upworthy

Alison Rosen

The doorway to Disney's exclusive private restaurant, Club 33, is painted in "Go Away Green" so as to be inconspicuous.

The masterminds at Disney are known for creating eye-catching spectacles you can't turn away from, but did you know they're also adept at concealing things they don't want you to see? According to a number of online reports, Disney uses a few clever shades of paint to disguise things like trash cans, fences and administrative buildings that don't otherwise fit into the mise en scene. The hues are informally called "Go Away Green" (or "No See Um Green"), "Bye Bye Blue" (or "Blending Blue") and "No See Um Grey."

Disney won’t give away their formula, but crafty parkgoers claim to have matched the shades to some easy-to-procure paint store varieties, should you also want to use this visual trickery.

"The goal of this [Go Away Green] shade is to cause the object to fade into your color spectrum so that your eye will miss it completely," Gavin Doyle, Disney expert who writes the website Disney Dose (and hosts podcast of the same name) told Business Insider.


"The best example can be found on the outdoor lift hill of Big Thunder Mountain, where you can easily see backstage by turning your head to the right," says Doyle. "Most guests simply don’t see this backstage area as everything is covered in Disney’s special green-colored paint.”

If you are thinking, “Wait, what? I’ve never seen that!” you are not alone! Dang sneaky paint!

Another example, says Doyle, is the exterior door to the secret private restaurant, Club 33, cloaked in Go Away Green.

Not to mention trash bins, fences, light posts, and entrances to the “utilidors” (Disney’s vast network of underground tunnels, which are technically ground level and used for everything behind-the-scenes) and basically anything that might detract from the magic.

Haunted Mansion, Disneyland, color theory

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion stands out while fences, trash bins, umbrellas and more are disguised.

Theme Park Tourist/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

In addition to Go Away Green, Disney uses a shade of blue to camouflage things above the tree line so the object they’re trying to conceal will blend into the skyline. They also use a drab grey color for concealing things in areas of the park where there is more concrete and less foliage (like Tomorrowland).

This kind of trompe l'oeil can be used outside the park boundaries. While Disney implements a level of design between obsessive detail and mind control, using color to make certain things come to the foreground and others recede isn’t pure witchcraft.

It’s what people do with eyeshadow and highlights, with stripes and dark, slimming colors. Why not conceal your unsightly fence or utility box? According to an article on Simplemost, the recommendation is to “look at the prevalent hues close by to find the best camouflaging color for your home.”

Main Street, Go Away Green, Disney

Main Street at Walt Disney World conceals benches, fences and lamp posts with a drab green color.

Jedi94/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

​“So if I were to paint the family in this camouflage, perhaps we could sneak into Disney World without paying, and they’d never see us,” quipped u/Simba7 on a Today I Learned Reddit thread about Disney’s use of color.

“Finally, the perfect color to dress when I’m forced to go to parties,” joked u/SuperStrawbear.

“This is the color of the front door of my house and people always leave fliers around the back lol,” shared u/iwishiwereagiraffe.

It's definitely something to keep in mind when incorporating these colors at home!


The TUfast Eco Team celebrating its victory.

Imagine driving halfway across America in your electric vehicle on one charge. ONE CHARGE. Sixteen hundred miles. It’s impossible to believe—most EVs get maybe 250 miles before needing a charge—but German students created a car that does just that.

Called the "muc022 prototype," the single-seater vehicle, which looks like a Smart car but even cuter and more aerodynamic, handily surpassed the previous record of 999.5 miles in four days. The team of students from the Technical University of Munich kept driving the 374-pound car for two more days until it finally coasted to a stop after going 1,599.27 miles. All told, the car made it 99 hours on the road.

Of course, it wasn’t truly a road. (Or autobahn, if you’re being authentisch.) The students tested the car, a modified version of a vehicle used in previous competitions, in an empty hangar at Munich airport. Students from the team even slept in the hangar.


The group was awarded a Guinness World Record for “Greatest distance by electric vehicle, single charge (non-solar).”

The muc022 prototype is one of the most energy-efficient vehicles ever, with an energy consumption ratio of 103 miles per kilowatt-hour. For perspective, consider that Tesla Model Y, which calls itself “The most efficient Electric SUV ever built,” only offers 4 miles/kWh. The car built by German students is over twenty-five times more efficient! Take that, Elon!

It’s pretty amazing what students are coming up with these days on the automotive/energy front.

A team of students from Switzerland called the Academic Motorsports of Zurich (AMZ) created the fastest-accelerating electric vehicle in the world. It goes zero to 62 mph in just nine-tenths of a second. This is big because the perception that electric cars are slow or lack oomph is one of the barriers to getting more on the road, despite their many health and environmental benefits.

