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British chemist Humphry Davy settled first on "alumium," then on "aluminum," for the element he was trying to isolate, first described in his 1812 book Chemical Philosophy. That same year, an anonymous contributor to the Quarterly Review, a British political-literary journal, in a review of Davy's book, objected to "aluminum" and proposed the name "aluminium," "for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound."
However, "aluminum" had already taken off in some circles, and today is still widely used (being the standard spelling in both Canada and the United States). The spelling "aluminium" was made standard by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in exchange for accepting the American spelling "sulfur" as opposed to the British "sulphur."
The discussion page Talk:Aluminium/Spelling for the Wikipedia entry "Aluminium" is an interesting read in its own right, but for completely different reasons.
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The Dragon Age fan community had a bit of a "you changed it and it sucks now" fit after the release of BioWare's Dragon Age II (2011), in regards to the fact that the Qunari (huge, gray-skinned humanoids from the tropical north) now had horns, after being hornless in 2009's Dragon Age Origins.
However, according to writer and game designer David Gaider, the Qunari were supposed originally supposed to have horns from the start, but they were cut from DA:O due to limitations in the game engine (namely that horns would have prevented the Qunari party member Sten from wearing helmets, which were all designed for a standard character model).
In the next game in the series to feature a playable Qunari character, Dragon Age Inquisition (2014), the issue was solved by creating in-game lore that Qunari rarely use helmets, instead relying on enchanted face paint called vitaar, which typically grants an additional in-game bonus.
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In the movie The Sword and the Sorcerer... the sword is really three swords
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In the movie The Sword and the Sorcerer... the sword is really three swords
Much like how the Glaive in Krull is really a novelty catalog knife.
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Speaking of The Sword And The Sorcerer:
American actor Richard Moll, who played Xusia of Delos in the film, also played the warrior Hurok alongside actor Jeffrey Byron in Charles Band's 1983 sci-fi B-movie Metalstorm: The Destruction Of Jared-Syn. Moll, Byron, and Band reunited two years later for the infamous cult sci-fi/fantasy film The Dungeonmaster (AKA RageWar: The Challenges Of Excalibrate), in which Moll portrayed the evil sorcerer Mestema.
Between the filming of Metalstorm and The Dungeonmaster, Moll, still with his head shaved for the role of Hurok, auditioned for several TV pilots. This, along with his hulking appearance, led to perhaps his most famous role-- that of bailiff Bull Shannon on the NBC sitcom Night Court (1984-1992).
Aside from the roles previously mentioned, Moll is notable for portraying the villain Harvey Dent / Two-Face on Warner Brothers' Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), as well as Cthulhu expy "Vorn the Unspeakable" on the cult animated series Freakazoid! (also produced by Warner Brothers).
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During the early stages of his career, Roger Moore collected towels from the hotels he stayed in. However, he stopped when a British newspaper printed a story entitled "Roger Moore is a towel thief". He revealed on So Graham Norton (1998) that he still has the collection in his Swiss home.
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The claim the Great Wall of China is visible from the Moon has been debunked many times, but is still ingrained in popular culture. The wall is a maximum of around 9 meters (~30 feet) wide, and is about the same color as the soil surrounding it.
Based on the optics of resolving power (distance versus the width of the iris: a few millimeters for the human eye, meters for large telescopes) only an object of reasonable contrast to its surroundings which is about 110 kilometers (~70 miles) or more in diameter (1 arc-minute) would be visible to the unaided eye from the Moon, whose average distance from Earth is 384,393 km (238,851 mi). The apparent width of the Great Wall from the Moon is the same as that of a human hair viewed from 3 kilometers (~2 miles) away. To see the Wall from the Moon would require spatial resolution 17,000 times better than normal (20/20) vision.
One of the earliest known references to this myth appears in a letter written in 1754 by the English antiquary William Stukeley. Stukeley wrote that, "This mighty wall of four score miles in length is only exceeded by the Chinese Wall, which makes a considerable figure upon the terrestrial globe, and may be discerned at the Moon." The claim was also mentioned by Henry Norman in 1895 where he states, "Besides its age, it enjoys the reputation of being the only work of human hands on the globe visible from the Moon."
