Quote
"Families are like branches on a tree – we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one."
Unknown
Joke
What's the difference between a poorly dressed man on a tricycle and a well-dressed man on a bicycle?
Attire!
Fun Fact
The world's quietest room is located at Microsoft's headquarters in Washington state.
Silence is golden, as they say. And while it may not be worth quite as much as jewels and gold to most people, it certainly was the primary goal for those who built the quietest room in the world. Located at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, the lab room measures a background noise of -20.35 dBA, which is 20 decibels below the threshold of human hearing and breaks previous records for spaces that were deemed the planet's quietest places, according to CNN.
"As soon as one enters the room, one immediately feels a strange and unique sensation which is hard to describe," Hundraj Gopal, a speech and hearing scientist and principal designer of the anechoic chamber at Microsoft, told CNN. "Most people find the absence of sound deafening, feel a sense of fullness in the ears, or some ringing. Very faint sounds become clearly audible because the ambient noise is exceptionally low. When you turn your head, you can hear that motion. You can hear yourself breathing and it sounds somewhat loud."
Reading Fact
The Head writer on Eureeka's Castle is also the author of Goosebumps.
The Head writer on Eureeka’s Castle show featuring lovable puppets of Nickelodeon is R.L. Stine. R.L. Stine was also the author of the Goosebumps, a series of children’s horror fiction novel books.
History Fact
George Washington Never Had Wooden Teeth
Many myths about Washington exist, but one of the most prevalent stories has to be about his teeth. It's widely believed that Washington wore wooden dentures. This is not the case at all. While Washington did have numerous dental problems and did use dentures, wood, as a material, was never used.
Movie/TV Trivia
Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn called Irreversible director Gasper Noe midshoot for advice on how to successfully shoot a ‘head smashing’ scene.
Movie/TV Quote
"I live my life a quarter mile at a time."
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
It's easy to forget that the Fast and the Furious series, the box-office dominating behemoth that's spawned seven sequels and a spinoff coming this summer, was based on an article about underground street racing in Vibe magazine. The Rob Cohen-directed original was built around a cast of relatively unknown young actors, featured a plot that was widely seen as a Point Break ripoff, and swiped its title from a Roger Corman B-movie from 1955. These movies had a humble beginning, and there was no grand plan. You might even say the series has lived its life a quarter mile at a time -- just like Dom Toretto, the racing guru and family leader played by the heart and soul of the franchise, Vin Diesel. Nearly two decades later, it's hard to remember that the actual monologue that this bumper-sticker-ready, live-life-to-the-fullest quote comes from is incredibly bleak: Dom tells Paul Walker's blonde-haired undercover FBI agent Brian O'Conner a haunting story about how he "watched his dad burn to death" in a racing accident and remembers "hearing him scream." If that wasn't heavy enough, Toretto then says he nearly beat the man who caused his father's crash to death with a wrench. Dom's "quarter mile at a time" philosophy isn't a hedonistic creed or an inspirational TED Talk-ready bromide. It's an acknowledgment of the death drive by a broken man.
Conversation Starter
What was your favourite book as a child?
Writing Prompt