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Amazing Facts You Didn’t Know About “The Lion King”

Disney is all about the live action remakes this year. One of the most anticipated classics set to release this month is “The Lion King.” With an all-star squad of voices for the characters, we know that this film is bound to have roaring approval. Yet before we get too excited for the remake, we thought it would be fun to look back and share some amazing facts about the original beloved animation from 1994.

Hakuna Matata Was Not In The Original Script

“The Lion King” objectively has one of the very best Disney soundtracks to date. With so many great songs, it’s nearly impossible to choose just one favorite. And yet, could you even IMAGINE “The Lion King” without Hakuna Matata? The song that taught us about the ultimate problem free philosophy to live by? Turns out, the original script did not include Hakuna Matata, but rather a song about eating bugs. However, the team couldn’t all agree upon the song, so the research team went to Africa for inspiration. They came back with the catchy phrase and a song was born!

The Original “The Lion King” Was Not Supposed To Be A Musical

As stated previously, the music is an iconic part of “The Lion King,” and yet during the movie’s initial creation process, it wasn’t supposed to include songs. Rather, the goal was to create an animated movie that resembled an animal documentary like with National Geographic. George Scribner was intended to be the original director, but he ditched when the movie went in the musical direction. The main characters however were developed under his guidance.

The Movie’s Original Title Was “King of the Jungle”

Don Hahn, the movie’s producer, said the original title was to be “King Of The Jungle,” as a “metaphor for this allegorical story about human behavior.” However, the team decided to scrap this title because the movie itself takes place in the savannah, not the jungle. After trial and error, they decided to stick with the simple, yet representative title that we all know and love; “The Lion King.”

Be sure to roar and sing along with all of your favorite animals in the remake set for release this month!

Curious Facts About Starbucks Coffee Workers

Starbucks Coffee is one of the world’s most iconic brands. Famous for its green mermaid emblem and name personalization on every cup, this chain has expanded to more than 24,000 store locations worldwide. Whether you’re a loyal customer or just go for the occasional splurge, there are some pretty interesting facts you probably didn’t know about the people pouring your brew.

The Workers Are Not Baristas

Man holding out Starbucks cup.

Typically, someone working at a coffee shop is known as a barista. However, at this Seattle-based chain, all the workers are referred to as partners. This is for two reasons. One, it fosters a level of companionship among all the employees. Second, after working there a year each employee gets a share in the stock, so they are literally stock partners.

They Serve Your Pooch, Too

If you bring your furry companion to a Starbucks, many of their employees will offer your dog a “puppacino.” This treat consists of cup filled with whipped cream. Although it’s not the healthiest thing to give your dog, given the high fat and sugar content, it’s a nice way to make him or her feel special!

You Can Request Coffee Foam Art

coffee foam art.

Starbucks is known for having many fancy flavors and drinks that are instagram-worthy (hello, pink drink!) but you very rarely see their drinks with foam art. This is due to technical reasons. The Starbucks pitchers are actually wider than standard pitchers at local coffee shops, making it difficult to pour the foam decoratively. You can however request a worker to add art– just don’t expect them to be too happy about it. Which takes us to our next point…

Yes, They Will Decaffeinate Drinks Of Rude Customers

For anyone who has accidentally purchased or consumed decaf when they desperately needed full-caffeine, this is a true nightmare. But our suspicions prove to be true- some Starbucks workers have admitted to giving decaf to rude customers as means for “revenge.” Some additionally misspell your name on purpose. But can we really blame them? Sometimes it’s the little things that get us through the day when we’ve been treated badly. You have been warned!

Photos: Unsplash

Reasons Writing In Cursive Benefits Your Brain

Remember those agonizing days in elementary school of learning how to (and be forced to) write in cursive? Only for the majority of us to never use it again later in life… Well, turns out writing in flowing, cursive handwriting actually helps our brains in many ways. Time to put down the phone and start practicing your fancy script again!

Cursive Enhances Your Concentration

Group of students writing in cursive, looking focused.

