› added 12 years ago

85

TIL in Super Mario 64 a Shepherd Tone (a noise composed of sine waves that gives the illusion of constantly ascending or descending in pitch) was used in the soundtrack for the ‘endless staircase’ “to provide an unsettling feeling”

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

oBYmr TIL that a heavily-promoted 1979 American sitcom about black congressman did not air due to opposition from the Black Congressional Caucus, who feared that airing "Mr. Dugan" would be "disastrous, showing a (black) congressman who was a silly, incompetent man ruled by his staff"
DVOD TIL Nissan Motors sued Uzi Nissan (owner of Nissan Computer Corp and nissan.com of 20+ years) for $10M. Uzi has spent over $3M defending his right and legally the courts agree, but still Nissan Motors is trying to muscle the domain away via Trademark law by entering the computers market.
GBlG TIL Albania’s economy was wrecked in the 90s when 2/3rds of the pop. was lured into govt-backed pyramid schemes which then failed. The chaos led to gangs seizing military arms and the govt. allowing citizens to arm themselves from armories. Gangs took over cities & navy ships as civil war broke out.
a87gJ TIL That MAS*H episode ''Lend A Hand'' (Season 8, Episode 20) starred not only the main character Alan Alda, but also his father Robert Alda and his brother Anthony Alda with the three of them sharing the screen at the same time.
W7VQ4 TIL that sandhill cranes have one of the longest fossil histories of any extant bird. The oldest confirmed sandhill crane fossil is 2.5 million years old, while most living species of birds date back to less than 1.8 million years.