The Essential Book Of Useless Information, by Don Voorhees

My mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas last year, and I just recently finished it. The subtitle is: The Most Unimportant Things You'll Never Need To Know. And if you know me, you this book has my name written all over it. Great gift Momma T, this blog is for you.

The EBUI is one in a series of books all out to do the same thing: provide useless information. As far as I can tell, there are at least five other books just like this one such as The Ultimate Book of Useless Information, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever, The Amazing Book of Useless Information, etc. You get the point.

Personally, I wouldn't mind having more of these in my library.

There's not much to tell about the book. Each page contains random facts (and yes, the author had fact checkers), surrounding a number of different topics which provided the chapter headings.

I've been reading The EBUI ever since I got it last Christmas, but you can't read too much at one time. It's much like reading the Proverbs in the Bible, just read a few each day. Read too many at once and it's like drinking from a fire hose.

As I read, I made little marks next to notable pieces of useless information. Here, I will share some with you. Enjoy.

Florida gets one hundred times more UV light than Maine

Cape Hatteras, NC is the "city" most likely to be hit by a tropical storm or hurricane.

Las Vegas is the least humid city in the US. Forks, WA, is the most humid. (For the Twilight fans out there.)

Common-law marriage can be contracted in eleven states. There is no such thing as common-law divorce.

One Giovanni Vigliotto married 104 women between 1941 and 1981. He was sentenced to 28 years in jail for bigamy in 1983.

Brigham Young had 55 wives.

The Catholic Church did not require a priest to be at weddings until 1563.

Ship's captains have no special rights to marry people.

In studies, men find a woman much more sexually attractive when she is dressed in red, and will spend more money on a date with her. Red does not, however, affect a man's perceptions about her likeability, intelligence, or kindness.

During the 1200s, European noblemen openly displayed their genitals through a hole in the crotch of their tights. (*What?!*)

Prostitution is currently legal in Rhode Island, as long as it takes place in a private residence.

Cupid was a symbol of pedophile love in ancient Greece.

Helium makes your voice high-pitched because it is less dense than air. making the sounds waves travel faster. When these fast-moving waves hit the air outside your mouth, they slow down and get closer together, raising the high frequency (pitch). If you and the listener were both in a room filled with helium, your voice would sound normal, as there would be no change in frequency.

Only about 15 percent of the species in the world are believed to have been discovered so far.

Of the world's known species, 99% are smaller than a bumblebee.

The cholesterol pill Lipitor is far and away the best-selling drug in the world, followed by the blood thinner Plavix and heartburn drug Nexium.

Astronauts drink recycled urine, sweat, exhaled water vapor, and bathing water.

The tallest wave ever recorded was one of 1,740 feet in Lituya Bay, Alaska. A landslide launched into the baya by an earthquake in 1958 caused it.

Every so often large chunks of ice fall from the clear blue sky, some weighing as much as 200 lbs. No one is sure why.

Cairo has more particulate pollution than any other city.

The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is a huge expanse of refuse, primarily plastics, two times the size of Texas, which is floating around in the Northern Pacific. (What in the world?!)

Jet fuel is not made up of any fancy chemicals, just kerosene.

Scientists can come within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero (-458.9 degrees F), the coldest possible temperature in the universe, in the lab, but quantum fluctuations in molecular motion make it impossible to reach that minimum.

The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in Princeton, New Jersey, once produced the highest man-made temperature, of 510 million degrees C.

The first working fax machine preceded the telephone in 1861.

The typical male fart contains around half a cup of gas, a female fart a third of a cup. (And they say this information is useless!)

The record distance for projectile vomiting is 27 feet.

A humpback whale calf will drink up to 130 gallons of milk a day. While nursing her young, a humpback whale mother can go for eight months without eating. Humpback whales sing songs that last a half hour. Blue whales vocalizations can be detected more than 1,000 miles away underwater. Sperm whales will emit a sonar blast that can immobilize a squid. Bowhead whales can live to be 200 years old.

Below 37 miles per hour, most bugs tend to bounce off car windshields; above this speed they start to splatter.

Mosquitoes are more attracted to blondes than brunettes, and children more than to adults.

It has been calculated that if you were bitten by 1,120,000 mosquitoes simultaneously, you would be totally drained of your blood.

The African red-billed queleas are the most numerous birds in the world. A flock may take up to five hours to pass overhead.

"Mike the Wonder Chicken" was a bird who had his head chopped off (but not his brain stem), and still lived for almost two more years. He toured America and was fed with an eyedropper directly into his gullet.  (Yaars, you should remember that one!)

Elephants are excellent swimmers.

Porcupine quills are naturally antiseptic.

The male porcupine urinates on the female to get her attention.

*There's so many great facts in this book, I don't know where to stop. So, here's a handful to serve as the grand fact finale!

Black-eyed peas, okra, peanuts, and watermelon all came to the New World with African slaves.

During a lifetime, a person will inadvertently eat several pounds of dirt.

