jamescookenotthatone
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_jd7b7tk wrote
Reply to TIL The Dick Van Dyke Show was originally written entirely by Carl Reiner, about stories from Reiner's life, and starred Carl Reiner. The pilot was unsuccessful so it was reworked with Dick Van Dyke playing Robert Petrie. by jamescookenotthatone
I learned this from Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast,
Also,
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Dyke appearantly never took a dancing lesson, just did what he was told by choreographers.
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Dyke has had terrible arthritis since atleast when he was 40 and was expected to be in a wheelchair by the time he was 50. He just didn't.
jamescookenotthatone t1_jcpc3sd wrote
Reply to comment by jableshables in TIL Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip, who terrorized his dog, buried valuables in the yard, and died eating "a pound or two" of lead paint. As a character in one of his novels, Grip is believed to have inspired Poe's famous poem, and is on display in a Philadelphia public library by jableshables
Now I'm just waiting for a horror spinoff of Untitled Goose Game.
jamescookenotthatone t1_jcjyy87 wrote
Reply to comment by Fetlocks_Glistening in TIL sitting U.S. President Harry Truman went for a 440-foot deep ride on captured German submarine U-2513 in 1946 by ElMontolero
Probably underwater, I think I understand sinking.
jamescookenotthatone t1_jb0fb0d wrote
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_j9o8d36 wrote
Reply to TIL The Marvel No-Prize is a empty envelope that Marvel awarded fans for "meritorious service to the cause of Marveldom". Typically it was won by submitting an explanation for an error in a comic, but rules varied from author to author. The prize was inspired by George R. R. Martin. by jamescookenotthatone
I learned about this oddity from the Talking Simpsons Podcast, https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90YWxraW5nc2ltcHNvbnMubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/MjRjOTNkZDUtYTliZC00OTg3LWI4ZjItZDk5YWZmMzNkM2E3?ep=14
Some Marvel employees were pretty stringent about what deserved a No-Prize, but not Macchio,
>Ralph Macchio (Daredevil): "The No-Prize is an honored Marvel tradition. Of course I give them away—for just about any old stupid thing. I have a million of them."[13]
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_j9etovt wrote
Reply to TIL of Macadam roads. These roads were convex, raised a few inches, and made of layered crushed rock; they were state-of-the-art for the 19th century. The rise of automobiles led to the dust issues that were solved by binding the roads with tar, leading to the invention of tarmac. by jamescookenotthatone
Something I found amusing.
>Size of stones was central to the McAdam's road building theory. The lower 8 in (20 cm) road thickness was restricted to stones no larger than 3 inches (7.5 cm). The upper 2-inch-thick (5 cm) layer of stones was limited to stones 2 centimetres (3⁄4 in) in diameter; these were checked by supervisors who carried scales. A workman could check the stone size himself by seeing if the stone would fit into his mouth. The importance of the 2 cm stone size was that the stones needed to be much smaller than the 4 inches (10 cm) width of the iron carriage wheels that travelled on the road.[5]
jamescookenotthatone t1_j8oxczz wrote
Reply to TIL that, despite it being widely reported, Bruce Willis never sold the rights to use his likeness with deep fake technology. A Russian Advert company made it up and illegally used him in a commercial. by EarlGrey_Picard
>The tech used in the advert was created by Deepcake, which describes itself as an AI company specializing in deepfakes.
>Deepcake told the BBC it had worked closely with Willis' team on the advert.
>"What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin," they said.
>The company says it has a unique library of high-resolution celebrities, influencers and historical figures.
>On its website, Deepcake promotes its work with an apparent quote from Mr Willis: "I liked the precision of my character. It's a great opportunity for me to go back in time.
>"The neural network was trained on content of Die Hard and Fifth Element, so my character is similar to the images of that time."
>However, Willis's agent told the BBC, "Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company."
>...
>In a statement from Deepcake, the company said reports that it had bought the rights to Bruce Willis's face were inaccurate.
>"The wording about rights is wrong… Bruce couldn't sell anyone any rights, they are his by default," a representative for the company said.
