Jakob Bailey Book Review

Jakob Bailey

The Book of General Ignorance
By John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and the unknown!  That is what this book is all about. I have read this book cover to cover and was not dissatisfied one bit. It was very enjoyable, intruiging, and interesting. This book is a collection of facts that you might not know or thought you did know, but were actually wrong about. One fantastic example of this is the evil number 666. It turns out, the people who were translating the Bible mistranslated. The actual number is 616. But there's a slim chance you knew that. Another example is the life span of headless chickens. If you didn't know they can live without their head, they can. If you did know this, you most likely thought they lived for a short period of time. Well, I present the story of Mike the Chicken.  On September 10. 1945, Llyod Olsen decapitated Mike with an Axe, missing the jugular vein and leaving enough brain stem for him him to strive. He toured the country and was even in both Time and Life magazines. He lived for about two years. The crazy part? He didn't die from the complications of not having a head. He ate and drank through an eye dropper. One night, however, he started choking, and Olsen, his owner, didn't have the eye dropper. He is actually still an idol in Fruita, Colorado, where he is celebrated in May. One final example is a blue whale's throat. Now, with blue whales being roughly 105 feet long and weighing about 381,400 pounds, making them the biggest animal on earth, they could easily consume something as big as a human, or even a car, right? Well, the biggest thing they can swallow has to be less that 4 inches in diameter. Their throat is only the size of a "side plate". If you were confused by that, don't worry. I was too. As said before, a side plate is about 4 inches. That's roughly the size of a grapefruit. Another interesting fact about the blue whale is that it's throats is the exact same size of it's belly button. Also, they don't eat anything for eight months. After this period, in the summer, they eat almost 3 tons of krill a day, which is 6000 pounds. No wonder they're the biggest animal on earth!Some other topics that are covered are presidents, modern day science, and the history. This book is perfect for procrastinators, time wasting situations, and people interested in history and science.