And unlike dogs, cats offer humans no practical benefit. The truth is they are sadly incompetent mouse-catchers and now pose a threat to many ecosystems. Yet, we love them still.Content:Catacombs Cat's cradle What's the catch? The cats that ate the canaries The cat lobby CAT scan Pandora's litter box Lions and toygers and lykoi Nine likes.

    Do cats do things they don’t want to do? Definitely not. Do cats rush around at all hours of the day when they’d rather be licking their paws and looking out a window? Please. Calm, free, charismatic, wise, elegant, self-assured—our beloved feline pets strut those traits that we humans spend a lifetime aspiring to. No wonder everybody wants to be more like a cat.After observing his own cat, Ziggy, for years, bestselling French author Stéphane Garnier decided that he would be much happier if he could just live more like Ziggy. Closer study only confirmed his suspicion that cats have that je ne sais quoi, and he set out to share Ziggy’s innate wisdom with the world.Whether at work, at home, or in your social life, your cat can teach you how to manage stress, cultivate independence, and live life on your terms. Peppered with humorous yet inspiring tips for living a day in the life of a cat, cat secrets from Ziggy, and a quiz to assess your “cat quotient,” How to Think Like a Cat is an inspiring, humorous, and remarkably insightful guide to the subtle art of living like a feline.

    Yes, all those years you were told not to sit too close to the television (you'll hurt your eyes!) or swallow your gum (it stays in your stomach for seven years!) or crack your knuckles (arthritis!) are called into question by our country's leading trivia guru. Jennings separates myth from fact to debunk a wide variety of parental edicts: no swimming after meals, sit up straight, don't talk to strangers, and so on. Armed with medical case histories, scientific findings, and even the occasional experiment on himself (or his kids), Jennings exposes countless examples of parental wisdom run amok. Whether you're a parent who wants to know what you can stop worrying about or a kid (of any age) looking to say, "I told you so,"; this is the anti-helicopter parenting book you've been waiting for.

    In this book you will find the funniest 288 of them (with a few all-new funny pages squeezed in just because we couldn’t help ourselves). That’s page after page after page of laugh-out-loud dumb jokes, dumb jocks, toasts, pranks, kings, kittens, caboodles, and, of course, poorly translated kung-fu movie subtitles—such as. "It took my seven digestive pills to dissolve your hairy crab!” So whether you like your humor witty or witless, light or dark, or silly or sublime, you’ll laugh until your head explodes. Chortle at…Dumb crooks: The robber who ran face-first into a wall because he forgot to poke eye holes in his pillow case.Witty wordplay: If Snoop Doggy Dogg were to marry Winnie the Pooh, his name would become Snoop Doggy Dogg Pooh.Flubbed headlines: "British Left Waffles On House Floor”Quirky stars: Billy Idol’s concert rider demands he have one large tub of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter in his dressing room.Job Lingo: If you hear an E.R. doc mention a "VIP,” be on the lookout for a "Very Intoxicated Patient.”Comedian quips: "I wonder if deaf people have a sign for "Talk to the hand.’” --Zach GalifianakisSputtering sportscasters: "If only faces could talk.” --Pat SummerallAnd much, much more!

    Silly, shocking, weird, hilariously funny—and outrageously true—the short anecdotes inside his anthologies of human stupidity are culled from print, online, and broadcast media from all over the world. Inside Stupid Ancient History, Gregory chronicles Greek philosophers, Roman conquerors, and historic mythconceptions, including:  — To fight off Roman ships in 300 BC, Carthaginians catapulted live snakes at them.— The Athenian lawmaker Draco died of suffocation when gifts of cloaks were showered upon him by grateful citizens at an Aegina theater in 620 BC. — In ancient Rome, long before the advent of the Christian Bible, Roman men swore to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” by placing their right hand on their testicles. It is from this ritual that we derived the term “testimony.” —  Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus burned to the ground in 356 BC. The arsonist was executed; and to make sure his wish for everlasting fame wouldn’t come true, it was ordered that his name be stricken from all records and never mentioned again. But people will talk. Despite all efforts, his name leaked, and Herostratus is remembered as one of the most notorious firebugs in history.

    Organized into witty categories, including “Battle of the Sexes: Facts About Men and Women” and “The Past Is a Foreign Country: Facts About History,” You Are One-third Daffodil contains hundreds of weird and wacky facts, including:*In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except during funerals or hospital visits.*The most expensive age of your life is thirty-four.*Cuba will lift its ban on toasters in 2010.*Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair.*The “zip” of zip code stands for “zone improvement plan.” *Counting up from zero, and excluding the word “and,” the first number to contain the letter “a” is one thousand.*There are an estimated 10,000 trillion ants on earth–roughly 1.6 million ants for each person. Their combined weight is equivalent to the weight of the entire human population.*In the Second World War, every Italian soldier in North Africa carried his own personal espresso machine.So go ahead, become the office Einstein (though did you know Einstein didn’t learn to read until he was ten?) or the cocktail party trivia star with You Are One-third Daffodil. The words “did you know?” will never sound the same again!

