Strange But True: November 7, 2019

* It was infamous French statesman and military leader Napoleon Bonaparte who made the following sage observation: "In politics, absurdity is not a handicap."

* In 2006, an Illinois police officer was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. This probably would not be noteworthy, except that it was the same police officer who received an award for making the most DUI arrests in his county.

* A single pound of sequoia seeds contains roughly 90,000 individual seeds.

* You might be surprised to learn that sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins -- much longer. Dolphins come up to the surface for air about every 10 minutes, while sloths can go 40 minutes without taking a breath.

* Evidently it's not just humans who associate a deeper voice with maturity (and desirability) in males. It seems that male owls try to appear more macho and attract females by lowering the tone of their hoots.

* Did you know that in a random group of 23 people, there's a 50 percent likelihood that two will share a birthday? It seems counterintuitive -- there are, after all, 365 days in a year -- but the number-crunchers assert that it's true. In a group of 57 people, it's almost certain that two of them will have the same birthday -- the chances are more than 99 percent. Once you get up to 124 people, the chances are only 1 in 100 trillion that there won't be a duplicated birthday.

* Those who keep track of such things say that about 15 percent of all Google searches are new -- that is, they have never been searched before on Google.

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Thought for the Day: "There's only one way to have a happy marriage -- and as soon as I learn what it is, I'll get married again." -- Clint Eastwood

(c) 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.