› added 1 month ago

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TIL that in his classic Western spoof Blazing Saddles (1974), Mel Brooks named his character Gov. LePetomane after that of a 19th century French stage act of he same name. Flatulist Joseph Pujols combined the French verb péter ("to fart") with "mane" (maniac), loosely translating to "thefartmaniac".

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KObRB TIL that during the filming of Steamboat Bill, Jr. in 1928, crew members threatened to quit and begged Buster Keaton not to do this scene. The cameraman admitted to looking away while filming.
BrNDK TIL clocks run from left to right because in the Northern hemisphere that's how sundials cast shadows (bonus: in an attempt to recover their cultural identity, Bolivians installed an anti-clockwise clock in their Congress building)
N7nVP TIL two 16-yr-old Canadian snowboarders went missing near a B.C. ski resort. A helicopter found them with only a bit of frostnip to their hands ; they had managed to build a shelter and make a fire fueled in part by homework one of the teens had in his backpack.
OnMa TIL a man named Jean Boulet safely landed a helicopter after the engine flamed out at 40,814 ft using a flying technique in which the rotor blades were driven solely by the upward flow of air through the rotor as the helicopter descended, called autorotation.
RaAw TIL that thanks to a 1997 Texas law, astronauts can vote from space on Election Day (via secure email to Johnson Space Center).