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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, 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)Fourteen b)None at all c)Two (one for special occasions)
d)Mind your own business Which 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..
Price: $10.00
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The Experts Speak : The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation
Did you ever have the uneasy feeling the experts are not . . . well, expert? "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau " --Irving Fisher, professor of economics at Yale University, October 17, 1929 "Forget it, Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel." --Irving Thalberg's warning to Louis B. Mayer regarding Gone With the Wind "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." --Decca Recording Company executive, turning down the Beatles, 1962 "With over fifty foreign cars already on sale here the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself."--Business Week, 1968 "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." --President of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977 "Bill Clinton will lose to any Republican who doesn't drool on stage." --The Wall Street Journal, in a 1995 editorial The Experts Speak systematically catalogues, footnotes, and sets straight these and a couple of thousand other examples of expert misunderstanding, miscalculation, egregious prognostication, boo-boos, and just plain lies. The experts have been wrong about everything under, including, and beyond the sun: time, space, the sexes, the races, the environment, economics, politics, crime, education, the media, history, and science. In this expanded and updated edition (now more error-filled than ever), we see just how much the experts don't know. But the book also goes deeper, presenting a through-the-looking-glass chronicle of human knowledge: the story of what was and is so, as seen through the story of what we wanted to and did believe..
Price: $12.80
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Richard's Poor Almanac: 12 Months of Misinformation in Handy Cartoon Form
Richard's Poor Almanac, inspired by seven years of weekly contributions to the "Washington Post," is Richard Thompson's omnium-gatherum of seasoned observations for all seasons — indoors and out. Like the almanac we've all come to know and ignore, Richard's Poor Almanac is an annual compendium of weathered wisdom rendered in the more palatable form of cartooning. .
Price: $6.30
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The Raw Deal: How Myths and Misinformation About the Deficit, Inflation, and Wealth Impoverish America
How economic rhetoric and policy have been hijacked to serve the interests of the wealthy Americans have fallen for the ticker tape. We watch our portfolios, happily or nervously We know there were a few bad apples at Enron and WorldCom, but we also know that: · The advent of mutual funds, low-cost brokerages, and the Internet has meant that the stock market is now more transparent, honest, and accessible to the small investor than ever before; · 401(k)s give the individual responsibility and control over their retirement savings, and that makes us more responsible citizens; · Federal deficits are bad for the economy, especially, somehow, when they're linked to social spending; and · Controlling inflation is the most important task of our economic policy. But as economist Ellen Frank shows us, what we know is wrong. Over the past twenty years, Americans have been fed a mash of confusing financial and economic information. This information has distorted popular understanding of how the economy really operates and camouflaged the transformation of economic policy from a tool for improving the living standards of all to a tool for securing the perquisites of those with financial wealth. Sifting through confusing rhetoric on everything from the stock market to the federal budget to the global financial system, Frank reveals how financial interests came to dominate U.S. economic policy and lays out in clear and engaging prose the basis of real wealth and economic well-being..
Price: $16.00
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Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors
Successfully navigate the minefield of misinformation that can prevent justice from being done in child sexual abuse cases!From the Foreword, by Robert Geffner, PhD, editor of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse: “Too often, the public and some professionals have been misled by media publicity and articles . . . that appear scientific, but in reality, are biased opinions or over-generalized research. Forensic cases are being decided in many courts based upon the recommendations of so-called 'expert witnesses’who do not actually know the clinical research or understand the dynamics of such abusive relationships.”This much-needed book points out and corrects misinformation that everyone who works with victims, offenders, or families in which sexual abuse has occurred needs to understand clearly. Especially vital in today's political climate, Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors gives you state-of-the-science information on such myths as “false memory syndrome,” “recovered memory therapy,” and the “lack of harm” to some sexually abused boys.Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors examines: - forensic issues, including the “false memory” defense and how the long-term impact of childhood sexual abuse is often misrepresented in court
- three separate expert examinations of Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman's well-known--and often misrepresented--review of long-term child sexual abuse outcomes
- treatment recommendations and guidelines for addressing the memory controversy in clinical practice
- the fascinating case history/cautionary tale of the child molester Robert Halsey, who was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in 1993, and how public and academic resources were misused to claim he was wrongly convicted
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Price: $23.23
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Truth About Handguns: Exploding The Myths, Hype, And Misinformation
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Going to War: How Misinformation, Disinformation, and Arrogance Led America into Iraq
With the pacing and intrigue of a thriller, Going to War is the fullest, most detailed account yet of the U.S.-led march to war in Iraq. Veteran editor and reporterRuss Hoyle has pieced together the whole complicated story, from the Bush administration’s aggressive twisting of intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to its manipulation of Congress and a compliant media in order to “sell” the war to a frightened nation.
Hoyle takes us inside the White House and intelligenceagencies, where we witness internal debates that took place within the Oval Office, the Office of the Vice President, the Pentagon, and the CIA after 9/11 and in the months leading up to the war. He describes the furtive steps of the White House Iraq Group--including Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Karen Hughes, and their militant neoconservative enablers--who maneuvered with Vice President Cheney topromote unfounded intelligence about Iraqi WMD and pressure the CIA to tailor its analysis to fit President Bush’s war policy.
We also learn about the propaganda campaign waged by Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress; Tony Blair’s role in pushing the White House to use Saddam’s WMD as a rationale for war, as revealed in classified British government documents; the behind-the-scenes story of Colin Powell’s televised presentation to the United Nations in the months before the U.S.-led attack; the truth behind the Niger yellowcake affair and the administration’s vendetta against Ambassador Joseph Wilson in leaking the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as a covert CIA agent; and the grand jury investigation that led to the dramatic jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and the conviction of Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby.
This is the most definitive and comprehensive portrayal to date of the forces that led us into Iraq. Hoyle helps us understand how the American public was deceived and dragged into a war whose end is nowhere in sight. Going to War tells a story that is destined to join the ranks of the great follies of U.S. diplomatic and political history. .
Price: $5.89
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