Trivia

Deep between Belgium and The Netherlands are coal mines. Their ownership has been negotiated to make some entirely Belgian, others entirely Dutch. Thus the subsurface boundary between the two nations is not the same as the surface border.

When you first move into your house, it’s both your entertainment center and your retreat from the world. Then it turns mostly into one or the other. So says a student of the matter. If you hardly ever use your front door anymore, your home has become mostly your retreat.

The male penguin in search of romance goes around the colony putting a pebble at the feet of any other penguin who in his eyes has that thing called sex appeal. Unfortunately the penguin is extremely nearsighted, so he makes two wishes, as it were, whenever he drops a rock: 1. He hopes the object of his affection is interested. And 2. He hopes it’s female. Presumably.

Q. Can a prize-winning cow really produce 30 calves a year?

A. Conceivably. Pay attention. Conceivably. If her embryos, sometimes split, are implanted in other cows, with a breeding every two months, yes.

Yes, studies show the baboons that chew tobacco develop a craving for the nicotine.