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Despite the popularity of Rickrolling and "Never Gonna Give You Up" garnering millions of hits on YouTube, Rick Astley has earned almost no money from the meme, receiving only ~$12* (U.S.) in royalties from YouTube for his performance share*. Songwriter Pete Waterman has only received ~$17* (U.S.) in YouTube royalties for it.
* As of August 2010
Rick Astley update, courtesy of Skeptic Stack Exchange (2012):
"[I]t wasn't until 2011 that YouTube settled the 2007 lawsuit to allow artists and publishers to enter into a licensing agreement with YouTube. This was after the "$12" quote was provided above. ...
[A]n artist/publisher has the following three options: keep the song there, take it down or make money off of it. If the third option is chosen the song appears with the artist information and typically a link to iTunes. ...
[I]f you look at the main RickRoll video from Youtube, the one with 64 million views, it isn't marked with artist information. However, the VEVO one does and so does another one that was added later.
So they have chosen not to make money from the original video. Thus the $12 is realistic, maybe the $12 wasn't even made from that version of the video. Considering the VEVO video now has over 50 million views and there are other videos marked as copyright, someone is making money from them. However, how much Rick gets directly from this is not currently public information."
Rick Astley weighs in:
"I think it’s just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it ... but that’s what's brilliant about the Internet. Listen, I just think it’s bizarre and funny. My main consideration is that my daughter doesn’t get embarrassed about it."
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f you look at the main RickRoll video from Youtube, the one with 64 million views, it isn't marked with artist information. However, the VEVO one does and so does another one that was added later.
So they have chosen not to make money from the original video. Thus the $12 is realistic, maybe the $12 wasn't even made from that version of the video. Considering the VEVO video now has over 50 million views and there are other videos marked as copyright, someone is making money from them. However, how much Rick gets directly from this is not currently public information."
I'd thought about that, actually - it is an entirely different story if NOBODY'S really making money off it.
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Independent conservative political commentator Bill O'Reilly and liberal political commentator & comedian Jon Stewart are good friends in real life.
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The role of villain Simon Phoenix in the 1993 sci-fi action comedy film Demolition Man was originally slated to go to Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan, but ended up going to Wesley Snipes after Chan declined. Also, actress Lori Petty was originally cast in the role of Lenina Huxley, but was replaced with Sandra Bullock after less than a week of filming.
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Canadian actor Rick Moranis (Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Little Shop of Horrors) was an elementary school classmate of Rush bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Geddy Lee.
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90% of English Puritan names were taken from the Bible. Some Puritans took pride in their learning by giving their children obscure Biblical names they would expect nobody else to have heard of, like Mahershalalhasbaz. Others chose random Biblical terms that might not have technically been intended as names; “the son of Bostonian Samuel Pond was named Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Pond”. Still others chose Biblical words completely at random and named their children things like Maybe or Notwithstanding.
Wasting time in Puritan Massachusetts was literally a criminal offense, listed in the law code, and several people were in fact prosecuted for it. Another law just said “If any man shall exceed the bounds of moderation, we shall punish him severely”.
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One of the most widely-accepted origin of the generally pejorative term "cracker" (referring to Americans of European descent, especially the "poor whites" of the American South descended from the Borderer people of the northern British Isles) is that it is derived from the Middle English crak or craic, which originally meant the sound of a cracking whip but came to refer to "loud conversation, bragging talk".
In Elizabethan times this could refer to "entertaining conversation" (one may be said to "crack" a joke) and "cracker" could be used to describe loud braggarts; this term and the Gaelic spelling craic are still in use in Ireland, Scotland and Northern England. It is documented in Shakespeare's King John (1595): "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?"
This usage is illustrated in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth which reads:
"I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode."
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There have been 43 people sworn into the office of President of the United States of America, and 44 presidencies (Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) served two non-consecutive terms and is counted chronologically as both the 22nd and 24th president).
Of the individuals elected as president, four died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison (#9; 1773-1841), Zachary Taylor (#12; 1784-1850), Warren G. Harding (#29; 1865-1923), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (#32; 1882-1945)), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln (#16; 1809-1865), James A. Garfield (#20; 1831-1881), William McKinley (#25; 1843-1901), and John F. Kennedy (#35; 1917-1963)) and one resigned (Richard Nixon (#37; 1913-1994)).
