The Weekly Vista

Strange BUT TRUE

- By Samantha Weaver

* It was American political scientist, economist, psychologi­st and professor Herbert Simon who made the following sage observatio­n: “What informatio­n consumes is rather obvious: It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of informatio­n creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficientl­y among the overabunda­nce of informatio­n sources that might consume it.”

* Those who study such things claim that the act of licking a stamp burns one-tenth of a calorie.

* The shortest song in the world is “You Suffer,” recorded in

1986 by the British band Napalm Death. It lasts precisely 1.316 seconds.

* Stanley Mason was an inventor who really got around, in a manner of speaking. In addition to coming with the idea for the granola bar, he also created the squeezable ketchup bottle, the disposable diaper, heated pizza boxes and the dental floss dispenser.

* There are more Polish people living in Chicago than in any city on Earth except for Warsaw, Poland’s capital.

* You might be surprised to learn that the most dangerous profession in the country — in terms of the percentage of people holding that profession who have been killed — isn’t firefighte­r or police officer, it’s president of the United States. A total of 9% of our presidents

have been assassinat­ed.

* Renee Zellweger was born the same year that Judy Garland died: 1969. Zellweger played Garland in the movie “Judy,” which debuted 50 years after her death, in 2019, the same year that Zellweger turned 50.

* In the Commonweal­th of Virginia, a statute contained within what’s known as the Code of 1930 prohibits bribery or corruption by anyone other than a political candidate.

Thought for the Day: “I think the biggest mistake most people make when they pick their first job is they don’t worry enough about whether they’ll love the work, and they worry more about whether it’s good experience.” — Steve Ballmer

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