TIL Thread: Today I learned...

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Sun Jan 05, 2020 7:34 pm

I only know about Woolworth's because of the Marx Brothers.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Sun Jan 05, 2020 9:38 pm

TIL that Acorn, the British company responsible for the BBC Micro, didn't completely die out like Commodore, Sinclair, Atari, and probably dozen other '80s microcomputer companies did. Their chip fabrication division invented the ARM processor, and that division, under the name ARM Holdings, is still responsible for developing new generations of it and licensing them to virtually every smartphone and tablet manufacturer on earth. Not bad for a company whose computers were barely known outside of the Commonwealth.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Jan 05, 2020 10:02 pm

TIL that "Rex the Runt", an Aardman show from 1999-2001, had its first season air in Japan on WOWOW.


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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:51 pm

TIL that Rod Serling was only 50 when he died.

Combination of overworking and heavy smoking, basically. His heart was so weak at that point he had multiple heart attacks.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Gloomy Rube (?) » Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:11 am

You can still see the Woolworth's logo at footlockers, they use the name in some spots, and I think some footlockers are actually still open as "Woolworth's" but I could be wrong, I just feel like I've seen one recently :-I
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by W.T. Fits (?) » Wed Jan 08, 2020 12:36 am


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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by W.T. Fits (?) » Wed Jan 08, 2020 12:36 pm

TIL I suck at copy/pasting comic URLs and spelling the word "Australia" when I'm tired. :ohrarity:

The link in the previous post has been corrected to go to the comic I originally meant for it to go to.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:09 pm

You know how movies have that "This is a work of fiction. any similarities to persons living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental" disclaimer? Well TIL why they added that disclaimer. It involved Rasputin:


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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:13 pm

TIL that there's a collection of Roald Dahl's NSFW short stories called "Switch Bitch" :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Jan 18, 2020 2:02 am

TIL that Sherlock Holmes never said "elementary, my dear Watson" in any of the original Conan Doyle stories.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:04 pm

TIL that Yugoda in "Avatar" was voiced by Lucille Bliss.

Bliss was also the voice of Smurfette, Ms. Bitters in "Invader Zim", and Crusader Rabbit, the latter being the first cartoon ever made for television (all the way back in 1950). In another words, the character was voiced by the first voice actress to ever work in TV animation.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:07 pm

TIL that there's a British movie called "Thunderpants". It's about a kid who farts so uncontrollably they built a rocket that can be powered by it. Oh, and one of the stars is Rupert Grint (Ron in the Harry Potter movies).

I'm not making this up. It's a real movie :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:12 pm

why
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;) ❤️ :twasnothin: ❤️ :fancyhat:

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Thu Jan 23, 2020 9:16 pm

Rupert Grint continues to win at life.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Sun Jan 26, 2020 2:30 pm

TIL Abraham Lincoln was about to sign the bill creating the Secret Service when he was assassinated. Which sounds like irony, but the Secret Service actually had nothing to do with being bodyguards until decades later, after McKinley was assassinated; their original purpose was investigating counterfeiting (the only significant federal crime at the time; they were basically the predecessors of the FBI).
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Perpetual Motion (?) » Sun Jan 26, 2020 2:54 pm

The Secret Service is, in fact, still under the purview of the Department of the Treasury to this day, and still runs anti-counterfeiting operations. Protecting the President just happens to be a much higher profile job.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Orange Fluffy Sheep (?) » Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:52 pm

Mr. Big wrote:
Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:07 pm
TIL that there's a British movie called "Thunderpants". It's about a kid who farts so uncontrollably they built a rocket that can be powered by it. Oh, and one of the stars is Rupert Grint (Ron in the Harry Potter movies).

