Bonus points if there’s a known onomatopoeia to describe the sound.
In québécois French, we would call it “neige” or “statique”. Snow or static.
“the war of the ants” (myrornas krig)
/Sweden
Know the term ‘Ants Soccer’, quite similar (Germany)
Ameisen Fußball? Never heard of that, super cool
Back in the days when we all had antennas and cable hadn’t been born yet, the static stations were a great thing to watch if there might be a tornado in your area. Apparently if one formed, it would significantly change the look of the snow on the TV and give you a warning to quickly head to the basement. I never actually saw it happen, but there were a couple times we had local warnings and my parents plopped me down to keep an eye on the TV.
Never heard about this. Interesting tid bit.
I remember getting our first tv about 1982 I think.
I actually started questioning whether this was something my parent’s told me to keep me busy, but turns out it’s a real thing.
That is an interesting source. Thanks for the link!
We called it “flies” or “snow”.
No. But I did learn that if you put your sunglasses over one eye and look at it, it makes a trippy 3D motion effect.
Snow rain
… and sound was just called “hiss” or “white noise”
“Bures” – javanese
Salt and pepper fight!
In Croatia, we call(ed) it ‘snow’ (snijeg).
Salt and pepper fight!
Snow or static. It’s cosmic microwave background radiation - the remnants of the big bang.
Some of it is cosmic background radiation - it’s also machine vibrations, manufacturer defects, power line radiation, and nearby appliances. The more remote and well shielded you are the more likely it’s pure background radiation… but in a big city it’s likely to be local radiation sources. The inverse square law has a big role here.
In China we call it snow and describe the sound using the exact onomatopoeia as rain
The sky above the port.
“Snow” in Norway.
We called it the “Chinese rice fight”
…the 80s was a different time lol
Hahaha, if you remove the stereotype and reference to China, it makes for a reasonable approximation of the visuals and sound, imagining a torrent of rice being blasted at you.
