Quote
"If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time."
Steve Jobs
Joke
Which state has the most streets? Rhode Island.
Fun Fact
Sea lions can dance to a beat.
There are only two mammals on Earth with the proven ability to move their bodies in time with an external beat: humans (though not all humans, to be fair) and sea lions. When researchers at the University of Santa Cruz rescued a stranded sea lion in 2013, they found that she was very smart, and she was even able to learn how to dance. Though parrots can also keep a rhythm, it was previously thought that only animals capable of complex vocal learning could do this.
Reading Fact
The word “robot” was invented by Czech painter Josef Čapek and first used in his brother’s sci-fi play R.U.R in 1920.
The frequently used international word “robot” first originated in Karel Čapek’s play Rossum’s Universal Robots. It derives from the Slavic word robota, which means labor (especially forced labor), and was used to denote humanoid, mass-produced, completely emotionless workers incapable of original thinking and indifferent to self-preservation.
Čapek himself did not coin the word – in a letter to the Oxford English Dictionary, he credits his brother, the painter and writer Josef Čapek, as its actual originator.
History Fact
Mistaken Identity
In 1945, the British Royal Air Force accidentally sunk a ship full of holocaust victims. The ship, the SS Cap Arcona was being used as a prison ship to transport prisoners of Nazi concentration camps (Incidentally, the SS Cap Arcona was the very ship used to play the Titanic in the 1943 German film). Approximately 5,000 people died in the shipwreck—three times more than in the wreck of the actual Titanic.
Movie/TV Trivia
The Matrix
Kung Fu choreographer Woo-Ping Yuen initially refused to work on the film, and hoped that by asking for an exorbitant fee, it would turn off the Wachowskis. It didn't. He next formulated what he considered an impossible request. He said that he'd agree only if he had complete control of the fights, and that he trained the actors for four months before they shoot. The Wachowskis complied with his request.
Movie/TV Quote
"I want to be alone."
Grand Hotel, 1932
Conversation Starter
Have you ever lost a friend? Why?
Writing Prompt
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