› added 4 years ago

343

TIL in film editing, that in 1994 only 3 feature films had ever been edited digitally. By 1995 none had ever won an Oscar for best editing. In 1996 "The English Patient" was the first (edited by Walter Murch on the Avid). Since then every Oscar winner has been.except 1998's "Saving Private Ryan".

5NQD TIL that the terms “hooker” and “sideburns” were popularized and invented respectively during the Civil War. General Joseph Hooker’s army was known to party and hire prostitutes, while General Ambrose Burnside’s facial hair spoke for itself
R74N9 TIL about Maroons, enslaved Africans who quickly escaped in the countries they were brought to and often joined indigenous populations to form warrior tribes with their own complex language, war and living cultures. Many Maroon warfare tactics have been co-opted into global army training today.
VPKm TIL a Japanese Oil Tanker captain fell into a cactus at a Santa Barbra Oil Field, provoking laughter from the local workers. 5 years later he returned in an Imperial Japanese Navy sub and made the first mainland shelling of the US at that oil field.
woRP TIL when Sequoyah invented the Cherokee syllabary (making reading and writing in Cherokee possible) it became the only time in recorded history that a member of a non-literate people independently created an effective writing system.
WkMJA TIL Brown bats, with 20 hours of sleep, sleep the most of any animal. Giraffes can go for weeks without napping, needing 30 minutes to fully recharge.