Today's Dippit!

Quote

"Reach for it. Push yourself as far as you can." 

Christa McAuliffe

Joke

Why do blind people hate skydiving? It scares the hell out of their dogs.

Fun Fact

Humans are just one of the estimated 8.7 million species on Earth.

Human beings may dominate the planet with our sprawling cities and far-reaching technology, but we are, in fact, just one species among some 8.7 million that live together on planet Earth. One 2011 study published in the journal PLoS Biology estimated that "the various forms of life on the planet included 7.8 million species of animals, 298,000 species of plants, 611,000 species of mushrooms, mold and other fungi, 36,400 species of protozoa, and 27,500 species of algae or chromists." And it's worth noting that the researchers did not venture to put an estimate on the number of bacteria.

Reading Fact

Reading can improve analytical thinking skills by challenging readers

History Fact

The 1929 Wall Street Crash Did Not Cause a Rash of Suicides

On Black Tuesday, October 24th, 1929, the most shocking stock market crash occurred in U.S. history. It is widely believed that this financial crisis caused countless deaths by suicide, but this was not the case. There were two.

Movie/TV Trivia

Michael Smiley aka Tyres from Spaced can be seen as one of the zombies outside The Winchester in Shaun of the Dead in full Tyres get-up.

Movie/TV Quote

"You gonna eat your tots?"

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

No one expected the world to embrace the odd patch of Idaho that birthed Napoleon Dynamite and his friend Pedro, but boy, did it ever. Made on a budget of around $400,000, the film wound up grossing more than $46 million, which is what they call a "hit" in the movie business. Like so many other movies featured on this list, Napoleon Dynamite wasn't just popular, but a lexical phenomenon that helped return to common use non-profanities like "Heck yes!" and "Gosh!", and introduced solecisms like pronouncing both L's in "quesadilla." In a script packed with enough one-liners to spawn a T-shirt cottage industry, "you gonna eat your tots?" is the quote that best sums up Napoleon Dynamite's bizarre charm. Napoleon's brazenness and social ineptitude capture the uncomfortable feeling of being a high school outcast desperate for attention, but the scene goes beyond what most people can relate to when he stuffs Pedro's tots in the side pocket of his zip-up cargo pants. It's a moment of Dada logic in a film that had so many people asking, "What the hell is this?" and answering themselves, "I don't know, but it's really funny."

Conversation Starter

What talent do you wish you had?

Writing Prompt

Do You Participate in Class?