Strange BUT TRUE

* It was 20th-century Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross who made the following sage observation: “People are like stained-glass windows: They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.”

* At the outbreak of World War I, American financier August Belmont Jr. volunteered for the U.S. Army — at the age of 64. He served in France as a major in the Army Air Service. His wife was so proud that when one of their mares, Mahubah, gave birth to a colt in 1917, she named it in honor of her husband, not realizing that Man o’ War would become one of the greatest racehorses of all time.

* You doubtless know that a placebo is a pill or substance that is given to a patient like a medication, but in fact has no physical effect. Most people, however, haven’t heard of a nocebo — a similarly harmless substance that might make patients sick because they think it will.

* It’s not unknown for temperatures during a Siberian summer to exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. * Almost a thousand years before Johannes Gutenberg introduced mechanical moveable type to Europe, people in Asia were already printing messages set in type. The oldest recorded such piece, from China, translates as “Beware of Dog.”

* You might be surprised to learn that the oldest public university in the United States is the University of North Carolina. * If you’re like the average human being, you have approximately 250,000 sweat glands on your feet alone.

Thought for the Day:

“There is no human being who, as a result of desiring to build a better life, should be named or declared illegal.” — Alejandro G. Inarritu.