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50 Unknown Facts About Star Wars

  A classic post from Oct 2015

50 unknown facts about Star Wars, many gleaned from How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. I've heard some of these before, but not many...the list doesn't include low-hanging fruit like Harrison Ford's carpentry.

Favorite facts: 1. Early on, Luke Skywalker's nickname was "Wormy". Wormy! 2. The actor who portrayed Vader, David Prowse, spoke his dialogue on set not knowing he would be dubbed over. Because of his West Country accent, the other cast members referred to Prowse as Darth Farmer.

Speaking of Harrison Ford's carpentry, the new biography of Joan Didion has a good story about that time Didion and her husband John Dunne hired Ford to do some construction for them.

Off and on, for over six month, the Dunnes engaged a construction crew to expand the waterside deck, install waxed pine bookshelves, and lay terra-cotta floor tiles. The men tore out prefabricated plywood walls and pulled up "icky green" flooring. Harrison Ford headed the crew. "They were the most sophisticated people I knew," Ford said. "I was the first thing they saw in the morning and the last thing they saw before cocktails."

In Vegas, Dunne wrote, "[W]hat had started as a two-month job ... [stretched] into its sixth month and the construction account was four thousand dollars overdrawn... I fired the contractor. 'Jesus, man, I understand,' he said. He was an out-of-work actor and his crew sniffed a lot of cocaine and when he left he unexpectedly gave me a soul-brother handshake, grabbing my thumb while I was left with an unimportant part of his little finger." The next day, Dunne realized the only thing separating him and his family from the Pacific Ocean was a clear sheet of Pliofilm where the French doors were supposed to go. "I rehired the contractor," he wrote. "'Jesus, man, I understand,' the contractor said."

Much later, when Didion's daughter was ill, Ford did the family a further service.

The following day, Didion flew from Teterboro to Los Angeles on Harrison Ford's private plane, along with her friend Earl McGrath. Ford "happened to be in New York and heard about Q's condition ... and called to offer to take Joan," said Sean Michael. "I find that to be a beautiful thing," he said. "A man you hire to build cabinets, thirty years later is flying you in his private jet to your daughter's hospital bedside."

Jesus, man, I understand.

Update: Some of Ford's comments from the book were taken from Carolyn Kellogg's reporting on an awards festival.

As if to make up for her absence, a parade of stars was in attendance. Harrison Ford, who was prepared to present her the award, spoke somewhat extemporaneously instead. "I just want to tell you all how much her friendship has meant to me," he said. Forty years ago, Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, were "The most sophisticated people I knew."

Then a carpenter, Ford was hired by Didion and Dunne to build their beach house in Malibu. "I was the first thing they saw in the morning and the last thing they saw" — he paused — "before cocktails."

The Seven Meetings You Hate. "2. Why Am I Here? It seems like a good set of people, but I have no clue how I'm relevant to this meeting."
A good interactive from The Pudding on the invisible loneliness epidemic in America. "The amount of time we spend with friends has plummeted — and again it hit younger people [34 or younger] especially hard."

Stunning High-Resolution Lidar Images of Rivers & Deltas

posted by Jason Kottke Sep 29, 2023

colorful Lidar image of a river

colorful Lidar image of a river

colorful Lidar image of a river

colorful Lidar image of a river delta

colorful Lidar image of a river

colorful Lidar image of a river

colorful Lidar image of a river

colorful Lidar image of a river

I cannot get enough of Dan Coe's high-resolution images of rivers and river deltas constructed from lidar data. So swirly, swoopy, fractally, and squiggly! Many of these images are time machines, showing the various meanders these rivers took hundreds and thousands of years ago. As I wrote in a post about the Mississippi River meander maps designed by Army Corps of Engineers cartographer Harold Fisk:

Fisk's maps represent the memory of a mighty river, with thousands of years of course changes compressed into a single image by a clever mapmaker with an artistic eye. Looking at them, you're invited to imagine the Mississippi as it was during the European exploration of the Americas in the 1500s, during the Cahokia civilization in the 1200s (when this city's population matched London's), when the first humans came upon the river more than 12,000 years ago, and even back to before humans, when mammoths, camels, dire wolves, and giant beavers roamed the land and gazed upon the river.

Coe has put 4K versions of these images up on Flickr in both landscape and portrait aspect ratios. They work really well for computer and phone wallpapers — I've been using this one on various devices since I first saw it years ago.

New linguistics trend: "whom of which" (and its relation to "pied piping"). "Our striker, whom of which is our best player, scores a lot of goals."

Note: You can find more Quick Links in the archive.

Daft Punk is releasing a "drumless" edition of their album Random Access Memories. It'll be out in Nov.
Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water. "Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun."
Part one of Erin Kissane's investigation into the role Facebook/Meta played in the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. "The harms Meta passively and actively fueled destroyed or ended hundreds of thousands of lives."
Ethiopian Tigst Assefa is the new women's marathon record-holder: 2:11:53. The men's record in 1965 was 2:12, but the women are getting faster quicker. Since '65: men are 11m faster while women are an hour faster. (And 5m vs 9m since '98.)

The Storm Pilot

posted by Jason Kottke Sep 28, 2023

photo of a storm cloud lit up by lightning

photo of a dramatic bolt of lightning emerging from a storm cloud

Santiago Borja is an airline pilot who takes stunning photos of storms and clouds from the flight deck of his 767. Definitely offers up a different perspective than the typical storm chaser photography. You can find his work on his website, on Instagram, and in book form.

Winners of the 2023 Bird Photographer of the Year Competition

posted by Jason Kottke Sep 28, 2023

a vivid green bird sitting in the midst of a large green leaf

a diving bird returning to the surface with a fish in its mouth

a pair of parrots fighting on a tree branch

From over 23,000 entered images, the judges in the Bird Photographer of the Year competition for 2023 have selected their winners and runners-up. I selected a few of my favorite images above; the photographers from top to bottom: Nicolas Reusens, Henley Spiers, and Gianni Maitan.

Hamburger Helper Unveils New Line Of Erotic Casseroles Meant To Be Eaten Off Naked Body. "The erotic casserole's box would include step-by-step instructions on how to blindfold one's partner and titillatingly dribble hot grease on their chest."

An Update on the Squiggle Shirts

posted by Jason Kottke Sep 28, 2023

a black t-shirt with a white squiggle pattern on it

Hey folks. Just wanted to check in with how The Process Tee is going. We've sold quite of a few of them so far, and I've just sent off the first of hopefully many donations to the National Network of Abortion Funds to the tune of $1288 to support their mission of working towards a world "where all reproductive options, including abortion, are valued and free of coercion".

Thanks so much to everyone who has bought a shirt so far! If you'd like to purchase one of your own, you can check out the original post for more information and the ordering links.

"Health experts are calling for a 'feminist approach' to cancer to eliminate inequalities, as research reveals 800,000 women worldwide are dying needlessly every year because they are denied optimal care."

Note: You can find more Quick Links in the archive.

The Norwegian secret: how friluftsliv boosts health and happiness. "Friluftsliv is not a specific activity. Hiking in the forest, kayaking along the fjords and skiing in the mountains could all be part of it, but so [is] simply sitting in the woods."