Orangey the cat had a similar stardom as Higgins the dog
Gentle Ben also had a starring role in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, but not in the Grizzly Adams series (which was a brown bear rather than a black bear, imaginatively called “Ben”, but played by a girl).
When visiting the archaeological museum in Taranto, Italy recently, I learned from that vase
that the Greek pipulation of Magna Graecia apparently had collapsible umbrellas (lower row, below the stabby scene in the upper row)
Feeling nitpicky, I would add that that was not an umbrella, but a parasol. Which is ethymologically curious, as an umbrella the thing is that gives you umbra (Latin for shade), not the one that keeps you dry. Rain breaks parasols, but fortunately you see in your vase that it is not raining.
A standard disclaimer is made is biopics to indicate that some/all of the events/characters are fictitious.
We have Rasputin to thank for this. MGM released a movie about Rasputin in 1932. In it, it implies a Russian princess was raped by Rasputin. Despite the name being different from the real life princess this rumor had started with, she sued and got some money. Disclaimers soon started appearing.
The rope core memory was custom tailored for each spacecraft, because each mission profile was unique. Mission control in Houston had two identical very large computer rooms on floors to crunch numbers. The computer power was basically on the ground, not on the spacecraft, for obvious reason. Updates and torquing angles and the rest of it were radio’d up to the crew. They wanted the crew to also be able to navigate independently by use of star angles and sextant in case radio comms were lost, and at the time there were concerns that the Soviets might try to jam radio comms.
On A14, when orbiting the moon getting ready to land, the descent stage Abort switch exhibited signs that a loose solder ball was intermittently shorting out, which meant the moon landing would be scrubbed. Draper lab at MIT had only 2 to 3 hours to come up with a workaround to this problem by modifying the code, get it tested in the simulator, and NASA administrators to sign off on the fix. I think I read somewhere during the A13 crisis the federal government basically confiscated computer time at a fair chunk of the existing large mainframe computers in various universities or government agencies around the country.
They also had yo-yos, I learned several years ago. There’s a statue that used to hold one, but it has disappeared. I heard it was called an aristobolus. Here’s a vase painting of a boy with one:
Wow, that’s cool and very unexpected. Mind blown!
Just from the picture, that could be a yo-yo, but there are any number of other sorts of toys and/or tools that could look like that, too. Are there written descriptions of its use?
I don’t recall any descriptions, but there are articles in classical journals supporting the case that the Greeks had yo-yos. I can;t lay my hands on them right now, though.
The vWikipedia article I got the picture from has a couple of references:
Citations 2 and 3 are
- Vanoverbergh, Morice. (1956). Iloko-English Dictionary, Catholic School Press, Baguio City. p. 370 [Translated, augmented & revised version of Carro, Andres. (1888). Vocabulario Iloco-Español. Vicaria de Agustinos de Filipinas, Intramuros, Manila]
- ^ Jump up to:a b Miller, Stephen G. (2004). Ancient Greek Athletics. Yale University Press. pp. 169–. ISBN 9780300115291. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
There’s only 6 minutes of full CGI models in Jurassic Park. The vast majority of special effects in the film were practical. The raptors and dilophosaurus were puppets. The triceratops was animatronic. The T-Rex was mostly animatronic. Only the long shots of the brachiosaurs and the herd of gallimimus were fully CGI. T-Rex chasing the Jeep was CGI.
Probably goes a long way in explaining why other all-CGI creatures in other films, even Jurassic Park’s own sequels, still look crappy over 30 years later.
One of the most egregious examples of a CG animal was the crocodile in a movie called Eraser from the mid '90s. Ironically, the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Effects.
nitpick: “CGI” stands for “Common Gateway Interface”, a protocol used by internet servers – Cmmputerized Graphics in cinema should be called “CG”
Or Skippy the dog. Like those others he’s not remembered by his real-life name but mostly as Asta, the scene-stealing pet of William Powell in the Thin Man series. Skippy was cast in every famous screwball comedy of the 30s - only a slight exaggeration, what a list of credits! - and was the highest paid animal actor of the day.
If only he could get royalties for every use in a New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle, the name Asta being unintentionally useful for a filler. Skippy would have more money than the peanut butter firm.
Interesting random fact: Most TLAs have more than one meaning.
Not to be confused with Skipper the Dog - IMDb whose acting in The Monster and the Girl (1941) must surely be among the greatest canine performances ever.
Of course, when it comes to animal performers, I’m not sure anyone can touch Zamba - IMDb, “the world’s greatest lion.”
TIL That in medieval times the city of Bologna had large numbers of (for the time and technology) tremendously tall towers.
I didn’t know about the towers of Bologna, but I did see a TV documentary some years ago about another Northern Italian city (maybe in Tuscany?), a smaller city I don’t remember the name of that still has about a dozen medieval towers that had been built solely out of vanity. The story was that this city had several rich merchant families, and they all wanted to show their wealth and outdo the others by building towers that had absolutely no strategical or other practical use other than building them higher and higher in a rat race between those families.
Does anybody have an idea which city I’m talking about?
I want to say Florence because I remember James Burke going on about it. Probably in an episode of “The Day The Universe Changed.”