Today's Dippit!

Quote

"Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular." 

Roy T. Bennett

Joke

What do you call a ghost’s true love?

His ghoul-friend.

Fun Fact

Cats once delivered mail in Belgium.

In the 1870s, the city of Liège, Belgium, attempted to employ 37 felines as mail carriers, according to the BBC. Messages were tucked into waterproof bags that the kitties would carry around their necks. However, while one cat apparently made it to its destination in under five hours, the other felines took up to a day to complete their journeys. Due to the fact that the cats weren't particularly reliable and definitely weren't speedy, the service didn't last very long.

Reading Fact

Your phone and your books are no longer enemies

In the past decades, the time people have been spending reading has decreased considerably and is in a constant decline. 

The U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics released a survey in 2020 which states that as of 2019, the average time spent reading for Americans aged 15-44 is of 10 minutes or less per day.

On the other hand, another statistic says that Americans spent almost 3 hours per day using their phones in 2019.

Even though these statistics are worrying, some good news may be coming our way. “Reading more” has been a common New Year’s resolution and a goal for many people, tech companies have come into play. 

Several mobile apps have been developed in recent years with the sole purpose of helping you chieve your goals of reading more and faster. 

History Fact

In Ancient Asia, death by elephant was a popular form of execution.

As elephants are very intelligent and easy to train, it proved easy enough to train them as executioners and torturers.

They could be taught to slowly break bones, crush skulls, twist off limbs, or even execute people using large blades fitted to their tusks.

In some parts of Asia this method of execution was still popular up to the late 19th century.

Movie/TV Trivia

Michael Myers mask in Halloween is just a Captain Kirk mask altered slightly and painted white.

Movie/TV Quote

"A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool?"

The Social Network (2010)

It's almost hard to overstate what a small miracle The Social Network script is. Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher turned the tale of Facebook's invention into a thrilling drama full of vindictive 6'5" twins and vengeful nerds. To do this, Sorkin perhaps embellished a bit. Take, for instance, this quote, which is one of many we could have included, but is the bit that most embodies this snappy depiction of greed during the internet boom. It's often misquoted. In the choral "Creep" trailer, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker says it in full: "A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars." But Timberlake's Sean never actually says "a billion dollars." Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) does, fed up with the bullshit the Napster founder is feeding Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). The real Sean Parker did not like his characterization or this specific line of dialogue. Being a countercultural revolutionary is cool," Parker told the Financial Times. "So to the extent that you’ve made a billion dollars, you’ve probably become uncool. Whether you're buying what the real life Parker is selling or not, at this point it almost feels like the smaller inaccuracies don't matter. The more Facebook's scandals pile up, the more it feels like Sorkin got to some internal truth about the company and the way it's run. So much so that the writer has publicly floated the idea of a sequel.

Conversation Starter

What fun plans do you have for the weekend?

Writing Prompt

When Has a Sports Team Most Disappointed You?