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82ask launches book: Do Sheep Shrink in the Rain?

do sheep shrink in the rain?

do sheep shrink in the rain?
Originally uploaded by ew4n.

Sarah and the team at 82ask have been busy. Just in time for Christmas they’ve launched their new book titled, ‘Do Sheep Shrink in the Rain?’

It’s a super idea. The concept being that after answering tons upon tons of questions, they now actually have a rather cool database of content.

My younger brother accosted me the other day and asked me, ‘How many badgers would it take to fill up the Empire State building?’
I looked at him strangely. He broke into a laugh and showed me the answer he’d just received from 82ask. Apparently he and his friends often sit around in the pub dreaming up weird questions to send to the service.

In Sarah McVittie’s interview with SMS Text News, I asked her to give a few sample questions — one of which was, conveniently:

Q: How many badgers would it take to support the Empire State building?
82ASK: Emp. St. Bdg. is 365,000 tons. Weight of adult euro (not usa) badger av. 11 kg. So according to Newton’s third law you would need 30,102,040 badgers.

Almost daily there are about 5 people searching for the answer to that question who hit Sarah’s interview as they found it in Google. Who on earth cares about badgers and the Empire State Building? Quite a lot of people it seems. And 82ask is there to provide the answers, obviously!

It’s with this in mind that I took a look at the book. It’s brilliant. You might choose to read it cover to cover but that’s not what I’ve done. It’s particularly useful for having on the desk and when you’re momentarily bored, opening up a page and …

Ok let me do that right now. I’ll flick open a page and…

How many people can fit on the Isle of Wight?
The 82ask answer: Isle of Wight is 380km in area. Approx 2.7636 thousand million people could stand up in that area. This is just over a third of the world’s population.

Wicked!

It’s only 6 quid on Amazon. Get yourself a copy!

I know it sounds corny, but it’d be a wicked Christmas present for just about anyone connected with the mobile industry in particular. Remember, as the Orange Shop frequently reminds me, there are just 25 shopping days left……..

3 COMMENTS

  1. Two years on (to the day) and it still makes me smile…

    I was in Borders last weekend and I saw lots of copycat stocking fillers, but this one definitely set the standard.

    It was great working with Sarah and the team to help get this out there. Texperts should be proud…

  2. Two years on (to the day) and it still makes me smile…

    I was in Borders last weekend and I saw lots of copycat stocking fillers, but this one definitely set the standard.

    It was great working with Sarah and the team to help get this out there. Texperts should be proud…

  3. Two years on (to the day) and it still makes me smile…

    I was in Borders last weekend and I saw lots of copycat stocking fillers, but this one definitely set the standard.

    It was great working with Sarah and the team to help get this out there. Texperts should be proud…

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