The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Strange But True





 

 

• It was computer guru Jef Raskin who made the following sage observation: “Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.”

• Most people think of Abraham Lincoln as an iconic president and the Great Emancipator, but many don’t realize that he also was an inventor. He was issued patent No. 6,469 for an inflatable device he designed to help buoy rivergoing vessels over shoals.

• In Somalia it is common for a girl to be engaged before she is even born.

• If you get squeamish around bugs, you might not want to read the following little tidbit of information: Nearly every human carries around tiny eyelash mites that live out their entire lives on our faces — including mating and laying eggs there.

• Due to a series of earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, the Mississippi River ran backward for a time.

• An enterprising inventor named Andrew Schneider has come up with the latest geek apparel: a solar bikini. With it, you can tan while also charging up your iPod. No word on whether there are solar swim trunks in the pipeline for men.

• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are so popular worldwide that now they’re not even being writing by Rowling herself. The booming bootleg industry in China seems to have taken the Potter series to heart, creating such titles as “Harry Potter and the Leopard Walk-Up-To Dragon,” “Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” “Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll,” “Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Harry Potter” and “Harry Potter and the Filler of Big.”

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Thought for the Day: “ You don’t get anything clean without getting something else dirty.” — Cecil Baxter (c) 2011 King Features Synd.


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