Strange But True: No Place Like Home

By Lucie Winborne

• Swimmers sweat underwater.

• Shout out to "The Wizard of Oz": Dominic Wilcox designed "No Place Like Home" shoes containing a small GPS unit that can be programmed with a home address. How is it activated? By clicking your heels together three times, of course! A series of LED lights on top of the left shoe will then point you in the direction of home.

• The average person spends 38.5 days brushing their teeth.

• In 1775, a 78-year-old Massachusetts farmer named Samuel Whittemore fired at British soldiers and killed three. Out of ammo, he drew his sword to continue fighting and was shot in the face, bayoneted multiple times, and left for dead. But those pesky Brits had nothing on Whittemore: He was found, was patched up, and lived another 18 years.

• Studies show that about 85% of people breathe out of just one of their nostrils at a time.

• The auto industry used sperm whale oil as an ingredient in automatic transmission fluid until 1973, when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act and banned it.

• More than 40 buildings in New York City, including the General Motors and Empire State buildings, have their own zip code.

• In 2013, a petition requesting that the U.S. government build a Death Star reached 25,000 signatures, the amount required for an official response. That hopeful effort proved to be in vain, however, when the government replied that "the Administration does not support blowing up planets."

• Research found that some neighborhoods containing more dogs had lower levels of crime, likely because of their residents' need to walk or at least let out their canines at all hours.

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Thought for the Day: "Winning doesn't always mean being first. Winning means you're doing better than you've done before." -- Speed skater Bonnie Blair

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