Today's Dippit!

Daily Quote

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

Albert Einstein

Joke of the Day

My dog used to chase people on a bike a lot. It got so bad, finally I had to take his bike away.

Fun Fact

The only letters that don’t appear on the periodic table are J & Q.

History Fact

Tens of thousands of baby girls were abandoned each year in China because of the country's one-child policy.

Movie/TV Trivia

Toy Story 2 Was Almost Deleted

A command entered in the "master machine" where the animation for Toy Story 2 was stored deleted 90 percent of the work the Pixar team had done on it. As Mental Floss describes, "A plan was quickly hatched to restore the data from a regular backup, which meant that only half a day of work would have been lost. But the backup system had failed. Pixar, incredibly, did not have a copy of the Toy Story 2 files on its servers." Fortunately, the film's technical director had a copy she had been working on from home, and much of it was restored.

Movie/TV Quote

"Why so serious?"

The Dark Knight, 2008

Conversation Starter

If you could only store one type of food in your pocket, what would you carry?

Writing Prompt

Where in my life can I trade a short-term, incremental gain for a potential longer-term game-changing upside?

I learned this from George Lucas

Back in the early 1970s, Lucas was a young director with just two films on his résumé and a curious idea for an epic space opera. When 20th Century Fox decided to pick up Star Wars, Lucas came back with a deal: He was willing to accept a $350,000 pay cut as director in order to keep the film’s merchandise rights, along with the rights to any sequels.

Not anticipating how popular the film would be, Fox accepted. Lucas is now worth more than $5 billion, having made one of the most profitable bets in history. In the 38 years since Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars has grossed $28 billion in revenue. And less than a sixth of this has come from ticket sales.

Weird Laws

Flush Before 10:00 Pm

The curfew on flushing toilets after 10:00 PM is quite a strict regulation of Switzerland. Everybody, better finish their business before the clock strikes ten.