› added 6 months ago

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TIL that the companies behind the special effects of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Wētā Workshop and Wētā FX, are named for a group of large insects from New Zealand. However, the name as often written (weta) is a Maori word for excrement

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via reddit.com

7r1PM TIL that the popular sleep-aid Ambien has been shown to make paralyzed and brain-damaged people, who have been well past the point of recovery, spontaneously move and talk again because it can reconstruct neurons and make new connections in the brain.
epgBD TIL the oldest known human drawing is a 73,000-year-old cross-hatched pattern made with ochre on stone flake, found in South Africa. This discovery predates previously known drawings by at least 30,000 years, revealing early Homo sapiens' ability to create symbolic designs using various techniques.
aNVZ TIL in 2014, the first name of Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine was finally revealed by LucasFilm. The Dark Lord of the Sith’s canonical first name is… “Sheev”.
J1861 TIL that William Higinbotham, creator of the first video game (Tennis for two), also developed the ignition mechanism of the first atomic bomb.
69Qkm TIL that the suit for the cowardly lion in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, was made from real lion skin