Wait how does that work? I assume the Deepcake people are just lying or there is some strange miscommunication.
jamescookenotthatone t1_j7rt1nr wrote
Reply to comment by gonejahman in TIL different kinds of tea (black, green, white, oolong) come from the same plant. The only difference is in how the leaves are processed. by wombat-slayer
The hard part is inflating the pickles into cucumbers.
jamescookenotthatone t1_j7rsmq1 wrote
Reply to comment by BrokenEye3 in TIL different kinds of tea (black, green, white, oolong) come from the same plant. The only difference is in how the leaves are processed. by wombat-slayer
Tastes best if finely aged in the half broken warmer of a food truck.
jamescookenotthatone t1_j7rse3c wrote
Reply to TIL different kinds of tea (black, green, white, oolong) come from the same plant. The only difference is in how the leaves are processed. by wombat-slayer
If anyone is wondering, orange pekoe is not a special technique, it is a grade of black tea.
jamescookenotthatone t1_j6d8m7w wrote
Reply to TIL the first traffic signal, erected in London in 1868, was powered by gas. A gas leak caused it to explode a month later. by itsjonzo
I think the explosion counts as red.
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_j59o3dm wrote
Reply to TIL At the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, an angry mob burned down an arena and rioted following the last minute cancelation of a bullfight. Manuel Cervera Prieto was later murdered over lack of payment by fellow bullfighter Carleton Bass. by jamescookenotthatone
>Carleton Bass, born 1876 in Ireland, was a notorious bullfighter who billed himself in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the "first North American bullfighter."[1] In reality, he was an Irish immigrant who never became an American citizen, and his anemic bullfighting skill led to him being booed from bullfighting rings in Mexico.[2]
jamescookenotthatone t1_j0p3vyr wrote
Reply to comment by r1ch999999 in TIL That in 1774 James Cook charted Sandy Island off the coast of New Caledonia. Despite its' inclusion in official maps and charts for over two centuries in 2012 an Australian survey vessel proved the island had never actually existed and may have been a 'pumice raft' floating in the area. by GentPc
Yeah but Cook was an explorer, he wasn't looking to make map money on the backend.
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_iz4ebto wrote
Reply to TIL The Stranger (1946) was the first Hollywood film to include footage of the Holocaust. The film's director, Orson Welles, who saw footage at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in May 1945, described the newsreels as "putrefaction of the soul, a perfect spiritual garbage" by jamescookenotthatone
>"What we tend to forget today is that in the 1940s a large percentage of the population could not believe that the Nazi death camps were real," said Bret Wood.[11]: 100:50 Welles had seen the footage in early May 1945[11]: 102:03 in San Francisco,[16]: 56 as a correspondent and discussion moderator at the United Nations Conference on International Organization.[8]: 304 [17] Welles wrote of the Holocaust footage in his syndicated column for the New York Post (May 7, 1945).[16]: 56–57
>>No, you must not miss the newsreels. They make a point this week no man can miss: The war has strewn the world with corpses, none of them very nice to look at. The thought of death is never pretty but the newsreels testify to the fact of quite another sort of death, quite another level of decay. This is a putrefaction of the soul, a perfect spiritual garbage. For some years now we have been calling it Fascism. The stench is unendurable.[16]: 56–57 [18]
Also the film is in the public domain so of you want to watch it here you go, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQszOyQTxi4 or https://archive.org/details/TheStranger720p
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_iy7to4z wrote
Reply to TIL Robert W. Service sent his poems to his father to be printed and given as gifts to friends. Service received back an offer of royalties for publication, the printers had loved the poems, The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses was an immediate success and Service quit his bank job the next year. by jamescookenotthatone
>After having collected enough poems for a book, Service "sent the poems to his father, who had emigrated to Toronto, and asked him to find a printing house so they could make it into a booklet. He enclosed a cheque to cover the costs and intended to give these booklets away to his friends in Whitehorse" for Christmas. His father took the manuscript to William Briggs in Toronto, whose employees loved the book. "The foreman and printers recited the ballads while they worked. A salesman read the proofs out loud as they came off the typesetting machines."[10] An "enterprising salesman sold 1700 copies in advance orders from galley proofs."[11] The publisher "sent Robert's cheque back to him and offered a ten percent royalty contract for the book."[10]
Also of interest