The issue of "canals" on Mars was prominent in the late 19th century and may have led to the belief that long, thin objects were visible from space. The claim that the Great Wall is visible also appears in 1932's Ripley's Believe It or Not! strip and in Richard Halliburton's 1938 Second Book of Marvels.
A more controversial question is whether the Wall is visible from low Earth orbit (an altitude of as little as 160 kilometers (~100 miles)). NASA claims that it is barely visible, and only under nearly perfect conditions; it is no more conspicuous than many other man-made objects. Other authors have argued that due to limitations of the optics of the eye and the spacing of photoreceptors on the retina, it is impossible to see the wall with the naked eye, even from low orbit, and would require visual acuity of 20/3 (7.7 times better than normal).
Astronaut William Pogue thought he had seen it from Skylab but discovered he was actually looking at the Grand Canal of China near Beijing. He spotted the Great Wall with binoculars, but said that it "wasn't visible to the unaided eye." U.S. Senator Jake Garn claimed to be able to see the Great Wall with the naked eye from a space shuttle orbit in the early 1980s, but his claim has been disputed by several U.S. astronauts. Veteran U.S. astronaut Gene Cernan has stated: "At Earth orbit of 100 to 200 miles [~160 to ~320 kilometers] high, the Great Wall of China is, indeed, visible to the naked eye." Ed Lu, Expedition 7 Science Officer aboard the International Space Station, adds that it is "less visible than a lot of other objects. And you have to know where to look."
In 2001, Neil Armstrong stated about the view from Apollo 11: "I do not believe that, at least with my eyes, there would be any man-made object that I could see. I have not yet found somebody who has told me they've seen the Wall of China from Earth orbit. ...I've asked various people, particularly Shuttle guys, that have been many orbits around China in the daytime, and the ones I've talked to didn't see it." Armstrong also has confirmed that the Great Wall isn't even close to being visible from the Moon's surface.
In October 2003, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei stated that he had not been able to see the Great Wall of China. In response, the European Space Agency (ESA) issued a press release reporting that from an orbit between 160 and 320 kilometers (~100 and ~200 miles), the Great Wall is visible to the naked eye. In an attempt to further clarify things, the ESA published a picture of a part of the “Great Wall” photographed from low orbit. However, in a press release a week later, they acknowledged that the "Great Wall" in the picture was actually a river.
Leroy Chiao, a Chinese-American astronaut, took a photograph from the International Space Station that shows the Wall. It was so indistinct, however, that the photographer was not certain he had actually captured it. Based on the photograph, China Daily later reported that the Great Wall can be seen from 'space' with the naked eye, under favorable viewing conditions, if one knows exactly where to look. However, the resolution of a camera can be much higher than the human visual system, and the optics much better, rendering photographic evidence irrelevant to the issue of whether it is visible to the naked eye.
Depending on your definition of what constitutes a "man-made structure," the largest man-made structures visible from space are human cities, the largest of which is currently the New York metropolitan area, encompassing roughly 4,500 square miles (~11,600 square kilometers). As seen in this photograph (taken in 2015 from low lunar orbit by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), Earth actually appears quite small in the sky when viewed from the Moon, and very few features are able to be discerned.
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Often times, the working title of a film or other project is used as a ruse to protect the identity of the work in progress. Some examples include Ebb Tide (Jurassic World), Blue Harvest (Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi), Corporate Headquarters (J.J. Abrams' Star Trek), and Rory's First Kiss (The Dark Knight). The revived 2005 Doctor Who used the working title Torchwood (an anagram of "Doctor Who"), which eventually became the title of a spin-off series.
Occasionally, a project's working title ends up as the final title of the project. Some examples include Cloverfield, High School Musical, The Cleveland Show, and Epic Mickey. The title of the film Snakes On A Plane was originally to be changed to Pacific Air Flight 121 upon release, but star Samuel L. Jackson insisted that the working title be used for the final film. (Jackson has stated, half-jokingly, that he took the role based on the working title alone. This is still a better decision than agreeing to play Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel films.)
