Fun Facts

[Friday]

yeah there's this section in Those Who Walk Away From Omelas where the author describes this paradise city as having a fictional drug that has no bad effects on the body, isn't addictive, and just gets you a pleasant high while also being calming

I don't know to this day if Ursula K. Le Guin was taking the piss or just ignorant of weed

[Mongrel]

I really don't know why I've never started in on it. It has a high chance of being very beneficial to me.

I was always somewhat cautious because even though weed is harmless, I have a natural inclination to addiction across the board both in terms of consumption and activities. All my dopamine magic brain juice levers are fucked up. So it's probably just that I think of the cost too much and not of the benefits.

It's odd how I do that at times. I'm afraid something will be fun or enjoyable, so I don't do it. Not all the time, but with some things.

[Thad]

Per his son, Nick Sagan, Carl was quite the fan of a good scoob

Oh yeah, big fan. He described it as a "public service … in which paranormal claims are systematically investigated and every case is found to be explicable in prosaic terms."

...we're talking about Scooby-Doo, right?

[Mongrel]

Yep! You got it!

[Mongrel]

[Mongrel]

[Büge]

[KingRoyal]

I do love the detail of forcing Trek fans to fill in "It's a trap!"

[Mongrel]

I know which muscles they are...the DANCING EYEBROWS CUTE SADs

[Thad]

The two-headed dragon in Willow is called an Eborsisk.



The guys it's named after gave the film two thumbs down.

[Caithness]

Was it named before or after they did that?

[Thad]

Most likely before; while it's not named in the movie, the packaging for the merchandise was probably locked down before the movie screened for critics.

Plus, it's not the only thing in the movie named after critics; General Kael is named after Pauline Kael.

[Thad]

Cedric Smith (Professor X) and Catherine Disher (Jean Grey) were married during the years they made the X-Men cartoon. She was pregnant with their son while they were working on season 2.

[Mongrel]

Fiona Apple is a huge court-watcher/proceedings nerd.

I love these weird-but-positive secondary careers/hobbies. Real "David Lynch does the weather." energy here.

[Mongrel]

A lot of heatsinks are not made by milling or extruding (some aluminum ones are extruded, yes), but are made with a process called 'skiving', which basically means 'scraping' fins out of the base material.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, it's the NYT Opnion section, but in this case just a harmless and endearing historical anecdote.

That time San Marino sent their warmest wishes - and an honorary citizenship - to Abraham Lincoln, on the eve of the Civil War. Inspiration and encouragement from the world's oldest continuous constitutional republic (since the late Roman Empire!), both then, and still today, to what was then the youngest.

Fun bit of background: this was also shortly after they had sheltered Garibaldi out of "sheer republican ideological cussedness" as one comment put it. Arguably one of the bravest things a country has ever done.

[Mongrel]

THIS IS AMAZING

[Thad]

I mean you'd think Curly would be the curly-haired guy.

[Mongrel]

In the 2005 session of the youth model parliament in Ontario, Canada, the New Democratic Party included the clause, "Ban the font known as Comic Sans" in an omnibus ban bill.

[Mongrel]

In the 90's, across Sweden & Finland there occurred a gang war now referred to as "The Great Northern Biker War".