Aluminium foil is also sometimes used in the training of cats; as cats have an inborn dislike of either the texture or noise caused by sheets of aluminium foil, it is possible to prevent cats from jumping on or otherwise damaging furniture by covering its surfaces. Aluminium foil is also used in tinfoil hats which purportedly reduce the effects of "mind control rays". Aluminium foil, like all metals, reacts when microwaved. This is due to the effect of electric fields of the microwave causing a build up of charge to form between sharp points in the aluminum, if enough charge accumulates it will discharge to a different place onthe foil, creating a spark (i.e. arcing). Due to frequent use in food services, this commonly leads to kitchen fires.
In one year's April Fool's joke, a Dutch television news station reported that the government had introduced a new way to detect hidden televisions (in many countries in Europe, one must pay a television licence to fund public broadcasting) by simply driving through the streets with a new detector, and that the only way to keep your television from being detected was to wrap it in aluminium foil. Within a few hours all aluminium foil was sold out throughout the country.
