Did you know.....?

[Sammy G]

The first two are specific individuals and not necessarily representative given the ancient Greeks did know the world was round.

Quite right, though I did say 'some people', and remember that the ancient Greeks were a more disparate bunch than some people might think.

Xenophanes of Colophon was another flat-earther, as was Anaximenes of Miletus. These people did have some considerable influence, and remember there was no real scientific 'establishment' as such back in the day.

These are just the people who have a recorded history of harbouring this belief. I imagine that several other cultures enterntained the idea at one point or another. Though as you say, your common-or-garden serf probably didn't give a shit.

 

[Shambles]

Fair points, well made.

I think it's mostly just that the bloody 'Well people used to believe the world was flat...' thing gets wheeled out so frequently and is such a pisspoor argument for anything that it irks so immensely some of us probably like to overemphasise the wrongness of that statement. As with all things, shades of grey and somewhere around the middleground is probably nearer the mark.

Chances are no two decks of shuffled cards have ever been in the same arrangement.. in the history of the universe (or, well.. cards)

That's a good 'un and fairly sure I've heard it before (well, heard the statistical probability of shuffling a deck of cards the same way twice - really is considerably more astronomical a number than you'd expect)

 

[Vurtual]

Did you know that it's now widely believed that the most important parts of the genome responsible for how different we are to other animals with similar numbers of genes are what used to be called 'junk DNA'? It's now thought that these 'non-coding' parts of the genome act as switches controlling the expression of the genes they surround and turn the genome into a complex interacting network rather than the linear list of protein codes it used to be thought of.

Also, did you know that things that happen in an animal's lifetime can be transmitted to their offspring's dna, so going against the orthodox neo-darwinian opinion of the last century or so (and giving a slight vindication to lamarck) (this is done by methylation of the DNA backbone, which is transmitted when cells divide) (just been reading a new book...)

 

[rickolasnice]

Yeaahhh.. epigenetics is sehr interesting indeed..

Most of our DNA is junk DNA.. 98%.. although recently they found out that that some if it is used for.. well.. what Vurtual said..

Think it was around 20% of our DNA is now known to be useful

 

[rickolasnice]

There are about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in a human body.

There are around 86 billion neurons in the average human brain.. 68 million in mine.

 

[rickolasnice]

James Cameron was homeless when he sold the rights to Terminator for $1 as long as he could direct it..

 

[Shambles]

Now that is an interesting fact. Shame he turned into such a bellend but who doesn't in that system?

 

[Chatative]

Arnold Schwarzenegger made his first $1,000,000 investing in real estate. He was also involved in politics as early as 1988 when he went on the campaign trail with then Vice-President George Bush Sr. getting to fly in Air Force Two.

 

[rickolasnice]

Arnold Schwarzenegger only has 16 lines in The Terminator.

They were: Nice night for a walk. Nothing clean, right. Your clothes, give them to me. The 12 gauge auto-loader. The 45 long slide with laser sighting. Phase plasma rifle in 40-watt range. The Uzi 9mm. All. Wrong. Sarah Connor. I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told that she's here. Can I see her please? Where is she? I'll be back. Fuck you, asshole. Give me your address there. Get out

If actors were paid per word, Arnie got $21,429 per word for Terminator 2.

 

[Chatative]

Did you know that despite the fact we rely on oxygen for respiration, the air we breath is roughly 80% nitrogen.

 

[spudgun]

Now that is an interesting fact. Shame he turned into such a bellend but who doesn't in that system?

David Lynch
Werner Herzog
Federico Fellini
Ingmar Bergman
Andrei Tarkovsky
Krzysztof Kieslowski

To name a few

 

[Shambles]

^ I specifically said 'in that system' - ie the Hollywood system. David Lynch is a good example but the rest are hardly Hollywood directors are they? David Lynch never went the blockbuster route either (although it never ceases to amaze me how he gets away with some of his stuff whilst being even at arm's length to the Hollywood machine).

Did you know that despite the fact we rely on oxygen for respiration, the air we breath is roughly 80% nitrogen.

And pure nitrogen would kill us (and any other oxygen-reliant organism) in seconds. I'd mention that oxygen is also highly toxic but pretty sure everybody does know that already so will work on summat more interesting...

 

[spudgun]

Werner Herzog has gone hollywood - with hilarious results in some cases (bad lieutenant.