AMZ - World Record! 0-100 km/h in 0.956 seconds

A student was also responsible for a massive breakthrough in the battery space. In 2016, University of California Irvine doctoral student Mya Le Thai accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years. Whereas the average rechargeable laptop battery lasts 300 to 500 cycles, this nano battery easily made it to 200,000 charges in three months, meaning your laptop battery could effectively last 400 years.

So when will the average person get their hands on a car that goes 1600 miles or a battery that lasts four hundred years? The answer is hard to pin down. Commenters on the futurology subreddit discussed the timeline and related issues of bringing these innovations out of the classroom and into the marketplace.

Regarding the immortal battery, user EXSPFXDOG said: “I look at this as solving a big problem in multiple ways! It would eliminate you having to drop 20 grand plus to replace battery car batteries!

tufast eco, ev world record, best ev charge

TUfast Eco

via Technical University of Munich

It may help the power storage issues with solar and wind. And it may keep millions of lithium batteries out of landfills. It seems like scalability may not be a big issue because it could mesh with how we make the millions of batteries currently being made. It also helps save some rainforest destruction for Lithium mining!”

Not everyone was so optimistic, though. “People who make batteries also sell batteries, and they don't want you to have one that lasts forever. Nationalize all battery manufacturing asap,” suggested outtyn1nja

It’s not the worst suggestion. What would need to happen to nationalize battery manufacturing?

Hopefully, some forward-thinking students are working on figuring this out.

Pop Culture

These 10 super-popular and swanky foods from 1924 are still our biggest favorites in 2024

We love baked ham. Our great-great grandparents loved it, too, but theirs had an extra kick.

Jell-O and pineapple upside-down cake.

If someone mentioned Jell-O, deviled eggs, baked ham and Chicken à la King to you and then asked you what era these foods were most popular in, you’d probably guess the '70s.



Turns out you’d be wrong by about half a century. The above foods were among the most popular in the 1920s. That’s right, a whole hundred years ago! When flappers were flapping and people were drinking bathtub gin and ladies were bobbing their hair and drawing lines up the backs of their legs.




Advances in refrigeration, farming, marketing and technology meant that a full century ago, people were eating in a fashion that really isn’t all that different from what we consume today.

But while the foods weren’t that different, the prep was. It’s estimated that in 1920, people spent 44 hours per week on meal preparation and cleanup. Six and a half hours a day!

salad, 1923 salad, mrs. beeton

Ten beautiful salads from 1923.

via Free Public Domain Illustrations by Rawpixel/Wikimedia Commons

Compare that to 2014 when Americans spent an average of just 37 minutes a day (roughly four and a half hours a week) on meal prep. In 2024, one imagines that number has gone down even more given the ubiquity of meal delivery apps.

Read on for some top foods of 1924 compared to 2024.

Here are 10 of the top foods in 1924 that people still love today.

Spinach dip: Popular in speakeasies, this dip made with sour cream, mayonnaise and thawed spinach was affordable, easy to make, and quietly elegant.

Do we eat it today? We do! Fancy people add artichoke.

Inexplicable '70s factor: 5 out of 5 bell bottoms

snacks, pretzels, 20s

Pretzels!

via Couleur/Pixabay

Pretzels: Native to Europe, pretzels were a popular appetizer and bar snack in the 1920s.

Do We Eat Them Today? Yes!

Inexplicable '70s factor: 1 out of 5 feathery Farrah Fawcett hairdos

deviled eggs, mustard, mayonnaise

Deviled eggs

Busra Yaman/Pexels

Deviled eggs: Now a relic of potlucks and the occasional too-hip boutique bar, these eggy treats were hugely popular in 1924 because they were easy to make, customizable, and traveled well.

Do we eat them today? Yes, but they’re certainly less popular than they once were.

Inexplicable 70s factor: 5 out of 5 lava lamps

Clam Chowder: This creamy uber soup has been a staple of American cuisine for over a century.

Do we eat it today? You bet your clamshells we do.

Inexplicable '70s factor: 2 out of 5 sideburns

Baked Ham: in 1924, alcohol would be banned for 9 more years but recipes that called for alcohol were popular, perhaps because of the scarcity. Prohibition-baked ham, which was popular at home and at speakeasies, incorporated whiskey or bourbon.

Do we eat it today? Yes, but it isn’t sought after in the same way it was.

Inexplicable 70s factor: 2 out of 3 Charlie’s Angels


Chicken a la King: Another dish served both at home and at restaurants, Chicken à la King involves a cream sauce over chicken and vegetables. It’s served on top of or alongside rice or pasta. Sometimes sherry or mushrooms are incorporated and sometimes tuna or turkey is used in place of chicken.

