Disney's Frozen - A Couple Fun Facts.

Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Used under the "Fair Use Act".

I think it's safe to say that Disney's 53rd animated film, Frozen was a success.  I mean it's hard to argue that point when the film broke the record for highest-grossing animated film.  The film, which is loosely (a huge understatement) based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Snow Queen, features a predictably heartwarming fairy tale with a somewhat unpredictable plot.

A Boat and a DInk: Secrets from Doug the Nicktoon

Ah Doug, the first cartoon to air on Nickelodeon.  Not only was it the first in a long line of awesome Nicktoon series it was arguably one of the best.  As a kid who loved to daydream, wear sweater vests and save the world in his underwear, I really identified with the titular character.

Aragorn and Arwen Sitting in a Tree...

So Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings is really into older women.  And when I say older women I'm not talking about a five, ten or even twenty year age difference.  No, Aragorn goes after women who are more than 2,500 years older than him.

Seriously.

If a Tree Falls in a Forest...How Does Sound Work?

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?   Such a deep and troubling philosophical question regarding the nature of reality and perceived reality!  Too bad this question has become something of a cliche as the thought experiment it is meant to provoke is actually quite intriguing.

Today I'm not looking at the philosophical side of the question.  Instead I am looking to answer the question scientifically.  And the answer is no.   Well mostly no.  Okay so really the answer is two thirds "yes" and one third "no".  To understand the answer to this question we must first understand what makes a sound.

Sound is a wave.  Waves can be best described as disturbances or a transfers of energy.  An example of disturbances resulting in sound waves are the vibrating vocal chords in a human's throat agitating air between a speaker and a listener. In order for a sound wave to exist, there must be a medium for it to travel though.  In the given example, air acts as the medium through which sound travels.  Remove the medium, and the sound waves have no way to travel.  This is why there is no sound in the vacuum space.  It is also why the space battles in Star Wars are a lot less impressive when they to more accurately portray the laws of physics.

Watch a higher quality version here.

Going back to the question regarding trees in the forest, we can see we have the first two parts of a sound.  The force of the tree hitting the ground would most certainly cause disturbances resulting in sound waves, and as we can't have a forest without an atmosphere there is most assuredly a medium for the sound to travel through.  So what are we missing in this scenario?

Here's a picture detailing how the little wizards in your head make sounds.

This is where science starts to sound a lot like existentialism.  See in order for a wave to be considered a sound wave it has to be heard.  To put it simply, sound is the brain's invention for perceiving and differentiating different frequencies and pitches of sound waves or vibrations in the air.  When a tree falls it causes vibrations in the air, assuming there was a human within a range close enough, the vibrations would travel through the air hitting the eardrum of the person, which would then cause an internal bone to vibrate in a certain way.  The person's brain would then interpret the vibrations as an almighty CRASHing sound.  Without the human (or other animal) brain to interpret the vibrations caused by the falling tree are just vibrations.

Boom.  That was the sound of my mind being blown.

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How a Scrap of Newspaper Spawned the Modern Comic Book Movie

Gotham High's Cutest Couple 1989

Does the name Michael Uslan ring any bells for you?  If you are not a major film buff this name probably means nothing to you.  And yet this man is the reason comic book fans can finally see their childhood heroes on the big screen in serious, high quality films.  You see Uslan was the man who worked tirelessly for nearly a decade to bring the masses a serious depiction of Batman on the big screen.  The success of Batman paved the way for the serious, darker takes on comic book characters in movies, despite Joel Schumacher's best bat-nippled efforts.  More importantly, the film set the standard for telling engaging, character driven blockbusters.

Hey Arnold! Origins

Hey Arnold was literally one of the greatest cartoon series that aired during the 90s.  With a cast of actual children providing the voices of the main characters (a first for a Nickelodeon series) and some surprisingly poignant stories filled to the brim with pathos, the show managed to convey a feeling of sincerity and genuineness not found in many other animated TV shows.

But did you know that Arnold himself debuted long before his show would in 1996?  Arnold made his first appearance in an animated claymation short called "Arnold Escapes from Church" which was made way back in 1986 and can be viewed below.

Shortly after his first appearance, Craig Bartlett (Arnold's creator) began making shorts for Sesame Street before finally developing an animated show which was picked up by Nickelodeon.   Pretty crazy to think that the incredibly fleshed-out world of Hey Arnold came from such humble beginnings!

Since I'm feeling particularly generous today, I leave you with one more fun fact for the day.

