The Ultimate Illustrated Bathroom Reader

1,000 Fascinating Facts to Entertain, Amuse, and Educate All Ages

De: David Fickes

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

If you love trivia and interesting facts, this book has 1,000 fascinating facts and 90 black-and-white photographs to entertain, amuse, and educate all ages. It makes the perfect bathroom reader or coffee table book and is a great conversation starter and source of entertainment while learning a little. The facts and illustrations cover a wide variety of topics; for example:

• It wasn't always pink for girls and blue for boys; it was even reversed at one time. Pink for girls and blue for boys didn’t take hold until the middle of the 20th century. Earlier, it was common practice for children to wear gender-neutral, mostly white clothing. When department stores started marketing gender-specific colors, some early advertising suggested pink for boys since it was considered a stronger color and blue for girls since it was more delicate and daintier.
• Before it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, the Mona Lisa was not widely known outside the art world. Leonardo da Vinci painted it in 1507, but it wasn't until the 1860s that critics noticed it as a masterpiece. It wasn't even the most famous painting in its gallery at the Louvre, let alone the entire Louvre.
• Wombats are the world’s only animal with cube-shaped poop. It appears to be due to their intestines' irregular shape and elasticity.
• In old age, human brains shrink by 10-15%; whereas, chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, show no brain shrinkage with age. Researchers believe it may be due to extended longevity in humans that brain evolution hasn't kept up with.
• President Andrew Johnson was an indentured servant as a child. When he was three years old, his father passed away, and Johnson and his brother became indentured servants to a tailor and worked for food and lodging. They both eventually ran away, and Johnson taught himself to read and worked as a tailor.
• Movie trailers originally played after the movie; that is why they were called trailers.
• Archaeologists have tracked Lewis and Clark's route based on their poop. Mercury-laced laxatives were popular during the Lewis and Clark era, and traces of mercury can be detected for centuries. By testing old latrine sites for mercury, researchers can determine which ones the adventurers visited. They have connected about 600 sites to the expedition.
• At the population density of New York City, the entire population of the world would fit in an area 9% larger than the state of Texas.
• Robins can eat up to 14 feet of earthworms in a day.
• Genghis Khan once had a feast with his army while seated on top of Russian army generals and nobility. In 1223 in Russia, the Mongol army had just won the Battle of the Kalka River; the Russian army surrendered, and the Mongols decided to have a celebration feast. The Russian army generals and nobility were forced to lie on the ground, and a heavy wooden gate was thrown on top of them. Chairs and tables were set on top of the gate, and the Mongols sat down for a feast on top of the still-living bodies of their enemies.
• Dogs aren't colorblind, but compared to humans, they only have 20% of the cone photoreceptor cells that control color perception. Dogs see in shades of yellow and blue and cannot see the range of colors from green to red, so dogs see the colors of the world as basically yellow, blue, and gray.
• Huh is the closest thing to a universal word. It means the same thing in every language, and everybody in almost every language says it.
• Buddha, Confucius, and Socrates all lived about the same time. Buddha is believed to have died in 483 BC; Confucius died in 479 BC, and Socrates was born in 469 BC.
• Humans are the only animals with chins; scientists don't know why.
• A blue whale's heart is so massive that you can hear its heartbeat two miles away.