Many people know that paper money has markings that illuminate under a black light. These markings make it more difficult to counterfeit and thus easier to spot counterfeit money. Also, regular paper glows wildly under a black light, while currency paper does not, another dead giveaway. The same also applies to credit cards.
For this demonstration, I rounded up one card from each of the major issuers and tore my basement apart looking for my standard issue college black light. I eventually found it, but only after creating a small pile of retro items for this year’s halloween costume.
The black light’s strong purple glow catalyzed the American Express card to reveal “AMEX” spelled across the card, with a picture of a globe between “AM” and “EX.”
Disney movies like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Aladdin are popular among kids and adults around the world. Their characters continue to come to life as Halloween costumes and at birthday parties and their hit songs are easily recognized (perhaps unwilling to admit it, most of us could probably sing at least one completely from memory).
But perhaps something that most Disney movie fans don’t know is that several of the movies have hidden secrets scattered throughout. If you do not own a copy of these movies, clips of the secrets can be found on You Tube. Several of the hidden secrets are not G rated and are not appropriate for Disney films and, therefore, not listed here.
The Little Mermaid
When King Triton enters the stadium to watch Aerial sing, the camera views him from behind. If you look in the bottom left corner of the screen, in the audience, you will find Goofy, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.
The Lion King
Some people claim that when Simba lays down on the rock ledge at the end of the movie and dust flies out from underneath him the particles form the word “SEX” in the sky. Others claim this is a shout out to the special effects team that worked on the movie and it actually spells SFX.
Beauty and the Beast
As Gaston is being thrown from the ledge at the end of the movie skulls replace his pupils.
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Belle, Pumbaa and Alladin’s carpet make cameo appearances.
Snow White
In the movie, Snow White has brown eyes but in most of the merchandise she has blue eyes.
Monster’s Inc.
Jessie from Toy Story 2 appears at the end of the movie when Sulley returns Boo to her room – she picks her up and gives her to Sulley. The “Pizza Planet” truck from Toy Story makes subtle appearances in many Pixar films such as: Cars, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Monster’s Inc and WALL-E.
Lilo and Stitch
When Lilo wakes up Nani in her bedroom there is a Mulan movie poster on the wall.
Leave a comment with additional Disney secrets you know.
A well designed logo is simple, easy to identify and conveys important information about the brand it represents.
Some logos do that by looking the part: cool, stylish, funky, formal, casual…etc. Logos may also represent the brand with meaningful imagery.
Although you may have seen these logos hundreds of times, you may have have missed some of the meaning.
Apple
With the cachet of this brand, it’s hard to believe it was nearly bankrupt ten years ago. Now, it’s one of the most valuable consumer electronics brands.
There are many stories floating around about how the Apple logo got its bite mark (or “byte” mark). The ad agency that created it, claims it is a biblical reference that symbolizes a bite from the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. In the story, a serpent promises Eve that eating the fruit would make one wise.
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) originally made airplane engines and there is a popular theory that the logo shape represents a spinning airplane propeller. Although that makes a lot of sense, the design is actually based on the colors of the checkered Bavarian flag, the German State where the automaker started.
Fedex
See the arrow between the “E” and the “x”?
Toblerone
Look at the white space in the mountain. It’s a bear, a symbol of the town where Toblerone started.
Tostitos
Two of the letters are sharing a Tostito and a bowl of salsa, which happens to be the dot on the “i.” That’s a legal double dip.
Baskin Robbins
They have 31 flavors and the number is right in the logo.
Milwaukee Brewers
In the old Milwaukee Brewers logo, the letters “m” and “b” form a baseball glove.
Cisco
You may not have seen cisco’s products, but chances are good that some of them are responsible for letting you view this web page — they make telecommunications equipment. The company was named after the city of San Francisco. The waveform bars in the logo represent the Golden Gate Bridge, a well known San Francisco landmark.
Sun Microsystems
The letters “U” and “N” are arranged to create the letter “S”, spelling “sun.”