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British actor Mark Sheppard, best known for playing Badger on Joss Whedon's Firefly (2002) and Romo Lampkin on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica (2007-2009), as well as "the voice" of BBC America since 2011, is the son of actor W. Morgan Sheppard, known for his roles as Ranulf in Hawk The Slayer (1980), as the narrator of the 1993 film Gettysburg, and numerous TV roles.
Mark Sheppard has been cast with his father as the same character three times, each playing the character at different ages. The father and son pair played Canton Everett Delaware III in the Doctor Who episode "The Impossible Astronaut", war criminal Mercin Jarek a.k.a. "Mr. Pain" in the NCIS episode "Broken Bird," and Captain Nemo in the 2012 film Mysterious Island, which the younger Sheppard also directed.
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Often times, the working title of a film or other project is used as a ruse to protect the identity of the work in progress. Some examples include Ebb Tide (Jurassic World), Blue Harvest (Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi), Corporate Headquarters (J.J. Abrams' Star Trek), and Rory's First Kiss (The Dark Knight). The revived 2005 Doctor Who used the working title Torchwood (an anagram of "Doctor Who"), which eventually became the title of a spin-off series.
Occasionally, a project's working title ends up as the final title of the project. Some examples include Cloverfield, High School Musical, The Cleveland Show, and Epic Mickey. The title of the film Snakes On A Plane was originally to be changed to Pacific Air Flight 121 upon release, but star Samuel L. Jackson insisted that the working title be used for the final film. (Jackson has stated, half-jokingly, that he took the role based on the working title alone. This is still a better decision than agreeing to play Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel films.)
Ayn Rand's working title for Atlas Shrugged was The Strike.
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Fred Astaire always called Rita Hayworth his favorite dancing partner. He recalled how gifted and quick she was in learning the most advanced routines-often learning the steps in the morning, mulling over them during lunch, and after lunch performing the dance without a single mistake.
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The audio clip used for the Germans' chanting during the opening battle scene of Ridley Scott's 2000 film Gladiator is actually an African war chant, and was taken straight from the audio track of the 1964 film Zulu.
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The three main characters of the notorious TV bomb Cavemen (based on an ad campaign for the insurance company Geico) were played by actors Bill English, Sam Huntington, and Nick Kroll. English's career went basically nowhere after the show was cancelled, but Huntington went on to a starring role as Josh on SyFy's Being Human, and Kroll landed a recurring guest role on NBC's Parks And Recreation before helming his own sketch comedy series, Comedy Central's Kroll Show, for three seasons.
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Fairly well-known, but:
The mask worn by fictional killer Michael Myers (Nick Castle), who first appeared in the 1978 film Halloween, was originally a William Shatner "Captain Kirk" mask painted white.
The mask worn by fictional killer Jason Voorhees (Steve Daskewisz), who first appeared in the 1981 film Friday The 13th Part 2, was originally a made from a 1970s Detroit Red Wings hockey goaltender mask.
Fiat money - the bane of free market economics.
Actually existence is the bane of free market economics. With capitalism you either have an unregulated march to monopoly, or a regulated trade system.
Fiat currencies simply change the backing of money, from material to the existence of the state itself. Which provides more incentive to keep the state stable and around.
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Only one English-language television show has ever been cancelled before the first episode finished airing:
Turn-On (US, February 5, 1969); ABC variety comedy series that was a racier derivative of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. The show alarmed broadcast officials and sponsors who immediately perceived the show as offensive because of its strong sexual and political humor. At least one station did not return to Turn-On after the first commercial break, and others in western time zones where the show would air later that evening refused to air the program at all.
Twenty-one English-language television series have been cancelled after only one episode:
Fun And Fortune (US, June 6, 1949); ABC game show in which contestants try to identify an item hidden behind a curtain based on four clues.
Who's Whose (US, June 25, 1951); CBS panel quiz show in which four celebrity panelists tried to determine which of three male contestants was married to which of three female contestants.
