Strange BUT TRUE

• Ever wonder why your kitty tries to play or even fight with its own reflection in a mirror? Animal specialists believe felines don’t realize that their image isn’t another animal because it has no scent.

• And speaking of scent, the Odeuropa research project has created an online encyclopedia dedicated to the history of smells.

• Vomitoriums in ancient Rome weren’t actually spaces for gastronomic feasting and purging, but an architectural feature in stadiums that allowed for more efficient crowd exits.

• Null Island gets its curious moniker from its coordinates: zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude. It also doesn’t exist, but is the result of a common error in GIS data.

• ChatGPT can easily be convinced it’s wrong, even when it’s right.

• Irving Berlin dedicated all royalties from “God Bless America” to a fund of the same name, specifically for the benefit of such youth organizations as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in New York City. To date, more than $10 million has been raised.

• Researchers at Dublin City University found that soccer goalkeepers process both visual and auditory cues more efficiently than other players, as well as non-players, which could be the clue to their speedy reactions during games.

• By 2027, Sweden plans to boast a city made entirely of wood.

• The last U.S. conviction for blasphemy went to atheist activist Charles Lee Smith in 1928, after he rented a Little Rock, Arkansas, storefront and put a sign in the window reading: “Evolution Is True. The Bible’s a Lie. God’s a Ghost.” Because, as an atheist, he couldn’t swear the court’s usual oath to tell the truth, he also couldn’t testify in his own defense.

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Thought for the Day: “If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore.” — Michele Ruiz