The man who provided the voice for this guy:

Also provides the voice for this guy:

Source: IMDB.com

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Do you like video games from the 90s?  Check out my YouTube Channel  where I post videos exploring the totally rad games of the past! 

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William Wallace's Wardrobe Malfunction

"William Wallace kell'd fefty men. Fefty. Af'it was one!"

Braveheart is one of the most loved movies from the 90s, and for good reason.  Who doesn't love a good tale about standing up for FREEDOM and liberty?  Commies.  Commies don't like tales about freedom and liberty.  But I digress.

The picture above shows William Wallace flanked by British guards looking completely B.A.  What is it about him that looks so B.A, you may ask?  Well he's got a mane of wild long hair, a look of pure ice on his face despite being surrounded by enemies, and of course, he's wearing a kilt.

The Danish Tartan...because I'm 1/4 Danish.

The are very few things more epic than watching a 13th century Scotsman run into battle wearing a kilt.  The only problem is that no 13th century Scotsman ever ran into battle wearing a kilt.  That's because kilts weren't introduced in Scotland until the 17th century, about 300 years after William Wallace's death in 1305.

As for tartans, the patterns used in making kilts, they are much more ancient than kilts, with evidence present
of them existing in Scotland as far back as 320 AD.  Many people have been taught that specific tartans are assigned to specific clans in Scotland and have been for centuries.  In fact the assigning of tartans to clans did not start until the 19th century when a crafty weaver by the name of William Wilson decided that, instead of using numbers to identify his patterns, he would name them after clans, family names and towns in Scotland.  The trend caught on, in large part because of the intense nostalgia that reined in Scotland and Britain during the time, and now there are many families who use tartans as identifiers.  There is a national register for tartans where anybody from anywhere may register a new tartan, but the registry is not regulated in any way.



Source: The Early History of the Kilt

If you liked this article be sure to like and/or share it on Facebook, Google +, and Twitter.  Please feel free to follow this blog so you will never miss a Fun Fact of the Day!

Do you like video games from the 90s?  Check out my YouTube Channel  where I post videos exploring the totally rad games of the past! 

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What do Harry Potter and Minerva McGonagall Have in Common?

Source: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00041178.html

What do Harry Potter and Minerva McGonagall have in common?  I mean beside the fact that they both come from households who stifled any signs of magic, and the fact that they are both Gryffindors and the fact they were both star Quidditch players during their school years too.  Wow, come to think of it, they actually have a lot in common.  There is one commonality in particular which I wanted to highlight for today's fun fact, and that is that they both had very similar experiences under the Sorting Hat. They both caused a hatstall.

The Origins of the Word "Soccer"

The Royal Engineers, one of the first Associated Football clubs. 

We've all heard it before, "Stupid Americans, why in the world do you refer to football as soccer.  The word doesn't even makes sense. Get with the program, Yanks!"  As it turns out, it was not the silly Americans who came up with the word soccer.  In fact the word originated in Britain. 

England had a number of "football" games which were rather popular back in the 19th century with Rugby Football ruling supreme.  In order to distinguish Soccer from the other "football" games a band of teams came together in October of 1863 and named their beloved game "Associated Football".  It was at this same meeting that the basic rules that govern the Beautiful Game were laid down.

Feeling that "Rugby Football" and "Associated Football" were too cumbersome in everyday speech, school boys began to abbreviate the names while adding the infamous Oxford "er", creating names such as "Rugger" or "Assoccer".  Eventually the name was shortened to just "Soccer" or sometimes "Soccer Football"

Charles Wreford Brown

Around the time Associated Football was formally organized, Charles Wreford Brown, a student at Oxford
allegedly began using the term "soccer" with his school friends. Legend has it that the popularity of the word sprang from this group of students, though the veracity of this story is questionable.

 As the years progressed Soccer Football was embraced by the masses, while Rugby Football's popularity declined.  And so around 1881 Soccer began to be referred to simply as "Football" while Rugby Football came to be known as "Rugby".

By the time Football made it's way to the U.S. American Football was already being embraced by the masses.  Thus, to avoid confusion Associated Football continued to be called "Soccer" while American Football came to be referred to simply as "Football".

Speaking of American Football...Why is it even called "Football"?  That is a subject for another "Fun Fact of the Day".

Source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/06/the-origin-of-the-word-soccer/

Do you like video games from the 90s?  Check out my YouTube Channel  where I post videos exploring the totally rad games of the past! 

For all things 90s related and beyond be sure check out my other blog at www.theninetieskid.com. 

If you like what you read/saw please take a moment to like me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter!