I bet you didnt know that

dxhound2005

Putting plastic into the ocean is a bad thing. But glass can enhance the marine environment in some circumstances, because of the chemical reaction with seawater. And a by-product is Sea Glass, which has become collectable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass

The Black War was a bloody conflict of over a decade in the 1820's - 1830's that took place on the then named van Diemens Land between British settlers and Indigenous Tasmanians. Apart from the weapons they used, the new pathogen environment they created decimated the native population, and losses were heavy as the people who had lived on Tasmania for more than 40 thousand years were pushed to extinction.

Into this mess entered an English clergyman called George Robinson who attempted to save the remaining Aboriginal Tasmanias by taking them to Flinders Island, surrendering their traditional lands after receiving empty promises of resettlement and compensation from the Governor. To negotiate the return of their land, Robinson hired the services of teenage widow Truganini, daughter of the most influential of the clan chiefs, to help with translation as he attempted to better their lot.

As the intransigence of the Governor became clear, Robinson abandoned the few surviving Aboriginals to their fate as they realised the promises of return to their lands were empty. As numbers dwindled those remaining turned to crime to survive and those caught punished without mercy. Truganini was caught stealing and sent to Flinders Island, which had long ceased being a refuge to it's inhabitants as disease and starvation took it's toll.

Truganini died holding what must be the loneliest of titles - she was the last of her people.



A bust of Truganini.

stimpson

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Most programming languages use keywords and text to define what to do. And use spaces and returns and tabs to separate the words and numbers.


There is a programming language called Whitespace which ignores the words and numbers and is coded entirely using non-printable characters.

https://www.emojicode.org Is a full blown programming language consisting almost entirely of emojis.

JSFuck is a JavaScript programming style in which any JS program can be written with just 6 characters: []()!+ . There is a site at http://www.jsfuck.com that will convert any JS program into JSFuck. As it’s valid JavaScript it doesn’t need a special interpreter and can be run in any browser.

SimonTemplar

Speaking of JS, for the non-programmers here, despite sharing some similar syntax, Java and JavaScript are two completely different languages used for different purposes. JavaScript is not a subset or variation of Java. In fact, JavaScript was originally called Mocha and then LiveScript. The name was then changed to JavaScript basically as a marketing strategy with Sun Microsystems which had created Java.

You'll always see Java and JavaScript books mixed in with each other in book shops. I remember being confused by that when I was starting out learning programming.

valoren

SimonTemplar wrote: »

I love how creative movie makers had to be prior to the proliferation of CGI. Other examples from Aliens:

- There is a shot where a facehugger rapidly wraps its tail around Ripley's neck. That was done by first wrapping the model's tail around Sigourney Weaver and then filming the model being pulled away. The shot was then reversed which looked like the tail was wrapping around the neck instead of the opposite.

- The battle scene between the marines and the aliens simply involved the stunt men dressed as aliens running and jumping on small trampolines which were not on camera. This gave the effect that the aliens where pouncing.

In Alien, when the Nostromo lands on the planet to investigate the distress call, when Dallas, Kane and Lambert exit the ship, the production team had dressed three kids (one was Ridley's son Jake) in replica spacesuits so that the Nostromo's exterior (in particular the landing gears) looked much bigger and gave a bigger sense of scale overall.

SimonTemplar

valoren wrote: »

In Alien, when the Nostromo lands on the planet to investigate the distress call, when Dallas, Kane and Lambert exit the ship, the production team had dressed three kids (one was Ridley's son Jake) in replica spacesuits so that the Nostromo's exterior (in particular the landing gears) looked much bigger and gave a bigger sense of scale overall.

Oh yeah, I remember that now. Excellent.

SimonTemplar

Continuing with the movie magic theme, there is a shot from Close Encounters where Barry gets startled by the aliens in his house but then smiles. Of course, the aliens are completely off screen and we only see Barry's reaction. Given that the actor was very young, it would have been impossible to get such a natural reaction from him. So Spielberg got the boy to walk up to a particular spot. Off camera were two blinds unbeknownst to Barry. Spielberg dropped the first blind behind which was a clown that startled Barry. Then Spielberg dropped the second blind which revealed a guy in a gorilla costume. The guy then took off the costume's head. It was the film's makeup person who Barry recognized causing him to smile.

That shot is here. It is great because there is no way an actor that young would behave so naturally if he was asked to act those reactions.

https://youtu.be/TpLRfCG5VkA?t=1m49s

Ipso

The first Mad Max had a bit low budget, I saw a show a while back and they showed how they put together the Toe Cutters death scene.
In the scene he ends up driving into the front of an on coming truck, a truck driver was hired for around $100 to film the scene. Worried that he would damage the truck, he placed a piece of ply wood on the front of the grill to prevent any damage. If you watch the scene carefully, after the impact you can see the piece of ply wood on the front of the truck.