Do we eat it today? Occasionally, but it’s hardly on every menu like it once was.

Inexplicable '70s factor: 5 out of 5 disco balls

pineapple upside down cake, cherries, dessert

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Derrick Luciano/ Pixabay

Pineapple upside-down cake: Combining pineapples, cake ingredients, maraschino cherries and gravity, this delectable confection has remained one of America’s most popular desserts.

Do we eat it today? Yes, but it feels kitschy and retro.

Inexplicable '70s factor: 5 out of 5 Watergate scandals

Jell-O: In 1924 you couldn’t swing a watch chain without hitting Jell-O. It was everywhere: on dessert tables, in recipe books put out by Jell-O themselves, and even served with seafood.

Do we eat it today? Yes! And if you’ve ever found yourself at a frat party, you know a whole cottage industry has sprung up around clever ways to combine it with alcohol.

Inexplicable '70s factor: 8 out of 10 shag carpets


Devil’s food cake: In 1924 they deviled eggs, they deviled ham and they also deviled cake. Supposedly more sinfully indulgent (hence the “devil”) than regular chocolate cake because it’s made with chocolate squares instead of cocoa powder, this was a popular dessert.

Do we eat it today? Yes!

Inexplicable 70s factor: 2 out of 5 Macrame plant holders

For comparison, here are the most popular American food dishes in 2024 as determined by YouGov.

10. Corn on the cob

9. Southern Style Fried Chicken

8. Fried Chicken

7. Steak and Baked Potato

6, Cheeseburger

5 Hashbrowns

4. Grilled Cheese

3. Mashed Potato

2. French Fries

1. Hamburger

Getting ready now takes far less time than it once did.

If you ever find yourself lamenting how long it takes to make yourself look presentable these days, be glad you weren’t alive in 1857. A woman who goes by @sewn.by.ellen describes herself on Instagram as a “fashion historian and historian costumer” recently posted a video captioned “Getting dressed in 1857,” and suffice it to say, the process was much lengthier and more complicated than whatever you have going on these days.

The Swedish content Swedish content creator begins the video wearing “chemise and drawers,” which she describes as the layers that would be closest to her body and washed most frequently.

Next is the corset, which @sewn.by.ellen says “creates the correct shape for the time and also supports the bust and makes my posture so much better.”


If you’re already feeling sweaty, hang in there, we’re just getting started!

​Next comes the “steel crinoline” which is perhaps the most unusual-looking piece of this outfit, given that it looks like a cage more than a garment.

But evidently, the steel crinoline was an improvement for ladies of the day who were used to creating the exaggerated shape afforded by the crinoline with a multitude of petticoats.

“The skirts in the 1850s were large and supported by several petticoats, sometimes up to 7 at once, so when the cage crinoline was introduced in 1856, it was a big relief for women. It’s made out of a connecting series of steel hoops and as you can see, it’s very light and foldable,” she explains.

Then she puts on a petticoat, just one, which fits over the cage crinoline, and then sleeves (the sleeves of the dress are their own separate garments because why not) and then the skirt of the dress and then the bodice followed by a bonnet.

By the end, there is very little flesh showing—pretty much just her face—and she cuts a gigantic, one assumes very fashionable for the time, figure.

The video went viral, having been viewed 5.3 million times. Commenters had a lot of questions, many of them having to do with how to handle the call of nature. “How in the world did they go to the bathroom?” asked suematkins2

“All I can think is by the time I got that all in [sic], I’d need to pee and I feel that would be quite a challenge, but it’s a beautiful outfit. I love the old fashion style!” said shannon_mcbroom.

Other commenters couldn’t help but wonder about how hot the getup might be.

“I’m grateful to live in more casual times. It looks kind of hot and restricting,” wrote cynthiaparbury. “I can’t wrap my head about [sic] women in that day having hot flashes w/ all those layers!” said duggbar

“What about the summer - so many layers of clothes” wrote danielline.philipine.

And then there were those who commented on how long the whole getting dressed process must have taken. “I would be late for work every day,” theghostofmisswillmott said. (Some commenters replied that women likely weren’t heading off to work in these days.)

“Makes you appreciate how easy we have it today in terms of easy-to-wear clothes. I don’t like taking longer than two minutes to get dressed,” said myladyscribbler.

“By the time she finishes she has to put on her nightgown,” said shivashab. “I am from 1850, and I am still getting dressed for work,” quipped sinneahartmusic.

The historically accurate dress was made by hand by the creator who has degrees in fashion studies and museum studies and who says she sews both as a hobby and for work. The video and its popularity serve as a fascinating reminder that having to pull it together to look presentable for your Zoom call when all you want to do is sit around in your pajamas, you know, hypothetically, is really not all that bad.