Quote
“The healthiest response to life is joy.”
Deepak Chopra
Joke
Five out of four people admit they're bad with fractions!
Fun Fact
Interpol began in 1914 when legal professionals from 24 countries got together to discuss catching fugitives.
These days, Interpol (or the International Criminal Police Organization) may be well-known for tracking down outlaws around the world. But the group dates all the way back to 1914 when the International Criminal Police Congress was held in Monaco. That meeting saw police and judicial representatives from 24 countries get together with the goal of improving contacts between police forces in different countries in order to increase the effectiveness of international investigations.
Reading Fact
People who read more, live longer
Pretty good motivation if you ask me. A study from Yale University concluded, after studying over 3500 people over the age of 50, that participants who read at least 30 minutes per day, lived on average 23 months longer than non-readers. 30 minutes of reading per day for living almost 2 years longer? That sounds like a great deal.
Another interesting fact about reading we got from this survey was that there’s actually a difference even between those who read newspapers and magazines and those who read fiction books. Book readers lived longer than those who preferred newspapers and magazines too.
Researchers believe it’s the fact that reading books lead to a different level of cognitive engagement by learning new words, and understanding plot points, and twists that resulted in this difference. Basically, re-building the fictional universe we read about in a book, helps our brain remain healthy.
History Fact
Wake Up Call
Before modern technology made their profession all but obsolete, people would hire “knocker-ups” to wake them for work; these knocker-ups would generally tap a long stick at their clients’ windows. This still sounds better than being woken up by the default Apple alarm ring tone, to be honest.
Movie/TV Trivia
The cigarette smoked by Sigourney Weaver in Avatar is completely CGI.
Movie/TV Quote
"For a guy with a four digit IQ, I must have missed something."
Limitless (2011)
Seven years before Bradley Cooper became the quadruple-threat actor/director/producer/songwriter behind A Star Is Born, he played Eddie Morra, a writer who finds a drug that gives him a quadruple-digit IQ. It's one of those "just go with it" premises that's made explicit in the poster and trailer, but is reinforced in a scene that comes before the opening credits, a kind of "record scratch, freeze frame" setup that shows Eddie at the end of his rope, with unknown bad guys closing in before we rewind to get the full story. In voiceover while he teeters on the edge of a skyscraper, Eddie reflects on his current state, lamenting the gaps in his otherwise airtight IQ: "I'd come this close to having an impact on the world. And now the only thing I'd have an impact on was the sidewalk." Is this Shakespeare? Certainly not. But it's the kind of dumb, repeatable line that makes good-bad movies so enjoyable.
Conversation Starter
Do you text more or call more? Why?
Writing Prompt