The Book of General Ignorance
Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous,...
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Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.Revealing the truth behind all the things we think we know but don’t, this book leaves you dumbfounded about all the misinformation you’ve managed to collect during your life, and sets you up to win big should you ever be a contestant on Jeopardy! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.Besides righting the record on common (but wrong) myths like Captain Cook discovering Australia or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, The Book of General Ignorance also gives us the skinny on silly slipups to trot out at dinner parties (Cinderella wore fur, not glass, slippers and chicken tikka masala was invented in Scotland, not India).Thomas Edison said that we know less than one millionth of one percent about anything: this book makes us wonder if we know even that much.You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know! Check out THE BOOK OF GENERAL IGNORANCE for more fun entries and complete answers to the following: How long can a chicken live without its head?About two years. What do chameleons do? They don’t change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states. Who invented champagne? Not the French. How many legs does a centipede have?Not a hundred. How many toes has a two-toed sloth? It’s either six or eight. How many penises does a European earwig have? a)Fourteenb)None at allc)Two (one for special occasions)d)Mind your own businessWhich animals are the best-endowed of all?Barnacles. These unassuming modest beasts have the longest penis relative to their size of any creature. They can be seven times longer than their body. What is a rhino’s horn made from? A rhinoceros horn is not, as some people think, made out of hair. Who was the first American president?Peyton Randolph. What were George Washington’s false teeth made from? Mostly hippopotamus. What was James Bond’s favorite drink? Not the vodka martini.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780307394910 (0307394913)
Publish date: August 7th 2007
Publisher: Harmony
Pages no: 288
Edition language: English
I watch the BBC's Quite Interesting comedy quiz show this book is based on (or is it the other way around?). After watching the show and reading this book, I want to know what exactly are we taught at school? So many misconceptions, for one. I found the book very interesting and also humourous. I de...
If you like the show, you'll like this book, too (though it only contains information that has already been discussed on QI, so it will mainly be usefull if you need more proof than 'I saw that on a TV-show' to convince your relatives of the fact that the universe is actually beige).I liked that the...
This was an interesting book full of trivia that nobody knows. Now if only I had friends geeky enough to quote it at. :DI didn't really find this all that humorous, except for the one bit towards the end about the theory of the wise man visiting Jesus who put off getting a gift for the savior until ...
A spiral staircase is actually helical - a spiral is two-dimensional that radiates out from a fixed point. Helix is a three-dimensional curve that doesn't change the angle, like a slinky.
Already read half of this when I was down on the farm earlier in the year, but this version has 25% extra content, so that's all I'm reading really...'Hullo' is actually an expression of surprise. I had no idea. It's not like 'hello' at all.