All of the weapons used in tonight’s season 3 premiere of the HBO series Westworld, set about 30 years in the future, are black.
The 1973 film Westworld was written by science-fiction novelist Michael Crichton, who also made his directorial debut on the film. It starred Yul Brynner as an android gunslinger, as well as Richard Benjamin and James Brolin.
The film featured one of the first mentions of the concept of a computer virus.
Yul Brynner is one of only ten people who have won both a Tony and an Academy Award for the same role — as King Mongkut in The King and I.
Tony Swatton is a British-born blacksmith, who has been crredited for more than 40 films in which hr designed or created swords, knives or jewelry. He was self taught as a blacksmith, but is a trained gem-cutter. Among other pictures, he made arms for Hunger Games, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Zorro.
A Mameluke sword is a cross-hilted, curved, scimitar-like sword historically derived from sabres used by Mamluk warriors of Mamluk Egypt after whom the sword is named. US Marine Corps history states that a sword of this type was presented to Marine First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon by the Ottoman Empire viceroy, Prince Hamet, on December 8, 1805, during the First Barbary War, in Libya, as a gesture of respect and praise for the Marines’ actions at the Battle of Derna (1805). US Marine Corps officers and NCOs have carried swords since the American Revolutionary War.
At least through the 1960s, according to Pat Conroy’s novel The Great Santini (later turned into a movie starring Robert Duvall and Blythe Danner), the duty officer at any Marine base would have a Mameluke sword in his or her possession until relieved.
According to Military.com, there are a total of 19 Marine Corps bases in the United States, plus two more which are located in Japan. The Marine Corps Air Station Yuma is located in Arizona, which is the only non-coastal state to house a Marine Corps base. The other bases are located in California, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
NBA Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, who attended college at the University of California Los Angeles, and his older brother Bruce Walton, are the only brothers to ever play in the Super Bowl and NBA Finals. Bill Walton won NBA Championships with the 1977 Portland TrailBlazers, and Bruce Walton played with the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl X. The Cowboys lost to the Steelers 21-17.
The lads of Monty Python’s Flying Circus gave every member of the Philosophy Department of the University of Wollamaloo the first name “Bruce” when they noticed how remarkably common the name was among their Australian acquaintances.
Bruce is the name of a small lunar impact crater named for Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American philanthropist and patroness of astronomy.
In 1979, the Electric Light Orchestra released a single which would be their highest-charting hit in the United States. The song, entitled ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’, peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In the song, lead singer Jeff Lynne sings the title line “Don’t bring me down”, and follows it with a made-up word, which he said was ‘Grooss’. Lynne explained that he just needed a placekeeper to fill a gap in the lyrics, and that’s the word that he used.
However, after the song’s release, most people interpreted that word as ‘Bruce’. I am one of those many people.
“Don’t Bring Me Down” is the final track on the Electric Light Orchestra’s 1979 album, Discovery. The album cover features artwork of an apparently-Arabic character, who has “discovered” the ELO symbol in a treasure horde. The album’s rear cover features a similarly-attired palace guard, brandishing a scimitar.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-458833-1407146606-6090.jpeg.jpg){kind=link}
The guard was portrayed by a young actor named Brad Garrett, who would, decades later, become well-known for playing Robert on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field, the right foreleg replaced with an armoured hand brandishing a sword, trampling on a scimitar with its hind paws. The straight sword represents Finland, and the curved sword represents Russia. Together, they symbolize the struggle between the West and the East, with Finland triumphant.
ninjaed
A game similar to trampolining was developed by the Inuit, who would toss blanket dancers into the air on a walrus skin one at a time during a spring celebration of whale harvest. When a similar practice appeared in other cultures, the word 'trampoline" evolved from the same German root from which we have “trampling”.
The Inuit would do this trampolining in part to get a better view of whales out in the ocean / sea.
No two whales’ tails are completely identical, as far as is known, given anatomical differences, scarring, barnacle encrustrations and the like. Marine biologists keep photographic records of whale tails to assist in identifying whales worldwide.
The dwarf sperm whale grows to 9 feet long and between 400-600 pounds. It is the smallest whale species in the world.
Whale Oil Row is a collection of four nearly identical, high-quality Greek Revival houses standing side by side at 105–119 Huntington Street in New London, Connecticut. Built 1835-45, they exemplify the wealth and taste of New London’s whaling-funded upper class.
Interesting! Images, Whale Oil Row New London CT >> https://is.gd/uoa13v
In play: New London CT is home to the United States Coast Guard Academy, Connecticut College, Mitchell College, and The Williams School. The town was officially named New London on March 10, 1658. New London harbor was considered to be the best deep water harbor on Long Island Sound, and consequently New London became a base of American naval operations during the American Revolutionary War.