› added 6 years ago

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TIL during filming of Gangs of New York, they built what was essentially a full scale complete replica of the Five Points in 1800's New York. According to the DVD commentary, George Lucas visited the set and explained that CGI effects would be much cheaper but Scorsese insisted on authenticity.

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LkWdm TIL that ET's race is represented in the Galactic Senate in the Star Wars Universe.
lo6M7 TIL that Benjamin Franklin and his friend would use chess as a means to learn Italian; the winner of each game would assign a task, such as parts of the Italian grammar to be learned by heart, to be performed by the loser before their next meeting
J7dB TIL in 1957 a Catholic priest produced a concept car designed to be extra safe. Its body was dent, rust, and corrosion proof and the seats swiveled to face rearwards upon collision. It also had hydraulic jacks, crumple zones and a roll cage.
OoB7 TIL some paleo-art historians believe that ancient cave art (Lascaux, Chauvet, etc) was meant to be viewed with flickering flames as lighting, giving the images an appearance of motion. This may have been humankind’s first ever cinematic “animation”.
ep7kg TIL about Rosie Ruiz. She was the "Winner" of the Boston Marathon in 1980 only to be found out that she cheated. She qualified by being a NY Marathon runner of which was found to be false as well. She was also convicted of fraud in 1982 and cocaine distribution in 1983.