It was beloved American astrophysicist and science communicator Carl Sagan who made the following sage observation: “If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by

the truth.”

• You probably are well aware of the fact that caffeine enhances memory and learning in humans — if you’re not a coffee addict yourself, you almost certainly know someone who is. But you probably didn’t know that the substance has the same effect on bees. More than half of all flowering plants produce caffeinated nectar, and tests recently conducted by researchers at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom demonstrate that bees strongly prefer nectar with caffeine to the decaf version.

• Some ancient Greeks believed that baldness could be cured by applying to the hairless area a mixture of horseradish and pigeon droppings.

• Parents of younger children probably will not be surprised by the following factoid: Six eight-stud Lego bricks can be put together in a whopping 915,103,765 different ways — and at least one of those bricks will end up being stepped on by a barefoot adult.

• If you’re planning a trip to Nevada, you might want to keep in mind that in that state, it is technically illegal to kiss if you have a mustache.

• For reasons that are not entirely clear at present, in the spring of 2010 a 28-year-old man in South Korea married a large pillow printed with the image of an anime character. At the wedding, the pillow wore a white dress. The man has been seen taking his “wife” to an amusement park and out to dinner — he even orders “her” a meal.

Thought for the Day: “A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed — I well know. For it is a sign that he has tried to surpass himself.” — Georges Clemenceau

Reach Weekender at wbwnews@civitasmedia.com.

By Samantha Weaver

Weekender Wire Service

http://www.theweekender.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/trivia_P20160118-1.pdf