Need to know how to fend off* a mountain lion or weave a French braid? A new iPhone app has the answers.

    The Show Me Now application provides instructions on how to cope with situations ranging from fighting a gorilla* and uncorking* a champagne bottle with a saber* to escaping from a car submerged* underwater.

    It is based on the Web site www.showmenow.com and two “Show Me How” books. Originally published in 2008, the book has sold over a million copies and has been translated into 30 languages.

    “It’s a strange mixture of practical information and practically useless information, which is more there for the sake of curiosity*,” said Roger Shaw, publisher at Weldon Owen Inc.

    “We have everything from life-saving emergency information to face-saving style information, from practical everyday tasks to wildly amusing exotic* ones.”

    Shaw said the application was designed to appeal to an audience that expects to get much of their information visually.

    “For young people, it gives them a little irreverent* insight into the adult world. It’s like a cheat sheet for grown-up things,” he explained. The 321 different activities are illustrated through about 2,000 diagrams similar to those found in the backseat pocket of an airliner. A team of 30 people worked for a year thinking of ideas and researching them for the book. (SD-Agencies)