The Melting Pot (UK, June 11, 1975); BBC sitcom about a Pakistani illegal immigrant in London.
Co-Ed Fever (US, February 4, 1979); CBS sitcom that (unsuccessfully) attempted to imitate the then-successful film National Lampoon's Animal House.
K-9 And Company (UK, December 28, 1981); spin-off of the BBC's Doctor Who featuring companion Sarah Jane Smith and robot dog K-9.
Heil Honey I'm Home! (UK, eptember 30, 1990); Galaxy Network comedy that spoofed American sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s by featuring caricatures of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun who live in matrimonial bliss until they become neighbors to a Jewish couple.
South of Sunset (US, October 27, 1993); CBS private eye series starring Eagles frontman Glenn Frey. (The remaining five filmed episodes eventually aired on VH1 in 1994.)
Public Morals (US, October 30, 1996); CBS sitcom about a vice squad unit of the New York City Police Department, featuring a character from ABC's NYPD Blue.
Lawless (US, March 22, 1997); Fox action series starring former football player Brian Bosworth as a private investigator.
Dot Comedy (US, December 8, 2000); ABC series featuring humorous material from the Internet. (Nearly a decade later, the similar similar series Tosh.0 would become wildly popular for no reason that I can fathom.)
Comedians Unleashed (US, October 8, 2002);An attempt by Animal Planet to mimic Comedy Central's stand-up comedy shows, but with animal-themed jokes.
The Will (US, January 8, 2005); CBS reality show in which family members and friends competed to be named the beneficiary of a will. (The remaining five episodes eventually aired on Fox Reality Channel.)
Emily's Reasons Why Not (US, January 9, 2006); ABC sitcom about a single career woman, unlucky in love, who employs a list-making system to help her determine when it's time to give up and move on.
The Rich List (US, November 1, 2006); Fox game show in which contestants attempt to list as more entries that the others in designated categories.
The Debbie King Show (UK, March 5, 2007); ITV Play phone-in quiz show in which viewers were invited to phone/text in views towards current events.
Quarterlife (US, February 26, 2008); NBC broadcast version of the popular MySpace web series about a group of twenty-something artists who are coming of age in the digital generation.
Secret Talents Of The Stars (US, April 8, 2008); CBS reality talent show where celebrities competed by participating in talents that differed from their profession.
Osbournes Reloaded (US, March 31, 2009); Fox variety show hosted by heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and his family.
Ford Nation (Canada, November 18, 2013); Sun News Network talk show hosted by Toronto mayor Rob Ford (famous for a then-contemporary scandal involving crack cocaine) and his brother, Toronto City Councilman Doug Ford Jr.
Breaking Boston (US, March 13, 2014); A&E reality show produced by Mark Wahlberg four young women working to change their lives in the titular city. (Seven episodes were subsequently made available on the website Hulu.)
Mesmerised (Australia, October 15, 2015); Seven Network hypnosis show helmed by British hypnotist Peter Powers, the first episode of which featured a man marrying an alpaca as its centerpiece.
Five additional shows were cancelled on opening night after showing two back-to-back episodes:
Beware Of Dog (US, August 13, 2002); Animal Planet sitcom featuring Look Who's Talking-style observations by a stray dog named Jack who was adopted by a suburban family.
Anchorwoman (US, August 22, 2007); Fox comedy/reality series about Lauren Jones, a model-turned-television news anchor.
The Bussey Bunch (US, January 22, 2008); TLC reality show about a family of professional wrestling promoters in Texas.
The Xtacles (US, November 9, 2008); Adult Swim spin-off of Frisky Dingo, cancelled after the network decided not to fund future episodes. The creators of The Xtacles debuted the highly successful series Archer a year later.
The Hasselhoffs (US, December 5, 2010); A&E reality series starring David Hasselhoff and his two daughters. The full series aired in the UK on May 30, 2011 on The Biography Channel.