Four presidents (John Q. Adams (#6; 1767-1848), Rutherford B. Hayes(#19; 1822-1893), Benjamin Harrison (#23; 1833-1901) and George W. Bush(#43; 1946-)) lost the popular vote but assumed office. Bush was subsequently re-elected for a second term with a popular majority.
There are currently five living people who have held the office of President of the United States: James Carter Jr. (#39; 1924-), George H.W. Bush (#41; 1924-), William J. Clinton (#42; 1946-), George W. Bush (#43; 1946-), and current sitting president Barack Obama (#44; 1961-)
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Bush was subsequently re-elected for a second term with a popular majority.
That's a lie; read Fooled Again by Mark Crispin Miller.
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That's a lie; read Fooled Again by Mark Crispin Miller.Bush was subsequently re-elected for a second term with a popular majority.
Granted, Miller also believes that Bush orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, so I'd take that with a king-sized brick of salt. I doubt Bush could successfully have orchestrated a weekend barbecue, much less a massive government conspiracy.
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9/11 stuff is one thing, but we know they took the White House by election fraud the first time - to think they'd play by the rules the next time around is silly.
Speaking of which....
Vincent Bugliosi (1934-2015), best known as the prosecuting attorney who put Charles Manson behind bars, spent the last few years of his life fighting to bring another murderer to Justice: George W. Bush.
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Speaking of which....
Vincent Bugliosi (1934-2015), best known as the prosecuting attorney who put Charles Manson behind bars, spent the last few years of his life fighting to bring another murderer to Justice: George W. Bush.
OK man. This conversation is done. I don't want this thread getting locked.
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Earth's 25 largest cities by population (city proper; as of 2014):
1. Shanghai (China) - pop. 24,256,800
2. Karachi (Pakistan) - pop. 23,500,000
3. Beijing (China) - pop. 21,516,000
4. São Paulo (Brazil) - pop. 21,292,893
5. Delhi (India) - pop. 16,787,941
6. Lagos (Nigeria) - pop. 16,060,303
7. Istanbul (Turkey) - pop. 14,657,000
8. Tokyo (Japan) - pop. 13,297,629
9. Mumbai (India) - pop. 12,478,447
10. Moscow (Russia) - pop. 12,197,596
11. Guangzhou (China) - pop. 12,080,500
12. Shenzhen (China) - pop. 10,780,000
13. Cairo (Egypt) - pop. 10,230,350
14. Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) - pop. 10,130,000
15. Jakarta (Indonesia) - pop. 10,075,310
16. Lahore (Pakistan) - pop. 10,052,000
17. Seoul (South Korea) - pop. 9,995,784
18. Mexico City (Mexico) - pop. 8,974,724
19. Lima (Peru) - pop. 8,852,000
20. London (United Kingdom) - pop. 8,538,689
21. New York (United States of America) - pop. 8,491,079
22. Bengaluru (India) - pop. 8,425,970
23. Bangkok (Thailand) - pop. 8,280,925
24. Dongguan (China) - pop. 8,220,207
25. Chongqing (China) - pop. 8,189,800
Earth's 25 largest cities by land area (metropolitan area; as of 2007):
1. New York (United States of America) - 8,683 sqKm
2. Tokyo/Yokohama (Japan) - 6,993 sqKm
3. Chicago (United States of America) - 5,498 sqKm
4. Atlanta (United States of America) - 5,083 sqKm
5. Philadelphia (United States of America) - 4,661 sqKm
6. Boston (United States of America) - 4,497 sqKm
7. Los Angeles (United States of America) - 4,320 sqKm
8. Dallas/Fort Worth (United States of America) - 3,644 sqKm
9. Houston (United States of America) - 3,355 sqKm
10. Detroit (United States of America) - 3,267 sqKm
11. Washington (United States of America) - 2,996 sqKm
12. Miami (United States of America) - 2,891 sqKm
13. Nagoya (Japan) - 2,875 sqKm
14. Paris (France) - 2,723 sqKm
15. Essen/Düsseldorf (Germany) - 2,642 sqKm
16. Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto (Japan) - 2,564 sqKm
17. Seattle (United States of America) - 2,470 sqKm
18. Johannesburg/East Rand (South Africa) - 2,396
19. Minneapolis/St. Paul (United States of America) - 2,316 sqKm
20. San Juan (Puerto Rico / United States of America) - 2,309 sqKm
21. Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 2,266 sqKm
22. Pittsburgh (United States of America) - 2,208 sqKm
23. Moscow (Russia) - 2,150 sqKm
24. St. Louis (United States of America) - 2,147 sqKm
25. Melbourne (Australia) - 2,080 sqKm
In other words, there are way more people in South and East Asia than there are in North America, but the cities in North America are way more spread-out. For example, the largest city in the world by population, Shanghai (China), has a land area slightly smaller than that of Allentown, Pennsylvania (United States), even though Shanghai's population is nearly 30 times as large.