>Service was 40 when World War I broke out; he attempted to enlist, but was turned down "due to varicose veins."[3] He briefly covered the war for the Toronto Star (from December 11, 1915, through January 29, 1916), but "was arrested and nearly executed in an outbreak of spy hysteria in Dunkirk." He then "worked as a stretcher bearer and ambulance driver with the Ambulance Corps of the American Red Cross, until his health broke." Convalescing in Paris, he wrote a new book of mainly war poetry, Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, in 1916. The book was dedicated to the memory of Service's "brother, Lieutenant Albert Service, Canadian Infantry, Killed in Action, France, August 1916."[18] Robert Service received three medals for his war service: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal.[19]
>With the end of the war, Service "settled down to being a rich man in Paris.... During the day he would promenade in the best suits, with a monocle. At night he went out in old clothes with the company of his doorman, a retired policeman, to visit the lowest dives of the city".[18] During his time in Paris he was reputedly the wealthiest author living in the city, yet was known to dress as a working man and walk the streets, blending in and observing everything around him. Those experiences would be used in his next book of poetry, Ballads of a Bohemian (1921): "The poems are given in the persona of an American poet in Paris who serves as an ambulance driver and an infantryman in the war. The verses are separated by diary entries over a period of four years."[18]
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_ixq1abh wrote
Reply to TIL Following World War One Canada sent 799 body parts extracted from soldiers back to Canada to be part of a museum. The museum was never built, instead the organs became teaching aids at McGill University before being destroyed around 1960. by jamescookenotthatone
It came up on The Agenda with Steve Paikin,
Youtube link, https://youtu.be/xpU0_JVpCqQ
jamescookenotthatone t1_ix44m6i wrote
Reply to TIL Starburst pupils are commonly found in individuals with Williams syndrome. a genetic disorder which gives an elfin appearance, sensitivity to sound, and growth and mental delays. by Micow11
Uh... I have central heterochromia, so my mind jumped to me having a syndrome. But it turns out this is unlikely, for anyone else with central heterochromia, don't be alarmed,
>Central heterochromia may be a rare condition, but it’s typically benign. In most cases, it doesn’t affect vision or cause any health complications. However, when central heterochromia occurs later in life, it may be a sign of an underlying condition. In this instance, seek medical attention for a possible diagnosis and treatment options.
https://www.healthline.com/health/central-heterochromia#outlook
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_iwu82wr wrote
Reply to TIL The first house in Cleveland to have electricity got its power from the first automatic electric turbine. The turbine was built in 1888 for the home of Charles F. Brush and provide continuous power for 20 years. by jamescookenotthatone
Direct link to turbine image for ease of use,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_iwg67jy wrote
Reply to TIL Of the Bre-X fraud. The Canadian mining company was a penny stock that reportedly found billions of dollars of gold in Indonesia. The stock skyrocketed but collapsed following the suicide of one of the geologists and discovery that the core samples were salted. by jamescookenotthatone
In case you are wondering, noone went to jail over billions in fraud.
Some things of note,
>The lab's tests showed that gold in one hole had been shaved off gold jewelry
and for something weird,
>Walsh moved to the Bahamas in 1998, still professing his innocence. Two masked gunmen broke into his home in Nassau, tying him up, and threatened to shoot him unless he turned over all his money. The incident ended peacefully but three weeks later, on June 4, 1998, Walsh died of a brain aneurysm.[19][20]
jamescookenotthatone t1_itchw5c wrote
Reply to TIL about the famous American novelist Winston Churchill who was the reason why the British prime minister referred to himself as Winston Spencer Churchill. They met on occasion, but gradually Spencer Churchill’s rise to power steamrolled the American into obscurity. by OneLastConquest
It says the last time one of his works was adapted was in 1921. Just looking at the summaries' of his novels and they seem to focus primarily on American coming of age stories and political machinations. I wonder how well they'd translate to modern films.
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_je4jj14 wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
I was listening to an episode of the radio drama X Minus One from 1956 when a character says they are going to send out drones and was startled to hear a reference to what I thought was a recent word. I first assumed they just lucked into it but nope, 'drone' dates back to 1936.
Link to the radio drama:
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly94bW9uZS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw/episode/YWY1MmFlOThjZGJjNGM5MWIxMjY2ZTVlOTY5YTIxYTQ?ep=14