Eighty-four people are in cryopreservation (frozen) at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In human history, probably about 100 billion people have died.

...and the last fact in the book will be the last on this blog...

In 2004, a woman in Georgia was arrested for trying to pay for a purchase at Wal-Mart with a million-dollar bill.

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

With a subtitle that reads: How Little Thing Can Make a Big Difference, The Tipping Point is a look at social epidemics and what causes their spread.

What causes a fad to turn into a trend? Or a trend to turn into a style? Why does one great idea succeed in infiltrating and influencing our culture while another equally evocative idea fizzles? Gladwell tackles questions like these and others in this book.

One of Gladwell's keynote examples about the spread of information is Paul Revere and his famous nocturnal ride as he announced the impending British invasion. On the night of of April 18th 1775, Paul Revere set out to warn the areas north and south of Boston that the British were coming to seize a weapon's stash. Revere set the country side afire with his message, knocking on doors delivering his message with fervor that ignited the local militia to respond and meet the British soldiers, forever changing our country's history.

But what most people don't know is that at the same time that Paul Revere set out for his historical ride, another man, by the name of William Dawes, set out on the same urgent errand to warn the towns west of Boston. However, history does not well remember Dawes' name. His ride was far less successful. Why? This is one of the questions Malcolm Gladwell is out to wrestle with in this book.

Gladwell covers many other social epidemics, many of them far more current. The Tipping Point takes you through Mayor Giuliani's efforts to clean up New York and it's subway system, the teen suicide epidemic in Micronesia, the spread in popularity of Hush Puppies as a favored American shoe, the syphilis epidemic in Baltimore in the mid-90s, the growth and story of Sesame Street and later Blue's Clues, and many other examples through the book's 280 pages.

Gladwell's basic principles of social epidemics follow three rules,

1) The law of the few: there are certain people in our culture who excel as either salespeople, information gatherers/spreaders, and connectors (those who seem to know "everybody"). The law of the few suggests that all three of these types of people must be involved when a social epidemic is at hand;

2) The law of context: the idea that if one window on an abandoned building is broken out, more soon will be; but if that one window is repaired it is far less likely more breaks will occur;

3) The stickiness factor: in our world where we're inundated and overwhelmed with information, only ideas and information packaged in a way that has a stickiness about it will make it through to people.

Analyzing social epidemics with these three rules in mind sheds light on social changes and trends. Similarly, marketers employing and minding these rules tend to succeed in ways beyond their competition.

Gladwell's writing is very readable and smooth. The examples he uses kept me easily engaged, and some of his conclusions and explanations served as mind candy. It's easy to see why this book was a #1 national bestseller, and I would recommend it, I'm just not quite sure to whom I'd recommend it. It has helped me to see the world of fads, trends and social thinking in a different way. I wonder how that will translate to my world of Christian ministry?

In the end, if you've read any Gladwell and know what to expect, The Tipping Point won't let you down. If you haven't yet read him, this is as good as any of his books to start with. Though, personally, I think I like Blink a little better.

Alaska with Robert & Anna, part 2: Talkeetna, Flat Top and Coastal Trail

On our way back from Denali National Park we stopped at a little po-dunk yet popular town known as Talkeetna. All the Alaska locals have told us that we need to visit Talkeetna at least once.

This is pretty much what all of Talkeetna looks like

One if Talkeetna's claims to fame is being the home of the West Rib Pub & Grill, because it was featured one Man vs. Food for it's monstrous burger named after the state of Alaska's first nick name, "Seward's Folly." 

Robert and I throw rocks at Talkeetna river bank

William H. Seward, former Secretary of State under presidents A. Lincoln and A. Jackson, was the man most responsible for arranging the purchase of Alaska from Russia (under president Jackson), which at the time was seen as a huge mistake and was deemed Seward's Folly. 

Talkeetna ended up being a neat little eclectic town so small you could walk anywhere from "the parking area." We had lunch at a recommended restaurant/bakery/B&B before leaving town. 

Girls accompanied us to the parking lot overlook 

Another day, while the girls were hanging together, Robert and I went hiking up Anchorage's most popular mountain, Flat Top. We first tried ascending the 'old Flat Top trail,' which was a mistake due to our lack of good footwear and the trail's steep gravel-y terrain.

Robert on side of mountain

But no matter, we went around and went up the main trail. It was a beautiful day for hiking and the guys had a fun time doing some good ol' fashion male-bonding.

Ready to hit the trail

The next day the four of us went biking on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail--an 11-mile serpentine trail following the western shore of Anchorage all the way into downtown.

View from Coastal Trail parking area

 We parked at about the half-way point in the trail, rode to the north end (in downtown) and then back, totaling about 10 miles.

View of downtown from the trail at top of a cliff

And finally, on our way back we got a good view of this moose by the side of the road. This was Robert and Anna's second moose sighting, something we try to promise all our visitors.

Anna and Robert, we had so much fun with you guys, and we can't wait until you visit again!