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Just over a year before the 2001 release of Peter Jackson's critically-acclaimed film adaptation of the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, film studio & distributor New Line Cinema released another well-known epic fantasy film. The earlier film, however, is well-known for entirely different reasons.
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The full transcript of the case can be found here.
Strange...do you remember this making the news in 1999?
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The full transcript of the case can be found here.
Strange...do you remember this making the news in 1999?
Move it elsewhere please. If you want to talk politics, then make another thread about it.
Edit - Damn, but you do not listen. David also requested that you stop it. Do you want this thread locked because you can't control yourself?
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What, exactly, is wrong with what I posted (either time)? This is the "Did You Know...?" thread, and these are things people should know.
Incidentally, it might be worth understanding that the timing of the two previous posts made it appear far more confrontational that it actually should have looked, since I was typing up the Bugliosi thing immediately after the Fooled Again thing, and David's intervening objection was a "ninja" post.
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Just to put it out there before this gets out of hand-- I'm not pissed off at anyone here.
I'd be fine with talking politics if we were talking face-to-face, but unfortunately, this is a moderated public forum run by a private company, and political threads here have a marked tendency toward getting locked.
In the interest of all of us being able to post and read interesting facts that we all find, I would suggest not trying to inject any posts with any particular political aim.
This kind of thing can get exhausting very quickly, and I really don't want to have to talk about this again, so let's just drop it and move on.
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The bearded fictional paleontologist Dr. Robert Burke, who is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex in Steven Spielberg's 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, is an affectionate caricature of famed paleontologist Dr. Robert T. Bakker. In real life, Bakker has argued for a predatory T. rex, while Bakker's rival paleontologist Dr. John R. "Jack" Horner views it as primarily a scavenger. According to Horner (who served as the technical advisor for all four of Spielberg's Jurassic Park films), Spielberg wrote the character of Burke and had him killed by the T. rex as a favor for Horner. After the film came out, Bakker recognized himself in Burke, loved the caricature, and actually sent Horner a message saying, "See, I told you T. rex was a hunter!"
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Though separated by the country of Belgium on the European mainland, France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands share a 15-kilometer border on the Caribbean island of St. Martin (French: Saint-Martin; Dutch: Sint Maarten), which is divided between France's Collectivité de Saint-Martin and the Kingdom of the Netherlands' Nederlandse Antillen (Netherlands Antilles).
As France and The Netherlands are members of the European Union, and native residents of Saint-Martin/Sint Maartin are French and Dutch citizens, respectively, inhabitants of the island are classified as European citizens, despite its closer proximity to Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the United States' Territory of Puerto Rico.
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The main character "The Avatar" in the widely-panned 1999 role-playing video game Ultima IX: Ascension was portrayed by voice actor J.C. Shakespeare. After his role in the ninth single-player Ultima game, Shakespeare played a handful of voice roles in the realms of film and gaming, such as small parts in the 2003 video game Freelancer (alongside Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale) and the 2001 animated film Waking Life (with Ethan Hawke). However, since 2004, Shakespeare has since become a licensed professional counselor and part-time new age religious blogger. And given the quality of his dramatic performances, it's a good thing, too...
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Paul Seed, who directed the British (original) version of House of Cards (and a lot of other stuff) began as an actor, appearing, among other roles, as the Graff Vynda-K in the Doctor Who serial The Ribos Operation.
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In 1997, Canadian actor Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle, Slither) played a small part in a little movie called Saving Private Ryan. It was only the second time Fillion had appeared in a feature film.
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Thankfully, I was forewarned when they swapped out Daeny's Fabio-lookalike boyfriend for Mr. Unremarkable the Stock Background Character.