Greybottle

The Rotunda is the oldest continually operating maternity hospital in the world. It's on its present site since 1757, before that it was down a lane beside what is now Decwells on Georges Street.

It is named for part of the original building which is the round building which is now the Gate Theatre.

Up until the late 1700's they had an infant mortality rate in the hospital (up to 9 days) of 16%. When they decided to b´ventilate the building properly by opening the windows the mortality rate dropped to 5%.




Oh yeah, I was born there too. So now ye know that as well.

valoren

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides holds the record for the biggest movie production budget.

It cost $410 million to produce (estimates come in at $378.5 million after a tax rebate).

The Hobbit trilogy cost $623 million to produce and is a record for 'back-to-back' productions.

At the other end of the scale Christopher Nolan's debut feature 'Following' released in 1998 cost $6,000 to produce.
The biggest expense item was 16mm film so scenes were heavily rehearsed to ensure only one take or max two were actually shot.

secondrowgal

The #1 killer (of humans!) in Africa is the humble mosquito (well, malaria, but from those pesky mossies)

But what's really interesting is the #2 killer is the hippo!
And #3 is the buffalo - narky feckers...charge you en masse for even looking at them crooked.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Greybottle wrote: »

The Rotunda is the oldest continually operating maternity hospital in the world. It's on its present site since 1757, before that it was down a lane beside what is now Decwells on Georges Street.

It is named for part of the original building which is the round building which is now the Gate Theatre.

Up until the late 1700's they had an infant mortality rate in the hospital (up to 9 days) of 16%. When they decided to b´ventilate the building properly by opening the windows the mortality rate dropped to 5%.




Oh yeah, I was born there too. So now ye know that as well.

And it's proper name is The Dublin Lying-in Hospital.

SuperS54

Ipso wrote: »

The first Mad Max had a bit low budget, I saw a show a while back and they showed how they put together the Toe Cutters death scene.
In the scene he ends up driving into the front of an on coming truck, a truck driver was hired for around $100 to film the scene. Worried that he would damage the truck, he placed a piece of ply wood on the front of the grill to prevent any damage. If you watch the scene carefully, after the impact you can see the piece of ply wood on the front of the truck.

LOL, the whole front of the truck is a fake painted up grill, never noticed it before!

Chancer3001

secondrowgal wrote: »

The #1 killer (of humans!) in Africa is the humble mosquito (well, malaria, but from those pesky mossies)

But what's really interesting is the #2 killer is the hippo!
And #3 is the buffalo - narky feckers...charge you en masse for even looking at them crooked.

Apparently snakes are miles ahead of hippo.

Like almost 10 times the amount depending on your source

Ipso

SuperS54 wrote: »

LOL, the whole front of the truck is a fake painted up grill, never noticed it before!

Also in the opening car chase, there is a bit where a van gets crashed into and gets bounced around a lot. They removed the engine to decrease the weight to get that effect.

Kat1170

Further to the Mad Max trivia, this is how they got the on-board motorcycle footage.

aziz

Kat1170 wrote: »

Further to the Mad Max trivia, this is how they got the on-board motorcycle footage.

That's one brave or stupid camera man

Greybottle

aziz wrote: »

That's one brave or stupid camera man

I like how he has the protective boots, but didn't bother with the 'oul helmet.

Though that camera looks tricky enough, even with an open face helmet.

Greybottle

World Cup is coming up in a couple of months, and our next door neighbours England are in it.

Since winning the World Cup in 1966 England have only won 6 games in the knockout part of a major tournament. Winning on penalties like against Spain in 1996 technically does not count as the game is officially recorded as a draw, but we'll give it to them.

The list....
Paraguay 1986
Belgium 1990
Cameroon 1990
Spain 1996
Denmark 2002
Ecuador 2006

Yes, that's 12 years since they won a knockout match.

They have also only won 4 of the last 15 games of any kind in a tournament and have never won a Euros knockout game outright. Not even when they hosted it in 1996.

DEFTLEFTHAND

On a similar note I wonder are Republic of Ireland the only team in history ever to reach a World Cup QF without winning a single game at the finals?

Skylinehead

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

On a similar note I wonder are Republic of Ireland the only team in history ever to reach a World Cup QF without winning a single game at the finals?

Probably, it's a very niche scenario!

New Zealand were the only unbeaten team in the 2010 World Cup.

sbsquarepants

Greybottle wrote: »

World Cup is coming up in a couple of months, and our next door neighbours England are in it.

Since winning the World Cup in 1966 England have only won 6 games in the knockout part of a major tournament. Winning on penalties like against Spain in 1996 technically does not count as the game is officially recorded as a draw, but we'll give it to them.