Writing in cursive helps our thoughts to stay connected and on topic. In fact, in the United States a study found students who wrote in cursive on the SAT college entrance exam actually scored higher than those who wrote in normal print. The theory behind this advantage is that students who wrote with the flowing letters didn’t have to use extra effort and time by writing in print, thereby having more time to concentrate on the content of their writing.

Activates More Parts Of Your Brain

Brain with lots of electric bolts coming from it.

When compared to typing or writing in normal print, writing in cursive has been found to activate more parts of the brain. Additionally, when people read in cursive, more neurological pathways of both left and right hemispheres in the brain work together, than reading regular manuscript. This enables you to understand and retain learned content better.

Helps You Become A Better Speller

magnet letters all mixed together.

When writing in cursive, you are naturally learning to form words in which each letter is connected. This in turn creates associations and connections in the brain, helping you to remember the proper spelling of words. This is super helpful, especially when you consider how bad spell check can be sometimes…

Fine Tunes Your Motor Skills

Man buttoning his shirt.

To be legible, cursive requires lots of practice using fine motor skills. These skills work the small muscles in our hands so that we can do daily activities, like buttoning a shirt, grabbing items, and feeding ourselves with much more ease. You might not be worried about losing these functions at this point in your life, but it can’t hurt to keep them skilled for lifelong self sufficiency and a great mind too!

Photos: Freepik

These Seals Were Taught To Sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Typically we don’t think of seals as musically gifted creatures, but scientists at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland have managed to train a choir of three seals, as seen in this latest video.

Granted, the trio of gray seals only have two songs memorized under their belt, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and the theme to “Star Wars.” However, this is a far cry from the occasional bark we expect to hear from this sea creature. Yes, all in the name of science!

Singing With A Purpose

The purpose of the study was to see if animals can be successful at vocal learning. This skill is vital for humans in learning language, but rarely seen in animals. Published in the scientific journal Current Biology, the study aimed to see if seals could copy human formants and melodies, which are needed for humans to process information.

grey seal lying on sand.

As you can imagine, learning human languages is not native to seals. For this reason, the animals were first trained to mimic their own sounds and the sounds of human vowels.

While this might seem like a simple task, the reality of it according to the researchers was quite the opposite. It took “hundreds of trials to teach the seal what we want it to do.”

Quick Learners

After many trials and errors, the sea creatures eventually got used to the training and were able to copy new sounds within only a few attempts.

Upon watching the video, you might not be so impressed by the way the seal Zola barks her way through the two songs. However, the researchers were extremely impressed given these sounds are not typical of their species, proving their vocalization is apt for learning.

The Next Steps For The Seals

While their ability to make human sounds is proven, the next step is to see if these creatures understand language. This would require further investigation with the animals labeling different objects, vocally.

seals lying on a chair hugging each other.

This might seem silly research to the average human, but this investigation is useful because seals and humans share the same neural and anatomical structures. Meaning, the research in vocal learning on seals can help better understand human speech disorders and learning.

Photos: Unsplash and Pixabay.

Confirmed: Instagram ISN’T Listening To Your Conversations

How many times have you scrolled through Instagram, only to see an ad pop up about the most random thing you were just talking about with your friends? I swear it happens all too often. Most recently I was bombarded with inflatable pool flamingos after my friend had been talking to me about buying one. It was CREEPY and I swore Instagram was listening!

Man holding coffee cup while scrolling instagram on phone, looking shocked.

However, according to Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, the application we long thought was eavesdropping into all of our conversations, isn’t! In fact, it has no connection or access to the microphones in our phones!

If Instagram Isn’t Listening, Why Do We Get Such Specific Targeted Content?

His first explanation for the phenomenon? “Dumb luck,” which doesn’t seem quite like a sufficient answer for one of the most used and profitable applications in the world. 

via GIPHY

His other theory might leave you feeling a little more uneasy. Masseri said, “you might be talking about something because it’s top of mind because you’ve been interacting with that type of content more recently. It’s top of mind, maybe it’s subconscious and then it bubbles up later.” Meaning, you are likely interacting with content on social media and websites, without even realizing it!