The character of Daario Naharis on the HBO television series Game of Thrones has been played by Dutch actor Michiel Huisman since season 4 (2014). In season 3 (2013) (the character's first appearance), the character was played by British actor and rapper Ed Skrein, who was replaced between seasons due to "politics" (unconfirmed, but most likely a contractual agreement to appear in the 2015 film The Transporter Refueled). Though the character's physical appearance was changed dramatically, the character's costume remained the same between seasons.
After his roles on Game of Thrones and in The Transporter Refueled, Ed Skrein went on to play the villain Ajax (spelled F-r-a-n-c-i-s) in the 2016 comedy-action film Deadpool
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This post is about short people!
-Halflings were originally called Hobbits until Tolkien's estate took issue. It was one of several copyright violations DnD pulled over the years.
-Gnomes have a recent history of being mistreated in gaming. From Eberron making them into paranoid spymasters to 4E not even containing them as a playable race at first, they've taken a bit of beating in pen and paper games.
-World of Warcraft has also disrespected them, having them nuke their own home before the game even starts, to general treatment by players and devs alike that eventually got jokingly referenced in a webcomic and on WoW's wiki.
-Gnomes are still not a playable race in Neverwinter, despite the fact that both Drow and Dragoborn have fielded representatives twice.
-Halflings are not in Neverwinter either.
-Gnomes are not a playable race in Sword Coast Legends, having been beaten out (again) by the Drow. And for the expansion, Tieflings made the cut.
-The first major halfling NPC you can recruit outside of the prologue dies in the first chapter of Sword Coast Legends.
-In the class section of the 5E DnD Player's Guide, neither gnomes nor halflings represented; the majority of the representations are humans or elves, with half-elves, dwarves, dragonborn, and half-orcs having minority representation. This is out of twelve classes, a large number of which have two races depicted representing them.
-Golarion has halflings officially a slave race in some areas. And gnomes are an annoying fae race slowly going mad?
Enjoy these lovely facts, and make certain to hug a short person! Even if they are mistreated so much in gaming.
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The oft-quoted line, "Live the good life in the off-world colonies," attributed to the sci-fi film Blade Runner (1982), is actually a misquote by actor Kevin Murphy (as the character Tom Servo) from a 1991 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 ("Gamera"). The actual line from Blade Runner is, "A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies."
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During the filming of the 1986 film Platoon, actor Keith David (The Thing, Pitch Black, Mass Effect) saved the life of co-star Charlie Sheen. While shooting in an open-doored Huey gunship, the helicopter banked too hard, and Sheen was thrown towards - and would have gone through - the open door. David grabbed Sheen by the back of his shirt and pulled him back in.
On a semi-related note, Charlie Sheen is the son of actor Martin Sheen, who played the villainous Jack Harper AKA The Illusive Man opposite Keith David (as Captain/Counselor/Admiral David Anderson) in the Mass Effect video game series.
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The name of the planet Triginta Petra in the 2012 video game Mass Effect 3 means "Thirty Rock" in Latin, a reference to the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. The description of the planet in the in-game lore mentions, "The farmer's maxim on Triginta Petra was "if you can last five seasons, you officially know what you're doing." 30 Rock had been on-air for five seasons when the game was in development (it would go on for two more seasons afterward). Finally, the capitol of the planet is referred to as "Licitron," which may be a reference to 30 Rock's Liz Lemon (played by actress Tina Fey).
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COOOOOOOOL!
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Speaking of Turkeys...
Turkeys belong to the genus Meleagris, which is today represented by two living species: The Wild Turkey of the Eastern and SW North America, and the the more brightly colored Occellated Turkey, endemic to the Yucatan Peninsula.
Turkeys have a fossil record which extends into the Miocene, and their relatively robust bones (compared to other birds) make them commonly preserved in the fossil record. A third species of Turkey ( Meleagris californica), the California Turkey, inhabited the Pacific coast of North but became extinct during the end Pleistocene extinction 10,000 years ago, possibly due to climate change and human hunting. It remains one of the few known non "raptor" birds to go extinct in North America during this time period. The modern Wild Turkey is not native to the Pacific coast of the USA, but wild game advocates have used the former existence of the California Turkey in this region to support widespread introduction, and the Turkey is now a common component of the fauna of this region.
