A compendium of 1,001 facts about food, human behavior, health, drug use, the weather, animals, and more.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll s#*t yourself! Back by popular demand, the mind-blowing follow-up to the bestselling 1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You. An all-new collection of entertaining and horrifying truths about us, our world, and why we’re totally screwed. With more disturbing facts and fun new topics, including weird celebrities, boobs, the internet, clowns, serial killers, sexual fetishes, bacon, Elvis, things that will eat you, and more. From stupid dead people to halitosis caused by constipation to a singer whose music can get you killed in some Jamaican neighborhoods, it’s all here—everything you need to know about the scary s#*t that surrounds all of us. FACT: Men are four times as likely as women to be struck by lightning. FACT: McDonald’s McRib sandwich contains some of the same ingredients used to manufacture gym mats and running shoes. FACT: Möbius syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that renders victims unable to move their faces. FACT: You can get an STD from a bikini wax.

Blue Ice, Meteors, and Beaver Ass, Oh My! FACT: The use of maggots to clean wounds has proven to be effective for patients who don't respond to traditional treatments. FACT: The Icelandic dish hákarl is beheaded basking shark that is buried in the ground for six to 12 weeks to putrefy before it is eaten. FACT: Used during the Dutch Revolt, rat torture involved trapping rodents under a bowl on a prisoner's stomach then heating the bowl's exterior so the animals would eat through the victim's flesh to try to escape. FACT: The average person picks his nose five times every hour, occasionally eating what he picks. The world is a scary place, and it gets scarier every day. From the creator of the bestselling 1,001 Facts That Will Scare The S#*t Out Of You comes this new collection of 1,004 (count 'em!) truly horrifying and horrifyingly true facts about the world around us. From ancient medical practices to doomsday scenarios, to disgusting food from around the world and the entire terrifying state of Florida, the facts in Are You Sh*tting Me? are sure to entertain and disturb you at once. Unless of course you are already disturbed, in which case this is the book for you!

Atlas Obscura meets 1001 Facts to Scare the Sh*t Out of You in this serious survey of the most bizarre, creepy, and sometimes hilarious customs from cultures around the world. Every culture handles life differently. From the “blackening of the bride” in Scotland and the custom of not looking babies in the eyes in Kenya, to enlisting geese as part of the police squad in China and the tradition of children eating bread with chocolate sprinkles for breakfast in Amsterdam, there are so many unique behaviors all across the world. In Bizarre World, journey across the globe to understand how various cultures approach everything from grief, beauty standards, food, parenting, death, stress management, happiness, and more. Many customs may seem perfectly sane, while others, not so much. Some are just downright strange, funny, or weird. There’s so much to discover about the people around us and the beliefs they hold. Let Bizarre World be your armchair guide to a different way of life with quick facts and “did you knows?” that will leave you saying, “huh, that’s strange.”

Praise for the Webby Award-winning newsletter: "I eagerly read 'Now I Know' every day. It's always fresh, always a surprise, and always interesting!" --Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Wikia Did you know that there are actually 27 letters in the alphabet, or that the U.S. had a plan to invade Canada? And what actually happened to the flags left on the moon? Even if you think you have a handle on all things trivia, you're guaranteed a big surprise with Now I Know. From uncovering what happens to lost luggage to New York City's plan to crack down on crime by banning pinball, this book will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts. Covering 100 outrageous topics, Now I Know is the ultimate challenge for any know-it-all who thinks they have nothing left to learn.

Fact: Chocolate contains the alkaloid theobromine, which in high doses can be toxic to humans, and in even small amounts can kill dogs, parrots, horses, and cats. This means that despite its name, the Kit-Kat candy bar is not a recommended snack for your kitty-cat. I wonder how many cats have died because of this confusion. Fact: The most germ-laden place on your toilet isn't the seat or even the bowl--it's the handle. The solution: Don't flush. Let the next guy worry about it. There are "just the facts"--and then there are just the facts that will frighten the bejeezus out of you. And thanks to this little gem of a bathroom book, you'll never look at the world the same way again, without, er, dry heaving a little bit. From the sneaky fish that can swim up our genitals to the E. coli bacteria lurking in the very water we drink, disturbing phenomena are everywhere we turn. Educational, entertaining, and undeniably horrifying, this book isn't guaranteed to help you, um, go to the bathroom, but it's certain to make your time there more...informed.

In Cory Doctorow's wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus's hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It's incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier. Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can't admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He's surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can't even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He's not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he's gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they're used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want. Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.