Strange BUT TRUE

• In July 1999, four ladybugs and their favorite food, aphids, were sent into space on NASA's Columbia space shuttle to research how aphids escaped the ladybugs without the aid of gravity.

• The first documented use of toilet paper comes from 6th-century A.D. China.

• There are more than 40,000 toilet-related injuries in the U.S. each year.

• The University of Liverpool Library reported that someone used a plastic-wrapped slice of “undetermined” cheese as a bookmark in one of its returned books. The library tweeted a photo of the offending item with the caption, “This is not a bookmark,” prompting responses that ranged from “Well, not anymore after you removed it” to “No whey.”

• When Benjamin Franklin invented his own harmonica, it became so popular in Europe that Mozart and Beethoven composed music for it.

• Research has shown that everyone has up to six doppelgangers. However, your chance of actually meeting one of your own in your lifetime is only 9%.

• Shoppers have proved willing to pay a premium for cagefree, organic or wild-caught ingredients. But can they trust their suppliers? Sure, with the use of a tracking device. ZhongAn Online, a Chinese insurance company, has outfitted more than 100,000 chickens with sensors uploading information such as how much exercise each chicken gets and what it ate. The company is also working on facial-recognition technology so consumers can one day ensure the organic chicken they saw on the farm is the one that ends up on their plate.

• In 1969, passengers on a hijacked plane thought they were on a prank-ridden camera show because “Candid Camera” host Allen Funt also was on board.

••• Thought for the Day: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great.”

— Mark Twain