Europeans who colonized Africa had trouble sending their horses to sub-Saharan countries, because they would be bitten by flies and died of the diseases those flies carried. The obvious answer was to domesticate zebras to ride and carry cargo instead. Not a good idea. While zebras had some immunity from the diseases that killed horses, they did not want to be domesticated. Zebras aren't just striped horses; they are wild animals that are distantly related to horses. And the reason they could survive among all those disease-carrying flies were the distinctive stripes they developed. Nature knew that fly bites were more dangerous to these creatures than the lions that ate them, so zebras invented their own kind of dazzle camouflage. This TED-Ed lesson from Cella Wright covers the research done to find out why zebras abandoned the kind of brown camouflage most animals use for flamboyant stripes. -via Laughing Squid
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Makes me giggle every time =)
Oh, beautiful, beautiful Wikipedia, is there ANYTHING you can't tell me about?
And Ben Burtt shouldn't get credit for popularizing it; it was already a popular bit of stock sound. It's just that he took it to all new levels of obsessive stupidity without care whether he was damaging the art he inserted it into.
So far I haven't heard it in the cinema, but it will be quite interesting to see what everyone else's reactions are when I suddenly shout out "WILHELM!" in the middle of the film (you can get away with anything as long as you turn around to see who did it with everyone else...)^_^
We watched Star Wars Episode 3, and the Tarzan yell the Wookies gave as they swing on ropes to attack the robot army is so Tarzany, it actually ruins that particular moment in the movie. Star Wars is not known for its subtlety. Sometimes, effects can be overdone.
Because all cats make that noise. When jumping. even if they are jumping from the table to the floor.
WREEEEARR!
"Tires screech, crash sound with muffled male scream half way through"
I've heard it on quite a few old radio programs, such as Boston Blackie, The Saint and The Shadow. If anyone has a copy of the novelty song by "Nervous Norvus" "Transfusion", it's repeated there at least 4 times.
Gosh it's late.... can you tell :)