I'm not making this up. It's a real movie :-I
It was on Red Letter Media's Best of the Worst. It's a whimsical and charming movie about a kid who farts.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:21 pm

TIL the term "soft lock" can mean two wildly different things. Either being blocked from progressing on purpose but in a way that can be worked around with enough skill or information, or having trapped yourself in a situation you where you can't progress at all because you did something the game designers didn't realize was possible. I'm guessing the second meaning came about because people were just plain using it wrong and it caught on, because they're both kind of complicated concepts to understand.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:59 pm

i thought a soft lock meant that progress was impossible but the game was still functioning, whereas a hard lock would be a freeze or crash
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:59 pm

TIL
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;) ❤️ :twasnothin: ❤️ :fancyhat:

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by diribigal (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:34 pm

Pocket wrote:
Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:21 pm
"soft lock" can mean...being blocked from progressing on purpose but in a way that can be worked around with enough skill or information
Do you have a source for this? Like I could imagine "you seem to be locked out of the room of power in Metroid 17 unless you have the pony ball, but it's actually only a soft lock". Except I have never heard/read anyone use "soft lock" that way - only the other way. And I feel like I've consumed a lot of relevant content, but I'd be happy to learn that there's a bunch of people using the phrase in this other way and maybe even they were first.
ImageImageImage Very math.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:49 pm

Game Maker's Toolkit has used the term that way a few times; I think the Hollow Knight episode was one?

The two meanings do feel like they're related. If the game designer creates a "soft lock" (def. 1) by accident, and the player also discovers it by accident, they might get "softlocked" (def. 2) because the designer obviously also didn't think to provide a way back.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Perpetual Motion (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:57 pm

Yeah, it's just two definitions for two different things. One is a lock in the traditional "lock and key" sense, and the other is a lock as in the game locks up and becomes uncompletable.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:35 pm

Speaking of Game Maker's Toolkit, I literally just now learned that the person behind it was also the founder of Spriter's Resource. Small world.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Feb 08, 2020 1:53 pm

TIL that Ub Iwerks, who created (or co-created, depending on the source) Mickey Mouse, worked on Hitchcock's "The Birds", doing special effects. He was even nominated for an Oscar for that movie; the only Oscar nomination the movie ever got, even.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Feb 10, 2020 1:27 pm

TIL that the inspiration for the Worker and Parasite sequence in "The Simpsons" was a 1960s Yugoslavia cartoon "The Substitute", which has the distinction of being the first non-US cartoon to win an Oscar.



For reference, here's the film:


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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Octavia (?) » Mon Feb 10, 2020 2:34 pm

That cartoon went from whimsical and fun to problematic to morbid. :-I
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Feb 10, 2020 3:49 pm

Octavia wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 2:34 pm
That cartoon went from whimsical and fun to problematic to morbid. :-I
So your reaction to the cartoon was "What the hell was that!?" :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Feb 13, 2020 10:36 pm

TIL what "simp" means

Goddamn is Twitter a hellsite :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Adiwan (?) » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:07 am

Is this short for "simpleton"?
"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:11 am

Adiwan wrote:
Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:07 am
Is this short for "simpleton"?
Sort of. In this context it means "A man who foolishly overvalues a woman and puts her on a pedestal." (per Google search)

It was trending on Twitter today relating to, of all things, Mordecai from "Regular Show" :-I :-I :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Adiwan (?) » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:45 am

I don't get why this needs a word and such a shitty word on top of that.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:34 pm

TIL that there was a German train called the Flying Hamburger.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:47 pm

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:06 am

TIL about a film Peter Jackson directed called "Heavenly Creatures", about two girls who plot to murder the mother of one of them. It was based on a true story.

After the movie came out, people became interested of what became of the two girls. Turns out one of them changed her name and became a highly successful author; nobody knew about this until the movie came out and they started looking deep into their whereabouts :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Princess Flufflebutt (?) » Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:32 am

huh
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:50 am

Also Jackson's work on that film is what got him hired to direct the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Princess Flufflebutt (?) » Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:05 am

Huh.

tbh the only works I knew he'd done was the LOTR trilogy and that Muppet parody thing.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Adiwan (?) » Sat Feb 29, 2020 6:29 am

The only film by him I knew before LOTR was Bad Taste.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Dong Strongly (?) » Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:31 am

Yesterday I learned Soulja boy used to make flash cartoons on newgrounds.

Today I learned 7 kids were named Rarity in 2013.
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