Library: Get with the Contrivium

With Inky away, (has anyone seen him, by the way? I’m starting to get a bit worried), I’m finding plenty of time to read. The problem with this is that I keep running out of new things to read and our Library Acquisitions Department just can’t keep up. Luckily for me, the invaluable Mr X has pointed me at the solution.The Mechanical Contrivium is a meta-literature (trivia!? surely not) generator. It can give you useful, insightful and often obscure information about anything at all. I may never need to buy a book again. Here, for example, is what it says about Terra incognita:

1. Lightning strikes Terra Incognita over seven times every hour.

2. Terra Incognita is the traditional gift for a couple on their third wedding anniversary.

3. The most dangerous form of Terra Incognita is the bicycle.

4. If a snake is born with two heads, the heads will fight over who gets Terra Incognita!

5. Influenza got its name because people believed the disease was caused by the evil "influence" of Terra Incognita.

6. More people are killed by Terra Incognita each year than die in aeroplane accidents!

7. A sixteenth century mathematician lost his nose in a duel over his love for Terra Incognita, and wore a silver replacement for the rest of his life!

8. Terra Incognita will often glow under UV light.

9. Terra Incognita can grow up to three feet in a 24 hour period.

10. About 100 people choke to death on Terra Incognita each year.

And every single word of it is true! Uncanny.

The Mechanical Contrivium>>