Joyanna Adams

Nobody's Opinion

Nobody Reads Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts

Nobody Reads

Just for fun, I have a book by my desk called Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts.

Not only was he a famous Science Fiction writer, but he was also intently curious, and his book of facts are really fun!

Here’s a few lines from the chapter called “Misconceptions.”

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Samuel F.B. Morse did not really invent the telegraph. He managed to get all the necessary information for the invention from the American physicist Joseph Henry, and later denied that Henry had helped him. (Henry easily proved the contrary in a court trial) Morse was a good promoter and squeezed $30,000 out of Congress for building the first telegraph line, from Washington to Baltimore, in 1844. He did, however, invent Morse code.

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Lloyds of London, the best-Known association of insurance underwriters, does not write life insurance.

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According to legend, it was the cowboy and the six-gun that won the West. Actually, it was the steel plow, barbed-wire fencing, and the portable windmill that made it possible for pioneers to settle there.

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Contrary to popular belief, there is little scientific evidence that the ages at which parents die have any correlation to the life span of their offspring, according to studies made ad Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. (Really?)

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A perpetual-motion machine would violate the laws of thermodynamics. Nobody has succeeded in producing one: nobody ever will. (This Nobody Wonders if it’s still true.)

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And my personal favorite

Benjamin Franklin’s invention of the lighting rod in 1753 was the first practical victory of science over a natural phenomenon. Two years later, when Lisbon, Portugal, was destroyed by an earthquake and tidal wave, some ministers in Boston proclaimed it was a punishment for the sacrilege of using lighting rods to avert the wrath of God.

And now, they blame Global Warming for the mass invasions to the West and America, happening all over the world.

As the famous quote from Obama’s best bud, Rahm Emanuel:‘Never let a crisis go to waste.”

Yeah, I love books, and this one is really fun! Put it in your library if you like odd facts.

March 2, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , | 2 Comments