    It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.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. 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.How many legs does a centipede have?Not a hundred.How many toes has a two-toed sloth?It’s either six or eight.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.

    For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck!But it's going to be okay. Because we're here to help. Packed with more sexy facts than the Encyclopedia Pornographica, the Cracked De-Textbook will teach you about the true stars of history, why you picture everything from Velociraptors to Ancient Rome incorrectly, and finally, at long last - how to pop a proper squat. This book was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are informed.

    From space travel to the history of jelly beans, this wideranging, brain-teasing, and altogether useless book will give readers information to out-trivialize even their cleverest of companions. Features such fascinating facts as:- There is a town in West Virginia called Looneyville- Women can talk with less effort than men- Lemons have more sugar than oranges And answers to these life-changing questions:- What was the Ancient Roman cure for a stomachache"- What is a "buckle bunny??- Where is the coldest place in the universe?

    Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005) and the even more spectacularly successful Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (2006), this latest collection includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful answers never before seen in book form.As usual, the simplest questions often have the most complex answers - while some that seem the knottiest have very simple explanations. New Scientist's 'Last Word' is regularly voted the magazine's most popular section as it celebrates all questions - the trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling and strange. This all-new and eagerly awaited selection of the best again presents popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

    You'll learn all the latest about raising a cat of your dreams, introducing a new kitten to the rest of your family, and enjoy the award winning cute kitten pictures. Nationally known pet authority Amy Shojai's award-winning book contains the latest cat behavior information and kitten care research, including updated cat vaccinations guidelines, animal behavior advice, cat language tips and more. This veritable "Kitten 101" is packed with all the must-know facts about cats and kitten facts including: Choosing a kitten Best kittens for adoption Kitten breeds and buying kittens How to train a kitten Understand kitten behavior Fixing and preventing common kitten problems Toilet training cats and litter training kittens How to stop kitten biting and cat hissing Understand cat communication, cat body language and cat purrs Cat breed guide with care considerations and kitty personality types Introducing a kitten to a cat and/or a dog Kittens food considerations Grooming a cat or kitten Kitten vaccinations Kitten parasites and cat worms Kitten spay and neuter Kitten first aid Cat legends, myths, and fun facts Plus a myriad of UPDATED kitten and cat supply resources: the best kitten Websites, cat associations and feline clubs, animal welfare organizations and feline foundations, recommended cat books and kitten magazines, online kitten and cat products sources Amy Shojai is a certified animal behavior consultant, a founder of the international Cat Writers' Association, and appears as an expert on Animal Planet's CATS 101 and DOGS 101. She is the author of 30+ award winning pet care books, and also writes the critically acclaimed SEPTEMBER DAY pet-centric thrillers.

    CRAZY-BUT-TRUE FACTS, PECULIAR OCCURRENCES, DESPICABLE CRIMES, BIZARRE RECORDS, UNBELIEVABLE CREATURES AND MANY MORE SHOCKING ODDITIESDelving into the shocking side of pop culture, science and history, Listverse.com's Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Lists offers a wealth of fascinating reading with over 200 lists and more than 2,000 interesting facts, including:• Alien Artifacts• Creepy Urban Legends• Bizarre Murder Weapons• Horrific TV Accidents• Outrageous Rock Tales• Twisted Circus Acts• Terrifying Villains• Crazy-but-True Movie Plots• Dirty CIA Operations• Monstrously Evil Babysitters• Strange Hamburger Facts• Animal Freaks of Nature• Mind-Blowing Technologies

    In Elephants on Acid, Boese details the results of this scientific trial, as well as answers to the questions: Why can't people tickle themselves? Would the average dog summon help in an emergency? Will babies instinctually pick a well-balanced diet? Is it possible to restore life to the dead? Read on to find out...

    The useless information never ends in the newest, most crucially meaningless entry in the Useless Information series. This latest cornucopia of amazingly pointless facts and figures will have trivia buffs marveling at all the things they never needed to know.

    Arranged into 13 chilling chapters like Haunted Hollywood, Blood Red Crosses and Gross Anatomy: Hospital Horrors, Bride of Bizarre, and Tales from the Cryptids, Beyond Bizarre tackles everything from female pirates and creepy candy stripers to psychic predictions and virgin shark birthsand much, much more.A word of warning: this book is not for the faint of heart!