10 Facts That'll Make You Learn Something New This Week

The word for "the day after tomorrow" is "overmorrow."

1. Buzz Lightyear's name was originally going to be Lunar Larry.

Pixar

Sure, you get the alliteration, but it doesn't quite have the same heroic ring to it as Buzz Lightyear does. He was renamed during the design process, and the name "Buzz" was a nod to legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

2. The first streaming music service was patented in 1896. It was called the Telharmonium, and it played music for subscribers over the telephone.

Public Domain / Via upload.wikimedia.org

The music was generated live, 24 hours a day, in a room full of machinery that took up the entire floor of a building in Manhattan. Musicians would work in shifts to create the music, and subscribers could call in using their telephone to listen. The earliest customers were businesses like restaurants that wanted ambient music. Ultimately, the project required too much electricity and there wasn't enough amplification technology to make it viable.

3. We're all pronouncing "Mount Everest" wrong.

John Harper / Getty Images

Most people will pronounce the English name of the tallest mountain in the world "ever-rest," rhyming the first half with "never." However, the surveyor whom the mountain was named after, Sir George Everest, pronounced his own name "eve-erest," rhyming the first syllable with "Steve." You can even hear the pronunciation of George's name in the IMAX movie, Everest.

4. Outer space has a smell to it, and it's apparently kinda like barbecue.

NASA

Space doesn't contain much (it is a vacuum after all), but it does appear to have compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are the byproduct of dying, burnt-out stars. When astronauts return to the International Space Station after a space walk, their suits have picked up these hydrocarbons and reportedly smell a bit like burnt steak.

5. There's a brain disorder that can cause you to become a "foodie" after suffering damage to your frontal lobe.

Matthew Wakem / Getty Images

It's called "gourmand syndrome," and it's defined by the American Academy of Neurology as an eating disorder that causes the patient to become obsessed with food, particularly fine dining.

6. Katy Perry wrote "I Kissed a Girl" about Scarlett Johansson.

Christopher Polk / Getty Images, Amy Sussman / Getty Images

Katy didn't actually make out with Scarlett, she just saw her on the cover of a magazine and said to her boyfriend at the time that she would make out with Scarlett if she had the opportunity.

7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was banned in China because the government does not allow movies with ghosts in them.

Disney

The Chinese government has censored movies that depict ghosts, especially if they determine that the movie attempts to say that ghosts are real.

8. Similarly, Back to the Future was banned because stories about time travel aren't allowed.

Universal

The reasoning behind these rules isn't always concrete, and there are many factors that determine if a movie is approved or not. However, one theory is that most time travel stories indicate a dissatisfaction with the way things currently are.

9. Nobody knows how many toes Yoda is supposed to have.

Disney / Lucasfilm

Yoda has had three, four, or five toes on each foot, depending on which movie/medium he appears in. His original puppet had four toes, while he only has three toes in The Phantom Menace. One reference book indicates that he has five toes. Even various Yoda toys have had different toe counts. The generally agreed-upon consensus is that Yoda has four toes, referencing the original puppet in The Empire Strikes Back.

10. The word for "the day after tomorrow" is "overmorrow."

dictionary.com

It's in the dictionary, and it's a lot quicker to say.

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And here are some previous weekly facts posts for you to learn even MORE stuff:

Week of Feb. 20, 2020

Week of Feb. 6, 2020

Week of Jan. 30, 2020