Curiosities & Wonders
Imponderables
Trivia
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I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School
Author: Caroline Taggart
ISBN-10: 0762109955
ISBN-13: 9780762109951
Published: 2009-03-05
Publisher: Readers Digest
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Book Description:
This small but mighty collection will trigger your memory with fun facts you learned in school-from adverbs to the Pythagorean Theorem. Witty, engaging, entertaining-a book you'll pick up again and again. Author Caroline Taggart discovered two things while researching this book and talking with other people: One, everybody had been to school. And two, they had all forgotten entirely different things. Contained in this handy little book are the facts that you learned in school, but may not remember completely or accurately. Covering a variety of subjects, this book features all the most important theories, equations, phrases, and rules we were all taught years ago. Rediscover: * History: The first president to occupy the White House was John Adams in 1800 * Religion: The seven deadly sins and the names of the twelve apostles * Literature: In which Shakespearean play "The quality of mercy" speech appears * Science: The periodic table of elements devised by a Russian chemist in 1889 includes the symbol for lead (Pb), silver (Ag), tin (Sn), and gold (Au) * Nature: How photosynthesis works The information-presented in easy-to-retain, bite-sized chunks-is accurate and up-to- date. It will touch a chord with anyone old enough to have forgotten half of what they learned at school. Here is a perfect gift for every perennial student.
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
ISBN-10: 0375432000
ISBN-13: 9780375432002
Published: 2003-05-06
Publisher: Random House Large Print
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Book Description:
One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
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Guinness World Records 2012
Author: Guinness World Records
ISBN-10: 1904994679
ISBN-13: 9781904994671
Published: 2011-09-13
Publisher: Guinness World Records
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Book Description:
It's an Olympic year, and to celebrate, the latest incarnation of the world's biggest selling annual unveils its most thrilling edition yet with a dynamic new "widescreen" design, thousands of new and classic records, never-before-seen photos and an exciting selection of new topics and features. * Crisp, new design and color-coded sections to help organize and signpost the record content. * 100% new pictures and fully updated records * Mythconceptions - Test yourself and test your friends with quiz questions about the record facts that you think you know well! * Fact files - Fascinating introductory articles about the stories behind the records. * All-new sports section - Categorized by theme and allowing you to compare superlatives across every major sport. * Pioneers - Meet the new generation of young men and women who are pushing the boundaries of human achievement... on land, air, ice and sea. * The average reader - Find out how much time you spend watching TV, playing videogames and sleeping, and discover how much you laugh, weep, breathe and fart! * Connexions - What connects China and Ireland? What does the USA have in common with Zaire? Find out with our country-by-country global connections at the bottom of every page.
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The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing A Manual of Ready Reference
Author: Joseph Triemens
ISBN-10: 1849025274
ISBN-13: 9781849025270
Published: 2011-02-10
Publisher: Benediction Books
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Book Description:
A popular classic by Joseph Triemens, covering subjects such as etiquette of courtship and marriage, formalities in dress and etiquette, how the baby's mind develops, facts to settle arguments, a cure for love, the evolution of theory, and many more. Complete with many original advertisments.
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You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself
Author: David McRaney
ISBN-10: 1592406599
ISBN-13: 9781592406593
Published: 2011-10-27
Publisher: Gotham
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Book Description:
An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise. You believe you are a rational, logical being who sees the world as it really is, but journalist David McRaney is here to tell you that you're as deluded as the rest of us. But that's OK- delusions keep us sane. You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of self-delusion. It's like a psychology class, with all the boring parts taken out, and with no homework.Based on the popular blog of the same name, You Are Not So Smart collects more than 46 of the lies we tell ourselves everyday, including: Dunbar's Number - Humans evolved to live in bands of roughly 150 individuals, the brain cannot handle more than that number. If you have more than 150 Facebook friends, they are surely not all real friends. Hindsight bias - When we learn something new, we reassure ourselves that we knew it all along. Confirmation bias - Our brains resist new ideas, instead paying attention only to findings that reinforce our preconceived notions. Brand loyalty - We reach for the same brand not because we trust its quality but because we want to reassure ourselves that we made a smart choice the last time we bought it. Packed with interesting sidebars and quick guides on cognition and common fallacies, You Are Not So Smart is a fascinating synthesis of cutting-edge psychology research to turn our minds inside out.
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Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier
Author: Brad Steiger
ISBN-10: 0780809211
ISBN-13: 9780780809215
Published: 2006-02-06
Publisher: Omnigraphics, Inc.
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Book Description:
Startling allegations. Suppressed evidence. Missing witnesses. Assassinations. Cover-ups and threats. Documented connections to even deeper intrigue. Allusions to the New World Order. American history is replete with warnings of hidden plots by the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Zionists, the Roman Catholics, the Communists, World Bankers, the Secret Government, New Agers, and Extra-Terrestrial Invaders, to name a few.The truth is out there, somewhere, maybe. In this age of minimum individual privacy and maximum government secrecy, the truth sometimes seems a battered relic, more myth than reality, and more valuable for its rarity. Shedding light onto the darkest and most enduring of stories, this book is a compelling encyclopedic overview of 300 individuals, organizations, and events where official claims and standard explanations of actions and events remain clouded in mystery.With nearly 100 illustrations and organized in an engaging A-to-Z format, this complete dossier encompasses topical issues, historical riddles, old and enduring societies, modern-day initiates, favorite topics among conspiracy theorists, and more recent claims.Do you want to know a secret? It?s a great book sure to satisfy conspiracy enthusiasts, whatever their level of paranoia.
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The Devil's Dictionary
Author: Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
ISBN-10: 1585090166
ISBN-13: 9781585090167
Published: 2000-01-01
Publisher: Book Tree
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Book Description:
The Devil's Dictionary_ was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in covers with the title _The Cynic's Word Book..., a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve.
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Not in Front of the Corgis: Secrets of Life Behind the Royal Curtains
Author: Brian Hoey
ISBN-10: 1849541760
ISBN-13: 9781849541763
Published: 2012-06-12
Publisher: Dialogue
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Book Description:
Interest in the British royal family is inexhaustible. Just take the amazing clamor over the recent wedding of William and Kate! But who are the Royals, and what do they get up to when we aren't watching them?In Not in Front of the Corgis, a veteran Royal commentator and author of more than twenty books on the Royals peeks behind the curtains to tell us what they really get up to in their spare time. The book asks questions like what the Queen watches on TV and why she does not have a driving license, and answers thousands of questions about the world's most famous family, including who are the most popular Royals to work for, and who the least? Who is the grandest of the Queen's children and why? Why do Edward and Andrew pay less than Charles' private secretary for the rent of their homes, and what records did the Queen Mother like to dance to?Not in Front of the Corgis is a unique and fascinating miscellany containing everything you ever wanted to know about the Royal Family, away from the spotlight.Brian Hoey has been a writer and broadcaster for over forty years, covering countless Royal events, including the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 and Princess Diana's funeral in 1997.
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Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
Author: Ken Jennings
ISBN-10: 1439167176
ISBN-13: 9781439167175
Published: 2011-09-20
Publisher: Scribner
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Book Description:
It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the “unreal estate” charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been. From the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.
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