The Random Facts Thread

[Shiyonasan]

The classic video game of classic video games, Super Mario Bros, turns 30 years old today! Many fond memories playing that game through All-Stars.

[TetsuwanToby]

In the movie big hero 6 towards the end you can see tadashi (hiros brother) in Hiros eyes

[Shiyonasan]

Based on the success of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka was invited by Stanley Kubrick to work on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tezuka declined the offer.

Kubrick saw Astro Boy, liked the visuals and sent Tezuka a letter offering him a job as a concept artist for the movie. However, Tezuka was too busy keeping Mushi Productions afloat to leave to England for a year, so he turned Kubrick down.

Source: https://twitter.com/scififacts/status/644722523406499841?lang=en

[Earthshine]

Based on the success of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka was invited by Stanley Kubrick to work on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tezuka declined the offer.

Kubrick saw Astro Boy, liked the visuals and sent Tezuka a letter offering him a job as a concept artist for the movie. However, Tezuka was too busy keeping Mushi Productions afloat to leave to England for a year, so he turned Kubrick down.

Source: https://twitter.com/scififacts/status/644722523406499841?lang=en

He did however love the movie and often listened to the soundtrack while he worked.

[Shiyonasan]

According to data collected by Amitabh Chandra of Harvard University, the most common birthday in the United States, among babies born from 1973 to 1999, is September 16. The least common is February 29 (understandably), followed by December 25.

Sources: Daily Mail, New York Times

[manga_or_manha]

The universally popular Hershey bar was used overseas during World War II as currency.
-wackyuses
Also that coke use to be green
-my head

[Earthshine]

Cartoon Network's miniseries Over the Garden Wall took 10 years to complete, first being pitched to Cartoon Network in 2004 and then finally being aired in 2014.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Although we've been taught that we have five senses, that isn't quite true, we actually have six. Our sixth sense is one that we never realize we have, until we are sick with a bad cold, or suffer from vertigo. That sense is our sense of balance.

There are two sets of semicircular canals that are part of the cochlea of the inner ear. http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Inner-Ear/ These actually act as a set of gyroscopes and send signals to our brain that let us know if we are standing upright, and if we are moving. We are never consciously aware of this until something goes wrong and we will then feel dizzy. Our sense of balance is often considered as part of our sense of hearing because both senses share the same organ (the ear) and nerves (auditory nerve), but they are used for different purposes in the brain.

Try sitting on an office chair with your head bent down and have someone spin the chair. Then have them stop the chair quickly and bring your head upright. You will quickly be aware of the function of your sense of balance as you've fooled it and you will experience vertigo.

[Shiyonasan]

Back in 2012, Astro Boy was Toyota's official mascot in China.

[url]http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/04/26/toyota-sees-silver-lining-in-chinese-clouds/[/url]

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[Rejoyce]

The Mexican axolotl is an amphibian that retains features of its larval stage through adulthood. This is called neoteny. Mudkip from Pokemon is, at least in part, based on the axolotl.