Nerdy Trivia: December 14, 2025

Watching kids at the playground swing from bars and climb everything in sight makes it pretty clear we haven't strayed too far from our tree-dwelling ancestors. The same curiosity that drives a toddler to touch every shiny button also explains why certain furry relatives can figure out how to unlock cage doors and steal snacks. What's the only venomous primate in the world?

Frank Herbert's 1965 novel "Dune" is set on a desert planet that's both the most valuable and most miserable place in the known universe. Giant sandworms tunnel beneath endless dunes, there's zero rainfall, and you'll be dead from dehydration in a few hours if you forget your moisture-recycling bodysuit. What's the name of the desert planet in "Dune"?

Take a swing at some random trivia. When you get the answer, just hit "Random Question" to keep going!

41 years ago TODAY, moviegoers had to pick between sandworms, a road-trip alien, and killer robots when "Dune," "Starman," and "Runaway" were all released in theaters in 1984!

On that same Friday, David Lynch’s "Dune" tried to cram over 2,500 pages of space-opera epic into a trippy studio blockbuster, John Carpenter’s "Starman" went quieter with a sci-fi road romance that earned Jeff Bridges an Oscar nomination, and Michael Crichton’s "Runaway" put Tom Selleck on a near-future police squad chasing murderous robots and a villain turn from Gene Simmons. All three stumbled at the box office, but "Dune" eventually found its golden path as a 2020s trilogy.

It's hard to understate the numerous strokes of genius Steven Spielberg had while making 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Kids riding bikes that fly across the moon, the phrase "phone home", bringing stuff back to life — and of course, using candy to lure an alien.

Check out more celeb birthdays in today's birthday post!