it really strains credulity. You can’t toss a germanium diode into a glass of salt water and hear your local baseball game. > > Can someone stand very close to an extremely powerful transmitter and get some effect in their fillings? Maybe. But this is not what’s usually described. The human body can make an antenna. I was able to improve the video signal of an old TV by putting my fingers on the antenna connection. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6769 "2023-06-19T00:19:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I was able to improve the video signal of an old TV by putting my fingers on the antenna connection. Sometimes you don’t even need to touch the connection; just standing in a certain place can improve reception. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6770 "2023-06-19T03:16:51Z")
The effect is really due more to capacitive coupling ,but I’ll happily admit that the human body can in some circumstances act as an antenna. In a crystal radio such as the type we’ve been discussing, the antenna (coupled with an earth ground) is supplying all the energy for the device and transducer. This is a lot more difficult to do with just a big blob of meat. AM wavelengths are pretty long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=337) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=339)