Free download Uncommon Knowledge: Extraordinary Things That Few People Know by Tom Standage. Published by Economist. Facts and Figures that few people know, but more people should. English | 272 Pages | EPUB | ISBN: 178816332X
Description of Uncommon Knowledge
The world can be an amazing place if you know the right questions to ask: How did carrots become orange? What’s stopping us from having a four-day week? How can we remove all the broken bits of satellite from orbit? If everything is so terrible, why is the global suicide rate falling?
The keen minds of the Economist love to look beyond everyday appearances to find out what really makes things tick. In this latest collection of The Economist Explains, they have gathered together the juiciest fruits of their never-ending quest for answers.
For an uncommonly interesting read, take a peek at some Uncommon Knowledge – and pass it on! The world only gets more amazing when discoveries are shared.
This is a compendium of explanations, and what they all have in common is that they are uncommon: a word that has two meanings. On the one hand, it refers to things that are rare or infrequently encountered.
In the realm of knowledge, that means things that not many people are aware of or know about. But these unusual explanations also have the power to stretch your mind and subtly change how you see the world.
In other words, they are uncommon in the second sense of the word, which means exceptional and extraordinary. As Addison observed, uncommon knowledge is enjoyable to encounter because it is unexpected and surprising; because a neat explanation is mentally satisfying; and because encountering a previously unfamiliar idea, and storing it away for future reference, expands the intellect.