They Nearly Went To War Over Fish Farts

July 4, 2016

They Nearly Went To War Over Fish Farts

You may already know this story, if you follow the Ig Nobel Awards, but I didn’t, and so I share it with you now.

Sweden and Russia nearly went to war because Herrings fart to communicate.

The trouble is, Herring farts sound an awful lot like the mechanical clicking of submarines when heard on a hydrophone, and in the early 1980s, a Russian nuclear sub had indeed slipped into Swedish waters, dangerously close to one of their naval bases. So when the Swedes heard those noises again in 1994, the Prime Minister sent Boris Yeltsin a nasty letter of complaint.

Before things could escalate any further, the boffins were called in.

e.phemera, Thought Vomit

<

>

Buy My Books

Proctology: A Bottom Examination

For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

Follow

Re-Casting Keanu

Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…