Our wacky world

• The world’s first commercially produced electronic digital computer, known as UNIVAC, came out in 1951. It weighed eight tons and could perform 1,000 calculations in a single second. That may seem paltry compared with today’s computers, but at the time it was the fastest processor in the world. The cost was $250,000 — quite a princely sum in those days — and the first one was purchased by the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Those who study such things claim that a hamster can hold up to half its weight in food in its cheek pouches alone.

• Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, was also something of a wit. It was he who observed, “Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.” He also once remarked, “It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”

• Yet another item to add to the extensive list of the vagaries of the English language: The phrases “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing.

• The Caspian Sea isn’t actually a sea; it’s officially classified as a lake — the world’s largest. And it’s five and a half times as big as the world’s second-largest lake, Lake Superior.

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Thought for the Day: “A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.” — Rudyard Kipling