Because of more complex situations, such as shows canceled independently in separate countries, six programs can be said to have been canceled after one episode under a special set of circumstances only:
You're In The Picture (US, January 20, 1961); CBS game show starring Jackie Gleason, which received such negative reviews that Gleason used the same timeslot on January 27 to apologize. Gleason used the timeslot to revive The Jackie Gleason Show as a talk show for the remainder of his contract.
Hardwicke House (UK, February 24, 1987); ITV sitcom set in an anarchic school. Cancelled after a double-length pilot and one regular episode of a completed six-part series had aired on consecutive nights, with five episodes remaining unreleased in the UK - the series was and is available for overseas syndication but has never been purchased.
Who's Your Daddy? (US, January 3, 2005); Fox reality series that involved an adopted woman trying to identify her biological father among a group of impostors. The show attracted protest from adoptive families and adoption-rights groups before airing causing the episode to air as a "special", not a "series premiere."
Korgoth Of Barbaria (US, June 3, 2006);Adult Swim animated show parodying the postapocalyptic and sword and sorcery genres. Aired as an uncommitted pilot, the show was announced as having been picked up as a series on June 18 of the same year. However, no further episodes were actually produced, and a 2010 "bump" on the network listed Korgoth in its list of cancelled programming (for being "too expensive"). Though only one episode was ever produced, the show was formally picked up and later formally cancelled, making its distinction between pilot episode and cancelled series unclear.
Viva Laughlin (US, October 22, 2007); CBS musical comedy-drama that takes place at a casino in Laughlin, Nevada. While CBS canceled the series after two episodes had aired, Australia's Nine Network aired the first episode on October 22 and then canceled it the following day.
Soul Quest Overdrive (US, May 24, 2011); Adult Swim spin-off of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. After losing a 2010 online pilot contest, six episodes of the show were ordered by the network regardless. Four of them aired back-to-back at 4 AM on May 24, 2011 during Adult Swim's "DVR Theater" block, leaving at least one unaired. No further episodes of the show were made.
Finally, the following six shows were placed on indefinite hiatus after one episode, but were later brought back by the originating networks, and aired their remaining episodes on the originating networks some months later:
Melba (US, January 28, 1986); CBS sitcom starring Melba Moore as a single mother who runs a New York information bureau; the series premiered on the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The five remaining episodes aired during the summer.
The Great Defender (US, March 5, 1995); Fox legal drama about a loud-mouthed and incompetent lawyer. The premiere aired opposite 60 Minutes and received dismal ratings. Fox removed the series from the air after its first episode, later airing the remaining episodes during the summer.
Family Forensics UK (UK, November16, 2005); LivingTV reality show cancelled after one episode had been broadcast when the producers discovered that their private investigator was a convicted sex offender, and in breach of contract for not telling the producers about it. The show was re-filmed with another team, and broadcast in April and May 2006.
It's Now Or Never (UK, July 22, 2006); ITV1 light entertainment program presented by Phillip Schofield; two episodes were produced to be aired in a Saturday night timeslot during the summer of 2006, but only the first was aired owing low ratings. The second episode was eventually aired later in the year, on December 30, 2006.
The Master (Australia, August 16, 2006); Seven Network quiz show cancelled after the premiere received low ratings. The following six episodes were eventually broadcast on the network later in the year.
Proving Ground (US, ); G4 popular science reality show hosted by in which stunts from video games, films and comic books are tested in the real world. The series was pulled from G4's schedule after one of its hosts, daredevil Ryan Dunn, was killed in a car accident shortly after the airing of the first episode. G4 began airing the remaining eight episodes in July 2011 and it was discontinued after, with original co-host Jessica Chobot becoming a correspondent with X-Play to fulfill her contract with G4 for its last year of existence with original programming.
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Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
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Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
Note: while Jimsonweed can turn you into a living zombie and nightshade can make you actually dead, none of the plants listed can turn you into an undead creature. Better keep half an eye on those potatoes, though. You never can trust the damn things.
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Note: while Jimsonweed can turn you into a living zombie and nightshade can make you actually dead, none of the plants listed can turn you into an undead creature. Better keep half an eye on those potatoes, though. You never can trust the damn things.Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
Further note: due to the close relation of the genera Solanum and Nicotiana, viable crossbreeding is hypothetically possible.