All of them could have made a hollywood film and I'm sure that fact wouldn't have eroded its quality.

Cronenburg's another good example of an auteur existing in the hollywood framework.

The point is that that Cameron is a shite director who squeezed out 1 semi-decent sci-fi film. You can't say he's had his 'talents' oppressed by the system

 

[Shambles]

I never said he had his talents squished out of him by the Hollywood system. Just said he went to shit after a promising start (Aliens is also a stone cold classic - but probably the last decent film he made).

I'd forgotten about Herzog's take on Bad Lieutenant. What to make of that lil gem? I thought it was brilliant but kinda doubt he'll be handed any big Hollywood cheques again any time soon.

Also, there's Hollywood and there's Hollywood. All the examples you are giving are famously independent filmmakers and Hollywood (as in the machine) famously gobbles up any independent directors making enough of a stir so they can do their annual 'credible film'. This is not the same thing as films developed for and within the system - it's a totally different animal.

Cronenberg is not such a great example as his films are almost all Canadian-funded and produced and the Canada Arts Council is not part of the Hollywood system. Yes he's dabbled a toe now and then below the border but I wouldn't class him as a Hollywood director in any sense of the word cos he just isn't. Again, there is a difference between wanting to see what would happen if attempting the Hollywood route and being part of the machine as a career.

 

[spudgun]

I'd forgotten about Herzog's take on Bad Lieutenant. What to make of that lil gem? I thought it was brilliant but kinda doubt he'll be handed any big Hollywood cheques again any time soon.

Culture's loss

Also what about Veerhoven? Playing Hollywood by its own rules and winning.

 

[Shambles]

Definitely :D

Was almost gleeful the way he went about remaking that in the most obviously going to annoy most fans of the original as possible manner. Genius piece of work that perhaps "didn't quite reach" some of the audience

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Did ya know, that a 2012 Gallup poll found that 48% of American adults agreed that 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so'; 32% thought that 'Human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process; 15% believed that 'Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life and God had no part in this process. Presumably, the remaining 5% were not capable of independent thought and were probably members of the NRA..

(I added the last sentence, but the rest of the paragraph is allegedly true... )

 

[spudgun]

Definitely :D

Was almost gleeful the way he went about remaking that in the most obviously going to annoy most fans of the original as possible manner. Genius piece of work that perhaps "didn't quite reach" some of the audience

Yeah that kind of comment used to wind me up as elitist shite, but I've softened to it now.

I remember being put off watching Tarkovsky's Solaris for a good few years because, pretty near the beginning, there's a sequence of a guy driving round some sort of motorway with nothing but his reflection in the mirror throughout the whole scene. I heard Tarkovsky had said 'this will drive away the idiots'

At the time, I thought it was a proper wankish thing to say. I tried watching it a few times and always got stuck at the motorway sequence, turning it off and dismissing it as cack.

It was only when I saw it at the cinema that i got past that bit. And I'm so glad I did. The film's probably one of the most transcendent experiences I've had. And he was totally right -if you're not going to have the patience for the motorway scene, and the pace that it sets, then what's coming will be a waste of your time

 

[Shambles]

Yeah that kind of comment used to wind me up as elitist shite, but I've softened to it now.

In my case it was actually a reference to a specific incident-cum-catchphrase from my college film/media course days. One of my lil chums was the very definition of a cliche rugger bugger - lovely fella but not the sharpest of tools perhaps - and it used to drive him nuts being forced to watch Herzog films and such like. During every discussion he'd always say that it "didn't quite reach me" and has amused me ever since.

Nice work on tackling Tarkovsky too. Solaris is great (albeit painfully slow even by 'arthouse' standards at times) but Stalker is probably my favourite of his. Absolute masterpiece

 

[Eveleivibe]

In my case it was actually a reference to a specific incident-cum-catchphrase from my college film/media course days. One of my lil chums was the very definition of a cliche rugger bugger - lovely fella but not the sharpest of tools perhaps - and it used to drive him nuts being forced to watch Herzog films and such like. During every discussion he'd always say that it "didn't quite reach me" and has amused me ever since.

Nice work on tackling Tarkovsky too. Solaris is great (albeit painfully slow even by 'arthouse' standards at times) but Stalker is probably my favourite of his. Absolute masterpiece

LOL I love your posts. Please don't ever change, Shamz, OK.

Evey