STRANGE BUT TRUE - Feb. 3, 2011

It was legendary American crime novelist Rex Stout who made the following sage observation: “Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.”

If you have an aversion to bugs, you might not want to take a vacation in Borneo anytime soon. The world’s third largest island is home to a particular stick insect that, measuring in at 14 inches, is the longest insect in the world.

You might be surprised to learn that the earliest recorded reference to a vending machine dates back to the first century. It seems that a mathematician and engineer named Hero of Alexandria invented a mechanism that dispensed a fixed amount of holy water when a patron deposited a coin.

In the African nation of Somalia, a man is permitted to have as many as four wives — but only if he can support them all.

Between 70 percent and 80 percent of the world’s fresh water is stored in glaciers, and all but 1 percent of the world’s glaciers are found in the Arctic or Antarctic.

You’ve probably heard of solar-powered cars (even if they’re not in common use), but you may not realize that there have also been examples of solar-powered airplanes, motor scooters and boats.

Those who study such things say that of the 785 million adults in the world who are unable to read, two-thirds are women.

Thought for the Day: “Moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world’s champions.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.