STRANGE BUT TRUE

• Are you a fan of hot peppers? One you might want to avoid is the Dragon’s Breath chili pepper, which could kill you by causing a type of anaphylactic shock, burning and even closing your airway. But Mike Smith, its inventor, never intended it to be eaten: It was actually developed for use as a topical numbing agent for people who are allergic to regular anesthetics.

• Only two countries use the color purple in their national flags — Dominica and Nicaragua.

• Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Peter Benchley’s “Jaws” made a lot of folks afraid to go back in the water, but perhaps what they should have been more concerned about is the fact that the sea is also home to nearly 200,000 different kinds of viruses!

• It is illegal to enter the House of Parliament while wearing a suit of armor.

• The first person to be charged with driving too fast was Walter Arnold, of the English village Paddock Wood in Kent. On Jan. 28, 1896, he clocked in at four times the speed limit in his Benz — or a whopping 8 mph. A constable chased him down on a bicycle and issued Arnold a ticket.

• Just as earth has earthquakes, the moon has — you guessed it — moonquakes. While less common and less intense than the shakes we know and dread, they’re believed to result from tidal stresses connected to the distance between the two bodies.

• The Elysia cf. marginata, a type of sea slug, can not only survive decapitation, but grow an entire new body afterward.

• Pineapple works as a natural meat tenderizer. It’s packed with the enzyme bromelain, which breaks down protein chains. Thought for Today: “Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.” — Abraham Lincoln