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Further note: due to the close relation of the genera Solanum and Nicotiana, viable crossbreeding is hypothetically possible.Note: while Jimsonweed can turn you into a living zombie and nightshade can make you actually dead, none of the plants listed can turn you into an undead creature. Better keep half an eye on those potatoes, though. You never can trust the damn things.Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
And if you cross potatoes and tobacco, you might end up with this guy.
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Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
I have an autographed copy of Brook's Zombie Survival Guide. Nice guy.
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I have an autographed copy of Brook's Zombie Survival Guide. Nice guy.Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
He actually talked with agents from various agencies around the world on how they would handle a zombie outbreak for research for the book.
Turns out a lout of them already do have plans in case of said outbreak.
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Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
I have an autographed copy of Brook's Zombie Survival Guide. Nice guy.
He actually talked with agents from various agencies around the world on how they would handle a zombie outbreak for research for the book.
Turns out a lout of them already do have plans in case of said outbreak.
Do they have a plan for a succubus outbreak?
A World Wound?
A YouTube? Oh wait...
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Turns out the Unicorn wasn't a horse! It wasn't even a unicorn, it was a f~%&ing rhino.
... that Video Game High School features the incredible music of The Protomen?! SO! AWESOME!
(Squee for The Protomen!)
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Note: while Jimsonweed can turn you into a living zombie and nightshade can make you actually dead, none of the plants listed can turn you into an undead creature. Better keep half an eye on those potatoes, though. You never can trust the damn things.Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
The main danger from eating too many potatoes is waking up one morning and finding out you're Irish.
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Of course, the real plot twist comes later, when you look through The Da Vinci Files, and realize you were Irish the entire time!
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The main danger from eating too many potatoes is waking up one morning and finding out you're Irish.Note: while Jimsonweed can turn you into a living zombie and nightshade can make you actually dead, none of the plants listed can turn you into an undead creature. Better keep half an eye on those potatoes, though. You never can trust the damn things.Solanum, the virus responsible for creating zombies in author Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and its accompanying novel World War Z, shares its name with a large and diverse genus of flowering plants including, among others, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and bittersweet.
The family of plants that includes Solanum is that of the Solanaceae, which encompasses many genera, including those of chili and bell peppers, Jimsonweed, mandrake root, deadly nightshade, petunias, tobacco, gooseberries, and tomatillos.
Definitely been there before.
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Of course, the real plot twist comes later, when you look through The Da Vinci Files, and realize you were Irish the entire time!
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When directors Joel and Ethan Coen approached Spanish actor Javier Bardem about playing the psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh in their 2007 film No Country For Old Men (an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name), Bardem replied, "I don't drive, I speak bad English, and I hate violence." The Coens responded, "That's why we called you."
Bardem, who eventually won an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor), a BAFTA (Best Actor), and a Golden Globe (Best Supporting Actor) for his performance, said he took the role because it was his dream to be in a Coen Brothers film
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. . . That if "potatoes" and "Irish" are mentioned in the same sentence, I feel a socio-cultural imperative to favorite the post?
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Despite the similarities in shape and name, potatoes and sweet potatoes belong to entirely different families of plants (Solanaceae and Convolvulaceae, respectively). Sweet potatoes are more closely related to morning glories and Chinese watercress than to potatoes.
Both potatoes and sweet potatoes are native to the Americas, and after their introduction to the rest of the world became staple crops in many places, particularly China and northern Europe.
The name "potato" derives from the Spanish patata, which is a compound of the Taíno batata (meaning "sweet potato") and the Quechua papa (meaning "potato"). The name "potato" originally referred to sweet potatoes, though in many chronicles detailing agriculture and plants, no distinction is made between the two. The 16th-century English herbalist John Gerard used the terms "bastard potatoes" and "Virginia potatoes" for Solanum tuberosum, and referred to sweet potatoes as "common potatoes". Potatoes are occasionally referred to as "Irish potatoes" or "white potatoes" in the United States, to distinguish them from sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are often mistakenly called yams, a similar-looking but completely unrelated plant of the order Dioscoreaceae.
