Read Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information for Free Online Page A

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    Eighty-nine days, one hour for winter to come and go
    Ninety-one days, 7 hours, 26 minutes, and 24 seconds for Earth to fall into the sun if it loses its orbit
    Two hundred fifty-eight days for the gestation period of a yak
    One year for Los Angeles to move two inches closer to San Francisco (due to the shifting of tectonic plates)
    Two years for cheddar cheese to reach its peak flavor
    Four years, eight months to receive your FBI file after making the appropriate request
    There are six years in a snail’s life span.
    Twenty-five years equals the time the average American spends asleep in a lifetime
    Sixty-nine years for the Soviet Union to rise and fall
    One hundred years for tidal friction to slow Earth’s rotation by 14 seconds
    Eighteen hundred years to complete the Great Wall of China
    Five hundred thousand years for plutonium-239 to become harmless
    One billion years for the sun to release as much energy as a supernova releases in 24 hours

Patently Absurd
     
    INVENTION: Musical Baby Diaper Alarm
    USE: Three women from France marketed this alarm to mothers in 1985. It’s a padded electronic napkin that goes inside a baby’s diaper. When it gets wet, it plays “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
    INVENTION: Thinking Cap
    USE: Improves artistic ability by mimicking the effects of autism. The cap uses magnetic pulses to inhibit the front-temporal, or “left brain,” functions. This, say the two Australian scientists behind the project, creates better access to extraordinary savant abilities. They reported improved drawing skills in five of 17 volunteers in a 2002 experiment.
    INVENTION: Breath Alert
    USE: This pocket-sized electronic device detects and measures bad breath. You simply breathe into the sensor for three seconds, then the LCD readout indicates—on a scale of one to four—how safe (or offensive) your breath is.
    INVENTION: Vibrating Toilet Seat
    USE: Thomas Bayard invented the seat in 1966. He believed that “buttocks stimulation” helps prevent constipation.
    INVENTION: Lavakan
    USE: It’s a washing machine for cats and dogs. This industrial-strength machine soaps, rinses, and dries your pet in less than 30 minutes. One of the inventors, Andres Díaz, claims that the $20,000 machines can actually reduce pet stress. “One of the dogs actually fell asleep during the wash,” he said. Cats weren’t quite as happy about being Lavakanned. “But it’s better than having a cat attach itself to your face, which is what can happen when you try to wash one by hand.”
    INVENTION: See-Through Refrigerator
    USE: The door is a one-way mirror so when a light is switched on inside the fridge, you can see what’s inside without opening the door. You save energy . . . and pounds. Inventor Bruce Lambert says, “The mirror encourages dieting, because people can see their reflections as they approach the door.”
    INVENTION: Rape-L
    USE: Haley manufactures skunk scent vials that wearers can clip to their undergarments to fend off sexual assaults. When attacked, the wearer simply pinches the vial and douses themselves with the scent, which is harvested from real skunks at a skunk ranch in upstate New York. The kit also contains a second vial filled with ordinary tap water “for practice,” inventor John Haley explains. Suggested retail price: $19.95.
    INVENTION: Beethoven Condoms
    USE: The condom will play a bit of Beethoven if it breaks during use. According to news reports, “the condom is coated with a substance that changes electrical conductivity upon rupture, setting off a microchip that produces sound.” Inventor Lino Missio, a 26-year-old Italian physics student, has also proposed an alternative to music: a verbal warning to the participants to stop what they’re doing immediately.

     
DID YOU KNOW?
    Hurricanes are classed by wind speed:
     
    Category 1
 
 
74–95 mph
Category 2
 
 
96–110 mph
Category 3
 
 
111–130 mph
Category 4
 
 
131–155 mph
Category 5
 
 
156 mph and