The list....
Paraguay 1986
Belgium 1990
Cameroon 1990
Spain 1996
Denmark 2002
Ecuador 2006

Yes, that's 12 years since they won a knockout match.

They have also only won 4 of the last 15 games of any kind in a tournament and have never won a Euros knockout game outright. Not even when they hosted it in 1996.

If I may be so bold as to speak for us all.......Ahem......ha ha ha ha ha ha ha:D

Cordell

SimonTemplar wrote: »

Speaking of JS, for the non-programmers here, despite sharing some similar syntax, Java and JavaScript are two completely different languages used for different purposes. JavaScript is not a subset or variation of Java. In fact, JavaScript was originally called Mocha and then LiveScript. The name was then changed to JavaScript basically as a marketing strategy with Sun Microsystems which had created Java.

You'll always see Java and JavaScript books mixed in with each other in book shops. I remember being confused by that when I was starting out learning programming.

Indeed.

One is essentially a toy, designed for writing small pieces of code, and traditionally used and abused by inexperienced programmers.

The other is a scripting language for web browsers

*not my joke
**I'll get my coat

valoren

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

On a similar note I wonder are Republic of Ireland the only team in history ever to reach a World Cup QF without winning a single game at the finals?

And likely with the least amount of goals. 2 in total.

valoren

Jack Nicklaus holds the record for winning the most Major championships (18 in total). I bet you probably knew that.
I bet you didn't know that he has finished 2nd or Tied 2nd in 19 Major championships.

Biologist Dr Rudolph Weigel worked as a parasitologist for the Polish army, and made it his mission to produce a vaccine for typhus (as opposed to typhoid) after seeing the devastation it caused by killing millions in the years of and after WW1. Typhus was known to be carried by human lice, and war and post war conditions where people live in close quarters with limited access to hygiene and healthcare are optimum conditions for it's spread.

Dr Weigel ingeniously started growing lice on live human hosts, infected the lice via their anuses, and used their infected guts to create the first effective typhus vaccine. To facilitate their growth in laboratory conditions he developed the louse cage, a contraption that would be fixed around the hosts leg that would prevent the spread of the lice outside the cage, and stop the so-called 'feeder' from scratching.

After the outbreak of WW2 Weigel found himself co-opted by the Nazis to produce quantities of vaccine. In his laboratories he gave refuge to the most wanted of Nazi public enemies. Resistance fighters, intellectuals and scientists - most of them Jewish - were all employed as 'feeders' and his shelter saved many lives.

He saved many more lives by producing two vaccines - the one intended for use by the German military was engineered to be substantially less effective than the one for the native civilian population. Vaccines were also smuggled into the ghettos where typhus spread rampantly, under his direction.

Dr Weigel died in 1957 after continuing his distinguished career. When he died his reputation was sullied by the assumption he was a collaborator since it wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Union that the full story of his exceptional life, and how he sheltered and saved so many innocents became widespread knowledge. He was formally recognised for his work by the State of Israel in the early 2000's.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

The word Reiterate is an example of hypercorrection: correcting something which is already right. Iterate means to say or do something again or repeatedly. Reiterate crept into everyday language and eventually was included in dictionaries, where the two words have the same meaning.

SimonTemplar

Cordell wrote: »

Indeed.

One is essentially a toy, designed for writing small pieces of code, and traditionally used and abused by inexperienced programmers.

The other is a scripting language for web browsers

*not my joke
**I'll get my coat

I agree with that part

evolving_doors

The movie of George Orwell's Animal farm was funded and part produced by the CIA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZeY-_jQqEg

sbsquarepants

evolving_doors wrote: »

The movie of George Orwell's Animal farm was funded and part produced by the CIA.

Not only funded, but altered.

The original ending has the animals not being able to decide which was worse the communist pigs or the capitalist farmers. The CIA don't do capitalist critique so they changed the ending to something more like "ain't them commies terrible"

It was part of an absolutely enormous drive to sneak pro american ideology into popular culture at a time when socialism or communism was gaining traction on the USA's doorstep.

Like a lot of CIA activity, it was very hush hush, cost a mountain of money and was based on very questionable logic. It seems like no idea was too far fetched or too expensive for the CIA to give it a shot. Some of their plots to kill Castro for example were straight from James Bond, e.g. a wet suit infected with a debilitating fungal disease, others more from The Road Runner school of assassination techniques, like the infamous exploding cigar:D
Castro's security estimated there were 600 plus of these attempts over the years, his uncanny knack of surviving them became the stuff of legend - in fact he once refused a gift of a turtle after learning it could live for over a hundred years by saying "that's the problems with pets, you get attached to them, but then get sad because you out live them"
He wasn't far wrong he lived to 90!