Not Entirely A Coincidence…

It does make you wonder how often we surf the internet or scroll through instagram and like different ads, websites, and photos without registering what we are doing. That said, Mosseri does admit that the ads we see on Instagram are generated based on the accounts we follow and all the content we commented on or liked. 

Man on computer while a circle of social media apps, including Twitter, instagram, Facebook, etc encircle him.

Another way that Instagram gives us “targeted ads” is by sorting each of its users into one of 52,000 ad-targeting categories. Talk about being specific! Just further proof that there is a deep digital algorithm behind all the content we see.

How To Avoid The “Creepy” Ads In The Future

Girl holding Instagram logo in front of face.

On the one hand, we can rest assured that Instagram is not listening in to our most intimate (and ridiculous) of conversations. To avoid the creepy “I swear I was just talking about this” ads that pop up, it’s a wise decision to start paying more attention to all that we do while using our social media apps. Being more attentive instead of mindlessly scrolling and liking will help limit the shocking content.

Photos: Freepik

How Technology is Zapping Our Memory

While you might think you can easily remember everything thanks to the plethora of calendar and organizational apps available, turns out technology is actually worsening our memory.

Confused Girl.

A Quick Memory Check

Before you start to think this finding too terribly shocking– how many phone numbers of friends and family members can you recall, without looking them up? Or even more challenging- when are the birthdays of all your closest friends?

Brain gears working to produce a memory, result in a question mark.

Unsuccessful? We thought so. You’re not alone- technology has changed the way our memories actually work, and how our brains decide to store information.

How Our Brains Work

To have a better understanding as to how technology is impairing our memories, it’s important to know how our brain stores information in the first place.

Brain that internally looks like a memory board.

Our brains are working constantly, and every event that occurs in our life is compartmentalized into the three main types of memory: sensory, short-term (working), and long-term. Sensory memories are everything that we experience but don’t process; they last less than a second in our “memory storage.”

Short-term involves information that we can temporarily recall, typically from 10 seconds to a minute. Our brains can only retain a limited amount of information in short-term, so the information we give more attention to in this “working stage” can transfer to long-term memory. Otherwise, the information is essentially deleted from our consciousness.

Long-term memory is where- you guessed it- our memories are stored for life. The good news is that there is an unlimited space available in our long-term! Having more long-term memories has been proven to enhance our brain function and intelligence.

Girl at graduation with her graduation cap and tassle.

The Bad News…

The way we interact with technology today makes information much more difficult to be transferred to long-term memory. Every time you spend long nights scrolling through articles, newsfeeds, and images, your brain is being overloaded with information. Just imagine if you had all of your classes being taught at the same time- you would have no idea which information is most important to take notes on, or how to process it. Your brain is feeling the exact same thing, making it difficult to choose and process what’s important.

Girl with hands covering face and extra set on head, looking overwhelmed.

Social Media, Minus The “Social”

Forming memories has historically been considered a social process, with our memories being enhanced and more vivid thanks to the people we create them with. Although Social Media was created to help us stay connected, the numerous platforms have in turn made us less social. Rather than calling up a family member to remember a specific date, we check our phones. Instead of experiencing a new city fully while traveling with friends, we whip out Instagram to take photos and videos, producing a “photo-taking impairment effect.”

Hand with phone using Instagram in big city, which hurts our memory of events.

A Senior Moment, Or A Millennial Moment?

We all have heard of the senior moment, when typically an adult forgets something and attributes it to old age. However, a study by The Trending Machine found Millennials are actually more likely to forget common things like names and where they placed their keys and purse, than people over the age 55. Researchers attribute this lapse in memory to both interconnectivity and the high levels of stress common among the 18-34 year old crowd.

Girl holding her car keys.

While your brain is not going to stop working entirely from using technology, it’s important to think about the long term. Finding ways to be more present in your daily life, and spending time with family and friends will help ensure you make and remember those important memories to last a life time.

Photos: Freepik, Pixabay, and Unsplash