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Sir Jacob Charles Vouza MBE, GM (1900 – 15 March 1984) was a native police officer of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, who served heroically with the United States Marine Corps in the Guadalcanal campaign during World War II.
Vouza was born in Tasimboko, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, and educated at the South Seas Evangelical Mission School there. In 1916 he joined the Solomon Islands Protectorate Armed Constabulary. He retired in 1941, after 25 years of service, at the rank of Sergeant Major.
In mid-1942, Japanese forces invaded Guadalcanal. Vouza returned to active duty with the British forces, and volunteered to work with the Coastwatchers. Scotsman, Major Martin Clemens, a former British Solomon Islands Protectorate District Officer, was the officer in charge of Sgt. Maj. Vouza's brigade of native scouts. Vouza's ability as a scout had already been established when the US 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942. That same day, Vouza rescued an aviator from USS Wasp who was shot down in Japanese-held territory. He guided the pilot to American lines, where he met the Marines (including memoirist Sidney Phillips) for the first time.
Vouza then volunteered to scout behind enemy lines. On 20 August, while scouting for suspected Japanese outposts, Vouza was captured by men of the Ichiki Detachment, a battalion-strength force of the Japanese 28th Infantry Regiment. Having found a small American flag in Vouza's loincloth, the Japanese tied him to a tree and tortured him for information about Allied forces. Vouza was questioned for hours, but refused to talk. He was then bayoneted in both of his arms, throat, shoulder, face, and stomach, and left to die.
After his captors departed, Vouza freed himself by chewing through the ropes with his teeth, and made his way through the miles of jungle to American lines. Before accepting medical attention from Lt. Col. Stanley Radzyminski MD, he warned Martin Clemens and Lieutenant Colonel Edwin A. Pollock (whose 2nd Battalion 1st Marines held the defences at the Ilu River mouth) that an estimated 250 to 500 Japanese soldiers were coming to attack their position at any minute. The warning against the Japanese surprise attack gave the Marines about 10 minutes to prepare their defences along the Ilu river. The subsequent Battle of the Tenaru was a clear victory for the US Marines.
After spending 12 days in the hospital and receiving 16 pints of blood, Vouza returned to duty as the chief scout for the Marines. He accompanied Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson and the 2nd Raider Battalion on their 30-day raid behind enemy lines.
Sergeant Major Vouza was highly decorated for his World War II service. The Silver Star was presented to him personally by US Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, for refusing to give information under Japanese torture. He also was awarded the Legion of Merit for outstanding service with the 2d Raider Battalion during November and December 1942, and was made an honorary Sergeant Major of the United States Marine Corps. From the British government, he received the Police Long Service Medal, the George Medal for gallant conduct and exceptional devotion to duty, and, in 1957, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his long and faithful government service. In 1979, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
After the war, Vouza continued to serve his fellow islanders. He was appointed district headman in 1949, and was president of the Guadalcanal Council from 1952 to 1958. He was a member of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Advisory Council from 1950 to 1960. He made many friends during his association with the US Marine Corps, and Marines frequently visited him on Guadalcanal. In 1968, Vouza visited the United States as the honoured guest of the 1st Marine Division Association. He wore his Marine Corps tunic until his death on 15 March 1984, and was buried in it. A monument in his honour stands in front of the police headquarters building in Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands.
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The opossums, also known as possums, are marsupial mammals of the order Didelphimorphia. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 103 or more species in 19 genera. Opossums originated in South America, and entered North America in the Great American Interchange following the connection of the two continents. Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet, and reproductive habits make them successful colonizers and survivors in diverse locations and conditions.
The word "opossum" is borrowed from the Virginia Algonquian (Powhatan) language, and was first recorded between 1607 and 1611 by the Jamestown colonists John Smith (as "opassom") and William Strachey (as "aposoum"). The word likely derives from the Proto-Algonquian word wapathemw, meaning "white animal".
They are also commonly called possums, particularly in the Southern United States and Midwest. Following the discovery of Australia, the term "possum" was borrowed to describe distantly related Australian marsupials of the suborder Phalangeriformes, which are more closely related to other Australian marsupials such as kangaroos.
