› added 6 years ago

55

TIL that R. Lee Ermey, actor for the drill instructor in "Full Metal Jacket", was originally meant to be a technical advisor for the film. However, after Ermey made a tape tirading over the various extras, he was cast as the instructor.

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4XAdg TIL unlike most other science fictions shows, the space scenes in the show ‘Firefly’ were done silently, because sound cannot be transmitted in the vacuum of space.
rNGDd TIL Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch is the name of a town in Wales.
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VMkJD TIL that the Germans tried banning the Americans from using shotguns during WWI, a weapon most notably used for clearing trenches with devestating efficiency.
ebpD TIL that a physicist was threatened with 80 years in prison for “sharing U.S secretes” with China. It was later found that he had permission to share the info, and had even been asked by the National Science Foundation to form a coalition with other Chinese scientists.