› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the Doctor Who theme wasn’t performed on a theremin, but instead was created by the manipulation of an analog tape containing a recording of a single plucked string, white noise, and several oscillators.

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XERvr TIL that Smaug the dragon originally had 4 legs in the first Hobbit movie but was changed to having 2 legs and 2 wing-arms in the second Hobbit movie.
oBRk8 TIL that archers don't actually grip their bows. That's why after a shot the bow tips downwards, swinging from a sling on their hand.
debK TIL a Raven named Jimmy has starred in over 1,000 films between the 30s and 50s and could understand several hundred words and it took him just 1 week to learn a new word, 2 weeks if it had two syllables. His footprints were enshrined in cement at a large Los Angeles pet store, alongside Lassie.
QN4Rp TIL Tolkien assisted on the Oxford Dictionary's first edition, focused on 'W' words waggle to warlock. He "learned more in those two years than in any other"; and certain etymologies continued to puzzle him for years, with many pages of notes written later on 'walrus' for a lecture at Leeds
yQ0dX TIL diners started using orange handle coffee pots for decaf because the colour orange was associated with the orange coloured label on Sanka, a once popular brand of instant decaf coffee.