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. . . That if "potatoes" and "Irish" are mentioned in the same sentence, I feel a socio-cultural imperative to favorite the post?
There's an old joke in my family that the reason the Irish started eating potatoes is that they were using all of their grain to make booze. It would then follow that the Russians merely saw what the Irish were doing, skipped a step, and just made the booze out of potatoes.
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The Star Wars Expanded Universe (Star Wars Legends) character Grand Admiral Thrawn made his first appearance in the new "canon" Star Wars universe in 2016 during the third season of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. In the series, Thrawn is voiced by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, the older brother of actor Mads Mikkelsen, who portrays the character Galen Erso in the upcoming film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
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This one's unverified, but too funny not to post:
During the filming of director Michael Bay's 1998 sci-fi disaster film Armageddon, actor Ben Affleck, who had serious reservations about the script from the get-go, asked Bay why NASA would be training deep-core drillers to be astronauts instead of the other way around. Bay's response? "Shut the f~@+ up."
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The rectal temperature of a three toed bulette is 101.7 degrees F. Slightly higher than our own worlds rhino.
The rectal temperature of a three toed bulette is 101.7 degrees F. Slightly higher than our own worlds rhino.
...?
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Trey Parker has played piano since the age of 12 and credits Elton John as a hero.
Speaking of Elton John, I thought I had imagined this until I heard it on the radio yesterday:
In 2003, Canadian alternative rock band Nickelback (featuring American singer Kid Rock) recorded a cover version of the Elton John hit "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," which appeared on the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack and received significant airplay. The cover was later re-released that same year on the special edition of their album The Long Road, and then re-released again in 2008 as a B-side to their single "Gotta Be Somebody."
So that happened.
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I just chalked it up to drugs. Either really potent ones, or a missed dosage.The rectal temperature of a three toed bulette is 101.7 degrees F. Slightly higher than our own worlds rhino....?
With numbers that specific, it would have to be the end result of some pretty exhaustive research. Citation?
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This one's unverified, but too funny not to post:
During the filming of director Michael Bay's 1998 sci-fi disaster film Armageddon, actor Ben Affleck, who had serious reservations about the script from the get-go, asked Bay why NASA would be training deep-core drillers to be astronauts instead of the other way around. Bay's response? "Shut the f!+! up."
Actually the folks that NASA should have been deep training were sea drillers. They'd have experience manipulating major equipment in heavy suits.
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Actually the folks that NASA should have been deep training were sea drillers. They'd have experience manipulating major equipment in heavy suits.This one's unverified, but too funny not to post:
During the filming of director Michael Bay's 1998 sci-fi disaster film Armageddon, actor Ben Affleck, who had serious reservations about the script from the get-go, asked Bay why NASA would be training deep-core drillers to be astronauts instead of the other way around. Bay's response? "Shut the f!+! up."
Now let's not go trying to inject logic into Michael Bay films. This is the guy who thought that it would have been better if Col. Doolittle had gotten a handful of unusually attractive fighter pilots to fly bombers, as opposed from drawing from the large pool of highly-qualified bomber pilots like he did in real life.
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Michael Bay's 2001 war drama Pearl Harbor was a massive box office success, grossing $450,000,000 worldwide during its theatrical run. Despite its financial success, the highly-sensationalized and historically inaccurate film garnered largely negative reviews from critics, who praised the film's visual effects and production value but damned its exposition-laden script, campy melodrama, and wooden acting. The film currently holding a 25% "Rotten" rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Pearl Harbor was eventually nominated for four Academy Awards (Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Song) and six Golden Raspberry Awards (Worst Picture, Worst Actor [Ben Affleck], Worst Screen Couple [Josh Hartnett & Kate Beckinsale], Worst Screenplay, and Worst Director [Michael Bay]), eventually winning the Oscar for Best Sound Editing. This marked the first occurrence of a Worst-Picture-nominated film winning an Academy Award.
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We already did Pearl Harbor, David. Try something new. :)
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