10 things I didn’t know last week #197

1. Dark pools

2.Mercedes-Benz 300 SL doors were not designed by choice:

Mercedes couldn’t cut into the frame to fit conventional doors without sacrificing stability, so it hinged the doors to swing up instead of out.

3. Most of the car’s dashboard displays an icon informing drivers which side is the gas tank. Thanks Chloé

4. Harry Potter’s Ron Weasley first ambition was to become an ice-cream man. So did he.

5. The spiral of silence: the tendency of people not to speak up about policy issues in public when they believe their own point of view is not widely shared.

6. The last three things shot by Fellini were ads. 

7. Rolls-Royce offers personalized marquetry, from a tree on your estate if you’re up to.

8. World’s Biggest Liar is an annual competition for telling lies. Competitors from around the world have five minutes to tell the biggest and most convincing lie they can.

9. Kaiju are Japanese monster movies. Thanks Arthur

10. Early brand content: mystery hikes. 

In 1932 five mystery hikes around Sydney were organised by the railways, with the department store F.J. Palmer and Sons as the commercial sponsor. Hikers purchased a two-shilling train ticket and joined a train from Central Station to a mystery destination.