Opossums have a remarkably robust immune system, and show partial or total immunity to the venom of rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and other pit vipers, as well as ricin and botulinum toxin.. Opossums are about eight times less likely to carry rabies than wild dogs, and about one in eight hundred opossums is infected with this virus.
Opossums are usually solitary and nomadic, staying in one area as long as food and water are easily available. Some families will group together in ready-made burrows or even under houses. Though they will temporarily occupy abandoned burrows, they do not dig or put much effort into building their own. As nocturnal animals, they favor dark, secure areas.
When threatened or harmed, opossums will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. This physiological response is involuntary, rather than a conscious act. When an opossum is "playing possum", the animal's lips are drawn back, the teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, the eyes close or half-close, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. The stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away without reaction. The animal will typically regain consciousness after a period of between 40 minutes and 4 hours, a process that begins with slight twitching of the ears.
Adult opossums do not hang from trees by their tails, as sometimes depicted, though babies may dangle temporarily. Their semi-prehensile tails are not strong enough to support a mature adult's weight. Instead, the opossum uses its tail as a brace and a fifth limb when climbing. The tail is occasionally used as a grip to carry bunches of leaves or bedding materials to the nest. A mother will sometimes carry her young upon her back, where they will cling tightly even when she is climbing or running.
Threatened opossums (especially males) will growl deeply, raising their pitch as the threat becomes more urgent. Males make a clicking "smack" noise out of the side of their mouths as they wander in search of a mate, and females will sometimes repeat the sound in return. When separated or distressed, baby opossums will make a sneezing noise to signal their mother. If threatened, the baby will open its mouth and quietly hiss until the threat is gone.
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The song "Otherworld," featured in the 2001 video game Final Fantasy X, was written by composer Nobuo Uematsu and Black Mages guitarist Michio Okamiya, with lyrics by translator Alexander O. Smith.
The song was already fully written and partially recorded when Smith was tasked with writing lyrics for it based on a scratch track. Smith's lyrics were loosely based on The Song of Wandering Aengus, a poem by W. B. Yeats.
During the writing process, Smith mistook a guitar solo as another part that he had to fill with lyrics, and so he wrote in a spoken word section as, in Smith's words, "one of those Limp Bizkit-style breakdowns." Uematsu liked the result and included it in the final song.
The final version of the song was recorded by the Black Mages, featuring lead vocals from Bill Muir, lead vocalist of American Straight Edge deathcore band XtillIdieX.
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The opossums, also known as possums, are marsupial mammals of the order Didelphimorphia. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 103 or more species in 19 genera. Opossums originated in South America, and entered North America in the Great American Interchange following the connection of the two continents. Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet, and reproductive habits make them successful colonizers and survivors in diverse locations and conditions.
Being from the South (Arkansas, to be exact) possums among the most common wild mammals to be found.
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On a 1999 episode of TV series 3rd Rock From The Sun entitled "Dick's Big Giant Headache, part 1," series protagonist Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) meets the character Big Giant Head (William Shatner) at the airport. During the scene, Big Giant Head mentions "seeing something on the wing of the plane," to which Dick replies, "the same thing happened to me!" This is a reference to the fact that both Shatner and Lithgow played variations on the same character in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet," and the "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" segment of the 1983 film The Twilight Zone: The Movie, respectively.
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007 James Bond actor Daniel Craig is a huge science fiction fan, in particular the television series Firefly, Doctor Who, and especially Star Trek. A self-described "old-hand Trekkie," Craig auditioned for the role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in director J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film reboot, but lost out to Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg.
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On a 1999 episode of TV series 3rd Rock From The Sun entitled "Dick's Big Giant Headache, part 1," series protagonist Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) meets the character Big Giant Head (William Shatner) at the airport. During the scene, Big Giant Head mentions "seeing something on the wing of the plane," to which Dick replies, "the same thing happened to me!" This is a reference to the fact that both Shatner and Lithgow played variations on the same character in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet," and the "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" segment of the 1983 film The Twilight Zone: The Movie, respectively.
I remember that. I couldn't stop laughing/geeking out.
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007 James Bond actor Daniel Craig is a huge science fiction fan, in particular the television series Firefly, Doctor Who, and especially Star Trek. A self-described "old-hand Trekkie," Craig auditioned for the role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in director J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film reboot, but lost out to Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg.
the latter allows me to forgive the former.
