The Manila Times

Strange BUT TRUE

- By Samantha Weaver — E.V. Durling

• It was influentia­l American theoretica­l physicist Richard Feynman who made the following sage observatio­n: “It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.”

• Those who study such things say that an eagle’s feathers weigh twice as much as its bones.

• You’ve probably read about the unpreceden­ted casualties suffered on all sides in World War I. You probably didn’t know, though, that 60,000 of those casualties were due to avalanches caused by gunfire in the Alps.

• In 1962, a group of oceanograp­hers sailed off to watch an undersea volcano off the coast of Japan whose eruption seemed imminent. It seems that they got the timing right, but not the location; or, rather, they got the location too right. The eruption occurred directly beneath their vessel, destroying it.

• If you ever visit the Alpine village of Saint Veran, take a good look at the constructi­on of the early buildings — none of the walls meet at a 90-degree angle. Why aren’t they square? According to the beliefs of early townsfolk, the devil lurks in square corners.

• Studies show a correlatio­n between tight shoes and larger appetites.

• Do you find it attractive when you see a person with a point of skin attached to the underlying muscle? You might not realize it, but many people have this condition; that’s what a dimple is.

***

Thought for the Day: “A premarital lovers’ quarrel should never last more than three minutes. In the first year of marriage, a four-minute quarrel should be acceptable. After six years, and eight-minute quarrel is allowed. A 10-minute quarrel is permissibl­e after a decade. Those married longer have more to quarrel about.”

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