007 James Bond actor Daniel Craig is a huge science fiction fan, in particular the television series Firefly, Doctor Who, and especially Star Trek. A self-described "old-hand Trekkie," Craig auditioned for the role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in director J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film reboot, but lost out to Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg.
the latter allows me to forgive the former.
Hah! I was wondering about what you'd do here...
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In the third supplement to the original Dungeons & Dragons rules (1974-1976), Eldritch Wizardry, writer Brian Blume invented two artifacts he called the Hand and Eye of Vecna. These were supposedly the only remnants of an evil lich, Vecna, who had been destroyed long ago. The name "Vecna" is an anagram of "Vance," the surname of fantasy author Jack Vance, whose "fire-and-forget" magic system is used in Dungeons & Dragons.
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007 James Bond actor Daniel Craig is a huge science fiction fan, in particular the television series Firefly, Doctor Who, and especially Star Trek. A self-described "old-hand Trekkie," Craig auditioned for the role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in director J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film reboot, but lost out to Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg.the latter allows me to forgive the former.
Craig is also a fan of the Star Wars films, and after pleading with J.J. Abrams, got to portray an unnamed First Order stormtrooper (a fairly extensive cameo, but uncredited) in 2015's Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
"I will remove these restraints and leave the cell with the door open. ...and I'll drop my weapon."
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The githyanki are a fictional humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Githyanki first appeared in, and on the cover of, the 1981 edition of the Fiend Folio, and were originally introduced by writer Charles Stross in his Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Stross borrowed the name from a fictional race mentioned in the 1977 novel Dying of the Light, the first full-length novel by a critically-acclaimed but mostly unknown short story writer named George R.R. Martin.
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"Borrowed", eh?
Don't blame me, I just copied it from Wikipedia.
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Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. The strip follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger.
While the characters, typical of such media, never age throughout the strip's 10-year syndication, if Calvin was six in 1985, that would mean that at the present time, he is thirty-seven years old.
Similarly, under the same conditions, Bart Simpson (age ten in 1987) is thirty-nine, Stewie Griffin (age one in 1999) is eighteen, Bobby Hill (age eleven in 1997) is thirty, Charlie Brown (age four in 1950, though aged slowly up to age eight in ensuing years) is sixty-nine or seventy, and Archie Andrews (sixteen in 1941) is ninety-one (or, more likely, dead).
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In the third supplement to the original Dungeons & Dragons rules (1974-1976), Eldritch Wizardry, writer Brian Blume invented two artifacts he called the Hand and Eye of Vecna. These were supposedly the only remnants of an evil lich, Vecna, who had been destroyed long ago. The name "Vecna" is an anagram of "Vance," the surname of fantasy author Jack Vance, whose "fire-and-forget" magic system is used in Dungeons & Dragons.
Magic in DnD is described as Vancian, yet actually works via a very different method than magic in the Vance novels; in the Vance novels, people were effectively charging themselves with magical energy that was set to go off. So the limit on spells wasn't a limit on how many you could remember, but on how much energy your body could store without killing you.
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Somewhat counter-intuitively, the island nation of New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, not the Danish island of Zealand (Sjælland).
New Zealand acquired its current name in 1645 when Dutch cartographers began to refer to the island as "Nova Zeelandia," which was later anglicized to "New Zealand" by Capt. James Cook.
The island was first sighted by the Dutch in 1642 and called "Staaten Landt" (State Lands) by explorer Abel Tasman.
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The Coolidge Effect (a term in biology and psychology describing a phenomenon seen in mammalian species whereby males (and to a lesser extent females) exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new receptive sexual partners) was first referred to as such by behavioral endocrinologist Frank A. Beach in publication in 1955, crediting one of his students with suggesting the term at a psychology conference.
To quote Beach:
"[The source of the neologism is] an old joke about Calvin Coolidge when he was President … The President and Mrs. Coolidge were being shown [separately] around an experimental government farm. When [Mrs. Coolidge] came to the chicken yard she noticed that a rooster was mating very frequently. She asked the attendant how often that happened and was told, "Dozens of times each day." Mrs. Coolidge said, "Tell that to the President when he comes by." Upon being told, the President asked, "Same hen every time?" The reply was, "Oh, no, Mr. President, a different hen every time." President: "Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge."